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Entry tags:
Application: Save the Earth
OOC Information:
Name: Enzel
Are you over 15? Yep!
Contact: aim: Terra in Pyjamas, PMing this account works too.
IC Information:
Name: Richard of Windor (Reincarnation: Richard) & Lambda (Reincarnation: Marisol Reyes)
Canon: Tales of Graces f
Age: 19 (Reincarnation: 24)/unknown, at least 1,000 years (Reincarnation: 11)
Preincarnation Appearance: this is a fun one.
Richard in canon. In the epilogue he gets a snazzy new outfit.
Lambda has several appearances:
True form. Lambda is unstable in this state and can't remain this way for long. When he is experiencing a lot of negative emotion, his colors become red and black.
Monster form. A body made up of the fused souls of monsters, Lambda is more stable this way when possessing it. It's at least three times as tall as a regular human.
Humanoid form. The humanoid (read: android) body Cornell made for him to inhabit.
When Lambda possesses a human, one of their eyes mixes with the color red. Richard's brown turns a red-brown, Emeraude's gold turns bright red, and Asbel's blue turns purple. If Lambda takes full control of their body, both eyes change color. He can also alter their physical form significantly. (warning, it's slightly...nsfw.)
For the final boss fight Lambda becomes Lambda Angelus, which is a form he created for himself once he absorbed basically all of the world's eleth. It seems like the more energy he possesses, the more he can affect his host's form.
Any differences: In Locke Richard looks very similar, though without the Lambda-induced heterochromia; his eyes are an ordinary brown. He dresses pretty snappily.
As Marisol, Lambda is just a normal (kind of scrawny) human girl with brown hair and eyes.
And a visual for both of them!
Preincarnated History: (some of the details on the wiki are...inaccurate, to say the least, so I'm just going to type it all out.)
Lambda was a creature born in the center of the planet Fodra, a being made of pure energy. The core of the planet, called a Lastalia, produced energy called "eleth" that gave the planet life. The civilization on the planet's surface had been studying the Lastalia for some time before Lambda was discovered. One of the head researchers, a man named Cornell, took an interest in the creature and crafted an artificial body for it to inhabit. Fascinated by the spark of intelligence he saw there, he decided to raise the creature he named Lambda just like a human child. He taught him about emotions and gave him simple exercises to perform, such as building towers of blocks.
Unfortunately, in Cornell's care Lambda never matured past the mentality of a young child. Another scientist, a woman named Emeraude, disapproved of the project. Whether this was motivated out of jealousy (she had unrequited feelings for Cornell) or fear of Lambda's power, or both, it wasn't entirely certain. The fact remained that when Cornell wasn't around, she treated Lambda as nothing more than a lab specimen, an object to be examined. Her experiments caused him a great amount of pain, and in his distress he lost control of his power. It was then discovered that he could actually produce creatures from his body without any normal reproductive process and control them to a certain extent. When these creatures began to attack people, Lambda was determined a threat to the safety of the planet, and Emeraude attempted to kill him.
Cornell intervened, and tried to escape with Lambda on a shuttle. As the doors were closing, one of Emeraude's humanoid (robot) creations fired on them, and Cornell shielded Lambda with his body. The shuttle launched regardless, crash landing on Fodra's moon, Ephinea. Lambda dragged himself away from the wreckage and Cornell's body, nearly mad with grief. He eventually abandoned the artificial body he'd been given, creating one for himself out of the souls of monsters. (I've learned not to question the mechanics of this universe.)
But it wasn't over. Emeraude created another humanoid from the data she'd gathered from Lambda, one made of energy particles that mirrored Lambda's own. She named it Protos Heis, and gave it a single objective: follow Lambda to Ephinea, and terminate him.
For hundreds of years, Protos Heis searched for Lambda, and every time she found him, the resulting battle would end in a stalemate. Lambda grew frightened and bitter, and angry--because even when his new mortal enemy wasn't near, the human inhabitants of Ephinea turned against him as well, calling him a monster and attacking him. He hid himself, resenting them, thinking all humans were vicious, warmongering creatures. Eventually, Protos Heis found him again, and their clash drained both of them of energy. Protos Heis went into a sort of hibernation in order to regenerate, sleeping for a hundred years in a meadow near a town called Lhant. Lambda retreated and eventually found refuge in the old catacombs beneath the city of Barona, the capital of the kingdom of Windor.
After a century had passed, the young sons of the lord of Lhant happened across the sleeping form of Protos Heis, and woke her. Her regeneration interrupted, she had no memory of the past or her objective, or even her own name. The older boy, Asbel, named her "Sophie", and declared he'd find her family for her. The search was cut short, however, when a visitor from the capital arrived. The King's young son, Richard, was around Asbel's age, and they quickly became friends. After a close encounter with an assassin bent on ending Richard's life, Richard, Asbel and Sophie made a pact underneath the tree where Sophie was found, swearing to be friends forever.
After Richard returned to the capital, Asbel decided to go visit him, an struck out across the countryside with Sophie. There they reunited with Asbel's friend, Cheria, who was in the capital to see a doctor for her chronic illness, as well as Asbel's younger brother, Hubert, there with their father. Richard spent the day with them in the city, then told them about a secret passageway that led to the castle. He said he'd come lead them through it that night to give them a tour without anyone knowing. The children went to the place he indicated and waited for several hours, but there was no sign of him. Frustrated but unwilling to give up, Asbel lead the rest of them through the passage, intending to meet Richard halfway.
The truth was that there had been another assassination attempt, and Richard had been poisoned. He had collapsed in a cavern in the catacombs, and eventually Asbel and the others found him. Asbel rushed to his side, but Sophie shouted a warning. She sensed something: her powers as Protos Heis activating without her knowledge.
The cavern was, after all, Lambda's hiding place. Seeing Sophie put him on the defensive, and thinking she was there to attack him, he struck first. He dashed the children against the walls, gravely injuring them, seeing them as a threat as well. Sophie flew into a rage after seeing him attack Asbel, and beat him back. As she stopped to check on Asbel's injuries, a weakened Lambda stabbed her from behind, activating her self-preservation protocol again. The particles that formed her dispersed, hiding themselves in Asbel, Cheria and Hubert, healing them and slumbering within them to regain energy. Lambda, thinking the threat had passed, turned to Richard, who had started to wake from all the commotion. Sensing the boy's fear at the realization he was dying, Lambda repeated the words Cornell had told him with his dying breaths--"Live on". With that, he fused with Richard's body, becoming a sort of symbiote and keeping the poison from killing him.
Fast forward seven years--Lambda lies dormant within Richard. However, conflict arises when the nation north of Windor, Fendel, invades Lhant to make a grab for precious resources. Asbel is called home from his knight training in the capital when his father is killed, making him de facto lord of Lhant. However, he's unable to fend off the invading force without military help from another country, Strahta. Shortly afterward, taking advantage of the chaos, Richard's uncle Cedric makes a grab for the throne, killing Richard's father and poisoning the prince again. Richard escapes through the catacombs, running into Asbel and a reawakened Sophie, called back from her hibernation by the danger her friends are in. Unbeknownst to all of them, Lambda awakens within Richard as well, causing him to have a strange aversion to his old friend. The three of them set out on a journey to ask a lord still loyal to the old king for aid in taking back the capital. Along the way, they pick up another companion, a quirky young woman named Pascal.
