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[verweiledoch]

OOC Information

Player: Lexil
Contact: email is [mephistophilesgirl@gmail.com], plurk is [lexil], discord is [ladylazarus#2235]
Age: 28
Current characters:

IC Information

Name: Johann Georg Faust VIII
Canon: Shaman King (Manga)

Information

Appearance: Faust VIII is tall, pale and emaciated, with blonde hair and deep, frightening circles under his eyes. His lips have a dark and bruised coloration, making him appear corpselike. He has pierced ears and various tattoos on his neck and body. His chest has rows of sutures and discolored, grey flesh, hinting at self-surgery or at the very least self-mutilation. He wears a white coat, a yellow scarf and a big hat, giving him a jolly appearance until it all comes off to reveal his skeletal body and the actual skeleton he keeps under it. He is so painfully thin because he only takes in the bare minimum amount of sustenance to remain alive, usually through IV. From the point just after his fight with Yoh onward, he looks much the same, but he is confined to a wheelchair and missing his legs from the knees down.

History: Shaman King is a canon set circa the year 2000 about an easygoing Japanese teenager named Yoh Asakura, who can not only see ghosts, but channel them as familiars to fight. Though the ability is very rare, he is far from the only one. Every 500 years, there's a grand tournament of sorts to determine which of these individuals (universally referred to by the general term "Shamans") can receive the "Great Spirit" (basically God in every religion) and become the Shaman King. Traditionally organized and overseen by the mysterious Native American Patch Tribe, Shamans from all over the world vie for the title in this tournament with their own unique familiars, weapons and techniques. As our protagonist fights channeling the ghost of a samurai with the support of his best friend Manta and his strict fiance and trainer Anna, he meets a colorful cast of characters and learns a myriad of lessons about life, friendship, love, and sacrifice.

Faust VIII is, much like Yoh, someone set apart at an early age by his talents and abilities. Born in Germany, he is descended from the original, legendary Doctor Faust who infamously made a deal with the devil for knowledge and power. In this adaptation, Faust I made a deal with Mephistophiles as a spirit familiar to participate in the Shaman Fight 500 years prior to present day, only to be later torn apart by that very demon. Because of this, his descendant Faust VIII was shunned and treated as a pariah in his town. His only friend was a little girl around his age named Eliza; she was kind to him, but also afflicted with an incurable illness. Smitten with Eliza for her beauty and her kindness from a young age, Faust promised her that he'd not only become a doctor like everyone else in his family, but find a cure for her illness. Driven by love and aided by a sterling intellect and tremendous natural talent for medicine, he actually pulled it off. Eliza was cured and became a nurse, and the two of them were married. They opened a clinic together and purchased a mansion and a manchester terrier named Frankensteiny, and everything looked like it couldn't possibly get better for the Fausts. Their life together was a blissfully perfect one.

One day, Faust came home to find that his house had been broken into by a burglar, who had shot and killed their dog and Eliza. He did everything he could to save her, but it was in vain. Driven mad by grief, he turned to the study of his ancestor, deciding to learn the art of necromancy in the hopes of bringing his beloved back from beyond the grave. He tackled this study with the same vigor and obsession he did when he was working to cure Eliza's disease, treating her death as just something else to be fixed and overcome, and in doing so, he got crazier, lost his home, and eventually entered the Shaman Fight. He made it past the first round by tearing his opponent to pieces (killing is not mandatory to win a match), and in the second round, his opponent was set to be the series' protagonist, Yoh, who was urged to forfeit by the tournament's MC after hearing about Faust's bone-chilling reputation. Yoh declined and faced Faust anyway.

