Emias Oaks

Name: Sword
Journal: swordianmaster
Contact: kataranisword, Bahamut725 @ AIM, katarani@gmail.com


OC or AU: OC
Character Name: Emias Oaks
Series: Final Fantasy Tactics A2 fandom OC
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Entry position: Cadet
Requested Sponsor: Opal or Emerald
Appearance: For the most part, Emias is a pretty standard Ivalacian moogle. Small (about three feet including the ears, two and a half without), fuzzy, and cute, he typically dresses in the outfit befitting his job as a gunner. A few personal flourishes differentiate him from the common moogle fusilier - notably the custom-made under-rimmed glasses he wears (it's hard getting eyewear that fits a head with ears on the top!) and a lock or two of dyed-black fur poking out from the top of his hat.
History: Emias started life as any other moogle would - a native of the moogle city of Goug, he had to carve out his niche in life. While he did dabble in machinery, he was always a bit too eccentric to fit in as an inventor or engineer, and the moogles of Goug are hardly known for their combat prowess. Unable to find a place in town, though, he started wandering, studying the flora and fauna of the continent. When he came of age, he begrudgingly joined up with the Goug Consortium, a guild devoted to the research and development of firearms. However, his eccentric tinkering ways were of little help to the Consortium, as his ideas (such as using specially-designed malboro-stench shot to immobilize enemies) were seen as both unsafe and impractical. It wasn't more than a year, as of such, before he was discharged, left to wander on his own again.

His wanderings eventually led him across the sea to the town of Moorabella, where he met a nu mou by the name of Aurelie, a White Mage who had similar problems fitting in, though more due to erratic magickal powers than any inner eccentricity. The two quickly became close friends and before long started a relationship. In that time, Aurelie introduced Emias to her own clan, a group of magic researchers known as Clan Tiamat. Given that the group was composed primarily of well-learned but undertrained mages, Emias was quickly accepted into Clan Tiamat as their sole hunter and unwitting guinea pig. After all, the clan needed someone to help earn money and reagents, and he offered a unique perspective that the other researchers wouldn't have.

Life went on fairly peacably in Clan Tiamat... well, as peacably as can be when you occasionally get turned into a frog due to magickal experimentation. However, one day several years later, Aurelie's unstable magicks got a little too unstable, and she found herself transported to another time or maybe even another world, all while trying to cast a simple Cure spell. Naturally, the other members of the clan saw it as little more than something else to research and investigate with little worry about the well-being of one of their own. Knowing he didn't have the know-how, Emias instead rallied the clan together for that single cause. He wasn't the one who reverse-engineered Aurelie's chaotic magick, but it was he who built the machine to harness and reverse those energies, pulling her back into Ivalice.

However, nothing can ever go right, as the temporal flux combined with the relief he felt at her return made him a prime target to be noticed by the Time Compression...
World History: Proper timeline of the world of Ivalice is shown here. It's worth noting that Emias comes from the timeline of FFTA2, which is during the mentioned "Age of Technology". The region Emias is from, Jylland, has a somewhat syndicalist slant - pretty much all peace-keeping and day to day work is done by guilds and clans. Free from the rule of a single governing party, Jylland instead finds its niche in the world of Ivalice as the leading region of mercenary talent and the starting point of a fair number of sky pirates' careers. Surprisingly, the region is viewed as relatively safe - while wild monsters are a threat, and there are more than a few crime syndicates, the existance of the Judge magicks exclusive to the region guaruntee that even in the most dangerous of situations, normal citizens are protected from otherwise-lethal situations.
Abilities & Physical Abnormalities: Well, being a slightly more humanoid moogle is pretty notable even in the FF8 universe; there's enough to differentiate him from the MiniMog GF, but there's also enough similarities for people to take note. Past that, he's got roughly the same skillset and powers of a normal soldier. His wings are mostly vestigial, though he can hover for a minute or two with them... not much more, however.
Personality: At first meeting, Emias is rather timid and withdrawn, with a tendency to trip over his own words. This comes out when he's flustered or embarassed, as well - something rather easy to do, considering his slightly sheltered life. Once he starts to open up, though, people will find a cheerful, optimistic sort, one who believes that every problem has an answer, it's just a matter of finding and understanding it. He tries not to show it too much, but he's got a slightly off-kilter view of the world where all solutions are created equal if the end results are identical - why bother with Fire magic when one can achieve the same amount of burn with napalm and a spark, after all? The ends don't always justify the means, but the means are ultimately irrelevant.

