Aplication for MLJ

[namedforcat]

 

Player Name: Ammy

Player Journal: aimshigher

Age: 29

Contact: AIM: Kyriasynth, , Plurk: FullThrottleAmmy

Characters Played: none

Name: Gaignun Kukai (Nigredo/669)

Canon: Xenosaga / The Velvet Key

OU/AU/OC: AU as he will have old game memories from The Velvet Key [CRAU]

Canon Point: Canon, after his death, and then TVK after the age screwery event, when the game died pretty much.

History:

 

CANON HISTORY 

Background:

THE CAST

Gaignun Kukai sr/Nigredo - our hero

Gaignun Kukai jr/Rubedo - Nigredo's oldest brother

Albedo - the middle child and Rubedo's twin

Citrine - 668, between Albedo and Nigredo. Only female variant, and also the only one who remains willingly loyal to Dmitri Yuriev her entire life.

Dmitri Yuriev - Nigredo's father. Awful person who is a centuries old parasite that lives by hopping from body to body, taking them over from the inside out. Was used to contact U-DO and went insane with the fear of U-DO. Seeks to transcend the entity.

The Standard URTV's – There are 665 of these guys. They are all blond, blue eyed, and function under a single consiousness. Think of them like adorable borg children.

MOMO – A realian girl that sorta hooks up with Jr. Is wanted by Ormus and Albedo because she contains data for stuff they want. She's also connected to Rubedo's girlfriend, Sakura.

Juli Mizrahi – a member of the Federation government. MOMO and Sakura's mother. Has known Rubedo and Nigredo since they were at the Yuriev institute since they were used as part of Sakura's treatment. Is on friendly terms with the protag team

Mary and Shelly Godwin – sisters who were rescued from being pharmaceutical lab rats 12 years before canon. They are Jr's baby sitters, and the right hand people to Gaignun (and probably his lovers, but you have to infer this from their actions, it's never explicitly stated in canon)

Protag team – Shion, Jr, MOMO, Ziggy, KOS MOS, chaos

PRE – GAME

In in the year TC 4741 a man named Dmitri Yuriev created 669 URTV (U-DO Retro Virus) children, all cloned off of a single set of genetics and then tampered with further by his scientific genius. He created them to combat a being called 'U-DO', a powerful and terrifying thing that no one knew much about. He told the Federation that it was a rogue part of the UMN (basically the internet of the future), but he knew that it was really a facet of 'God' from the upper domain. Humans live in the lower domain which means that if they come in contact with U-DO they either die, morph into Gnosis, or go insane from fear. Dmitri was of the last group, being one of the few survivors of direct contact. This contact with U-DO drove him insane with fear, and he had spent his centuries of existence plotting on how to get rid of this fear. So the Federation were pretty willing to fund Dmitri considering he had a solution to this terrible thing with his little soldiers.

For 12 years he worked them hard, and made soldiers of his children, loosing some along the way but forcing them to go on. 665 of them were the 'Standard Model', all identical and functioning under a single consciousness. The last 4 were termed the 'Variants', of which Gaignun, who was then called 'Nigredo', was the youngest at number 669. While the Standards hated them with an unholy passion, the three male variants were close brothers, linked both by circumstance and by mind, with Nigredo tagging along behind Rubedo (666) and Albedo (667). For 12 years they functioned as a close knit threesome until things started to change.

It started when a girl named Sakura was introduced to the URTV's. Her mother, Juli Mizrahi, brought her to the institute because she was suffering from an U-DO related disorder that caused her to be cut off from her surroundings, and it turned out that Rubedo's wavelength enabled them to communicate and interact with her. To do this, they would do what was referred to as 'dives' into her encephelon. An encephelon in the Xenosaga world works like an interactive subconscious. Sometimes they are places, which is used by the characters to access previous dungeons, or they are the representations of the insides of peoples minds. In this case, Sakura's encephelon was a place where metaphors were created so that she could interact, so it was the latter type. She lived in a 'house' with a white picket fence, there was an old gas station, a forest, and a beach, all of which could be accessed from various paths. To enter an encephelon like this, special equipment is required, and so the boys used 'dive pods', which were tube like chambers that connected them to her via a spinal jack. The first time they were able to interact with her inside this place, they screwed up the entrance co-ordinates and ended up appearing to her tumbling out of her bedroom closet, ass over tea kettle. Her first sight of them was Rubedo and Albedo arguing over who stepped on Rubedo's foot with Nigredo trying to ignore their bickering.

Eventually they noticed that she was staring at them. Rubedo was mortified and embarrassed, realizing that this was perhaps not the best way to introduce ones self to a strange girl. He and Albedo quickly picked themselves up and tried to push Nigredo back into the closet, all the while promising that the next time they would “come in through the door”. Nigredo, not having either of Rubedo or Albedo's seemingly instinctual social skills, was a little confused as to why they were so upset. He figured that coming in through the closet was fine, they had the coordinates right after all, so what place they entered in was moot as long as they found where Sakura was. Thankfully she was very forgiving about the whole situation, she was just pleased to find someone who could understand and hear her, which, while impossible in the outside world, was made possible by interaction in the encephelon.

Rubedo grew attached to her, which drove the first wedge in the brothers' bonds. During a visit to her inner world, there was an incident with one of the Standard URTV's . At the end of a slightly disasterous mission, Albedo beat the snot out of Standard URTV 623 for emotionally hassling Rubedo before the mission started. Afterwards, Rubedo blew up at Albedo for critically injuring 623. Confused, Albedo explained that he had thought that all URTV's had his power of regeneration and so it didn't matter how badly he hurt the standard. To demonstrate what he was talking about, he blew his own head off in front of Rubedo and Nigredo. Nigredo couldn't even comfort them after it was explained to Albedo that he was the only one, all he could do was stand back and watch as the two people he loved the most broke down in tears over something that there was no fix to.

