Application for Animus

[warriorscribe]

Player Information

Name: Cherry
Personal Journal: chierii
Age: 24
Contact Info: I'd prefer to be contacted by PM, but I'm also on MSN at lyeina@live.com and Plurk as CherryFlight
Other Characters Played: None
Do you need an invite? Nope!

Character Information

Character Name: Enoch
Character Series: El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
Character Age: He looks around 35, but chronologically he's more like 400 (though he's lost count so if asked he'll probably give 335, assuming he's inclined to answer with a number.)
Character Gender: Male

Original Canon

Canon Point: Middle of Chapter 7, just after exiting the room with the Water Nephilim.

Former Game: The City of Meridian

Background Link: Normally I would link his game's official site, but it's been down for several weeks, so I'll summarize instead. Basically, Enoch was a guy that somehow found favor with God and he allowed him to live in Heaven, working as a scribe on the Council of Elders, its primary decision-making body. The Watchers, or Grigori, were angels that were enamored with humanity. They stole the "fruits of wisdom", items containing information humans aren't meant to know, and descended to Earth to live amongst humans. The fruits caused humanity's progress to advance far too rapidly inside the tower they constructed for themselves, and the Council decided that, since they couldn't find them and their children, the Nephilim, were potentially very dangerous, it would be best to flood the Earth and wipe them out instead. Enoch pleaded with them to allow him to find them himself. So he descended with some angelic guides to do just that and avert one of the best-known biblical stories. If I've missed anything, chances are I've written it here, along with some things you'll see again in the Personality section.


Game Background: The premise and such of Meridian can be found in the link I provided above. Enoch's development there largely consisted of opening up to the idea of alternate universes and having a bit more of a mind for time travel. Also, he learned a handful of things about his own future from Armaros there, and for the first time in centuries began to feel at home. He rekindled his friendship with Armaros, and even took it beyond friendship (reciprocating old feelings Armaros had when they first met, hinted at in the prequel manga). Clearly, this whole business of letting himself give his heart away will be coming back to bite him yet again.


Personality: If you take Enoch's name in Hebrew and put it into Google Translate, the result will be "Education". I have heard three meanings for his name: "Dedicated", "initiated", or "educated". This is the first time I've seen a character whose name has multiple meanings that are all accurate at once. Enoch is dedicated to his mission, continuing on despite all pain and doubt; it literally takes the forces of The Darkness to make these unbearable. As a human living in Heaven, he is "initiated" and privy to many things that Earth is unaware of. Naturally, as a scribe, he knows how to read and write in an era of widespread illiteracy, so that much fits "educated", but as you will see, education and knowledge form a large part of Enoch's personality.

To explore this, we turn to the canon that inspired this one, the apocryphal Book of Enoch. Specifically, the first portion of it, known as the Book of the Watchers. In a dream-vision he has, where he is taken on a tour of Heaven (I'm assuming this tour is taken physically instead prior to game canon), they pass the Tree of Wisdom. It's beautiful, and so fragrant that Enoch can smell it from the path they follow, and he remarks on it. Michael asks him why he asked about it – this is the second curious remark he's seemed confused over. Enoch responds with, "I wish to know about everything. But especially about this tree." Not only does he have a thirst for knowledge, he's aware enough of it to joke a bit, and at an angel, no less. Supporting this, later on, Uriel shows him the way the celestial bodies move (in a much more complicated way than they really work), and Enoch's first impulse is to write it down. In a dream. Granted, in the context of the game, the information would have been correct and he wouldn't have been dreaming. But all the same, this is a man dedicated to knowledge and learning. And, apparently, teaching. In game canon, the fact that he told Armaros so much of Earth that it fueled his interest in humans indicates that he enjoys answering questions as much as asking them. A character interview in detail work Flowers for Lucifel further supports this curiosity within the game, as when Enoch is asked about anything from the future he is interested in, he responds with, basically, "I want to go there."

In a miscellaneous note, Enoch feels relaxed near water. Not necessarily in it, since chapter 7 more or less proves he can't swim should the player miss a jump in one area, but the sight of it is soothing to him. This is supported in the Book of Enoch when, just before his dream-tour of Heaven (or rather, to facilitate it), he falls asleep by a river. In game canon, if one assumes the background music is indicative of the impression it gives Enoch or his feelings at the time, then this is supported by the slow, calming music and screen effects in Armaros's water-themed floor.

