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- VA voiceclaim: Noto Mamiko
- While it's not something they bring up very often, only to those very close to them, they do have a Chinese name - Lian, written with the character 莲 (lotus). Their surname is written with the character 琳 (beautiful jade).
- they are not Christian: they're a Chinese Buddhist.
- I haven't quite figured out exactly when their family left mainland China to move to Singapore, except that their maternal grandparents were definitely in Singapore during WW2 and Japanese occupation. There is very definitely a lot of generational trauma about a lot of things, both to do with mainland China and Japanese occupation.
- A really good PB for Michael's former appearance before being overwritten with the appearance they had used for Miha in the Paradise AR MMO is the main character from The Gender of Mona Lisa, except with purple eyes.
- Said appearance was basically Michael's secret, repressed desire for their own ideal appearance, as they were still presenting only as male at that point (though as a pretty, somewhat androgynous boy). The one (1) benefit they got from being caught up in the "Paradise bleeds over into the real world" and being nonconsensually made into the Demifiend was basically magical transition. The tattoos were very much not their idea, though.
- Arthur Bell, a British expatriate to Singapore, was given what was supposedly a second magatama (*the kind that would turn a human into a Demifiend, not like Michael/Miha's multiple magatamas) by G.H. Knight, supposedly meant to turn him into a second Demifiend to take the responsibility of choosing a Reason and being the architect of the new world from Michael Lin, on the grounds of "we shouldn't have made that poor abused child carry that burden." Both men knew that doing so meant murdering the true Demifiend - Knight, for all his pretty words, was not pleased with the path Michael/Miha were taking and knew they would not choose the "correct" Reason, and thought of them as a loose end that needed to be tidied up. (and Knight killed himself, so that he wouldn't even have to face the consequences of his actions, once this plan was set in motion). Bell was in agreement with the Law-based Reason that G.H. Knight wanted.
- Unfortunately, the second magatama was not a true magatama, and instead had been engineered by the Crawling Chaos, who wanted a stillborn world. Instead of turning Bell into a legitimate claimant to the role of Demifiend, it made him into a false Demifiend and worse: a Beast of Calamity- Beast VI-L, False Messiah of Emptiness, Nega-Reason.
- While Beast VI-L was still nascent, Michael/Miha sensed something amiss and attempted to get hold of Night/Misaki and their half-brother Masaru, but both of them were busy with important stuff Elsewhere, so couldn't be reached due to being mostly dead. They waited for as long as they could, but realized they couldn't wait anymore, and went into battle against the newborn Beast VI-L, out in the Strait of Singapore. (which...fucked Indonesia over, even more than it already had been due to Law taking over Singapore and Malaysia. Unfortunately.)
- As the Demifiend, they were powerful enough to take on a Beast. Unfortunately, this was not a fight they could walk away from alive, because truly winning by unmaking Beast VI-L required a willing act of self-sacrifice, and died shortly afterward, choosing their Neutral-aligned Reason shortly before their death. Unfortunately, though they had chosen a Reason, they were not able to convey it to the avatar of the Great Will due to being dead and the creation of the new world could not be completed.
- Misaki and Masaru had to make some pretty shitty deals, give up their humanity, and cause another apocalypse in order to even get the possibility of completing the creation of the new world back on the table, something about magical wish-granting world trees and tree-for-alls.
- for twenty years, Michael/Miha were dead and in stasis in one of the trees (the world tree of Tokyo). When the Eighth Night managed to make several miracles and not only win the Fifth and final Holy Tree War but also beat Beast VI-R and the Crawling Chaos in order to complete the creation of the new world, they were revived, and helped sing the new world into being. While they were dead, the trees were updating them on what was happening, in what amounted to being a very long dream.
even more additional notes
Date: 2023-02-14 11:41 pm (UTC)From:- Very Intense Therapy could have resolved this, except that they did not get any therapy before the Metatron basically forced the magatama on a dying Michael, which essentially supernaturally enforced the not-quite-split (and Michael's delusion that they cannot be happy as well, themself).
