Player Name: worm E-mail: wormdoodles.art@gmail.com Preferred Contact: DM to journal Timezone: east US Current Characters in Victory Road: none, re-apping!
Character Name: Scar Series: Fullmetal Alchemist (2003 anime) Timeline: Time of canon death + time he spent in Victory Road several years ago (I don't have access to his old journal anymore, but I'll do my best to summarize his character development from in the game in the Personality section!) Canon Resource Links:Scar's page in the FMA wiki -- The FMA wiki is notoriously terrible, so if there's anything I can clarify, please let me know! There's some canon recap in my personality section because the plot summaries on the wiki aren't really presented with any helpful context or nuance.
Personality: Scar is a violently compassionate revolutionary who cast off much of his individual personhood in the pursuit of resistance against the genocidal military state under which he lives. His identity as an Ishbalan, an ethnic minority in the colonial empire of Amestris, is deeply important to him and colors everything he believes in and does, as do his extremely rigid personal values.
Scar is inclined to distrust anything that looks like magic. "Alchemy," in this universe's definition, is a magic system based on the principle of changing X into Y, so long as X is sufficiently close to Y in its elemental makeup. Depending on ethnic origin, characters may call alchemy science, although people in the eastern regions, such as where Scar is from, are less likely to characterize it as such. Ishbalans reject alchemy outright. Those who practice it are usually exiled from Ishbalan society, and this is also a source of cultural tension with western Amestris. Scar's own history with alchemy reifies his cultural instincts: Alchemy (and by extension, anything that looks like it) is unnatural and instills hubris in humanity.
Instability and isolation are the constants of Scar's life. His young adulthood is marked by two notably traumatic events, both heavily colored by alchemy. First, as a teenager, the death and subsequent botched alchemic resurrection of his brother's fiance, leading to his brother's exile and Scar's lifelong hatred for him. Second, as a young adult, the complete razing of Ishbal by the Amestrian state, made publically palatable by "preemptive" covert assassinations throughout the city-state and carried out by powerful alchemists in service of Amestris. His brother, who returned in the final hours claiming he could save them with the Philosopher's Stone (very powerful alchemy battery, created through human sacrifice), dies for Scar's sake, leaving the mountain of painful emotions between them unresolved, and Scar with the transmutation circle for his brother's Philosopher's Stone tattooed into his arm. The destructive power of his brother's arm becomes his weapon of choice in a personal one-man war first of revenge, later of justice, against the state of Amestris. He carries this difficult memory of his brother with him, still hating him for mutilating the woman he claimed to love with alchemy, but contradictorily desperate to have the opportunity to tell him how much he loved him in spite of everything.
Scar spends his 20's functionally alone, unhoused, unaware that any Ishbalans survived the massacre, and all the more poorly adapted to society because of it. He struggles to stay in one place for very long, and is prone to wandering. In canon, he is a notorious drifter, and all that matters to him is the cause of anti-Amestrian action. He ultimately dies for it, no longer even using his own name, because while he is certain he has acted as is necessary against the evil of the state, his use of violence and his brother's alchemy similarly doesn't belong in the nation of Ishbal. This in-between space, Ishbalan in heritage but living in self-prescribed exile, informs his difficulty forming ties with any place and any person. Now in his 30's and in a place untouched by the cultures and conflicts that defined his life, he struggles with aimlessness and frequently finds himself desperate for familiarity where there is very little. The complete isolation of home has followed him here. In the world of Pokemon, while he is technically a trainer, he doesn't assimilate with the culture of battling, and tends to keep them only as companion animals. He won't stop his Pokemon from behaving as they naturally do, but he doesn't have interest in competitive participation, or in settling disputes with Pokemon.
