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Michael | Earthian | Not Reserved | Part I

[secret_heart]

Player nickname: Lumi
Player LJ: lumidkitty
Way to contact you:
Email: lumidkitty@live.com
AIM: lumidkitty
Other: NA
Are you at least 15?: Yush
Current Characters: Klavier Gavin, Kino Makoto, Reno

Character: Michael
Fandom: Earthian
Character Notes:
History:
Eden is an ancient alien planet whose inhabitants have been watching over the Earth since its birth over four-billion years ago. The inhabitants of this planet have, in recent years, determined the Earthians – or humans – a threat, not only to their own planet, but to Eden as well. Though it isn’t fully explained by Yun Kouga how the Earthians are a threat to Eden, it is insinuated that the pollution amassed by humans over the years is spilling over onto Eden and affecting the planet, these effects are never really expanded on, but it doesn’t seem too severe. There also appears to be a split sentiment between the members of Eden who dislike the Earthian just because of the attitude in general and how the Earthian appear barbaric to them, and there are those who would spare the Earthian because they feel it is not Eden’s place to pass judgment.

In order to remedy the disparity between those who would seek the demise of the Earthians and those who would spare them, a system of checks was established. If the Earthians accumulated 10,000 minus checks then they would be destroyed, if the Earthians accumulated 10,000 plus checks then they would be saved. Under this new system some of the people of Eden would endure special training at Valhalla, a surveillance base on the surface of the moon (though in contrast it has also been called a moving palace existing somewhere in Earth’s solar system). There the inhabitants of Eden, otherwise appropriately referred to as Angels by the unwitting Earthians, train to be plus checkers or minus checkers. Once the checkers have finished their training they are split into pairs of one plus checker and one minus checker and then they are sent to Earth to observe Earthian behavior and collect data. Their data is meant to be objective in order to reflect their particular position and is sent back to Eden to be reviewed by a higher authority of Angels including Archangels.

This is the premise of Earthian.

Michael’s own story takes place over 100 years prior to the main storyline. He was born into Eden’s class of privilege along with his twin sister Lucifel. Not much is known about his childhood, but apparently when he and his twin sister were younger, Lucifel was abducted and held for ransom and apparently she was abused by her abductor. The incident changed Lucifel in many ways and in order to ease her nightmares and quell his sister’s suffering Michael gave his sister a secret name so that her abductors wouldn’t be able to find her. Since then Lucifel developed an unhealthy attachment to her twin brother Michael, one that created a conflict within Michael himself and within their family. Lucifel’s new, abrasive, almost violent personality had a terrifying effect on their parents. Not only that, but Lucifel’s attachment to Michael bordered on obsessive, to the point where she would hate anyone who became close to him. Finding this unnatural their parents separated the twins.

Eventually Michael entered Military School, quite possibly Valhalla, but this is not specifically stated. There he would meet fellow student Raphael, who was from a lower status than Michael. So impressed at merely the first sight of him, Michael was quick to initiate a friendship with Raphael, in spite of all of the remarks around him that Raphael was not from a noble class, but this did not matter to Michael. Raphael quickly became Michael’s best friend and his roommate at school and soon it became clear that Raphael wanted more from Michael than just a friendship, but it was unclear if Michael felt the same. In spite of this Raphael and Michael were at peace with one another at school, until summer vacation brought both of them to Michael’s home where Raphael would meet Michael’s twin sister for the first time.

Lucifel hated Raphael intensely from the off and they both despised one another for the same reason – they held a special place in Michael’s heart. Lucifel’s antagonistic behavior towards Raphael was simply because he was close to Michael and she couldn’t stand it due to her own twisted romantic love for her twin. Raphael’s mutual hatred was inspired by his inability to express himself as openly or as physically toward Michael as Lucifel did, because homosexuality is a crime on Eden, as well as incest. Lucifel was willing to make that sacrifice, but Raphael was more conscious of hurting Michael by doing something that would make him have to carry a criminal’s burden. Lucifel also considered Raphael a coward for not going after and trying to win Michael’s love.

As things progressed Raphael and Lucifel became more competitive with one another over Michael and to this end Lucifel enrolled herself into their school. They became competitors in everything from academics to athletics all with Michael in the middle trying to ease the tension. Eventually some of Michael’s ambiguous affections for Raphael come to the surface. When Lucifel fell ill, so did Michael, a consequence of their being twins. During this period Michael wouldn’t let Raphael leave his side and insisted on him staying so that the other would hold him while he slept. In his delirium Michael let slip the name “Lue” which is the nickname he gave to Lucifel when they were young.

