CEREALIA APPLICATION

[eyelineronpoint]

Applicant Info

◎ Name: Trace
◎ Journal: N/A
◎ Contact: Plurk: gonewithouta /\ email: manicalpha@gmail.com

Character Info

◎ Character's Name: Gaara
◎ Character's Canon: Naruto
◎ Character's Age: 17
◎ Canon Point: Post chapter 548; when Gaara's dad is like "oh btw your mom didn't die hating you" in the middle of a big ninja fight like that's an appropriate time for that shit
◎ Background/History: bless you folks for allowing links seriously 700 chapters of this business not even including ridiculous anime filler

Gaara's history

◎ Is the character a hacker and/or do they have a sixth-sense? haha hahahaha
No on the hacker front- look his village flies notes to other people on birds
As for sixth sense, nnnnot. No. Not unless that good ol' shounen trope of sensing "killing intent" counts, which I haven't counted in years okay YEARS

◎ Personality:

Gaara's had something of a tumultous upbringing. HEAR ME OUT.

Setting aside special circumstances, the world of Naruto is where children are trained to be professional bodyguards and killers at the tender young age of way-too-fuckin'-young. There's a "grow up quick" mentality among children who enter the shinobi profession, where kids are treated as adults as young as twelve. Sometimes younger, if the situation calls for it. Slap a knife in that babe's hand, send 'em off to war; that's the policy of the Five Nations. It can lend a skewed sense of right and wrong among those in the ninja villages, who view death much more casually and are accustomed to extreme violence.

However, even with that kind of measuring stick, Gaara's had an extremely violent past. He was born as a jinchuuriki, which basically just means he had a demonlike creature sealed inside of him. In his case, the tailed beast Shukaku was sealed into him prenatally and then he was brought into this world with some dang unfortunate circumstances. Pretty much the only person who loved him unconditionally died giving birth to him, so that sucked. Not a great start in this world, happy birthday kiddo.

His early childhood is a depressing montage of fear and anger from the other villagers; he was weird, because he didn't sleep out of fear the demon inside of him would possess him and eat his personality (no really Shukaku threatened that because I guess he's mean mostly but also his fragile flower feelings were damaged in the past, welcome to Naruto) and he was awkward and painfully shy and didn't know how to talk to people. Also the sand that always followed him around would attack the crap out of people if he was agitated or felt endangered, which was pretty often so that didn't do him any favors. He was isolated from his family, distrusted by just about everyone and it made him a very unstable child.

His dad decided like, wow my monster kid is unstable, I should try to have him killed by the only person who likes him and then have that guy tell him that his mom died hating him, this'll work out it's fine it's fine.

It was not fine.

Little Gaara flipped his shit and his psyche took a serious blow. Heartache upon heartache had finally taken its toll and he came to the rough conclusion that the only person who could love him is himself, so he was gonna love the shit out of himself and kill anybody who threatened his existence. It was how he justified his reason for being alive, because what's the point if nobody else wants you alive? He relied and depended only on himself, and even after successive assasination attempts by his dad he stood by it. 'Cause he killed the assassins. He also emotionally, psychologically and probably also physically tormented his siblings over the years, killed a whole lotta people because he was bored, because Shukaku was screaming for blood in his head, because he was actually deeply upset and in pain and didn't know how to deal with it beyond making the thing disturbing him go away, permanently. For six years, Gaara lived like this, until he came across one Uzumaki Naruto.

To say Naruto is the catalyst for his transformation is accurate. Not only does Naruto beat him down into submission (a prerequisite, considering Gaara's go-to conflict resolution method was to crush anyone with an opposing opinion into sandy sausage), but he tells Gaara that he understands. He understands. He understands the pain of being alone, he understands the agony of being denied an existence, but he was pulled out of that hell by people who cared about him and he would never let anything happen to them.

And then Gaara's siblings come to scrape him up off the ground instead of squash his tired little skull into the dirt, and Gaara begins to reconsider his entire worldview.

The paradigm shift Gaara undergoes might have taken a while when one looks at it as a day-by-day process, but in retrospect he changed incredibly fast. Within a matter of months he's stopped killing people for funsies, stopped terrorizing his siblings and gotten much, much quieter and reserved. He seems to fold into himself and think an awful lot, indulge more in trying to understand people and make connections with them rather than ignore them or kill them. He even joins the regular shinobi ranks and takes on a student, which does him absolute wonders. When he announces his candidacy for the (now vacant) position of Kazekage and his brother points out that a lot of the villagers are mega creeped out by Gaara and the tons of murdering he did, Gaara's like "no that's cool but if I'm gonna stop being looked at as a monster and needed instead as a person I'm gonna have to work real hard like that Naruto guy." Paraphrased.

