Out Of Character Information
Name: Malathyne | [littlesparrow]
Age: 22
Time zone: GMT -6 (-5 Daylight Saving Time)
Contact: AIM: whitepoof ; PLURK: http://www.plurk.com/Malathyne ; EMAIL: [email protected]
Anything we should know?: Uhhh. My exposure to Persona is limited; I've played partway through P4 and very little of P3, and it's been a while since I've touched them (~a year/a few months, respectively). I'm not sure if that counts as something you care about, but there you go?

In Character Information
Name: Demyx (rank IX of the Organization XIII, title of Melodious Nocturne)
Series: Kingdom Hearts
Canon Standing: After his death in Kingdom Hearts II
Age: 23 (headcanon)
Birthday & Astrology Sign: March 12 (sun sign Pisces)
Arcana: The Moon, reversed

Personality:
The common perception of Demyx is that he is a lazy, flighty, good-for-nothing, why-do-we-even-keep-him-around kind of guy. He whines about everything, dodges doing any kind of hard work, and would prefer to laze about playing his sitar or gossiping than actually be useful to anyone. He is even said to be the weakest of the Organization members. He is seen to exemplify the worst attributes assumed of someone whose element is Water: wishy-washy, unreliable, always taking the path of least resistance. And to be entirely honest... He isn't complaining. This is exactly how he wants people to view him, and so if this is what people carry away after interacting with him, he considers it a job well done.

In reality, his reputation does not match who he is at all. … Well, okay. He really is lazy, but it isn't for the sake of laziness itself (usually). Beneath all of the acts of stupidity, his mind is actually very sharp. He is highly perceptive and skilled at thinking and making decisions quickly. Even his level of intelligence is higher than most assume, and this is the true source of his laziness. He doesn't want to expend more effort than is absolutely necessary (even his movements waste no energy), and so if that means he can lie and whine about how hard it is for him to do something, when in reality he just finds it unpleasant, then he'll do it. It's faster and more efficient... For him, anyway.

His dumb act is more than just a way to benefit his laziness, as well. The Organization XIII is full of sharp-minded individuals, each vying for his or her own agenda, going as far as to target other members because they are in the way of their interests. This has been clear to Demyx from the very beginning, and though he initially did make an effort to prove the Organization proud, he quickly gave up on the idea. If he proved himself to be too useful, he would attract too much attention, and it's not the kind of attention he would want at all. He has no intention of being used if he doesn't agree with it, and telling the Organization “no” doesn't really work. Therefore, if he comes across as only being able to carry just enough weight for him to stick around, he's more likely to slip under radars as “not a threat.” And that's a thing he likes. Not being a threat. And not being threatened. Hey, if he survived his world and his family and his heart being eaten by darkness, like hell he's going down now.

He is also not nearly as social as some would assume. While it is true he is an extrovert, and thus gets his energy from and can better understand things when he is actively interacting with the world, that doesn't mean that he also actively seeks out the company of other people. Given the fact that his choices are either the Organization or random citizens on a world who could either care less or wouldn't begin to trust him... This is rather understandable. Demyx is used to living in a hostile social atmosphere, and as such, it's going to take some adjustments before he begins to relax in social situations again. As of now, he much prefers to keep to himself, because then, he does not have to put on an act and worry about the opinions of those around him. He can be himself when he's alone, and he is free to pursue his own interests and thoughts in peace. In normal social situations, he is more likely to blunder his way through until he can escape to be alone again.

Perhaps blunder is the wrong word to use, though it certainly seems appropriate from the outside looking in. Due to the quick way he thinks, Demyx is a master of improvisation. His Somebody was the type of kid who got in trouble with math teachers for not showing his work, and while he could quickly solve any new problems set in front of him, he would struggle to write out the work because it passes through his mind almost too fast for him to pin down. (He was also the kid who almost failed math purely on the principal that he was too lazy to do his homework and only pulled his grade up at the last minute.) Demyx has kept this tendency in his Nobody years, and it has helped him disguise who he really is. Because he notices and processes things as fast as he does, he can make rapid calculations in his head figuring out what actions would lead to whatever his temporary goal is. If it also leads to his end goal, bonus points. This, when coupled with his improvisation skills, means he can figure out quickly how to cover it all up.

