[Esper] Fudou Natsuki

FULL NAME: Fudou Natsuki
OTHER ALIAS:
CURRENT AGE: 18
GENDER: Male
OCCUPATION: Student/Skill-Out
SCHOOL: A Certain Highscool
FACTION: Skill-Out



APPEARANCE: A tall male with a decidedly relaxed grin on his face, practiced to be as disarming as possible. He has brown eyes and he has some growing stubble on his chin, that he doesn't bother to keep in check. He wears generally baggy clothing and has a grey beanie adorned with a few badges. Natsuki often walks with his hands in his pockets, and walks with a slight slink, mimicking the posture of someone who doesn't have much to do. His movements are slow and deliberate.
HEIGHT: 5'10
WEIGHT: 152
DISTINGUISHING FEATURES: His naturally black hair is dyed a light brown and he wears a distinguishable grey beanie adorned with a few badges from his childhood.



PERSONALITY:
Esper Jealousy  
Ever since he was marked as a Level 0, Natsuki has held a burning jealousy of Espers whom have become aware of their powers and are able to make progress with them. While there was a time when he had put effort into building his own Esper powers, he was unable to focus on his studies and eventually gave up on his powers; this led to a feeling of betrayal when his peers surpassed him and eventually developed into the jealousy it is now.
Natural Cunning
Fudou Natsuki is much more cunning than he appears, purposefully looking dopey, speaking slowly, or smiling and laughing easily to appear harmless. In reality, this behavior hides a quick wit and resourceful and imaginative mind.
Pragmatic Loser
While Natsuki does get excited and heated while putting himself into his work, he is also acutely familiar with the tastes of failure and will often cut his losses early if it means he could retry another day in a better position.
Empathetic Outsider
Natsuki has always been an outsider in society, being born a Child Error, and naturally empathizes with other people down on their luck.
Flawed Justice
Natsuki takes it upon himself to show any arrogant esper a thing or two about level 0's, reminding them of their own flaws. At best, this might take form in a few cutting words, but often it will end up in fist fights at school. Natsuki goes so far as to track down targets of his ire outside of school and attack them with his gang.

LIKES:
Under Level: First and foremost, is Natsuki's pride in his gang. They represent the accumulation of his life and his ideals and through them, he feels that he can make a very real change in the system for the betterment of all within Academy City. The grandeur of this idea has attracted likeminded individuals to his banner, and together, they fervently spur themselves to greater and greater heights.
Lending a helping hand: To Natsuki, there are none that cannot be redeemed, as everyone could simply be a victim of their circumstance; he believes that no matter how dastardly the person, if they were simply exposed to the right ideals, they could turn things around. As a result, he sees even perpetrators of injustice as simply being "unlucky" for being raised with such ideals, and that if he could just help them "get back on their feet", the could eventually see the light on their own. He is willing to extend assistance to anyone and everyone, as long as he believes it would change their mind in favor of low level espers.
Tinkering with machines and electronics: From a young age, Natsuki grew attached to the study of machines and electronics, finding them much simpler companions than his human peers. With his guidance, his small clocks and appliances could be changed, but would never surpass his understanding. With machines, if there was something that he didn't understand, it would only be a matter of time before he could discover it's inner workings; this gave him a much needed sense of accomplishment and control over his life.

DISLIKES:
Pity: The pity of an esper of level or an instructor watching his floundering efforts is something that has haunted Natsuki his entire life. To Natsuki, to be pitied is to have everything about you denied in favor of another's ideals they might interpose upon you. Hypocritically, Natsuki pities those that hold a different view than his, and his efforts to "help them understand" could be interpreted to be an inherited behavior, stemming from his teachers' and peers' efforts to help Natsuki realize his potential.
Arrogance: To Natsuki, arrogance is simply a response of the ignorant towards what they do not yet understand. For example, an arrogant esper simply doesn't understand they are wrong about where they should stand in the world or how powerful they actually are. He seeks to correct this behavior whenever possible.
Wasteful Spending: Having come from a relatively impoverished childhood, Natsuki is generally careful about spending what money he gets from being a Level 0. To see someone else spend wastefully is akin to seeing their ignorance of what it is it like to not have money on hand and could irritate Natsuki to a small degree, perhaps leading to a word of warning, but unlikely escalate to anything further than that.