During this time, the three boys also met the fourth Variant, their sister Citrine (668). While she didn't exactly make the greatest impression on Rubedo and Albedo, Nigredo was fascinated by her, and would sometimes seek her out by himself when he needed a break from his brothers. In turn she was much politer to him, and even somewhat friendly at times.

Unfortunately after a small period of time, Sakura committed 'suicide' and the boys were assigned a new mission, a joint decent operation with the Federation forces on a planet called Milita. This planet was the home world of the organization called 'Ormus', who was the opposing political and ideological force in the universe to the Federation.

In the short time before the URTV's were dispatched on this mission, Nigredo spoke to Citrine again, and it was from her that he found out how differently designed he was from his brothers. It is through her words that he realized that instead of being designed to destroy U-DO, he was actually designed to destroy Rubedo in case his Red Dragon ability ever went out of control, just like she is (and possibly the rest of the X-type URTV's). Also, she pointed out that he is non reactive to U-DO's waves (which does protect him from the insanity effect), as a side note, which emphasized the difference even more. In shock, the reality of his situation did not completely sink in until he spoke to his father the day before the decent operation. In emotional agony, and desperate to get out of having to kill his beloved brother, young Nigredo told his father that 'I wont follow your orders any more!' and shot him in the head, killing him. He never spoke a word of this to his brothers.

Like all of the events leading up to the Miltia mission, the decent operation turned into a disaster that had ramifications that affected multiple people in the game, and was a huge turning point in the events of the coming years. For the URTV's, it started off as a routine mission. Most of the standards were aiding the Federation infantry, and the variant boys and a few of the standards went to go secure the U-DO terminal that was located deep within the heart of the central building called Labyrinthos. All had been going well until Rubedo's team was in place and had the U-DO containment link set up. Rubedo, the link master, suddenly got a vision of what would happen if the anti-U-DO waves that the URTV's generated and the waves of U-DO itself came in contact. There would be a thermal reaction that would destroy them and the planet. Scared out of his mind by this, Rubedo forcibly broke the link, which also unhooked everyone from their mental connection, and ran off in fear. This left the Standard URTV's and Albedo unprotected from direct contact with U-DO, which ended up driving them all insane. Nigredo, who was designed to be non-reactive to the waves, couldn't help or protect any of them. Instead, with everything going nuts around him, Nigredo went through the now war torn city, searching for Rubedo in hopes that he could at least help Albedo. The standards were too far gone, U-DO driving them into a berserker rage where they were slaughtering anyone they came across. While he searched, Nigredo had to kill them as he found them as an act of mercy.

Eventually, badly wounded himself, Nigredo gave up on the search through the city and returned to Labarynthos, hoping that Rubedo had returned to help them. Unfortunately, he didn't find Rubedo there either. Instead Albedo found him. Albedo was made of sterner stuff then the Standard models, but for this already emotionally upset child, the U-DO waves kicked him off the deep end and while he was not out murdering civilians indiscriminately, he had a specific target, Nigredo.

Albedo had some how found out about Nigredo's anti-Red Dragon purpose, which upset Albedo greatly. He felt that Nigredo was nothing but a danger to his precious twin. At any rate, Albedo got the drop on him, and knocked him off a catwalk which injured him further. Albedo confronted him on this knowledge of Nigredo being the 'fail-safe', and for killing their father. Goaded into a fight that he didn't want, the two brothers battled. This ended with Nigredo managing to actually significantly hurt Albedo enough to drive him off further into Labyrinthos. After the fight Nigredo collapsed and was eventually found by a repentant Rubedo. He got carried out of the building by Rubedo, and they are both met by chaos and Canaan who were piloting an ES unit (basically a super mecha) for the Federation side and had been sent to locate and rescue them. Unfortunately, due to the still broken link, Rubedo was unable to find Albedo and Nigredo was too injured to tell him where their middle brother had gone. Canaan and chaos were unable to find him either. According to official record, Nigredo and Rubedo were the only URTV's to have made it out. Albedo was rescued, but by a series of realians called the 'Kirchwasser', who were working for the Miltian side. Eventually he recovered and joined Ormus as a mercenary.

Canaan and chaos had been dispatched by Helmer, a Federation lieutenant general who had been working with Dr. Yuriev in order to coordinate the Miltia decent mission. As such, he knew the URTV children were there and decided that with the huge cluster-screw that was going on, that they needed to be evacuated as quickly as possible as, unlike their father, he actually valued their lives. It was under his orders that the boys were able to recover in a Federation hospital, and not be returned to the remaining scientists at the Institute, which was now most likely disbanded because of the loss of all the other URTV's (that they know of, Albedo and Citrine were unaccounted for in official history, and all the Standards were killed), as well as the death of Dr. Yuriev himself. Miltia itself became an uninhabited wasteland, guarded by two black holes that made returning to the planet impossible, caused by Albedo's contact with U-DO.

The boys were allowed to recover for a while, and during this time Helmer quit the military. He then went into politics, and eventually took over the planet of Second Miltia, a Federation protectorate. During this period (about 2 years after Miltia), the two run a few missions for Helmer while they grew up, and ended up rescuing a pair of sisters, Mary and Shelly Godwin, from being the test subjects of a pharmaceutical company. Nigredo at this point also underwent intense social and political training to transform him from the professional, but shy and socially awkward little URTV into a confident and charismatic CEO in order to fulfil his new role as the 'son' of the wealthy Sose Kukai, a powerful industrial leader. In reality, this man was a creation of Helmers, who was used to conceal secret military funds. It...lets just say it took a while since Nigredo was never really used to being the centre of attention while Rubedo was about. Just as Jr, he has stories. He was chosen for this position because while he aged normally, Jr stayed in his 12 year old state, so he couldn't be in that kind of spotlight. Thus, the personas of 'Gaignun Kukai', and 'Gaignun Kukai Jr.' were born, but what to do with them?