When putting this back in context of social situations, it means that most of the time, Demyx just wants out of the conversation. However, because he is so unused to genuinely friendly interaction and hasn't made friends in many years, he has forgotten all the little hints and cues that mean a true bond is being forged. As a result, in the situation of non-hostile social environments, he really is going to blunder his way through and he is going to accidentally find himself in friendships. This will Not Be Okay, but by the time he realizes what has happened, it will have been too late.

This is because when it comes down it, Demyx treats true friendship very seriously. He adopts his friends as his family, and family values are still very strong in him, deep down. As a Nobody, he would honor them to honor the memories of his past, his parents, his homeworld, everything that made him who he is today. When he has adopted his friends as new family, it means that all of those previously selfish goals and thought patterns now extend to them and their well-being, too. Demyx's family will have an all-season backstage pass, and while this means that they get to see the sides of him he only shows when he's alone as well as his less sarcastic jokes, but it means they also have access to all of the vulnerable soft spots that he keeps hidden.

Despite all appearances otherwise, Demyx does not wear his metaphoric heart on his sleeve, but that does not mean he isn't a sensitive soul. In truth, he is. Just as he possesses all the positive traits of water, as he is very adaptable and knows how to expend the least energy to the utmost efficiency, the negative aspects of water also apply to him, but not in the way others expect. He is not necessarily wishy-washy, but he is definitely changeable. He molds himself to the situation, the people around him, his goal, his perception of how he should be, his perception of how others expect him to be. He spends a lot of his alone time going back over things that have happened in the past, and while this is useful as it lets him re-process and find new insights into the past, it also means that he dwells and he second-guesses himself. His opinion on something may change from one day to the next, even from one hour to the next. And the opinions of his family have a definite impact on him, even if it isn't immediately noticable. Because they are so important to them, he weighs in their thoughts and well-being high above his own, to the point that he will bend over backwards for them.

In fact, he'll do more than just bend over backwards. Demyx will kind of sort of totally go all-out for his family, to the point of all the stupid self-sacrificial things he promised himself he wouldn't do any more. He has seen the level of ridiculous he will reach for his family, and he is fully aware that it is the reason why he lost his heart. He is also aware of how much the heart-wrenching moment of realization that someone he loves is now gone, and just the memory of it alone is enough to make him as a Nobody try to avoid the situation. To make it worse, there is even the Nobody big-picture logic for him to fall back on. To rely on others is a weakness, as they will eventually fall through and leave him, even if they don't wish to. To depend on another's presence means that once they are gone, he will falter, too, and he will have to waste precious time and energy recovering his balance and filling the hole in his plans. For one reason or another, Demyx will try to avoid making friendships, but that doesn't mean he'll be any good at it.

Backstory:
Canon History:
Demyx at the Kingdom Hearts Wikia

Headcanon History:
Long before he was called Demyx, he was a little boy named Myde playing in the Hawaiian surf with his family. His homeworld was that of Disney's Lilo & Stitch, though he was born long before the chaos surrounding the arrival of Experiment 626 and his hometown is not that of Lilo and Nani's.

Myde was the second eldest in a large family; he lived with his maternal grandparents, his parents, his older brother, his two younger sisters, and their assorted pets. Competition among the siblings was high, though how serious it was varied from situation from situation; for example, they could remain competitive in a friendly way over card games and races to see who got shotgun in the car, but video games and school grades were Serious Business. From an early age, Myde was taught strong family values, and he would carry these with him for the rest of his life, even into Nobodyhood.

