The Storyline
I can hear you all now. "There are PLENTY of animes that fit In Nomine, Haru," you cry. "What about, oh, Ruroni Kenshin? Or...or, I don't know, WeiB Kreuz?"
I hear you, my friends. It's simply that I don't care. Shuichi is the most Ofanite-ish Ofanite I've ever seen, and thus, this project was born.
Shuichi, a rather hyperactive Ofanite of Creation in a very effeminate teenage-boy Vessel, wants to be part of a band. As a Creationer, he's already got lots of talent and skill, and he and his Cherub of Destiny friend have been practicing a *lot* and their band, "Bad Luck", has finally gotten an in with the company "N-G Records". Of course, the reason they're playing is because Shuichi once saw a band (Nittle Grasper) perform, and had his socks knocked off. Nittle Grasper broke up, and one of its members, Seguchi Touma, founded N-G Records, so Shuichi is twice as excited. Ph34r over-excited Ofanim.
Well, on his way home one day, he drops his lyrics sheet and, chasing after it, encounters a tall, handsome stranger with cold, uncaring eyes. "You have zero talent," the stranger tells him. "Worse than a kindergartener. Give up." Determined to prove the stranger - a romance novelist named Yuki Eiri - absolutely dead wrong, Shuichi follows him around and insists Yuki come to his first concert and generally acts like a pesky Ofanite with a crush. Which isn't that far off - Shuichi DOES have a crush, and ends up making out with Yuki in an elevator (it seemed like a good idea at the time).
Of course, little did Shuichi realize that Yuki's a Renegade Djinn of Lust, but nobody's perfect, right?
At any rate, Shuichi gets on stage, sees that Yuki actually DID come to the concert (despite 'not caring', of course) and suffers brainlock. He drools on the mic for a while, vibrating unhappily as he tries to remember his song, and is rescued by no other than Ryuichi Sakuma, the vocalist of Nittle Grasper, who sings, encourages him, and they end up singing together on stage, Shuichi strangely awed by being in this person's presence. (You see where this is going, yes?) Well, Ryuichi enjoys the singing so much that he decides to get Nittle Grasper - a band with many secrets - back together. Of course, this means that it's in direct competition with the up-and-coming Bad Luck... and Shuichi's slowly beginning to figure out that his now-lover isn't precisely, well, human...but makes a very odd Djinn...
Mayhem ensues.
Shindou Shuichi, "Shuiel", Ofanite of Creation.
Corporeal Forces: 3 - Strength 5, Agility 7
Etherial Forces: 2- Intelligence 5, Precision 3
Celestial Forces: 4 - Will 8, Perception 8
Vessel 3 Charisma +2
Role 5, Status 3 (Up-and-Coming Rock Star in "Bad Luck")
Dodge 2
Running 3
Singing 5
Corporeal Song of Motion 3
Three words: Naive, honest, hyper. Most people describe Shuichi as a "sweet kid" and the Cherub who's attuned to him - his bandmate and best friend, Nakano Hiroshi - is so used to the dumb, crazy things that Shuichi does that he doesn't even blink anymore. ("Choose whether to cry or be angry, Shuichi.") He has a faith in the inherant goodness of others - which can be a bit of a sticky point with his Djinn boyfriend - and, given the choice of "You must decide between love and your music," picks "both". Without music, his love would be less. Without love, his music would be less. He's that kind of a guy.
...He is also very enthusiastic about sex; unusual for a 'submissive partner' in a gay anime, but hey, Creationers...