Richard's behavior becomes increasingly erratic under Lambda's influence, causing outbursts of rage and violence. Asbel tries to rationalize his friend's behavior, thinking it must be the strain of losing both his father and his kingdom, but it troubles him. But when he question's Richard's cruel orders to kill defenseless enemy soldiers, he's ordered by Richard's subordinates to stay away from him. However, upon reaching the castle, Asbel finds Richard surrounded by bodies. He claims he was ambushed and his own men slain as well as the attackers, but it's unclear what actually happened. Richard begins struggling visibly against Lambda's control, though the others have no idea what's wrong, and think his injuries must be giving him trouble. They fight their way to Cedric, who seems surprised by Richard's newfound boldness.
After a long and difficult fight, Cedric is defeated. Richard/Lambda tells him a rightful ruler does not seize the throne through treachery, then runs him through while he's injured and helpless, to the horror of his companions. He stabs the body again for good measure, prompting Asbel to protest. With that, and the nearly bloodless infiltration of the city by their troops, it is over.
Or it should have been. As it is, Richard calls for his coronation immediately, promising to lead the kingdom in a new age of prosperity. He summons Asbel to an audience afterward, to deliver news: he wishes to take Lhant back from the neighboring country that has occupied it, for its resources. Asbel tries to reason with him, saying an invasion would spark a real war, and that his people would be caught in the crossfire. When asked to lead the invasion force, he refuses, and Richard questions his loyalty. Asbel begs for the chance to negotiate first, and with some reluctance, it's granted to him. When Richard's adviser questions this, the new king's response is:
"He's such a kind man. It's the trait I love most in him. I must take...good care of him."
And then he laughs creepily, making you wonder why his adviser doesn't take the hint that he's lost it and run far, far away. Oh well.
Asbel heads back to his hometown, with Sophie, Cheria, Pascal and his old knight instructor Malik in tow. There he meets with his younger brother, who was sent to the neighboring country of Strahta after the first incident with Lambda, because their father feared his sons would fight over his title. He's now a military lieutenant and bitter towards his family for their perceived abandonment. Unfortunately, Richard has already led his forces in and attacked before Asbel was even able to start negotiations. Richard himself confronts them, and it's clear that by now he and Lambda have become so intertwined that they cannot tell each others' emotions apart, and Lambda's rage is barely tempered by Richard's love for Asbel. Consequently, in Richard/Lambda's mind, the invasion is seen as an offer of good faith by reclaiming Asbel's home for him. He's too far gone to see anything wrong with this.
It finally sinks in for Asbel, however, that Richard has gone off the deep end and needs to be stopped. Asbel and Hubert stall Richard while the others go off to evacuate the townspeople. Richard/Lambda sees this as the final betrayal on top of his betrayal cake and attacks them. Overwhelmed by Richard's newfound power, the two of them can't even fight back. At the last moment, Sophie, probably sensing the flare of Lambda's power, rushes to their defense. With that the last of her particles, left within Hubert's body after healing him all those years ago, return to her, and she regains her full strength as Protos Heis--and her memory. However, it's still not enough, and Asbel has to intervene to help her. He injures Richard, and Lambda goes berserk, finally taking complete control of Richard's body. He and Sophie have another showdown, and Lambda loses this time. Richard's troops come to rescue him, and take him away.
Lambda's plan is to drain the eleth, or life energy, from the three great Valkines Cryas as well as the planet's Lastalia itself. These giant crystals supply eleth to the nations of Windor, Fendel and Strahta, and without them all life on the planet will slowly wither and die. Before invading Lhant, Lambda had already drained the wind eleth from Windor's Valkines, which is why he was able to overwhelm Asbel, Hubert and Sophie so easily. By taking the eleth and fusing himself with the Lastalia, Lambda would simultaneously sustain himself, gain immense power, and get rid of the humans who had tormented him for so long.
After escaping Lhant, Lambda heads for Strahta's Valkines next, using some monsters infected with his cells as transportation. He finds Asbel's group there, investigating why the crystal is malfunctioning as a goodwill gesture to Strahta, in hopes of keeping negotiations open. They fix it just as he arrives, and he proceeds to drain all the eleth from it. Before leaving, Lambda speaks directly to Sophie as Protos Heis, telling her that as long as she exists, both he and Richard will never have peace. He collapses in the desert, and Richard momentarily regains control to question Lambda's motives, worrying aloud that he'll hurt Asbel and Sophie in pursuit of more power. Lambda tries to convince him that they've betrayed him, and Richard protests, insisting that they're his friends.
Lambda drags him to the third Valkines anyway, and when Asbel tries to stop him, he strikes him down. Sophie rushes to his defense again, but is unable to match up to his third powerup. Lambda swoops off again, but not before giving a little villain speech and promising to "end things". He doesn't get very far, however, as Richard's human body begins to collapse under the strain of containing so much energy. Here it becomes clear that in order to gain Richard's cooperation and quash his attempts to regain control, Lambda has lied to him, telling him that taking the eleth will put a stop to all war and conflict. In Richard's state, somehow, he believes it.
Once again, Asbel's group is one step ahead of him, and meet him at the World's Eye, the entrance to Ephinea's Lastalia. Asbel attempts to reason with him, but it's no use. Richard is too far gone. At least now the fight is six on "one", and Asbel and his friends manage to hold him at bay. Richard calls out to Asbel in a moment of lucidity, asking for help, and he and Lambda both express their fear of dying, begging for their lives. Touched by this, Sophie tries to approach him, but Lambda reacts with hostility, calling her by her true name, Protos Heis. The name starts to awaken her old memories of Fodra, and she protests, insisting that she's Sophie. She asks Richard to renew the friendship pact they made years ago, in hopes that it will repair their bond. For a moment, Richard appears to want to accept it, but then Lambda overrides his will and attacks her with a blast of eleth, point-blank. She collapses, gravely injured. As Asbel and his friends rush to her side, Lambda begins using the energy he's gathered to create a giant cocoon, in which he can alter Richard's body to handle the eleth from the Lastalia as well. The group barely escapes with a comatose Sophie on Asbel's back, looking on in horror.
Even with both Cheria and Hubert's healing abilities, Sophie's condition gets steadily worse. In their search for answers, the group discovers one of the old shuttles used to travel from Fodra to Ephinea. They head to Fodra and find the planet in ruins, a sole survivor sleeping in stasis: Emeraude, the scientist. When Fodra was in its death throes after Lambda's departure, she transferred her consciousness into a humanoid body and slept for nearly a thousand years. She skews the story to make it sound as if she isn't responsible for Lambda's rage, painting a picture of him as a mindless monster. She agrees to help fix the injuries Sophie received in battle, though she refuses to refer to her as anything but Protos Heis, a weapon, not a person in her own right. In doing so, she activates a protocol in Sophie's programming, her ultimate power and ultimate sacrifice: she is to destroy Lambda by merging with him and self-destructing.
