history || personality || current status

[huamo]

history.

 

On December 3, 2041, following her latest physical, a new mother simply stepped out of the doors of a hospital in Wellington and never looked back. She left her newborn child behind: the only thing she bothered giving him was his name, Lucas. She didn't even list his last name on record.

Fortunately for Luke, a senior operative from the Midnight Riders happened to be loitering around in the lobby of the hospital while some doctors were talking about what they ought to do with the baby. No orphanages on their record were already filled to the brim with war orphans, and were incredibly reluctant to take on more; Social Services was going to come around, yes, but it was bound to take a while. They also had no idea who the father was. The Rider listened in on this conversation, and then stepped up with a simple offer:

"I know a place. I'll take him there."

Cue the next eight years of Luke's life living in the care of Alice Brandon, Sister in Violence and a Faithful of St. Luke, at the Church of Quiet Waters, a small Brotherhood of Violence outpost in the hinterlands of New Zealand. The senior rider who had taken him there was named Melissa Radcliffe: she and Alice had grown close after Melissa's blade had helped Alice and her mentor through their Pilgrimage. The Church of Quiet Waters had decided to start taking in the orphaned kids of Keepers, special cases, and any kid that a hunter picked up on the road to take a bit of the load off of New Zealand's government during the war.

During this period, Luke grew exceptionally close to five other orphans, especially since they all had the same idea: they were going to grow up and become awesome Keepers of the Vigil, just like the heroes who had brought them to Sister Brandon. His best friend was a boy named Yuuki Hirakawa, a quiet and intense Bladian who had been recovered by the Sword & Shield of Zangyaku close to Hedge growth in the Australian outback. Suffice to say, Yuuki's single-minded determination to become one of the Blade King's own and stand right alongside of the Bladians who had saved his life kind inspired Luke to go for Zangyaku as well, especially since it meant being with Yuuki. Their other friends decided to do the same thing in order to support them both. In fact, they already had a blade name for themselves: the Mangō Taniwha.

Luke and his childhood friends thought that their plans were going to be delayed when two men - life partners - showed up at the Church in 2949, and showed a great interest in adopting Luke. Fortunately, Oliver and Benjamin Pierce happened to have a very large group of married friends who were all keen on giving orphans homes. It was almost like a dream come true for the kids, ending up in Sister Brandon's loving care only to become neighbors in houses of their own with parents who clearly loved them. It also solidified their drive to become Hunters in the future, especially since all of their legal parents were involved in the Vigil.

After completing their primary levels, the Mangō Taniwha - with the blessing of Sister Brandon and the generous and loving support of their parents - all took the entrance exam for Ureia Academy in Canberra, Oceania's number one Hunting school. Suffice to say, the lot of them passed, and worked incredibly hard to stay within the top 1% of the entire region's graduates. It was during this period that Luke and Yuuki realized that they were in love with each other. By the time they graduated in the year 2059 together with the rest of their "blade" and they all received a formal invitation to train with the Zangyaku's oni-tsukai in Seigi, the two of them were going steady. The pair, like the rest of their friends, were eighteen years old.

The Zashiki-Warashi of Seigi saw it fit to allow the Mangō Taniwha to consider themselves a blade on the offset on the premise that the team had developed tight bonds reminiscent of the sort of kinship that Zangyaku wished to instill upon their oni-tsukai. The youths threw themselves eagerly into their training, and were all initiated in 2062, three years after their transfer to Seigi. They were then transferred, as a blade, to Tangaroa, where they could serve the Blade King on turf that they were familiar with.

It should be noted that Luke, like the other members of the Mangō Taniwha, was a veritable natural in the division and roles that he had chosen for himself within Zangyaku. He had decided to become a Moritician on Yuuki's suggestion, since the division seemed to suit his skill set, and whatever skills he did not have as a result of his schooling, he made a point to pick up as quickly as possible. He and his blade participated in several major engagements that took place on Australian/New Zealand turf, including the historic Defense of Canberra in 2064 (during the Armistice Tragedy), Operation Star of Miriam (a phase of PDVGL2064-0219001, “Zhong Yuan Jie”, geared towards the neutralization of the threat posed by former Malice King Miriam), DVGL2064-0514001, “In Umbra, Igitur, Pugnabimus”, and PDVGL2064-0531001, “Gehenna Bound”.

By New Year's Eve of 2066, the Mangō Taniwha were a notable Zangyaku blade of Australia, and had even gone on, as a group, to gain their second Hunting licenses with the Midnight Riders. Many were expecting the blade to rise even further than they already had, and move on to do fantastic things for the Vigil. On a more personal level, Luke and Yuuki were firm in their devotion to each other, and were both thinking of getting married within the year.

