⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Minki
Contact: Plurk: froncentrate
Age: 23
Current Characters: Redcloak


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Excel
Age: In her early 20's
Canon: Excel Saga (manga)
Canon Point: Before the battle with Sanshiki when she doesn't have her Core yet

Background: Excel Saga takes place in Fukuoka, Japan where an underground syndicate by the name of ACROSS, the Organization for the Institutionalization of the Supreme Ideological Ideal on Earth, is as the title suggests, working to take over the world. In order to conquer the world, ACROSS believes that one must first conquer half of that. But in order to conquer half of the world, one must first conquer the quarter of that and so on. To conquer the world, therefore, one must conquer an entire city, that being Fukuoka.

The manga originally was written in response to the Japanese recession and to reflect that, the world-conquering organization only has two members total: its leader, Il Palazzo, and the executive officer, combatant, and latrine orderly, Excel. Believing that the world is corrupt, Excel is charged by Il Palazzo with gathering information around the city and delivering items to specific areas to divert enemy efforts while often being dropped down “the pit”, a trap hole built into the base. While conquering the world is clearly on the agenda, Excel must also make means to sustain herself through income provided by various part-time jobs... most of which she's fired from or quits for one reason or another.

During a flood as Excel swims her way over to ACROSS' headquarters, she comes across a dog, Mince, that she rescues and makes into her “emergency ration” and the “third member” of ACROSS. Just as she's pulled down the “pit” again, this time, she finds herself in the harsh seas hours later where she has trouble dealing with the Japanese Immigration Bureau. After being labeled as an illegal immigrant, thrown into prison, and escaping from said prison, she returns to Fukuoka to find that Il Palazzo has hired the official third (fourth in Excel's book) member of ACROSS, Hyatt, an anemic girl who often finds herself dead from time to time.

Opposing ACROSS is the City Environmental Security Administration, a government bureau headed by Dr. Kabapu. The administration was made in response to Kabapu's belief that there is somebody trying to take over the city. As such, he chooses a group of young people with potential who more or less all took the same entry-level civil servant test, Toru Watanabe, Norikuni Iwata, Daimaru Sumiyoshi, and Misaki Matsuya. Most of their tasks are limited to paperwork, but Kabapu sends them off in missions such as searching the sewers which often makes them question the nature of their “entry-level civil servant” positions. All five members of the Administration along with Excel and Hyatt were placed in the same apartment, although they generally manage to avoid each other through sheer luck.

Later on, Il Palazzo assigns Excel and Hyatt to find the new member to ACROSS, giving them vague instructions without mentioning the specific location. They manage to find a hotel sitting out by the hill where they are mistook by the manager as the new part-time workers. Albeit uncertain of who may be the new member, after a mishap with a fighter jet and yet more issues with the Immigration Bureau, they manage to return to the base to find Kasumi Munakata, or Elgala, the official fourth member of ACROSS. Excel begins to take more of an authoritative approach with her juniors. With Elgala accustomed to more luxuries, Excel begins to focus more of her efforts on scrimping and saving. Even in their new apartment, she forbade hot water and most use of electricity to the bare minimum.

As Il Palazzo declared that ACROSS will no longer be a “secret organization”, Excel, Hyatt, and Elgala took to the streets, proclaiming their intentions to conquer the world. The Administration then began to actively thwart ACROSS. While the other members found reasons not to enter the field, Iwata, the “leader”, would often be the one to fight the three... often ending in a bitter defeat largely thanks to Excel, but with the “enemy” also making their presence known, the three retreated to plan and regroup. Il Palazzo demonstrated to Fukuoka the power that ACROSS had been keeping hidden as he projected a giant hologram of himself, announcing his goals for conquest.

Il Palazzo was then revealed by Kabapu to possess “over-technology” from the ancient civilization, Solaria. The two were members of it countless years ago, but the city vanished as a result of the over-technology. Kabapu found himself to be one of the last survivors and he spent the remaining years searching for the last bits of Solaria's technology in order to destroy it, killing many other survivors along the way, and admitting to using “dead men's souls” to achieve his goals. Il Palazzo, the last survivor and once a fond friend of Kabapu, stands on the last remaining remnant of Solaria, its “ruin”, and to conquer Fukuoka and access the “ruin” could mean the absolute end of the world.