During the repair process, some old machinery is activated that displays several recordings of Cornell speaking about Lambda, though its unclear whether they're deliberate or just security footage. Seeing Lambda's humanoid body, Asbel asks if he was human. Emeraude corrects him hastily, explaining that he's a parasite. The group begins to realize that Richard is, in fact, not in control of himself at all. Or rather, they suspected it but now they have an explanation. Sophie is conflicted by this, with the urge to complete her mission strong, but her feelings of friendship for Richard clashing with it. Asbel resolves to try to separate Richard and Lambda so that they don't have to worry about fighting a friend. They beef up the shuttle so it's able to punch through the cocoon, then head back to Ephinea.
In the meantime, Lambda continues to alter Richard's mind as well as his body, convincing him his old friends can no longer be trusted. Asbel and the others bring Emeraude with them to confront Lambda, but by the time they arrive, Richard barely resembles himself anymore. After a grueling battle, Lambda abandons Richard's body in an attempt to preserve himself. Sophie steps forward, saying it's her duty to destroy him. Emeraude attacks her out of the blue, telling her it's no longer necessary. She's decided she wants Lambda's power for herself, and lets him possess her, thinking she can overpower him. She announces she's been leading the group around all along in order to take Lambda and the eleth he stole and use it to return life to desolate Fodra...at the cost of everyone on Ephinea, of course.
However, recognizing her, Lambda revolts and destroys her from the inside out. Richard regains consciousness and tells Lambda to return to him, and as he does, the others get a glimpse of Lambda's energy taking the form of his old humanoid body briefly. Then he transforms Richard's body again, and begins destroying the cocoon around them, heading for the core of the planet.
Asbel's group finds a way to the old maintenance shaft for the Lastalia, and follows it down to the core. Along the way, they encounter visions of Lambda's past as his consciousness begins to integrate with the Lastalia, and they begin to realize Emeraude was not as blameless as she claimed to be. Upon reaching the core, Asbel tries one last time to bring Richard to his senses with words, but he's too far gone. He states that the only way to rid the world of suffering is to remove the source of it--humanity.
Asbel and co. manage to win the resulting battle with help from Sophie's particles enhancing their attacks and helping them break through Lambda's power. Again, they try to appeal to their defeated enemy, and somehow Richard gains his voice for a moment, thanking Asbel for stopping him. He explains the feelings Lambda exploited: his reluctance to trust after being hurt, his loneliness, and how deep down he really just wanted someone to help him.
"Pathetic, isn't it...as we fought, I still wanted you to save me."
Asbel insists that he never wanted to fight, because they're still friends. Richard replies that he's grateful that Asbel will still call him a friend, but it's too late. He and Lambda are too closely entwined, and can't be separated. He begs Asbel to kill him before Lambda recovers. With his last bit of strength, he grapples with Lambda internally, and Lambda grows angry at him for being willing to sacrifice himself to stop everything they've done so far. As he attempts to kill Richard for his perceived treachery, Asbel leaps forward and forcibly drags Richard's body back. Somehow, this separates them, and Lambda uses the eleth he gathered to make himself a new form. He attacks them again, and is defeated again, but just barely.
As the eleth Lambda stole disperses back into the core, Sophie informs them that even though they've won, if nothing is done, Lambda will only go into hibernation and return again in the future. She moves forward to try to complete her mission, in order to protect her friends: sacrificing herself to destroy Lambda permanently. Asbel refuses to accept this, and moves in front of her at the last moment, letting Lambda enter his body instead.
Within Asbel's mind, Lambda speaks to him, intending to take Asbel's body for himself. He says that remaking the world will mean that there will be no one left to cause him pain, and that all he's done is so he can finally have peace.
On the outside, Richard wakes up, badly injured but still alive. He joins the others around Asbel's body, as their connection with Sophie somehow allows them to listen in on Asbel's conversation with Lambda. Richard expresses his concern that Lambda will override Asbel's will as well, explaining that Lambda had latched on to his own feelings of anger and resentment. However, Asbel, the young man who believed in Richard despite everything, is different.
Asbel explains to Lambda that they saw glimpses of his past, and when asked if he was satisfied to see his enemy suffer, he adamantly denies it. He tells Lambda that experiencing pain is no reason to inflict it on others. Lambda calls him arrogant and accuses Asbel of looking down on him. Asbel explains that he doesn't expect Lambda to overcome his pain alone, and that power is in numbers, in people working together.
He tells Lambda that human beings can be more than just cruel and greedy, and that continuing a cycle of tragedy someone else inflicted on him is no way to live.
"Behind all the tragedy lies your sadness. And the actions you took because of that sadness only made you even more alone."
Asbel urges him to remember why Cornell raised him, that it wasn't because he wanted him to suffer. Lambda replies that Cornell wanted him to live, despite the fact that he wasn't human. Asbel offers to show Lambda the parts of the world he missed, when all he experienced was pain. Lambda counters that over time, Asbel's mind will be consumed by him no matter what. His reply? "I'll take that chance." He goes on to say that he's not sparing Lambda just because it would mean Sophie's death to kill him, but also that he wants to prove to him that humans aren't all the same. It takes a little more convincing, but Lambda eventually agrees, albeit suspiciously. He warns Asbel that the moment he lets his guard down, he'll be surrendering himself.
Out of energy, Lambda falls into a restorative slumber within Asbel's body. Asbel finally wakes, to the relief of his companions. They head home, the day saved, with a new hope for the future...
Several months later, Ephinea is still recovering. Richard has retaken his throne, and in an effort to make amends for the damage he caused, he's been working tirelessly. He leads hunting parties to clean up the rest of the monsters Lambda created, to keep the countryside safe. Asbel has taken up the title of Lord of Lhant and Sophie's guardian, though he struggles with his newfound responsibilities--not to mention his mother pestering him about marriage. Sophie is troubled by the idea that, because she isn't human, she'll outlive all her human friends.
Reincarnated History:
Marisol grew up in downtown Locke. She was the youngest of three siblings, the oldest from her mother's first marriage. Both of her parents worked a lot, so she was looked after by her next oldest brother most of the time. Their oldest brother was a bit of a black sheep, and ever since he moved out he'd frequently get himself into trouble and come home asking for money. Their mother tolerated this for a little before she put her foot down, and now they barely see him anymore.
Marisol is very close with her other brother, though he's almost six years older than her. She hasn't quite hit the stage where children grow out of their idolization of their siblings yet, so in her mind he can do no wrong. She's a quiet kid and doesn't make friends easily,
First Echo: Caused by seeing the pink lights in early September.
Richard: His sword.
Marisol: Lambda's set of children's building blocks that Cornell gave him.
Preincarnation Personality: Richard can seem a bit stiff and formal to strangers; he's slow to trust because of his upbringing, having learned the hard way that people only cared about him because of his status. When he was young he kept to himself a lot, and was neither outspoken or bold. This is implied by his uncle when he remarks on the confidence Richard shows while Lambda is possessing him.
