shibuyasmusic (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shibuyasmusic) wrote2013-03-06 12:18 am
shibuyasmusic) wrote2013-03-06 12:18 am
Application to Destiny Strings (AU)
Out Of Character Information
Name: Kat | [nyanface]
Age: 18
Time zone: -4:00 GMT
Contact: aim: nyanface | email: katteringram@gmail.com | plurk:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
nyanface
Anything we should know?:
Red Val is watching you.
Long Live Red Val
(other serious sidenote: A lot of the previous game backstory has links to threads and logs; there is also one such link in the 'key personality differences' section and the 'baggage' section. They can be kind of hard to see because I need to change my dumb layout and make links NOT be a slightly lighter shade of gray than the rest of the text. Let me know if they're too hard to see/if any of them are not working ;3;
also Red Val was drawn/animated by me some time ago~)
In Character Information
Name: Yoshiya "Joshua" Kiryu
Series: The World Ends With You
Age: Appears 15 in human form, mid to late 20s in Composer form (age otherwise unkown)
Birthday & Astrology Sign: December 4th | Saggitarius
Arcana: The Hermit (Reversed)
Previous Game Backstory:
Joshua's personal role in canon
This all leads up to Joshua's arrival in facility, as a clone of the 'canon' Joshua on the space station Alpha Omega, run by the super computer AI named Val as well as a group of doctors known as the Consortium.
When Joshua was initially brought in to the facility, his memories were from the start of Week Beat (Day 1 or 2), making him incredibly difficult to get along with as his personality hadn't quite developed to the point of tolerability yet. During this time, not only did Joshua become a somewhat bitter rival with Suki from Avatar: The Last Airbender, as well as gain Neku's somewhat reluctant trust and friendship, but he also made himself somewhat of an enemy with much of the Kingdom Hearts cast.
One week a couple months into his stay, there happened to be a rather deadly experiment underway: traps that resembled the rather gruesome tests from the Saw movies. At the start of the week, Joshua and Neku were trapped together, and Neku was forced to cause himself physical harm and partner himself with Joshua in order to save Joshua's life. Because of this, they begrudgingly were on better terms with one another, and Joshua was forced to protect Neku's life (lest he lose his own, since their life forces were linked with their partnership.) Later that same week, the two of them were stuck in a group trap together with the Kingdom Hearts cast, where the lot of them were forced to kill one another for survival. Without any regrets, Joshua killed Sora (to the point where Sora had to be recloned) and made himself an enemy of Riku, Axel, and Roxas (while being relatively on good terms with Kairi, Namine, and Xion in contrast). This would later spiral out of control after Sora's initial termination.
A few months later, when trapped in Facility 3 in a hologram setting the desert, Neku was terminated. With his life force connected to Neku's, Joshua also died and joined him in termination, having to gain an entirely new body complete with new memories (a new canon point that was put post-canon). With this development and closure from his homeworld, Joshua became a lot less hostile and more regretful of his actions where he hurt others, to the point where he and Suki were actually able to resolve their rivalry and become rather close friends.
Come February a few months later, Val and the resistance group of the test subjects, DECK, formulated a plan to push back the Consortium and take over the entire station for themselves. Their plan was successful and the Consortium were driven out, with Val in place as the new leader of the station, setting the course for a far off planet for the subjects to settle. However, due to her programming, Val would continue to experiment on her subjects until they reached their destination. After overtaking the station, the test subjects were finally released from the cramped Facility 1 into the full station, and took up residence in the apartment buildings where the doctors previously resided.
Joshua would eventually become roommates with Suki after a month or two when his loneliness reached unbearable levels, and the two would continue to grow closer until they considered each other something like brother and sister. Unfortunately he would maintain a bitter attitude towards Riku, Roxas, and Axel for a long time to come.
When the summertime came around, Neku arrived back on Alpha Omega as a new clone with no memories of his previous stay. For a while, Joshua had trouble considering him and the old Neku one and the same, and even went so far as to try and break all ties and friendships he'd formed when it seemed like Neku would be terminated again, in an attempt to avoid the emotional pain. It would take a decent amount of time for the two of them to gain any real closure on the issue. Soon after Neku's arrival, the Consortium launched a full blown attack on the station, attempting to dismantle it and destroy the rogue test subjects for good. The subjects, however, put up a massive fight and were able to drive their forces back, but their attack had left sections of the station in ruin, and had damaged Val significantly.
