History/Story
Nascence - Omens of a Tumultuous Future:
Early Years - Seeds of Madness:
Late Teens, Part 1 - A Gaze Into The Abyss:
Late Teens, Part 2 - The Fall From Grace:
Late Teens, Part 3 - The Crescendo of Chaos:
Late Young Adulthood, Climax - Da Capo:
Late Young Adulthood, Present Day & Onwards - Aria of Achievment:
RP Sample:
Face Claim:
Nascence - Omens of a Tumultuous Future:
- Spoiler:
Like with anyone else, Faustein Kuroyakushi’s tale begins with that of his parents, a man named “Odin Faustein” and a woman named “Izanami Kuroyakushi”. Odin was a native of Iceberg while Izanami hailed from Midi. The two met several years ago in Iceberg during a science symposium and thus, got increasingly entangled with each other. The trigger for this was a series of misunderstandings and strange encounters which entwined their fates inextricably despite the two being polar opposites. Upon noticing this, their respective families decided to unite them in a political marriage which then led to an alliance between the two sides.
Following their union, Odin and Izanami had settled down in Iceberg which was Odin’s homeland. Eventually, they got the newly formed alliance’s estate up and running over the next several years. In due course, their only child, “Faustein Kuroyakushi”, was born into the world and became the sole heir to the future leadership position of the overall alliance. It would have been a completely joyous occasion, were it not for the fact that the day was about to be marred by some inexplicable events. Of course, it had started out in a relatively innocuous manner as had the several days before it. Izanami had been laying in her assigned hospital bed, bossing Odin around while enjoying the warm sunbeams and gentle zephyr streaming through the open windows
“Odin, be a dear and get me that water bottle over there…Odin, my feet need a massage, so would you be so kind as to oblige me?”
Odin, on the other hand, had been looking longingly at the grassy meadows outside the hospital and at little he could see of the white clouds that were drifting along in the sky above, all the while grumbling and complaining under his breath as he went about assisting her
“…Tch…troublesome woman…preventing me from indulging my cloud gazing…I mean…the water bottle is right next to her…and she could just as well as her nurse assistant to do the massage…”
All in all, despite the activity going on, it was fairly peaceful and quiet, barring the usual noises of the everyday passersby. Unbeknownst to them, however, the day would soon change for the worse and that too, in particularly startling manner. It all began slowly enough, for at first, the only omens of trouble being the wind outside which had become just a little faster than before. In response, the hospital staff had set about closing all the windows of Izanami’s hospital room. Good thing they did too, because after that, it had just kept on worsening at every turn. The sky above had darkened rather ominously due to the slowly but surely gathering thunderclouds. As if that were not bad enough, the winds had begun to pick up even more speed, and had started to shake the leaves of the trees which they passed through, causing disconcerting howling and rustling noises. Then, towards the evening of that day, deafening peals of thunder had begun to issue from the thunderclouds that had been blanketing the sky for some time by that point. This was followed by a sudden, nearly torrential downpour of rain which sent everyone unlucky enough to be outside running for shelter.
In addition to that, there were even a few lightning strikes which had managed to char the trees as well as the ground upon impact. Finally, at the exact moment of his birth, the unnerving milieu that had been developing up till then was exacerbated even further. What was the added factor that caused this? Well, it was the macabre melody which was created out of the simultaneous occurrence of the hauntingly melancholic howls of all the dogs and wolves in the area. This sound which could only be described as being akin to that of a funeral dirge was heard by everyone in the locale and frightened them thoroughly. In contrast, Izanami and Odin as well as their hospital assistants were people of science and thus, relied on logic and reason. So, they were not usually given to superstitious fear and hysteria like the rest of the citizens. All the same, the surreal coincidence of all these portents did manage to unsettle them to some degree.
However, to their surprise, once they had hit their climax, these events died down just as quickly as they had started up earlier that day. This, in turn, left everyone who witnessed them wondering about the reason for their unexpected occurrence. In this manner, Faustein Kuroyakushi was brought forth into existence. This is the beginning of the saga of Faustein Kuroyakushi whose future was seemingly presaged as being turbulent by Mother Nature herself.
