futurology app......

[ninmu]

APPLICANT INFO.
NAME: Sib
CONTACT: siberia
CURRENT CHARACTERS: N/A

CHARACTER INFO.
NAME: Melan Blue
CANON: Brigadoon: Marin & Melan
AGE: Technically, he's over 100 years old; emotionally and mentally, he's stated to be around 17 at best. Most of those 100 years were spent laying dormant in his ampoule form, and as he's mostly a robot, his emotional growth was stunted to begin with.
APPEARANCE: melan!! with his mask on. He won't be humanized, since he can communicate and perform tasks just fine.
CANON POINT: last episode, after returning to earth but before the ending

BACKGROUND: wikia page that isn't super detailed, so I'll write down some basics of the plot and setting here as they relate to Melan, too.

Melan hails from the world of Brigadoon, which seems to exist in an alternate dimension located right next to Earth, and which is home to a highly-advanced civilization. He is not a member of this civilization. Rather, he's a biotech robot known as a Monomakia, composed of both organic and mechanical parts, created by the dominant species of the planet to both act as a soldier and to help with an emergency process known as the Ritual of Pasca.

This ritual is essentially a failsafe in case the worst comes to pass: an event called Mutual Collapse. Every 100 years, Brigadoon and Earth pass close enough by each other to exist in the same space. Two dimensions can't occupy the same physical space at once, so they begin to destroy each other, with enormous tracts of Brigadoon's land falling to Earth on an increasingly regular basis through rips in space-time. This is disastrous for both worlds, and could destroy both if it becomes too severe.

The Ritual of Pasca was created as a last resort, in case of an intense Mutual Collapse that threatened the suvival of both worlds; Melan, along with his two fellow Gun-Swordsmen, Pyon and Erin, and a third Monomakia entity, known as Creis, would be used to stop the Mutual Collapse and heal the damage to Brigadoon's surface and people. Because it presumably requires a great deal of energy and is seen to restructure Brigadoon considerably, it's considered something to be avoided almost as much as the Mutual Collapse itself.

Not everyone thinks so, however.

There's unrest in Brigadoon; a shadowy character with the power to destroy the entire world known only as the renegade is known to be present, working against the council of the world's people to make sure Mutual Collapse occurs. Not only that, but the renegade has infiltrated the council itself - something that one of the chairmen on the council, Lolo, happens to find out moments before his friend Wawa is killed by the renegade. According to Wawa, the renegade wants to destroy Creis so that the Ritual of Pasca cannot occur and Ritual Collapse inevitably destroys Brigadoon; in his final moments, he passes the container of the Creis, her ampoule, to Lolo, and tells him to hide it away from the renegade.

And so he does. Taking the Creis, he entrusts it to Melan and orders him to protect it with his life. Melan, along with two other Monomakia working in this covert operation, Poikun and Kushaton, bring the ampoule to the farthest place they can think of: Earth, of course! They arrive in Japan in 1869, and, after fighting off some enemy forces, successfully hide Creis's ampoule before returning to their own ampoules, waiting for the Day of Pasca to come when they would be awakened as needed.

Predictably, things don't actually go that well. Flash forward 100 years, to the next collision of Brigadoon and Earth, and a truly terrible Mutual Collapse. The Creis is in danger, and Melan is awakened to protect her - only the Creis is out of her ampoule, and appears to be a 13-year-old orphan girl named Marin Asagi, who has no idea what Melan is talking about. Nonetheless, enemy Monomakia are being sent to Earth and relentlessly tracking her down as the Creis, and thus, it's Melan's duty to protect her from harm until the Day of Pasca. Though Marin is pretty befuddled by the whole thing, she's grateful to be protected from the killer robots suddenly coming after her. And thus, the two begin their relationship.

PERSONALITY: Melan Blue is not a creature of Earth - he's not even a natural organism, and both of these things are exceptionally obvious from his behavior. Though he possesses frightening combat ability and an intimidating appearance, his knowledge of the world and society itself is very lacking, as is his familiarity with emotions - even his own. Over the course of the series, Melan slowly grows as a person rather than a Monomakia, coming to understand the value of things outside of war and duty. And, in the end, it's his humanity that's needed to save both Earth and his own world.