Perhaps it's the suffering he had early on his life, or maybe because of all the suffering he caused, but Gaara's got a very strong old-soul feel while still managing to retain an almost childlike approach to relationships. He takes things seriously; he takes being Kazekage seriously, he takes his responsibilities and his reform seriously. He takes the safety of his family, friends and people very, very seriously. Maybe part of it is a desire to make up for the wrongs he'd done, but Gaara doesn't often openly dwell on the past. More likely, it's the desires of that lonely little boy from years ago manifesting in his adolescence. One of the last things he asks himself before his death is if he became a needed existence in the end. It's difficult to change one's personality and actions and habits, but even more difficult to change the way one thinks about oneself.

Gaara has come along way from the closed off, selfish and tortured kid he was just five years ago. He tends to speak with a lot of weight to his words; generally his conversation comes in drips or gushes, not a lot of in-between. His way of relating to people outside of professional meetings is awkward and ham-fisted. He doesn't observe social rules or niceties, speaks plainly and bluntly and keeps a lot to himself unless he feels it's absolutely necessary to divulge. He speaks more with actions over words, most likely because he never exchanged words with people in that dark six-year murder spree period without the intent of threatening someone or getting what he wanted.

And despite his reform, Gaara is still pretty ruthless and efficient. He doesn't disregard people or attack without reason, but he doesn't hesitate to defend or launch an offensive to protect someone. He might be gentler than he was before but he's still a soldier, and honestly still probably has a lot of that weapon mentality, that kill-or-be-killed instinct that is sewn into a lot of shinobi. He's also a military leader, both of his village and of the Alliance, and it's his duty to take out enemies as quickly as possible to avoid as many casualties on his side as he can. He even tells his (revived zombie) father (DO NOT ASK) that he can understand why his father tried to have him killed. A leader protects the village, he says. It's a pragmatic approach to a painful issue.

Because of his difficulty to communicate and relate to people openly and in a way that most people recognize, Gaara can appear emotionless and unreadable. His expression is decidedly neutral 90% of the time, and his voice tends toward the monotone except for in pretty emotionally-charged situations. He tends to use brusque and masculine language, never using two words when one would suffice, and god save you if the weight of the conversation rests on his shoulders.

Still, he makes an effort when he can. It's not as necessary as Kazekage because his plate is generally full and people gonna talk to him anyway. Gaara makes an effort to listen though, really listen and process what people are saying to him, to read between the lines. Where before he didn't care about anyone else's motivations, now he pays attention like whoever he's talking to is the most important book he's ever going to read, and then he'll make comments that just cut right to the heart of the matter, no mercy. Generally his communication with people tends to have a purpose, whether that purpose is to convince them of something or just to get to know them better, but it lends him a degree of painful honesty that makes his motivations easy to understand, so long as he's taken at face value.


◎ Powers/Abilities:

Here is a list of his abilities; he can do all this junk except for the Jinchuuriki transformations now. His stats on the chart thingy would be from the Third release.

BUT also here's a short summary of his most prominent abilities:

Sand Manipulation: Gaara has a wide array of control over sand. He'll arrive with his special sand he carries around in the gourd on his back, which is must faster and acts without his input. It's imbued with the will of his dead mom (god please do not ask me as I write it that still sounds ridiculous) and since she didn't want anything to happen to her precious baby's precious glass head, the sand will protect him. Doesn't have her soul or consciousness or anything, just kind of. Like. Her will. Moving on.

Given enough time and energy, he can manipulate any kind of sand on an enormous scale. He can make tsunamis of sand by grinding rock into particles, can harden it into armor, can make copies of himself out of it, can use it to crush opponents into blood mush... He can use it to grab people, levitate himself, he can use it as a sensory tool (sight, touch)- Really, his ability to use sand extends as far as his imagination. He's said it himself in canon: someone mocked him that without sand, he can't do much and he replied, "As long as I have sand, I can do anything."