Early Years - Seeds of Madness:
- Spoiler:
Despite the ominous circumstances of his birth, Faustein had proved to be a promising enough prospect right from childhood since he had seemingly inherited a great many genetic gifts from both sides of the family. These included traits like the remarkable determination and strength of will which Izanami was known for, the perspicacity which made Odin stand out among his peerage, as well as the combined intellectual prowess and curious natures of both Odin and Izanami. This could be attested to by his fascination with magical knowledge, the various sciences, and above all, his insatiably curious, questioning nature. Of course, he did play with his fellow children as would any other kid. That said, when he wasn’t busy on his play dates or didn’t have any homework from school, he would be tinkering constantly with architecture related toys or attempting to perform various experiments. These were rather simple, but yet fascinating to behold, at least to him. These experiments ranging from studying the effects of focusing the sun’s rays through a magnifying hand lens, to attempts at magnetizing simple objects such as metal needles to make them act as compasses, to making simple wind musical instrument by using bottles with differing levels of liquid inside and anything in between. Needless to say, he had also started experimenting with simple magical phenomena as well during this time.
On top of that, he constantly asked his parents about the world around him…about why the sky looked blue, about the reasons for the differences between the various races in the world, about why the sun and clouds looked the way they did, and so on. All of these were fairly unobjectionable and so, Odin and Izanami were overjoyed by this inquisitive drive that they saw in Faustein. Despite this, as time went on, they were startled to realize that there was a darker and more unnerving side to his many primitive attempts at scientific inquiry. The one thing that made this side so disconcerting was that it was also driven by the same childlike curiosity which fueled his more “acceptable” studies. For instance, with the same fascinated, curious look on his face which was always present when he was focusing sunbeams through a lens to burn holes in paper, he would also be trying to do the same with small insects and even tiny birds, especially focusing on their wings. Why you ask? Well, the idea behind that was to study the effects this would have on their flight capacity and other related physical abilities.
On other occasions, with the same childlike enthusiasm with which he built simple constructs out of building blocks, he would be pinning small amphibians and trying to vivisect them to study their innards before death. Then, he would kill them, dissect them, and study their innards and general bodies after death. Needless to say, whenever they saw this side of him, they were quick to suppress it to the best of their ability. Nevertheless, it had worried them greatly since they couldn’t monitor him at all times due to their own professional responsibilities. Consequently, they had decided to try to steer him onto the proper path of scientific inquiry by devising a series of private tutoring sessions and other interactive programs through the use of their connections. Of course, they didn’t want to force it on him, so they broached the topic with him on his 12th birthday
“You enjoy learning about the world through the lens of science, right son?”
To that, he had replied in the affirmative, albeit without actually raising his eyes from his latest venture. This was the simple robot he had been in the process of building from the kit they had gotten him for his birthday
“Of course!! Science is the most intriguing activity I can possibly imagine doing with my time!! It brings me great joy!!”
Naturally, both Odin and Izanami were thrilled to hear a positive response from him. Therefore, they had pressed on, emboldened by this successful start
“In that case, how would you like to register for the private tutoring program we have arranged for you? You can have a lot more access to many more academic resources for your pursuit of scientific inquiry if you do, Faust.”
However, much to their surprise, he had stubbornly resisted their efforts to fit him into their envisioned agenda since he wanted to enjoy his childhood like other regular kids. Realizing that they wouldn’t be able to convince him to reconsider, his parents decided to let him do as he pleased for the time being. This was because they were confident that, sooner or later, he would learn about the dark side to the world around him. Their hope was that such a revelation would in turn, bring him back to them so that they could enact their original plan for him. Thereafter, Faust did enjoy doing the things that other kids normally did for quite a while. Furthermore, whenever they had time and he had a considerable amount of vacation days, his parents took him on camping trips in various locales in and around Iceberg.
