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[hopelessdream]

PLAYER INFO.
✖ Handle: May
✖ Contact: plurk: nautical
✖ Are You Over 16: Y
✖ Other Characters Played in Consignment: N/A

CHARACTER INFO.
✖ Character Name: Nabuca
✖ Canon: Now and Then, Here and There; Last episode
✖ Character Appearance: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v496/Sorrow_Blade/bscap366.jpg
✖ Character Age: 15
✖ Pick A Number: 17; 94

✖ Character Suitability: Nabuca has lived the life of a soldier for longer than he's lived the life of a child. He only knows orders, fighting, surviving and death. There is very little in the world that Nabuca hasn't experienced as he's been dragged through the dust that is the remains of the planet Earth.
✖ Canon Setting: 10 billion years in the future, the Earth has been reduced to a barren desert planet well on the verge of dying. The water on its surface has dried up with the kindness humanity once held, leaving behind the desperate remnants of mankind, hanging on by whatever means necessary.

The setting is the continent of Africa, where small villages still hang on the best they can, despite the fatal state of the world around them. Unfortunately, the moving fortress Hellywood ravages the lands. It is a mobile country, ruled by a paranoid, charismatic, megalomaniac king named Hamdo. He seeks to control the whole planet, so no threat will come to him and no uprisings will emerge to take him down. He uses a scorched-earth strategy far beyond the normal limits, kidnapping the women and children from each village, taking any willing able-bodied men along and blowing up the village and anyone left behind with explosives hidden by his soldiers.

Hellywood's internal workings are a maze of machinery and walkways. One wrong move could mean death. One wrong turn could leave a person lost for days. It is falling apart, running low on fuel and undermanned. But, thousands of people reside within, working under grueling conditions to keep it moving and functional. Most are not there by choice. In fact, very few citizens of Hellywood are from Hellywood. It's possible that Hamdo's reckless decisions have lead to the majority of its original population dying.

The vast percentage of the residents are conscripted soldiers and women taken only for the purpose of breeding more soldiers. Those forced into Hellywood seem to face the atrocities of the darkness of man. Torture, an ongoing war, sex-based violence and a dictator who seeks almost a state of godhood to the people he has pushed below him. The children of Hellywood seem to face the greatest pains of all as the drill sergeants and adult soldiers do all that they can to inflict them with fear to gain their obedience.

✖ Character History: Nabuca's history is a simple one. When he was five, Hellywood invaded his village and tore him from his mother's arms, taking him with the other boys to join the army. The series gives us a brief image of him huddled in a corner, cowering, before being grabbed and thrown into the back of a transportation vehicle. He was put into Child Corps 113 along with his fellows and indoctrinated into the military life by his drill sergeant. If we observe the treatment of the boys Nabuca and crew bring into the corps in the series, we know indoctrination includes fear tactics, propaganda and abuse to break them down at a young age and make them obedient.

Sometime in the coming years, the other boys from his village, excluding his friend Tabool and himself, attempted to escape Hellywood. They barely made it out before they were captured by the adults and dragged back to Hellywood. The adult soldiers made the other children in the corps perform as a firing squad to kill the boys and make an example of them. Nabuca, not having any other choice, obeyed the order and killed his fellows. Again, he did NOT participate in the break out plan. He was not a part of their escape. If he had participated, he would be dead with the rest of them. He was only forced to kill them as a fear tactic used by Hellywood to ensure that the remaining boys from the corps would 'learn a lesson' and never make a similar attempt. It was a lesson in the fearsome power that Hellywood holds. Nabuca made no attempts to run and neither did Tabool. Why they didn't participate with the other boys from their village, we aren't told, but any hopes they might have had for attempting it, too, were squashed by this event. Even when he's given the very opportune chance to leave by Shu, who extends a hand to him during his own escape, he backs out in fear of death and covers for Shu's escape instead, remaining in Hellywood. (Nabuca's submissiveness in these occasions is meant to parallel Shu's rebellious, reckless nature. Where Nabuca would rather go with the grain and avoid risking himself, Shu throws caution to the wind and faces the consequences of his actions. The story of the departure comes up due to Shu mentioning that they should all escape in the first place, not even considering what might happen if they did.) The experience stuck with him and he made a point to never attempt escape, deciding any venture towards leaving by his own will would be futile and end in his death and the death of anyone who decided to help him. This is why, on one of Shu's first nights in Hellywood after Shu is almost forced to punish the other boys after they beat him for information, Nabuca insists he never try and run away.

Nabuca has followed orders closely ever since, for fear of consequence and his own self-preservation, and lives on a promise his drill sergeant gave him when he was young: If he followed along until the end of the war, he'd get to go home. They all would. So he's imparted that information to the other boys in his corps ever since to encourage them to stay put and behave, so that they might survive. He is often heard telling the others to 'be good' and do as they're told, acting as a guiding light for those younger or weaker than him as he grew up in the corps.