Why, create something huge of course! Helmer and the boys decided that they still needed to keep an eye on Ormus as well as track/prevent U-TIC's acquisition of the Zohar. Using the funds, the group constructed a massive colony/space satellite near Second Miltia, named the Kukai Foundation. Billed as a good vacation spot, it also served the purpose of giving victims of the 'Species preservation law' a place to go and live out their lives with out being judged or facing prejudice. They also designed and built a massive battleship named the 'Durandal', which Jr became the captain of. With the Foundation acting as a home base, the Durandal could go out and foil any plans of U-TIC had of gaining the Zohar. This raised no eyebrows because Jr's paperwork listed him as Gaignun's legally adopted son, though there were always rumours that Jr was an illegitimate child instead. This proved to be an effective cover since no one figured out that they were actually URTV's. They had many successful campaigns and the Foundation boomed in wealth and position in the Galaxy political system.

First Game

Fourteen years later, Gaignun was the director of the Kukai foundation. He was well established in the political world as someone to be listened to, not to mention relatively famous for his wealth, socialite status, and position. People directly associated with the Foundation know that he isn't a normal human, however it is not common knowledge that he is a URTV, even with Jr staring them in the face. When the Durandal docked at the Foundation proper after rescuing everyone from their various troubles, Gaignun came on board to great the protag party and to welcome them to his home. After all, friends of Jr's were friends of his. Being a gracious host, he greeted the group, but when he went to shake Shion's hand, she noticed the 669 tattooed across his palm. After noting her momentary hesitation, he spoke to MOMO, saying that he'd just been in contact with Juli Mizrahi, MOMO's mother, and told her that her mother wanted her to go to Second Miltia as planned. MOMO was at first excited to hear that Gaignun had spoken to her mother, and asked if she could talk to her. However Gaignun was forced to tell her that Juli had been quite busy, but that he'd let her know if she called again. As he went to leave, he thought to himself, 'No, it can't be...', which was in response to Shion's weirdness. Because he is a URTV, and an observant one at that, he was the first to notice that there is something special about Shion.

Later on, he had a private meeting with Jr in his office on the Durandal. They mostly discuss KOS MOS and Shion. In the middle of the conversation, Gaignun commented that he thought that Shion knew that he and Jr were not human, and that they posses abnormal powers. Jr wasn't so sure, but he does acknowledge that the person who built something like KOS MOS had to be special in some way.

The topic drifted from the Vector crew to the Zohar project, which brought MOMO up in the conversation. Gaignun, being the typical annoying little brother, tweaked Jr a little bit on his small crush on her, fully aware of MOMO's connections to Sakura. Seeing Jr get flustered, he suggested that he take her down to the artificial beach down on the Foundation proper. After this conversation, as Jr went to leave to go do this, Gaignun presented him with a pair vintage Makarov's that he had won in a charity auction. Jr questioned this gift a little, a bit suspicious that his brother was up to something. But Gaignun just shook his head and assured Jr that it was just a reward for all the hard work the tiny captain had been doing and then left to allow Jr to play with his new toys. Gaignun's parting shot to Jr is to not to go over board with them, reminding him that Jr is in fact older then he is and should act like it.

Unfortunately, even though the Foundation was popular among the masses, it was not well liked within the Federation Government due to the fact that was connected to Second Miltia, and Second Miltia was a semi-autonomous planet only halfway under the Federation's rule. The council did not like this because they feel that Miltia had too much autonomy.

There was little to no debate when U-TIC spies within the council faked evidence that implicated the Durandal, and thus the Foundation and Second Milita in the attack on a Federation vessel, the Woglinde. In the following raid, Gaignun was arrested and separated from the rest of the group. As he was walking along with his arresting officer, Lapis, she was phoned and it turned out to be Helmer calling. It turned out that she was one of his spies placed within the Federation military. Helmer reassured him, saying that he was enlisting help, and big guns at that. Eventually, evidence was procured proclaiming the Durandal's innocence, and they were released by the Federation arresting officers.

However, before the Federation could withdraw completely, a song began to play. This song, the Song of Nephilim, was a song that can only be heard by very few people. Gaignun and Jr could hear it, recognizing it for what it is. This song played on Miltia during the decent operation, signalling further chaos. It was a song of danger. However, they were both shocked to discover that Shion could hear it as well.

They were not allowed to wonder about that for long, because the song's sinister purpose came through. A hoard of Gnosis started to swarm the Foundation, phasing through the walls and attacking the people, as well as circling around the space station. The Federation commander, believing that the Foundation was calling the Gnosis (because he couldn't hear the song), prepared to fire upon the Foundation and the Durandal without orders.

Thankfully right before he could give the order to fire, the Vector flagship, the Dämmerung appeared and saved the day with the newly operational 'Rhine Maiden' weapon system. Lead by Wilhelm, the CEO of Vector, they had been called to save the Foundation by Helmer. The Gnosis were destroyed and peace once again...well, ok so peace had no chance, this is Xenosaga after all. Almost immediately afterward MOMO disappeared, kidnapped by Albedo. This is the first time that either Gaignun or Jr had seen Albedo in those 14 years, though they knew very well that he had been alive the whole time due to the mental link and Jr's ability to feel Albedo's heart. So he sent Jr and the rest of the protag team to go rescue her, while he cleaned up the mess that the Gnosis had left on the Foundation.

