Application to Destiny Strings

[shibuyasmusic]

Out Of Character Information
Name: Kat | [nyanface]
Age: 18
Time zone: -4:00 GMT
Contact: aim: nyanface; email: katteringram@gmail.com; plurk: nyanface
Anything we should know?:





In Character Information
Name: Yoshiya "Joshua" Kiryu
Series: The World Ends With You
Canon Standing: Post canon (a week after Neku and friends meet at Hachiko)
Age: Appears 15 when his powers are tuned down; appears about 25-28 at full power (age otherwise unknown)
Birthday & Astrology Sign: December 4th | Sagittarius
Arcana: The Hermit (Reversed)

Personality:

This personality section is modified bits and pieces from my humongo jumbo giant ass personality analysis of Joshua which can be found here. I dare you to read it, mods. I dare you.

(I tried to cut it down as much as I could, I swear.)

Joshua's attitude as we see him as Composer, offering to play a Game with his Conductor in order to decide the fate of Shibuya, is one of a tired person who very clearly views himself as mighty and worthy of the judgement of others. It's easy to picture that he doesn't view himself as entirely human, considering his transcendent status as something that's practically a lesser deity, and puts himself above Shibuya as its caretaker. In fact, it's undetermined how long Joshua stayed in the form of Composer before the events of the game, but implied that it's been an incredibly long time since Joshua has regularly mingled with others. Joshua's only 'human' contact outside of his Conductor, whom he views as more like an envoy or employee than as a friend, is the Producer Hanekoma.

His status as inhuman and being all but completely closed off to society and the outside world is part of what lent Joshua the ability to disregard any moral consequence in killing Neku to bring him in as proxy for his game. Joshua also deemed these actions necessary to bring about what he believed to be a necessary sacrifice for the greater good, and viewed Neku as nothing more than a pawn in a game of chess.

Throughout Week Joshua, we see him lie, duck, dodge, and hide in order to keep his identity as Composer a secret from Neku, pinning him as someone who is incredibly clever and manipulative of others, and capable of putting together elaborate lies to protect himself and to protect his assets. Joshua is a rather selfish character, but he's selfish for reasons he quite literally deems morally superior. When he describes his reasons for wanting to destroy Shibuya being due to its 'corruption' and threat of 'poisoning the other grounds' (in other words, tainting the rest of the world) with its selfish behavior and unused potential, it's very clear that Joshua views himself as morally sound with his judgement. He's not out to destroy Shibuya because he's an evil and maniacal mastermind doing it for fun, nor is he insane with revenge or other such nonsense. He is doing it literally because he believes that Shibuya is a lost cause and that if he does not rid himself of the city, it will only spell out disaster for other parts of the world.

Joshua's moral superiority is exemplified the most in his multiple conversations about society with Neku during Week Joshua. In fact, a lot of his words are very telling of his own personality and how he relates to Neku. Whether Joshua was testing his proxy to see him change or trying to get Neku to agree with him, Joshua is constantly instigating Neku with teasing words and difficult, almost philosophical questions. We see that not unlike Neku from before the start of the game, Joshua believes quite strongly that society is a nuisance, a messy noise of people who can't get along and refuse to understand each other. Not only will they not change, but he thinks they're wrapped up in their own little worlds and will not budge when asked to branch out. He views trends and entertainment as something Shibuya puts too much value in; that instead of trying to find something with real meaning, Shibuya's people will look to one big thing for a brief moment, then move on to another the next day. Not to mention the people who are forced to change themselves just to fit in to society, which Joshua especially disapproves of and finds rather disgusting.

To this end, however, Joshua can be viewed as one really big hypocrite. While he closes himself off from other human beings and deems them impossible to understand, viewing himself and his intelligence superior to theirs, he absolutely despises that sort of behavior coming from others. This is all a bit funny as he views Neku with something of utter disdain, and yet, is very, very similar to him in personality, serving as Neku's foil throughout the game.