They did this not only to spend time bonding as a family, but also to fulfil their secondary objective of instructing young Faust in the ways of wilderness survival. Naturally, this was so that he wouldn’t be caught flatfooted without recourse at any point in the future. In this manner, time marched on for them until finally he came to the third stage of his formal education and entered his teenage years (around 14 or 15 years of age). It was during these years that he became acquainted with the darker side of those whom he had considered his friends up until then. Up to that point, things were fairly calm, or at least they seemed to be so on the surface. All of that changed on one fateful day when he had been running late to his usual meet up with his friends. When he had finally managed to arrive, they were already there and had started playing without him. If that was all they had done, it would have been fine and he would have forgiven them. Unfortunately for him though, he could overhear some strange things being said, seemingly with reference to him. So, he hid in the bushes nearby and decided to do some reconnaissance
“You know…this game is so much easier when we use Faust’s items. It’s a good thing we have him as a friend, eh?”
One of them had said, but then another piped up while shaking his head
“Friend? Pfft…give me a break, dude…the only reason we pretend to be friends with that nerd is so we can get him to give us these cool items…they would have been near impossible to get on our own, you know?”
The other two laughed raucously while nodding at this remark
“You said it, bro! There’s also the fact that he lets us copy off him whenever homework checking time rolls around…those assignments would be such a pain to do otherwise, man!!”
This was followed up by yet another round of egregiously boorish laughter. As he listened to these and other such comments they had been making because they thought he wasn’t there, he grew more and more infuriated with them. However, he was taught never to give in to his emotions, so he suppressed his rage with a forceful effort of will and walked off back home, swearing to himself
Those godforsaken, insufferable twits!!…all this time, their amicable behavior towards me has just been a fallacious charade!!…I can’t…believe this!!…I must be more careful henceforth…
That wasn’t the end of his troubles though, since more was to follow the next day. The following few days at his school were the days of the science fair where the student body would present their projects for all to see in a sort of show and tell session. He had been partnered with one particular girl from his class since she had asked him and he agreed since she had been friendly and nice towards him till then. She had brought on with her two of her male friends who happened to be his classmates as well. They had finished the project well in time for the fair even though Faust had been the only one to do any really significant work on it. He didn’t mind that, since he considered them all to be his friends. Finally, the time came for them to go on stage. Sadly, he had to arrive late to the event due to some last-minute prep he had to do for their project. So, he had begun to make his way through the crowd when the emcee called his team up on stage. To his surprise, they introduced the project in a far different manner than what they had agreed on prior to the event during the rehearsal
“Thank you all for coming to see our presentation, it was hard, but we three combined all our talents and managed to pull off this project successfully. Please enjoy the demonstration, folks!”
He was aghast at their temerity, but alas, nobody would believe his words at this stage even if he were to reveal the truth. So, he kept silent, even though his thoughts roiled like a stormy sea
Curses! Again?! Is it not enough that I have been betrayed once already?! Now these imbeciles and their vapid bimbo of a donna have stolen what has essentially been my work all along!!
He thought, furious at having been betrayed not once but twice in one week. As the event was already underway, he could not confront them about this matter. So, he let it drop and made his exit from the school grounds, unnoticed…save for by the security, but he convinced them to let him go by telling them he had been feeling terribly sick. On the way home, after mentally venting his frustration at being betrayed, he swore to himself again
Why?! Why must I have to suffer like this?! I shall never again trust…in anyone!! I shall never again bother with such trivialities as friendship or emotion!! I swear it!! Someday…someday, I shall make all these fools pay for crossing me in this manner!!
Thus, he was lost in his thoughts about how to wreak vengeance on them for their affront. As a result, he was not as aware of his surroundings as he usually would have been on a daily basis. This resulted in him running into a pack of stray dogs which happened to be roaming on that road. He had not done anything to them, but regardless, they had attacked him, and quite viciously at that. Fortunately, he was able to narrowly make his escape due to a guard coming to his rescue and bringing him back home to his parents. Once back home, he had been patched up by his worried parents, and so recovered in time. Alas, the wounds he had suffered ran much deeper and their effects would last much longer and be far more impactful than any of them could have imagined at that stage in his life. The following several years would soon make this fact painfully clear to not only him, but his parents and everyone else around him as well.