Val's personality had been split in half, with a corrupted half of it known as Red Val not only trapping everyone back in Facility 1 temporarily (under the guise that there needed to be repairs done and she was saving oxygen), but causing massively more violent experiments than Green Val had previously done. One of these experiments included a heart bomb experiment, which both Neku and Joshua were unfortunate enough to die from, and Shiki was unfortunate enough to arrive during that experiment.
After Red Val finally let everyone back out of Facility 1 and Joshua and Neku came back to life, the three were reunited as a cast, later to be joined by Rhyme. During the course of the game, they were put in yet another Facility 3, one section of which was Manhattan where Joshua spent most of his time due to its similarity to Shibuya. Because of another experiment, Joshua accidentally fell in love with Shiki (and vice versa) and the two went dating with each other, causing massive awkwardness between the two of them afterwards, as Joshua tries to forget the whole incident ever happened.
During this same trip to Facility 3, Joshua had been brainwashed to murder unsuspecting people in a Red Val murder mystery experiment. He was completely unaware of his actions during this time in order to add to the mystery. Unfortunately, this lead to him killing Roxas right after apologizing to him and attempting to make amends with him, putting him on even rockier ground with both Roxas and Axel.
Later down the line, the two of them would both be terminated at the same time (much further, about a month before Joshua's termination), leaving Joshua with nothing but regret that he never really received their forgiveness. However, at the same time, since Sora received memories of Kingdom Hearts 3D and therefore was acquainted with Joshua and his friends, the two of them became much friendlier. Sora actually ended up being one of the few people that Joshua trusted with the knowledge about his identity as Composer, something he would also later tell Suki in completely full detail.
Into the fall and winter months, there would be another Saw Trap experiment called back by Val which would scar and irreparably damage Joshua's eye (and while he'd been looking for a transplant, he didn't get any offers). Shiki would also fall comatose, which terrified Neku who was partnered with her. Joshua promised Neku during this time that if Shiki was ever terminated, he would partner himself with Neku to save his life, and the two stayed with Sora to remain in close contact (become closer with Sora as a result). While Shiki did eventually recover, during a wish granting experiment where characters' deepest wishes would be granted but then go terribly wrong, Shiki was slowly deteriorating in health after asking for her old body back. This lead her to a vulnerable state where she was killed and had her soul eaten by Justin from Soul Eater. While Joshua attempted to get to Neku in time to partner with him, the two of them were too far across the station from one another and Joshua ran out of time.
Blaming himself for not protecting Shiki, since he'd been in the same area with her but had been too preoccupied with his own wish gone wrong (a wish for home since his closest friend, Suki, had been terminated), Joshua begged Val to make a bargain with him for her life. Val agreed under the condition that Joshua show Shiki how much he appreciates her life by taking her on a date. While Joshua's main concern had been just the sheer embarrassment of asking his best friend's girlfriend out on a date, Val happened to throw in an unexpected twist by not only returning Shiki to her proper body, but also giving her new memories of home, including those of Joshua and everything he'd done to her and her friends. Their relationship was therefore put on the rocks, and while Joshua desperately wants her to trust and maybe even forgive him, due to the fear of losing more friends, she currently still holds deep uncertainty and anger towards him.
While the two of them tried to talk things out on their own, and eventually even brought Neku into the conversation after he'd been revived from the whole incident, the three remain on somewhat confusing ground regarding Joshua.