The fight was held in the Chokohama Foreigners' Cemetery, and at first, Yoh and his friends were ultimately unimpressed with the mild-mannered, meek German who greeted them at the site of the match. Faust very soon revealed his true colors, however, raising and reanimating skeletons to battle Yoh with. In addition, he vivisected Yoh's friend Manta to infuriate Yoh. Yoh fought back, but just like his brittle but indifferent skeletons, Faust was undeterred by his injuries, stitching himself up on the battlefield and saying that he was anesthetized with morphine, preventing him from feeling pain. Yoh depleted his battle power (furyoku) rather quickly, to the point where he exhausted himself before Faust even revealed his true spirit familiar: Eliza's ghost, rejoined to her skeleton to create the perfect fascimile of life. The fascimile was all it was, though; sadly, though Faust could bring her image back through necromancy, his beloved Eliza was a husk-like presence on the battlefield that he could control like a puppet, but nothing more. Yoh exploited this sensitivity by telling Faust that it was time to stop playing with dolls, sending him into a rage that resulted in Eliza's attacks nearly killing him. When enraged, Faust was a nigh unstoppable force, and it took interference from one of the Shaman Fight officiants to keep Faust from slaughtering Yoh. Though his killing blow was ultimately stopped after Yoh sliced off Eliza's legs below the knee, Faust was declared the victor of the match, and advanced to the semi-finals.

The next time Yoh's group encountered Faust was after the completion of the Shaman Fight's preliminary round, on the airplane the Patch Tribe created with their Oversouls (essentially the manifestation of a Shaman's power when assisted by their spirit ally). He was somewhat worse for wear, having amputated his own legs to give to Eliza and subsequently wheelchair-bound. Faust's attention was grabbed when one of Yoh's friends inquired about a doctor being nearby, and then when the plane disappeared (as another test for all the Shamans on it, requiring that they use their power to land safely in the American southwest), Faust mocked them for falling from the sky... while also falling from the sky, saying that his plan was to feel zero pain from impact on account of the morphine in his system and then stitch himself up and go on his merry way. It was many chapters before they encountered him again.

Many chapters and subplots later, when they finally reached the Patch Village, Yoh and his friends learned that they would need to split into teams of three. Around this time, they were approached by a desperate Faust, who explained that they were the only Shamans he knew and that he'd be unable to continue in the contest if he didn't form a team with them. Initially, Yoh and his friends were repulsed by the idea, but Yoh's fiancee and trainer Anna insisted that they allow him to join, saying that she wanted to have a house doctor when she eventually started her business and achieved her dream, running a hot springs hotel called Funbari Onsen. To sweeten the deal further for Faust and ensure his loyalty to Yoh, Anna offered him the chance to learn "true necromancy" in order to call back Eliza's soul and be truly reunited with her. Yoh teamed up with Faust reluctantly but soon came to appreciate having a skilled doctor on the team. Being older than the other Shamans associated with Yoh, Faust mostly kept to himself, quietly reading or napping in the background while the others watched fights and socialized. He seemed to develop a slightly closer and deeper relationship with Manta, which was strange, considering he's the one Faust vivisected and terrified during his fight with Yoh. Manta could often be seen held by Faust on his lap.

Team Funbari Onsen's first chance to fight together came when they faced the Icemen, Shamans from northern European countries. They ridiculed the other team's costumes (which bore advertisements for the future resort), and targeted Faust first because he looked the weakest. He revealed that not only could he use his dead dog Frankensteiny's bones to form lower legs and allow him to stand from his wheelchair, but through Anna's training he'd gained the ability to bring Eliza's soul back in its entirety and turn her into a giant, syringe-wielding Oversoul he called Mephisto E. He flirted openly on the battlefield but proved his loyalty to Yoh through merit of his dream and reason for wanting to be Shaman King in the first place having been fulfilled already. No longer having a reason to want to become the Shaman King himself, Faust put all of his support behind Yoh.

