User Profile

This is a roleplaying journal for thedollsyhouse and somarium

Character: Gale
Series: Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga
Version: From Part 2, just after the meat processing pla-- er, the internment facility. (Somarium: just after DDS 1)
Age: Physically, 32. In reality? 5. It’s...complicated.
Gender: Male

Appearance: To anyone from a relatively “normal” world, Gale is...oddly colored. His hair is green. Not from chlorine, but naturally green. His eyes are the same shade, but it’s how he looks at you that tends to unnerve people the most. Scrutinizing, intense...and yes, maybe a hint of ferality. As if he is going to devour you. In the non-sexual sense. He is built like a soldier, tall--at least six feet--and all lean muscle, and dresses the part... Boots, sturdy abdominal armor, a protective hood, and sort-of greaves. His calves are left bare, revealing his Atma brand on his left leg, in the shape of a tornado. With teeth. He also has a habit that is mostly a tic...that of tapping his forehead while thinking, an action that strongly resembles an effort to push eyeglasses up on his nose. ...though that would certainly seem strange, because Gale doesn’t wear glasses.

When the Twister Atma activates, Gale is covered in glowing tendrils put out by the mark, partially hiding the grotesque physical transformation he undergoes. When the green light fades, he is...certainly changed. Into a demon named Vayu, to be exact. He’s more at seven feet (or eight...he stands on his toes) and his skin has taken on a gray shade, with black and white bands around his thighs. The entirety of his body is pockmarked with “craters” about two inches in diameter, with sensitive nerve endings that allow him to “see” air flow. A handy trick, and how Vayu navigates his environment, considering how he has NO EYES. Attached to his neck, shoulders, and upper back by powerful tendons are light flaps of bright green skin. They fold over Vayu’s body front and back like a poncho of sorts, and are capable of expressing a wide range of emotion in their movements. His head is also....split. Vertically. Through the face and the back of the head. This would be his mouth, edged in brutal teeth designed to rip whole chunks of flesh from bone and swallow it down whole.

While in “berserk” form, Gale keeps his arms folded against his chest as Vayu does, and balances on his demonified right leg. His eyes glow pale yellow until the effect wears off...but this would be about the only time he would look at an innocent human and think “...lunch.”

Personality: Gale is remarkably balanced emotionally; he never lets his emotions get in the way of his thinking. Unfortunately, this means suppressing most of his emotional responses. Anger, he knows, is a powerful motivator, and while he doesn’t give into it like his comrade Heat, he has been known to lose his temper on occasion. He hates the power of his Atma not out of his own personal feelings, but because of the pain it causes others. He cares deeply about those he deems comrades, even if he doesn’t always know how to show it, and he realizes that some things in life must be felt rather than comprehended. ...ah, yes. Comprehension. Gale has an almost neurotic urge to know, to collect data. If he doesn’t know something, he will investigate it until he knows the answer. He is also a ruthless negotiator, using logic to back his victim into a corner rather than idle threats. Gale also follows a stringent honor code of defending the weak and helpless, something he inherited from one of the Tribe leaders of the Junkyard: Lupa.

Fears: Gale has never been shown to react in fear from anything. He is always logically minded and sure of himself...but if anything, he is most likely to become anxious about being unable to move. Paralyzation, stone, being frozen...they all might have negative effects on his mindset. Another fear might be of failing the memory of his friend Lupa (by not living his life to Lupa’s high standards).

Weaknesses: Gale is powerful in his demon form, but pathetically susceptible to electricity. A static discharge wouldn’t hurt Vayu much, but a strong shock from an active current would severely injure and perhaps paralyze him. Because his berserk form is so feral, he tends to swing randomly and without warning, to friend and foe alike, and his accuracy tends to suffer for it. He also has a high metabolism and an enormous appetite due to Vayu’s presence, one that can only be sated for a short time...perhaps three hours, at the most. Should he ignore this (say, for a total of six hours), he runs the risk of becoming a demon permanently and going completely feral. Vayu prefers his kills fresh and on two legs, but a large amount of normal meats (beef, chicken, etc.) should be enough to sate him during the day.

Strengths/Abilities: Gale is a talented fighter and a superb strategist. He carries an assault rifle, but doesn’t use it much. At most he carries about three extra clips with him, just enough to discourage any creature from rushing him head on. And if they are foolish enough...well, he is an excellent knife fighter, keeping switchblades in his boots to hold off enemies with vicious kicks. With the Twister Atma branded on his left calf, he is able to transform into the demon Vayu, a significantly stronger creature than any mere human. It uses wind-element magic and has an excellent sense of balance, even taking to balancing on one foot to keep a large, sharp retractable claw at the ready (not unlike Gale’s switchblades). It is also very fast, able to dodge projectiles such as bullets and rush its prey down as it flees. If the energy from the sunlight is strong enough, he is also at risk of entering a berserk half-demon form, with glowing yellow eyes and his right leg twisted into one of Vayu’s powerful legs. He’s not fully in control of his actions in this form, and is far more likely to give in to his feral hunting instincts.