Second Game

Once that fiasco was done, the protag group finally landed on Second Miltia in order to present MOMO to Helmer. On the way there they got attacked by two ES's, and Jr, not having time to go for a communicator, telepathically asked Gaignun to send them reinforcements. However, Jr's distress call had come at a very bad time for Gaignun, he was distracted and confused, and it took him a few precious seconds to realize that Jr was calling for him to do something. Snapping himself out of it, Gaignun sent Canaan in the ES Asher to go save them. After that incident was dealt with, Gaignun could only look at his desk in confusion and dismay, wondering what he had been doing when Jr had called him, and why his coffee was spilled.

Once MOMO had been safely brought to the government buildings, Gaignun took her to see Helmer, who at once commented on her resemblance to the late Sakura Mizrahi. As MOMO was leaving, Helmer asked Gaignun to go check in on Albedo, thinking that the middle brother may be plotting something rather sinister. Gaignun was hesitant, but he brushed Helmer off when he tried to apologize, saying that it's his 'family's responsibility'. This led to the one and only direct conversation that Gaignun and Albedo have before the end of everything.

Albedo wasn't really that happy to hear from his younger brother, and got snippy when Gaignun told him that it's not too late to reconcile. Their conversation continued in this vein until Albedo mentioned that he was going to be 'borrowing' Rubedo for a while, and said that while he wasn't interested in Nigredo, he'd look forward to anything he tried. Gaignun naturally, considering Jr is something of a anger button, had a minute temper tantrum and mentally blew Albedo's arm off. Of course, Albedo just laughed this off,called him 'scary', and commented that Nigredo had always been two faced, pretending to offer life, but really only carrying death. He said this to Gaignun as a reminder that he knew about his purpose as the 'executioner'. While Gaignun denied that he would ever fulfill this role, his argument was a little halfhearted, as he secretly feared that one day he would have to kill Jr.

A little while after this disastrous conversation, MOMO was taken to get analyzed in the laboratories to see what her father hid in her mind. Gaignun was present for this part of the procedure, both as a spectator and source of moral support for her, and for Mary and Shelly who were doing the actual grunt work of the analysis. Unfortunately, he was also there to see it go horribly wrong. Being unable to do anything to help out, he could only watch as Albedo mocked everyone and MOMO lay comatose while they tried to help her. He left before the second half of the fiasco took place.

While Jr and his gang dove into MOMO's head, Gaignun ended up with his own set of problems to deal with. Ever since that first black out episode when Jr was calling for help, he had been having more and more minor ones, until the major one hit. Alone in a work room, he was struck by a massive headache and he saw flashbacks of himself as a child. The first one was his meeting with Citrine where she told him that he was like her, tasked with subduing the Red Dragon. The second one was of when he shot his father. After this second flashback, he fell to the floor and curled up in pain. It is here and now that his secondary purpose, the one even he didn't know about, activated. His father, Dmitri Yuriev, had now resurrected himself using Gaignun's body. With Gaignun's personality suppressed, Dmitri now had complete control over his son, which was signaled by the blonde hair and blue eyes that the body now sported. Dmitri now was the dominant soul in that body, though he did let Gaignun out occasionally. During the times that he was awake, he only got more and more confused and alarmed, but he couldn't say anything to let anyone know about the blackouts and time skips. At this point he was conscious less and less, but was still unaware of exactly what was happening to him.

Third Game

It was now six months later and MOMO was safe and sound. Gaignun (thanks to Dmitri), had now moved to Fifth Jerusalem to deal with the political problems that were slowly becoming more and more prevalent as more things were going wrong in the Universe. Dmitri at the same time was handling the Salvatore faction, which was taking over the Federation government from the inside. At this point, a large land mass had appeared floating in space, and Gaignun, being asked by Juli Mizrahi, got the Elsa and Jr to go check it out. After the business talk was done, he teased his brother a little, and made affectionate small talk with Mary and Shelly, whom he hadn't seen in person since he departed the Foundation. This is the last time he was heard from in such a happy conversation.

Eventually, Yuriev got bored with having Gaignun asleep in his head, so he allowed him to 'wake up', still trapped inside Dmitri's mind. When he awoke, all he saw around him was the tell-tale pink and purple miasma that signified U-DO, and all he could hear was his father's voice speaking to him, telling him that all is going to plan and to just sit quietly. Dmitri's U-DO infection made it easy for him to mentally bind his son and keep him under such deep mental layers that he could not contact Jr to let him know where Dmitri was. From now on, Gaignun was semi aware of what his father was doing, but he could only hear his father's thought process on what was going on, no visuals, and no other sound. It was a lonely and traumatizing place. Even though Gaignun was non reactive to U-DO, it was still not very comfortable for him to be surrounded by the waves, which made his confinement even worse.

While Jr's group was on the Elsa and distracted looking for Dmitri in all the wrong places, and various other problems, Dr. Yuriev used the opportunity to acquire the last thing that he needed for his ultimate plan of transcending 'God', IE the Zohar's stored on the Durandal. However, only Mary and Shelly had the arbiter code that would release the Zohar's power. Even Gaignun did not know it, or else Dmitri would have just lifted it from his sons memory.

