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[weaponsgrade]

⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Kel
Contact: n0teworthy | aim: gaerwn
Age: 35
Current Characters: n/a


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Colonel Roy Mustang
Age: 30
Canon: Fullmetal Alchemist (Brotherhood/manga continuity)
Canon Point: Shortly after the Promised Day battle, near the end of the story, as Roy regains his vision. During episode 64.

Background: Have some history.

Personality: Arrogant and vain, Roy Mustang has been accused of many things: manipulation, brown-nosing, womanizing, and narcisstic are only a few words thrown about to describe one of the youngest Colonels in military history. He's been described as lazy and self-absorbed, too charming for his own good, and it's all true, to some extent. He is lazy, when it suits him, and he takes great pleasure in using good looks and charisma to steal a few dates here and there from enlisted men. He is arrogant and cocky to a fault -- he nearly gets himself killed early on in the series when he forgets it's raining and tries to take on Scar. Unable to produce a spark in the wet weather, it's only Hawkeye's quick action that saves his life. An intrinsic understanding of people's actions and motivations, coupled with a strategic mind, does make manipulating people a second nature.

Those who criticize him somehow tend to forget that he's also a particularly talented field commander who tends to specialize in covert operations since coming home from the Ishbal war. A good bit of Roy's facade is just that: a carefully built persona designed to confuse. A good many of his dates are carefully planned information gathering sessions. If he's chatting on the phone rather than doing his work, there's a good chance he's directing field operations disguised as flirty banter. To say that Mustang is good at what he does is understatement: if covert information-gathering was a form of alchemy, he would have it perfected. And then code the notes so well that it would take either a brilliant or ridiculously lucky mind to decipher them.

Behind the facade is a man who has been used and broken, who is now trying to use what power he does have to make the world a little better. He's not in it for himself; Roy genuinely does not believe that he deserves any of the stability and happiness he's trying to bring to Amestris. In fact, as Hawkeye pointed out to Edward, he believes his own end will come in prison and possible execution, tried for war crimes against the Ishbalan people -- and that is the end he's working toward, because it is not only what the people deserve, but it is what he deserves.

Roy carries the guilt of what was done in Ishbal with him and it colors everything he does. When he joined the military, he was young and idealistic, outright stating that he joined to use his alchemy to protect people who couldn't protect themselves. When the fuhrer signed into law order no. 3066 -- the complete extermination of the Ishbalan people -- Roy Mustang was sent to war.

He would only find out the deeper, darker reasons for the bloodshed much, much later, when it was revealed that these people -- and many others around the country -- were killed to fulfill one creature's quest for power. Even before he know the horrible reasons for the extermination, he took his part in it and made fixing it his sole reason for surviving.

Even Mustang doesn't know how many people he killed in Ishbal. He was put on a short leash, pointed in a direction, and told to destroy every living thing. The war broke something deep inside; it took that idealism he'd walked into the military with and shattered it. He never quite recovered it and the cynicism that settled on him after the war has stayed with him. There's a quiet, odd dichotomy in his cynicism, though: Roy knows he's too shattered to ever be that idealistic again but he desperately wants the next generation to retain that innocent idealism, because it's better. It's right and good. He'll never be that person again, but he's determined to make sure no one else loses it.

He's a firm believer in even the smallest actions somehow making a difference. Sometimes, it's giving someone a subtle push, in the hope they'll take some action that benefits the greater good. In fact, his whole reasoning behind become fuhrer himself hinges on the fact that he'll protect the few people he can, who will pay it forward, and so on and so forth. He reasons that only be standing on the top can he effect that sort of change. One man can only do much but maybe it will eventually be enough.

A good part of Roy's playboy facade hides some despair and melancholy. As stated before, he holds no great hope for his own future, but he holds onto hope for the country and the people in it with a grim determination. Roy isn't big on outright stating such, but his desire to protect those closest to him is strong enough that, sometimes, it overrides common sense. He'll leave his post in an operation, will single-handedly take on Homunculi, and will leave the hospital after injury far too soon in order do some good for the sake of the people he's responsible for.

Not that they alway know it. Roy is secretive, even when not involved in any sort of intelligence-gathering. He will, sometimes, open up but that is usually only when all other avenues of communication have failed. While a good part of this is a holdover from his upbringing -- his aunt, who raised him, heads an intelligence network that Roy makes judicious use of -- some of it simply Roy. Not always comfortable sharing parts of himself, Roy simply does not talk about many things.

Roy can also be short-tempered, especially when his dignity is threatened. He's arrogant enough that he takes slights to his authority and power personally. It's highlighted in the first episode, in which an alchemist who specializes in manipulating water and ice doused him, leaving him essentially useless until he is given dry gloves. Afterwards, he's stomping around, muttering, and finally yelling while being somewhat overdramatic with his flame alchemy.