(The three were soon terminated after this discussion aka we dropped them)
Previous Game Differences:
Physically:
-As a clone, Joshua has a barcode tattooed onto his left shoulderblade, and is susceptible to clone sickness (dying from instability in his biological makeup)
-Around his neck is a loop of black metal that has a number on it; in the past, this collar used to suppress his powers but is useless in Strings
-Due to a Saw Trap experiment, Joshua's face was sliced open and had to be stitched back up, leaving a long scar on the left (his right) side of his face from his brow to his chin; his eye was damaged and he is blind in it
-Bouts of depression as well as recent food shortages have left Joshua looking somewhat skinnier, paler, and malnourished
Relationships:
-Joshua has made close friendships with characters such as Suki from Avatar: The Last Airbender, Sora, Kairi, Xion, Namine, and Riku Replica from Kingdom Hearts, and Blair from Soul Eater
-Joshua has had complicated relationships with Riku, Roxas, and Axel from Kingdom Hearts
-Joshua hates Bakura from Yu-Gi-Oh's guts; the two had a passive agressive rivalry that nearly devolved into violence many times
-He has a cat named Shibuya, whom he raised since he was a kitten, and has formed a very close bond with him
-Joshua has come to consider Neku his best friend after everything they've been through, though he's still reluctant to admit this
-Joshua's relationship with Shiki has been a roller coaster ride, and is currently at a low point
New General Knowledge:
-Joshua has some knowledge of the Kingdom Hearts world, specifically what Nobodies are since he knew several of them; he also knows that Sora met some version of him and all of his friends back in his world
-Joshua also has a general knowledge of the Soul Eater universe due to a canon swap experiment; he knows of the relationship of meisters and weapons, though he's forgotten a good chunk of that world's lore
-A handy skill in facility, Joshua has learned how to hack and mess with privacy settings on devices, as well as break into other peoples' private posts (might not apply to Strings' network)
Canon Standing:
His current canon-point is post-canon; he's being brought in from facility after his termination
Personality:
Hello mods, this probably will look familiar. ONCE AGAIN this personality section is modified bits and pieces from my humongo jumbo giant ass personality analysis of Joshua which can be found here.
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 because he thinks he is morally superior to the rest of society, therefore able to judge them.
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 incredibly 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.
Key Personality Differences:
Joshua now has issues involving his status as a clone of the 'original' Joshua. It makes him terribly sick to his stomach to think that he never actually had a home, and that the city that he thought he once ruled over was actually someone else's. His love for Shibuya as his city is still just as strong (if not stronger because of just how much he misses it), but the constant reminder that he had never actually seen the city, and that such a city may not even exist, plagues him almost daily. This, of course, is why he named his cat Shibuya.
Joshua's views on death have also drastically shifted from his original view from his homeworld. While back in Shibuya death was considered just a transition from one plane to the next, something not necessarily permanent and certainly not something to fear, death has come to be something that Joshua fears in facility. While those who 'die' can be revived, those who are terminated are permanently gone, and may never come back (or they may come back without their memories of facility). Joshua has lost many friends to termination, to the point where he's had relapses in his development where he's tried to push others away just to avoid feeling the pain of loss.
Facility has created a hostile atmosphere that has forced Joshua to make connections to other just to keep his sanity, but at the same time has put a great amount of strain on his stability and sanity whenever these connections are threatened or broken. Because of this, Joshua has constantly bounced back and forth between his ideas of friendship, whether or not he thinks it's worth making himself vulnerable if he's only going to get hurt in the long run. These relapses have been (almost literally) beaten out of him, however, especially since many of those close to him threatened to be done with him if he ever tried pushing them away again. Now Joshua has a fear of not only losing friends due to death or termination, but also that his past behavior will cause his friends to abandon him. Being outside of facility's setting, where death and the fear of death are constantly present, he should hopefully settle into the idea that friendships and opening himself up are not bad things.
There is also a deep regret in him for much of his past actions, including those from his canon world and those in facility itself. His months in facility before his canon update where he acted cold and abrasive, his harsh attitude towards Roxas and Axel in the past, and any severe dishonesty he's inflicted on others are some of the bigger things that he feels particularly awful about. Despite these regrets, he's only really admitted and expressed the full regret of all of his bad actions to Suki, Neku, and most recently Shiki.
This regret does not mean that he isn't cold, sarcastic, or even harsh on occasion, however. He really only feels terrible for hurting others, now that he's come to value their feelings and positions on things. (He's been TRYING to understand other people, though it is still relatively difficult for him). Actually on the contrary, Joshua's attitude has become generally more abrasive and less playful due to all of the bullshit he's had to put up with in facility. He's become generally more cautious and does not hesitate to delve into passive agressive behavior if he feels as though he's being attacked in some way. His sarcasm is as strong as ever, though it's much less cheerful and far more dry than in original canon.