This did not present a large problem however. Dmitri had enough control over Gaignun's body to use his appearance with out letting him mentally be in control. Doing so, he staged a hostile take over of the Durandal, slaughtering everyone on board the ship with his own private forces, provided by the political faction that he was 'working with', IE the Salvatore Faction. After painting the Durandal's halls with innocent blood using his son's face and voice, he managed to corner Mary and Shelly on the bridge. Demanding the code, he injured Mary and forced it out of them through judicious use of threats, as well as Gaignun's 'voice', which he had access to while inhabiting that body. It was only when Juli Mizrahi, who had been on the Durandal at the time, came onto the bridge to demand what was going on did Dmitri relent and show his true colors and revealed who was behind the massacre. She recognized him immediately. Citrine was also on the Durandal, brought along as Dmitri's bodyguard, assistant, and personal assassin. Not that she would be left behind anyways, considering her attachment to her father.

This did not bode well for her. Dmitri used Citrine as a blockade once Jr got his act together and finally figured out what the heck was going on with his Father, the Durandal, and Gaignun (seriously, it took Sellars spelling it out for him to realize that Dmitri had taken over Gaignun). After Jr killed her, Dmitri sensed her death, having been mentally keeping an eye on her through the URTV link to keep track of how much time he had to release the Zohar before Jr would interrupt him. He callously remarked that he had thought she would have lasted longer, and was surprised to find that Gaignun was saddened by this news. Even though he had not seen Citrine in the years since Miltia, Gaignun still cared very deeply for her, feeling a 'connection'. However, Dmitri was rather unsympathetic and blatantly told his youngest son that he didn't need emotions, that all he had to do was sit down, shut up, and keep being one of his parts. Dmitri then fended off Jr and Co, and and crashed the functioning Zohar and the Durandal into Abel's Ark. This act would power the ark and allow Dmitri to gain the power he needed to surpass U-DO.

As the boss fight of the Abel's Ark dungeon, Dmitri, still in Gaignun's body awaited the crew. Gaignun's personality was still suppressed and unable to communicate with his brother before the fight. The fight did not go well for Dr. Yuriev. Jr and co pounded him in human form. However, he wasn't finished. He was one of those annoying bosses with a second part of the boss battle. Dmitri merged with Omega, the giant robot powered by the Zohars and piloted by Abel, who was basically U-DO as he appeared in the lower domain.

Once he was beaten in that form, Albedo showed up, which surprised everyone because Albedo had been considered dead since the end of the second game. Albedo called Gaignun out, aiding him (and not so gently goading him) into briefly overcoming his father's suppression in order to have one final talk with his brothers. Appearing as a ghostly figure standing in front of his father, Gaignun pleaded for Jr to kill him, for he knew that if the final blow was delivered while he was in control, it had a chance of defeating Yuriev for good.

However Jr was hesitant, not wanting to lose his youngest brother after all of this. Albedo, of course, was having none of this waffling about, and explained that the easiest way to do this was to set up a containment link because Dmitri was infected by U-DO and they are URTV's, U-DO's anti existence. He badgered Jr until Gaignun once again spoke up. He told Jr that Albedo was right, that it was the only way to end this for them all, to end it for him. Eventually Jr agreed, and he set up the containment link. After getting this agreement, Gaignun faded back into his body, but while it retained the appearance of Dmitri, the body staggered forward like someone was controlling it like a puppet. This of course, was what Gaignun was doing, forcing his father forward into the circle that meant his final death.

The link worked, suppressing U-DO's waves and causing massive damage to Dmitri. It is now that Albedo revealed his grand plan. He told Gaignun to leave his own body (leaving Dmitri there), and flee to Jr's mind, while Albedo took himself and Dmitri to the other realm, disintegrating them both. Jr didn't think this plan was so great, as he only got Albedo back and couldn't bear to watch his twin die again in front of his eyes. However, Gaignun had other ideas. Defying his older brother, he instead invaded Albedo's body, kicked him out, and squished him and Jr together into Jr's body while staying in Albedo's himself to keep Dmitri contained and to kill him. He did apologize to Albedo however, saying that he doesn't like to follow orders, which was a little funny considering that when they were children, he was the most 'soldierly' of the three. There is a reason he did this. Gaignun loved both of his brothers so much that he knew that if he continued to live that there will someday be a chance that he would end up destroying Rubedo, and he can not bear that thought. So instead, he removed two threats to his beloved eldest brother with one stone, and made sure that the twins would never again be separated by anything, including death.

It was here that Gaignun revealed to Jr that he was designed to watch over him, and to eventually kill him. He admitted that he was tired of this, though he cited it more as being tired of having to watch over him then worrying about having to kill him. Jr threw himself at his youngest brother, trying to join him in the containment part of the link, to take some of the burden, but Gaignun stopped him, his larger hand effectively keeping Jr's away. He forced Jr to see his own grown up body, which was a symbol of Jr's age stuck-ness being over, telling him that he was going to have to grow up now.

Finally, speaking as Nigredo (and appearing in his child form to his brothers), he told them that this wasn't good bye, and that they would all see each other again someday. And with that, Gaignun in Albedo's body, and Dmitri Yuriev in Gaignun's body disappear, both of them dead forever. As he faded away, Gaignun managed to contact Mary and Shelly, who were recovering on the Elsa from their ordeal at Dmitri's hands. He told them good-bye, and to please take care of Jr. He played it cool until the end.