General Ninja BS: Run real fast, throw knife super good. Gaara is pretty poop with hand-to-hand compared to his peers, but he's still probably much better than an average non-combatant human being. He's also got ridiculous chakra reserves even without Shukaku (most jinchuuriki do, it's kind of a requirement) so he doesn't tire easily and he can take a lick and keep on tickin'.


◎ Weapons & Other Special Inventory:
Most importantly, Gaara will have his gourd of sand. It's a large gourd about two-thirds his height that he carries on his back like a dorky little Jansport backpack only huge and packed full of chakra-infused sand that like, protects him and strangles the heck out of people who try to kill him.

Aside from his gourd, Gaara's probably got a couple standard ninja-type things on him. He's still got some sealing tags that only work on one specific occasion (Edo Tensei) so unless there's an undead invasion, they're basically trash. He's probably got a kunai and a few shuriken for emergencies, probably also rations and water.


CEREALIA-Specific

◎ Element: Air, specifically because Gaara is ninja president of Wind Country and anything else feels weird

◎ Sense: Gaara's most prominent sense is probably touch, mostly because he doesn't get it very often. He seems to shy away from touch except in the most dire or emotionally intimate situations; heck, he didn't know what physical pain felt like until he was like twelve. Naruto saved his dumb life and he saw the guy off with a handshake, which honestly was probably the equivalent of Gaara tackling the guy into the sand and crying into his shirt. The boy is severely touch-deprived and would probably die of a heart attack if someone gave him a hug. Taste, smell, sight and hearing don't have anything on touch for this kid, I think.


◎ Seven Character Traits: ( Dedicated, Earnest, Thoughtful ) | ( Awkward, Stubborn, Emotionally Inexperienced ) + Taciturn


Samples

◎ First-Person Sample:

[Voice]

[Gaara hates this computer thing. Not because it's difficult to use; a few instructive rounds with a friend had been plenty to get him used to how it operates. And it's pretty convinent, he has to begrudgingly admit, for contacting people out of immediate shouting-range.

But he hates it for different reasons. One, texting takes forever. Two, when people text him he has no idea how to take it. He needs voices and facial expressions; just the text is hard to interpret. Does 'ok fine' mean it's actually okay and fine? Or is it like, "okay, fine," as in the other person is put out, in which case that means Gaara either has to get annoyed or ask them what their problem is? There's too much room for interpretation.]

Someone tell me how to read texts.

[He needs to go back home. God, he needs to go back home.]

(( Also here and here are two examples! ))


◎ Third-Person Sample:

Gaara understands roughly 0% of the shit that is happening to him and that makes him angry.

Not angry like how he used to be; he's come a long way from that. Five years from that. Which, in the grand scheme of a person's lifespan, might not seem like much but when a kid is seventeen and has already died once and generally doesn't remember a whole lot of his life from before five or six, yeah, five years is major. And five years without killing people who making him angry is an all-time record for him, one he's pretty proud of (on good days). So the fact that people are saying many words to him that he doesn't understand (like Nexus Code and ViViD and CERES and is this the same language what are you speak) and he hasn't drowned them in sand yet- honestly, it's a personal best. Someone should give him a trophy.

No. He deserves no trophy. Not randomly killing people is a bare minimum requirement for reform and should not be rewarded, even if Gaara feels like his patience has grown by leaps and bounds because of the changes he's made in his life. Thanks, Naruto. This is your fault and almost every hour of every day, he's grateful. It's just that someone is trying to tell him that everything he knows and loves has been 'backed up' as 'code' and when he asks what that's supposed to mean someone gets into some explanation about data compiling but it's more like numbers and words and does he know string theory because that's heavily involved and Gaara just watches the video they showed him replay over and over again. Weird things coming out of the sky. His mother's figure in sand being crushed. An already chaotic battlefield becoming even moreso.

"I was doing something important," he tells them calmly. Well, it probably looks calm, probably sounds calm. Temari and Kankuro would recognize it as his ten seconds from leaving before I strangle someone voice but neither of them are here. They're back there. In that. "Reverse it."

Not possible, they tell him.

Gaara silently counts backwards from ten. "You don't understand." He gets the same answer, not possible, not right now, and they try to tell him that with his assistance they can make it possible to travel back and forth (something in his face must've screamed how little he liked the idea of ever coming back here again because the topic was dropped) but the point is that he'd be able to get back.

All he has to do is exist. In this place. Away from everyone who needs him and everyone he needs. Not as easy as it sounds.

◎ Is your character retaining any previous game memories? Negatory