Then the story introduces Gabriel, a friend of Lucifel who is actually in love with her and jokingly points out how close Lucifel, Raphael and Michael are. In spite of her love for Lucifel, Gabriel stated that she has feelings for Raphael, but that’s only because he would make a good partner to have children with. Both Gabriel and Raphael agree that it’s their duty to leave decedents for the dwindling population of Eden, while Michael and Lucifel insist that it isn’t love. That’s when we learn something about Michael’s character. Raphael, concerned for Michael, wanted to help him find a partner, but Michael was quick to tell him that he would only have sex with someone he loved.

Not long after this event did Raphael’s jealousy over the twins’ “perfect love” inspire him to antagonize Lucifel again, this time by using her secret name and telling her that Michael was the one who told it to him. This knowledge enraged Lucifel to the point of tears as she couldn’t believe that Michael would ever tell anyone their secret. Gabriel, who was present as well, left with Raphael, who insisted on talking with her, in spite of her desire to go with Lucifel. We can infer that Raphael’s conversation with Gabriel led to almost-sex that Gabriel couldn’t go through with. Raphael easily deduced that it was because she was in love with Lucifel, but he didn’t let that stop him from making a contract with Gabriel. Raphael didn’t care if Gabriel loved Lucifel or if they committed the crime of homosexuality as long as she would marry him and bring Raphael into the nobility class so he could stay close to Michael forever.

After Raphael and Gabriel made their contract, Gabriel ran to Lucifel’s room and the two spent the night together. They are caught by Raphael in the aftermath, but aside from lecturing Lucifel for leaving the door unlocked he was disinterested in what the two women did in their relationship.

As Michael, Raphael, Lucifel and Gabriel graduated, Gabriel and Raphael married as per their agreement and Lucifel went into the field of medicine. Lucifel and Gabriel continued to see one another while Lucifel became a doctor. It’s then that we learn that the Angels of Eden are suffering from an epidemic, a cancer that turns their white wings black and eventually kills those who are infected by it. Lucifel had been researching the cancer, and she explained to Raphael, whom she was checking for signs of the cancer, that she found the black hair and wings to be beautiful while he found them to be ominous.

It wass after a brief stretch of peace between the four that Lucifel broke up with Gabriel and finally slept with her brother Michael before disappearing from their lives. She gave birth to Michael’s son before leaving the infant to be adopted by another noble family, the Sakura family; this child would eventually grow to be Kagetsuya, one of the protagonists in the main story line. After a lengthy hiatus Lucifel reemerged one last time to speak with Raphael, telling him that she had the cancer and that she was dying. They reminisced about their history together, which is the same information above; it was all told from the perspective of Lucifel and Raphael in their last meeting. She told Raphael that together they were one whole and that Raphael should pledge himself to Michael before subsequently slitting her own throat as opposed to suffering the cancer.

Roughly 90 years later Michael has achieved the commanding officer position in Eden and Raphael achieved the place at his side, assisting him. This is about the same time that Michael adopted Chihaya, though he was going to adopt Kagetsuya he changed his mind, probably due to the fact that Kagetsuya looked too much like Lucifel and that deep down inside he knew Kagetsuya was the product of their sin and he couldn’t endure it.

Personality:
Because Yun Kouga never really takes us into Michael’s depths, some of his personality traits are enigmatic and shallow to a degree. Meaning you mostly have to take Michael at face value, in spite of the rare moments where it looks as though something may be happening underneath the surface.

So what can be concluded from this is that Michael is, perhaps, the opposite of his twin sister Lucifel in many ways. He doesn’t wear his heart out on his sleeve and tends to express himself indirectly and sometimes destructively, such as the case with Secret Garden when he “accidentally” cuts himself on a pencil sharpener and threatens to do it again if Raphael refuses to spend time with him. It can make him seem rather childish at times, but as Chihaya has pointed out, Michael is a “uke” or passive and he has a more difficult time initiating things. It doesn’t help that there are laws on Eden that forbid any physical expression of love between two Angels of the same gender and due to Michael and Raphael’s positions as Archangels they have to be even more subtle. The strength of that subtlety is articulated on one special occasion when Raphael asked Michael if he had ever tried to “seduce another man” and when Michael says “you” Raphael doesn’t believe him. Still, when topics of romance are brought up Michael tends to make very indirect commentary about how he’ll only have sex with/marry someone he loves, or he’ll never get married because there was someone for who he was never able to express his feelings to. It’s difficult to suss out who he’s talking about as it could either be Lucifel, who is deceased, or Raphael, who is married and by law nothing could happen between them. Odds are it is Raphael. In spite of his love for Lucifel, if he had been romantically in love with her he might have expressed it during the one night they spent together. He never said that he loved her and it’s possible he merely indulged her because of the strength of their bond.