STRENGTHS:
Resourcefulness: Facing off against a foe whom is almost always stronger than him has taught Natsuki to value the study of each situation on a case to case basis. There are strengths and advantages lurking in the most unexpected places, and to go without exploiting them would be a horrible folly for one in his position.
Dirty Fighting: His years of practical experience fighting on the streets combined with his sharp mind gives Natsuki an impressive edge over his opponents. In a comparison of fighting ability under fair fighting conditions, such as in a martial arts dojo, Natsuki is barely confident that he can defeat a single common street thug. However, his fighting style truly shines when there are resources to exploit in the environment, as Natsuki relies on unexpected opportunities and distractions to make the most of each of his actions. In an ideal fighting environment such as a warehouse or in alleys or buildings, Natsuki is confident that he can wear down and eventually drive off much greater odds, such as a group of 5 or 6 thugs; though few would claim that that is the same as defeating them.

WEAKNESSES:
Overestimating Espers: On the flip side of the coin, Natsuki expects his opponent to be exploiting any advantages they have available to themselves as well. In the case of espers and their powers, espers have an innate resource they can access that Natsuki cannot, and it often causes Natsuki to be overly careful or cautious when dealing with an esper's unknown potential.
Honor and Pride: The deeply ingrained need to prove himself as a paragon of strength within Level 0’s has ironically made him susceptible to the same tactics he might use against an arrogant esper. More than once, Natsuki has lead his gang into unfavorable odds to settle a taunt or challenge, leading to some very pyrrhic outcomes. Natsuki is lucky to have followers so fervent as to believe this is an admirable trait, as opposed to a folly.


HISTORY:  Fudou Natsuki was born within the Tokyo Metropolitan Employment Area with his fraternal twin sister, Fudou Amane, but unfortunately, their mother died of the complications during the twin childbirth. Under their father, a simple construction worker, Natsuki and Amane led a rather meager childhood, often coming home to an empty house and an empty fridge, as their father worked additional shifts to keep their household afloat. Instead of waiting in that empty house, the twins often would explore the streets, eventually nurturing a free-willed and adventurous mind within the both of them. Barring a few close scrapes in poorer districts, the two would lead fulfilled childhoods without much interaction from their father.

At the age of 6, both enrolled in Academy City's Power Curriculum Program. On his last night at home, his sister already gone to Academy City ahead of him, his father approached him and asked him to stay. Forget the school, he said, Natsuki would probably be a Level 0 anyway. The two could live on the money that his sister sends back and he needed a son to help him when he grew older. When faced by the man that had toiled and slaved his life to bring him and his sister this far, Natsuki could not refuse; He embraced his father and promised a life anew as father and son. However, in the morning, his father would find that Natsuki had slipped away in the night.

To Natsuki, his father was always a stranger, and a final plea at the end was hardly enough to overturn the allure of becoming an esper and escaping this life of poverty. He hadn't the heart to tell his sister what had happened, and he also didn't have the courage to contact his father afterwards. It could do no good, he reasoned, to talk to either of them at this point, and this would be the first crack of a schism that would separate their lives. While he had originally feared his father may have revoked the required permission to continue within Academy City, this never occurred; Unfortunately, it would only be until he was older that Natsuki would realize the significance of this.

Though his sister often tried to contact him, and would go so far as to meet him in person, this initial reluctance to communicate as well as the great difference in their lifestyles eventually lead Natsuki to grow distant from his sister. And the more distant he grew, the more lonesome he felt; it didn't take long for that loneliness to be filled with jealousy, as he witnessed his sister quickly rise through the Levels, developing her power, while Natsuki faltered at Level 0. The longer he spent with his peers, the more friends he would make that quickly outstripped him. Though they had meant well in offering to help him learn, steadily, his friends fanned his jealousy. No matter how hard he tried to catch up to his friends, he felt deep inside that he was inferior. That he couldn't do it. That he had no power. He felt it might be karma for the way he had abandoned his father; Of course, someone like him would never attain his dreams, and he was fated to struggle at the bottom forever. It was only fair.

In an absence of faith in his esper power, as well as a constant perceived betrayal from his friends who managed to push forward with their powers, Natsuki became attracted to the study of the inanimate. He took to studying the interesting and novel technologies he had never really gotten to see before when he had lived outside of Academy City. While it was just a hobby, it did have positive affects on his tumultuous young mind; each time he pulled something apart and put it back together, he would unknowingly teach himself the values of a precise memory and critical mind. Throughout his middle school, he became engrossed in the topic, thoroughly enjoying classes on technology and engineering, impressing his teachers with his clever mind and novel ideas. Though he still made no progress with his esper powers, he could not stop learning about the new world he lived in. If this childish curiosity had continued on, Natsuki likely would have lead a much brighter life. Instead, things would take another sudden change when he encountered a certain lowly gang at the end of his middle school years.