CRAU ADDITONS

After Gaignun's death in canon, he was transported to the city of Prospero (TVK), which was based upon our modern day. Here he was basically 'turned' into a normal human, with the ability to summon a persona, which in this case was 'Black Rider', based on a canon comment about the URTV boys representing the riders of the apocalypse. Here he was able to reconnect with his brothers, who happened to be there as well, and was able to interact with them without being able to rely on the mental connection. Gaignun was quickly enmeshed in the society of Persona users in Prospero, undergoing events alongside them and making friends along the way. He met a young woman named Devola, and started up a rather flirtatious friendship with her. It was during one of these events, one that made people believe that they were family and act as such, that Gaignun became close to Saori, who was his 'baby sister', and Ryu, who was a son. After the event ended, they ended up keeping these roles and Gaignun became very close to the both of them. This was lucky, because right after this Rubedo/Jr left which left Gaignun and Albedo alone together, which while this started with Albedo self destructing and committing really bloody suicide, he did eventually come back, allowing him and Gaignun to start reconnecting with out having the Rubedo buffer/focus. He also made friends with Miles Edgeworth at this time, and these two, along with Allen Ridgely (who as usual was huffing and puffing about in the background getting everything done and taken care of under peoples noses), began to start planning how things could work in Prospero for the long run, which included discussions of a separate justice system for the persona users. This had been prompted due to the fact that one of the users was an unrepentant serial killer.

 

However, just as Gaignun was settling into this new routine, disaster struck once again, Albedo got sent home. This left Gaignun as the last URTV in Prospero, which left him somewhat depressed. But, being the trooper that he was, he soldiered on, leaning heavily on those who remained his 'family' from the event. Even worse, after Albedo left, Margulis appeared, who ended up sort of making acquaintances with Edgeworth, and making good friends with Saori, leaving Gaignun to question their taste. Margulis was just as sore at Gaignun due to their shared Universe past, that he spoke about a few things to Edgeworth, leaveing the prosecutor to interrogate Gaignun about his involvement in the conflict between the Federation and the Immigrant Fleet back home. Much to both Edgeworth and Margulis's surprise, Gaignun fully fessed up to the accusations Margulis levelled against him. Gaignun did this because he believed that he should tell the truth here, because A) he was sick of lying about things, and B) because it really would not do anyone any good to lie. He had made some questionable calls back home, and he had rationalized it as being part of conflict ethics, though he did allow himself the satisfaction of telling Edgeworth some of the more questionable things that Margulis had done on his side. But deep down, Gaignun did have the best intentions in mind when he told Edgeworth the truth.

After that conversation, Gaignun and Margulis ran into each other face to face at Saori's new cafe in Prospero, and they had an almost civil, but still pretty hostile conversation where Margulis asked Gaignun why he'd fessed up so readily. Gaignun explained that it was because he did honestly understand the whole situation better now, after his dealings with Dmitri Yuriev's control and knowledge. He had realized that both sides were being used and abused, and the conflict had been purposefully perpetrated and obscured from everyone. Hindsight is a wonderful thing after all. Once they both realized that they were somewhat on the same page, Margulis backed off and left him be, though not before Gaignun thanked him for not abandoning Albedo on Miltia. However, these two were still at each others throats, always bickering or sniping at each other, especially when forced to work together going through the dungeon parts of Prospero, Caliban. It was not until an event happened where peoples memories were broadcast over the system that they truly started to understand one another, and perhaps call a slightly better truce. Margulis saw how Gaignun had died (and what had happened on Miltia from his point of view, but Margulis didn't touch on that for his own reasons), and realized that he truly did understand how it was to be manipulated by centuries old mechanisms,and to be betrayed by your very self and ideals. From here, they were able to start to work together more easily, though all interactions were filled with so much snark that you could float a boat in it.

 

 

While at first, everyone was suspecting the mayor and his entourage to be involved with the really suspicious church that was in the city of Prospero, management seemed to change, and almost over night new people appeared, along with everyone having a dream of the Velvet Room and their arcana cards. There came a new mayor, chief of police, and a weapons shop that didn't take as much of the 'real world' thing as needing permits or age restrictions as much into account when selling inhabitants dangerous weapons. As a side note, there was even a Halloween costume contest, which Gaignun won by dressing as Captain Kirk from Star Trek TOS. Unfortunately, all these changes served to discredit all that they had learned about the city, and while everyone was trying their best, not much was learned before Prospero seemed to disappear and everyone returned to where they were supposed to go.

 

Well, at least most people were.

 

 

Personality: (I hope it's ok if I have taken some of my personality from my adstring app as well as the history, though TVK additions at the end)

 

At first glance, Gaignun seems like the perfect rich guy. He's kind, generous, intelligent, and has charisma up the wazoo. Everyone who works for him likes him and he seems to make no distinction between dealing with poor people or rich. Being incredibly well spoken, he is an adroit politician and can word play with the best of them. As he is now, Gaignun is a very social creature. He is at ease with large groups of people and even tends to enjoy it in most situations.

While all of these qualities are certainly not fake, there is more to him then that. In private, he is very playful, and enjoys teasing those closest to him. When alone with Rubedo, Mary, and Shelly, he drops his more parental/fatherly persona and displays the bratty baby brother personality hiding beneath. He is also one of those people that would do anything for those he loves, including putting their needs and happiness above even his own life. This is especially true when it comes to Rubedo's well-being. While they were growing up, after Miltia, Gaignun put all of his own troubles aside in order to keep Jr happy. He took over as father and protector, and tried to spoil Jr as rotten as he could by giving him the childhood that they had both been denied. Even once they were adults, this habit continued. He accomplishes this goal through various means, such as presents, encouragement, and the occasional jibe about Jr's love-life.

He is also incredibly responsible. He takes care of the political side of Foundation , as well as handles the business aspects. This includes organization of labour and structural problems that may spring up from time to time. In a crisis, he can keep his head and remains calm and collected in the face of danger. This allows him to think quickly on his feet on how to turn a bad situation around and diffuse conflict. This is a remnant of his personality as Nigredo, who while less socially skilled, was the cool and calm soldier whenever things went FUBAR.