Late Teens, Part 1 - A Gaze Into The Abyss:
- Spoiler:
Needless to say, he was quite broken up about this aforesaid series of traumatic events. That said, he didn’t devise any way of retribution to unleash upon them, but only because he couldn’t, at that stage anyway. Instead, he chose to simply cut them all off rather unceremoniously, without any manner of preamble or warning. He even went so far as to request a transfer to a completely new school avoid repetition of such events ever again. He had even brought the topic of the private tutoring one day.
“I would like to take you both up on that earlier offer if it’s still available…”
His parents had been surprised, for they didn’t think he would come around that soon. Regardless of that, they were overjoyed to hear this from him. They did check by asking him about it though
“Son, are you sure about this? Maybe you can make new, better friends at this new school...”
He had denied that emphatically, but to his credit at least, he did have the courtesy to explain his reasoning
“That is one thing that I will never again do, if I can help it!! Such things as friends, emotions, relationships are all useless burdens which only distract one from their true purpose!! Henceforth, I shall devote my life to the pursuit of knowledge and nothing else!!”
With that, they had been convinced and set about doing the transfer paperwork and handling other relevant details. Once at his new school, in accordance with his promise to himself and his declaration to his parents, he made doubly sure to stave off all attempts by anyone at connecting with him. He kept to himself, and immersed himself completely in his studies. As a result, by the end of the third stage of his academic journey, aka graduation day, he was ranked second highest among the crème de la crème of the student body. Of course, even with all this isolation from social life and immersion in academia, he didn't give up on his hobbies. No, if anything, he threw himself headlong into those as well, especially the involving his fascination with strategy and war games. In addition to this, his obsession with Midi's entertainment avenues, such as certain comics and shows took greater hold of him than ever before. Sure, this had seemed like a good thing to all who knew him…after all, superlative intellectual achievements were something to be proud of, right?
In his case, while that was true, the other darker side to his desire for knowledge had also grown much more in strength. Now, it was even more warped than before due to his recent negative experiences. The fact that he was being gradually inducted into the ways of his family’s secret technomedical magical arts had only served to exacerbate the growth of this darker side ever further. Finally, it had consumed him entirely and became an irresistible addiction to him, akin to any mind-affecting recreational drug. This was not immediately apparent of course, since he had just entered the 4th level of his academic journey.
During this time, he had been making a name for himself as before, just like many of his peers. Unlike them, however, his public life seemed to be pretty uneventful as he went along from one year to the next. This was because he primarily interacted with his professors and if need be with the other staff at the institution while keeping his fellow students at arms-length. During this time, his publicly known research was intriguing, but overall, there was nothing too alarming in its legality or ethical ramifications. Away from the public eye though, as he progressed from 1st to the 4th year, he had started to conduct several types of more unsavory research projects and experiments. These were ones that involved modification of living specimens, obviously without their consent. Naturally, he had also begun to use himself as a guinea pig whenever the situation demanded it.
The main focus of these extracurricular studies was the cybertechnological modification of a variety of specimens. The reason he undertook this particular line of research was because his objective was to someday convert himself into a full cyborg. This was merely a stepping stone to him though. It was merely intended to grant him the sort of enduring body and lifespan that he would need to pursue his ultimate goal of acquiring all the knowledge about all things in the universe around him. At first, he had managed to keep this work of his well camouflaged behind the veil of his public persona by limiting his specimens to the animals he could find in and around Iceberg. Later on, as the progressive diminution of the wild fauna of Iceberg had forced him to resort to co-opting the pets of the people in his neighborhood, this veil was torn asunder at long last. Consequently, people had started to become suspicious of his activities and had started to scrutinize his behavior.
Thanks to his foresight and precautions, even though they were suspicious of him, they couldn’t really link any solid, damning evidence back to him. Therefore, they had thought it best to bring it up with Odin and Izanami instead. Initially, they had a hard time accepting the allegations which were being leveled at Faust, primarily because of the lack of incontrovertible evidence against him. His stellar scholastic achievements within his university’s academic circles only served to reinforce this disbelief of the aforesaid accusations.
