![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Name: Shing Meteoryte
Age: 16
Gender: Male
Height: 5'6"
Body Type: Slender
Weapon of Choice: Sword + buckler combination
Image Song: N/A
Changes at a Glance:
- Placeholder
Appearance:
History:
Personality:
( Note: Much of the information for Shing's personality is taken from his original canon, Tales of Hearts; that said, his personality doesn't really deviate that much in Melody of the Abyss. )
You know those people who wear their heart on their sleeve? Those persons whom you can just tell what they're feeling just by looking at them? Yeah, you can make a case that Shing is one of those people. What you see is what you get with him -- he's very kind, very sweet and compassionate. Genuine, really.
Before we go further into Shing's own mindset, though, we'll need to start by explaining a few things first. In Shing's world, Celirand - and thus, the world that Tales of Hearts is set in - a person's heart is one of the most important things in that world, and is often referred to as a Spiria. It can be said that one's Spiria makes up the very core of one's being - it is very much alive, constituting the foundation of what a person is, what they have become, and what they will be. These Spiria take on the physical form of a series of beautiful, multi-faceted crystals called Spirune.
... if you can feel the undercurrent of unbearable cheesiness in the above explanation, you're not alone. Get used to it, 'cause it's here to stay. It's because he has such a strong Spiria, thus, that Shing himself is able to shine as a person. His kindness, gentle demeanor and optimism stem from a belief in the inherent good in people; that is, that no matter how despicable a person may be, that they can be redeemed. As such, then, he's often the one who tries to hear people out and empathize with them, trying to give them a chance and - in the case of Chalcedny - call people out as needed to try and correct them if their intentions are good but misguided. When Sheera locks him and the party in her house in Norquin - Kohaku's and Hisui's hometown - under the belief of trying to protect their home as per Iola's last request, he's able to get through to her via relating his own desire to protect Kohaku however he can. After they defeat Creed Graphite, the man responsible for the entire mess on Celirand in the first place, he begs of him to come with them to the new world, again noting that he could easily have become Creed himself if he hadn't met Kohaku, Hisui and the others. Some people might consider it cheesy, or overdone, or even outright naive of him to try and reach out to everyone he meets - for Shing, though, it just works because it's a very visible sign of how connected he is to the people that he cares about.
That ability to empathize with people becomes very important plot-wise - to further elaborate, in-game there are the people who have the ability use Soma - weapons that can only be wielded by people with strong Spiria. These weapons provide its users with abilities that are reflective of their emotional strength and take on suitable forms based on the person using it. Soma users can use Soma to Spirlink with people - that is, to go into people's Spirune and figure out what the hell is going on in there if something's gone terribly wrong. In Shing's case, his Soma - Asteria - takes the form of a sword-and-buckler combo that grants him the ability to use Light artes ( as if to highlight his Messiah-like protagonist status in game ). And his ability to Spirlink with people and draw out their hidden sadnesses, frustrations and fears coupled with his ability for great empathy make him a very powerful and very strong Soma user, and he's often seen going out of his way to help people with their problems - such as Beryl with her insecurities about believing in herself, for example.
Of course, one has to be very careful when Spirlinking with someone, because if you do it wrong then their Spirune has a real chance of breaking - which is initially what Shing believes happened the first time he attempts to Spirlink with Kohaku. To make it up to her and her brother Hisui for shattering the thing, he takes it upon himself to locate the remaining pieces of her Spirune - and it's really during this quest that Shing's best qualities are brought to the forefront. As noted before, he goes out of his way to help anyone he meets ( especially beautiful women, as instructed him by his grandfather ) - and more often than not he ends up getting hurt or otherwise risking his life in the process to do so. At Mt. Grim, Shing stays behind to make sure Kohaku's able to get off the mountain safely even though it's being destabilized in a landslide thanks to their fighting Peridot earlier. At the Odett sluice gate outside of the lakeside city of Charault, after Empress Marin del Paraiba - Chalcedny's love interest, incidentally - opens the gate and jumps into the ensuing flood, Shing jumps in after her to rescue her even though there's a very strong risk of him being swept under by the current. The most prominent example of his desire to help people, though, is when he sticks around by Kohaku's side even after she reveals that he doesn't owe her anything - in fact, she broke her own Spirune herself - just because not only is it the right thing to do, but because he wants to.
