keith anyan; application

[machineheart]

→ OOC
□ Name: coffee
□ Age: 30
□ Contact: brewmegently @ plurk, aim; this email
□ Journal: caffemisto
□ Do you play anyone in Ariel?: Jade Curtiss (Tales of the Abyss), Ganymede (Olympos)

→ IC
□ Name: Keith Anyan
□ Journal: machineheart
□ Series: Toward the Terra
□ Canon point: mid episode 22, after Sam's death but before Matsuka's
□ History: http://www.animevice.com/keith-anyan/18-20894/ - This link neatly covers 2/3 of his history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Toward_the_Terra_episodes - The rest can be filled in with this episode guide.

The major events in Keith's history that come after the part covered in the first link involves him being asked to become an Elder Statesman, and a visit to Sam wherein he discusses some of his concerns about the SD system and is told by Sam that they're friends, as well as receiving Sam's toy puzzle. Keith also confronts the Mu using some of their number suspended above Jupiter in a concentration camp, threatening to put them through a slow, agonizing death if the Mu do not surrender and stop seeking Terra. His canon point is on the day that he finds out about Sam's death at home, and before the Mu give their answer.

□ Personality: Keith is a complex man - a prideful, powerful leader able to make impossibly difficult decisions with a cool head, an unwavering follower of his own pre-chosen destiny, and underneath it all a very confused man with little understanding of relationships or basic human emotions.

Keith has spent his life being called a machine, the child of a computer, raised to be a mechanical marionette that moves on the strings of Mother and Grandmother, with little human response of his own. This is partially true. Keith was created and raised to be an ideal leader, possessed of confidence, level-headedness, emotional distance, and the ability to see things through to the end. He is cool, calm, and collected in difficult situations, very rarely giving in to anger or being swayed by emotion - he thinks logically, and is able to make decisions that, while sometimes ruthless, are always effective in carrying out the mission at hand or advancing his cause.

While he is more than willing to make sacrifices to carry out what he believes firmly to be the greater good, it certainly doesn't mean that he doesn't connect with others on a personal level. Charismatic, he is capable of inspiring large groups of people to believe in what he believes in, to unite them in a single cause together. On a more individual level, he frequently shows gratefulness to those around them for their good work, and encourages them in order to bring out their full potential. Like any good leader, he's a hard worker, and generally unafraid to carry out the same difficult work he would ask others to do.

However, all of what Keith does as a leader is masked with a certain level of emotional detachment. He shows concern or appreciation coolly, when terrible things happen, he fails to react with shock or horror. He presents the persona of a machine, closed off and incapable of opening up even to those who care deeply for him. Emotions are weakness, in Keith's world, the excessive focus on emotions and feelings are what embody the Mu, and therefore everything he stands against. For him to experience or express emotions is unthinkable.

Still, that doesn't mean that those emotions aren't there under the surface. Despite being called a machine, and despite having had his life mostly planned out for him in advance, Keith is very much human. Having grown up with heightened expectations placed upon him, heightened expectations that he fulfilled seemingly effortlessly, he started out set apart from those around him, and because of his emotional withdrawal, that situation only grew worse. As a result, Keith is a singular and very lonely man with few connections to other people and little capacity for expressing his feelings.

In fact, Keith is frequently confused by his own emotions, either positive or negative. As a teenager, he is perplexed by his own anger and the way it makes him act when he slaps Shiroe across the face; as an adult, he is equally perplexed at his own feelings regarding being called a friend by Sam. Always thrown off-guard by his own emotional response, he sees it as something that cannot be controlled, dangerous, and therefore bad - and because of this, he attempts to shut those emotions down. This has resulted in a man who keeps his sorrows and pleasures bottled up, simmering inside him and refusing to disappear no matter how much he tries to deny them. He makes excuses for his emotions, refusing to acknowledge his friendships, refusing to accept when he cares for people and preferring to say that he's using them, even when he isn't. He perceives his own feelings as a constant failure, even while their presence causes him to question the very cause he was created to maintain.

And the cause of the Superior Domination System, along with Grandmother - the annihilation of all Mu and the complete control of all human desire and emotion - is extremely central to Keith's character and development. He is the champion of the cause, he is willing to commit genocide and sacrifice his own people and make friends into pawns in order to maintain the system while at the same time questioning its value at every turn. Ultimately torn, Keith follows the path that was chosen to him because he firmly believes that there is no other option, that there is nothing for him if he doesn't do it. Even while realizing, both consciously and subconsciously on a much deeper level, that the SD System is unhealthy and that Grandmother's guidance is a lie, he works very hard to maintain that lie, and rather than rebel, he has chosen to embrace it. Instead of rebelling, he has chosen to make himself over in the image Grandmother gave him.

And yet, there is still hope inside him - through the relationships he has developed during his life, and his own logical thought processes, he is capable of slowly learning to change. Ultimately, however he came to be and however he was developed, Keith is still human, and capable of learning and adapting, however resistant he is to that change.

□ Age: approximately 35
□ Gender: male
□ Appearance: Keith is a tall man with an athletic build. His blue-black hair is worn around jaw length in a sort of shaggy cut with a strand that falls in his face, and his eyes are a bright pale shade somewhere between blue, green, and grey. He generally dresses in the uniform of his position - while he's never shown in plain clothes in canon, I imagine he'd wear clothing similar to a uniform by choice, such as peacoats, blazers, slacks, and sweaters on more casual days.
□ Abilities/Powers: While Keith is a normal human, as far as supernatural abilities are concerned, he is also genetically engineered to be the perfect being, likely as far as avoiding natural genetic defects are concerned. He's gone through military training, is in peak physical condition, and has undergone training for various anti-psychic techniques including blocking his mind from being probed by psychics or telepaths by diverting them through repetitive feedback of an information feed about Terra. Despite this, he is also shown to be the only human who directly communicates with the Mu mentally by through thought waves intended for them to hear. Whether this is an ability he has, or just a personal choice he has made, however, is unclear, as the Mu can generally read a human's mind without their consent and generally without their knowledge.
□ Personal Items: a taser-style paralyzer gun about the size of a pistol, a puzzle toy about the size and shape of a small football that belonged to Sam, a battered and partially burnt copy of the book Peter Pan that belonged to Shiroe, a small disc containing a recording of Shiroe's message to him regarding his birth, his pair of red earrings containing Sam's blood

□ First Person Sample:

[Keith is accustomed to communicating via video, and so when he's had enough time to get himself oriented after his initiation into this place, to adapt his thought patterns, he decides to make a proper video communication to the network. The only mirror large enough was in the bathroom, though, and so he stands in front of it, shoulders squared, pale eyes firmly locked on his own reflection.]

It seems I have become a citizen of Ariel, at least in the short term. Whether or not going back is a possibility, the fact remains that, for now, this is the place in which we must make our home.

[He shifts, just slightly, though he keeps his shoulders back and his head up, his gaze firm.]

Since that is the case, then integration as suggested seems to be the best possible option, as well as the only way to procure any sort of power in this place. I imagine some of you, new as well, have been able to achieve integration to some extent. How successful an endeavor has it been?

□ Third Person Sample: http://machineheart.dreamwidth.org/1235.html - Transcription of an AIM log set in City of Ariel.