how does any of this even happen? [rei]

[Rei Beaumont]

grey skies & light fading ,,



"constellation markings,
across your body, drawings
--
i don't mind, i don't mind
this wasted, shaded daylight"

THE OOC SECTION
---

CHARACTER NAME

Rei Miv Beaumont

CHARACTER DESCRIPTION

Standing at just under five feet and two inches, the young man is a native of Cocoon, which is evident in his attire. Typically he can be seen in a sleeveless, high-collared button-down made of synthetic white fabric with black details; the buttons can be found on either side of his collar leading down to his waist in two lines. At his waist, the garment flares out in somewhat of a "skirt", bearing trademark turquoise glowing lines, outwardly visible evidence of his connection to PSICOM. Beneath this he wears synthetic black waterproofed leggings, bearing another neon stripe on the outsides of his legs; these are tucked into calf-length boots, black with white elements. On his arms he wears detached sleeves of the same fabric as his leggings that extend to flare around his wrist and palm of his hand. Remarkably, while very technologically-oriented, his clothes do not seem all that practical. (They aren't; created for laboratory purposes, each neon strip is designed to store information on his current physical condition, such as heart rate, oxygen intake, body temperature, and adrenaline output. The materials are unsuited to within-environment testing.)

The young man's skin is pale, as is his hair, a silver-gray that appears blond in some lights. His eyes are mismatched; his right eye is green and his left is blue. His delicate facial features make him seem feminine, as well as his slight build. The only accessory that is of (mostly) his own choice to wear is a pair of headphones, white in color and made of a metal that feels similar to ceramic. The centers of the earphones also bear neon decorations; these, however, do not record data.

CHARACTER PERSONALITY

Rei Beaumont, at first sight, would seem to be a rather quiet and unassuming teenager. Appearing outwardly "normal" at age fifteen, he attends school in Eden, where he is not a standout student in any regard. He is studious but not incredibly gifted, and will rarely speak back when spoken to unless it is phrased as a "yes" or "no" question. He is not naturally timid, however. Sustained interaction with other people is difficult for him, as his "gift" has a tendency to manifest when he is touching another person. Keeping quiet in class and avoiding socialisation is his way of deliberately not making friends, so as to not cause discomfort.

He is not, however, lonely. On the contrary, Rei is somewhat of a loner, preferring the company of a good book over a classmate his age any day. If, somehow, one might become close to the young man, they would find that he has a very dry sense of humor and has a habit of phrasing all of his comments in a poetic structure. His view of the world is very cynical; these observations of his go unheard by all but his own mind, though. He might have had aspirations to become a writer, if his situation had been different.

CHARACTER HISTORY

An unwanted product of a one-night stand, a young human genetics student, and a journalist, Rei was raised by a single mother trying to support herself in college. For the first seven years of his life, he spent much of his time with his mother's sister, a woman named Martha. She was kind but strict, a rather harried-looking woman who had dropped out of university herself to support her daughter, a year older than Rei. As soon as he could grip a feather duster, he was made to help with cleaning around the house, and with Martha, he also learned how to cook, knit, and study effectively without falling asleep of boredom. Kina, Martha's daughter, was somewhat of an adopted sister to Rei instead of a cousin, helping him with homework and beating up boys at school when they made fun of his hair.

The moment his mother earned her doctorate, however, Rei was torn out of the life he was familiar with as they moved suddenly to Palumpolum, where his mother's family was, leaving Eden behind. The transition was hard for Rei; the woman was basically a stranger to him, as he had been practically raised by Martha. If possible, he grew even quieter, withdrawing into his textbooks - not out of timidness, but out of fear of having to lose his friends again.

They lived in Palumpolum for seven years, until Rei was fourteen. That year, his mother, one of several scientists working on a classified project within the PSICOM branch of the Sanctum military (a project that attempted to build a full genetic model of a l'Cie to simulate how the activation of their superhuman abilities was tied to those genes that differed), was reassigned to Eden to continue the project. Again he was jerked out of his (by now comfortable) life in Palumpolum, and relocated back to Eden, only three blocks from the apartment in which he had been raised.

Not his mother's old apartment - Martha's.

However, she and her husband and Kina had long since moved, leaving him alone in a city that was no longer familiar. The school he attended was the secondary school that his old primary school funneled into; the classmates recognized him, but largely left him alone after they realized he was literally not going to respond to their taunts. Though that was not to say he didn't have friends; three of his old best friends from second grade connected with him again, and for a while, Rei was content. Not happy - far from it, not with an obsessive-compulsive scientist who barely knew her son's name for a mother. But he was content. He began to open up a bit more to his friends, and might have even approached something close to a normal childhood from then on, given time...

Until everything that he felt was established fact went belly-up in his life.