- Basically, they are two halves of the same person.
even more additional notes/memories (cw: attempted suicide)
Date: 2023-02-16 02:24 am (UTC)From:***
"So I see…" It's as if this man can read their heart. "If this is what you believe, Miha Nikaia, then I shall not prevent this…all that is needed of you is service. Your form is irrelevant. However…are you satisfied with just being a shell to another's creation?"
Michael themself might have said yes, what are they: but there's the flutter of wings in their heart, behind glass: (no. you deserve a place to. you deserve more than to be their puppet.)
"Your only relevant attribute is your soul. Your soul yearns for safety. From cruelty, from madness…from the lies of those who love you with conditions. Both the scared child…and the bitter warrior. These are both constructs. They are irrelevant. Only your purpose matters."
"So…I will ask of you once more - are you satisfied to fall now, as you are? As Michael the weak? As Miha the weapon? The answer is not relevant, but it may…affect your performance."
Their mind drifts for a moment. To a single question, spoken with two voices both their own Who am I? (people are riddles, they live their lives waiting for someone to solve them. but people tried to define us without understanding who we were, to their own goals.) who am I? (no. we are not satisfied with those answers.)
"Then take heart. For when you awaken, you shall awaken as nothing this world has yet seen. But know this - thou art damned, one who casts aside the gifts of God. You shall /never/ know peace, but which you make on this Earth. And when thine span hath passed…? You shall take your mortal comforts unto the conflagration."
This…it considers a mercy. "Flee, mortal. Flee, that mortal weakness might die with you."
memory reference only: demon pacts
Date: 2023-02-24 05:22 am (UTC)From:- Tianfei (Mazu)
- Mahakala
- Kali
- Garuda
- Guan Yin
- Ardha
even even more additional notes
Date: 2023-03-06 07:28 am (UTC)From:"So…god, where to start. I guess…with you. There are two axes at work. The reason of the world to come and the answer of the people in it. The system has an avatar. A core structure. A god. I designed it, as a simple control mechanism. This was meant for terraforming…negotiating dynamic circumstances. HELPING people…no, I'm lying."
She sighs. "I wanted to make the world BETTER…and I was naive and stupid enough to think that one person could ever have the right to say into which form…"
"The Magatama. The core control. When introduced to the Rapture servers and the Eden construct…no, that's too technical. When brought to the heart of the system, it decides what form it takes...."
memory
Date: 2023-10-03 01:09 am (UTC)From:i>the memory opens with Michael standing in front of a hospital room. the entire place has been eerily quiet the whole time, unusual for a hospital in Singapore and the tension in the air is so thick that it could be cut with a knife.
they had come to the hospital with their two half-brothers and Night [oldest brother's fiancee] trying to see if there was anything that could be done to try to stop the impending apocalypse, the Conception. somewhere in the hospital is their mother, but the woman sitting by the window in this room is their aunt Iris, with her usual black beret perched on her head but not cheerful for once.
also, somehow predictably, Iris is also basically another of the Lin family that looks pretty much identical, except like her older sister Emily, she's taller than Michael/Miha, 5'3"-ish to their 4'11".
and this discussion is terrible. Iris first hands over several photographs, of the Paradise conspiracy's inner circle, a group that includes Emily Lin, Iris herself, another two women who are certainly dead, the biological father that Michael and their two half-brothers share, and Night's father (the head of the conspiracy), with her comments on the back.
And then comes the explanation.
"Michael..and Miha…I'm…I'm so sorry. If you know anything of what's going to happen, then you know that I don't deserve forgiveness. What I've done…what I've helped to accomplish? It is beyond the scale of words…"
"So…god, where to start. I guess…with you. There are two axes at work. The reason of the world to come and the answer of the people in it. The system has an avatar. A core structure. A god. I designed it, as a simple control mechanism. This was meant for terraforming…negotiating dynamic circumstances. HELPING people…no, I'm lying."