***
Uetsugi "Yuki" Eiri, "Eirug", Djinn of Lust
Corporeal Forces: 3 - Strength 7, Agility 5
Etherial Forces: 4 - Intelligence 9, Precision 7
Celestial Forces: 2 - Will 4, Perception 4
Vessel 3
Role 5, Status 5 (Internationally-Acclaimed Romance Author)
Computer Operation 1
Dodge 2
Driving 1
Fighting 3
Ranged Weapon (pistol) 4
Seduction 3
Discord: Angry 3
Oh, big past for this guy. As an Imp, he ran around the Bordello carrying 'supplies'; after becoming Djinn, he was immediately trained by a Habbalite, Yurkiel, and... well, as a Djinn, he started out jaded. There was suggestions of taping the dominance of Eirug, and a Balseraph of the Media, Seguto, was called in. Seguto, who had taken an inexplicable shine to Eirug, carried a weapon in. A while later, Yurkiel was dead and Eirug disappeared to Earth, his Heart shattered, and took on the identity of Yuki Eiri, writing romance novels and leaving a string of broken hearts behind him.
And then that damn Ofanite whirled into his life and wouldn't go away and is getting on his nerves and is... kinda cute, really.
***
Nakano Hiroshi, Cherub of Destiny
Corporeal Forces: 3 - Strength 7, Agility 5
Etherial Forces: 3 - Intelligence 6, Precision 6
Celestial Forces: 3 - Will 5, Perception 7
Vessel 3 Charisma +1
Role 5, Status 3 (Up-and-coming rock star in "Bad Luck")
Music (guitar) 4
Dodge 3
Drive (car) 1
Fighitng 3
Song of Corporeal Healing 2
Song of Etherial Healing 2
Song of Celestial Healing 2
Hiroshi is a Destiny Cherub who loves music nearly as much as any Creationer; he is Attuned to his best friend, Shuichi, who he frequently steps in to help steer away from his Fate - reminding Shuichi that they're doing music for the love of music, not for fame. He is strong, supportive, always knows what to say to Shuichi (whether insults or gentle encouragement) and is willing to put his own fears aside so that Shuichi can reach his dreams.
Hiro has figured out that Yuki is a Djinn, but due to Shuichi's feelings for him, is tolerating the relationship, though he has warned Yuki that if Shuichi ever has any reason to cry "other than his own naive stupidity", Hiro will make Yuki pay. One can only hope that that will not be tested...
Though Hiro has his own problems to worry with, as he slowly falls in love with a girl that he doesn't know just happens to be a Game Lilim...
***
Fujisaki Suguru, Seraph of Lightning
Corporeal Forces: 2 - Strength 3, Agility 5
Etherial Forces: 4 - Intelligence 10, Precision 6
Celestial Forces: 3 - Will 6, Perception 6
Vessel 2 Charisma +1
Role 5, Status 3 (Up-and-coming rock star in "Bad Luck")
Music (Synthesizer) 4
Dodge 2
Song of Thunder 3
Song of Corporeal Healing 2
Song of Corporeal Tongues 2
Song of Etherial Tongues 2
Song of Celestial Tongues 2
Suguru is their unfortunate Seraph who is caught in the middle of things. He is introduced to the cast as Seguchi Touma's relative, which is technically true; when Touma was still an angel, they *had* been made from the same batch of Forces. Seeing the potential Bad Luck had to make it big (and for the members to Fall), Touma knew they needed a good synth player and so had his 'wife' call in a favour on Suguru. Suguru would have resisted, but upon consulting with Jean, Jean advised him to go and help prevent the Fall of the other angels.
The terms of the Geas is simply to act as a member of Bad Luck, and so Suguru has been doing Jean's instructions at the same time and Touma's content with knowing that the Seraph is 'doing his job'. Suguru's got a good setup; unfortunately, working with the highly inefficient Shuichi and the very easy-going Hiroshi is giving him a headache.
Why won't they just get to work?!
***
Sakano, "Sakiah", Seraph of Trade
Corporeal Forces: 3 - Strength 6, Agility 6
Etherial Forces: 3 - Intelligence 6, Precision 6
Celestial Forces: 3 - Will 6, Perception 6
Vessel 2
Role 3, Status 2 (Musician manager/producer with N-G Records)
Dodge 4
Driving 1
Emote 3
Singing 2
Song of Corporeal Shields 3
Song of Etherial Shields 2
Song of Celestial Shields 2
Head of a PIN
Poor Sakano never knew what he was to have to deal with when Marc signed up him for this job.