The genome reconstruction program had progressed far enough that the laboratory began to test different types of drugs on the DNA model, looking for ways to enhance a l'Cie's abilities with a serum of some sort. Among one of their drugs was a compound called adenylline metriphate, which in other, limited laboratory tests had been implied to increase what seemed to be precognitive abilities in small animals such as mice - that is, the group that had been exposed to the compound had increased success in the time taken to run a maze they had not seen before than the control group, in three separate tests. On a whim, the project leader decided to introduce the drug to the simulation; it appeared to have no effect.

Earlier that same day, a coworker, deciding to try to be helpful, brought the briefcase that Ms. Beaumont had left in the office into the laboratory, thinking that she had forgotten it. Directly following the test, the room's occupants were required to undergo a detoxification bath; the briefcase escaped the treatment, and was dropped off back in her cubicle in the shuffle. Sequentially, the untreated briefcase, exposed to the (potentially hazardous to humans) chemical, made its way into the apartment that Rei and his mother shared.

His young age made him more susceptible to the toxin... however, the reason that it had seemed to have no effect in the simulation was not due to its lack of effect on humans. The drug was given in much too high a dose, so much so that the latent self-preservation abilities of l'Cie enabled the simulation to reject the chemical outright, finding it toxic. The potency of the drug carried home on Ms. Beaumont's briefcase was much too low to have the desired effect... but was still potent enough to affect Rei adversely.

He experienced his first vision three days later, collapsing into a fit in class. He experienced a seizure so severe that he was taken to a hospital; he regained consciousness eighteen hours later, and could barely even recall the event.

PSICOM quickly got word of this. Rather than fire his mother for being so irresponsible, instead someone higher-up - a woman by the name of Colonel Jihl Nabaat - took the occurrence as a gift in disguise. They took Rei in for testing at the PSICOM facility, and he was enrolled in psychiatric therapy three times a week. His teachers were told that he had developed a rare type of epilepsy, and he had only one more involuntary episode in class for the rest of the year.

The specialists realized that Rei's visions caused significant pain when they manifested or were induced when he was lucid; hypnotherapy made the experience painless and the visions more clear, though they were never of anything more important than the grade he was going to get on his maths exam next week if he studied as much as he intended to (the sight notwithstanding). He was also able to recall hypnosis-induced visions more easily, and his rate of involuntary lucid visions decreased.

The specialists were strict, but kind - they reminded him much of Martha, busy and with their own problems on their minds but patient with him and the questions he eventually warmed up enough to ask. He learned a hodgepodge of things ranging from science to politics to the best way to roast a silver lobo on an outdoor grill (which was, by the way, searing it with the highest temperature one could muster so it was crispy black on the outside but juicy on the inside).

His life turned into an unusual routine as the year wore on. He became distant from his friends, unwilling to interact more than the bare minimum with them for fear of physical contact triggering an episode, and they, in turn, grew distant from him. His life became a monotony of solitude, again; his mother still separate from his life, but sometimes he would come home to a platter of cookies and a new book, her way of apologizing to him for what had happened. This suited him well - he wouldn't know what to say to his mother, were she to apologize to him face-to-face.

The surfacing of the Pulse l'Cie in Cocoon shattered that form of normalcy, too. He was pulled out of school for two weeks following the accident at Euride, enduring round after round of hypnotherapy as the PSICOM officers rushed to contain the problem. The specialists he had grown to know and appreciate were overseen by callous members of the PSICOM elite, who frowned disapprovingly and barked for them to hurry up whenever they had little success.

The only somewhat useful vision he had during that time was eclipsed by their other tool; a boy named Dajh, who could sense his father no matter where he went. As the boy was a Sanctum l'Cie, Rei very much wanted to meet him, but never got the chance; he vanished a few days later, and the young man heard through the grapevine that the boy had fulfilled his Focus and turned to crystal. It was this incident that caused him to have a differing view on l'Cie than much of the populace; rather than blind hatred, he felt a sort of numb pity for them, knowing the feeling of being ostracised and alone for something that could not have been controlled. Instead, he viewed the PSICOM military as the enemy - not the scientists, they had never been anything but kind to him, but the elite, the anti-Pulse task force.

The siege on Eden was even less expected than the l'Cie themselves. Rei remembered vividly that it was on a Tuesday, the day that Adamantoises and Gorgonopsids and Zirnitras were unleashed on the populace. He was kept in the laboratory for that day as well, just like the last two weeks, induced over and over again as they tried for one final push as to what was going to happen.

It was futile.

He didn't remember what happened after that; it seemed certain that he would have been punished for his failure, but he awoke in the Distorted World naught any worse for wear, though dressed in his flimsy laboratory clothes...

---

headlamps making patterns on the wall ,,

THE IC SECTION
---

"Hello there. You've just arrived in the Distorted World. Why don't you tell me your name, and the first thought going through your head right now?"

"I... Distorted World?" Rei's eyes are wide.