Kabapu possessed the “Core” necessary to enter the Ruin and challenge whatever is inside and collaborating with a disappeared scientist named Tenmangu Shiouji and then his son, Gojyou, he created the Ropponmatsu unit. Excel, Hyatt, and Elgala were never briefed in detail as the Administration members were, whose members mostly cringed at what seemed to be nothing more than an old man's fantasies. The three were instead assigned simply to kidnap Ropponmatsu, an “employee” of the Administration. In time, as another mishap separated the three, Il Palazzo used his overtechnology to teleport and retrieve Ropponmatsu, Hyatt, and Elgala, leaving Excel stranded to fend for herself. During her time away from Fukuoka, she developed a case of amnesia and was taken in by the Shiouji household as Teriha Shouji all the while Il Palazzo started becoming a dominant power in Fukuoka.

The hologram projection was announced to be a publicity stunt by the ILL Electronics company. Gaining financial power and public approval, Il Palazzo used blackmail to unearth Kabapu's corruption to ruin him. Excel, while in the care of the Shioujis, enjoyed a significantly more “normal” life especially with Umi Rengaya, Goujyou's cousin. Excel saw from time to time more of Il Palazzo's image as well as someone who resembles her by his side, a “President Excel”, or rather, a reprogrammed Ropponmatsu. By the time the Administration regained financial and political power, ILL Electronics came under attack for its apparent corruption.

Kabapu challenged Il Palazzo to the mayoral office and invested whatever money he had to sling mud at the man. Using his “young friends” in the Administration, Kabapu tried bombing Il Palazzo's van. Excel as Teriha watched the first bombing attack, relieved to see that Il Palazzo was not harmed. Only Elgala was. Once Kabapu was able to win the office, he had the ILL Electronics building bombed again out of boredom this time, but was infuriated at the possibility that another bomb had been planted by somebody else altogether and that it would set his off. News of this spread and Teriha raced to the ILL building to protect Il Palazzo from harm. Reuniting with Elgala, who became a scapegoat for ILL's accusations, and teaming up with “President Excel”, she worked to find and disarm the bombs planted... only to fail.

Excel recovered her memories and raced over to Il Palazzo's office to warn him personally, only to be thrown out by the explosion. Il Palazzo teleported away to safety, expressing disappointment as he bid Excel farewell. Excel was left to fall and with Elgala, she began working on uncovering the secrets behind ACROSS' “intruder”.

In hiding, both Elgala and Excel began cooperating with members of the City Environmental Security, both of whom seek answers and a resolution to all the nonsense. Excel and Elgala, now accompanied by Hyatt, sneaked into ACROSS headquarters to confront Il Palazzo directly and retrieve answers. There, they found that the headquarters had been intruded on long ago by a strange woman, later discovered to be Miwa Shiouji. Both ACROSS and City Environmental Security members announce an official truce as they worked together for one last infiltration.

Il Palazzo, or Tenmangu Shiouji controlling his mechanical body, was ready to reset the world through the Ruin. Like both Il Palazzo and Kabapu, he was engaged in a similar battle against boredom. All three men wanted a level of conflict to alleviate the boredom of their immortal lives and for the most part, Tenmangu took over to give them just that. And to set the conditions so that “something new” will come about in the world. He hijacked ACROSS' plans to both be in proximity to the Ruin and to guide this conflict so that all sides would be satisfied.

He didn't count on Excel to be able to barge into ACROSS' base yet another time or raise a hand against him in Il Palazzo's form. The shell may be his, but the contents are definitely not. A fight ensues to remove Tenmangu from Il Palazzo's body. Tenmangu sics Ropponmatsu Sanshiki on the lot who turns out to be Miwa Shiouji. She was gone long ago and after having finished Sanshiki in her image, Tenmangu has taken control of it for the longest time now, hiding in plain view. As Iwata kept Sanshiki busy, Excel accesses the Ruin.