Enoch is a quiet man, often speaking no more than a few sentences at a time, if he needs to speak. Needless to say, this leads to communication issues easily enough. Not only is this due to being quiet by nature, but living for three hundred years and watching people die around him has made him closed off. He's more verbose when speaking with someone he's comfortable with or when the subject is something he feels strongly about. Or, of course, when it is necessary or when he is explaining something. When surrounded by other immortals, he'll start opening up again. The end result of this is that when Enoch has a valid excuse to not stop and talk (for instance, having somewhere to go, as in the game), he will come across as quiet and aloof. But he is an empathetic, social soul at heart. Why else would those centuries of watching others die have been so very painful? In a situation where there is no room to leave, he may often come across as trying to be antisocial but not quite succeeding. In addition, he is unable to not care, as evidenced by the Martyr enemies' presence in chapter 9 (detailed later), and he can be recklessly heroic for the sake of someone he barely knows if they're in immediate danger.

He's an optimist with a thin arrogant streak, as evidenced by the quote so often-repeated it leads his blurb in the game manual: "No problem. Everything's fine." He's not one of those perky, always cheerful optimists, of course, given all he's been through. What I mean by "optimism" is his faith that everything will work out or that he'll be able to fix things. This is why the doubt that he's experienced hurts so much (some of the actions he takes in the course of the game are morally questionable, even if they aren't directly presented as such at the time. I have a detailed analysis of the chapter dealing with them here, chapters 4, 7-9 spoilers). With all that in mind, however, this optimism has been tempered by living for over three hundred years. Enoch may look and act young, but tiredness sometimes shows. Sometimes, that catchphrase is meant more for him than for the person he's speaking to. In addition, the emotional blow of losing Meridian (and with it, Armaros) will in all likelihood make this optimism hard to see for the first week or so in the tower, perhaps longer or shorter, and likely, as grief tends to be, in waves.

His quiet attitude makes him a patient listener and an adept learner. He tends to hyper-focus under pressure, enabling him to very quickly pick up new ideas in intense situations (such as riding a motorcycle! Dead serious. Okay, he had a bit of instruction in a space of frozen time, but he picked it up damn quick without any real practice). However, on the flip side of this, while he's in this adrenaline-charged, heavily focused state, Enoch may also miss details of his surroundings that he might need, focused entirely on something else until he needs to focus elsewhere (he's missed several opportunities to steal weapons this way, not to mention wound up attacked from behind).

Anyone who has played the game for any decent length of time will notice one thing about Enoch immediately: He is flashy. Quiet as he is, his actions are attention-grabbing and showing a flair for…well, showing off. Even if his only audience is the handful of angelic guides that already know what he's capable of. He goes so far as to do a triple-backflip just to catch a weapon he'd kicked into the air from an enemy's hands. (Though, that does have the advantage of making sure anyone else rushing to attack will likely wind up getting kicked. Maybe there's a method to this attention-grabbing madness.) Of course, this can be partly attributed to the thin arrogant streak mentioned above, but there are also several other potential and implied factors at play here. It's implied he sparred with fellow flashy fighter Armaros regularly in Heaven. So the now-fallen angel was obviously a big influence on his fighting style (a certain "version" of him that you fight is as fond of spinning moves as Armaros, further backing this up). In addition, Enoch might well be doing it for the sheer thrill of the adrenaline rush – nothing like it to make you feel young again! May also suggest a playful streak (backed up by dancing on a goddamn table in the prequel manga), rare as this manifestation might be towards anyone but himself and those he is comfortable with. He certainly seems to surround himself with playful friends.