He's described by Marin's friend Moe as a knight in shining armor, and it's an extremely fitting comparison. Steadfast, loyal, and honest to a fault, he's almost chivalrous in his protection of Marin, putting his duty before his own life. Despite the cries of traitor and renegade, and the retaliation from his own siblings, Melan never once questions the mission he's been given. Similarly, once he's bonded with Marin, he resolutely continues to defend her, even after learning she isn't the one he's supposed to be guarding. Once he has a goal in mind - whether it be to fulfill his duty, defeat an enemy, or defend the girl he loves - he will never waver from it, no matter what. So strong is his dedication that it can withstand brainwashing, and it can even border on self-destructive. He had little in the way of self-identity or feelings before meeting Marin, and even by the final episode, his personal wellbeing is not one of his top concerns. If given the option between fulfilling his duties and choosing a life that will make him happy, he will always pick the former, without fail. At the end of the day, in his mind, he is a living weapon, and his body is a tool to be used to that end. His resolve is almost unbreakable.

Similarly, his loyalty and trust - once earned - are bonds strong as steel. If you show him kindness, he'll never forget it. Melan is not used to being treated like a person or a friend, and people can easily make impressions on him by doing so. Though he is only obligated to protect Marin, it doesn't take long for him to begin looking after the other residents of her tenement house, and her best friend Moe, as well. He is fiercely protective of those he bonds with, defending them with his life and showing no mercy to those that do them wrong. That said, he's not exactly the easiest person to befriend. His comprehension of most "normal" things that lay outside of combat and fulfilling his duties - playing, exploring, vacationing - is minimal at best, and he will not seek out friendship or fun on his own. Melan is much more "robot" than "organism" in some respects, and this is one of them. His focus is always on what he should be doing, not what he wants to be doing, on the rare occassion that the two are even separate ideas in his mind.

Due to this, Melan often appears emotionless. Indeed, he hardly ever expresses and sort of feeling on his face or in his voice, and, due to his focus on performing the tasks he was made to do, rarely talks about his feelings, either. However, he most certainly has them - it just takes him a while to learn to express them. Before coming to Earth, he hardly knew what feelings were; even now, though he may feel things, he often does not know what they are or how to express them. Only by spending time with Marin did he learn to identify and express what he felt, and even then, he often needs to be prompted. But there is no doubt that he feels. When Marin is injured, he fills with rage, lashing out and utterly destroying the enemy whose life he just spared; when he's forced to put down one of her friends, he's overcome with sadness and cannot speak; when he feels love, he smiles and says that his chest feels tight, even though he doesn't understand what it means. In the final minutes of the series, he even sheds tears.

His lack of experience regarding expressing himself and his feelings means that he's often incredibly honest, to the point of occasionally embarrassing others. If he likes being with someone, he will tell them exactly that with a straight face. He (perhaps literally) has no concept of shame or awkwardness, and can be almost childlike in his innocent frankness. On the same note, he tends to listen to what others tell him unquestioningly regarding actions or ideas he's not familiar with. And when he's told he's done something wrong, he's quite polite about it. "Sorry" is a popular phrase with Melan.

That said, he is very curious, and always willing to learn new things. It's this attribute that allows him to grow as a person over the course of the series, rather than remaining a mere tool. Though he doesn't understand his emotions, he comes to want to understand them. Though he may not know how to play, he has a desire to try it, and to see what it's like. At the beginning of the show, Melan has no moral compass, existing purely as a weapon designed to target and destroy threats to Creis - what he perceives Marin to be. Death meant nothing to him. But by living alongside Marin and her family, watching her struggle through depression, loss, and loneliness, and eventually being the only one left for her to fall back on, he comes to understand the fleeting and precious nature of life, and the strength that his emotions can have. Melan was built for war, and he is proud of his being a Gun-Swordsman. That hasn't changed. However, rather than killing on command, he now considers fighting the uphold peace to be his main goal. He even laments the fact that his arms are weapons, because he can't hold Marin with them - only hurt her.