While his external presentation is stoic and grim, Scar doesn't try to mask how he feels about much of anything. He cares and feels with his full self. He is deeply emotional, and it makes him impulsive, usually to his detriment. While his lifetime has given him a harsh exterior and an unwillingness to ever justify himself to anybody, it has also bolstered his natural inclination for kindness toward those who have been touched by injustice, even if he is unlikely to give anyone a hug about it. He is kind, but he isn't nice. He's deeply, instinctively protective, even to his own bodily harm, especially of the places, Pokemon, and people who ground him. In many ways, he only knows how to express care through acts of service or sacrifice. This impulsivity and difficulty with closeness can be a poor combination in someone so life-weary; Scar can very often be self-destructive, slipping back into bad habits, losing his footing once he has finally managed to find work, or keep his own apartment. These are both things he still hasn't quite managed to do, the regular rhythms of day to day life very quickly overwhelming him with their unfamiliarity and his own guilt that he, of everyone, gets another chance to live. He struggles regularly with the deeply-held sentiment that he doesn't deserve to be here, living such an easy and charmed life, while so many others could not. This also rubber-bands back into the notion that he is wasting this opportunity by being uncertain of things that seem so easy for everyone around him.
In social situations, he often appears out of place and unsure of what to do with himself. If he shows up to a party at all, he's the type to seek out the food then make himself scarce. Historically, both in canon and in game, he's gotten along well with kids and teenagers, his straightforward way of communicating and strong moral center meshing well with people who are less likely to notice that he's out of place in most social situations. This isn't to say he doesn't form relationships with adults; he is just far more likely to distrust them. He does, however, fall into place very easily among social circles who have faced similar societal hardship. It's when he is able to drop his guard that he can fully realize how starved he is for community and connection, so he tends to form very close bonds with people who have lived similar experiences. Having Scar for an ally functionally means you have a personal bodyguard. He is usually an enigma to those just outside his inner circle of trust, where those inside have a very earnest and genuine perspective of who he is and how deeply he cares for the things that are important to him. This dissonance doesn't matter to him. If his best friend's other best friend hates him, he legitimately doesn't care.
Spending time in the world of Pokemon has very slowly forced Scar to confront the reality that he doesn't know how to be a person for himself. His sense of self is so dependent on his canon setting that he is adrift without it. Where I last left him, he was starting to understand this, but it will be a while yet until he is able to find his own footing in a world that isn't falling apart, that isn't trying to kill him, and that he doesn't have to save.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Scar started with Zangoose last time, could he have the same one back? Password: Atomic Fireball
Victory Road Sample: Scar's waking in Mom's house had been the first sign that something was wrong. Amit was the only Pokemon with him, and she was adamantly refusing to leave his side. All but ejected into the easy wilderness paths of Route 29, his legs moving on their own to get him away from the overly friendly residents of New Bark Town as quickly as possible, he finally started to form complete thoughts through the fog.
This happened, sometimes. He knew this happened, sometimes.
He reached into his pocket, shuffling out his 'gear, and clicked on the lock screen.
That date had to be wrong.
He stared at the damning string of numbers, checked them, rechecked them, held his thumb over each individual digit so as to be absolutely certain he wasn't scrambling the order in which they appeared.
Seven years.
Every automatic system of Scar's body launched into protest at once. His knees turned to jelly, his throat closed, his innards roiled like a tube of toothpaste that was, thankfully for his rapidly diminishing dignity, empty. That would be his first and only triumph, today: Scar didn't throw up.
The contact page that flew open when his 'Gear unlocked was barren. No Alphonse, no Maka, no Wrath, no Greed... In order of their initials, there was Envy. Heather. Henry. And of course, so constant that he at first overlooked it, enshrined at the top of the list:
(ICE) Lust 🐱
This was, with very little question, a case of emergency, but let Scar never be accused of taking the pragmatic, level-headed response.
Unblinking, unbreathing, he yanked the battery of his 'Gear like it was a hot potato. In one fell motion, it plunked anticlimactically into the forest pond at his feet. Threat neutralized. The screen was blissfully, mercifully, blank. As the impulsivity of the action sank in, his stomach once again made a noble effort to empty itself. No dice.
At his heel, Amit made a somber chirp. Scar's eyes ripped away from his dead phone, now properly regarding his very first friend in this confusing, peaceful world for the first time since waking. His 'gear dropped from his fingers, landed harmlessly in the grass as Scar all but slouched to the ground. He reached for the Zangoose, his fingers digging into the coarse fur on top of her head. She pressed into it as he scratched between her ears, tears springing to his eyes unabated at the sound of her purr.
"How are you?" he asked around the egg in his throat. He received a tiny trill in response. The affectionate sound hummed straight through his shaken constitution, both a condemnation and a comfort.