Speaking of his playful friends, this brings us to the two most important castmates he could ever have: Armaros and Lucifel. Armaros, we'll get to in a little bit. Let's start with Lucifel. However close to Lucifel or not he may have been in Heaven, Enoch is certainly very close to him now. The relevance of the "searching" sequence in chapter 1 is lost on a lot of people the first time, except to serve as acknowledgment of the passage of time. I could dissect that the same way I did chapter 9, but that's for another day. In regards to Enoch and Lucifel, the interaction in question happens around the 80-90 year mark. After meeting a man he'd met before, now old and dying (and perhaps one of many), he comes to Lucifel, distraught. (Look closely, he's crying, poor guy.) Lucifel explains the gift of immortality. Then pauses. "Huh, me?" he says. "I'm not going anywhere." How rattled did Enoch have to be to worry that an angel would die on him? But, as depressing as the scene was, that was definitely a solidifying moment in their bond. From that point on, Lucifel was the one who wasn't supposed to die. Lucifel was his anchor. Humans will age and die. Armaros, he is bound to fight and either kill or imprison. Lucifel is the one who isn't fated to leave him. In addition, Lucifel is a literal anchor, saving his life should he miss a jump or pausing time (seriously, he is the game's pause function!) to give him new information, let him take a breather or time to review what he's learned. Enoch owes Lucifel his life and his sanity alike, and he has a tendency to put the angel on a pedestal, whether speaking to or of him. And God help the person who would threaten him. Because the human mind has a tendency to scale down rather than up and focus on the immediate (ever heard the saying about how a soldier can go fight for his country but he'll wind up fighting for the guy next to him?), it's entirely possible that Lucifel provides more motivation now (in the sense of not letting him down) than Enoch's original motivation (which would be a factor in why his doubts are so damn persistent, if he's lost the scope). Meridian and the way it's made him think about anomalies in time has given him an even greater appreciation for Lucifel's abilities.

Next up is Armaros. As explained in the linked chapter dissection, Enoch and Armaros were friends in Heaven. They share a sense of curiosity, an eagerness to learn, and a fondness for water and being active. He may not remember their time in Heaven together in sharp detail, but he could never forget Armaros, himself, or their time together in the general sense. He'll likely have spent most of chapter 7 dissociating himself the best he could. Since Michael said he'd told Armaros of his experiences on Earth, Enoch blames himself for Armaros's descent, despite Armaros assuring him he shouldn't in Meridian. In Meridian, Enoch rekindled this old friendship and more – in losing Meridian, Enoch will also be losing a lover, one whom he had believed with all his heart wouldn't leave him like the others.

Enoch can be overprotective of those he holds dear. That's what happens when one lives for three centuries with only a scant few immortals that won't die. It's easy to provoke him by insulting Armaros or Lucifel, or by hinting at where Lucifel may well end up...though that's more likely to end with a dismissal than anything else.

And now on to culture. Enoch comes from an age long dead, and though his views have been altered slightly from living in Heaven, to many he will come across as somewhat odd. Even to those of his culture, he may seem different in that he has a tendency to treat a woman as near his equal - as there is at least one female member of the Council of Elders and one female archangel, and these are treated no differently than their male counterparts, Enoch was obviously taught to do the same while he lived there.

There are several cultural conventions that Enoch will not recognize at first, the most immediately obvious being the greeting gestures of bowing or shaking hands. He will likely pick these up for individual people, though may not immediately recognize who expects which gesture. Shaking hands, however, is very similar to a peace gesture shown to be used in his canon, with the palm up, the expectation being a brief squeeze. I've been unable to find information on this gesture, but it seems passable as a proto-handshake. Surprisingly enough, he learned none of this in Meridian – nobody ever bowed or offered him a handshake!

I touched on this in a linked post, but it bears mention here because it has no modern equivalent: Enoch's time and culture didn't really have homophobia as we know it today. He's not "homophobic" so much as "heterosexist" by point of view. And this only as the outcome of the culture he was raised in. That is, having children is an inherent duty of being human and living on earth (his culture being an agrarian, largely desert-dwelling society without the reliance on modern technology we have today. Lots of work to do and a high death rate demand a high birth rate.) There is no hatred for or fear of homosexuality, just the thought that it's a waste if one isn't also passing on one's blood. (He would think the same of birth control.) If someone were to explain to him the condition of Earth and its population, he would likely understand, if he could manage to wrap his head around a population of seven billion. For the same reasons, he would think the same of asexuality. In addition, he'll think one-on-one relationships (or rather, people who insist they are the "right" way to do things) are also a bit odd, since exclusive relationships weren't necessarily a thing back then; there are several documented cases of people with multiple partners. So he may unthinkingly ask someone with such a conflict why they couldn't love all parties involved or be confused at someone who didn't want a partner of the opposite sex, should he pry into such matters.

Another sensitive subject is slavery, simply because it has gained a connotation today that it did not have back then. In Enoch's time, a slave sold their services (or their family's) to someone out of a lack of money, or a desire to be provided for. Sometimes, slaves were prisoners of war, as well, but this was a special occurrence, and the "everyday" notion of the slave or servant would be the former. Slavery as we commonly think of it today, especially as a tool of discrimination, would probably horrify Enoch as much as it does us.