Because Raphael is such a fixture in his life, in that they are rarely seen out of one another’s presence, it makes their interactions a sort of landmark where Michael’s personality traits are concerned. His interactions with other characters, however, reveal a little bit more about his personality as time goes on.

Usually where his adopted child, Chihaya, is concerned he is laid back and playful despite having adopted him as an alternative to adopting Kagetsuya who is his real son. It’s possible that he could not face that inalienable fact, this living proof of what happened between himself and Lucifel after a night of indulging her whims. On top of that Kagetsuya shares her uncanny looks and it’s probably a source of loss and sadness for him as well. In any case adopting Chihaya had been a whimsical and a sympathetic decision. It is a fact that Michael doesn’t care about looks or status, and with Chihaya being a mutation with black hair and wings it made his adopted son an outcast. To an extent Michael chose Chihaya because of his incredible talents and because he found his different looks to be intriguing, but he was also an alternate to having to pick Kagetsuya who was a top contender as well.

In one of Michael’s first interactions with his adopted son he playfully tells a 14 year old Chihaya to call him “daddy” and when Chihaya shows a lack of confidence and total disbelief that an Archangel could actually adopt him, Michael is quick to say that he “despises” the weak of heart while at the same time stating that in spite of appearances all of the inhabitants of Eden are made up of flesh and bone, further cementing this concept that Michael doesn’t care so much about status or who people are on the outside.

Michael is also a bleeding heart and a self-sacrificing character which is shown in a variety of ways. Several examples are seen in how he handles discipline where the misgivings of others are concerned. When Chihaya reveals himself, that is when he shows his wings, to three different Earthians, which can result in demotion or other punishments; Michael’s punishment is purposefully lenient. He says if Chihaya can make it snow in Hawaii then all would be forgiven and he knew Chihaya could do this with ease. Michael’s true motives for creating a gathering of their fellow Angels to discuss Chihaya’s punishment really boiled down to the fact that he wanted to see a burn wound his adopted child had gotten on another assignment. He and Raphael also took bets on whether Kagetsuya would be Chihaya’s lifeline or not, indicating how serious he was about punishment. He clearly does not take a hard line.

Another example was when the fallen Archangel Seraphim (angels fall when they betray Eden and side with Earthian’s) passed away from the cancer plaguing Eden. In spite of Seraphim’s abandonment of Eden, Michael was distraught over his death; it was Raphael who had to tell him to get a hold of himself.

One final example and one that illuminates his self-sacrificing trait, is after the trial of Chihaya and Kagetsuya, when it was discovered that the two had slept together, the two were thrown in cells. When Eden’s ship, the Metatron, was attacked by a group of black-winged Angels from Earth, Michael checked on Chihaya to make sure that he was okay. He discovered one of the Angels from Earth was aboard the ship and had come to steal Chihaya away. Instead of trying to stop them from escaping, Michael let them go—rather that then to have to endure the knowledge of Chihaya’s imprisonment, or even worse, his death sentence. Michael let this happen knowing full well he would spend the remainder of his own life behind bars.

Despite having a laidback attitude in some situations, Michael can also be very passionate and this, according to Raphael, makes him an excellent leader. It’s true that he is very reactive in high pressure situations, but conflict in general, does have a tendency to wear him down and even Michael admits that he can only maintain his composure in high pressure situations for so long. When it comes to battle he’s able to maintain his control, but when it comes to loved ones he finds it difficult, such as when Chihaya began asking about Eden’s intentions for Earth, the conflict it created between them deeply upset Michael and Raphael had to take over.

Michael | Earthian | Not Reserved | Part II

[secret_heart]

Other:
There is a misconception about the inhabitants of Eden, though they call themselves Angels and Archangels, they have no connection to angels in a religious context. They are an ancient alien species that resemble humans with retractable wings. They have superhuman abilities including increased speed and strength. While Michael’s abilities are never expounded upon within the series we can assume that he has the ability to heal the wounds of others by licking them. This seems to be common as Raphael and Kagetsuya can do it and since Kagetsuya is the child born from Michael and Lucifel’s sin it makes them almost copies of one another. It’s also possible that Michael can communicate with birds as well, but again, his abilities are never explained only implied through his close, genetic connection to Kagetsuya. He can fly, naturally, and teleport to some extent. Finally, there are a great many of plot holes in Earthian which is why parts of Michael’s history and personality are disjointed and some things are simply left unexplained.