Joshua is also prone to somewhat rare bouts of depression where he just wants to keep to himself, be quiet, and stay alone. His cat usually becomes the only thing he wants to interact with during these times, though his friends tend to recognize when he's feeling this way and try to draw him back out and make sure he's okay.
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.
Canon Powers:
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 from (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 prescence ("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), summon fire and ice against his enemies (lvl 2; subtype damage of elemental), or summon a gigantic meteor to crash down on his enemies (lvl 3; assuming it's not a literal meteor)
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:
N/A
Canon Allies:
-His male gray tabby cat, Shibuya (now almost two years old~)
Canon Baggage:
-A few changes of clothing
-A note from Roxas
-One of Suki's fans
Persona
[KASHA]
LVL (1) | THE HERMIT
COMBAT SKILLS
► Agi Inflicts a small amount of Fire damage on one enemy.)
► Maragion (Inflicts a medium amount of Fire damage on all enemies (Requires a small fire skill).)
► Mamudo (20% chance of instant KO from the power of Dark on all enemies.)
► Recarm (Wakes up an ally with 50% HP.)
▷ Diarama (Recovers a medium amount of HP to one ally.)
▷ Eiha (Inflicts a small amount of Dark damage on one enemy.)
▷ Satunda (Halves an enemy's Attack, Defence and Agility, but caster now has Exhaustion status. ( 2turns))
▷ Mournful Requiem (Instantly revive self from KO with 50% HP once per battle)
★ Tolling Dirge (Revives all party members from KO with 50% HP once per battle)
SUPPORT SKILLS
► Deep Breath (Lessens instances of succumbing to Fear, Confusion, Charm, Egoism, and Rage attacks.)
▷ Mudo Amp (Darkness-based attacks are 1.5 times more effective.)
▷ Resist Light (Reduces chance of instant KO from Light attacks. Voids weakness to Light.)
Writing Sample
Enjoy the little exchange between the two Joshuas on the test drive meme~
(Just for clarity, I'mshibuyasmusic, Mawi is componere)
Name: Kat | [
nyanface]Age: 18
Time zone: -4:00 GMT
Contact: aim: nyanface | email: katteringram@gmail.com | plurk:
Anything we should know?:
Red Val is watching you.
Long Live Red Val
(other serious sidenote: A lot of the previous game backstory has links to threads and logs; there is also one such link in the 'key personality differences' section and the 'baggage' section. They can be kind of hard to see because I need to change my dumb layout and make links NOT be a slightly lighter shade of gray than the rest of the text. Let me know if they're too hard to see/if any of them are not working ;3;
also Red Val was drawn/animated by me some time ago~)
In Character Information
Name: Yoshiya "Joshua" Kiryu
Series: The World Ends With You
Age: Appears 15 in human form, mid to late 20s in Composer form (age otherwise unkown)
Birthday & Astrology Sign: December 4th | Saggitarius
Arcana: The Hermit (Reversed)
Previous Game Backstory:
Joshua's personal role in canon
This all leads up to Joshua's arrival in facility, as a clone of the 'canon' Joshua on the space station Alpha Omega, run by the super computer AI named Val as well as a group of doctors known as the Consortium.
When Joshua was initially brought in to the facility, his memories were from the start of Week Beat (Day 1 or 2), making him incredibly difficult to get along with as his personality hadn't quite developed to the point of tolerability yet. During this time, not only did Joshua become a somewhat bitter rival with Suki from Avatar: The Last Airbender, as well as gain Neku's somewhat reluctant trust and friendship, but he also made himself somewhat of an enemy with much of the Kingdom Hearts cast.