Throughout much of the rest of the series, Faust's role was relegated to the background, where he was a spectator and appeared friendliest with fellow Funbari Onsen member Ryu. He offered cool-headed commentary on the battles of others and occasionally stepped in to heal the injuries of the other characters. Though he was by no means the first to gain the ability to bring the dead back to life, he worked diligently on a technique known as the Chō Senji Ryakketsu - Jugon Zonshi, which is a 1000 year old forbidden art that allows for full resurrection provided the body of the deceased is not damaged completely behind repair (ie, a bad explosion; his skill as a physician makes this category much broader, since he can patch up mortal injuries and then use the mantra and technique to allow them to survive). He wields this technique, by far his most powerful, with his final and toughest Oversoul, "Eliza Operieren" (more on his different Oversouls in the abilities section).

Faust met his end when the main cast of characters invade a series of plants defended by the Patch Tribe's priests in order to get to Hao, the main antagonist and winner of the Shaman Fight. He fought against Patch officiant and tournament MC Radim and was killed, using his furyoku to resurrect himself to finish the battle, as well as compose and sing a "Funbari no Uta" (song of Funbari) to combat Radim's microphone-centered technique. However, shortly after the battle, he collapsed from exhaustion and chose to remain dead to be with Eliza. The Funbari no Uta was used as the resort's official theme song to honor his memory, and his photograph was placed in the Asakura family shrine; despite meeting as enemies, Faust contributed heroically and significantly to Yoh's story. Even though he died, Faust didn't say goodbye; he did end up sticking around as a ghost with Eliza to help out at Anna's clinic as he'd promised.

Personality: Faust VIII is insane, twisted, and ingenious, as well as tormented and tragic. Above all, though, he is a devoted man. There's a terrifying purity to his devotion, to the point where it eclipses and overshadows many of his other personality traits. It's at the heart of his character, and bound up with this quality is the extent of his dedication, love, and willingness to sacrifice to protect what he cherishes. Even when he first appears, he is not inherently evil, even though he manages to shatter Yoh's cool and infuriate him through extremely FUBAR means. He is a healer and defines himself very strongly by his identity as a doctor, so even when he hurt Yoh's friend Manta, he did not cause any severe damage, indicating that he never intended to do more than scare them both just enough to make Yoh lose control of his ability to regulate his power. The exception is when someone insults Eliza; when that happens, all bets are off and Faust goes completely insane and loses his cool to the point where he attacks like a mad dog and doesn't stop until his target is dead (it's possible to infer that this is what happened in his first match where he killed his opponent, though details of that fight are frustratingly never expounded upon in canon). Strangely, though he goes utterly berserk when Eliza is insulted, Faust seems indifferent to others insulting him.

Faust is detail-oriented and brilliant, and more than a bit obsessive. Descended from a line of talented and ambitious doctors, he's a medical genius in his own right and excels at a frankly unrealistic range of treatments and techniques. We aren't told what disease Eliza had, but we know it was incurable, and Faust managed to cure it. We know that he's a skilled surgeon because his comeback to Yoh's threat to break his hands was "so scary! His hands are a surgeon's life!" We also see it in action at various points, as when he replaces his own damaged tibia with a skeleton's so he can continue fighting. After the death of his wife, he was able to learn the art of necromancy as an adult, and he managed to build up formidable powers as a necromancer despite not training from childhood as most of the other main characters have. A good rule of thumb seems to be that if he's required to do it for Eliza, he can and will make it happen at any cost, no matter how unsavory the means might be.

Faust is generally a reserved and levelheaded man, who can calmly reason through a situation and figure out the best course of action. He is not the most mentally stable, however; driven mad with grief by the untimely death of Eliza, his insanity shines through most intensely when Eliza has been insulted. Then there's nothing levelheaded or calm about him. His fight with Yoh is by far the most furious we ever get to see him; the rest of the time, he's downright quiet, docile and friendly, if somewhat on the creepy side. He can come across as distant, with a chilling, jittery laugh and a tendency to say things very bluntly or nonreassuringly. He speaks casually and comfortably about things that put others off their lunch; as a necromancer and a doctor, Faust arguably has one of the stronger stomachs on the team, and the result is someone who can remain relatively cheerful even when things look extremely grim. That's not to say that he's always in a good mood though; Faust doesn't tolerate interruption well, as seen... just about every time someone tries to interfere with his work. This is highly understandable, as lives are frequently at stake when he's working.