However, around Asbel and his friends, he opens up into a warm, amiable young man, with a mischievous streak. He prefers it if people speak informally with him, though he reserves that honor for the few people he actually trusts. He has a flair for the dramatic at times, and takes advantage of Asbel's gullibility to pull some (relatively) harmless pranks, for fun.
Once he becomes king and gains the popular support of his people, he seems to enjoy the attention. While he's charismatic and outgoing, he has a quiet side, and harbors a lot of guilt over the things he did under Lambda's influence. Despite his rough childhood, he's compassionate at heart, and vowed when he was young to put an end to war in his Kingdom. As King, he works tirelessly to secure the safety and comfort of his citizens, fighting on the front lines against the monsters plaguing the land.
He does have his quirks, of course--once he won a swimming competition while fully dressed, and dresses up in costume to entertain Sophie and tease his friends. He never quite recovers from his past, so this part of him can seem like an act to distract from that, but it's mostly genuine. If anything, he's trying to catch up on what he missed during his lonely childhood. He takes his responsibilities as a leader very seriously, and seems a bit bewildered by his own popularity.
Lambda, in contrast, is far older than any human, yet in many ways he's very much like a child. He's had very little social interaction throughout his whole life, and though he has a sophisticated speech pattern (probably learned from Richard) his personality isn't terribly mature. He's been pushed away from people all his life, demeaned, hurt and endangered. He trusts very slowly, and is especially biased against humans for what they did to him. He also doesn't have much of a concept of human morality, since his pain caused him to turn inward and only care about himself for a long time.
However, meeting Richard (and eventually Asbel) changed that. He saw much of himself in the young prince: hurt by the people he trusted, scared and alone. Richard was the first person he connected to after Cornell's death so long ago. Ever since he lost his father figure, he thought the solution to his problems was to find somewhere he could be alone, just so no one would hurt him anymore. Living within Richard's body, he impressed these feelings upon him, influencing his actions. he didn't see anything wrong with this--after all, people were hurting him too. Wouldn't he be better off alone? But Richard fights back, believing that his friends still care for him. He does feel their connection, however, because he welcomes Lambda back to his body as a host willingly after Emeraude's death.
Though his pain made him turn on Richard after he eventually tried to help Asbel destroy him, Asbel's willingness to forgive eventually broke through his anger and bitterness. Though not ready to trust again, he agreed to give Asbel a chance, and ended up fighting for him and aiding him. In this strange sort of circle of betrayal and redemption, it can be hard to see the true Lambda, since his emotions warp his actual physical form, but in Asbel's care, his true self emerges.
Blunt, straightforward, unconcerned with social complexities and incredibly cynical, Lambda softens a little when he's finally able to see the good humanity can do and not just the bad. Though he has a hard time admitting it, (he calls Asbel's kindness "foolish" frequently) he helps him and his friends against the will of Fodra, bent on destroying humans just as he had been. It's difficult to call this kindness, since he is repaying a debt, but he does keep his word. He begins to understand that morality is a choice, and the things he experienced were the result of individuals rather than a group with a single focus. Essentially, once he's not overwhelmed with anger and pain, he develops more complex thought and a faint ability to empathize.
Any differences:
To state the obvious, Marisol is human where Lambda is not. Therefore she has a natural socialized concept of morality, and grew up with family and interpersonal relationships, flawed as they were. Though she is cynical for her age, it doesn't really approach Lambda's human-hating level. She doesn't always speak her mind--only when it suits her, and the rest of the time she keeps it to herself.
Where Lambda can be considered intelligent in his capacity to pick up information, Marisol is much more in touch with her emotional instincts: she does a lot of people-watching and is always aware of her surroundings, careful to act in a way that doesn't step on any toes. While this stems from a sense of self-preservation shared by her preincarnation, she's far more savvy at reading body language and tone and emotion and using that information to keep herself out of danger. In essence, she's right-brained where Lambda is left-brained.
She also enjoys company and socialization far more, though she's not very good at showing it. She craves affection, and despite the fact that sometimes she resents her mother not always being there for her, she's not that good at holding a grudge about it. Part of it is the fact that she's still a child, and part of it is that despite her rough upbringing, she wants to believe people care for her. She doesn't get angry very often, in contrast to the vast amounts of anger and resentment Lambda harbors. It's just not worth the effort, because she'd rather avoid conflict than face it. It's not exactly fear so much as her looking for the easiest way out of a situation. She's rather avoidant in general, and uses art as a means of escape.
Despite this, she likes to be around people even if she's not necessarily interacting with them, and will usually look for public places like libraries and parks to do her schoolwork instead of sitting at home. She doesn't make friends easily, but collects plenty of acquaintances that she's content to drop if they become too much trouble.
Abilities: Lambda's true form is a swirling ball of energy. This form can't exist in the physical world on its own for very long--it needs to possess a body. This can be done in a few ways. One of them is assembling a body from a conglomerate of monster souls, which is understandably Lambda's most monsterlike appearance. However, Lambda can also inhabit a living human body, as well as an artificial one. The former can be done without the consent of the host, though it becomes a little harder if they resist. Eventually, when Lambda learns to coexist with Asbel within his body without taking it over completely, he even lends him some of his power.
The exact nature of that power is a little hard to pinpoint, but there are a few definites. Lambda can absorb large amounts of raw energy, and this is the closest he gets to consuming food. Second, parts of him can split off to create creatures with limited sentience that he can control, though they are mostly directed by his emotional state. Therefore, this is much less likely to happen if he's not agitated or being attacked. These are called Nova Monsters.
Third, he can aid his host by giving them the ability to use his energy in battle. This is called Nova energy, and it usually manifests as a dark red or purple light. It functions as a particle shield and a method of attack. It's very similar to the sort of energy that Protos Heis (Sophie) is made of, only somewhat tainted by Lambda's negative emotions. Also, he can accelerate his host's healing at will: Richard was poisoned twice and survived, and had his chest slashed open and was fine a few minutes later.
In addition to Lambda's power, Richard has the ability to channel eleth into "artes" and spells, with elemental attributes. He uses a sword (it's called a "rapier" but the blade is actually pretty wide) and is adept at fencing. The primary elements he uses are Wind and Darkness. Here is a list of his artes. He can use a spell called "Soul Reaper" that steals vitality from his target, and gives it to him.
Roleplay Sample – Third Person: Here! (though I tweaked her family members from younger sisters to a younger brother since then.)
Roleplay Sample - Network:
Any Questions?
I'm assuming Lambda's humanoid/robot body can be Echoed as an object, but would the monster form count as an object or a physical Echo? (since he can't inhabit it until he's Echoed his energy ball true form anyway.) I'm also fine with leaving this and hashing it out when it comes up down the line, but I thought I'd ask.
In addition, since artes are performed using eleth as an energy source, does that mean Richard can't use artes that don't stem from Lambda's power without something like Echoing back pieces of cryas to draw it from?
