route 29; application

[holdmyphone]

Character
Name: Nate River (Will go by Near, N, and a whole bunch of other aliases)
Series: Death Note
Timeline: Post canon, pre oneshot.
Canon Resource Links: here and here!

Personality:
Near's an interesting bundle of mixed messages. When Near has the luxury of his preferred means of communicating with other people (miles and miles away with scrambled audio) they will tend to assume that Near's a person with something of an impressive, commanding presence. This impression stems mostly from the fact that when dealing with other people, Near is very direct, often blunt to the point of insensitivity, and authoritative. He'll give orders to people more than twice his age, and from his tone, it's obvious that he expects to be obeyed without much question. Take away Near's audio filters, and we have a male who sounds at best, pre-pubescent. Take away the advantage of distance, and we see that Near is in actuality a rather frail teenaged boy whose constantly crouched posture and hair fiddling would suggest a total lack of confidence. This vulnerability is an odd juxtaposition with the image Near is capable of otherwise projecting. However, even his less than impressive, weak physical form is slightly deceptive as well.

As the leading candidate for L's title, Near is in actuality one of the brightest minds in Death Note canon. Accordingly, Near has a very practical, intensely logical approach to the world. He seeks ways of making the things around him make sense given the rules and parameters he has to construct a framework upon. His approach to the Kira case, for example, is methodological, and torturously analytical. When new information doesn't quite fit his understanding of a situation, he's quick to adapt and modify his thinking accordingly. However, with Near this flexibility exists purely in the mental playing field.

As a result of being so meticulous, Near will never take initiative until he is assured that every last card in the deck has been stacked in his favor. This, of course, means that Near is not a fair player. Rules in games are merely references; they are to be twisted and manipulated. Likewise the players in the games, are equally manipulable. He tends to think of people, even those closest to him, as his chess pieces that can be used to gain advantages as well as the heavy lifting. Interestingly enough, while Near doesn't respect those he's judged to be cowardly or moronic, Near doesn't actually consider people themselves to be expendable. He values the lives of those people he trusts and would consider allies. He will not subject them to unnecessary risks if he can prevent it. However, this doesn't actually mean that Near spends much time in mourning when it comes to actually losing a chess piece. When Mello kills off most of the SPK members, Near simply watches them die impassively, while staying on the phone with Light Yagami. For Near, a set back in his progress isn't something to become angry or brood over. He'll pick himself back up, and move on calmly and always objectively. As with most irrelevant pieces that are no longer part of the grand chess game, Near doesn't spend a great deal of active thought dwelling on the past. Once he's done picking out how the past is relevant to or predictive of the future, he's moved on.

There is one exclusion to those he considers players on a chess board: himself. Unlike Mello, and L, Near is not a risk taker. Despite his penchant for stacking dice (amongst other items), Near will not play dice when it comes to his life. What this translates into is essentially a tremendous amount of paranoia, and what appears to be lethargic, leisurely periods in which Near checks, waits, watches, rechecks, and then checks one more time, before he finally makes a move. His role is purely spectatorial, until he's sure he'll win. Of course, what with all the time that went into preparation, his final plan is suitably grandiose, displaying every last bit of the trademark Wammy kid flair for intellectual exhibitionism.

One of Near's biggest tendencies is to treat everything he does as though it were a game. The Kira case, is no exception even with all the lives at stake. His involvement in the case is not due to any higher fondness of noble justice, but like L, one of personal interest. Near actually does acknowledges what Kira's rule has accomplished, and when Light calls him out on wanting to catch Kira for the sake of his ego, Near makes absolutely no attempt to refute the claim. He's a prideful, arrogant individual that likes to win. Once he has won, or has decided that the offered challenge will be a waste of time, he quickly loses all interest in active participation, even if others (coughMellocough) haven't lost interest in him.

Speaking to his lack of adequate socialization, in conversation his word choices typically reflect their most literal sense without their associated connotations. For example, upon learning of L's defeat, Near promptly calls him a loser. While this may seem to point to the fact that Near had no respect for L, in actuality Near means a "loser" in its strictest sense: A person who didn't win, is by default a loser. He actually has a great deal of respect for L, and refers back to L's rules and methods as the foundation for his own tactics. In Near's mind, it's not that he's careless with his words, it's that people that take offense are overly sensitive. Consequently people don't always make the most sense to Near, and it's obvious he prefers being in the company of his battalion of toy robots, legos and other toys.

