Empatheias app

[wordsgate]

⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Haley
Contact: brightblueink is the best way, although you can also PM me on brightblueink or the character journal!
Age: 27
Current Characters: N/A


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Sasame
Age: Appears to be about late teens, mentally is at least early 30s, possibly older.
Canon: Prétear
Canon Point: From the beginning of episode 8

Background:
Sasame is one of the seven Leafe Knights, a (probably not quite human) young man who constantly reincarnates and is tasked with protecting the life energy, or leafe, of the world. Leafe Knights aren’t immortal and can die, but until they do they seem to stop aging sometime in their late teens—Sasame himself is at least in his 30s, although it’s possible he’s lived for much longer.

There’s seven different types of leafe energy, one for each knight to represent and control—Sasame’s leafe element is Sound. Although the knights come from a parallel world known as Leafenia, they’re connected to Earth and tasked with protecting it, as well.

The Knights are able to manipulate leafe and use it to power their abilities, they’re unable to create it, which means they have to find and ally themselves with young human girls with the power to create leafe. These girls are called Prétear, and can temporarily combine with the Leafe Knights to gain their abilities and manipulation of the different elements, allowing them to fight. Together, the Leafe Knights and chosen Prétear must protect the two worlds from any forces that would try to drain away leafe, which would lead to the worlds’ destruction.

16 years ago, the Leafe Knights found a Pretear named Takako and convinced her to fight with them—although unknown to any of them, this would only lead to tragedy. Although Takako was incredibly powerful, she was also timid, lacked self-confidence, and was incredibly burdened by the weight of the responsibility of her role. Another leafe knight named Hayate did his best to emotionally support her, which gave Takako more confidence…and also led to her falling in love with him.

Sasame, who at some point had fallen in love with Takako, seems to have started to draw away from her at this point. He later claims that he was afraid that if she discovered his feelings for her, it would hurt her (although I wouldn’t be surprised if he was also a little bitter that she fell in love with Hayate over him, particularly since Hayate was the Leafe Knight Sasame was closest to).

Regardless, she eventually confessed her feelings to Hayate—but he didn’t return her feelings. This sent Takako through a downward spiral that eventually led to her inviting darkness into her heart, turning her powers from the ability to give leafe to the ability to take it, transforming her into Fenrir, the Princess of Disaster. Although Sasame and Hayate both desperately tried to stop her transformation, they were too late, and eventually the Leafe Knights were forced to fight her without the aid of a Prétear. Although they eventually succeeded in sealing her away in Leafenia, three Leafe Knights ended up giving their lives to do so, and the remaining four were emotionally scarred by the battle—particularly Hayate and Sasame, who both blamed themselves for what happened.

The three leafe knights who were killed in the battle were eventually reincarnated as children, but 16 years after she was sealed away, the Princess of Disaster broke free from her prison and fled to Earth. The Leafe Knights were forced to find a new pretear, this time a cheerful but troubled girl named Himeno, to fight alongside. With Hayate now much more distant to the Prétear, out of fear that being close to her would cause a repeat of what happened with Takako, Sasame became the self-appointed emotional support for her.

However, while he forced himself to not show any signs of it, the reappearance of Fenrir caused Sasame emotional turmoil. Inwardly, Sasame still hoped that there might be some way to get through to her, and he’s incredibly unwilling to fight her—yet, as a Leafe Knight, it’s his duty to defeat the Princess of Disaster to prevent her from destroying the world. This was only aggravated by the fact that he put himself in a place of being an emotional support for both Hayate and Himeno, as well as taking on a job as the host of an advice-giving radio show, but lacks any emotional support himself—partially because he knows revealing the truth of his feelings would cause nothing but trouble.

It hasn’t happened yet from the canon point I’m taking him from, but Sasame is heading for an emotional breakdown that will cause him to question his role as a Leafe Knight and whether he should really be hiding his feelings for Takako. And once he hits that point, he’ll become desperate to prove his love for her by any means necessary…and, if it goes anything like it did in canon, he’ll give up his role as a Knight to serve Fenrir instead.

Personality:
Sasame is one of those characters that has two sides to him--an outward persona that isn't exactly a lie, but one that he hides behind when he’s unhappy, and then an inner personality that's tumultuous, lonely and torn between his feelings and his duty as a Knight. However, some traits remained consistent throughout--Sasame is gentle, sensitive, and caring to a fault.

When you first meet Sasame, the first impression is how handsome and charismatic he is. All the knights are trained in a profession to go into so they can keep an eye on people and watch for the signs of low leafe, and the career that Sasame chose was a radio talk show host. Himeno notes that when he is recording for his show, his voice "draws you in", and his skill at his job has gained him quite a fan following, at least locally. On his radio show, his caring heart shows through--he genuinely wants to help the people that write to him, and he has a skill for reading people that means he’s often able to pick up on what their true problem is, and he always seems to know exactly what it is they need to hear.