Needless to say, his kindness and emotional strength do wonders to help him retain his optimism even as things become worse, all because he's able to see the good in people and wants to help others realize their own inner strength, much like he does for the people he meets when he's tracking down Kohaku's Spirune shards. It's because of his view of people that explains why he's so adamant about not harming people's Spiria, too, lest they get injured or worse. To explain further, in the world of Tales of Hearts, a person's Spiria is directly connected to their life force - so it's fine if he has to fight them, but outright killing them or destroying their Spiria is something he absolutely refuses to do since it goes completely against his philosophy of building people's Spiria up.
... that said, he's not completely flawless - if anything, he's also got a recklessly determined nature that, while good in some cases, can lead to a lot of trouble otherwise. In fact, during the same journey to track down Kohaku's Spirune he does quite a lot of reckless and very boneheaded things for the sake of returning Kohaku's emotions and her smile back to her. One of these prime examples is the aforementioned rescue of Paraiba at the Odett sluice gate - as Kohaku herself notes, Shing could have easily died had his rescue been unsuccessful. Another more hilarious example of this is in the hot springs town of Guse, when Chalcedny - their enemy at the time - drops by the hot spring to check on his subordinate, Peridot. Naturally, Shing thinks he's going to attack Kohaku and the others while they're in the bath, charges in there... and it ends about as well as you'd expect. Firsthand and secondhand embarrassment all over the damn place. Then there's that bit where Shing and the party confronts Chalcedny's squad - consisting of Chalcedny himself, Peridot and Byrocks - and Shing's plan? Well, in his words:
"Here's the plan: Charge 'em with all we've got!"
Then he goes right up to Chalcedny and smashes his berserk button by calling him out for sacrificing a girl's smile in order to save the world - and uncomfortably reminding Chalcedny of his own then-strained relationship with Paraiba. Yeah, smooth move, Shing. The phrase "leap before you look" more or less describes this guy all too well.
On top of that, Shing exhibits a brilliant lack of sense about how certain things work as a result of being stuck in one place for so long. One of these is knowing what to say and when to say it - as noted previously, he managed to piss Chalcedny off by blasting him about his relationship with Paraiba even though he doesn't exactly know the circumstances behind why it's so strained in the first place. Never mind that thanks to Shing's verbal smackdown Chalcedny does eventually realize he's right and, after they rescue her from some really nasty monsters that not only infect her but turn her into a monster, confesses to her - which helps greatly in saving her Spiria and turning her back to normal.
... yeah, did I mention that Tales of Hearts is not at all subtle about any of this? Yeah? Good. Anyway, back to the subject at hand...
Another instance of Shing's lack of brain-to-mouth control is immediately after the scene, where Paraiba admits she's known Chal since he was a baby, even going so far as to change his diapers. Shing, of course, then comments that she's seen his you-know-what as a result. You know, instead of trying to read the mood and not ruin the whole shoujo-esque love confession?
Then there's the skits. In one of them Shing unintentionally insults Chal for being so short after walking fast enough that Chal has to keep up. Said lack of social graces here nearly results in Shing getting his feet cut off by a very angry and embarrassed Chal. Then there's that one bit where he insults Beryl in a skit - again unintentionally - by commenting about her paintbrush Soma instead of having any compliments about her. Especially after calling Kohaku cute, Paraiba pretty, and Innes beautiful... Needless to say, it's not entirely unexpected since his habit of saying what he's thinking without actually thinking about it matches his simple-minded recklessness, but still, someone teach this guy how to read social cues already. Related to this, he also has no idea what innuendo is. Most notably, in-game Innes, one of their fellow party members, insults one of the secondary antagonists Kornelpine by calling him the guy with the small peanuts, an usual euphemism for a guy's parts... and Shing immediately gets the idea to ask Hisui what that means in a skit. It goes about as hilariously as you'd imagine.