On May 29, 2066, Tangaroa's Rashinban received a radio transmission from Luke, reporting that the entirety of the Mangō Taniwha had been killed in action during an investigation of an outback town that had been flagged for suspicious activity in Australia. The follow-up was a request for an immediate transfer to the Tengu Division. On May 31, Luke - then a Tengu - joined a large contingent of other oni-stukai from his new division in a fight against a Yama King, and sacrificed himself for his conspiracy.

Naturally, Luke's story doesn't end here. Current records show that he actually drew his Second Breath immediately - a fact he only discovered for himself on June 9 after going dark and beginning his Pilgrimage. His refusal to go in for a psych eval in light of these traumatic events flagged on Tangaroa's Bodhisattva, and they ordered his transfer to Gisi. He spoke with the Blade King himself on the date of his arrival - the early hours of the morning of June 15, 2066 - and received a new order for himself. He was permanently banned from joining the Tengu ever again.

One can only speculate on why Hikaru gave Luke such an order. Luke himself isn't talking about how the conversation went, much less on the loss of his blade and the precise details on the engagement that caused it. At the moment, in fact, it looks much like he's biding his time, waiting for his transfer to a new blade.

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personality

 

Meet Luke on the street, and you’re probably going to like him. Completely and instantly, even if you’re vehemently trying NOT to like him. He’s just one of those kinds of guys who’s blessed with a level of charm that most people could work their whole lives trying to develop but never succeed in getting, and Luke breathes it every second of the day. Whether he’s aware of it or not is another matter altogether, because with the way he carries himself, most will be inclined to believe he’s an idiot who sucks at taking things seriously. Nice and all, but an idiot nonetheless that clearly needs to be directed (read: smacked in the head) to do anything.

That, of course, is a bit of a front. In fact, Luke is highly perceptive, and where he lacks in intelligence, he makes up in street smarts and cunning. He’s got a knack for reading people, knowing their intentions on the get-go, and putting two and two together in most situations, be it on the battlefield or off of it. Overall, it’s the kind of skill that a killer needs, and suffice to say, Luke has put it to very good use as a Mortician of Zangyaku and as the second-in-command of the Mangō Taniwha, the blade he lost. He’s all about the perfect fix, the flawless clean-up – he exists to be the one who washes all the bad shit away, whether “bad shit” happens to be a negotiation that he needs to smooth out or a few bodies that need dumping into the nearest water source. In essence, then, this makes Luke the perfect team player, a role that he has willingly took on for himself in order to help his blade mates and his boyfriend out. He is not interested in leading a group, but he is keenly interested in making sure that everybody comes up on top of any situation.

It might be obvious, by this point, to say that Luke is an all-or-nothing kind of guy. Once he finds a cause or a person to believe in, he throws himself into it wholesale and always goes the full mile - the only thing that tempers this tendency is whether it will end up hurting innocent people, comrades, family, friends or other loved ones. He has a very strong sense of duty, and a deep-seated need to do what he can for the Vigil since the Vigil did so much for him. Overall, he is a genuinely nice guy who really concerns himself with others and just happens to be damned good at taking out marks on at least two different arenas – he’s one to treat friend and foe with the same amount of congeniality, although that doesn’t mean that he won’t mercilessly dispatch someone whom he deems as a threat, or someone whom he’s been asked to get rid of.

Suffice to say, the very foundations of Luke’s personality and sense of self have been shaken by the deaths of his friends in the Mangō Taniwha, particularly the death of Yuuki, the love of his life. The engagement they had gone on should have been something that they could have easily handled, and yet it was bad enough such that in spite of Luke’s best efforts, comrades whom he has known since he was eight years old got killed. His world was decimated by the Vigil, the very cause that he has devoted himself to. Furthermore, because he Awakened as a Card instead of following his friends to their graves like he wished, he faces a practical eternity of existence living in a world without them. He is not foolish or inconsiderate enough to go and get himself killed again (he has always been a firm believer in the idea that Things Happen For a Reason), but saying that he is incredibly lost would be an understatement. It does not help that his natural tendency to put the needs of others on his "side" ahead of his own is keeping him from grieving --

-- and maybe, just maybe, he does not know how to begin to grieve over what has happened for himself. He would rather try to grin and bear it, and soldier on like he always has since his people need him.

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current status

 

I'll fill this in once he's in the game, and after any revisions for his backstory that I might receive from the other mods.

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