Essentially, every Media outpost, Marc tries to have several agents in. For the particularly sly, clever Touma's N-G Records, he picked poor Sakano. After all, nobody would suspect the overstressed, easily freaking-out manager of being a Seraph, let alone one of Marc's.
In THAT respect, Sakano is successful. In every other, he isn't. He's currently producing Bad Luck (though some would say he'd been producing bad luck just to LAND this job) and has at least ten times the headache Suguru has.
***
Seguchi Touma, "Seguto", Balseraph of the Media
Corporeal Forces: 3 - Strength 4, Agility 8
Etherial Forces: 3 - Intelligence 7, Precision 5
Celestial Forces: 4 - Will 9, Perception 7
(Ten Forces)
Vessel 3 Charisma +3
Role 5, Status 5 (International Rock-Star turned Company Owner)
Music 5
Fighting 3
Knowledge (business) 2
Song of Etherial Entropy 3
Seguchi Touma is an interesting one.
He is, for one thing, utterly charming, and utterly handsome. (If we are to be totally honest, he's utterly pretty, but the sentiment's there.)
He is, for another thing, quite probably totally insane. Nearly Habbalah-level insane. Definately Obsessed-Djinn-level insane, but he is neither a Habbalah or a Djinn. He simply acts like both, and Impudite and Balseraph to boot.
He is in love with Yuki. Sort of. It is a very, very twisted form of love; more than lust, far too possessive for pure love. He saw the Djinn (yuck, yes, Djinn) and decided that he would free Yuki up for him; worse, when he walked in on Yurkiel taking the teaching far beyond training to pure rape (not uncommon for Lust, but something which Touma's mutable logic decided was wrong for *Yuki*), he killed Yurkiel, blamed it on Yuki, and helped Yuki go Renegade.
He will, in fact, tolerate Shuichi's relationship to Yuki ... within limits. Should it seem at all to be anything Touma deems (not necessarily with reason) to be hurting Yuki, Touma will do whatever he feels required to break the two of them up.
Other than that whole thing, he's a pretty good Faker, and does his job well - both the outward one (managing N-G Records) and the secret mission...
...to make Eli fall.
***
Seguchi Mika, "Mika", Free Lilim IST the Media
Corporeal Forces: 3 - Strength 5, Agility 7
Etherial Forces: 3 - Intelligence 7, Precision 5
Celestial Forces: 3 - Will 6, Perception 6
Vessel 3 Charisma +2
Role 3, Status 3 ((retired)rock star's wife)
Driving (car) 3
Emote 2
Song of Celestial Motion 3
Subliminal
(Note that while Mika can have Geas Hooks as appropriate to a GM's campaign assuming anyone ever tries to USE this, she starts the game with none on any members of Bad Luck (except Suguru, who joins late) or on Yuki. She is also likely to owe one or two to Touma)
Mika is officially Touma's wife and Yuki's sister; she is attempting to bring Yuki back while still finding a way to dodge the Game. She does care about him, as long as caring won't bring harm to her and she believes that Shuichi could be a very useful tool with which to influence Yuki and bring him back to the fold...
***
Uesugi Tatsuha, "Tatsah", Impudite of Lust
Corporeal Forces: 3 - Strength 6, Agility 6
Etherial Forces: 2 - Intelligence 4, Precision 4
Celestial Forces: 4 - Will 8, Perception 8
Vessel 3 Charisma +1
Role 2, Status 1 (Disreputable teen)
Seduction 4
Dodge 3
Savoire-Faire 2
Fighting 3
Song of Corporeal Healing 4
Song of Etherial Attraction 2
Dark Desire
Yuki's 'little brother' (in that they were made and trained at about the same time), Tatsuha was assigned on Earth duty not too long after Yuki went renegade and has since made contact with Yuki but has not reported it. Tatsuha is on the borderline of betraying his Prince without knowing it; he is absolutely obsessed with one thing and one thing only: The international rock star Sakuma Ryuichi. Tatsuha is firmly convinced that he must have Ryuichi, and isn't thinking about anything else, ignoring the rest of his job, and not reporting Yuki after finding him.