One more note about Shing that is both a strength and a weakness is that he more often than not wears his heart on his sleeve, which makes it particularly easy to tell how he's feeling at any given moment. It's a strength in that it shows people that he's genuine, sweet, and easy to get along with even if he doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut. It's because of his openness with his emotions that he can connect to people easily, such as getting Beryl to trust him after he charges into her Spiria without thinking or when he convinces Kohaku that he's helping her out of his own volition even after she reveals she shattered her own Spirune, as mentioned previously. On the other hand, though, his openness makes it easy for him to become too lost in his own emotions. The biggest example of this is when he allows himself to be overwhelmed with rage at being confronted with Incarose - which leads to a lot of problems going into the second act of the game. Namely, his mother, Dona, and Kohaku and Hisui's mother, Iola, and their party sealed Creed Graphite ( the aforementioned antagonist of the game ) into his Spiria - and the power of his rage allowed him to break open the seal. Oops. In another moment, seeing Kohaku and Hisui with their aunt remind him of the fact that he's essentially alone in this world now that his family is all dead, leading him to retreat into himself for a good moment while the other party members are celebrating. However, he does get better at being able to control his emotions as the series progresses, though when he gets beset with emotions he at least knows enough to talk to other people about them even if he's not particularly up to it.
Really, the point of all of this is that what you see with Shing is really what you get - he's very open with his emotions, quick to befriend people and is the kind of person who has no problems with befriending people. Not only that, he's the kind of person who tries his hardest to see the good in people, even if sometimes he fails due to them being too far gone to reason with. It's all of this that ultimately defines who he is, an individual with a strong Spiria and great emotional strength who truly cares about everyone and anyone he meets. His optimistic and compassionate nature is the essence of the kind of person Shing is.
Special Abilities:
. .. does being completely and utterly useless at understanding innuendo count as a special ability? No? Okay...
Battle
Class: Fighter
Range: Close-range
Weapon of Choice: Sword
Sub-Weapons: Buckler ( Because bashing people in the head with a shield totally counts as a weapon, right... )
Armor of Choice: Light Armor
Accessory: N/A
Shing has access to numerous and powerful offensive/defensive abilities known as artes that he can use. Being more of a brawler than a magic caster, his Artes are mainly physical in nature, with a few defensive artes thrown in for good measure - all of them are linked to the Light fonon, in contrast to his being the vessel for the power of the Dark fonon sentience.
Artes
( Will modify as needed )
Ties to Other Characters:
Placeholder -
Age: 16
Gender: Male
Height: 5'6"
Body Type: Slender
Weapon of Choice: Sword + buckler combination
Image Song: N/A
Changes at a Glance:
- Placeholder
Appearance:
History:
Personality:
( Note: Much of the information for Shing's personality is taken from his original canon, Tales of Hearts; that said, his personality doesn't really deviate that much in Melody of the Abyss. )
You know those people who wear their heart on their sleeve? Those persons whom you can just tell what they're feeling just by looking at them? Yeah, you can make a case that Shing is one of those people. What you see is what you get with him -- he's very kind, very sweet and compassionate. Genuine, really.
Before we go further into Shing's own mindset, though, we'll need to start by explaining a few things first. In Shing's world, Celirand - and thus, the world that Tales of Hearts is set in - a person's heart is one of the most important things in that world, and is often referred to as a Spiria. It can be said that one's Spiria makes up the very core of one's being - it is very much alive, constituting the foundation of what a person is, what they have become, and what they will be. These Spiria take on the physical form of a series of beautiful, multi-faceted crystals called Spirune.
... if you can feel the undercurrent of unbearable cheesiness in the above explanation, you're not alone. Get used to it, 'cause it's here to stay. It's because he has such a strong Spiria, thus, that Shing himself is able to shine as a person. His kindness, gentle demeanor and optimism stem from a belief in the inherent good in people; that is, that no matter how despicable a person may be, that they can be redeemed. As such, then, he's often the one who tries to hear people out and empathize with them, trying to give them a chance and - in the case of Chalcedny - call people out as needed to try and correct them if their intentions are good but misguided. When Sheera locks him and the party in her house in Norquin - Kohaku's and Hisui's hometown - under the belief of trying to protect their home as per Iola's last request, he's able to get through to her via relating his own desire to protect Kohaku however he can. After they defeat Creed Graphite, the man responsible for the entire mess on Celirand in the first place, he begs of him to come with them to the new world, again noting that he could easily have become Creed himself if he hadn't met Kohaku, Hisui and the others. Some people might consider it cheesy, or overdone, or even outright naive of him to try and reach out to everyone he meets - for Shing, though, it just works because it's a very visible sign of how connected he is to the people that he cares about.