Name: Enzel
Are you over 15? Yep!
Contact: aim: Terra in Pyjamas, PMing this account works too.
IC Information:
Name: Richard of Windor (Reincarnation: Richard) & Lambda (Reincarnation: Marisol Reyes)
Canon: Tales of Graces f
Age: 19 (Reincarnation: 24)/unknown, at least 1,000 years (Reincarnation: 11)
Preincarnation Appearance: this is a fun one.
Richard in canon. In the epilogue he gets a snazzy new outfit.
Lambda has several appearances:
True form. Lambda is unstable in this state and can't remain this way for long. When he is experiencing a lot of negative emotion, his colors become red and black.
Monster form. A body made up of the fused souls of monsters, Lambda is more stable this way when possessing it. It's at least three times as tall as a regular human.
Humanoid form. The humanoid (read: android) body Cornell made for him to inhabit.
When Lambda possesses a human, one of their eyes mixes with the color red. Richard's brown turns a red-brown, Emeraude's gold turns bright red, and Asbel's blue turns purple. If Lambda takes full control of their body, both eyes change color. He can also alter their physical form significantly. (warning, it's slightly...nsfw.)
For the final boss fight Lambda becomes Lambda Angelus, which is a form he created for himself once he absorbed basically all of the world's eleth. It seems like the more energy he possesses, the more he can affect his host's form.
Any differences: In Locke Richard looks very similar, though without the Lambda-induced heterochromia; his eyes are an ordinary brown. He dresses pretty snappily.
As Marisol, Lambda is just a normal (kind of scrawny) human girl with brown hair and eyes.
And a visual for both of them!
Preincarnated History: (some of the details on the wiki are...inaccurate, to say the least, so I'm just going to type it all out.)
Lambda was a creature born in the center of the planet Fodra, a being made of pure energy. The core of the planet, called a Lastalia, produced energy called "eleth" that gave the planet life. The civilization on the planet's surface had been studying the Lastalia for some time before Lambda was discovered. One of the head researchers, a man named Cornell, took an interest in the creature and crafted an artificial body for it to inhabit. Fascinated by the spark of intelligence he saw there, he decided to raise the creature he named Lambda just like a human child. He taught him about emotions and gave him simple exercises to perform, such as building towers of blocks.
Unfortunately, in Cornell's care Lambda never matured past the mentality of a young child. Another scientist, a woman named Emeraude, disapproved of the project. Whether this was motivated out of jealousy (she had unrequited feelings for Cornell) or fear of Lambda's power, or both, it wasn't entirely certain. The fact remained that when Cornell wasn't around, she treated Lambda as nothing more than a lab specimen, an object to be examined. Her experiments caused him a great amount of pain, and in his distress he lost control of his power. It was then discovered that he could actually produce creatures from his body without any normal reproductive process and control them to a certain extent. When these creatures began to attack people, Lambda was determined a threat to the safety of the planet, and Emeraude attempted to kill him.
Cornell intervened, and tried to escape with Lambda on a shuttle. As the doors were closing, one of Emeraude's humanoid (robot) creations fired on them, and Cornell shielded Lambda with his body. The shuttle launched regardless, crash landing on Fodra's moon, Ephinea. Lambda dragged himself away from the wreckage and Cornell's body, nearly mad with grief. He eventually abandoned the artificial body he'd been given, creating one for himself out of the souls of monsters. (I've learned not to question the mechanics of this universe.)
But it wasn't over. Emeraude created another humanoid from the data she'd gathered from Lambda, one made of energy particles that mirrored Lambda's own. She named it Protos Heis, and gave it a single objective: follow Lambda to Ephinea, and terminate him.
For hundreds of years, Protos Heis searched for Lambda, and every time she found him, the resulting battle would end in a stalemate. Lambda grew frightened and bitter, and angry--because even when his new mortal enemy wasn't near, the human inhabitants of Ephinea turned against him as well, calling him a monster and attacking him. He hid himself, resenting them, thinking all humans were vicious, warmongering creatures. Eventually, Protos Heis found him again, and their clash drained both of them of energy. Protos Heis went into a sort of hibernation in order to regenerate, sleeping for a hundred years in a meadow near a town called Lhant. Lambda retreated and eventually found refuge in the old catacombs beneath the city of Barona, the capital of the kingdom of Windor.
After a century had passed, the young sons of the lord of Lhant happened across the sleeping form of Protos Heis, and woke her. Her regeneration interrupted, she had no memory of the past or her objective, or even her own name. The older boy, Asbel, named her "Sophie", and declared he'd find her family for her. The search was cut short, however, when a visitor from the capital arrived. The King's young son, Richard, was around Asbel's age, and they quickly became friends. After a close encounter with an assassin bent on ending Richard's life, Richard, Asbel and Sophie made a pact underneath the tree where Sophie was found, swearing to be friends forever.
After Richard returned to the capital, Asbel decided to go visit him, an struck out across the countryside with Sophie. There they reunited with Asbel's friend, Cheria, who was in the capital to see a doctor for her chronic illness, as well as Asbel's younger brother, Hubert, there with their father. Richard spent the day with them in the city, then told them about a secret passageway that led to the castle. He said he'd come lead them through it that night to give them a tour without anyone knowing. The children went to the place he indicated and waited for several hours, but there was no sign of him. Frustrated but unwilling to give up, Asbel lead the rest of them through the passage, intending to meet Richard halfway.
The truth was that there had been another assassination attempt, and Richard had been poisoned. He had collapsed in a cavern in the catacombs, and eventually Asbel and the others found him. Asbel rushed to his side, but Sophie shouted a warning. She sensed something: her powers as Protos Heis activating without her knowledge.
The cavern was, after all, Lambda's hiding place. Seeing Sophie put him on the defensive, and thinking she was there to attack him, he struck first. He dashed the children against the walls, gravely injuring them, seeing them as a threat as well. Sophie flew into a rage after seeing him attack Asbel, and beat him back. As she stopped to check on Asbel's injuries, a weakened Lambda stabbed her from behind, activating her self-preservation protocol again. The particles that formed her dispersed, hiding themselves in Asbel, Cheria and Hubert, healing them and slumbering within them to regain energy. Lambda, thinking the threat had passed, turned to Richard, who had started to wake from all the commotion. Sensing the boy's fear at the realization he was dying, Lambda repeated the words Cornell had told him with his dying breaths--"Live on". With that, he fused with Richard's body, becoming a sort of symbiote and keeping the poison from killing him.
Fast forward seven years--Lambda lies dormant within Richard. However, conflict arises when the nation north of Windor, Fendel, invades Lhant to make a grab for precious resources. Asbel is called home from his knight training in the capital when his father is killed, making him de facto lord of Lhant. However, he's unable to fend off the invading force without military help from another country, Strahta. Shortly afterward, taking advantage of the chaos, Richard's uncle Cedric makes a grab for the throne, killing Richard's father and poisoning the prince again. Richard escapes through the catacombs, running into Asbel and a reawakened Sophie, called back from her hibernation by the danger her friends are in. Unbeknownst to all of them, Lambda awakens within Richard as well, causing him to have a strange aversion to his old friend. The three of them set out on a journey to ask a lord still loyal to the old king for aid in taking back the capital. Along the way, they pick up another companion, a quirky young woman named Pascal.