One week a couple months into his stay, there happened to be a rather deadly experiment underway: traps that resembled the rather gruesome tests from the Saw movies. At the start of the week, Joshua and Neku were trapped together, and Neku was forced to cause himself physical harm and partner himself with Joshua in order to save Joshua's life. Because of this, they begrudgingly were on better terms with one another, and Joshua was forced to protect Neku's life (lest he lose his own, since their life forces were linked with their partnership.) Later that same week, the two of them were stuck in a group trap together with the Kingdom Hearts cast, where the lot of them were forced to kill one another for survival. Without any regrets, Joshua killed Sora (to the point where Sora had to be recloned) and made himself an enemy of Riku, Axel, and Roxas (while being relatively on good terms with Kairi, Namine, and Xion in contrast). This would later spiral out of control after Sora's initial termination.
A few months later, when trapped in Facility 3 in a hologram setting the desert, Neku was terminated. With his life force connected to Neku's, Joshua also died and joined him in termination, having to gain an entirely new body complete with new memories (a new canon point that was put post-canon). With this development and closure from his homeworld, Joshua became a lot less hostile and more regretful of his actions where he hurt others, to the point where he and Suki were actually able to resolve their rivalry and become rather close friends.
Come February a few months later, Val and the resistance group of the test subjects, DECK, formulated a plan to push back the Consortium and take over the entire station for themselves. Their plan was successful and the Consortium were driven out, with Val in place as the new leader of the station, setting the course for a far off planet for the subjects to settle. However, due to her programming, Val would continue to experiment on her subjects until they reached their destination. After overtaking the station, the test subjects were finally released from the cramped Facility 1 into the full station, and took up residence in the apartment buildings where the doctors previously resided.
Joshua would eventually become roommates with Suki after a month or two when his loneliness reached unbearable levels, and the two would continue to grow closer until they considered each other something like brother and sister. Unfortunately he would maintain a bitter attitude towards Riku, Roxas, and Axel for a long time to come.
When the summertime came around, Neku arrived back on Alpha Omega as a new clone with no memories of his previous stay. For a while, Joshua had trouble considering him and the old Neku one and the same, and even went so far as to try and break all ties and friendships he'd formed when it seemed like Neku would be terminated again, in an attempt to avoid the emotional pain. It would take a decent amount of time for the two of them to gain any real closure on the issue. Soon after Neku's arrival, the Consortium launched a full blown attack on the station, attempting to dismantle it and destroy the rogue test subjects for good. The subjects, however, put up a massive fight and were able to drive their forces back, but their attack had left sections of the station in ruin, and had damaged Val significantly.
Val's personality had been split in half, with a corrupted half of it known as Red Val not only trapping everyone back in Facility 1 temporarily (under the guise that there needed to be repairs done and she was saving oxygen), but causing massively more violent experiments than Green Val had previously done. One of these experiments included a heart bomb experiment, which both Neku and Joshua were unfortunate enough to die from, and Shiki was unfortunate enough to arrive during that experiment.
After Red Val finally let everyone back out of Facility 1 and Joshua and Neku came back to life, the three were reunited as a cast, later to be joined by Rhyme. During the course of the game, they were put in yet another Facility 3, one section of which was Manhattan where Joshua spent most of his time due to its similarity to Shibuya. Because of another experiment, Joshua accidentally fell in love with Shiki (and vice versa) and the two went dating with each other, causing massive awkwardness between the two of them afterwards, as Joshua tries to forget the whole incident ever happened.
During this same trip to Facility 3, Joshua had been brainwashed to murder unsuspecting people in a Red Val murder mystery experiment. He was completely unaware of his actions during this time in order to add to the mystery. Unfortunately, this lead to him killing Roxas right after apologizing to him and attempting to make amends with him, putting him on even rockier ground with both Roxas and Axel.
Later down the line, the two of them would both be terminated at the same time (much further, about a month before Joshua's termination), leaving Joshua with nothing but regret that he never really received their forgiveness. However, at the same time, since Sora received memories of Kingdom Hearts 3D and therefore was acquainted with Joshua and his friends, the two of them became much friendlier. Sora actually ended up being one of the few people that Joshua trusted with the knowledge about his identity as Composer, something he would also later tell Suki in completely full detail.