Late Teens, Part 2 - The Fall From Grace:
- Spoiler:
Nonetheless, there was still that small niggling doubt in the back of their minds about him due to their prior memories of seeing his dark side from when he was a child. As a result, they had decided to simply observe him closely without alerting him. For several months after this meeting, they had him under surveillance, but couldn’t find anything of significance to their quest. Sadly, at least for Faust, just as they were planning to culminate their investigation into the rumors, their first and only definitive trail of evidence had emerged at last. This happened during the summer just before last year of the 4th stage of his formal schooling, when he was around 21 years old. They had managed to connect the dots and caught him in the act, just as he was about to enter the final phases of his cyborg creation research. Upon noticing the sounds of their entry into his secret lab, he had turned around and gazed at them rather impassively while remarking
“Congratulations, it looks like you’ve finally managed to find me out.”
All the while he had not stopped tinkering with his latest research specimen, namely the pet cat of their neighbor which had gone missing under mysterious circumstances. He had been able to successfully replace its four limbs with their cybertechnological counterparts just mere minutes prior to their discovery of him. This temerity of his shocked them, though not as much as had the sight of his experimental subject, the very pet cat which their neighbors had reported missing several months earlier.
“What’s the meaning of this, Faust?!”
Odin had demanded of him, but Faust didn’t deign to reply to the point. Instead, he merely smirked and mused nonchalantly while his eyes were transfixed upon the sight of his parents
“Aww, what a pity…I had set up so many booby traps and alarms to alert me to any unwanted intrusion…so many in fact I had thought I would be warned well in advance…I should have known you two would be able to get past them all…”
As they watched, his eyes narrowed and he uttered a chuckle which had a chillingly calm, yet steely edge to it. This had surprised them since they didn’t think he was capable of such a thing, but they shook it off and re-focused their attention on him. Izanami, resumed their conversation first
“In the recent months, many of the fauna of this land have started to disappear under some rather mysterious circumstances…and this travesty has been compounded further by the incidents of all the neighbor’s pets vanishing with nary a trace or explanation…”
Here, she had paused for effect and then continued a few seconds later
“Furthermore, we have also received some especially strange, suspicious reports regarding your ever more inexplicable behavior during these past several months…”
As she spoke, both Izanami and Odin’s disappointment and sadness at witnessing Faust’s questionable activities became more markedly apparent by the minute. Finally, Odin spoke up again, this time pleading with him while at the same time asking
“How could you, a student with such a bright future…our scion, the future leader of the clan and alliance…what could have possessed you to perpetrate such a reprehensible crime?”
To this, he offered no defense, but rather just stared at them with an impassive smirk on his face. Thus, his parents were finally forced to accept this bitter truth as it confirmed their suspicions at last. This led once again to anger on their part due to which they started interrogating aggressively again while gesturing to what little they could see of the specimen behind him
“Faust…so it was you after all!! Speak, just what have you been up to here all this time?!”
He glanced back at the barely living, cyborg cat on the surgery table and then turned his gaze unfazed back toward them, letting out that same unnerving chuckle
“I guess the cat’s out of the bag now…I suppose it’s futile to say otherwise at this stage of the game…”
He paused, sighing dramatically before stretching his arms out. He gestured towards the many specimen stasis chambers, tesla coils, formalin baths, and other such aspects of his lab and continued
“I have been working on developing a way to convert living beings into cyborgs!! Isn’t it marvelous?!”
Upon hearing this bold declaration, his mother was stupefied temporarily. That was partly due to the horror and partly due to not being able to understand why their son would ever even contemplate dabbling in such atrocious research, let alone undertake it. His father had also experienced such emotion, but fortunately, he had recovered first. So, he responded while closing his eyes
“I see, so it is the forbidden aspects of our technomedical arts which you are after…”
His mother had recovered by then and with tears visible in her eyes, she lamented
“You…sacrificed all of these poor animals…just for that, Faust? This is truly a sad sight to behold, son…”
Late Teens, Part 3 - The Crescendo of Chaos:
- Spoiler:
His father had picked up the conversation at that point since his mother had broken down to silent tears and had been weeping on his shoulder by then
“What exactly do you hope to acquire by doing this?! Did you not realize that this is something that we mortals must never attempt?!”