It became very clear early in his life that not only was he intelligent and observant, but that he was something of a musical prodigy. If something was put in front of him and it could hold a tune or a beat, he could work it. However, because of his intelligence, he learned quickly in school and didn't have to expend much effort to get good grades. All three of these were praised by family and teachers alike. This made him lazy when it came to school work; if he could get it done fast and made it look easy, that was the best and only way to do it. But as he got older, his classes got more advanced and required more work; his formerly praised habits now worked against him. He went from being the smart kid in the class to being the lazy one, and only did the minimum required work to pass his classes. He instead spent his time dicking around in the music room or skipping class to practice with his garage band.

His garage band was a stereotypical garage band with high hopes of getting a record deal and becoming a famous rock 'n' roll band. It was also a stereotypical garage band in that it fell apart due to teenage drama and in-fighting. Though to an outsider, this kind of story is to be expected, it had a heavy impact on sixteen-year-old Myde. He had all his hopes and dreams riding on that band, and he considered it a second family. He tried to play mediator, but in the end could do nothing but stand by and watch the band fall apart. Later, when he was in the Organization, he would look back at this and think it was melodramatic for it to have mattered so much, but couldn't deny that it did.

The next big event came the following year. A great storm came and turned the skies black and the sea treacherous. The family holed themselves up in the house, but one of Myde's sisters noticed that one of their dogs, who had been let out that afternoon when the weather was still fair, was unaccounted for. Myde's father and older brother went out to check their property for the dog, but didn't return for hours. Concerned, Myde and one of his sisters were watching out one of the windows, hoping to see them come back. His sister thought she saw their dog outside and got excited. Myde, on the other hand, wasn't sure that was a dog at all, and had been seeing all kinds of strange moving shadows. His sister rushed out the door to retrieve the perceived dog, and he lunged out after her. It turned out he was right; it wasn't a dog she saw at all, it was a Heartless. Myde ushered her back into the house as quickly as he could, but couldn't escape the Heartless or its fellows. Thus, Myde lost his heart, and he thought that he had died...

… Until he found himself waking up in a thick jungle. For a moment, he thought that he was still home, until he realized the leaves on the plants were all shaped wrong. He wandered, lost, until he realized he was being followed by a panther. Panicked, he ran, and the panther pursued. Little did he know, the panther wasn't trying to eat him. Bagheera was just chasing him towards the nearest man-village – helping the obviously lost 'man' the only way he figured he could. Though the village was initially reluctant to embrace this strange newcomer, one woman in particular was kind and willing to give him a chance, so she took him in. Before long, he proved himself to the rest of the villagers by using his education and quick mind to solve problems around the village. So, though he found himself without answers as to what happened to his home and family, where he was, and how he got there, he was beginning to build a new family around himself.

The woman who took him in even taught him how to use what would become his signature instrument, the sitar. His favorite place to practice was a little spot by the river, as it was quiet and the sound of the water was comforting to him. There, he sat and dwelled on his thoughts and his memories, and attributed the emptiness he felt to being separated from his family the way he was. One day, he realized that the water was moving irregularly. He stopped playing to investigate, and the water returned to normal. This continued to occur for a couple more days until he made the correlation between his music and the water. He began to experiment to see what his music could make the water do, but he kept this strangeness to himself, knowing that the villagers may not react kindly to whatever it was and kick him out. He wasn't willing to lose everything again.

Reports began to come in of sightings of a man in strange black clothes in the jungle. The strangeness of it all set the village on edge. One day, while Myde was down by the water practicing sitar, the black-clothed man approached him. Myde, off-guard, answered a few of the strange questions asked by the long-haired man with the scarred face and striped hair. They were focused on the movement of the water and the emptiness Myde felt – something the man seemingly guessed was there, and hinted that he knew more about. Though Myde was uncertain about the things the man said, he couldn't get any of it out of his head. He didn't tell the villagers about his encounter.