Inside was the Core and once having made contact with Excel, the consciousness inside possessed her body. Unsatisfied with this turn of events, now that he can no longer control it, Tenmangu leaves Il Palazzo's body. The Core inside Excel sought after the consciousness inside Il Palazzo's body, the other Core. Unable to reach it, she was prepared to kill everyone inside the throne room. Excel attempted to fight back, evident from tears of blood streaming from her possessed body's eyes, and controlling the other hand to grip the one the Core had raised. Through the voices of her friends and allies and through some conflict with a myriad other personalities inside the body, she becomes the dominant self and expels the Core, leaving it to seek out the husk in the form of Ropponmatsu Sanshiki, still in the room.

The Core announces that she'll be destroying the base because it has too many bad memories for her. Everyone escapes, leaving Excel to fight. It seems like a hopeless battle at first, but Il Palazzo's own dominant personality comes to and attempts to defend Excel, calling her by name. Excel regains her strength to fight and announces that she doesn't “follow” Il Palazzo. She is the one that whacks the weeds for his passage and destroys everyone who would stand in his way. Through her loyalty and will, Excel manages to create her own Core. The other Core lost the will to fight, recognizing that another life has been born through the efforts of both Cores.

Excel easily defeats Sanshiki and Sanshiki falls, accepting defeat, and the Core inside of her retreats. Having rescued Lord Il Palazzo, the two remain in base while the rest make their escape. Tenmangu in his true body attempts to make his escape before Excel captures him, taking him to work for ACROSS for all the trouble he caused. Some time passes since the fight and the other ACROSS members note that they haven't seen Excel since. Till then, they live out ordinary lives, altogether quite ones... till both Elgala and Hyatt are called away via teleportation and once again, in the streets of Fukuoka, Il Palazzo has made his declaration for conquest known via hologram. Kabapu, excited, answers Il Palazzo's declaration and regroups.

A final battle between the city and ACROSS takes place, though this time, the latter has an overwhelming technological advantage. ACROSS successfully manages to conquer Fukuoka and starts to wage war against the rest of the world. One city is conquered, so next will be two cities. And four. And so on and so forth. At the very end, in just seven days, the world had been conquered... Just as promptly, ACROSS buggered off and left the world to its own devices.Excel restored Hyatt and Elgala to regular health and returned them to ordinary lives in the city. She, Tenmangu, the Core, and Il Palazzo ventured off toward other worlds, having seen and taken hold of Earth already.

Personality: An aggressive and excitable woman, Excel has a near inexhaustible supply of energy that could keep her going for weeks on end with the most minimal of food. She's someone who relentlessly takes the initiative, often gladly receiving the bulk of the heavy lifting duties in her missions and part-time jobs. She has a strong work ethic and would tirelessly strive to accomplish her tasks, no matter how the odds are stacked against her. Her actions are driven by her almost fanatic devotion to her leader, Il Palazzo, and labeling herself as his “number two” (which is something that he probably doesn't consider her as), she uses every bit of energy in her body to further his goals and her own financial state. As strong as she is (but perhaps “able” is up for debate), she retains a high level of subservience for Il Palazzo which ultimately appears to limit her.

However, she doesn't consider herself a “follower” of Il Palazzo. She goes ahead to pave the way for him as a vanguard unit, a warrior who pledged absolute fealty to him and his ideals. When Il Palazzo is away, she acts independently as his “number two” and makes orders that she feels would further ACROSS' goals. Excel is kind enough to Hyatt and understanding of her condition, still seeing her as a full, able combatant. Toward Elgala, however, she often uses either verbal or physical force to keep her in line. She takes on a disciplinarian attitude when directing her subordinates, but truthfully, she cares for both Hyatt and Elgala much more than she would like to admit. After working with other agents for so long, she would often feel lonely and anxious if there was nobody around her. As troublesome as Hyatt's constant dying or Elgala's “taste for the bourgeois lifestyle” is, she quietly considers them friends and enjoys having them around especially when things begin to literally blow up.