Though they were older than he was, within them, Natsuki felt a certain kindred spirit; an almost forgotten anger at the Level system and it's effects on their lives burned within all of them. Though he didn't have a developed idea about the "injustices of the class system" that they touted, his earlier experiences with his peers and his family lent a certain realism to their ideologies, making him susceptible to their stirring words. He was reminded exactly how powerless he actually was within the system, and who was to be blamed for it. They fanned a certain anger within him that he never knew he had, and by the end of middle school, he truly believed in the rebellious lifestyle they lead.

During his short time running with them, he learned how to fight. Not just any fighting, but how to fight an esper. There was more strategy involved than one might give a gang credit for. From an outsider's point of view, a gang mobbing an esper seemed random and wild, but to Natsuki's inquisitive mind, he found that that was also the point; Natsuki learned from a young age that chaos in actions and in movement threw off an esper's intricate calculations, which in reality was their strongest asset. It was not unlike the machines he had played with at the time, as he had witnessed how a loose cog or screw could throw the entire thing into disarray. Though he was still the lowest of the low thugs, he truly believed that he could eventually be that loose cog in the machine. He had found a way to release the frustration he had at the system.

From the first day at his highschool, Fudou Natsuki devoted himself to recruiting his own gang at school. He would succeed, eventually becoming the head of his own gang of disenfranchised youth, many of them seeking something familiar or a group to stay with at the start of a new school life. He had originally named them the "Under Class", as first-years, but as their activities began to leave the grounds of the school, they picked up the name "Under Level", reminding themselves of both their status as mostly Level 0 or 1, and their position under the class hierarchy within Academy City. In only a year, Natsuki would lead a thrilling life with an explosively growing gang, most of them idolizing him for his larger-than-life ideals of reform, as well as his charismatic and fair personality displayed each time he extended a hand to another student in trouble or the beaten enemy of just yesterday.

He would actively and vocally argue with any esper or teacher that he felt was arrogant or perpetuating the system, and would never back down from a fight to prove it. As his gang grew, he found so did his courage, and he would find himself stalking particularly upstart espers after school and attacking them with his gang when they least expected it. Their resources expanded as more students from different walks of life began to pool together what they had and knew; with each new member, the gang became a little more robust and creative.

Eventually, they grew large enough to attract the attention of the larger umbrella organization called Skill-Out, which took him and his gang under their wing, providing them with actual funds in exchange for surveillance and muscle that only rowdy students could provide without attracting attention. To Natsuki, this was a turning point from living a fantasy as a local leader to a true life of crime, with "hours", "pay", and "benefits" provided by Skill-Out. As Natsuki put more and more of his life into work for Skill-Out, he neglected his school and was subsequently held back for a year. Supremely unworried, Natsuki continues his exciting lifestyle on the streets, believing that finally, he knew what he was doing with his life. School wasn't the way he was going to shake things up or make an impact on society; he would do so on the streets.



RANK: Leader of Under Level, a quickly growing gang under Skill-Out
LEVEL: 0



OTHER ABILITIES:
Under Level
Natsuki's gang of local youth that feel similarly disenfranchised by the society in Academy City and have flocked around him. Together, they are a small part of the greater umbrella organization of Skill-Out, often resorting to violence and intimidation to push forward messages about the injustice caused by the esper levels.

Natsuki has thusfar kept a tight leash on his gang's activities and they stop short of actual murder of espers in order to keep the worst of the attention on them, instead providing intimidation and beatings of lower level espers that Natsuki marks as needing "remedial courses" during his time at school. They keep themselves growing and afloat by receiving funds from larger Skill-Out groups for providing surveillance, muscle, or expendable distractions in support for larger, upper level activities. Though Natsuki may not know it, small, resourceful gangs like Under Level are great candidates for higher tier groups like ITEM when seeking expendable manpower to draw attention of authorities; Because they are so separated by the long criminal chain of command, there is no risk to the upper tiers in employing these smaller, expendable gangs.
Mechanical Talent
From a young age, Natsuki found himself drawn to the intricacies of machinery, and eventually, electronics. While it started as a hobby, it truly blossomed during his middle school years, reaching the point where he was regularly pulling apart electronic clocks or other simple appliances in his dorm to put them back together again, simply to study how they worked. The growth of this natural talent would eventually slow down when Natsuki entered high school and became involved with Under Skill, but he still maintains in-depth and practical knowledge on devices that students his age would be familiar with on a day to day basis.