In person, he’s not much different. Among the knights, he tends to balance out the harsher personalities like Kei and Hayate, constantly encouraging Himeno and focusing on the positive. He does his best to always be there for others, and is always offering himself up as a listening ear.

He’s also a bit of a flirt--well aware of both his good looks and his skill at communicating. He seems to mostly does this as a way to make the girls he interacts with feel special, although he also seems to enjoy being a bit of a tease.

Overall, it’s obvious that he wants to help others and keep their spirits high, so he naturally falls into the role of the peacemaker of the group.

However, while this is a strength of his, it was also one of his biggest weaknesses. Sasame is so prone to keeping the peace that he hides any negative emotions within himself, letting them stew for years if it means making sure nobody would be upset. He constantly tries to hide the truth from others when he feels that it would upset them, or when it’s something he doesn’t want to confront. When he fell in love with Takako, and realized she loved Hayate, he decided it would be better to not say anything to her, afraid it would hurt her. Years later, when Himeno wanted to find out the truth about the Princess of Disaster, Sasame is firmly on the side of NOT telling her, and is obviously frustrated when the other nights decide to open up about the issue anyway.

Also, when he falls in love with someone, he does so almost to the point of being absolutely obsessed with them. No matter how many years Takako was sealed away, he couldn't get over his feelings for her, to the point that they almost seemed to grow while she was gone. He desperately wants to believe that he can save her, despite knowing that he’s supposed to view her as an enemy.

Through all of this, he tends to bury his emotions deep within him and lock them away, only expressing them when those around him aren't watching. However, he’s eventually heading to a point where he’ll breakdown and be unable to hide his feelings any longer. Later in the series when Takako nearly kills him, the strain of Takako being an enemy becomes much more obvious. He starts to show more signs of resentment toward Hayate for what happened between him and Takako and angrily lashes out when he realizes Himeno and Hayate are falling for each other. When he sees Takako again, he desperately begs for her to listen to his feelings, and when she still rejects him he gives up on being a Knight and throws away everything he believes in for a chance to be by her side--even though he’s well aware that she had no feelings for him.

Because of this, he’s easily manipulated if his emotions are used against him. Takako is able to use his love for her to manipulate him, even convincing him to attempt to kill people he cares for. He’s also absolutely willing to die for his love for her—first by seemingly trying to goad Hayate into killing him during their fights together, and later by dying while protecting Takako from the dark forces that have controlled her.

The only thing he cares about more than Takako is his devotion to being a Leafe Knight—which is why his eventual betrayal is so shocking. He takes his duty very seriously and, before his betrayal, never seems to question why he’s forced to be born over and over again to protect a world that barely knows he exists. It’s the way things are, and until it brings him into conflict with Takako he’s absolutely fine with it. He comes across as a little fatalistic, and also is the most spiritual of the Knights.

For Sasame, there’s no peace the way things currently are—either he must convince Takako of his love and save her, or die trying.

Abilities:
Supernatural abilities:
-Flight
-Can use bursts of sound leafe as an attack.
-Can combine with a Prétear to turn her into the Sound Prétear, allowing him to serve as both a shield and a weapon for her to use.
-VERY enhanced hearing—he can hear sounds anywhere within Awayuki Town, and use them to “see” the area.
-Can sense the presence of demons that absorb leafe, like demon larvae. This tends to be more difficult depending on how powerful the demon is/how good they are at masking their presence. (For example, he can sense undeveloped demon larvae very easily, but doesn’t realize Takako is disguising herself as one of the Awayuki mansion’s maids until he literally runs right into her.)
-Can switch from plain clothes to a “knight” form where he has more ‘fantasy’ looking clothing. Why? …I dunno.
-Teleportation (probably not unlimited—I’m assuming he’d only be able to teleport the length of a small city at the most.)
-Can open a portal between Leafenia and Earth. This’ll be removed—he won’t be able to do any universe hopping in Empatheias!

More “normal” skills:
-Swordfighting
-Hosts an advice show on the radio, so all that entails—he’s charming, a good speaker, empathetic and good at giving advice, etc.
-Has a “calming” voice. Probably not supernatural, just a mix of having a naturally beautiful voice and being very used to using it to sooth others.

If he has a switch to “dark” Sasame:
-Elemental alignment switches from sound to dark (although he possibly still has his sound-related powers).
-Knight form looks more “evil.”

Alignment:
Elios. Sasame’s motivations have a root in him being a very devoted person—both to his role as a knight, but in particular to Takako, who he is desperately in love with even 16 years after she turned into the enemy of the Leafe Knights.

On the flip side, in his darkest moments Sasame is prone to being bitter and hateful, admitting he wishes he could completely hate Hayate and even manipulating a girl that has a crush on him and breaking her heart because he’s convinced she’ll be “freed” if she hates him.

Other:


⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉
Sample: here!


Questions: So there’s two minor deviations on Sasame’s canon point I can do: either before he gets his leafe drained by Takako, or after. I’d prefer to do after, but have him recover upon arrival. Would that be okay? If not, I’ll probably have him arrive right before Takako attacks.