Richard's behavior becomes increasingly erratic under Lambda's influence, causing outbursts of rage and violence. Asbel tries to rationalize his friend's behavior, thinking it must be the strain of losing both his father and his kingdom, but it troubles him. But when he question's Richard's cruel orders to kill defenseless enemy soldiers, he's ordered by Richard's subordinates to stay away from him. However, upon reaching the castle, Asbel finds Richard surrounded by bodies. He claims he was ambushed and his own men slain as well as the attackers, but it's unclear what actually happened. Richard begins struggling visibly against Lambda's control, though the others have no idea what's wrong, and think his injuries must be giving him trouble. They fight their way to Cedric, who seems surprised by Richard's newfound boldness.
After a long and difficult fight, Cedric is defeated. Richard/Lambda tells him a rightful ruler does not seize the throne through treachery, then runs him through while he's injured and helpless, to the horror of his companions. He stabs the body again for good measure, prompting Asbel to protest. With that, and the nearly bloodless infiltration of the city by their troops, it is over.
Or it should have been. As it is, Richard calls for his coronation immediately, promising to lead the kingdom in a new age of prosperity. He summons Asbel to an audience afterward, to deliver news: he wishes to take Lhant back from the neighboring country that has occupied it, for its resources. Asbel tries to reason with him, saying an invasion would spark a real war, and that his people would be caught in the crossfire. When asked to lead the invasion force, he refuses, and Richard questions his loyalty. Asbel begs for the chance to negotiate first, and with some reluctance, it's granted to him. When Richard's adviser questions this, the new king's response is:
"He's such a kind man. It's the trait I love most in him. I must take...good care of him."
And then he laughs creepily, making you wonder why his adviser doesn't take the hint that he's lost it and run far, far away. Oh well.
Asbel heads back to his hometown, with Sophie, Cheria, Pascal and his old knight instructor Malik in tow. There he meets with his younger brother, who was sent to the neighboring country of Strahta after the first incident with Lambda, because their father feared his sons would fight over his title. He's now a military lieutenant and bitter towards his family for their perceived abandonment. Unfortunately, Richard has already led his forces in and attacked before Asbel was even able to start negotiations. Richard himself confronts them, and it's clear that by now he and Lambda have become so intertwined that they cannot tell each others' emotions apart, and Lambda's rage is barely tempered by Richard's love for Asbel. Consequently, in Richard/Lambda's mind, the invasion is seen as an offer of good faith by reclaiming Asbel's home for him. He's too far gone to see anything wrong with this.
It finally sinks in for Asbel, however, that Richard has gone off the deep end and needs to be stopped. Asbel and Hubert stall Richard while the others go off to evacuate the townspeople. Richard/Lambda sees this as the final betrayal on top of his betrayal cake and attacks them. Overwhelmed by Richard's newfound power, the two of them can't even fight back. At the last moment, Sophie, probably sensing the flare of Lambda's power, rushes to their defense. With that the last of her particles, left within Hubert's body after healing him all those years ago, return to her, and she regains her full strength as Protos Heis--and her memory. However, it's still not enough, and Asbel has to intervene to help her. He injures Richard, and Lambda goes berserk, finally taking complete control of Richard's body. He and Sophie have another showdown, and Lambda loses this time. Richard's troops come to rescue him, and take him away.
Lambda's plan is to drain the eleth, or life energy, from the three great Valkines Cryas as well as the planet's Lastalia itself. These giant crystals supply eleth to the nations of Windor, Fendel and Strahta, and without them all life on the planet will slowly wither and die. Before invading Lhant, Lambda had already drained the wind eleth from Windor's Valkines, which is why he was able to overwhelm Asbel, Hubert and Sophie so easily. By taking the eleth and fusing himself with the Lastalia, Lambda would simultaneously sustain himself, gain immense power, and get rid of the humans who had tormented him for so long.
After escaping Lhant, Lambda heads for Strahta's Valkines next, using some monsters infected with his cells as transportation. He finds Asbel's group there, investigating why the crystal is malfunctioning as a goodwill gesture to Strahta, in hopes of keeping negotiations open. They fix it just as he arrives, and he proceeds to drain all the eleth from it. Before leaving, Lambda speaks directly to Sophie as Protos Heis, telling her that as long as she exists, both he and Richard will never have peace. He collapses in the desert, and Richard momentarily regains control to question Lambda's motives, worrying aloud that he'll hurt Asbel and Sophie in pursuit of more power. Lambda tries to convince him that they've betrayed him, and Richard protests, insisting that they're his friends.
Lambda drags him to the third Valkines anyway, and when Asbel tries to stop him, he strikes him down. Sophie rushes to his defense again, but is unable to match up to his third powerup. Lambda swoops off again, but not before giving a little villain speech and promising to "end things". He doesn't get very far, however, as Richard's human body begins to collapse under the strain of containing so much energy. Here it becomes clear that in order to gain Richard's cooperation and quash his attempts to regain control, Lambda has lied to him, telling him that taking the eleth will put a stop to all war and conflict. In Richard's state, somehow, he believes it.
Once again, Asbel's group is one step ahead of him, and meet him at the World's Eye, the entrance to Ephinea's Lastalia. Asbel attempts to reason with him, but it's no use. Richard is too far gone. At least now the fight is six on "one", and Asbel and his friends manage to hold him at bay. Richard calls out to Asbel in a moment of lucidity, asking for help, and he and Lambda both express their fear of dying, begging for their lives. Touched by this, Sophie tries to approach him, but Lambda reacts with hostility, calling her by her true name, Protos Heis. The name starts to awaken her old memories of Fodra, and she protests, insisting that she's Sophie. She asks Richard to renew the friendship pact they made years ago, in hopes that it will repair their bond. For a moment, Richard appears to want to accept it, but then Lambda overrides his will and attacks her with a blast of eleth, point-blank. She collapses, gravely injured. As Asbel and his friends rush to her side, Lambda begins using the energy he's gathered to create a giant cocoon, in which he can alter Richard's body to handle the eleth from the Lastalia as well. The group barely escapes with a comatose Sophie on Asbel's back, looking on in horror.
Even with both Cheria and Hubert's healing abilities, Sophie's condition gets steadily worse. In their search for answers, the group discovers one of the old shuttles used to travel from Fodra to Ephinea. They head to Fodra and find the planet in ruins, a sole survivor sleeping in stasis: Emeraude, the scientist. When Fodra was in its death throes after Lambda's departure, she transferred her consciousness into a humanoid body and slept for nearly a thousand years. She skews the story to make it sound as if she isn't responsible for Lambda's rage, painting a picture of him as a mindless monster. She agrees to help fix the injuries Sophie received in battle, though she refuses to refer to her as anything but Protos Heis, a weapon, not a person in her own right. In doing so, she activates a protocol in Sophie's programming, her ultimate power and ultimate sacrifice: she is to destroy Lambda by merging with him and self-destructing.
