N U R A R I /// N U R A
"Why are there so many colors that I can't see?"O V E R V I E W
N A M E
Nurari Mori
A V A T A R
Nura
A G E
16
G E N D E R
Male
V I S A G E
Nura is an average-looking boy of an average height with an average face. With his slightly androgynous build, you'd be forgiven for thinking he was a girl at a distance, though that is an illusion that fades quickly. He most often dresses how he looks: plainly and inoffensively. No bright colors, no slogan t-shirts, nothing to attract attention or bait the eye. Everything about his appearance seems calculated to arouse absolutely zero interest.
P E R S O N A L I T Y
The first thing you'd ever notice about Nura is that he's a remarkably pleasant and well-mannered young man. Always polite and always friendly, he comes across as the kind of guy who must be liked by everyone.
But, assuming you pay more attention to him than that, deeper observation will yield one very interesting and quite possibly astonishing fact about Nura. Nothing he says or does has any substance to it at all. Every action, every word out of his mouth, comes across as little more than small talk, something to fill the gaps inbetween and move him smoothly from conversation to conversation. Nothing he says is ever personal or contains the slightest bit of genuine warmth or emotion.
In real life, this facade is seemingly unbreakable, and even when confronted with this odd behavior, Nura will deny it and deflect any further probing attempts. In Pariah, he lets down his guard a little. And when you scrape away all the caked-on layers of idle talk and meaningless pleasantries, what you'll find is a shy but dangerously intelligent young man, something that retains the basic shape of what was shown to you on the outside but now reveals astonishing new angles and colors.
In direct opposition to his own nature, Nura is always capable of telling when someone else is lying, even when they're not aware of it themselves, and his words bite and cut with sharp insight. Wise beyond his years, Nura can seemingly say awful things without malice or even the intent to harm, just by vocalizing the hard truths inside people that most don't want to acknowledge. When he does intend harm, his words cut people down like weeds, and it is for that reason that he remains so quiet and detached.
But when allowed to truly express himself, most who can stick with him find Nura to be a very insightful, intelligent, and deeply kind-hearted person who enjoys sarcasm and wordplay and who doesn't hold anything back when talking to you. Sadly, because of his quirks and his... unique perspective, most fail to see this about him and simply mistake him for either a completely uninteresting person or a manipulative, heartless git.
B A C K G R O U N D
Some people's misfortunes only begin at the height of their lives, when all the "good days" are behind them and only disappointment remains. Some are less lucky, and have to face the world for what it is as children, abandoning the happy delusions allowed to others their age in order to survive. But very few are born into the world having never known those comforting illusions at all. As a child, Nura learned quickly that he'd been born with a unique ability. He could always tell when someone was lying.
At first it was cute. A fun little game he played with everyone to show off what a smart little boy he was. Words from the mouth of a babe can nary harm a soul. But as he grew older, the joke became less and less funny.
Due to his gifts and his frankly frightening intelligence, Nura could always see things about other people that they'd rather keep concealed. Lies were revealed around him, deceptions uncovered. Relationships crumbled around him. His own father left their family. People found his behavior profoundly unsettling, and his words disturbing. For all he looked like it, Nura never acted like a child. Where most kids his age worried about birthdays and schoolwork, Nura contemplated human nature and questioned current environmental policy. He saw through relationships on a level many adults couldn't, and always spoke the truth, no matter how harsh it seemed.
But for all this troubling behavior and intelligence packed tight in so small a head, Nura was still, at heart, a normal child, something that many people often forgot. He learned quickly the effect he had on people with just his words, and while he didn't understand why what seemed so obvious to him upset them so, it upset him to see people so distraught because of things he'd said or done. And so, not wanting to hurt the people around him any further, he decided to withdraw, becoming isolated but open. Close enough to drift by unnoticed as he hid behind a mask and a fake smile, but distant enough to never touch or be touched by anyone.
It wasn't that he thought no one understood him. No, not at all. He sometimes wondered how many truly did understand him, and out of those how many of them had put any actual effort into it, but the reason for his withdrawal was never so self-absorbed. Rather, he was convinced that he couldn't understand them. The smiles, the gossip, the unrelenting denial and teatime banalities of everyday life and its rituals. He couldn't understand it and he didn't want to. He knew that for some reason he was different. He'd done something wrong, something that hurt people. So the best way to stop doing that was to stop being different. From then on, he'd try as hard as he could to act like everyone else, even if he could never understand the reason why.
Like a man locked in a chinese room, he drifted through junior high and high school simply mimicking acceptable social behavior, doing just enough to satisfy people's curiosity while never being quite friendly or open enough to really let anyone into his life. He smiled and waved, smiled and waved. Then he went home to watch TV, read books, and play videogames. All of his real friends were right there, locked safely behind ink-blot letters and colorful glass where he couldn't hurt them, and they couldn't hurt him. It was better that way.
Eventually when he turned 14 and began experiencing the emotional need to be social that most kids do at that age, he turned to online MMOs. The extra layer of anonymity in online relationships was enough separation to convince him that he wasn't going to hurt anyone with what he said, and most of the time, he didn't care. It was refreshing being in an environment where nothing you said really mattered. Here he could vent his frustrations to (and especially on) people who really didn't give a damn what he said, and who wouldn't be offended by anything he said. It felt... good.
Faking a social life from behind a user interface became the new norm for him, and his growing addiction to MMOs was what led him to Pariah. He was onboard with the total-immersion VR sim as soon as he could afford a module, and learned to spend pretty much all of his time at home plugged in, either exploring the fantasy world for new creatures and landmarks or catching up on homework in the time-dilated environment. That was how he ended up stuck when Pariah turned on everyone.
A T T R I B U T E S
R O L E
Utility/Support
A F F I L A T I O N
Drox
P R O F E S S I O N
Beast Tamer/Shaman
W E A P O N O F C H O I C E
A fan. More on this later.
B E N C H M A R K S
WIP.
R O U G H V I R T U A L H I S T O R Y
WIP.
Fish of Oblivion