In spite of everything, he can be described as an optimist. Naturally, he has a very practical view of the world, being largely machine. His fixation on fulfilling his goals, however, means that he never gives up, even when things seem impossible. Not fighting is simply not an option. This extends beyond actual combat and his duty, as well. He doesn't hesitate in his belief that Marin will be able to fix her relationship with her friend, Moe, nor in the promise that the two of them shared to always meet again. Even when he's beaten within an inch of his life, and surrounded by the corpses of his comrades, he will fight on with everything he has.

ABILITIES: As a Monomakia designed for combat, Melan is blessed with superhuman strength and endurance, as well as several special abilities. He's powerful enough to swing his sword arm with force that can slice through stone and steel, and can withstand falling from great heights, being thrown into cement, having limbs removed, and worse. That's not to say that these injuries don't hurt him; they do. A lot. Unlike a human, however, he can recover from severe, life-threatening injuries if simply given time to rest. He can even regenerate lost body parts if he has a few days to recover.

His right arm is a blade, and his left arm is a rifle, which fires energy bolts and lasers rather than traditional bullets. These are part of his body, as well, as is his "armor." Melan likens them to a human's fingernail or hair: inorganic parts that grow back over time. Having been trained from "birth" in the use of these weapons via an increasingly-harsh gauntlet of battles with fellow Gun-Swordsman Monomakia, he is extremely skilled in battle, and one of only 3 Gun-Swordsmen to come out victorious.

Obviously, he has no hands to manipulate objects or complete precision tasks with; instead, he has four paw-like tentacle structures on his abdomen, which can hold onto things using a sort of suction. Does this count as an ability?? Oh well. These paws can also be used to expedite healing of wounds, both on himself and on others, by holding them to the injured location and emitting a sort of light for a sufficient period of time.

Additionally, he's able to fly at high speeds using the two large wings on his back and his feet, which act as air jets. He also doesn't need to breathe very much, and can stay underwater for long periods of time. Melan has direct control over his body temperature, and can thus survive in extreme climates easily by increasing or decreasing his body warmth.

Formerly, Melan was able to retreat into a portable, cocoon-like form called an ampoule, which accelerated his healing, as well as allowed him to pass between Earth and Brigadoon safely. However, after being severely damaged in his battle with Erin, he permanently lost his ability to return to ampoule form.

His agility, strength, and talent for thinking on his feet in combat make him a formidable opponent. However, he is far from invincible, and is pushed to the brink of death multiple times throughout the series. Receiving sufficient injuries, or having his heart or head destroyed, will kill him.

Melan also requires quite a bit of fuel to continue on in this fashion - he practically eats his own body weight daily, and while he doesn't appear to sleep, he needs to rest regularly, like any living organism.

INVENTORY: Nothing! Everything he needs is stuck to his body... haha.

WRITING SAMPLES.
NETWORK SAMPLE: [ just voice. Once, he wouldn't have thought twice about showing his face, but experience has taught him that most don't react well to what they perceive as one of the monsters destroying their home - and even if this isn't Earth, there's still a large quantity of humans. So audio-only it is. ]

This is Melan Blue, transmitting from Oska. [ as always, his voice is low, flat, and without inflection - robotic, minus the robotic cadence. He's not one for public speaking, exactly. Or speaking much at all. But he has questions that he wants answers to. ] ... Hello.

The food in the dining room. Is that for us to eat? I am hungry. [ important questions, of course. ]

Also. ALASTAIR claims to maintain timelines. If possible, I would like to know the status of the one I'm from. Protecting that world is my duty. I don't mind accepting this mission if it will bring me back, but neglecting my duty is impossible.

[ there's a pause. ]

... Neglecting Marin is also impossible.

LOG SAMPLE: tdm threads