"That's certainly interesting... forgive me if I don't know what to say to that. So tell me, where are you from?"

"Um... Eden...." [ Eden/Palumpolum, Cocoon. ]

"Can't say I've ever heard of it. Well, tell me about yourself. What do you do? What are some of your likes and dislikes?"

"Um... Student.. I guess..." He falls silent, still staring at the interviewer with wide eyes. ( Likes: Quiet, science textbooks, chocolate. Dislikes: Taunts, maths, conflicts. )

"Ah, that's amazing! And not only do we have some things in common, you're quite the looker, too, aren't you?"

"....." Rei flushes just barely.

"There's no need to be shy. They always say, if you've got it, flaunt it, right? Anyway, enough about that. Who are you allied with?"

"....."( SURVIVOR )

"I'm sure you have your reasons... Oh, on another note, how tall are you?"

"... five foot two..."

"Drat! Just four inches too tall. Although... hmm, would you mind if I asked you on a date? Don't worry, I'll buy."

"....."

"Finding a venue might be a bit difficult, anyway, since I have no idea where we are... tell me where this is, again?"

"... I don't know...." Rei shivers, flinching slightly. "Where am I, anyway? Smells musty..." ( CASTLE RUINS )

"Ah, how could I forget? I'd love to vacation here someday, when it's not so foggy... It's scenic, you know?"

"I... I suppose."

"Well, thank you for the lovely conversation! I'm afraid I'll have to be leaving you, though, since I'm going to explode in about three seconds anyway. Buh-bye now!"

"...wha?" "Oh, wait, what? Where AM I?"

---

uptown it's dead now but ,,

THE ROLEPLAYER SECTION
---

ROLEPLAYER NAME

Light/Luvi.

ROLEPLAYER AGE

16~

EXPERIENCE

seven years!

PASSWORD

curaja!

---

out here no one seems to care at all ,,

THE RP SAMPLE SECTION
---

RP SAMPLE

the last three days, as far as lightning could remember, had been a blur with two single constants - the inn at which she stayed, and the weird old man who stood staring at the castle of alexandria quietly. it seemed that no matter where the woman went, she would have to pass through the square with the old man; normally this would not have bothered her in the slightest, but just looking at the man's figure gave her shivers, cold creeping ones that ran down her spine. she knew she was being irrational - barthandelus was dead, after all - but it still nagged at her, a half-formed thought hanging in the back of her mind.

on the dawn of the third day, the pink-haired woman rose early, seeking to beat the morning rush of commoners at the market and exit the east side of the city. there was a place she had to be, a mission she had taken up, and she had to leave now if she had any hope of making it to the desert by sundown...

alas, it was not to be. as her boots hit the cobbles, clacking lightly against the stone in a familiar way, striding to the large wooden doors, a sound echoed across the rooftops and in the alleyways; a sound like a storm or an avalanche of rocks. against her better judgment, the soldier paused rather than hasten her pace, waiting for the sound to come again.

and it did. the percussive noise formed words, clearly leading back to a certain area of the city, however loud enough that she was sure they would be heard clear across the continent. the syllables were like bread crumbs. the cape attached to one shoulder flapped loosely as she spun and walked the other direction, following the steady stream of people coming out of doors or alleys to investigate the strange occurrence.

it was nice to walk among the populace without the abundance of strange looks, for once. the pleasant feeling soon faded, though, as they hit the all-too-familiar square...

the odd old man was bellowing his speech, the words escaping his larynx far more audible than they should have been. her arms prickled ominously as she pushed her way to the front of the crowd, crossing them and resting light fingers on her triceps.

the situation reeked to her of fal'cie. she could have possibly explained why, if someone had asked her, if she were a different person. however, lightning was not one for exposition. she gritted her teeth as the words washed over her like the tolling of a bell... a sound vaguely familiar for some shadow of a reason.

only as he fell silent did she feel inclined to speak up; and speak up she did, done with bowing her head and shuffling along with the crowd like some pet.

( "i'm not your slave!", her mind hissed. )

"and what happens if we don't like those options?" the ex-soldier growled, eyes sharpening to an edge like crystal. "shouldn't take a lot of us to take him down. actually, it all sounds like a load of crap to me," she noted skeptically. a few spectators nodded along in agreement, though some still looked frightened, unsure of how to handle something like this.

"tell us again just who you are," light declared, taking a step forward and out of the throng of people that had formed a loose circle around the man. her hands dropped, and one hovered just at her right thigh, ready to go for her gunblade just in case. "gonna need to take you back to the seniors' home?"

[Aerith Gainsborough]

Hello again Silent Protagonist No. 29768, please pick up your obligatory large bladed weapon in the armory before donning your overly-cool costume and entering Fantasy Green Hill Zone 6. Don't forget your lightning spell on the way out! Have a wonderful adventure!

... Yeah, I don't have any comments, approved. Go beat some people up.