CHARACTER THEME: Will add later



PLAYER'S NAME: Fudou Natsuki
CHATANGO NAME: FudouNatsuki
RATING: M (For violence, though I don't plan to go out of my way to be gory or ecchi)
FACE CLAIM: Mitsuo, from Parasyte
OTHER CHARACTERS:
MISC. INFORMATION: Players are freely allowed to create, remove, and control members of Under Level. They are for all purposes, meant to be NPCs and part of the setting more than they are an extension of my character's abilities. I'd like players to keep their hands off of Amane, in case something happens to Natsuki and I want to use her. Though not covered on this profile, I am going to be putting Amane into Judgement.

"Boss! Hey, boss!", a pitched voice rings through the alleyway, a young boy that couldn't be over 10 years old, even, excitedly turns the corner and reports: "Native, Brother Tatsu's taking his secret girl out! He got himself a date! A real catch this time!" The boy's boss nicknamed Native immediately breaks into a toothy grin, and ponders to himself, leaving the boy to wait for his response Tatsu... Really, he did it... To think little Tatsu would finally grow up... It was worth taking him in. Still, the smile slowly fades from his face, as he reminds himself that this was another dirty job; People's lives are going to be irreversibly changed, and it's also Tatsu's first job, even if he didn't know it himself... It would forever change that carefree boy in Natsuki's memories, and he hated to think about it... But that's how we live here, in the shadow of the city. Slowly, Natsuki, take it slowly. He told himself mentally, reassuring himself that this was truly the only path to where he needed to go. "Alright", Natsuki said to his gang surrounding him, finishing up his cigarette and putting it out with his foot. The men and women that he calls his family, a gang called Under Level excitedly climb to their feet and get ready. Natsuki nods and tells the boy, "Call Tatsu up and tell him to bring her out to the hill. Tell him that there's a beautiful sunrise over the city. Tell him... Tell him to let her see it. And tell him if he doesn't- ..." The rest of his order was drowned out by cheers and hollering of the boys around him, a worrying thing in itself, to take such excitement in the hunt, but Natsuki let it slide. This time. He would have to be careful to keep them in check when it actually went down.

By the end of the day, Natsuki would ruin two lives, all to keep his "people" together. One, a life of an esper whom he studied just long enough to get a sense of her powers, but not long enough to grow attached; and Two, a life of a friend named Tatsu. A boy that had joined the gang with nowhere else to go, called them his family, and whom had finally found a girl he loved. He had tried to hide her from the rest of the gang because she was an esper but... You can only hide something like that for so long. Natsuki pondered this as he waited in the parking garage, the girl in the back of the van. Soon, by the time he finished this cigarette, there would be the hand off and he'd get his pay. Then he'd take the boys out to dinner and distribute the cash in the usual ways... Then tomorrow he'd... ... ... It was only by thinking ahead like this that he could keep from recalling Tatsu's face, torn with raw emotion; the betrayal, and heartbreak stabbing through him like a knife... Ah, shit, there it is again. At times like these, where he simply couldn't forget, Natsuki breathed out and recalled his sister. That always put things back in perspective. The one shining beacon of light in his life that had been snuffed out by the shadow under this city. To seek it, he would need to go deeper and deeper into this business, and there was no way around it. Slowly, Natsuki, let's take it slowly. One day at a time. He breathed out and put out the cigarette as another car drove into the parking garage.

Hi there, due to the sheer number of applicants we got in a single day, I'll be handling this profile.

Now, I see you actually went down the delinquent path which is quite interesting as no one really adventures themselves there preferring either complete dark side or complete normalcy, but since I seem to understand you're up-to-date with the Raildex universe there are a few issues I'm finding and questions I need to ask.

Firstly, there are a lot of Skill-Out factions within Academy City, some led by good Level 0s who simply want to protect their kin and others led by selfish Level 0s who want to get back at Espers for shunning them. Keeping that in mind, while they may or may not have a history as heavy as Natsuki's, I do need to ask how he came up with his own delinquent faction seemingly completely independent of Skill-Out? Wouldn't it make more sense universe-wise for him to have eventually reached a point where he made his own Skill-Out branch instead? I don't feel this is a proper dark side character (nor should it be or needs to be, they're rather difficult to involve and we don't have many simple delinquents anyway) and Skill-Out would suit him quite well.