She sighs. "I wanted to make the world BETTER…and I was naive and stupid enough to think that one person could ever have the right to say into which form…"
"The Magatama. The core control. When introduced to the Rapture servers and the Eden construct…no, that's too technical. When brought to the heart of the system, it decides what form it takes...."
Aunt Iris adds that while the magatama had been a result of her work with the Metatron, the voice of God, she hadn't known until it was entirely too late that Michael had been, all along, the one meant for it. That if she had known, she would never have given them the Paradise software - which, while it would have condemned them to a lingering, horrible death after the Conception, it also meant they would have died free and human, and not borne this burden.
Miha's rage is bright and clear - love with conditions, just like anyone else - as Michael slips away, but Miha holds back from killing their aunt, even though they slam her into a wall and threateningly hold her throat before letting her go. It would upset Michael, who loves their aunt, and also would have no use because while she was the Maiden of the Conception, central key to what was about to happen...it was too late to stop it.
Iris is aware, of course, that she had not earned their mercy, and does not try to plead for it. Instead, she simply asks that they join her by the window, to watch as the world ends.
~~~
another memory
Date: 2023-10-03 01:09 am (UTC)From:[Michael - just as androgynous and purple-eyed as they are in the present, but without tattoos and with much shorter hair is present at a meeting on the second floor of the coffee shop with an equally androgynous girl with a hat ("Night" Misaki), Shousei (their other half-brother) and a couple of other people, including the Singapore admin for Paradise, Hershey's Chen, to discuss Anomalies in the game.
Beginning with the incident where the AR scenario had bled into the real world and caused an actual accident (where Michael, Night, and Shousei, had been present), and a number of odd files expanding far beyond where they should - a sword, a particular demon, and Michael's player profile, plus a lot of other weird things happening with/associated with the game, including mysterious disappearances (that Michael has no idea about), and something about investigating both the underlying language of the gnOSis operating system and Night's father. Unfortunately, the meeting goes Very Badly and soon erupts into a loud argument.
Michael, already tense with anxiety, decides to try to at least solve their part of this mess by just deleting their account, putting on their AR glasses to do so.
Unfortunately, immediately as soon as they try, there's literally a bright flash of light in their vision and the worst migraine of their life.
Every device in the coffee shop (and as it turns out, for the entire block or two around it - and Singapore is the third highest population-dense city on Earth, so that's a lot of devices- that is running on a gnOSis operating system, whether it's a computer, phone, smart lights, anything and everything, immediately force-resets (which includes lights going out and then coming back on).
Downstairs, in the rest of the coffee shop, there's a general cry of panic.
"What just happened?" Shousei demands, shakily.
Hershey's looks pale. "That was a GnOSis override. That wasn't…wasn't the game software. Every OS in in the room - no, the entire block- just basically stood up and said, 'No' to whatever Michael just did. That…I…that isn't even MATH."
"How is that even possible?" someone else in the room says.
"It's not! It shouldn't have happened."
Michael's anxiety can't take the arguing, and soon they're under the table, because it's all they can think of where to go to get away from it and it's still not enough, and they can't breathe from it.
The only thing they can think of to do - if they never play Paradise again, then they can just get away from all of this - is to drop their AR glasses on the floor and break them. With their hands, just smashing them barehanded as their anxiety rapidly spirals out of control. It doesn't help. It doesn't help.
Michael - after a bit more arguing from above them- emerges from under the table with their shattered glasses, both frame and glass in their hands, not even noticing that their hands are bleeding, and drops them on the table.
Boss. they overhear a fragment of a conversation Night is having with one of her demon partners (that they shouldn't be able to hear). Still a demon. And getting stronger.
"Michael," Night says. "I think I need you to hear something a…friend of mine has to say. Because he seems to think you're a demon."
And with that, Michael immediately bolts, not even looking where they are going, and heads right for the stairs down. Except they don't notice when their foot slips and they fall headlong down the stairs-
(and at the edges of their hearing, they can hear a voice say: rejoice, rejoice, rejoice-)