For all of his good qualities, Gaignun is still very human. He often plays things a little too close to the vest, and his desire to make people happy also means that he tries to deal with his most important problems by himself. While he can and does ask Jr for help quite often, he does as much as he can himself with out even mentioning the details to his older brother. Things that are considered his own personal problems, or things that have been dealt with are pushed aside and under the table. After all, what use would it be to emotionally upset his brother with things past. This means that he does tend to internalize things that hurt him and may not show it outwardly or even tell the person that they have hurt him. He keeps secrets a little too well, even when they really should be told to the person they concern. After all, he never mentions to Jr that Albedo is planning to 'borrow' him. This makes him very trustworthy, but it can have disastrous consequences.

He is not always so completely calm and collected,Gaignun actually has a very nasty temper that he keeps under very tight control. If you know what buttons to push he can get very flustered, and will lash out in anger. This always passes quickly but it comes with very little warning and is usually triggered by something seriously threatening those he loves. Otherwise, it takes him a long time to get really angry, but when he does, it goes off like Pompeii. URTV tempers, don't rile them. Gaignun also has a bit of a guilt complex due to his being designed to kill the thing he loves and cherishes the most. He hates being a snake in the grass and denies that part of himself up until he dies. Albedo of course took advantage of this, calling him 'two faced', which really just got him even madder since he believes it to be actually true in that respect. I would not exactly call it to the level of 'self hate' but he does over compensate for it.

Thankfully he is not all about self sacrifice, secret trauma, and work. Gaignun enjoys creature comforts, and while it can be said that his well manicured appearance would be mainly for impressing important people, he likes looking good. Though his sense of style mainly could be classified as classy and dignified, he does enjoy having splashes of colour and personality here and there. He knows he looks good and only half of it is posturing. The other half is just natural inclination. That being said, now that he's older he rather enjoys being the centre of loving attention, and has a fondness for being pampered and pet by those close to him

 

His time in TVK also changed him a little. He has somewhat retreated to his 'Nigredo' ways of not really wanting to be much in the spotlight, though he is very likely to take over in a situation where his skills of oration or people wrangling would come in handy. Gaignun may have been designed to be a leader, but he has slightly gotten weary of it, but habit does account for his cautious peeking out of his shell. Most of this comes from the Trauma of being trapped inside his father's head, as well as what happened to the Durandal, which he still has yet to actually deal with. Also, he does feel responsible for what happened while Dmitri Yuriev was possessing him, which only serves to strengthen his guilt complex and make it worse. Despite this, he does feel like he's earned a bit of a break, but we'll see how long that lasts. He was starting to reemerge into the public stage in a larger way when TVK ended.

 

 

Strengths: All abilities, magical, natural or otherwise, that the character may have!

 

Persona (Non canon, TVK gained) – Thanks to his time in Prospero, Gaignun was granted the use of a persona, Black Rider (See SMT wiki for picture and ability descriptions). He is currently at Level 54, and has the abilities of: Bufu, Analysis, Patra, Holy Arrow, Arrow Rain, and Bufudyne. If there is a chance to use his persona in combat, there is potential for it to level further and gain new abilities (the ones he was cleared for in TVK were : Mudoon (level 60), Absolute Zero (level 70), Debilitate (level 80), Megidolan (level 90), and Judgement of Darkness (level 100))

 

URTV Spiritual link – This is a telepathic link that binds all URTVs together. This allows them to communicate with each other, and is also used to set up the U-DO containment circle. While it technically can be used to contact non URTV's, to do this is very hard and tiring so they don't really bother unless it's really important. However, talking to other URTV's is very easy and distance is absolutely no factor.

Mind Transference – While this is connected to the spiritual link, this is what enables the URTV's to track each other and basically play musical bodies. You only see this used in Gaignun's death scene where he transfers his mind through the link and invades Albedo's body, kicking him out, and shoving him in with Rubedo.

U-DO containment – one last ability of the spiritual link is that two or more URTV's can generate a containment field that counteracts U-DO's waves. While Gaignun can not generate this himself, he can maintain it once it is up, which makes him a useful backup if any of the waves escape.

Hypnotic Voice – Though Gaignun is never shown as using this in canon, it is listed as an ability he possesses in the in game data base listing for him. Using this, he can manipulate people through the power of his voice into going along with what he wants, as if by their own will. He dislikes using it and will only use it if the situation absolutely calls for it or if his brothers are in danger. I will be setting up a permissions post for this as I see it as being a contest of wills. Sort of like what Dracula does to Van Hellsing in the old 1930's movie.

Telekinesis – While Gaignun can't pick up objects or people and move them, he can mentally destroy parts of people, which can lead to killing them. This isn't true telekinesis, but that is how it is referred to in the game database. Because he can not generate the anti-U-DO waveform like his brothers, his URTV shield is probably based on this power. When he uses this ability, his eyes glow bright green. They also glow if he gets EXTREMELY angry.

Executioner – Alright, this one is a little bit of a controversy. Because Gaignun was designed as the URTV fail-safe, he has the capability of destroying any URTV, which is why Albedo refers to him as 'Executioner'. Some fans think that this is the power his being able to blow up limbs is from, however in canon he manages to wound Albedo enough with it back on Milita to drive him away and make him take forever to recover, longer then it took for Albedo to regenerate his head after exploding it himself. But, when we see Gaignun blow up Albedo's arm when they speak as adults in the second game, it instantly regenerates but Albedo does not seem to enjoy the pain that it brings, which is unusual for him. So my theory is that 'Executioner/Fail-safe' is a separate power, and is probably what is referred to in some of the supplementary material as the 'Second Red Dragon', which was designed to counteract Rubedo's abilities. Controversy aside, this ability will not come into play as it can not be used against non URTV's.