Additional Links: While wiki has a link that covers the Earthian OVA for the most part, there are few sites that go in depth and cover characters like Michael and Raphael. Those that did have gone and died…a sad, sad thing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthian

First Person (entry type):

[When the feed cuts on it’s self-evident that the person being filmed by the community is both unaware and too preoccupied with something else to be even remotely concerned about whether or not a device is taping him.

It's possible that he is aware that he's being watched by something else and he doesn't really care.

A quick glance at his surroundings suggests that the man is sitting in a solitary prison cell with moderately comfortable accommodations. The man himself appears almost neutral where the small luxuries are concerned…probably due to the fact that he is the most interesting thing in his cell.

He sits, for the moment, quietly on his cot, a set of glorious white wings protruding from his back…or at least they must have been glorious, because at the moment they looked somewhat unkempt and he was clearly shedding as in his hands there were a number of white feathers…and more still slowly spiraling their way down to the floor.]

It seems that prison life doesn’t agree with me so well; though being shackled doesn’t make grooming any easier [holds his wrists up and tests his bonds with some mild irritation] do they think that moving me from a smaller cell to a larger cell will make any difference in my ability to escape. Really…it’s a little unnecessary…I’d much rather they left me where I was, at least they allowed me to move my arms…but if this is life in a solitary prison cell then…

[He heaves a long-suffering sigh before getting up and pacing to the other side of his gilded cage.]

I suppose I can’t be too upset, I don’t regret what I’ve done, but I still cannot help worrying about my dear Chihaya…I imagine that’s probably what’s causing my distress.

[Holds up the handful of feathers once more before releasing them, letting them scatter across the floor.]

I hope he’s okay wherever he is…[he reaches up to pinch the bridge of his nose looking somewhat distressed]…ripping his wing off, even if it was for Kagetsuya, I can’t imagine. I suppose, as a gesture of love there is an unexpected beauty to it…but he was losing a lot of blood…

[He shakes his head at this point as if trying to dispel some horrible thought from his mind]

…I also understand the Metatron has backed off of the Earth and the humans. Chihaya should be pleased…though it’s very likely that Raphael is enraged…underestimating the Earthian.

[A vague smirk forms at the corner of Michael’s lips, but it disappears just as quick and he finally takes a seat behind the device that’s recording him]

Even surveillance cameras, I didn’t realize I was such a threatening presence…but I am grateful. Limited access to Eden’s database, Raphael’s doing I’m sure; though I didn’t think he had quite the sense of humor…at least I don’t remember the database being adorned with ducks.

I guess things change when you’re in the big house.

Third Person:

When asked why he had done it, Michael had been unable to answer.

Actually he simply couldn’t find the words right then and there, not while he was holding the bloody mass of feathers and bones that had once been his beloved child’s wing. Michael was simply stunned, perhaps that was part of the reason he could only stand there, frozen to the spot, but the reality was he let Chihaya escape. His only logic was that he couldn’t bear to see his adopted son suffer any more than he already had…and if he had to bear witness to Chihaya’s execution…well the Archangel did not think he could endure it. So perhaps his reasons were selfish in the eyes of the system, but love was his motivation…

Love was a beautiful thing…

Love had imposed a life sentence upon him for helping to aid in the escape of a prisoner who had committed high treason. How could it be that love had become such a dangerous and unforgiveable crime? It wasn’t as though his child had denied anyone else of their own autonomy or their life which was a crime even more heinous in Michael’s opinion. He was beginning to feel as though the paranoia on his home planet had wrapped its fingers around the throat of his fellow Angels and was now throttling what sense they had left to them. If they were a race of creatures so stagnant that they would condemn love then perhaps they were more savage than the Earthians, perhaps their ancient race had de-evolved somehow.

That is why Michael had no regrets…

The only mystery in his life was when had he begun to care about Chihaya so much that throwing away his life and his accomplishments was no more or less complicated than taking out the garbage. The little black-winged angel of Eden, when Michael had adopted him, was a top scoring candidate for military school. He was also unique. He wasn’t Kagetsuya. From these shallow reasons Michael had developed an unfathomable love for his adopted son and it was for his happiness that the Archangel had committed his crime. Perhaps that’s what it was to be a father…

Ah, Chihaya, wherever he was Michael could only hope that he was okay…

Wherever he was Michael hoped that his son knew how much he cared…

Another nagging source of pain for Michael was his longtime companion Raphael, Raphael who could free him if he wanted to. Raphael who was now the commanding officer. Raphael who attacked the Earth, even though Michael had pleaded with him not to. He couldn't even begin to sort out his feelings on this strain in their relationship...hurt, betrayal, shock? Right now he was still in the processing state of things, something that only time would sort out.

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