That ability to empathize with people becomes very important plot-wise - to further elaborate, in-game there are the people who have the ability use Soma - weapons that can only be wielded by people with strong Spiria. These weapons provide its users with abilities that are reflective of their emotional strength and take on suitable forms based on the person using it. Soma users can use Soma to Spirlink with people - that is, to go into people's Spirune and figure out what the hell is going on in there if something's gone terribly wrong. In Shing's case, his Soma - Asteria - takes the form of a sword-and-buckler combo that grants him the ability to use Light artes ( as if to highlight his Messiah-like protagonist status in game ). And his ability to Spirlink with people and draw out their hidden sadnesses, frustrations and fears coupled with his ability for great empathy make him a very powerful and very strong Soma user, and he's often seen going out of his way to help people with their problems - such as Beryl with her insecurities about believing in herself, for example.
Of course, one has to be very careful when Spirlinking with someone, because if you do it wrong then their Spirune has a real chance of breaking - which is initially what Shing believes happened the first time he attempts to Spirlink with Kohaku. To make it up to her and her brother Hisui for shattering the thing, he takes it upon himself to locate the remaining pieces of her Spirune - and it's really during this quest that Shing's best qualities are brought to the forefront. As noted before, he goes out of his way to help anyone he meets ( especially beautiful women, as instructed him by his grandfather ) - and more often than not he ends up getting hurt or otherwise risking his life in the process to do so. At Mt. Grim, Shing stays behind to make sure Kohaku's able to get off the mountain safely even though it's being destabilized in a landslide thanks to their fighting Peridot earlier. At the Odett sluice gate outside of the lakeside city of Charault, after Empress Marin del Paraiba - Chalcedny's love interest, incidentally - opens the gate and jumps into the ensuing flood, Shing jumps in after her to rescue her even though there's a very strong risk of him being swept under by the current. The most prominent example of his desire to help people, though, is when he sticks around by Kohaku's side even after she reveals that he doesn't owe her anything - in fact, she broke her own Spirune herself - just because not only is it the right thing to do, but because he wants to.
Needless to say, his kindness and emotional strength do wonders to help him retain his optimism even as things become worse, all because he's able to see the good in people and wants to help others realize their own inner strength, much like he does for the people he meets when he's tracking down Kohaku's Spirune shards. It's because of his view of people that explains why he's so adamant about not harming people's Spiria, too, lest they get injured or worse. To explain further, in the world of Tales of Hearts, a person's Spiria is directly connected to their life force - so it's fine if he has to fight them, but outright killing them or destroying their Spiria is something he absolutely refuses to do since it goes completely against his philosophy of building people's Spiria up.
... that said, he's not completely flawless - if anything, he's also got a recklessly determined nature that, while good in some cases, can lead to a lot of trouble otherwise. In fact, during the same journey to track down Kohaku's Spirune he does quite a lot of reckless and very boneheaded things for the sake of returning Kohaku's emotions and her smile back to her. One of these prime examples is the aforementioned rescue of Paraiba at the Odett sluice gate - as Kohaku herself notes, Shing could have easily died had his rescue been unsuccessful. Another more hilarious example of this is in the hot springs town of Guse, when Chalcedny - their enemy at the time - drops by the hot spring to check on his subordinate, Peridot. Naturally, Shing thinks he's going to attack Kohaku and the others while they're in the bath, charges in there... and it ends about as well as you'd expect. Firsthand and secondhand embarrassment all over the damn place. Then there's that bit where Shing and the party confronts Chalcedny's squad - consisting of Chalcedny himself, Peridot and Byrocks - and Shing's plan? Well, in his words:
"Here's the plan: Charge 'em with all we've got!"
Then he goes right up to Chalcedny and smashes his berserk button by calling him out for sacrificing a girl's smile in order to save the world - and uncomfortably reminding Chalcedny of his own then-strained relationship with Paraiba. Yeah, smooth move, Shing. The phrase "leap before you look" more or less describes this guy all too well.