Emias is also a bit of a closet research nerd, in that way that he lights up like a little kid on Christmas morning when someone presents him a situation or object he doesn't know about, and then goes straight to trying to dismantle it in order to find out how it works. That, combined with his cheerfulness, means that he'll happily prattle on for hours about how exactly the flow of mist is altered when someone casts a spell and the long-term effects upon the ecosystem and so on and so forth.

He's a bit socially awkward, so crowds and large get-togethers intimidate him a bit - he's used to working solo, and will generally prefer to spend time with friends on a one-on-one basis. In fact, if it weren't for his love for the outdoors, one could take him as a bit of a shut-in, as his introversion is strong enough (and his tinkering habits compelling enough) that he'll get lost in work for hours or even days at a time even with the presence of others nearby. Of course, if he's aware he's being watched, he clams up a bit, social anxiety making him afraid that he's being judged on what he's doing. Adding to the lack of social graces, he's a bit of a closet perv, the type of guy who'll always laugh at raunchy jokes or take a chance to peep on girls changing. He tends to keep it low-key, though, having enough self-awareness to know that actually doing that sort of thing is frowned upon.

All-in-all, Emias sticks by a moral code, even if it's slightly skewed by eccentricity and his culture. The idea of killing a sentient creature is anathema, even monsters should only be killed for self-defense or for harvestable goods - organs, meat, that sort of thing. Oddly, while murder is against his code, he doesn't seem to have nearly as many qualms towards inflicting great suffering (even bordering on torture) on people as a form of punishment or interrogation. He does take the side of the law on any issue that comes up, and believes that unfair laws should be opposed in legal manners. All together, it paints the moogle in a slightly antisocial light, a manner that suggests that he views people as something above monsters, but lesser than the machines he tinkers with.

Despite his lack of skill with inventing, he's got a great love for tinkering, trying to finagle parts and bits together and see what works. In addition, he'll intently listen - or even pipe in with his own thoughts - about machinery if someone brings it up, and will similarly debate about the inner mechanics of magic thanks to his time spent in Clan Tiamat.
What are your plans for the character in-game? Picking up where I left off with Locke (which wasn't very far) and actually enjoying the game like I originally planned.
Anything else? Mog danced crazy!


Complete TWO out of the FOUR options.
i) IC Questionnaire (can be found on the application page)

What do you prefer to be known as? Emias Oaks, lead hunter of Mage Clan Tiamat, kupo! [There's a slight pause, then a nervous rub at the back of his head] Sorry. Force of habit, saying the full title. E-Emias is fine.

How old are you? Old enough, really. I kinda lost count... I wanna say something like eighteen or so? Old enough.

Do you have any history in combat? Can't be a hunter if you don't hunt, kupo! And sometimes missions get a little rough...

If so, have you ever killed? Well, monsters, sure. I dunno if I could see myself killing a thinking being, though...

How do you feel when you get involved in some project that calls for immediate and rapid activity? Gotta do it, right? I wouldn'ta gotten involved if I wasn't ready to act, kupo.

Do you organize and initiate leisure activities? Organize? Uhm... not really. Most of my clanmates are kinda stuffy and not big on the leisure thing, so I've gotten used to just hanging out on my own.

What role do you take when working in a group? Leader outta necessity... nobody else would take charge, kupo. If I had a choice, I'd be support, though, hanging back and helping out where it's most needed.

How talkative are you around other people? Talkative enough, I guess... I mean, I don't expect anyone to talk back, but sometimes I just gotta explain something, kupo.

What three things would you want to have with you on a desert island? State your reasoning. A boat, fuel, and a map, in order to get off of the desert island, kupo! Anything else I could get on my own.

Is it important to be liked by a wide range of people? Well, yeah! More people means more connections, which is always helpful!

When the odds are against you, is it worth taking a chance? S-sometimes. Not always. I mean, you've gotta balance the risk and reward, kupo... A one in a million chance isn't worth it if it's not gonna help you any.

Do you consider yourself to be an impulsive person? Not... really? I mean, everyone has their urges that they give into, but you can't really survive without thinking about consequences ever.

Would you agree that planning things ahead takes the fun out of life? Sometimes! But you've gotta, you know? If you wanted life to be fun, you'd just spend your days as a barhopper or something, kupo.

Do you like surprises? Well... uh... maybe?

Do you sometimes wonder if there is something wrong with you? Now and then, kupo. But I found a place where people are happy with me being me, so even if there's something wrong with me, that's okay!

Do you consider yourself to be smarter than your superiors, and disagree with their decisions? Smarter? No... I mean, they're my superiors for a reason! But even smart people can make mistakes, kupo! That's why you need to work as a team, is so that everyone can cover for everyone else's slip-ups!

Lastly, how do you feel about cabbages? They're a little less violent than tomatoes, so they're not so bad!

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