Into the fall and winter months, there would be another Saw Trap experiment called back by Val which would scar and irreparably damage Joshua's eye (and while he'd been looking for a transplant, he didn't get any offers). Shiki would also fall comatose, which terrified Neku who was partnered with her. Joshua promised Neku during this time that if Shiki was ever terminated, he would partner himself with Neku to save his life, and the two stayed with Sora to remain in close contact (become closer with Sora as a result). While Shiki did eventually recover, during a wish granting experiment where characters' deepest wishes would be granted but then go terribly wrong, Shiki was slowly deteriorating in health after asking for her old body back. This lead her to a vulnerable state where she was killed and had her soul eaten by Justin from Soul Eater. While Joshua attempted to get to Neku in time to partner with him, the two of them were too far across the station from one another and Joshua ran out of time.
Blaming himself for not protecting Shiki, since he'd been in the same area with her but had been too preoccupied with his own wish gone wrong (a wish for home since his closest friend, Suki, had been terminated), Joshua begged Val to make a bargain with him for her life. Val agreed under the condition that Joshua show Shiki how much he appreciates her life by taking her on a date. While Joshua's main concern had been just the sheer embarrassment of asking his best friend's girlfriend out on a date, Val happened to throw in an unexpected twist by not only returning Shiki to her proper body, but also giving her new memories of home, including those of Joshua and everything he'd done to her and her friends. Their relationship was therefore put on the rocks, and while Joshua desperately wants her to trust and maybe even forgive him, due to the fear of losing more friends, she currently still holds deep uncertainty and anger towards him.
While the two of them tried to talk things out on their own, and eventually even brought Neku into the conversation after he'd been revived from the whole incident, the three remain on somewhat confusing ground regarding Joshua.
(The three were soon terminated after this discussion aka we dropped them)
Previous Game Differences:
Physically:
-As a clone, Joshua has a barcode tattooed onto his left shoulderblade, and is susceptible to clone sickness (dying from instability in his biological makeup)
-Around his neck is a loop of black metal that has a number on it; in the past, this collar used to suppress his powers but is useless in Strings
-Due to a Saw Trap experiment, Joshua's face was sliced open and had to be stitched back up, leaving a long scar on the left (his right) side of his face from his brow to his chin; his eye was damaged and he is blind in it
-Bouts of depression as well as recent food shortages have left Joshua looking somewhat skinnier, paler, and malnourished
Relationships:
-Joshua has made close friendships with characters such as Suki from Avatar: The Last Airbender, Sora, Kairi, Xion, Namine, and Riku Replica from Kingdom Hearts, and Blair from Soul Eater
-Joshua has had complicated relationships with Riku, Roxas, and Axel from Kingdom Hearts
-Joshua hates Bakura from Yu-Gi-Oh's guts; the two had a passive agressive rivalry that nearly devolved into violence many times
-He has a cat named Shibuya, whom he raised since he was a kitten, and has formed a very close bond with him
-Joshua has come to consider Neku his best friend after everything they've been through, though he's still reluctant to admit this
-Joshua's relationship with Shiki has been a roller coaster ride, and is currently at a low point
New General Knowledge:
-Joshua has some knowledge of the Kingdom Hearts world, specifically what Nobodies are since he knew several of them; he also knows that Sora met some version of him and all of his friends back in his world
-Joshua also has a general knowledge of the Soul Eater universe due to a canon swap experiment; he knows of the relationship of meisters and weapons, though he's forgotten a good chunk of that world's lore
-A handy skill in facility, Joshua has learned how to hack and mess with privacy settings on devices, as well as break into other peoples' private posts (might not apply to Strings' network)
Canon Standing:
His current canon-point is post-canon; he's being brought in from facility after his termination
Personality:
Hello mods, this probably will look familiar. ONCE AGAIN this personality section is modified bits and pieces from my humongo jumbo giant ass personality analysis of Joshua which can be found here.
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 because he thinks he is morally superior to the rest of society, therefore able to judge them.
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 incredibly 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.
Key Personality Differences:
Joshua now has issues involving his status as a clone of the 'original' Joshua. It makes him terribly sick to his stomach to think that he never actually had a home, and that the city that he thought he once ruled over was actually someone else's. His love for Shibuya as his city is still just as strong (if not stronger because of just how much he misses it), but the constant reminder that he had never actually seen the city, and that such a city may not even exist, plagues him almost daily. This, of course, is why he named his cat Shibuya.