Tatsuha is neither bright nor focussed, and is more than willing to jump anyone with even a vague resemblence to Ryuichi (read: Shuichi), and has recently been contacted by a Lilim of the Game who's looking for Yuki...
***
Usami Ayaka, "Akya", Lilim of the Game
Corporeal Forces: 3 - Strength 7, Agility 5
Etherial Forces: 3 - Intelligence 6, Precision 6
Celestial Forces: 3 - Will 5, Perception 7
Vessel 4
Role 5, Status 3 (Kyoto schoolgirl, connected to the local Buddhist temple)
Knowledge (Buddhism) 4
Fighting 4
Dodge 4
Lying 3
Emote 2
Tracking 4
Song of Celestial Motion 4
Song of Celestial Entropy 3
Song of Celestial Healing 2
Humanity
Ayaka has been assigned, quite simply, to tracking Yuki down. To do so, she has learned everything she can about his new identity. She has read all of his romance novels. She has learned about his dark and mysterious personality.
There's a reason few Lilim make good Gamesters; she's startled to find herself crushing on him. It doesn't help that she's chosen to pose as his long-lost fiancee in order to work her slow way to getting actual contact with him...
But she's determined to do her job, personal feelings aside, and has managed to track down Tatsuha, his 'brother', and Geased him to help her find him...
Though she's gotten sidetracked by this awfully cute Cherub who seems totally sympathetic to her fiance going missing...
***
Noriko Ukai, "Nori", Bright Lilim of Creation
Corporeal Forces: 3 - Strength 7, Agility 5
Etherial Forces: 3 - Intelligence 6, Precision 6
Celestial Forces: 3 - Will 5, Perception 7
Vessel 3 Charisma +3
Role 5, Status 5 (World-famous rock star)
Music (synth) 6
Song of Corporeal Light 2
As one can tell from her lack of skills and songs, as a Free Lilim, she was rather specialized in what she did - the synth player for Nittle Grasper. After Nittle Grasper broke up, she Redeemed in an apparently chance encounter with Eli and has agreed, at Ryuichi's request, to allow Nittle Grasper to start up again. So far, Touma doesn't seem to know that she's not the Lilim she used to be...
***
Taki Aizawa, "Iza", Habbalite of the Media
Corporeal Forces: 3 - Strength 8, Agility 4
Etherial Forces: 3 - Intelligence 5, Precision 7
Celestial Forces: 3 - Will 7, Perception 5
Vessel 4 Charisma +2
Role 4, Status 3 (Up-and-coming rock star for the band 'ASK')
Dodge 2
Fighting 3
Lying 4
Singing 4
Song of Corporeal Charm 1
Aizawa is a wild-card. Despite being a Media Servitor, he's not involved in any of the plots. He's simply a jealous Habbalite who's getting ignored in favour of Bad Luck and Nittle Grasper. He loathes Shuichi for stealing his spotlight and will go to very dangerous extremes to get it back, though when he chooses Yuki as a likely target to hurt Shuichi, Touma may have something to say about that...
And yes, he looks like Tatsuha. Coincidence.
***
Sakuma Ryuichi, "Eli", Mercurian Archangel of Creation
Role 6, Status 6 (World-famous rock star)
You know, for drama's sake, I really should have left Ryuichi until last, but K's writeup would make no sense without it. Sigh.
So, yes. This is where Eli's been all this time. (one of the places, anyway - remember Superior multiple manifestations). Yes, as the core rules say, Eli's memories are missing. Yes, as the supplements imply, Eli also still knows who he is.
As Ryuichi, he comes across as someone with multiple personality disorder. In day to day life, he's extremely scatterbrained. He talks to himself in third person. He talks to his stuffed pink bunny and makes it talk to other people. He is insanely cutesy and tends to dress up at any given moment in bizarre outfits (not unlike Shuichi's tendancy to dress up as, oh, a suitcase). He misunderstands simple concepts and language, unable to figure out words that sound the same, but mean different things.