On top of that, Shing exhibits a brilliant lack of sense about how certain things work as a result of being stuck in one place for so long. One of these is knowing what to say and when to say it - as noted previously, he managed to piss Chalcedny off by blasting him about his relationship with Paraiba even though he doesn't exactly know the circumstances behind why it's so strained in the first place. Never mind that thanks to Shing's verbal smackdown Chalcedny does eventually realize he's right and, after they rescue her from some really nasty monsters that not only infect her but turn her into a monster, confesses to her - which helps greatly in saving her Spiria and turning her back to normal.
... yeah, did I mention that Tales of Hearts is not at all subtle about any of this? Yeah? Good. Anyway, back to the subject at hand...
Another instance of Shing's lack of brain-to-mouth control is immediately after the scene, where Paraiba admits she's known Chal since he was a baby, even going so far as to change his diapers. Shing, of course, then comments that she's seen his you-know-what as a result. You know, instead of trying to read the mood and not ruin the whole shoujo-esque love confession?
Then there's the skits. In one of them Shing unintentionally insults Chal for being so short after walking fast enough that Chal has to keep up. Said lack of social graces here nearly results in Shing getting his feet cut off by a very angry and embarrassed Chal. Then there's that one bit where he insults Beryl in a skit - again unintentionally - by commenting about her paintbrush Soma instead of having any compliments about her. Especially after calling Kohaku cute, Paraiba pretty, and Innes beautiful... Needless to say, it's not entirely unexpected since his habit of saying what he's thinking without actually thinking about it matches his simple-minded recklessness, but still, someone teach this guy how to read social cues already. Related to this, he also has no idea what innuendo is. Most notably, in-game Innes, one of their fellow party members, insults one of the secondary antagonists Kornelpine by calling him the guy with the small peanuts, an usual euphemism for a guy's parts... and Shing immediately gets the idea to ask Hisui what that means in a skit. It goes about as hilariously as you'd imagine.
One more note about Shing that is both a strength and a weakness is that he more often than not wears his heart on his sleeve, which makes it particularly easy to tell how he's feeling at any given moment. It's a strength in that it shows people that he's genuine, sweet, and easy to get along with even if he doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut. It's because of his openness with his emotions that he can connect to people easily, such as getting Beryl to trust him after he charges into her Spiria without thinking or when he convinces Kohaku that he's helping her out of his own volition even after she reveals she shattered her own Spirune, as mentioned previously. On the other hand, though, his openness makes it easy for him to become too lost in his own emotions. The biggest example of this is when he allows himself to be overwhelmed with rage at being confronted with Incarose - which leads to a lot of problems going into the second act of the game. Namely, his mother, Dona, and Kohaku and Hisui's mother, Iola, and their party sealed Creed Graphite ( the aforementioned antagonist of the game ) into his Spiria - and the power of his rage allowed him to break open the seal. Oops. In another moment, seeing Kohaku and Hisui with their aunt remind him of the fact that he's essentially alone in this world now that his family is all dead, leading him to retreat into himself for a good moment while the other party members are celebrating. However, he does get better at being able to control his emotions as the series progresses, though when he gets beset with emotions he at least knows enough to talk to other people about them even if he's not particularly up to it.
Really, the point of all of this is that what you see with Shing is really what you get - he's very open with his emotions, quick to befriend people and is the kind of person who has no problems with befriending people. Not only that, he's the kind of person who tries his hardest to see the good in people, even if sometimes he fails due to them being too far gone to reason with. It's all of this that ultimately defines who he is, an individual with a strong Spiria and great emotional strength who truly cares about everyone and anyone he meets. His optimistic and compassionate nature is the essence of the kind of person Shing is.
Special Abilities:
. .. does being completely and utterly useless at understanding innuendo count as a special ability? No? Okay...
Battle
Class: Fighter
Range: Close-range
Weapon of Choice: Sword
Sub-Weapons: Buckler ( Because bashing people in the head with a shield totally counts as a weapon, right... )
Armor of Choice: Light Armor
Accessory: N/A
Shing has access to numerous and powerful offensive/defensive abilities known as artes that he can use. Being more of a brawler than a magic caster, his Artes are mainly physical in nature, with a few defensive artes thrown in for good measure - all of them are linked to the Light fonon, in contrast to his being the vessel for the power of the Dark fonon sentience.
Artes
( Will modify as needed )
Ties to Other Characters:
Placeholder -