Towards other people beyond ACROSS, however, Excel prefers keeping her distance. At best, those that have no affiliation with her outside the workplace are often ignored and labeled off as just one of the many average “Joe Ignorant Masses”. At worst, they're shadowy, counter-revolutionary saboteurs who plot against her. While she remembers people who treated her somewhat well, she remembers the people that have wronged her in some way even more. Excel keeps a Nixon-styled “enemies list” handy to make note of everybody that ought to be put down once she rules the world with Il Palazzo. She isn't one to eagerly make new friends and distances herself wherever possible for the sake of security measures, but she has bonded with some people like Mr. Owner and Ms. Manager in the past. Excel deals with her social awkwardness in an aggressive way, either by acting confrontational or preferring to retreat altogether, but she isn't incapable of opening up to certain people.

Excel waged war with life in preparation for Il Palazzo's global conquest. She's quick to throw herself at enemies, launching punches and kicks relentlessly to wipe them out of his way, or to escape from them at all costs. Her enemies include, of course, almost everyone. Everyone is a potential enemy who's out to make sure she fails. After coming across some money, Excel found incredible distrust even in the elderly around her, commenting against the murderous glint in their eyes. Excel is perpetually in the mindset of a soldier and a conqueror, separating the world between “us” and “them”, with most of the world being overwhelmingly “them”. Though this makes her seem very paranoid and single-minded, Excel isn't the least idiotic. She can actually be a rather savvy person, knowing exactly when to fight and when to run in a genuine battle. It's just that she's more prone to running.

A pet peeve that Excel has is spending far too much than the budget allows. She values hard work and thinks little of spending too much, preferring thrift and to save. Living a life like this out in the streets has given Excel a taste for pigeon meat and fish from the polluted rivers. While her junior officers might have reservations, Excel has been known to care little for washing herself with the park fountains when without a home. Every aspect of her life is based around self-sacrifice and devotion to a higher cause, making her more than willing to sacrifice shame for self-preservation. Both her self-sacrificing and self-preserving nature go hand in hand. For example, she's a survivalist even when she doesn't have to be, living a life of poverty even when having a good amount of money to her name. Much of this can be passed off as simple eccentricity if she didn't demand others follow her ridiculous behavior as a standard of living.

Something that bothered Excel a good deal for a while was that she doesn't seem to have any unique talents. She is called a “jack of all trades”, but this implies that she is a “master of none”. While Hyatt (apparently) is a capable sharpshooter and Elgala has proficiency with a sword, Excel just seems to be a well of energy, able to allow her to do just about anything if luck allows. She becomes afraid that at some point, she may not be needed for any purpose. For a while, she was scared at seeing how well Hyatt and Elgala were doing without her leadership, only to get an ego boost once she rescued both of them from a collapsing stadium. Excel wants to be needed and to possess some sort of talent to contribute within her inner circle. Her entire life is driven by a desire to be recognized as exceptional and capable and a good deal of it fuels her will to hone herself.

There are occasions where Excel suffers from amnesia. As she forgets about her devotion to Il Palazzo, Excel becomes remarkably more reserved and shy. She loses much of the energy that she demonstrates as his “second in command”. Both her regular and amnesiac selves, however, feel uncomfortable when right in the middle of public, showing some sense of paranoia with people. With individuals, however, that gained her trust like Umi Rengaya, she is sometimes able to show a genuine sense of friendship that her regular self has difficulty showing. She became close to Umi to the point where the two are almost like sisters. Amnesiac Excel becomes more capable of interacting with others and becoming intimate with them, but it's nearly impossible with her regular self as her ego blocks a good deal of it. But amnesiac Excel showed a lot of what was beneath the fanaticism.

In truth, as the story goes on, it becomes evident that Excel's body houses a multitude of personalities. The amnesiac Excel is just one of them, probably what remains of her former life, serving as a conscience to her dominant personality. The dominant one, fiercely loyal to Il Palazzo and yet, independent, has learned to wield the other personalities and keep them in line toward her advantage. The proof of having commanded such power manifests itself through a “Core”, or soul. She is an artificial being who has developed a soul over her time on Earth and her loyalty and convictions have since transcended mortal comprehension.

Abilities: Excel can recover amazingly quickly. After having her body completely incinerated by flames, she was able to return to her old self good as new by the next day. When tranquilized, it only takes her just a few minutes to stand back on her feet as if nothing had happened.