When he was ten, due to his skill and obedience, he was promoted to Corps Leader and has remained leader ever since. As leader, he has a record of taking punishment for his men and working the system to keep them safe. Interviews with the creator have told us that these punishments can be verbal, physical, emotional or sexual, but Nabuca has seemingly held things together through his dream of returning home someday.

The only other thing we know about Nabuca is that he has known Tabool for a long time, but has a rocky relationship with him. They both insist the other has changed, though Tabool has become unstable and Nabuca tends to be harsh with him despite telling Shu that Tabool used to be a kind, good boy. Though they grew up together, they've grown apart over the years as their motivations changed.

Nabuca has grown close to a little boy named Boo instead. We don't know when they met or how long they've been close, but considering how young Boo seems to be (7-8), they've likely been close for a few years. Nabuca acts like a mentor for all the boys, but we can see through the special treatment Nabuca gives him that Boo is very special to him and the most like family for him in his mind. They function as a single unit quite often and Nabuca always seems to order Boo to stay by him instead of splitting him off with the other boys in the corps. Over the course of the series, we see Boo start to disagree and move away from Nabuca through Shu's influence, but he never really leaves his side. This connection is why Boo's death in the Zaribar village during Hellywood's invasion is what inevitably breaks him. (It is passively Nabuca's fault for going off on Shu and insisting he would keep killing as long as he had to in order to get home within earshot of an armed little girl whose father he admits to killing. She tries to shoot Nabuca and Boo takes the bullet for Nabuca to save him.) Boo is probably the only thing beyond his dream that was pushing Nabuca forward in life.

✖ Character Personality: Life in Hellywood is not one to write home about. Nabuca was yanked crying from his mother’s arms at a very young age and taken to Hellywood to be a soldier. Though he’s still a child, he grew up quickly, taking on the role of a caretaker among the other child soldiers and becoming the leader of a small troop. He lives by a simple survival philosophy: Do what they tell you and you’ll get to go home. The dream of his village was the source of his will to live. It was all he had.

He tends to preach this to the other kids in an effort to extend their chances at survival. After having to kill the other boys from his village when they tried to escape, he seems to be especially vigilant when it comes to keeping his troop alive. He very pointedly tells Shu, during one of their conversations, to never ever run away. Nabuca is smart and quick on his feet, able to act and think up excuses that weasel the other kids out of the firing range. Even though he threatens to report misbehavior, he tends to keep things to himself to protect them, as seen when he chooses to keep Boo’s act of assisting Shu in escaping to himself.

Despite his visage of indifference, Nabuca is very kind and protective at his core. This is most apparent in his treatment of Boo. Boo’s role in his life is somewhere between brother and son, being the one truly precious thing Nabuca seems to have. He takes care of him, guards him, kills in his stead and worries about his wellbeing more than he does for anyone else. He spares him from the work of searching for the pendant by assigning him to guard Shu. When he sees that Boo’s hands are rubbed raw from work, he immediately is concerned, taking Boo’s hand to inspect it and speaking gently to him, reassuring him. Despite the major rules Boo breaks, Nabuca refuses to betray him, keeping his actions secret, a mercy he did not spare for Shu. Boo is, debatably, even more a source of sanity for Nabuca than his dream of going home. His dedication to Boo fuels him throughout and gives him strength to do the despicable things he has to do.

Though he cannot stand to kill, he forces himself through it with his calm and calculated exterior. Everything he does affects him, but he stores it inside, knowing he must be a rock for the other kids, especially for Boo. He takes his role as a leader very seriously. Though he is a very loyal soldier, seemingly, he fights and works only to get himself and the others home. He doesn’t know much of anything about why the war is happening, just that they all have to be there and get through before they can really live again. Enemies are just the people he’s told to point his gun at and shoot.

Nabuca has a streak of pride and anger still left in him. It might be due to his trapped feelings and the high tension situation he is constantly in, but he isn’t above grabbing people and confronting them. He might hate the violence he has to commit, but it doesn’t mean violence hasn’t been trained into him. This anger and violence tends to direct itself at Tabool, who instigates it with his cruel commentary. Nabuca has been seen grabbing him by the collar and telling him to go and die ‘somewhere away from him’, as well as just generally rejecting his presence. Part of this may be out of hate he feels towards what Tabool has become, but other targets, like Shu and even Boo, occasionally instigate his harsher side with their recklessness. He doesn’t want to lose any of them and he gets desperate and angry when they takes unnecessary risks.

Meeting Shu definitely has an effect on him and changes him throughout the show, but not necessarily for the better. With Shu, an innocent, untainted by the world Nabuca lives in, insisting that all of the world is wrong and backwards, Nabuca clearly starts to doubt himself, which makes his actions and reactions more desperate. Is it right to do what he’s doing just to go home? Is he just repeating a cycle? Boo is a mouthpiece for his own internal concerns as the series continues and Nabuca starts to see what he is doing is no different than what has been done to him.

