Shuyin

[Balthier]

"YAAAGH!"

The swipe of his sword that accompanied Shuyin's yelp met with nothing but open air. However, he felt like he'd been fighting something for hours. Sweat stuck to his skin, and his shoulders felt the straight of a weight that Shuyin wasn't used to. His eyelids proved heavy as he first pried them open to see what lay around him. Ugh...he might as well have kept them both shut. The blackness behind them wasn't much different from the bleakness that currently surrounded him. Shuyin wasn't held by....that place anymore, that much he knew for a fact the moment his hand reached out to feel if the plain of grass that seemed to surround him actually existed. But from what the man could tell, his situation hadn't improved by much. A thick, unsettling wind kept the grass in a constant motion, and a canopy of gray seemed to dampen the color off of what was surely several miles of nothing but greenery. It reminded Shuyin too much of a world at war, and of-

"Lenne!", he yelled, immediately to his feet. "Leeeeenne!" In such an open area, if she'd been present, Shuyin knew she'd be easily visible to him. The only one around seemed to be him alone. A growled sigh escaped from his chest as he tossed his blade to the ground in frustration. All the work he'd done, and all the sacrifices those...those living...had made to fix what he'd broken, and now Shuyin stood in another unfamiliar, miserable place without Lenne yet again. "DAMN IT, WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LET US BE AT PEACE!? WASN'T DYING ENOUGH!?", he yelled at the cold sky, anger written on his face, before his shoulders slumped. He supposed there was nothing to do but get moving out of the middle of nowhere, if there was anything to find in this place that could be called the opposite of nothing. Running a hand through his spiked blond hair, Shuyin stepped over and recovered his sword, tucking it in at his belt where it belonged, before he started walking, doing nothing besides staring at his feet. Thinking too much was a sure way to waste his time further.

Then, after he'd lost count of the minutes, a roar.

Shuyin's eyes shot up just in time to see the massive - and he meant massive - form crash through a grove of trees and pounce at him. It took Shuyin almost hurting himself by throwing himself backwards into the ground to avoid a huge paw crashing against him. He awkwardly came up in a roll, reaching at his belt for his sword before he realized the maneuver had snapped it free from his belt. A loud groan of exasperation left Shuyin's throat before he was forced to dodge the beast's massive head as it came forward to chomp at him. The sword, he barely noticed, rested in between the creature's legs. If being in this place wasn't enough punishment for him, now Shuyin was going to be eaten without a single chance to defend himself. Grabbing a rock in pure defiance, Shuyin chucked it and it the monster squarely on the left eye, causing it to reel long enough only to get it angry. Shuyin set his feet, getting ready to dodge again.

Gunfire broke him from his concentration, and the creature gave a loud roar as Shuyin could hear bullets pinging against its thick hide. He saw where the shots came from - a squad of about five men with guns, a small ship in the distance behind them. Great...soldiers. Shuyin didn't waste any time in waiting around. Seeing them distract the beast, Shuyin shot forward to pull his sword off the ground and gave the soldiers, two of whom were coming towards him, one final glance before he turned and made a break for it, ignoring a pair of yells he could hear coming in his direction. Still feeling heavy, his pace only carried him as far as the grove of trees before he heard a few mechanical steps clanging against the ground behind him and then felt arms wrap around his lower legs. Unable to recover from the attempt at tripping him up and sending him onto his shoulder. By the time he brought his hand up to rub at the massive bruise that was surely going to form when he collided with the ground, he felt someone pressing down on him and heard a female voice speaking to him as if through a funnel. "Calm down! We need to take you back to base. You're not the only one to get stuck in this place, kid."

Shuyin grunted, trying to lightly shove her off. She didn't budge much. Damn that suit she was wearing. "And where is here!?", he returned. "Gran Pulse. Hell. Literally."

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[Oerba Yun Fang]

ACCEPTED!

Looks great!! *insert all the compliments he will just deny* Go ahead and make the application young man!