He labors diligently and uncomplainingly as a rule. After Anna and Yoh helped him achieve his dream of bringing back Eliza's spirit, he became completely dedicated to helping Yoh become Shaman King, and wasn't hindered by pride or arrogance when it came to throwing himself fully into the endeavor. There were very few indignities he wouldn't put up with for them, dutifully following his team everywhere and even wearing an advertisement for Anna's future hot springs resort on the back of his shirts during shaman fights. When he takes offense at something, though, he tends to fixate on it, even if it only makes sense to him; a Mexican shaman who also manipulated bones drew Faust's contempt, leading him to say that he could not forgive the man and would deal with him personally (it's never clarified what Faust found so offensive about his bone-manipulating technique, but it demonstrated that both as one who heals through medicine and destroys through necromancy, Faust believes his way to be the best way and won't tolerate others challenging his undisputed areas of expertise. He'll go along with a great deal, but where he knows he's the authority, he stands his ground.)

Faust isn't all insane rage, cold logic and hard work, however. He has a deeply loving heart and became a doctor for all the right reasons: not to play God or due to hubris like his ancestor, but out of a sincere desire to help others. His dear wife Eliza is the foremost person he wants to help, but a running gag in the series is that he is always there when someone cries out for a doctor (this is more emphasized in the anime, but still present in the manga. Faust's emotional center is also given more attention in the anime, where an entire episode is devoted to the way he handles a family of Greek Shamans who are participating in the fight because the wife and mother of the team, Maya, is dying of an incurable illness. When it comes time to face the team, even though it seems cruel to defeat them and end their dream, Faust does so quickly and mercilessly... only to approach them afterward offering to assist in Maya's treatment, just as he did when he cured Eliza.) Faust's identity is very strongly defined by his medical training and credentials, and even though the shaman fight and everything that happened between Eliza's death and its beginning has changed him significantly, it is clear that it's still a kneejerk reaction for him to answer that call. He knows that he's fantastically skilled and that no one else can do it better, so he's always very enthusiastic about volunteering to help out and possibly save a life. His emotional range is a relatively full and complete spectrum; he's not merely expressive, he tends toward being on the dramatic side, especially when it comes to his feelings for Eliza or his ire for those who insult or slight her. Though his appearance is very creepy, he is both kind and patient, and it's easy to see flickers of the doting husband he once was. He also has an appreciation for culture and significant musical ability; he composes and sings songs at a few points during the series, and the implication is that he has a beautiful and moving singing voice.

Faust was described by Yoh's samurai spirit, Amidamaru, as "reeking of death" when they first encountered him. He admitted that in his profession as a doctor, one touches a lot of death. He is a heavy user of morphine, which numbs him in battle to the point where he can operate on himself without any pain, doubtless contributing to making him look more like a corpse than his reanimated dead wife and causing a little bit of wavery unsteadiness in his step. However, though most of the characters in Shaman King are at least initially uneasy with him (if not outright traumatized, as Manta continues to be for many chapters), he eventually manages to endear himself to everyone to the point where his death is one of the most emotionally received in the series. His loss is felt not just because of what he contributed to the team, but because of the calming, cheerful and kind presence he grew to be. In the series, he represents a man long-obsessed with the past and dwelling on the grimmest aspects of death, but his time with Yoh and his friends not only brings back Eliza's spirit, it restores Faust's ability to share in community and camaraderie. He leaves the world just as much in love with Eliza, but far less lonely and codependent, having left an impression on many lives rather than just one.