Though do keep in mind something like that requires a great deal of charisma and leadership to manage a gang, so it would take years for him to achieve after simply being a grunt at the service of other branches.

Now, the biggest issue I see with this profile is the very idea of Esper trafficking and I will put it very simply: It's impossible, no discussion is even possible on the matter.

Academy City has ultimate control over Esper research and will not allow its Espers to fall to the hands of outsiders. The Queen of the Adriatic Sea Arc shows that in case of heavy injuries that require hospitalisation they will be brought back via supersonic jet, while Liberal Arts City show chairman Aleister Crowley himself directly interfering with communication lines, basically telling them "have fun solving your problem" as the city sent bombers able to detect Level 5s to get rid of the city's specimens while retrieving the most important one.

If he even tried to partake in Esper trafficking just once (even though that kind of faction would never exist in the first place because they'd be annihilated in a matter of hours and I'm being generous here) then I think Natsuki should be more worried about what the dark side and Aleister would do to him rather than Anti-Skill.

As such that concept will be completely denied due to the fact that it directly contradicts canon and because I'm sure you don't want to play a character dead as soon as your first post is out.

Hey there,

I'd be fine with moving everything to be under skill out, as I was using them as a greater example anyway during creation. I figured trafficking was a topic that wasn't really touched on when it should have been with something so valuable as espers, even low level ones that might have been at risk so I sort of wanted to explore the topic.

Though I personally disagree with how much control the city could have over it's espers considering all the trouble in the series, groups like skill out, and alot of stuff that involves Judgement, I'll go ahead and bin the character if it doesn't fit within this board's interpretation of canon.

Though I personally disagree with how much control the city could have over it's espers considering all the trouble in the series, groups like skill out, and alot of stuff that involves Judgement, I'll go ahead and bin the character if it doesn't fit within this board's interpretation of canon.

Apologies, but let me stop you right there. This is not the forum's interpretation of canon, this is a truth of the series that any light novel reader you talk to (as unfortunately the light novel is far more canon than the anime, the same goes for Railgun and its manga) will agree with and I wish you'd give a bit more credit to a staff who's been researching the universe every day on every material the series has to offer for three years. I want to make it clear that when I point an issue out, unless I specifically mention “it's not how we do things”, then it's what canon dictates and it's not our personal feeling on the matter.

Now onto your disagreement, which I'll do my best to clear up based on my understanding of how much of the series you know, I'm afraid you're mixing together petty delinquency and something that infringes upon Aleister Crowley's work for the past twenty years because they're both “crimes” by definition. A city is naturally going to have a law enforcement unit but that's solely because it's how society works to keep an order going between the normal citizens of the city and that's why you never see Anti-Skill being able to barge into the dark side's mess; Anti-Skill and Judgement are there for the normal people unrelated to the city's darkness but when it comes to it it's a whole world of its own strictly supervised by Aleister and other various big shots. Even then you'll notice Anti-Skill has considerably less to do than an average police and Judgement is there for the much smaller cases like a precious bag being lost so it's not like Academy City is an unsecure den of thieves. The city isn't going to waste its resources on trying to stop a petty robber who thought he'd make a quick buck with his cockiness due to a newfound ability and let a trafficker who sells off twenty years of work to the outside because he's angsty his sister's gone and he's actively trying to get back at AC do whatever he wishes.

light novel content spoilers:

I've stated examples of why the city will never condone a faction that does Esper trafficking to third-parties, but if you still doubt that the city has that much control over its cities I ask you to take note of the procedures an Esper needs to go through to leave Academy City by referring to this screenshot of the wikia and the prologue of volume 4 (the Angel Fall arc) of the first novel series.

I appreciate putting things in spoilers, since I haven't read the light novels, and if they differ from the material I'm used to, then that can be some cause for why we're at ends. That said, I hardly mean to argue about canon when I'm not as well versed. Since you said it cannot happen on this forum, and you are the mod, you are clearly going to be right. It's simply a matter for a new player like me to find out how strict a forum RP is with canon material vs allowing original ideas. This board was not THAT loose, lesson learned, and I can move along. It's as simple as dialing it back until acceptable within your rules.