That night, one of the huts caught fire. No one was entirely sure how it happened, though it was assumed it was an accident. The fire spread before it could be stopped, and Myde was willing to do anything it took to save the village that had taken care of him, that was now all he had left. Without hesitation, he grabbed his sitar (a strange one that appeared in his room one night that he assumed was a gift) and began to play. He didn't entirely know what he was doing nor how to truly control his powers, though, and as a result overshot. No one was hurt and the village was put out, but it was also flooded.

Though all was fairly well, Myde found he wasn't able to relax. He could only imagine what he could be capable of, what he could do if he wasn't careful, if he lost control. More than anything, the event had showed him the potential he had, and all the possibilities could think of involved him accidentally destroying the village. The village, meanwhile, didn't know he was the true cause of the flood, and believed they had been saved by the gods. Myde didn't set them straight, not even the woman who took him under her wing.

When he turned to the isolation of his riverside spot and fully expected to see the sight before him: the man in the black coat waiting there for him. When the man offered to take Myde with him, get him inducted in something he called “the Organization,” and train him in the usage of his powers... There wasn't a question in Myde's mind, then. He accepted the offer, and just as suddenly as he arrived in the village, he disappeared.

He joined the Organization as Demyx, the Melodious Nocturne, Number IX. He wasn't entirely comfortable with changing his name, and even to this day he still has the habit of occasionally referring to himself as “Myde” in the safety of his own thoughts. Initially, he worked hard to prove his worth to his coworkers, but it became clear very quickly that the Organization was not a group he wanted to adopt as a new family unit. Not only did the other members exhibit absolute no desire to act as one, but there were tensions rising between the original six members and the newest ones.

Demyx didn't quite know what he got himself involved in, but he could tell that he didn't actually want involved in it. The atmosphere surrounding the Organization was cold and clearly every-man-for-himself, despite the fact that they were all supposedly working together towards the same goal. Backing out wasn't an option, though, made evident by the fact that the leader of the Organization, Xemnas, not only had the power to revert them into lesser Nobodies, thus taking away everything that really made them individuals, but he would not hesitate to do so to anyone who was a traitor.

In short: Demyx was stuck, and he had to make do with the situation he was in. He did so by intentionally flubbing missions and creating the persona he became known for: the lazy, good-for-nothing sitar-player who was so incompetant he wasn't any kind of a threat to anybody, but just good at the inoffensive task of world reconnaissance to be kept around.

Canon Powers:
See here

General Stats (from 358/2 Days)
▶ High Magic
▶ High Attack Speed
▷ Decent health and strength
▷ Defense sucks

Elemental Control: Water
An ability born from Demyx's soul in order to compensate for the loss of his heart (a la other senses stepping up to cover a disability in another). It is important to note that he uses music to control water. He doesn't always need to, but the music helps him channel and focus, and nine times out of ten his magic will be more effective if he is playing. He has been seen in canon forming water into objects (such as musical instruments) as well as people people (such as clones of himself), summoning geysers from the ground to do damage and toss opponents into the air, propelling himself on pillars of water, and firing and dropping balls of water at or onto his targets.
▶ Subset: Elemental: Water

Limit Break: Wave Gigs
There is a store of energy Demyx keeps in case of emergencies, aka when he's getting the crap kicked out of him and he needs to put an end to the fight now before he passes out. When he taps into this energy (something he can only do once a day), he uses it in a type of attack called a Limit Break he calls Wave Gigs. This attack requires intense focus on rhythm and maintaining a beat. As he plays his sitar, he summons columns of water from the ground to knock into opponents. The more focused and on the ball he is with the rhythm, the more pillars there are and the faster they move. The drawback, however, is that his own speed is cut down severely due to the focus needed to maintain the attack. If he maintains the Limit Break for long enough, he progresses into his Final Limit, where he summons one large ball of water while continuing to play his sitar. The ball explodes upon contact and not only causes damage, but it knocks enemies back.
▶ Subset: Elemental: Water