Even his firm decision to never run away is shaken by Shu, who offers him the chance to flee with Boo and his troop and live somewhere safe. Though his fear ultimately makes him reject Shu’s offer, the flash of a desperate, hopeful smile is enough to show how close he was to breaking his code and taking Shu’s hand. When Nabuca ends up on the brink of death, his philosophy destroyed upon learning that his village was demolished and being betrayed by Tabool, his childhood friend, his new and brief acceptance of Shu’s way of thinking as what is ‘correct’ and right is shown through his taking Shu’s ‘stick’, the symbol is Shu’s non-killing belief, to Shu as a final act of rebellion. Though it’s too late for him, Nabuca is the reason Shu can take down Hellywood, the prison that’s held Nabuca and the other boys for years.

✖ Character Powers: Nabuca is a natural at hand-to-hand combat and fighting with a knife. He's trained to handle several basic firearms.

CHARACTER SAMPLES.
✖ First Person POV: Link!

✖ Third Person POV: There's nothing more sour than the taste of blood in his mouth. It dries his tongue and lips in an instant. It ramps up his thirst. Another pain that comes with dying.

He's not going anywhere beautiful. There's no where special for a monster like him. Even if he's going, too, he'll never reach Boo. He always took that gun from his hand... maybe he'd done enough to keep him just pure enough for someplace nice to sleep. Nabuca was hopeless a decade ago. He was done for.

He never thought someone would cry for him, though. It's nice to be held, he thinks, as he feels Shu cradle his head and sob hopelessly into his hair. Why is he wasting time on someone like him? Why does he never listen?

It all fades out then fades back in to a sea of white and blinding bodies, buzzing around him. He feels like wet cloth piled on a cold table and he can't move. He wouldn't have the fight in him right now to struggle, anyway. He's too woozy to care. He can hear voices that are damn near alien to him hitting him in the ears in muffled tones and he barely flinches when the needle pinches his skin as he fades out again.

The next time he wakes, he hears whistling. Everything is sudden and moving. He can't stop it and the moment he notices everything but him is rushing up, he nearly chokes. Will it hurt? Will it hurt? He's nearly fell before and this time there's no needlessly kind hand to grab him. He's just falling with no way to stop and he's sick of everything again. Why can't things be quiet for just one breath of time? He only wants a moment of piece before the punishment.

The ground comes quickly but not violently and a spike of cold he's never felt is pressed up against his entire body. Something is beeping. What is this stuff? Something is beeping and it won't stop.

Where is he? Why is it so cold? How, with the sun so close? Where is he?

Something is beeping.

With tired eyes, he zeroes in on the source, reaches out almost meekly, and lets his hand drop.

He'll attend to it in a second. Just a second. If he gets shot, so be it. He only wants a moment to breathe.

With great effort, Nabuca wills himself to peel his face out of the snow and slides himself upright, still heavy headed from the feeling of freefall. Again, he reaches and takes the strange, dark object still sounding off at him. It only responds with more noise.

It babbles at him for what feels like forever right now. That thing he agreed to... what was it? He's recruited. 'Recruited', something he's experienced before. Recruitment is a farce he's well familiar with by now. He knows he must have agreed based solely on his still clinging need to survive. Despite it all being gone, despite having absolutely nothing left in his life... something deep in his gut screams at him to live and he must have obeyed it. He remembers it now. Everything in him was put back together and someone had asked him something... something... and he said 'yes'. In spite of himself, he said yes, because dying was so terrifying and he'd come too close to it again.

Finally, it shuts up, and he's absorbed as much of the chatter that he's willing to. He knows how to pick up the important bits out of a long winded spew from an adult. Though all his bones feel like worthless jelly from the utter lack of life and desire in them, he lugs the bag onto his shoulder and cradles the device in his palm, looking at it once than staring ahead despondently.

Wherever this was, he had to walk.

Life... was going to repeat itself, wasn't it?

He shifts his shoulder under the bag and starts to move.
CHARACTER ITEMS.
✖ Pick a Team: Green Team

✖ Reason for Joining the CDC: Nabuca's reason for joining the CDC is an innate need to survive. Nabuca has endured countless atrocities and has clung to life through all of them. Even though he is likely at his lowest point, even in series, he still made every effort to survive. If Tabool had not betrayed him, he would have kept clinging to life, even though he hates himself. He knows he has no future at home. He knows his world likely has no future, either, so the chance at life here, even if it seems just as bleak to him right now, is still better than the terrifying assurance of death in his near future.
✖ Mission Freebie: For Boo to be brought back to life. (Boo is approx. 7-8)
✖ Personal Item or Weapon: His short knife

✖ Character Inventory:

1 standard Hellywood uniform
1 short knife in a sheath
1 Hellywood issued pistol
1 pair of boots