On that note, I do mean what I said regarding this being the forum's interpretation of canon. If you believe what you know to be the most accurate to what the author intended, then that's that, it's a personal confidence in your long time spent with the topic and is almost certainly more accurate than mine when I've barely scratched the surface in comparison; but it hardly means it isn't an interpretation. We interpret things, and that's the correct word to use. If we all had the same interpretations of the works, we'd never have a meaningful discussion about it. In fact, I'd say it's impossible to meaningfully RP without people having new and different interpretations of material.

I use the word interpretation to explain that it is your understanding of canon that builds the rules, that is your interpretation, and it is my job as a player to find where that stands and then push it to create something new. I had no intentions of using the word interpretation to belittle this towering confidence you have on the subject.

Fair enough, the clear-up is much appreciated. I don't stand by the opinion that Raildex is a work that allows much interpretation but since I can see where people are coming from, I won't argue it. To each their own, as they say, when thinking so within reasonable degrees (I've seen some delusional crap out there).

With that in mind, I'm going to leave this topic alone for a bit while you bring the necessary edits so that we may continue the evaluation on a fresh basis. Don't forget to bump it after you're done!

Bump! I'm in no hurry.

To sum up changes, I removed the trafficking bit and changed it to general roughing up of lower level espers as well as petty crime and jobs for larger skill-out groups. There was a small nod to ITEM in there, in case our only ITEM character on the forum wanted to do something in the future.

Of note is the addition of a Power Lifter that has been customized that might factor into approval.

Now then, a lot better but there's still a lot to work on.

Firstly, while the profile is good and daring (not in a cringy powerful emo way) as opposed to heading towards comfort zones which I fully praise, I'm actually going to have to question how easily can this character be involved in any given thread. Due to his association with Skill-Out and his nature of being jealous towards Espers, which by association means he'd dislike them but feel free to debunk that if you so wish, I can almost tell Slice of Life would be a bit difficult without careful crafting and I feel you need to be adequately warned that if he ever has a dislike of Espers that will disable you from casually RPing with all of our cast save for only a very few number of exceptions.

Now onto the ability: I'm afraid that's a no for two reasons.

Firstly, if you've read or watched the Railgun series, you are likely familiar with AIM Stalker Takitsubo Rikou who, by using medicine, can force herself to track a specific person's AIM field with no fault.

light novel spoilers:

If you don't want spoilers I'll make it brief: an ability being able to do anything (even feeling) with an AIM field has canon potential to grow immensely OP under the right conditions which Kamachi could apply at any time, forcing us to try and adapt it into the storyline, and honestly it's not an ability we would grant casually solely because it's a lot of responsibility both for the player and the staff.

And secondly, which is really one of my biggest problems... This ability is honestly painfully useless.

The only means of detecting when an Esper is using their ability is via their AIM emittance and because you're in Academy City, which is one massive AIM field that even generated an AIM being in the form of Kazakiri Hyouka, there is no way for a Level 0 – a ranking that is close to powerless and only barely had an ability detected so having a Level 0 ability is like having none – could ever have a specific gut feeling when an Esper uses an ability. His ability would work like a broken compass.

Not to mention he'd probably feel just as bad as a pre-menstruating girl on a daily basis all year round and I feel that would make him a terribly cranky person.

For problems 2 and 3, I have completely removed his power. He tested at level 0 and it was an accurate testing. Considering he's given up on his powers, I like to think the chances of us having to come back to it are low.

For problem 1, there's no change to his character, actually, if the following were ok:

For slice of life, I was thinking of putting him in a thread to bother Judgement or anyone in a recognizable uniform after asking the player first. If things escalate, there would be other npc members of Under Level to help cause trouble. In the very worst case, The Gong might come out, but it's hardly going to be rampaging around city on a regular basis, since Anti-skill could easily deal with it. If for some reason he were to win, it'd honestly just end up in beatings and petty stealings of proverbial lunch money, since he's aware he can't actually kill espers without drawing the authorities to himself. While it might seem rather pointless, to him, his gang, and I feel some parts of skill-out, it's important to show the espers their place every now and then.

The best case scenario for me, as a player, is if there's a larger scale story thread involving skill-out or ITEM where Under Level would show up in full force to be relevant.

That's actually not what I meant, I didn't mean if you had plots planned for him, I was asking if he was a character you could easily jump in with in any given thread. Can you talk with the others and go “oh, Natsuki can totally join that” or is he so isolated from Espers that you can't play anything that hasn't been crafted around Skill-Out?