As he heard his father reprimand him in this manner, Faust had felt amusement at the irony of the situation, and that had elicited the same blood-curdling laugh from earlier, after which he retorted
“You dub my work as being reprehensible? You say that these are deep and dark waters in which we humans must never explore?”
He paused there to let out another unnerving chuckle again, but then his face took on a serious tone as he went on
“Then tell me, father, what do you have to say to the incontrovertible fact that, in the past, there have been researchers who have not only attempted such research as I am doing now, but have also committed far worse sins than I have in the name of scientific progress?”
He paused there to collect his thoughts before resuming his rejoinder with that same icy tone of voice
“Besides that, were you not the ones who have always been telling me that, for the sake of scientific progress, some sacrifices are inevitable, that they are veritably requisite?! More to the point though, to answer your query, I want to achieve everything there is!!”
His father had been silent since he truly had no comeback to Faust’s remarks, so instead, he interrupted him there with another question
“Everything, you say?”
Faust had sighed when he heard the demanding tone of his father’s voice, but nevertheless he obliged
“My ultimate objective is to procure all the knowledge about all the beings and phenomena in this world of ours…and in doing so, gain the truest and highest level of understanding possible! Think about it, how did we get the color green? The answer, someone took that first bold step of consciously mixing the colors, yellow and blue! The result then became labeled as the color green.”
His lips became contorted further by a rather manic grin at this stage as he proceeded
“My aim…is to accomplish something akin to this, for just as there are an innumerable variety of colors in this world, so too is it for the types of knowledge!! In my case, however, blue is the experimental hypothesis, yellow is the experimental method, and green is the data or knowledge that results from this combination. The world reveals such quintessential truths only to those who are willing and able to dedicate their entire lives to this quest!!”
At this point, his face took on a more somber expression at this point and sighed before continuing explaining
“Alas…such a monumental endeavor would require several years at the very least, but there are not enough years in even the longest of lives, you understand…it’s due to the innate weakness of this organic system we christen as the “mortal coil”.”
Till then, his father had been silently enduring the torture of having to listen to this monologue.
However, after Faust fell silent, he spoke up again and tried to make sense of this onslaught of information
“In short…what you are implying is that…”
He had to stop there since the ramifications were too much for him to bear, but Faust completed that thought for him
“Yes, father, that is exactly what I am hinting at here!! I am on a quest to obtain a body which will endure not only the demands of my research, but also the ravages of time, the onslaught of disease, and of course; the eventuality of a natural demise!! Put simply, I want to eventually become a complete cyborg!!”
The exhilaration he had felt at that moment was far too great for him to hold back any longer. Consequently, his manner went from calm and composed to devolving into unbridled maniacal laughter. As a result, he must have seemed like some stereotypical mad scientist to his parents, not that his blatantly unethical research hadn’t done so already. This was the breaking point for both Odin and Izanami, for they had finally had enough of Faust’s delusions of grandeur and ominous ambition. So, they took him into custody, but not before he was able to put up quite the herculean struggle. After that, they had him shipped off to Midi which was the abode of Izanami’s side of the family, the leaders of which were famous for their unusually strict attitudes towards everything and everyone. The hope was that they would be able to reform Faust and suppress this dark side of his from growing any further. This was how the fourth stage of his schooling had concluded and was the beginning of the fifth and final stage of his higher education.
Late Young Adulthood, Climax - Da Capo:
- Spoiler:
His parents had expedited the process of his transfer to Midi and even took care of all the necessary paperwork on their own since they were only too happy to see him go there. Once in Midi, he was allowed to enter one of the prestigious universities there, one that dealt with further instruction in the technomedical magical arts, of course. However, he was not left to his own devices and was forbidden from staying in the dorms owned by the institution. In fact, right after he had landed, he was picked up by his maternal grandparents and brought to their clan compound where he was practically put under house arrest whenever he was not attending his university. While under this house arrest, he was relentlessly bombarded with what had seemed like incessant lecturing from said grandparents. The topics covered included everything from the essence of morality to the importance of being law abiding to the significance of compassion for one’s fellow living beings and everything in between.