This is all topped off by two outstanding comments that really define his character. Joshua finds that trying to understand people and their viewpoints is impossible and that random clashing only occurs when it happens, making things a big messy chaos of misunderstandings and violence. He then says that instead of dealing with people, he'd rather just get rid of them all. As Neku's foil, Joshua represents everything that Neku felt before the start of the game and before he began to change. This is why, while Neku initially agrees with him, he ends up reconsidering his viewpoint and totally disagrees with such an idea. At which point, even to Joshua's own surprise, he begins reconsidering his own viewpoint on society. (This is where comments like "Only by allowing strangers in can we find new ways to be ourselves" comes from: he is taking into consideration-- though not necessarily quite accepting-- possible positives on clashing viewpoints.)

There's more commentary in Week Joshua that suggest other deep things about his character, things that suggest the reasons as to why Joshua was the way he was in the first place. This is where some extra side-comments in Week Joshua really come in to play. When pretending to be a dead Player like Neku, Joshua has to come up with somewhat of a cover story. The only thing is, he left so much vague and so very believable and true to his character that one can actually regard what he said as once being true. For instance, Hanekoma 'lying' that Joshua is really just a lonely kid who was ostracized for being able to see Reapers, Players, and Noise despite residing in the RG seems to ring with a lot of truth, considering it makes sense in regards to his character and would lend to a reason as to why Joshua's strength as Composer is so ridiculously powerful. In fact, it's confirmed by certain thought bubbles of other people wandering Shibuya that "second sight", as Hanekoma dubbed it, is a rare but very possible thing, where people can sometimes witness Noise, Players, or Reapers. Being ostracized for being 'weird' or 'different' gives Joshua at least some background as to why he closes himself off. Another, very jarring comment actually gives heavy implication to the idea that Joshua might have committed suicide or otherwise gave up on being alive upon his initial entry into the UG, when Joshua says living every day in a world of people he couldn't stand to be around felt more like death than being in the UG did, and that he preferred to be in the UG. While this could be a carefully crafted lie, it again follows Joshua's character very closely as something he would do, and either way shows that Joshua holds a lot of disdain and trauma from being with society, to the point where he'd literally rather be dead.

The main idea taken away from these conversations is that Joshua is not only incredibly judgmental and sees himself as superior to society, likely due to past experience or trauma from being rejected by society, but also that in the end he very clearly does take into consideration the fact that even people like Neku can change and open up to others. This, in turn, begins to change him as well.

It's implied that throughout Week Beat, while Joshua is in the universe of Another Day, he is contemplating his decision to keep or destroy Shibuya. Being in a version of Shibuya that is comparatively more peaceful (as Joshua admits himself in Another Day) allows him to not only realize what potential Shibuya does hold but his reasoning that Shibuya is possibly capable of change and realizing that potential. This careful reconsidering, all spurned on by Neku's actions and words during Week Joshua, eventually pulls him to the decision to spare Shibuya, and actually consider connecting and opening up to others. By the end of the game, in fact, while Joshua's personality hasn't necessarily done a complete flip, he's certainly grown more open to at least attempting to socialize with other people and care for their well-being.

Unfortunately, his behavior post-canon can only be speculated due to the lack of clear and legitimate canon as to whether or not he decided to be friends with Neku and company or not. But very fortunately, we are given some idea as to how he would behave thanks to Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance, where it can be assumed that Joshua is post-canon. While still aloof, and putting up somewhat of a mask on the outside, Joshua clearly demonstrates that he cares very deeply for the people he now considers to be his friends, Neku especially. It stands to reason that given a positive atmosphere, Joshua would continue to develop a more open attitude, though this would still take time and effort from his end. However, if put into a situation where caring for others could get him hurt or traumatized in any way emotionally, whether if it was through betrayal or else through losing his friends, Joshua would be extremely prone to relapses in behavior. Even in a positive setting, it's a likelihood that Joshua would have moments where he second guesses himself and would still remain very wary of others until the chance allows itself for him to open up.

Joshua would by no means become a social character, but his attitude would begin to change in small ways to be more accepting of others, and of new friendships.

For how he would generally behave with people, while Joshua may still judge people heavily for their choices and actions, especially if those choices or actions aren't morally sound or true to that person, he wouldn't necessarily act hostile to others. Joshua is incredibly intellectual and would likely trust and appreciate those more strongly who are philosophical or else reside in a grey area, like he does. He's a lot more open to conversation and legitimately connecting with others than he once was, however if someone gives him reason to be wary, Joshua can enter a very dangerous passive-aggressive state of mind where sharp insults and serious but subtle threats make their way through. He refuses to let himself be manipulated by others. While he himself may have once considered manipulating people freely with no second thought, Joshua likely wouldn't do it at this point in his character unless he found it absolutely necessary, either for his own safety or for the safety of others.