There is a weakness inherent in his culture as well: The law of hospitality. He will accept any invitation of hospitality offered unless the person offering seems obviously suspicious, for instance if they have a history of tension with him. It makes him seem more gullible than he is, but really, this is only the result of growing up in a desert-based society. It wasn't polite to decline an offer of food or water, nor to turn away someone asking for the same.


Abilities: First off, he's been alive for more than three centuries without the effect of physically aging. He is likely immune or resistant to most diseases. Aside from generally being extremely athletic and a fast learner, Enoch has a few unusual abilities:


Holy Armor: Enoch's body is protected by a special suit of armor. The reason this is here instead of in his trunk is because this armor can't be taken from him. Rather than taking it off in any normal sense, he would instead simply will it away. It redirects physical damage caused to itself, cracking and then breaking in five distinct stages before he's unprotected. And, as noted in the "Rapid-Fire Recovery" power, it is so intrinsically linked to his willpower that he can regenerate it in a dire situation. Because it's more or less a part of him, or a part of his will, it's possible healing abilities could repair it, as well. (This was allowed in Meridian – Mods?) In the game, broken pieces can be recovered by items shaped like wings of blue light called Lights of Blessing. (Naturally, it's the mods' call whether these items show up or spawn somewhere, or if Enoch's armor recovers some other way – it would only make sense that it could recover over a long period of time if left alone, or after a good night's sleep like the good HP bar it wants to be.)

Double-Jump: Enoch can jump off the air as if it was solid ground once. After that, his feet must touch solid ground again before he can repeat it.

• Attack Suspension: Related, when Enoch is in the motion of attacking while in midair, he is suspended until the attack ends, at which point he resumes falling as normal.
  

Purification: Enoch can purify something tainted by the product of The Darkness (basically Hell), called vileness. His hands must hover about an inch over the tainted surface unobstructed, and purification requires a continuous movement. All effects of purification are lost if he is interrupted during the process, though if he was very nearly finished the purification may hold anyway. He can purify a person, but only surface vileness (as opposed to internalized vileness that alters one's form), and it takes much more concentration to do so. (Suggestion: Perhaps the effect of any embodiment of darkness/evil may be considered the same as vileness, so long as it works as a taint of sorts? Mods' call, of course.)

Rapid-Fire Recovery: In the game, when Enoch is about to die, the player can quickly press the input buttons to revive him with a few pieces of his armor or the full amount, I haven't found the pattern to that (his health being measured by the state of his armor). On difficulties other than Easy, this gets progressively harder to do the more it's done. Obviously, this represents Enoch continuing on by sheer force of will, that will weakening slowly as he finds himself calling on it more often. (Suggestion: Perhaps this can consistently restore to full armor, but may only be used once per day/log? OR considering I can generally pull off about 5-6 recoveries per chapter, he's guaranteed one recovery but each subsequent attempt has its chances of success reduced by 20% each time until he sleeps in his room?)

Endurance: Not necessarily a power in and of itself, but it should be noted that Enoch has a tougher body than a normal human – in the beginning of chapter 6, he is slammed into the ground by a pair of flying enemies that had captured him. He gets up slowly, and staggers as he does, so it's clear he's in pain and disoriented. But it doesn't interfere with him from beyond there. Where a normal human would have suffered several broken bones if not have been killed outright, Enoch is in a perfectly playable state after that scene, able to run at normal speed shortly after leaving the bodies of his captors behind.

One weapon-specific ability (The Arch, when folded, is small enough to wedge into the bottom of the chest):

Arch Glide: As long as he has his Arch with him, he can use it like a parachute of sorts to slow his descent in the air. He will still gather momentum, but at roughly half the normal rate. So a very long fall can still hurt or kill him, but it would need to be a much longer fall than normal.

And two dependent abilities, that cannot be used unless certain conditions are met (translation: never, I fully expect none of this to carry over into Animus):

Overboost: Enoch calls on Uriel's power to begin slowly regenerating lost armor and to increase his capabilities. Uriel himself appears as a shade of sorts to follow up on Enoch's own attacks. He can also put all of his remaining strength for Overboost into a powerful attack based on his current weapon. (Suggestion: This may work if his version of Uriel is present in the game and aware of Enoch's presence or another version of Uriel is in the game and gives him his own blessing?)

