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PLAYER
» HANDLE: Ary
» CONTACT:

arybaisser
» AGE: 28
» CHARACTER(S) IN-GAME: None

CHARACTER
» NAME: Raphael
» CANON: Angel Sanctuary
» CANON POINT: Chapter 89
» AGE: ~~ten thousand years will give you such a crick in the neck~~ Appears to be in his mid- to late-twenties, is actually several thousand.

» SETTING: wiki (trigger warning, incest)

» SHORT DESCRIPTION: Cynical, opportunistic, apathetic, evasive, philandering

» INFLUENTIAL EVENTS: (trigger warning for sexual assault)

Downfall
Raphael was once known as one of the purest and most upright of all the angels, ambitiously working his way up the ranks. Just before he was to be promoted to Chief of the Virtues, however, he experienced a devastating paradigm shift—he witnessed his second-in-command, Belial, kissing a woman. In Heaven, any type of sexual contact is forbidden, and as a horrified Raphael threatens to go to the authorities, Belial accuses him of watching them for his own sexual satisfaction and assaults him in his own office.

Once the news spreads, Belial falls from Heaven of hir own volition, joining Lucifer, while Raphael is blamed for his own assault and completely ostracized from public life, to the point that for years after, only one person, Michael, would even deign to speak to him. Though he remains in Heaven, even serving as a commanding officer in the war against Lucifer, Raphael’s reputation is completely destroyed and his ideals are shattered. He realizes that being a great angel really meant nothing, was a sham. It didn’t matter how high his rank was; it hadn’t stopped anything. It didn’t matter what had actually happened—everyone believed him to be a willing participant. Raphael becomes bitter and cynical, eventually molding himself into the very lech the rumors claim him to be, focusing only on his own appetites while managing to worm his way out of actually being caught for his indiscretions.

While his perspective on women was likely misogynistic to begin with (Heaven looks down upon women in general, with few holding high ranks, and those that do are treated with suspicion), it absolutely torpedoes after the Belial incident. Raphael’s in the unenviable position of hating, fearing, and being undeniably attracted to women, and he solves all three of these problems by seducing and sleeping with nearly every woman he spends more than two minutes with. This includes his all-female staff and patients, many of whom visit his practice for “appointments” that are a thinly-veiled doctor/patient sexual roleplay. Sex with these women is his method of dealing with his trauma and wresting some control back into his life, ruining their reputations and tossing them aside callously. He doesn’t care about these women, even admitting they’re toys to him. His coldness and apathy extends even to his position as an Elemental and Chief of the Virtues—he has limited to no interest in what goes on outside of his mostly-fake appointments, and despite being fully aware of and able to fight against the corruption and powerplays inherent in Heaven, chooses to ignore them, even as a ruthless dictator (… and then another ruthless dictator) assumes control. Aside from his endless sexual liaisons, his personal safety is paramount.

Meeting Michael
Raphael’s friendship with Michael (this is very literally the only friend he has) begins soon after the scandal breaks in heaven, when Michael literally crash-lands into his house, cheery and utterly uncaring about any of the rumors. Raphael credits Michael with helping him gain the will to live after his ostracism. While tempestuous Michael is Raphael’s polar opposite, they bond over their statuses as social outcasts, and Raphael deeply admires and comes to rely on Michael as the one person whose attitude towards him never changed. Raphael would and does do anything he can for Michael’s sake and keeps an eye out for him, whether it means physically yanking him out of a fight he can’t win, withholding information that might hurt him, or, more nobly, walking right into the line of fire in a successful bid to calm Michael down after his own mental collapse.

Meeting Sara
Sara shakes up Raphael’s life extensively. Upon almost their first meeting, Sara correctly accuses him of hating and fearing women, which disturbs him and keeps him interested in her, especially after figuring out she’s Jibril’s forced reincarnation. Her forthright attitude and fearlessness gradually start to break down his emotional walls. Raphael finds himself moving out of his usual apathy and doing a number of things for her sake that could get him killed, including hiding her from the Prime Minister. When the Prime Minister blackmails Raphael into sabotaging Sara at her trial, Raphael kills the guard assigned to him and doubles back to rescue her. Throughout, he’s disconcerted by his own (relatively) selfless behavior and drive, and while initially he blows it off as capriciousness, in time he realizes his feelings run deeper for her than he ever wanted to consider. Sara’s a turning point for him because for the first time he’s seeing a woman as a person, rather than as a plaything he fears. He’s also coming to realize there are people and maybe even ideals worth fighting for. Maybe.

» FIT: Raphael has never been to space, but he is reasonably accustomed to traveling between the layers of heaven, has spent brief amounts of time on Assiah (Earth), and likely at least fought on the borders of hell. He isn’t a stranger to weird, dangerous situations but is a stranger to facing those situations alongside other people and having to build up some level of camaraderie. Getting a relatively clean slate among people that don’t know about his lecherous reputation might make him more willing to actually, uh, make himself of use and prove his competencies.

» POWERS: Has wings he doesn’t usually manifest which allow him to fly, are the conduits of his astral power, and serve as his entire immune system. This is what gives him functional immortality and stopped his aging process. Harm to his wings causes excruciating pain and cutting them off causes an angel to become a ghoul, aka a flesh-eating zombie.

Healing—Raphael is able to heal injuries to himself and others, up to and including resurrecting the dead. While he is highly unlikely to even attempt to resurrect anyone, this will be nerfed for gameplay purposes. More complicated healings (we’re talking more than minor injuries) are canonically tied to the availability of wind/air to call upon, and he can exhaust himself with these. Raphael’s able to access his powers at their peak in open areas, something a space station frankly isn’t going to have a lot of.

Wind powers—Raphael has mastery over the wind and can use it as a form of mild telekinesis, causing small objects to float out of his way. He can also teleport himself and others (obviously, he won’t be able to use this as a means to escape the station), create shields of wind, and use the wind offensively as blades if need be (in practice, he’s far more likely to use an actual weapon than resort to the wind to fight, suggesting that it’s inconvenient). He is/was a commander in Heaven’s army so he does have combat training outside of that.

» SAMPLES: log and

network

Reverie Terminal. As far as daydreams go, I suppose I’ve had far worse.

This is Raphael of the Virtues, if that means anything here. [He’s not expecting it to—and that in itself is an odd feeling, defined as he’s always been by his class and rank.] If you need me to verify--

[And there’s a brief glimpse of a blond man from the neck up, mouth set in a thin line--]

I believe that will suffice.

I’ll spare you my asking how to return home. I doubt if I’m the only one who had better things to do than waste my time here. Does anyone know who or what sent the message? The wording sounds like a child. Not much of a closing statement.