Backstory:

Joshua's personal role in the story~

Canon Powers:

As the Composer of Shibuya, Joshua is an enormously powerful being, close in strength to a small deity or god; the extent of his powers isn't even very clear because of this. He is apparently super durable in Composer form, nearly impossible to kill, implying that he would deflect or absorb almost all damage if it were not substantial. When his vibe is lowered, however, Joshua leaves himself in a state of vulnerability, and can easily sustain mortal damage if he does not defend himself.

Powers List:

Telekinesis (Mind/Physical) - able to move or stop things with his mind, including himself or others, of practically any size (levitation falls under here, as do force fields)

Telepathy (Mind) - able to read minds; also able to block others from reading/affecting his mind, granted he's got his full power available to him (general resistance to Mind skills)

Teleportation (Mind) - Joshua can do long range teleportation in Composer form (for instance, one side of the city to the other), or short range teleportation when his vibe is lowered (about 20 feet at a time); he can also teleport other objects, and "summons" junk like vending machines, street signs, bicycles, or cars to fall on his enemies' heads (physical subtype of damage)

Soul Sensing (Mind) - able to feel out vibes of other people and notice their presence ("scanning"; ties in with telepathy)

Vibe Change (Mind) - able to suppress his power (de-aging as a side-effect)

Fusion (Mind) - partnering up with someone, Joshua is able to sync with them and either drop cars on his enemies (lvl 1; subtype damage of physical), summon fire and ice against his enemies (lvl 2; subtype damage of fire/ice), or summon a gigantic meteor to crash down on his enemies (lvl 3; assuming it's not a literal meteor; subtype damage of physical/fire)

Holy Light (Light) - summon beams of strong light energy that disintegrate enemies

Erasure (Almighty) - the ability to completely obliterate and wipe from existence any substance, including Souls; when in Composer form, he can do this on a large scale, having the capability to erase an entire city and all of its people from existence

Canon Weapons|Items:
His Cell Phone~ (Joshua can channel his energy through his phone; this is mostly to suppress his power and focus it rather than release a whole torrent of energy)

Canon Allies:
None

Canon Baggage:
-His phone
-Several changes of clothing (Dragon Couture, Pegaso, and Natural Puppy brands)

Persona
[HACHIKO]
LVL (1) | The Hermit
WEAK: Earth | REFLECTS: N/A | ABSORBS: N/A | BLOCKS: N/A | RESISTS: Fire

COMBAT SKILLS
▶ Maragi (Inflicts a small amount of Fire damage on all enemies.)
▶ Double Fangs (Inflicts a small amount of Physical damage twice on one enemy.)
▶ Patra (Recover from Fear, Confusion, Charm, Egoism and Rage. One Ally.)
▶ Agilao (Inflicts a medium amount of Fire damage on one enemy.)
▷ Tarukaja (Doubles an ally's Attack power. (1 turn))
▷ Swift Strike (Inflicts a small amount of Physical damage up to twice with a 10% chance of Confusion on all enemies.)
▷ Maragion (Inflicts a medium amount of Fire damage on all enemies.)
▷ Loyal Howl (Doubles ally's Attack, Defense and Agility, but caster now has Exhaustion status. (3 turns))
★ Faithful Hachiko (Calls allies within a 500 foot radius to gather and doubles their Attack power. (2 turns))

PASSIVE SKILLS
▶ Resist Fall (Lessens instances of falling Down during a knockdown.)
▷ Evade Earth (Triples evasion against Earth attacks.)
▷ Endure Light (Automatically survive instant KO one time from a Light attack with 1 HP.)

Writing Sample
A fun post from a-facility that kind of exhibits both Joshua's somewhat hostile side as well as his more friendly side.

There are several threads in there I really like, but those two show his two different attitudes (cautious/hostile versus friendly/open) fairly well. The mods can look at their leisure~