Scar | Fullmetal Alchemist | not reserved
Name: worm
E-mail: wormdoodles.art@gmail.com
Preferred Contact: DM to journal
Timezone: east US
Current Characters in Victory Road: none, re-apping!
Character
Name: Scar
Series: Fullmetal Alchemist (2003 anime)
Timeline: Time of canon death + time he spent in Victory Road several years ago (I don't have access to his old journal anymore, but I'll do my best to summarize his character development from in the game in the Personality section!)
Canon Resource Links: Scar's page in the FMA wiki -- The FMA wiki is notoriously terrible, so if there's anything I can clarify, please let me know! There's some canon recap in my personality section because the plot summaries on the wiki aren't really presented with any helpful context or nuance.
Personality:
Scar is a violently compassionate revolutionary who cast off much of his individual personhood in the pursuit of resistance against the genocidal military state under which he lives. His identity as an Ishbalan, an ethnic minority in the colonial empire of Amestris, is deeply important to him and colors everything he believes in and does, as do his extremely rigid personal values.
Scar is inclined to distrust anything that looks like magic. "Alchemy," in this universe's definition, is a magic system based on the principle of changing X into Y, so long as X is sufficiently close to Y in its elemental makeup. Depending on ethnic origin, characters may call alchemy science, although people in the eastern regions, such as where Scar is from, are less likely to characterize it as such. Ishbalans reject alchemy outright. Those who practice it are usually exiled from Ishbalan society, and this is also a source of cultural tension with western Amestris. Scar's own history with alchemy reifies his cultural instincts: Alchemy (and by extension, anything that looks like it) is unnatural and instills hubris in humanity.
Instability and isolation are the constants of Scar's life. His young adulthood is marked by two notably traumatic events, both heavily colored by alchemy. First, as a teenager, the death and subsequent botched alchemic resurrection of his brother's fiance, leading to his brother's exile and Scar's lifelong hatred for him. Second, as a young adult, the complete razing of Ishbal by the Amestrian state, made publically palatable by "preemptive" covert assassinations throughout the city-state and carried out by powerful alchemists in service of Amestris. His brother, who returned in the final hours claiming he could save them with the Philosopher's Stone (very powerful alchemy battery, created through human sacrifice), dies for Scar's sake, leaving the mountain of painful emotions between them unresolved, and Scar with the transmutation circle for his brother's Philosopher's Stone tattooed into his arm. The destructive power of his brother's arm becomes his weapon of choice in a personal one-man war first of revenge, later of justice, against the state of Amestris. He carries this difficult memory of his brother with him, still hating him for mutilating the woman he claimed to love with alchemy, but contradictorily desperate to have the opportunity to tell him how much he loved him in spite of everything.
Scar spends his 20's functionally alone, unhoused, unaware that any Ishbalans survived the massacre, and all the more poorly adapted to society because of it. He struggles to stay in one place for very long, and is prone to wandering. In canon, he is a notorious drifter, and all that matters to him is the cause of anti-Amestrian action. He ultimately dies for it, no longer even using his own name, because while he is certain he has acted as is necessary against the evil of the state, his use of violence and his brother's alchemy similarly doesn't belong in the nation of Ishbal. This in-between space, Ishbalan in heritage but living in self-prescribed exile, informs his difficulty forming ties with any place and any person. Now in his 30's and in a place untouched by the cultures and conflicts that defined his life, he struggles with aimlessness and frequently finds himself desperate for familiarity where there is very little. The complete isolation of home has followed him here. In the world of Pokemon, while he is technically a trainer, he doesn't assimilate with the culture of battling, and tends to keep them only as companion animals. He won't stop his Pokemon from behaving as they naturally do, but he doesn't have interest in competitive participation, or in settling disputes with Pokemon.