[Balthier]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 400px; height: 380px; background-image:URL(http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy284/brooklynlolli/x0r3w0.png); border-left: 10px solid #1e1e1e; border-right: 10px solid #1e1e1e;] SHUYIN HEY THERE, THEY CALL ME SHUYIN AND I'M CURRENTLY PHYSICALLY 20 YEARS OLD. I'M FROM THE WORLD OF SPIRA WHERE I WAS A BLITZBALLER AND SELF-MADE SOLDIER. I GO FOR GIRLS AND I WILL THROW MY WEIGHT BEHIND PSICOM. ------------------------------------------------- Weapon: Sword: Shuyin uses what looks to be a simple broadsword in combat that he probably got sometime during the war. Abilities: Agility and athleticism: Shuyin, having once been a blitzballer, relies on his athleticism to make him a worthwhile fighter. He's an excellent leaper, a fast runner, and...flexible....yeah. It's the one thing that puts him on the same level of other fighters, though it certainly makes him no powerhouse. Swordsmanship: Shuyin previously, at the start of the war, trained himself extensively in the use of a sword so he could keep Lenne protected on a battlefield. He's no brilliant swordsman, but he's just good enough to know what he's doing in most situations and inexperienced enough with a sword in his hands to make him dangerous and unpredictable. Personality: The essentially "undead" Shuyin that was nothing more than an entity of bitterness and anger is only a small part of the real man who lived a thousand years before Yuna's time. The real Shuyin had the potential to let his temper get the best of him, yes, and was a man that mostly responded to things through his instincts. If his will or desires told him to do something, he would do it, and his concern over the rights or wrongs of it would be minimal. As long as he considered something to be right, he could justify mostly anything he was willing to do, and thus it was during his attempt to use vengagun. But in a normal life, Shuyin wouldn't have had to make those decisions. Instead, he would have been known as a relentless but respectable blitzball player who happened to be strongly in love with a songstress. Shuyin is not a truly bad or disagreeable man in the slightest and was actually a reasonably cordial fellow back in the day. His experiences during the war changed him some, yes, damaging his psyche in several ways, but in general he's still not the ball of hatred that he was as he remained unsent. His dedication to Lenne is one thing that has not and will not change within his personality, even if the way he has chosen to ensure her survival and happiness have changed with the events that got him killed in the first place. Don't go up to Shuyin and assume he'll be your friend, but also don't get overly worried about him and think he''d just as soon stab you as anything. He's got problems, but there is still the old Shuyin in there, and he was an alright guy. History: The story of Shuyin begins about one thousand years before that of Tidus and Yuna. Shuyin was the lover of a popular songstress named Lenne, who was also talented in the arts of summoning. They lived during the time when Zanarkand was at war with the city of Bevelle. Zanarkand ordered all summoners to the front lines, including Lenne. Shuyin believed the only way to save Lenne was to activate Vegnagun, Bevelle's machina weapon imbued with magic that would attack people indiscriminately, not being able to tell friend from foe. Vegnagun possessed enough power to destroy all of Spira, and because of this, it was stored away in a heavily guarded chamber with no intention of ever being used. Shuyin penetrated into the heart of the complex, but was captured and forced into a cage by Bevelle soldiers. He escaped and once again came upon Vegnagun. By this time, he had realized Vegnagun might be controlled by an organ-like musical instrument atop its head. Shuyin climbed upon Vegnagun's head and began playing the organ. Vegnagun's eyes lit up and it began to stir and a huge cannon protruded from its mouth, but at that moment Lenne appeared, pleading for Shuyin to stop. Shuyin was amazed to find Lenne standing before him and the two embraced each other. The Bevelle soldiers arrived and as one, fired their rifles at the couple and Shuyin and Lenne collapsed to the floor. Lenne's final words were to tell Shuyin she loved him, but he never heard her. Because of Lenne's spirit and memories in the songstress dressphere, during Final Fantasy X-2 Yuna has an identical dream of herself and Tidus dying the same way. Shuyin's spirit was filled with such hatred and desire for vengeance it didn't dissolve in the Farplane, but lingered on and existed for a thousand more years, filled with grief and