During the repair process, some old machinery is activated that displays several recordings of Cornell speaking about Lambda, though its unclear whether they're deliberate or just security footage. Seeing Lambda's humanoid body, Asbel asks if he was human. Emeraude corrects him hastily, explaining that he's a parasite. The group begins to realize that Richard is, in fact, not in control of himself at all. Or rather, they suspected it but now they have an explanation. Sophie is conflicted by this, with the urge to complete her mission strong, but her feelings of friendship for Richard clashing with it. Asbel resolves to try to separate Richard and Lambda so that they don't have to worry about fighting a friend. They beef up the shuttle so it's able to punch through the cocoon, then head back to Ephinea.
In the meantime, Lambda continues to alter Richard's mind as well as his body, convincing him his old friends can no longer be trusted. Asbel and the others bring Emeraude with them to confront Lambda, but by the time they arrive, Richard barely resembles himself anymore. After a grueling battle, Lambda abandons Richard's body in an attempt to preserve himself. Sophie steps forward, saying it's her duty to destroy him. Emeraude attacks her out of the blue, telling her it's no longer necessary. She's decided she wants Lambda's power for herself, and lets him possess her, thinking she can overpower him. She announces she's been leading the group around all along in order to take Lambda and the eleth he stole and use it to return life to desolate Fodra...at the cost of everyone on Ephinea, of course.
However, recognizing her, Lambda revolts and destroys her from the inside out. Richard regains consciousness and tells Lambda to return to him, and as he does, the others get a glimpse of Lambda's energy taking the form of his old humanoid body briefly. Then he transforms Richard's body again, and begins destroying the cocoon around them, heading for the core of the planet.
Asbel's group finds a way to the old maintenance shaft for the Lastalia, and follows it down to the core. Along the way, they encounter visions of Lambda's past as his consciousness begins to integrate with the Lastalia, and they begin to realize Emeraude was not as blameless as she claimed to be. Upon reaching the core, Asbel tries one last time to bring Richard to his senses with words, but he's too far gone. He states that the only way to rid the world of suffering is to remove the source of it--humanity.
Asbel and co. manage to win the resulting battle with help from Sophie's particles enhancing their attacks and helping them break through Lambda's power. Again, they try to appeal to their defeated enemy, and somehow Richard gains his voice for a moment, thanking Asbel for stopping him. He explains the feelings Lambda exploited: his reluctance to trust after being hurt, his loneliness, and how deep down he really just wanted someone to help him.
"Pathetic, isn't it...as we fought, I still wanted you to save me."
Asbel insists that he never wanted to fight, because they're still friends. Richard replies that he's grateful that Asbel will still call him a friend, but it's too late. He and Lambda are too closely entwined, and can't be separated. He begs Asbel to kill him before Lambda recovers. With his last bit of strength, he grapples with Lambda internally, and Lambda grows angry at him for being willing to sacrifice himself to stop everything they've done so far. As he attempts to kill Richard for his perceived treachery, Asbel leaps forward and forcibly drags Richard's body back. Somehow, this separates them, and Lambda uses the eleth he gathered to make himself a new form. He attacks them again, and is defeated again, but just barely.
As the eleth Lambda stole disperses back into the core, Sophie informs them that even though they've won, if nothing is done, Lambda will only go into hibernation and return again in the future. She moves forward to try to complete her mission, in order to protect her friends: sacrificing herself to destroy Lambda permanently. Asbel refuses to accept this, and moves in front of her at the last moment, letting Lambda enter his body instead.
Within Asbel's mind, Lambda speaks to him, intending to take Asbel's body for himself. He says that remaking the world will mean that there will be no one left to cause him pain, and that all he's done is so he can finally have peace.
On the outside, Richard wakes up, badly injured but still alive. He joins the others around Asbel's body, as their connection with Sophie somehow allows them to listen in on Asbel's conversation with Lambda. Richard expresses his concern that Lambda will override Asbel's will as well, explaining that Lambda had latched on to his own feelings of anger and resentment. However, Asbel, the young man who believed in Richard despite everything, is different.
Asbel explains to Lambda that they saw glimpses of his past, and when asked if he was satisfied to see his enemy suffer, he adamantly denies it. He tells Lambda that experiencing pain is no reason to inflict it on others. Lambda calls him arrogant and accuses Asbel of looking down on him. Asbel explains that he doesn't expect Lambda to overcome his pain alone, and that power is in numbers, in people working together.
He tells Lambda that human beings can be more than just cruel and greedy, and that continuing a cycle of tragedy someone else inflicted on him is no way to live.
"Behind all the tragedy lies your sadness. And the actions you took because of that sadness only made you even more alone."
Asbel urges him to remember why Cornell raised him, that it wasn't because he wanted him to suffer. Lambda replies that Cornell wanted him to live, despite the fact that he wasn't human. Asbel offers to show Lambda the parts of the world he missed, when all he experienced was pain. Lambda counters that over time, Asbel's mind will be consumed by him no matter what. His reply? "I'll take that chance." He goes on to say that he's not sparing Lambda just because it would mean Sophie's death to kill him, but also that he wants to prove to him that humans aren't all the same. It takes a little more convincing, but Lambda eventually agrees, albeit suspiciously. He warns Asbel that the moment he lets his guard down, he'll be surrendering himself.
Out of energy, Lambda falls into a restorative slumber within Asbel's body. Asbel finally wakes, to the relief of his companions. They head home, the day saved, with a new hope for the future...
Several months later, Ephinea is still recovering. Richard has retaken his throne, and in an effort to make amends for the damage he caused, he's been working tirelessly. He leads hunting parties to clean up the rest of the monsters Lambda created, to keep the countryside safe. Asbel has taken up the title of Lord of Lhant and Sophie's guardian, though he struggles with his newfound responsibilities--not to mention his mother pestering him about marriage. Sophie is troubled by the idea that, because she isn't human, she'll outlive all her human friends.
Reincarnated History:
Marisol grew up in downtown Locke. She was the youngest of three siblings, the oldest from her mother's first marriage. Both of her parents worked a lot, so she was looked after by her next oldest brother most of the time. Their oldest brother was a bit of a black sheep, and ever since he moved out he'd frequently get himself into trouble and come home asking for money. Their mother tolerated this for a little before she put her foot down, and now they barely see him anymore.
Marisol is very close with her other brother, though he's almost six years older than her. She hasn't quite hit the stage where children grow out of their idolization of their siblings yet, so in her mind he can do no wrong. She's a quiet kid and doesn't make friends easily,
First Echo: Caused by seeing the pink lights in early September.
Richard: His sword.
Marisol: Lambda's set of children's building blocks that Cornell gave him.
Preincarnation Personality: Richard can seem a bit stiff and formal to strangers; he's slow to trust because of his upbringing, having learned the hard way that people only cared about him because of his status. When he was young he kept to himself a lot, and was neither outspoken or bold. This is implied by his uncle when he remarks on the confidence Richard shows while Lambda is possessing him.