While his external presentation is stoic and grim, Scar doesn't try to mask how he feels about much of anything. He cares and feels with his full self. He is deeply emotional, and it makes him impulsive, usually to his detriment. While his lifetime has given him a harsh exterior and an unwillingness to ever justify himself to anybody, it has also bolstered his natural inclination for kindness toward those who have been touched by injustice, even if he is unlikely to give anyone a hug about it. He is kind, but he isn't nice. He's deeply, instinctively protective, even to his own bodily harm, especially of the places, Pokemon, and people who ground him. In many ways, he only knows how to express care through acts of service or sacrifice. This impulsivity and difficulty with closeness can be a poor combination in someone so life-weary; Scar can very often be self-destructive, slipping back into bad habits, losing his footing once he has finally managed to find work, or keep his own apartment. These are both things he still hasn't quite managed to do, the regular rhythms of day to day life very quickly overwhelming him with their unfamiliarity and his own guilt that he, of everyone, gets another chance to live. He struggles regularly with the deeply-held sentiment that he doesn't deserve to be here, living such an easy and charmed life, while so many others could not. This also rubber-bands back into the notion that he is wasting this opportunity by being uncertain of things that seem so easy for everyone around him.
In social situations, he often appears out of place and unsure of what to do with himself. If he shows up to a party at all, he's the type to seek out the food then make himself scarce. Historically, both in canon and in game, he's gotten along well with kids and teenagers, his straightforward way of communicating and strong moral center meshing well with people who are less likely to notice that he's out of place in most social situations. This isn't to say he doesn't form relationships with adults; he is just far more likely to distrust them. He does, however, fall into place very easily among social circles who have faced similar societal hardship. It's when he is able to drop his guard that he can fully realize how starved he is for community and connection, so he tends to form very close bonds with people who have lived similar experiences. Having Scar for an ally functionally means you have a personal bodyguard. He is usually an enigma to those just outside his inner circle of trust, where those inside have a very earnest and genuine perspective of who he is and how deeply he cares for the things that are important to him. This dissonance doesn't matter to him. If his best friend's other best friend hates him, he legitimately doesn't care.
Spending time in the world of Pokemon has very slowly forced Scar to confront the reality that he doesn't know how to be a person for himself. His sense of self is so dependent on his canon setting that he is adrift without it. Where I last left him, he was starting to understand this, but it will be a while yet until he is able to find his own footing in a world that isn't falling apart, that isn't trying to kill him, and that he doesn't have to save.
Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer
Starter: Scar started with Zangoose last time, could he have the same one back?
Password: Atomic Fireball
Samples
RP Sample: Reuniting with Henry
Victory Road Sample:
Scar's waking in Mom's house had been the first sign that something was wrong. Amit was the only Pokemon with him, and she was adamantly refusing to leave his side. All but ejected into the easy wilderness paths of Route 29, his legs moving on their own to get him away from the overly friendly residents of New Bark Town as quickly as possible, he finally started to form complete thoughts through the fog.
This happened, sometimes. He knew this happened, sometimes.
He reached into his pocket, shuffling out his 'gear, and clicked on the lock screen.
That date had to be wrong.
He stared at the damning string of numbers, checked them, rechecked them, held his thumb over each individual digit so as to be absolutely certain he wasn't scrambling the order in which they appeared.
Seven years.
Every automatic system of Scar's body launched into protest at once. His knees turned to jelly, his throat closed, his innards roiled like a tube of toothpaste that was, thankfully for his rapidly diminishing dignity, empty. That would be his first and only triumph, today: Scar didn't throw up.
The contact page that flew open when his 'Gear unlocked was barren. No Alphonse, no Maka, no Wrath, no Greed... In order of their initials, there was Envy. Heather. Henry. And of course, so constant that he at first overlooked it, enshrined at the top of the list:
(ICE) Lust 🐱
This was, with very little question, a case of emergency, but let Scar never be accused of taking the pragmatic, level-headed response.
Unblinking, unbreathing, he yanked the battery of his 'Gear like it was a hot potato. In one fell motion, it plunked anticlimactically into the forest pond at his feet. Threat neutralized. The screen was blissfully, mercifully, blank. As the impulsivity of the action sank in, his stomach once again made a noble effort to empty itself. No dice.
At his heel, Amit made a somber chirp. Scar's eyes ripped away from his dead phone, now properly regarding his very first friend in this confusing, peaceful world for the first time since waking. His 'gear dropped from his fingers, landed harmlessly in the grass as Scar all but slouched to the ground. He reached for the Zangoose, his fingers digging into the coarse fur on top of her head. She pressed into it as he scratched between her ears, tears springing to his eyes unabated at the sound of her purr.
"How are you?" he asked around the egg in his throat. He received a tiny trill in response. The affectionate sound hummed straight through his shaken constitution, both a condemnation and a comfort.