On stage, however, or when dealing with music, or the inclination towards art or love, he becomes very serious, eyes gaining a bizarre sharpness.
He started up Nittle Grasper again for one reason, and one only - Shuichi could do great things if he has something to try to surpass.
"Shine, Shuichi. Shine and overtake me."
***
K, "K", Malakite of War
Corporeal Forces: 4 - Strength 10, Agility 6
Etherial Forces: 2 - Intelligence 4, Precision 4
Celestial Forces: 3 - Will 6, Perception 6
Vessel 6 Charisma +2
Role 3, Status 2 (manager/bodyguard)
Driving (car) 1
Ranged Weapons (guns) 6
Language (Japanese) 1 (His Japanese is bad. His English isn't.)
Song of Corporeal Healing 3
K is one of Michael's more special Malakim. For one thing, he's got the 'if it is my choice' thing quite covered - Michael has given him (reluctant but explicit) orders to not slay evil unless it attacks first, as his mission comes before anything else.
His mission... keep an eye on Eli.
You see, Michael has figured out where Eli was. And while he wants to make sure that Eli's safe (even if he's pissed that Eli's AWOL), he doesn't want to sic the Hyena on him.
So he sent K to act as Ryuichi's manager and keep an eye on him.
K has a hard time controlling himself around Touma, but otherwise gets along well with the members of Nittle Grasper and Bad Luck; he is also acting as Shuichi's manager at Eli's request.
K is a very cheerful, easy-going, tall American-looking fellow with more military connections than one can shake a fist at and a tendancy to point guns at anything and everything.
***
Kumaguro ("Bear")
While not actually a character, Kumaguro deserves mentioning as one. You see, this floppy pink bunny named Bear contains all of Eli's memories. He wanted to get back in touch with humanity, but he's not a dumb Archangel; he needed his memories on hand and so stored them in the plush toy. As such, when talking, he sometimes talks through the doll (by holding it up and waving its arms as he speaks) of course.
It also is an artefact. It cannot be defined in simple game terms, as it varies in use from day to day. One of the more common ones is to knock some sense into someone, which is triggered by holding the doll and tossing it at someone's head while yelling "KUMAGURO BEAM!" in a cute voice.
Ryuichi has given Shuichi a copy Kumaguro, which contains just a little of the Archangel's favour.
Shuichi and Yuki are in love. That's the simple fact; Shuichi acknowledges this and moodswings between raving delight and angst over Yuki's coldness (as it takes 'til near the end of the series before he discovers that Yuki's a Djinn). Yuki does not acknowledge that he likes the damnable brat, that that damnable brat is in fact living with him, or the fact that he misses that damnable brat every time he's away.
Tsk.
Yuki is Renegade, but he is not yet Redeemable; he doesn't believe in love, and it will take very, very careful coaxing for him to do so. It is, after all, dissonant for him to start to care; the thought is frightning and appalling, even if he wants it, very, very much.
As such, their relationship is plenty of Shuichi jumping all over Yuki while Yuki pretends not to care. Lather, rinse, and repeat.
-Dominic finds out what's going on. Hyjinks ensue.
-Andre finds out what's going on. ...other things ensue.
-Kumoguro goes missing. Does Eli fall?
-...anything with Aizawa, really.
-Ayaka chooses to go Renegade/Redeem. Does this attract the Game's attention? Possible tie-in to the Dominic game seed.
-Shuichi gets seriously hurt (presumably due to Celestial interference) and Yuki finds himself caring. Dissonance wracks up and still, he's afraid to Redeem without help...
-K accidentally exposes what's going on - Eli's location's now known. Superiors begin to converge on Japan, and Shuichi's found his Archangel... and must try to defend his Archangel's wishes against Superiors...
...really, there's a lot of them in the character write-ups alone. Look through, pick what you like, enjoy. It's a hard world to RP in, but there's a place to start. Have fun, and remember - Keep shining!