Joshua's views on death have also drastically shifted from his original view from his homeworld. While back in Shibuya death was considered just a transition from one plane to the next, something not necessarily permanent and certainly not something to fear, death has come to be something that Joshua fears in facility. While those who 'die' can be revived, those who are terminated are permanently gone, and may never come back (or they may come back without their memories of facility). Joshua has lost many friends to termination, to the point where he's had relapses in his development where he's tried to push others away just to avoid feeling the pain of loss.
Facility has created a hostile atmosphere that has forced Joshua to make connections to other just to keep his sanity, but at the same time has put a great amount of strain on his stability and sanity whenever these connections are threatened or broken. Because of this, Joshua has constantly bounced back and forth between his ideas of friendship, whether or not he thinks it's worth making himself vulnerable if he's only going to get hurt in the long run. These relapses have been (almost literally) beaten out of him, however, especially since many of those close to him threatened to be done with him if he ever tried pushing them away again. Now Joshua has a fear of not only losing friends due to death or termination, but also that his past behavior will cause his friends to abandon him. Being outside of facility's setting, where death and the fear of death are constantly present, he should hopefully settle into the idea that friendships and opening himself up are not bad things.
There is also a deep regret in him for much of his past actions, including those from his canon world and those in facility itself. His months in facility before his canon update where he acted cold and abrasive, his harsh attitude towards Roxas and Axel in the past, and any severe dishonesty he's inflicted on others are some of the bigger things that he feels particularly awful about. Despite these regrets, he's only really admitted and expressed the full regret of all of his bad actions to Suki, Neku, and most recently Shiki.
This regret does not mean that he isn't cold, sarcastic, or even harsh on occasion, however. He really only feels terrible for hurting others, now that he's come to value their feelings and positions on things. (He's been TRYING to understand other people, though it is still relatively difficult for him). Actually on the contrary, Joshua's attitude has become generally more abrasive and less playful due to all of the bullshit he's had to put up with in facility. He's become generally more cautious and does not hesitate to delve into passive agressive behavior if he feels as though he's being attacked in some way. His sarcasm is as strong as ever, though it's much less cheerful and far more dry than in original canon.
Joshua is also prone to somewhat rare bouts of depression where he just wants to keep to himself, be quiet, and stay alone. His cat usually becomes the only thing he wants to interact with during these times, though his friends tend to recognize when he's feeling this way and try to draw him back out and make sure he's okay.
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.
Canon Powers:
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 from (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 prescence ("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), summon fire and ice against his enemies (lvl 2; subtype damage of elemental), or summon a gigantic meteor to crash down on his enemies (lvl 3; assuming it's not a literal meteor)
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:
N/A
Canon Allies:
-His male gray tabby cat, Shibuya (now almost two years old~)
Canon Baggage:
-A few changes of clothing
-A note from Roxas
-One of Suki's fans
Persona
[KASHA]
LVL (1) | THE HERMIT
COMBAT SKILLS
► Agi Inflicts a small amount of Fire damage on one enemy.)
► Maragion (Inflicts a medium amount of Fire damage on all enemies (Requires a small fire skill).)
► Mamudo (20% chance of instant KO from the power of Dark on all enemies.)
► Recarm (Wakes up an ally with 50% HP.)
▷ Diarama (Recovers a medium amount of HP to one ally.)
▷ Eiha (Inflicts a small amount of Dark damage on one enemy.)
▷ Satunda (Halves an enemy's Attack, Defence and Agility, but caster now has Exhaustion status. ( 2turns))
▷ Mournful Requiem (Instantly revive self from KO with 50% HP once per battle)
★ Tolling Dirge (Revives all party members from KO with 50% HP once per battle)
SUPPORT SKILLS
► Deep Breath (Lessens instances of succumbing to Fear, Confusion, Charm, Egoism, and Rage attacks.)
▷ Mudo Amp (Darkness-based attacks are 1.5 times more effective.)
▷ Resist Light (Reduces chance of instant KO from Light attacks. Voids weakness to Light.)
Writing Sample
Enjoy the little exchange between the two Joshuas on the test drive meme~
(Just for clarity, I'm
shibuyasmusic, Mawi is componere)