Ceta: A floating island summoned from Heaven. It contains a mechanism at its base that finds a target and encloses it in a dome of energy for a contained, extremely powerful purification with the force of an explosion. Enoch himself cannot use this power, not at the state he's in, or in any state he could be found in within the game. The only reason he was able to use it once was because a spirit amplified his power and drew it out for him. I can tell from here that this will be nixed (being overpowered and dependent on a plane of existence that likely doesn't exist in this world), but even if it's somehow not he probably wouldn't be able to pull it off without outside help, either from an environmental factor or an external agent like the spirit.


Sample Entries:


Prose sample for Meridian:

The bookstore's door creaked as Enoch pushed it open, somewhat eerie in the silence inside. The scribe sneezed violently on the first breath, unprepared for the dust that had settled in its time of disuse. Once the ensuing sneezing fit had subsided, however, he began making his way slowly through the shelves, admiring the vast array of titles stretched out before him. Some were clearly entertainment, some knowledge, some...he wasn't sure what but part of him wanted to empty an entire shelf and take it home with him. Even another culture's entertainment could prove insightful and interesting.

Of course, Enoch knew better than to overload his mind. Best to start at the familiar. He wandered towards the sign marked Inter-world Religion and Mythology. Naturally, his eyes were drawn to themes he recognized, and it wasn't long before he was kneeling on the dusty floor, browsing books relating to the God he served. After several moments, interrupted by the occasional dust-induced sneeze, of wondering who this "Jesus" person was and what he had done to warrant so many books, he noticed nearly all of the titles referenced another book, this "Holy Bible". That sounded familiar: he'd passed it up for having a title so generic it could have related to anything. Enoch reached up to the shelf now above his head to retrieve it and stood with the thick volume, using his free hand to brush the dust from his jeans.

A quick breath to clear its spine from dust, and Enoch carried it outside to a nearby park, sitting with his back against a quietly-trickling fountain and opening the front cover with a crack of unused pages.

The standard creation story, Enoch had expected. Details differed even amongst angels, and Lucifel had once told him he felt uncomfortable visiting a time before his own creation, so that ruled out gaining empirical knowledge to lay all these discrepancies to rest. Also expected was the idea that gaining knowledge had been a sin. It was true even in his original days on Earth, and only when he had learned that God's plan involved the natural evolution of humanity had he realized that the serpent's role was not of the antagonist, but the catalyst, the one to test free will and start them on the road of evolution. (Enoch sometimes suspected Lucifel was the serpent, but he'd never asked.)

The generations of Seth got a bit of a smile from him. The lifespans were ridiculous. Enoch suspected some form of shorthand had gotten lost in translation. Strangely enough, they got his three centuries of wandering right, but the only other thing they took from it was that he'd had children along the way, and he supposed "and he was not" was the best description one could come up with since he had disappeared into an interdimensional portal. The descent of the Grigori and the Nephilim were only mentioned offhand and grossly simplified, and...

...and the Flood.

Enoch's eyes widened. He nearly dropped the book. This couldn't be right, Noah was dead! The person in question had long since died and he was working to avert the flood the Elders had planned!

This wasn't something that a people could simply get wrong, though, even if the people involved were gone...

He would fail.

Enoch closed the book and set it aside, staring at the sky. It made no sense, and relied on people who had died, but he would fail. It was as if no resistance had been given. As if...his countless years of pain and frustration and danger had been for nothing. As if he'd never stood against-...

...as if he'd never stood up against the Council. Was that it? Was this from a world only similar to his own? He could only hope.

Enoch retrieved the book and stood, tucking it under his arm as he headed back towards the bookstore. He felt like reading something else right now.


New Sample for Animus:

Gone. Meridian was gone. Armaros was gone.

Enoch fell to his knees beside the viewer, the empty stretch of what was once the city he thought was safe burned into his mind.

Your world has been destroyed, the note had said.

He buried his fingers in his hair, fists curling tight. Armaros has been destroyed.

There was a scream lodged in his chest that wouldn't come out but he opened his mouth anyway, doubling over on the floor.

There was no hope. No home. No sanctuary.

They were supposed to be forever.

He was gone.

Enoch felt his pulse pound away the seconds he could never escape.