Her strength is above average. While she probably can't lift trucks, she does have the power to carry two grown women in her arms and run away at mach speed. With enough focus, she can probably punch a hole through a wall if she likes. Excel isn't invincible, however, and can be defeated fairly easily with sufficient skill. She fell unconscious after the target she threw herself at simply moved out of the way.

Her body automatically summons a shield around her against energy weapons either magic or technological. It's not like it doesn't phase her, though. Like slamming a battering ram into a wall, there's bound to be some force that makes it through. This is at least partially the effect of the Core inside of her. She can summon her Core, which dramatically increases her strength and fighting power. Excel considers it her loyalty crystallized, though it's more like her soul crystallized.

It allows her to influence machinery by implanting her will into them, though this seems to only affect robots for whatever reason. By pure accident, Excel ended up from time to time possessing the bodies of machinery, though staying too long outside of her body will loosen the connection.

Excel is not in the least invincible, but she has the skill and fortune to survive situations that nobody else would. On the flip side, she has incredibly horrendous luck at times where she could overwhelmingly win. If there's a slight chance that she can lose, it will come to pass. Just the same, if there's a minimal chance that she can win, then she'll triumph.

Alignment: Piphron. Excel's loyalty to Il Palazzo is the most exemplary manifestation of trust that she exhibits. She trusts Il Palazzo's vision of a new world that she would devote all of her life to it. But other forms of trust include her ability to work with and become close to people like Hyatt, Elgala, and Umi.

Her distrust manifests through her paranoia and her “world against me” attitude. Her enemy is the corrupt world as a whole and so, her distrust manifests most strongly even beyond her usual anger.

Other:


⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉
Sample: Link from Another Game

… Oh, Lord Il Palazzo. What fresh hell is happening now?

A giant tree had risen in place of the clock tower in Verens. Excel, having had her night shift over at one of the local restaurants ruined by the quakes, steps out, still in her uniform. She looks at the tree with narrowed, irritated eyes, and lets out a loud, exasperated sigh.

“It's always something with this gotdang world,” she grumbles. She takes off her apron and throws it over her shoulder, running off at the tree. “Hey! Hey, you up there! You've got some nerve, costing me a night's worth of sylvs! I hope you've got a fat savings account, because you owe me, buddy!”

Sure it's a tree. Sure it wouldn't respond. But she had to yell at someone for this indiscretion.

As she marches off on her war path toward the tree, the flower pedals fall. Excel snatches one and glares daggers at it. “Flowers are not adequate paym... uh? Check this out, some kind of an old-timey movie's playing in it...”

Her anger ebbs away, if only temporarily, as she checks to see the vision playing before her. It's... her. She's inside it and if she didn't know any better, this was some time ago back in Fukuoka. But she doesn't remember anything here. Not of her, wandering around, her looking up and seeing a syringe falling straight for her eye.

And of her, crying.

She blinks. What the hell is this supposed to be? “... A strictly B-movie, doesn't capture its subject at all,” she mutters. “I give it a thumbs down.” She throws the pedal aside, only for another one to fall gently down onto the back of her hand. Now the image shows her, except she's... with another girl. In the image, she looks so much more vulnerable as she follows her friend around.

But she remembers none of it. She doesn't even know who the other girl is. And yet, tears start to well up in her eyes and in her heart, the fire intensifies.

“... If someone was going to use my likeness for their stupid film, they'd better be prepared to cough up a fortune in royalties... But more importantly, the least they could do is maintain some frackin' accuracy! What is- what is this supposed to be anyway?” she demands, looking more at the image. “This isn't- this isn't me! Anybody who knows me can attest that shy and meek are nowhere on my list of traits and-”

She wipes at her tears with her arm. “... and now someone owes me a glass of water on top of the sylvs for the precious liquid I just lost!”

Excel runs. She runs through the confusion, toward the tree, prepared to climb it straight to the top and find whoever's responsible. Or at least, someone she could chew out for inflicting on her strange, uncomfortable feelings. Because there has to be someone. She couldn't just be feeling these things on her own and shedding these tears on her own, right? From memories that she never had to begin with.

Someone had to be responsible for both the tree and this outrage.