On this forum we like characters that have opportunities to RP with everyone even if they aren't naturally inclined to do so, so I need you to explain to me various aspects of his characters that'd make it easy to involve in any given thread that doesn't require careful crafting as there'll be a point where you won't be able to do much besides specifically created plots otherwise and that stops being fun after a while where all you can do is play a character that has only been designed for one type of situation (a few of our members can attest to making that mistake).

Natsuki version 0.4 change log:

- Removed general angst against Academy City in history and dislikes, though being a skill-out sort of makes it obvious it's still there, just less pronounced. He now has the stance that he needs to teach arrogant espers a lesson, but will be happy to get along with anyone else. If an esper shows proper regret for their actions, he can forgive them too.

- On that note, I put him back in school, at a Certain Highschool, though he attends more and more rarely due to his growing position in Skill-Out and likely will not graduate, perhaps even being held back. He is a problem student because he believes the path to finding the truth while establishing class equality is through Skill-Out, and not by progress through the school system.

- Instead, his school is used to round out his RP a little to increase contact with other players:
= At best, he is likely to get into a verbal argument about level 0's and the level society.
= Most likely, he is going to end up in a fist fight.
= At worst, he will mark the esper for "remedial courses" and stalk them outside of school to attack them with his gang, seeking to teach them a lesson.

- Finally, The Gong was altered a little to reflect these changes: The Gong's AUD system which would normally display information by refracting light now displays this information on the inside of a welding mask. This is so Natsuki can keep his identity hidden while he dishes out "remedial courses" and can return to normal rp stuff.

Customer reviews regarding the latest version:

- There is no explanation for the alias “Native” and that section refers to the character instead of the player. Please either remove it or provide an adequate explanation.

- Ability name (Esper Empathy) should be left blank now that it has been agreed that, should there ever be an ability that pops up, it'll only be evaluated then.

- Going by this, the protocols require Mr. Fudou Natsuki to provide a title based on another attribute than his ability and adequately placed under his name as addressed in the second point of the third section of the rules. Profiles like Guy Li's and Hiroshi Saito's may be used as reference for this.

- Depending on his birth date (due to Japan's education system being different), he may have already “graduated” high school so it is advised to either make him a year younger than he is or establish whether he has already been held back at year if it is not fancied to research birth years and their adequate place in the educational system.

- It has been brought to the developer's attention that there is a slight issue in the understanding of how the curriculum works: it is mandatory to attend a school to participate in the curriculum and Child Errors usually do not get that privilege since they're not students of a proper school but of an orphan institute, so it is therefore odd that he was mysteriously allowed to attended school by high school of all things when his backstory with his sister shouldn't have lasted more than two or three years. As misc information, the proper curriculum also starts as soon as a student has been enrolled in a school so there's usually no delay time between then to allow for some peaceful time before the storm. As for the age, it is rather irrelevant to the curriculum though the younger to a certain extent, the better due to how children are like blank pages that are a lot easier to shape than adults, though there's no particular amount of roughness in any cases besides a bit of messing around with the brain and providing stimulating drugs. What was done on the children is experimentation and not conducting the proper curriculum since researchers who don't follow the regular procedure just like Child Errors because even if they disappear no one is going to complain unlike regular students.

- There are slight interrogations going around regarding the timeline and parts of this profile: why were they abandoned in Academy City specifically rather than a regular adoption centre? Had the children been born in Academy City it is more than doubtful that there would have been birth complications that would have killed the mother, though adults don't even belong in Academy City in the first place so that's not a viable option. At what age did it occur if they don't remember their father yet Natsuki was freed to allow something as distant as high school compared to regular enrolment age for children (which is usually five to seven years old), and why was it decided that Natsuki would attend a high school after being an experimental subject anyway since researchers usually don't let their subjects escape that casually and people who ask questions about people who disappeared usually disappear as well?

Natsuki v0.5!

- Ah, nickname was left behind from v0.1. Cleaned that out. His gang will just call him "Boss", considering saying Natsuki and him still being in school is asking for trouble.

- Ability name was left behind since v0.3, I thought I deleted everything regarding the skill. Cleaned that out.

- A Certain Level 0 Agitator.

- He was held back a year. It's now in the history.