Needless to say, he didn’t take kindly to this treatment which felt like utter torment to him. Normally, he would have been able to shrug this off and remain impassive, but he was still a human. So, he was susceptible to the same human foible of emotion when pressed too much, which was why their treatment had started to incense him. To his chagrin, though, he was stuck that way for the foreseeable future and nothing he did or said would be changing that anytime soon. As a result, over the next 5 years for which he was under the tutelage and guidance of the institution which he had joined after coming to Midi, he was all too enthusiastic to get away from his maternal grandparents and seek refuge in the haven of his university campus. Like always, he had made a name for himself in these academic circles as well. Contrary to his parent’s expectations, however, his dark side didn’t get suppressed at all. Actually, all the unending prattle he had heard from his maternal grandparents and the irritation it had caused over the past 5 years had only amplified it and further deepened its overall hold on him.
This was aggravated even further by the interactions he had with various travelers. He had seen a fair few of these since they usually came there to get treated for any ailments that couldn’t be treated elsewhere. They had regaled him with a great many details about their lives during the course of their conversations and interactions with him. He learned how free they were to roam about while living life on their own terms, unbound to anyone but themselves, and of how they didn’t have to bother with any kind of silly morals or laws if they didn’t want to, among other aspects. This, in turn, had made him envious of their life of apparently total freedom and made him start taking a keen interest in everything related to being such wanderers.
Along the way, during these 5 years, he had even managed to convince some of the weapon masters among his patients to instruct him in the art of using polearms, specifically naginatas and cane swords since he had always been fascinated with them from a young age. Apart from picking up naginata and sword wielding skills, he had also managed to involve himself in a few other things as well. The foremost of these was of course, his involvement in more and more complex research. The topic was obviously cyborg creation, since he had been eager to pick up his work which had been so rudely interrupted back in his birthplace, the nation of Iceberg. Apart from that, he has also been taught in great detail about the strategy, tactics, and all the closely associated skills as well, so he had come to be a decent tactician and strategist as well.
Due to this, he had ultimately managed to convert his entire body into that of a cyborg with the help of a few of his more eccentric professors, at least those with no qualms about the questionable nature of his research. Despite this success, at some point, he had run out of funding with which to support his research. Due to this, he could only cover the left ¾ of his body with special artificial skin fashioned in the style of his natural human skin. Hence, the remaining ¼ of his face and the entirety of the right half of his body had the visual appearance of a cyborg whereas his left half was human in appearance while still being cyborg underneath.
This resounding success came with several downsides, the chief among these being even further diminution of his already dwindling degree of social interaction. Of course, apart from this, there was also his inability to adhere to a consistently high degree of personal maintenance. This was because of how busy he had become by then, between his main profession as a budding physician-scientist mage on one side and his obsession with gain ever more knowledge through his research on various topics of interest to him on the other.
Late Young Adulthood, Present Day & Onwards - Aria of Achievment:
- Spoiler:
Thus, he had spent his days in Midi till the time of his graduation once more. By now, his maternal grandparents had given up on reforming him since he had proven too headstrong even for their strict methods. After graduation, he returned to Iceberg and on his 29th birthday, he announced his intent to become a wandering physician-scientist mage so that he could travel through all of Earthland and maybe even beyond in search of the greatest mysteries it had to offer him. Naturally, his parents were very surprised and very irate by that since they had been expecting him to take over leadership of the alliance and of the two clans as well. However, they knew how recalcitrant he could be when he had his mind set on something that was of interest to him. So, they didn’t bother to waste any time and energy in trying to stop him. For his part, he was loath to part with them on such sour terms due to how big of a hassle it would be to him later. So, he attempted to forestall this with the compromise of returning to take up his duties if ever his journey hit a major roadblock. That is to say, he promised to come back if he ever encountered a mystery or malady which proved to be beyond the reach of his powers/talents as a physician-scientist mage.