After the death of Maes Hughes, a good friend who wholeheartedly supported and encouraged him, Roy fell into an obsessive need to find his murderer -- and when he did, his rage nearly consumed him. He tortured Envy and was relentless in pursuing the Homunculus. While this illustrates Roy's depth of grief and anger over Hughes' murder, it also gives an insight into Roy's emotional state as a whole: Roy Mustang keenly feels, whether it be joy or despair or anything in between. For him, there really is no in-between; his whole being falls into whatever he is feeling. There is no shallow pool for Roy; for him, it is all or nothing -- and he does do a good bit to try to hide that.

It is simply who he is: honest with himself and continually trying to redirect the gazes of those around him. He's arrogant and vain and occasionally lacking in common sense, but he's also holding tightly to broken pieces of idealistic youth and using them to fuel hope for the future.

And maybe along the way, he'll prove to a few naysayers that this "upstart" colonel is maybe a little more than the lazy, arrogant ass they take him for -- but he's not too terribly concerned about changing their perceptions. He has loftier goals -- and he'll do whatever needs done to see them to fruition.

At his current canon point, Roy demonstrates his unusual hopeless/hopeful dichotomy: he is ready to begin work to rebuild Ishbal, all the while knowing that, after all is said and done, he might well stand trial for the atrocities committed in Ishbal. There is no way he can find atonement in his actions and he's not looking for absolution. He's trying to drum up something good for a new generation. It means facing his guilt and broken pieces and perhaps using them to make something good for someone else.

Abilities: Roy Mustang is the Flame Alchemist, which gives a pretty obvious overview of his flashiest -- and most powerful -- ability. Here is a brief overview of flame alchemy, though a few key points will be emphasized:

:: Roy is able to manipulate the atmosphere to such an extent that he can either burn a single piece of paper or destroy whole buildings. During his raid on the soldiers in Central City, it was noted that he held back the flames, in effect only smoking out fellow soldiers who were simply following orders rather than killing or maiming them. He later tells Envy that he has "pinpoint accuracy," demonstrated when he burns Envy's tongue inside his mouth and when he liquefies Envy's eyes. (Yes, I flinch just thinking about it, too.)

:: Despite the fact that flames are his signature, Roy actually manipulates the atmosphere, not the flames. It is an omake that states this, but Roy works with gases in the atmosphere without ever producing a flame. (In the omake, he admits to messing with the oxygen level around a woman until she feels dizzy, then he rushes in to "save" her and scores himself a date.) In canon, he separates water into hydrogen and oxygen, essentially creating an unstable atmosphere that produces a rather nice explosion when exposed to a spark from a lighter.

:: It is understood that, by learning to manipulate gases through alchemy (and his own understanding of more basic alchemy,) Roy has a chemist's mind. He's a scientist and a rather intelligent one at that, with an intrinsic understanding of air flow and movement, and how it is affected by introducing any number of variables.

:: Since going through the Gate of Truth, Roy has gained the ability to transmute without a circle; he's only used it a few times, when the circles on his gloves were destroyed and when he made a wall to shield himself, Hawkeye, and Armstrong from an attack by Father.

All that said, Roy is likely to use other methods before resorting to more powerful alchemy. For him, it's a last resort, if only because he knows full well how powerful and deadly a weapon alchemy can be. As a note here, I am fully willing to have some powers nerfed, if mods feel it necessary. I would like him to retain his ability to transmute without a circle, but I am more than willing to tone down the flame alchemy in-game.

In other, non-alchemy-related abilities, Roy is a brilliant strategist and manipulator. His knowledge of battle tactics and field maneuvers, as well as his ability to deploy people in such a way as it plays to each of their strengths, make him a formidable figure in any operation. His understanding of not only battle strategy but people as well make him well-suited to tactical operations both undercover and in the field. In addition, he's a well-trained and battled-hardened soldier. While nowhere near as good as some of his subordinates, he handles a gun well. He can hold his own in a (fair) fistfight -- but he's also fast and sneaky and quite willing to kick a downed man in the face when need be. (Just ask the fuhrer's wife's guards.)

Alignment: Peromei: despair and hope

To paraphrase what was said in the personality section: A good part of Roy's playboy facade hides a well of despair and melancholy. He holds no great hope for his own future, but he holds onto hope for the country and the people in it with a grim determination. Roy manages to encompass both extremes, because he's an overachiever.

Other: ...no? don't think so?


⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉
Sample: A handful of Test Drive threads.


Questions: also none of these. |Db