History: Once upon a time, a doctor named David (last name unknown) contracted Cuvier Syndrome, the very illness he was researching with his lover, Jenna Angel. Cuvier was a brutal way to die--the victims would slowly turn to stone, courtesy of a God that had grown tired of humanity’s destruction of the environment and tendency to use their intelligence to find new ways of killing each other. Terrorists attacked the containment area for those with Cuvier, and David died in Jenna’s arms, urging her to live her life and help humanity rather than hate them or herself.

An incident years later caused David’s soul to become part of an AI computer simulation for urban warfare, in the body of the green-haired strategist Gale. He had no memory of his past, and no emotion. While on the battlefield in a skirmish between his tribe, the Embryon, and the Vanguards, a mysterious object that could not be identified exploded when a shaft of light from the sky hit it, infecting everyone present with the “Atma virus”. As Gale and the others awakened, they found themselves surrounded by the leftovers of strange monsters, and the Vanguards were nowhere in sight. Where the strange object used to be, the Embryon found a young girl with strange black hair and no tag ring (for identification). The Karma Temple, hijacked by a mysterious new being called “Angel”, issued new orders for the Tribes to follow: Use the power of the Atma to kill the other Tribe leaders, and bring the black-haired girl to Nirvana. Everyone awakened to their Atma powers and the insatiable hunger they brought...but they also awakened to another strange power, one called emotion. Everyone except Gale, that was. He only had a half-memory of a dark-haired woman’s tearful face, one that only caused flickers in emotion that he brushed off as illogical. Until an attempt to join with the Wolves Tribe’s leader, Lupa.

The leader of the Brutes, Varin Omega, had gained a terrifying new power: the ability to make another go mad with hunger and turn against anyone and everyone in their path. And he had inflicted it on Lupa. After Gale and his team mercifully put Lupa out of his misery, he finally awakened to his emotions, cursing the senseless slaughter going on around him and the terrible power they had obtained. From then on, Gale became resolute; he would discover the true nature of the Atma he and his Tribesmen had gained, and use that knowledge against the one who had inflicted them with it. He got his wish after Varin Omega was defeated, when the Embryon reached the top of the Karma Temple. But he was far from ready for the answer he sought. Angel was Jenna, the woman in his memories, a bitter and hateful being now who only wanted Sera to obey her without question and who was threatening to delete the entire Junkyard if she did not comply. Resisting Sera’s attempts to stop them, the Embryon engaged Jenna, who also had the power of the Atma virus. The battle was won, but it resulted in the destruction of the Junkyard’s master program, and the last pieces of the Junkyard, including the Temple, began to be deleted. Gale helped all of his companions reach the altar to Nirvana...and even helped Jenna herself, who seemed to recognize him, too. As the altar exploded around them, everyone was separated...and awakened to a harsh world far from the Nirvana they had expected.

Everywhere outside were littered the remains of human statues...victims of the Cuvier Syndrome, lit by the ominous rays of a black sun. Gale was the first to discover that the sun could put him into a state of rage between human and demon. He said nothing, however, and managed to reunite with Serph, his Tribe’s leader, and Argilla, their sniper. They followed the boy Fred and his friend to the hideout of a group called Lokapala, who were resisting the oppressive Karma Society and their Atma-infected soldiers. There they met with Roland, a struggling alcoholic who revealed that they were nothing more than AI programs used to test the virus... and the fact that Jenna Angel was the one who created the virus in the first place. Putting his skill with negotiations to good use, Gale pried Roland for information, revealing that Roland was holding Cielo captive as a hostage in an effort to coerce them into breaking into the Karma Society’s laboratories and bringing them Sera, as well as pointing out that the Junkyard was not just an illusion created by the Karma Society, but their home, and that they fought with honor for their survival, at the same time showing contempt for Lokapala’s tendency to be all talk and no real action. “...the people of the Junkyard fought for their very survival. I refuse to believe it was all just an illusion. You’re the people of Nirvana? Lupa died in vain.”

But Gale went along with Serph’s wishes to rescue Sera anyway, but adding that the Embryon would do it for Sera and for Fred, not for Lokapala itself. Outside the city where the Karma Society kept their main office, the three Embryon were met by Roland, who had infected himself with the Atma virus to aid them, apparently at Fred’s prompting. After breaking the prisoners out of the meat processing plant (it seemed that the Karma Society soldiers were opposed to cannibalism, and ate canned meat as opposed to the ruthless feasting that the Embryon were used to), Gale discovered that his friend Lupa, who had taught him to be an honorable person, had been a man named Greg, who was the original leader of Lokapala...and Fred’s father. Gale delivered Lupa’s dying message to Fred (and awkwardly accepted the hug that Fred was intent on giving him), and proceded to follow his leader on to the medical facility where Sera was being held. Once inside, a Karma Society soldier managed to get the jump on them and delivered enough of an electric shock to Gale enough to render him unconscious.

...he woke up in a strange house extremely reminiscent of a certain mansion back in the Junkyard.

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