The next set of powers are skills taught by Organization training.
▶ Access to basic Kingdom Hearts spells (Fire [stage one only], Blizzard [all three stages], Thunder [one stage only], Aero [two stages only], Cure [one stage only])
▷ Subset: Elemental: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Mind (respectively)
▷ Headcanon is that the only spells he's actually good at are the Blizzard spells, and even then he doesn't like to use them because they aren't exactly his element

▶ Corridors of Darkness (limited to within the city only)
▷ Subset: Elemental: Dark

▶ Summoning/Commanding of Lesser Creatures (Heartless and Nobodies)
All high-level Nobodies have lessers at their beck and call. While all of the Organization can command Dusks and Creepers, there are other lesser Nobodies that only certain members can control. Demyx's special brand are called Dancers. On the other hand, though we never see Demyx summon or command Heartless in canon, when Saïx does so in Kingdom Hearts II it is implied that the high-level Nobodies are all likely capable of doing so.
▷ Subset: Elemental: Dark

▶ Scan and Heart Sensing (to sense how strong a heart is and its inclinations towards light or darkness; will have permissions post)
▷ Subset: Mind

Abilities that wouldn't have subsets attached:
▶ Weapon Summoning
▶ Maneuverability Skills (Air Slide, Aerial Recovery, Dodge Roll, Block, etc)

Canon Weapons | Items:
Weapon: Sitar
Form: Arpeggio
Description: A weapon made manifest from his soul the same way his water element came about.
Style: Primarily attacks with the headstock, using it to stab outward at the enemy; he only uses the main body to finish combos via bashing when blocking, uses the backside of it so that strings don't break! His combo attacks involve a lot of spins, and his movements during battle are very dance-like. The end of each combo has a small sonic burst.
▶ Main Attacks: Strike
▷ Combo Finisher: Wind

Healing Items
▶ Subset: Mind
▷ Potions, Hi-Potions, Hi-Ethers, Elixirs, Panacea

Canon Allies:
n/a

Canon Baggage:
▶ One (1) Organization-issue coat
▶ One (1) set of Organization-issue underclothes (t-shirt, pants, socks, underwear)
▶ One (1) pair of Organization-issue boots
▶ One (1) pair of Organization-issue gloves
▶ One (1) extra-large Organization-issue backpack
▶ Three (3) Potions
▶ Five (5) Hi-Potions
▶ Three (3) Hi-Ethers
▶ Two (2) Ethers
▶ Seven (7) Panacea poison sucks okay
▶ One (1) bag of munny
▷ Two thousand, four hundred and sixty seven (2,467) munny marbles he hoards it, okay
▶ Sitar care kit (for replacing strings, general upkeep, etc)
▶ Miscellaneous snack foods

Persona
[DANCER]
LVL (1) | MOON
WEAK: Lightning, Light, Dark | REFLECTS: n/a | ABSORBS: Water | BLOCKS: n/a | RESISTS: Fire

COMBAT SKILLS
▶ Aqua (deal low Water damage to one enemy)
▶ Malaqua (deal low Water damage on all enemies)
▶ Hysterical Slap (inflicts a small amount of Physical damage twice with a chance of Rage on one enemy)
▶ Marin Karin (40% chance of inflicting the Charm ailment to one enemy)
▷ Sukukaja (increases an ally's Agility)
▷ Matarunda (decreases all enemies' Attack)
▷ Malaques (deal medium Water damage on all enemies)
▷ Key Change (deal medium Water damage to one enemy, 25% chance of inflicting Confusion)
★ Deceptive Cadence (deal medium Water damage to all enemies, 30% chance of causing fear, 20% chance of knocking out the user. a desperate release of water resulting in an explosion that may drain its user to the point of passing out)

PASSIVE SKILLS
▶ Water Boost (increases Water damage output by 25%)
▷ Evade Physical (triples evasion against Physical attacks)
▷ Water Amp (increases Water damage output by 50%)

Writing Sample
Demyx at the Test Drive