Fortunately, he was able to mollify them with the promise of this return, if only for the time being. As a result, they allowed him to set off on his grand odyssey. A century passed since then and along the way, he managed to pick up a few new skills to add to his repertoire. The first of these were linguistics skills which he acquired as a result of having to converse with a variety of different entities from a multitude of locales. The second was the technological intuition which he has procured from having to constantly run maintenance on his full cyborg body as well as his personal vehicle, and of course, his continuing research too. The third of these was his set of survival skills which he has learned through contending with the day to day challenges presented by the vast and varied terrains and environments throughout Earthland. The fourth and last were basic piloting skills which he was forced to acquire as a result of having to pilot his vehicle through the aforesaid range of different environments.
At long last, he managed to reach the kingdom of Fiore and has settled down there since then. To this day, he remains in the town of Magnolia where he has set up his practice as a professional physician-scientist mage. From here, it remains to be seen where life will take this budding professional scientist mage. One thing is certain though, this journey will undoubtedly be intriguing, at least to him.
RP Sample:
- Spoiler:
Upon noticing the sounds of their entry into his secret lab, he had turned around and gazed at them rather impassively while remarking
“Congratulations, it looks like you’ve finally managed to find me out.”
All the while he had not stopped tinkering with his latest research specimen, namely the pet cat of their neighbor which had gone missing under mysterious circumstances. He had been able to successfully replace its four limbs with their cybertechnological counterparts just mere minutes prior to their discovery of him. This temerity of his shocked them, though not as much as had the sight of his experimental subject, the very pet cat which their neighbors had reported missing several months earlier.
“What’s the meaning of this, Faust?!”
Odin had demanded of him, but Faust didn’t deign to reply to the point. Instead, he merely smirked and mused nonchalantly while his eyes were transfixed upon the sight of his parents
“Aww, what a pity…I had set up so many booby traps and alarms to alert me to any unwanted intrusion…so many in fact I had thought I would be warned well in advance…I should have known you two would be able to get past them all…”
As they watched, his eyes narrowed and he uttered a chuckle which had a chillingly calm, yet steely edge to it. This had surprised them since they didn’t think he was capable of such a thing, but they shook it off and re-focused their attention on him. Izanami, resumed their conversation first
“In the recent months, many of the fauna of this land have started to disappear under some rather mysterious circumstances…and this travesty has been compounded further by the incidents of all the neighbor’s pets vanishing with nary a trace or explanation…”
Here, she had paused for effect and then continued a few seconds later
“Furthermore, we have also received some especially strange, suspicious reports regarding your ever more inexplicable behavior during these past several months…”
As she spoke, both Izanami and Odin’s disappointment and sadness at witnessing Faust’s questionable activities became more markedly apparent by the minute. Finally, Odin spoke up again, this time pleading with him while at the same time asking
“How could you, a student with such a bright future…our scion, the future leader of the clan and alliance…what could have possessed you to perpetrate such a reprehensible crime?”
To this, he offered no defense, but rather just stared at them with an impassive smirk on his face. Thus, his parents were finally forced to accept this bitter truth as it confirmed their suspicions at last. This led once again to anger on their part due to which they started interrogating aggressively again while gesturing to what little they could see of the specimen behind him
“Faust…so it was you after all!! Speak, just what have you been up to here all this time?!”
He glanced back at the barely living, cyborg cat on the surgery table and then turned his gaze unfazed back toward them, letting out that same unnerving chuckle
“I guess the cat’s out of the bag now…I suppose it’s futile to say otherwise at this stage of the game…”
He paused, sighing dramatically before stretching his arms out. He gestured towards the many specimen stasis chambers, tesla coils, formalin baths, and other such aspects of his lab and continued
“I have been working on developing a way to convert living beings into cyborgs!! Isn’t it marvelous?!”
Face Claim:
- Username: KuroFaustΩ (Character Name: Faustein Kuroyakushi)
- Anime/Series/Game: Dr. Stone
- Character: Senkū Ishigami