Another reason why Near comes off as so dismissive and emotionally stunted is because he is incredibly singleminded. When others try to call attention to other factors that (in his mind) aren't remotely related to his interests, he's very quick to shoot down ideas, and insist upon the validity of his own. Being as intelligent as he is, Near's ideas are usually not wrong, but he does take a very dichotomized approach-- his ideas are right until definitively proven otherwise. An attitude like that is further evidence that Near hasn't had a great deal of experience in actually working with people. Where people express doubt, or ask for more evidence, Near sees it as...not exactly an outright threat to his authority per se, but an exasperating detractor rather than a valid request. "If you don't want to do it, I can ask someone else to do it" is generally the response that he'll give to that kind of statement. Being an emotional crutch is not Near's forte.

His approach to dealing with people does change depending on whether or not he has deemed the person he's speaking to a worthwhile challenge. Then he switches from being mildly disengaged to being an excellent snarker, constantly poking and fishing for reactions from his opponents and generally making their lives as inconvenient as possible while staying as physically far out of reach as he can.

Strengths/Weaknesses:

Strengths
As mentioned previously, Near is an otherworldly genius which means all of his strengths are cognitive. He's as sharp as a blade, with profound insight into human behavior, and superior reasoning ability. As he's been trained to be one of L's successors, he has extensive knowledge in the fields of forensics, cryptology, criminology, as well as espionage. He's also more than likely an accomplished polyglot. In canon, Near's deductions often border on clairvoyance; there's very little a person can hide from Near if he puts his mind to the task which brings us to....

Weaknesses
Standing at an unimpressive height of just over 5'0" and weighing a measly 88lbs, Near is about as physically threatening as a small child. Near is also prone to observe from the shadows and take his sweet time before acting upon any of his plans, which makes him seem very sedentary both mentally as well as physically. Because of this, Near relies pretty heavily on other people to do the heavy lifting in his plans. Without people to carry out his orders, Near is more or less helpless. Put simply, he is the brains, and needs other people to be the muscles. Literally.

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer
Starter: Onix
Password: Taco Bell.

Samples
First Person Sample:

Greetings, Johto. A brief moment of your time please.

[No, this isn't going to be brief at all. Deal with it.]

First of all, regarding the rumor that we are able to leave once all gym badges have been collected. Has this been dispelled?

Secondly, has there been to date a documented penalty for remaining in New Bark Town?

Thirdly, I'd like the opinion of an engineer, if such an individual exists amongst us.

Lastly, depending on the answers to the first two questions, I may be interested in purchasing a saddle. We can work out the monetary and delivery arrangements in private.

Thank you.

[Except this isn't the end of what Near has to say. There's also a transmission that sounds as though it ought to have been locked to someone, but it is broadcast publicly.]

This is a significant deviation from plans, Light Yagami. How does Kira intend to move, I wonder.

[That ought to do. Even if Light Yagami is not here as well, the message would still succeed in attracting the attention of everyone from his world. And if he was? That information would be invaluable.]

[But that's still not all, Johto. Yet another seemingly failed attempt at a private message is posted as well.]

Ryuzaki, law student at Todai University. I believe I have reason to know you. A word please.

[Now you may resume your business. A click, and the Pokégear cuts off.]

Third Person Sample:

His "mother's" repeated insistence that he enjoy himself and embark on a Pokémon journey were promptly ignored. Unfortunately the infernal music was less easily ignored. Soon enough, he'd become desensitized to it, but until then it would suffer the full brunt of Near's silent displeasure.

Frowning slightly as he fiddled with a single lock of hair, he sat on the floor of his room examining the Pokéball he'd been given. From what he'd watched on his Pokégear, people considered them partners and traveled Johto with them; all that mattered to Near was the fact that no matter how useful the creature contained inside could be, it would not be Commander Rester that emerged from its contents.

The idea that a mysterious force could break through all of Near's normal means of secrecy to bring him to Johto in the first place left him feeling deeply unsettled. Isolated from the SPK and without any of his resources as L, Near could have easily spent the entire day pouting. The only silver lining in this is that he had been able to witness the downfall of Kira before being swept away on this unwanted journey. But even so, it was hollow. The title of L was his in a place where it had no meaning; no significance, and to enter this new literal game with that presumption would be ridiculous.

What these people had clearly neglected to factor in was the fact that Near had no real intention on participating in this nonsense. He was more than okay with the idea of staying in relative comfort in his new abode. It seemed unless Near spoke to his "mother" she wouldn't initiate conversation which worked out quite conveniently.

That said, of course Near was curious as to the identity of not-Rester. After one final twirl of his hair, he dropped the innocuous Pokéball on the ground where it bounced once, before revealing a flash of enormous red light. His eyes widened as chips of plaster and concrete hailed from the ceiling. He barely had time to duck and protect his head before the floorboards made a ominous creaking noise, giving way under the massive weight of-

OOOOOOONIX!

... Shit.


Notes: I actually had a question regarding the possibility of summoning Onix indoors while Near is in the NPC Mother's house at New Bark Town. xD Given Onix's size, doing that would end up destroying the house. Would this be possible in game?