Physical stuff – Cushy political job aside, Gaignun was born and bred to be a solider. As such he's quite sturdy, and while he's not as physically strong as Jr (as he is out of practice, the bum), he still has some pretty good combat abilities. This includes enhanced strength, durability, intelligence/observation skills, and reflexes/agility, as well as a familiarity with most types of projectile weaponry and pretty good self defense skills. This also includes the nano-machines in his blood stream that enable the usage of ether abilities.

U-DO Immunity – Gaignun is non-reactive to U-DO, which means he can come into direct contact with it with out going insane, dying, or mutating. He was designed this way to accommodate his father's U-DO infection when taken over but it did help him in surviving his childhood and making sure Rubedo didn't end up getting his unobservant butt killed.

Ethers – Ethers in the Xenosaga universe are basic skills that people can preform if they have the correct nano-machines in their blood. Unlike the URTV powers, they are not innate, but require the body to be correctly primed. Gaignun has access to a few basic ethers. He uses technique and ether blocking ethers.

 

Gaignun is also a skilled orator thanks to his job in politics and is quite good with children.

Weaknesses: All weaknesses, magical, natural or otherwise, that the character may have!

 

For one so strong in mental capabilities, Gaignun does have the glaring weakness of being a little bit more easy to possess mentally then one would suspect, due to his Father using him as a Trojan horse and designing him to be taken over in such a way. If someone finds this designer backdoor, it is possible for them to take him over as well. Though this would have to be worked out with the mun of whomever is trying.

 

Thanks to being possessed, Gaignun also has a massive guilt complex over what happened. This could possibly be used as a weapon against him or to manipulate him into doing things.

 

Because of his time spent as “Gaignun” vs “Nigredo”, he is a tad out of practice when it comes to combat situations, and is not as physically strong as his elder brothers. However, his time in Prospero has served to combat that some, but he still specialized more in guns then physical melee.

 

Due to previous workaholic habits (and maybe some restlessness if he's not doing something proactive on some project), nightmares, and now new issues, Gaignun is a bit of an insomniac. Well, a huge one. He tries to sleep as little as possible and resorts to copious amounts of coffee to keep himself awake. Being a URTV does help with him not needing as much sleep, but still...it gets out of hand.

 

Being a URTV also carries the heavy weight of a very volcanic and black temper should you actually set him off. Push the right button and he WILL resort to violence, though this is mainly reserved for people threatening people he cares about.

 

Which brings us to his next flaw. He is a caretaker personality, and he puts everyone before his own health and care. He does take it too far and causes problems to his own health and sanity though.

 

Due to a strictly confining childhood in the labs and battlefields, and now with having been imprisoned in his own mind, Gaignun does have some issues with claustrophobia, though he does try and keep it under wraps. It's usually better if he can move around, or knows it's temporary. He was ok in handcuffs in the first game, but that was before the possession, so he may not be as alright in them now.

 

Has a tendency to naturally overwork himself.

 

KEEPS TOO MANY SECRETS EVEN IF HE SHOULD NOT BE KEEPING THEM.

Possessions: A bright green Kazoo, hand gun from Prospero, his suit from home (with that fancy lapel), bullets for said handgun. (Maximum of 5)

Pony/Animal Type: Changling. Because in his home universe, Gaignun is essentially part of a discriminated and second class group (due to people being people and you know, suspicious laws), being that he has been heavily genetically altered. However, he masquerades as a completely normal human in order to have enough pull int he Federation government in order to make life better for other people like him on the Foundation. So he's kinda used to 'specism' and pretending to be something that you're not. However, I would like to have it so that the '669' that is usually on his palm not be able to be shifted away completely when he's playing around with his changling powers. If he tries, it just switches location on his body. If he's in pony form, it becomes his cutie mark maybe? 

Also, I would ask that he not be a 'drone' Changeling, if I had been apping one of the 665 Standard URTV's, they would have been perfect for that, but he's a variant. He was more powerful then them, and was their leader, so it would be neat if that role was reflected here.

 

If not, I can just make him an Earth pony, where in the 669 would function as his actual cutie mark. No worries.

Cutie Mark: Bright red '669' on his flank because well, it basically defines him and his life.
 

First Person: A general magic scroll post. Minimum of 100 words!

 

[See this stellar conversation here in this test drive!]

Third Person: A prose log. Minimum of 200 words!

 

Hooves. HOOVES. Really? He had thought that between his home universe and Prospero, that'd he'd seen much, if not everything that the universe had surprise him with, but this really took the cake. Technicolour ponies and candy coated houses. It looked as if it had come from a childrens fairy tale, if not imagination. At first, he thought he was still in Prospero, and that this was a new full moon event. But he checked his mental calender, and realized the timing was wrong. The more he thought about it, the more everything seemed different, even for Prospero. What on earth was going on then?

 

Where was he?

 

Where was everyone else for that matter.

 

Ah well, nothing to be done for it then to get up and explore. Though that was easier said then done because going from biped to quadruped was not exactly as easy as 1, 2, 3, there were entirely different muscle groups involved. But, he managed to figure it out in record time, only falling on his face once or twice because of tripping over a hoof. He was very hopeful that no one saw that.

 

It was then that he saw the scroll laying on the ground in front of him. Now how to pick it up with hooves...? Oh. Well, alright, apparently it just sticks to them, that's convenient. The scroll itself confirmed he wasn't where he was last time he opened his eyes. There was Saori's name, Allens, and Margulis's, but there were others he didn't recognize.

 

Also. Why was he full of holes?