However, around Asbel and his friends, he opens up into a warm, amiable young man, with a mischievous streak. He prefers it if people speak informally with him, though he reserves that honor for the few people he actually trusts. He has a flair for the dramatic at times, and takes advantage of Asbel's gullibility to pull some (relatively) harmless pranks, for fun.
Once he becomes king and gains the popular support of his people, he seems to enjoy the attention. While he's charismatic and outgoing, he has a quiet side, and harbors a lot of guilt over the things he did under Lambda's influence. Despite his rough childhood, he's compassionate at heart, and vowed when he was young to put an end to war in his Kingdom. As King, he works tirelessly to secure the safety and comfort of his citizens, fighting on the front lines against the monsters plaguing the land.
He does have his quirks, of course--once he won a swimming competition while fully dressed, and dresses up in costume to entertain Sophie and tease his friends. He never quite recovers from his past, so this part of him can seem like an act to distract from that, but it's mostly genuine. If anything, he's trying to catch up on what he missed during his lonely childhood. He takes his responsibilities as a leader very seriously, and seems a bit bewildered by his own popularity.
Lambda, in contrast, is far older than any human, yet in many ways he's very much like a child. He's had very little social interaction throughout his whole life, and though he has a sophisticated speech pattern (probably learned from Richard) his personality isn't terribly mature. He's been pushed away from people all his life, demeaned, hurt and endangered. He trusts very slowly, and is especially biased against humans for what they did to him. He also doesn't have much of a concept of human morality, since his pain caused him to turn inward and only care about himself for a long time.
However, meeting Richard (and eventually Asbel) changed that. He saw much of himself in the young prince: hurt by the people he trusted, scared and alone. Richard was the first person he connected to after Cornell's death so long ago. Ever since he lost his father figure, he thought the solution to his problems was to find somewhere he could be alone, just so no one would hurt him anymore. Living within Richard's body, he impressed these feelings upon him, influencing his actions. he didn't see anything wrong with this--after all, people were hurting him too. Wouldn't he be better off alone? But Richard fights back, believing that his friends still care for him. He does feel their connection, however, because he welcomes Lambda back to his body as a host willingly after Emeraude's death.
Though his pain made him turn on Richard after he eventually tried to help Asbel destroy him, Asbel's willingness to forgive eventually broke through his anger and bitterness. Though not ready to trust again, he agreed to give Asbel a chance, and ended up fighting for him and aiding him. In this strange sort of circle of betrayal and redemption, it can be hard to see the true Lambda, since his emotions warp his actual physical form, but in Asbel's care, his true self emerges.
Blunt, straightforward, unconcerned with social complexities and incredibly cynical, Lambda softens a little when he's finally able to see the good humanity can do and not just the bad. Though he has a hard time admitting it, (he calls Asbel's kindness "foolish" frequently) he helps him and his friends against the will of Fodra, bent on destroying humans just as he had been. It's difficult to call this kindness, since he is repaying a debt, but he does keep his word. He begins to understand that morality is a choice, and the things he experienced were the result of individuals rather than a group with a single focus. Essentially, once he's not overwhelmed with anger and pain, he develops more complex thought and a faint ability to empathize.
Any differences:
To state the obvious, Marisol is human where Lambda is not. Therefore she has a natural socialized concept of morality, and grew up with family and interpersonal relationships, flawed as they were. Though she is cynical for her age, it doesn't really approach Lambda's human-hating level. She doesn't always speak her mind--only when it suits her, and the rest of the time she keeps it to herself.
Where Lambda can be considered intelligent in his capacity to pick up information, Marisol is much more in touch with her emotional instincts: she does a lot of people-watching and is always aware of her surroundings, careful to act in a way that doesn't step on any toes. While this stems from a sense of self-preservation shared by her preincarnation, she's far more savvy at reading body language and tone and emotion and using that information to keep herself out of danger. In essence, she's right-brained where Lambda is left-brained.
She also enjoys company and socialization far more, though she's not very good at showing it. She craves affection, and despite the fact that sometimes she resents her mother not always being there for her, she's not that good at holding a grudge about it. Part of it is the fact that she's still a child, and part of it is that despite her rough upbringing, she wants to believe people care for her. She doesn't get angry very often, in contrast to the vast amounts of anger and resentment Lambda harbors. It's just not worth the effort, because she'd rather avoid conflict than face it. It's not exactly fear so much as her looking for the easiest way out of a situation. She's rather avoidant in general, and uses art as a means of escape.
Despite this, she likes to be around people even if she's not necessarily interacting with them, and will usually look for public places like libraries and parks to do her schoolwork instead of sitting at home. She doesn't make friends easily, but collects plenty of acquaintances that she's content to drop if they become too much trouble.
Abilities: Lambda's true form is a swirling ball of energy. This form can't exist in the physical world on its own for very long--it needs to possess a body. This can be done in a few ways. One of them is assembling a body from a conglomerate of monster souls, which is understandably Lambda's most monsterlike appearance. However, Lambda can also inhabit a living human body, as well as an artificial one. The former can be done without the consent of the host, though it becomes a little harder if they resist. Eventually, when Lambda learns to coexist with Asbel within his body without taking it over completely, he even lends him some of his power.
The exact nature of that power is a little hard to pinpoint, but there are a few definites. Lambda can absorb large amounts of raw energy, and this is the closest he gets to consuming food. Second, parts of him can split off to create creatures with limited sentience that he can control, though they are mostly directed by his emotional state. Therefore, this is much less likely to happen if he's not agitated or being attacked. These are called Nova Monsters.
Third, he can aid his host by giving them the ability to use his energy in battle. This is called Nova energy, and it usually manifests as a dark red or purple light. It functions as a particle shield and a method of attack. It's very similar to the sort of energy that Protos Heis (Sophie) is made of, only somewhat tainted by Lambda's negative emotions. Also, he can accelerate his host's healing at will: Richard was poisoned twice and survived, and had his chest slashed open and was fine a few minutes later.
In addition to Lambda's power, Richard has the ability to channel eleth into "artes" and spells, with elemental attributes. He uses a sword (it's called a "rapier" but the blade is actually pretty wide) and is adept at fencing. The primary elements he uses are Wind and Darkness. Here is a list of his artes. He can use a spell called "Soul Reaper" that steals vitality from his target, and gives it to him.
Roleplay Sample – Third Person: Here! (though I tweaked her family members from younger sisters to a younger brother since then.)
Roleplay Sample - Network:
Any Questions?
I'm assuming Lambda's humanoid/robot body can be Echoed as an object, but would the monster form count as an object or a physical Echo? (since he can't inhabit it until he's Echoed his energy ball true form anyway.) I'm also fine with leaving this and hashing it out when it comes up down the line, but I thought I'd ask.
In addition, since artes are performed using eleth as an energy source, does that mean Richard can't use artes that don't stem from Lambda's power without something like Echoing back pieces of cryas to draw it from?