Abilities: Faust's shaman abilities manifest in the art of necromancy, passed down from his ancestor Faust I. What this means is that he can reanimate corpses and make them do his bidding, but he cannot bring back the dead's souls. With the help of Eliza and his Oversoul, he has a variety of different techniques and attacks that are summarized as follows:
-Bone Dead Reborn: This attack allows him to call nearby spirits to inhabit earthly remains such as skeletons. This technique uses minimal furyoku and therefore doesn't tire him out very much to use, as it only requires enough power to allow the skeletons to move (individually, they are extremely weak against the power of an oversoul such as the one created by Yoh and Amidamaru). However, considering each one has a vicelike grip and they're each "as strong as an adult male", it is far from a useless power, and Faust uses it to ensure that Yoh (a teenaged boy) is held at bay and unable to interrupt him when he's vivisecting Manta.
-Bone Shell- A defensive maneuver in which Faust protects himself with a cage made of bones.
-Skull Scrimmage- The skeletons move in a fast line akin to a football scrimmage with at Faust's command.
-20-Ton Calcium Giant: Faust's strongest attack in the first part of the series. Faust uses his power to combine hundreds of skeletons into one enormous giant skeleton. Then he uses it to squish people like bugs.

Faust has more attacks that he needs Eliza for. They are as follows:
-O.S. Dear Eliza- Faust's first and main oversoul. With the knowledge gained from his ancestor's grimoire and years of study and practice, he is able to use Eliza's bones to create a vivid semblance of life. She appears as a slender nurse with long blonde hair who wields a cleaver. She's not very powerful but she can be a force to reckon with at close range, especially if Faust has already exhausted his opponent with other skeletons to swat at and waste furyoku. It's important to note that Faust's necromancy only works if the ghost has no willpower of its own, leaving Eliza as little more than a glorified doll in this form.
-O.S. Mephisto E- Using Eliza's bones and various medical tools as a medium, Faust can create this oversoul after his time spent studying with Anna and mastering the contents of a book detailing "true necromancy." His skills greatly improved, and with Anna's help he was able to bring Eliza's soul back in its entirety. This Oversoul takes the form of a giant demon-nurse with hair that mimics horns, oversized medical tools for fingers, and giant bat wings. Her left arm is equipped with an oversized syringe that she wields much like a sword. She's an intimidating Oversoul.
-Eliza Operieren- An armor-type Oversoul that Faust creates with medical tools and Eliza's remains to face Team The Ren. The Oversoul resembles Dear Eliza more than Mephisto E, and is wielded by Eliza herself initially but Faust eventually "wears" himself, with medical equipment appearing to protrude from his own back.
-Jugon Zonshi- Learned from the 1,000 year old book written by the series' main antagonist and most powerful character, the Chō Senji Ryakketsu, this Taoist technique is arguably Faust's most powerful. Accompanied by a mantra, he uses the Eliza Operieren Oversoul to seal a person's Chi in their bodies to allow them to heal, even when death has already claimed them (provided their body is not damaged beyond all hope of repair.)

In addition to the necromancer's techniques above, Faust has some talents and abilities:
-Medical expertise: He's a diagnostic and surgical genius. A running gag in the series is that he's always there when someone calls for a doctor, and this is his passion and life's dedication.
-Singing and composing talent: At several points in the series Faust composes and sings songs on the spot. This isn't played for humor, but fairly straight; it's implied that both his lyrics and voice are highly moving.
-Incredible, unreal dedication and loyalty: Faust does not betray those he's committed to. Ever. Once he's in, he's in for life (and in the case of the manga, long after death as he continues to hang around as a ghost).
-Discipline: Faust's discipline is also legendary. His self-control 99% of the time is spectacular, to the point where he seldom gives in to earthly urges like needing to eat or sleep, and he's a hard and dedicated worker in his field. He's the type to want to be the best in the world at one thing, rather than merely pretty good at many things.
-Multi-lingual- To participate in the Shaman Fight, Faust most likely had to learn how to read and speak Japanese at least passably. Being German, he is fluent in that language and also very likely has a decent understanding of English and a smattering of at least one other European language such as French (not uncommon for educated Germans).