- He's no longer a child error and because they went through proper curriculum, his sister is alive and well. Due to her sudden rebirth in the backstory, he's lost like 60% of his angst, but it's coming back as he devotes more and more of his life to Skill-Out. This should be alot better for rp'ing with other people as well as setting problems.

I'm honestly worried about The Gong discussion, since I had thought all of that made sense within the setting. Yikes.

Customer reviews regarding the latest version:

- There are still misunderstandings of the setting; testing for a Level can only happen after having enrolled in a school within the city because it's an integral part of Academy City's education to become an Esper. It's a gradual process where a normal person's brain that is normally incapable of manifesting abilities is slowly worked on via various stimulus to become a brain that can manifest abilities and as has been said in the chatbox yesterday; it's an integral part of the school curriculum, it's not an extra-curricular thing, in fact it's the main meat of Academy City's curriculum which differentiates it from regular outside schools. Amane could not have tested for Level 3 before moving into the city and Natsuki could not have been judged based on his Level solely for that reason.

- Furthermore, the staff gives the input that it would appreciate gradual (though rapid) growth to Level 3 as opposed to being detected as one immediately with no effort even if the point is to show the different between Amane and Natsuki solely because in the event Amane is ever submitted for evaluation, it'll stay in line with every other evaluation before it. Though do keep in mind that if she ever pops up, the evaluation with a SNPC profile will become required and if she's not a Tokiwadai student then her Level may be changed.

- Academy City isn't that forceful in bringing Espers in. much less Level 0s. Even assuming a normal human could be tested for an ability before joining the Curriculum (which would make them a gemstone and that's against the rules anyway) after becoming a well settled-in student, a Level 0 wouldn't be dragged along so forcefully, they're not a valuable Level 5 and they're part of the lot that would be nuked by Aleister and the city if needs arise.

Common note between all customers reviews:

Natsumi wasn't force-dragged to Academy City. And isn't a man. You've got the wrong character written in the profile.

Natsuki v0.6

<< I made edits only to the first four paragraphs of his history. Nothing else is edited, so feel free to gloss over the rest of it. >>

- Whew, ok, so I can't test before entering. Fixed that.

- The rate of Amane's growth and the final amount it is at now are now left vague; it's simply that it was faster than Natsuki's, which is easy to do, considering he never budged from Level 0.

- I was thinking because he had tested and was suddenly trying to back out, they might try to stop him and take him in instead. I got the idea from our discussion we had about trafficking low level espers; It had sounded like Academy City would fight tooth and nail to keep any esper from leaving without proper supervision. Either way, this is a non-problem now.

Customer reviews regarding the latest version:

- Once again, there's an issue with the understanding of the setting that has been spotted and therefore requires the mention that it may be wise to watch the anime again or read the light novels. Students require their parent's or legal guardian's authorisation before entering Academy City, there can't be runaway children fleeing to Academy City to escape trouble.

- Academy City isn't that big a city, it's very unlikely Natsuki could successfully avoid his sister without actively trying to in more ways than just not picking up when she's calling.

I think this might be easy enough to fix, by saying his father gave permission and never retracted it, even with the events unfolding they way they did. Natsuki's father was never written to be heartless, and all things considered, clearly cares for his children, even if he's been bad at displaying it.

As for his sister, he's actively avoiding his sister until she eventually gave up and they lead separate lives. Even if they met, I imagine it'd be tense and unfruitful, so it's not a big deal in his story to never meet his sister again. They could have met, and probably did, according to setting, but ultimately it doesn't change a thing.

Neither causes any need for change in his history, so I'd leave it that way but...

Overall, this process makes me realize I'm likely wasting your time just relying only on the forum's setting overview supplemented by what little I can remember of the setting. Thus, as excited as I was to play (and as friendly and welcoming the people have been here), since I'm not in line with the basic rule of sticking to the setting, I'd like to put my participation in this forum on hold until I've gone and read the novels. Definitely no promises on when that will be, if ever, but it's arguably better than going back and forth in approvals and then making a settings blunder in actual RP.

Well, putting off the last post, bumped to add the minor clarifications in history.

Likes/dislikes were expanded upon.

This evaluation has taken quite a while, my apologies for that. No glaring problem that contradicts the universe, the character is fine and should be decently easy to RP with in proper conditions...



As a warning, please keep in mind for future profiles that we have a paragraph limit for the history. You're three paragraphs over the limit so while I will overlook this for this specific profile, I'd rather it not becomes the norm for a Level 0~