despair, a shadow of his former self. He dwelt within a cavern beneath the Mushroom Rock Road called the Den of Woe, where his body is believed to have been buried. The cave was filled with pyreflies that replayed his memories again and again, a constant reminder of Lenne, the love he had lost. Before the events of Final Fantasy X, Maester Wen Kinoc sent the Crimson Squad recruits to the Den of Woe for their final training mission. Among these recruits were Baralai, Gippal, Nooj, and Paine. Little did they know that Kinoc was planning to have them killed if and when they survived and were able to report their findings back to him in order to keep the information secret. The recruits were driven mad and slaughtered each other due to exposure to Shuyin's grief and despair. Shuyin weakened Nooj without breaking his mind and inhabited his body. When the surviving Crimson Squad members escaped the cave and Kinoc's machinations, they set sail on a ship and later arrived at one of Rin's travel agencies. Saying their final farewells and turning to depart, Shuyin took control of Nooj's body and shot his three friends in the back. Although they were not gravely wounded, it caused enmity and confusion among the companions, as they had no knowledge of why "Nooj" would do such a thing. Shuyin used Nooj's eyes and ears in Spira and saw the senseless violence and Yevon's corruption, and concluded that Spira hadn't changed and resolved to "fix" it. During the two years that followed Shuyin manipulates Nooj to go to Bevelle and steal Vegnagun. Nooj's hatred causes it to "awake" and it flees into the Farplane. Baralai, Gippal, and Nooj meet in the complex underneath the city of Bevelle to discuss Vegnagun's disappearance. Shuyin leaves Nooj's body and takes control of Baralai, who is still angry at Nooj for shooting him and Gippal two years ago. Baralai, now controlled by Shuyin, departs to the Farplane to find Vegnagun, with Nooj and Gippal in pursuit. Shuyin takes control of the aeons, and fiends begin to pour out of the temples' Chambers of the Fayth. With the help of Yuna and the Gullwings, the temples are cleansed, but during one such battle with the aeon Ixion Yuna falls into the tunnel in Djose Temple and ends up in the Farplane Glen where she encounters Shuyin. Shuyin mistakes Yuna for Lenne because she is wearing the Songstress dressphere and tells her about his plans to use Vegnagun's cannon to destroy Spira and end all of humanity's warring. Shuyin steps through a portal that would take him directly to Vegnagun. Gippal and Nooj find Yuna, and pass through the portal as well in order to save Spira and free their friend Baralai. The portal disappears, leaving Yuna behind. The Gullwings later encounter Shuyin's spirit imprinted in the pyreflies of the Den of Woe. Shuyin's grief and despair take over Rikku and Paine, who attack Yuna, forcing her to attack her comrades in hopes of saving them. The pyreflies show Shuyin's memories of how he tried to use Vegnagun and how he and Lenne died. Yuna aims her gun at a ghostly image of Shuyin, but Shuyin tells her this is their story and calls her Lenne. After the Gullwings get back to their senses they conclude that Shuyin has serious regrets for his feelings to have begun acting on their own. Paine explains his despair was strong enough to crush the minds of the Crimson Squad and have them kill each other. Shuyin reveals he's been using Nooj, Gippal, and Baralai and summons illusions of them for the Gullwings to fight. Thinking back to when Nooj shot her, Gippal, and Baralai, Paine realizes Shuyin possessed him to do so. Paine and Yuna decide to try and free Nooj from Shuyin, but Rikku persuades them to free Baralai instead, explaining that when they were in the Bevelle Underground, a cloud of pyreflies transferred from Nooj's body to Baralai's as Shuyin shifted his control from one to the other. Yuna, Rikku, Paine, as well as Leblanc and her cronies Ormi and Logos follow Gippal and Nooj deep into the Farplane and help them defeat Shuyin. After Yuna, Rikku, and Paine defeat Vegnagun, Shuyin realizes Yuna is not Lenne and, enraged, attacks them. Lenne's spirit steps out of Yuna's dressphere and soothes Shuyin, and the two fade away, together once again. [Courtesy of Final Fantasy Wiki.]

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THE PERSON BEHIND THIS WONDERFUL CHARACTER IS GENERALLY CALLED KENT AND SITS AT 21. HE LIVES IN THE ONLY TIMEZONE AND FOUND THE SITE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS. THE CUSTOM TITLE FOR THIS CHARACTER SHOULD BE...

[font=cezanne][color=FFFF99]Once-Tortured Soul[/font][/color]

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made by brooklyn at caution[/center]