AC Post


May 2021
05/01

▶ PLAYER
HANDLE: Sarah
CONTACT: randomsnarfle
OVER 18? Yes
CHARACTERS IN-GAME: Ranpo Edogawa | sweetsleuth

▶ CHARACTER
NAME: Mephisto Pheles
CANON: Blue Exorcist (manga)
CANON POINT: Chapter 93 + El Nysa CRAU
AGE: Physically in his mid-40s, but has existed in some form or another for thousands of years.
BACKGROUND: > Canon Background! The first season of the anime diverges from the manga, which should be noted where relevant in the wiki.

El Nysa CRAU: Mephisto spent a year living on small planet called El Nysa, where he was told his home world had been destroyed and he was rescued by an omnipotent forced called the Natha. They were told to integrate with the native population on the planet, who were unaware of the Natha's existence and treated their actions as acts of god. During his time in Nysa, Mephisto was pushed out of his comfort zone, no longer able to count on his connections, powers, or foresight to see what must be done. And on top of this, he lost Assiah, the world that drove him towards his ambitions in the first place. This forced him to rely on his allies more than he typically would, resulting in closer connections as he worked out exactly what sort of existence he planned to etch out in the new world.

Initially, many of those connections were crafted through a fake persona, with Mephisto pretending to be a mild-mannered wizard named Faust. Through this persona, he gained many allies, and even took on students in studying the native magic, allowing him to experiment with spells that could potentially return his powers to him. But over time, many of these fabricated relationships grew to be more genuine. Without anything else to latch onto and consider his own, he instead grew more attached to the allies he made, to the point where he came to call a number of them friends. Of course, considering his demon nature, a number of these friendships were lost when his more manipulative side came to light.

But perhaps the biggest change Mephisto went through was when he was forced to confront his newfound mortality. Dozens of refugees were captured, tortured, and eventually killed -- Mephisto himself among them. He was hypnotized into becoming a puppet for the enemy, dying a slow and agonizing death the day after he was rescued. While it served as the final nail in the coffin for his acceptance of his powerlessness, becoming the one manipulated after so many years of doing the same to other enabled him to see his life on Nysa in a different light. And from there, he sought to be more genuine in his interactions with others.

Although it would be a stretch to say Mephisto became a good person in El Nysa-- he got a little better, at least.

PERSONALITY: Looks can be deceiving. On the surface, Mephisto gives the impression of an eccentric man who takes very little seriously in his life. He's a self-professed otaku obsessed with Japanese culture and anime, and one of his favorite past-times involves stalking around his school to spy on the love-lives of his students. Always sporting a grin, he frequently snickers and chuckles while talking, and is prone to loud bouts of laughter bordering on maniacal. Even dire situations are treated flippantly, with Mephisto only revealing himself when it conveniences him, as if not caring at all for what happens to those around him.

But underneath those layers of pink polka-dots and clown-like attire, he's a cold and calculating demon, carefully plotting every move he makes as though life itself were a game of chess. For centuries, he's worked alongside the Exorcists for the sake of Assiah, the world of humans that he's come to love. He sees Assiah as the ultimate playground, and believes that the "peace" humanity has maintained all this time is actually the perfect form of chaos for a demon.

Charming and affable, Mephisto rarely shows his more serious side without good reason. He keeps his true feelings and motives carefully guarded, even from those he would consider allies. When he does get serious, he's smooth-talking and persuasive. After Rin's identity as the son of Satan is revealed to the Vatican, he not only convinces them to spare Rin's life, but is able to rid himself of any blame or punishment for keeping his existence a secret all this time. It's been heavily implied in the series that nearly all of the trials faced by the main characters were all just another part of Mephisto's plan, which he even admits outright when called on it. In the end, it doesn't matter to Mephisto how his allies feel about him. In his own words, each and every one of those involved in his plans are all precious pawns he cannot afford to lose -- and so long as he has a purpose for them, he will remain their ally.

As much as Mephisto loves humans and the things they create, he also considers himself to be far above them. When questioned by Rin and the other Exwires about whether or not he can be trusted, Mephisto doesn't hesitate to address them as mere pawns in the greater scheme of his plans, going so far as to call them "worm-like beings who are just fine being at the mercy of god-like beings such as himself". But this isn't unique in how he treats humans, as he's even treated his own brother, Amaimon, just as cruelly. When Amaimon allowed his own personal feelings against Rin to get the better of him, Mephisto quickly betrayed him, locking him away in a closed space, suspended by spires struck through his body to hold him in place.

Digging even deeper past the schemes and manipulations, at the core of it all is a genuine desire to protect what's important to him. Although his reasons for protecting Assiah may ultimately be selfish, Mephisto was also one of the demon kings responsible for teaching exorcism to humanity, allowing them to exist alongside demons on even ground. While this was certainly not an act of compassion on his part, it doesn't change the fact that he was so dedicated to protecting his ability to remain in Assiah that he turned his back on demonkind and aligned himself with humanity.

This drive to do whatever it takes to get what he desires is further illustrated by his previous relationship with his brother, Lucifer. Unable to remain in Assiah for more than a few years before his bodies break down, Lucifer was at his tipping point, threatening to destroy himself and all of creation in the hopes of ending his suffering. As a means of appeasing Lucifer, Mephisto created Section 13, where inhumane experiments were conducted for the purpose of mass producing viable host bodies for the demon kings. Mephisto felt no remorse for this, despite the countless lives and untold suffering caused by the experiments, feeling that as the only recourse available to them, his actions were justified.

After a spending a year in El Nysa, at his core, Mephisto hasn't changed too much. It's all too easy for him to fall back into his old ways, selfishly acting on what would produce the best outcome for himself versus the greater good. But unlike before, you could almost say he's developed something of a conscience, allowing his fondness for his allies to occasionally cloud his judgement, and putting their well-being ahead of what he would have previously considered to be more convenient. When a large dragon was resurrected and threatened the lives of everyone on El Nysa, rather than take a back seat and watch how others would handle the situation, Mephisto weighed the possibility of losing those he considered precious to him, and instead put himself on the front lines to try and hold the beast back.

Mephisto may never stop trying to manipulate the world around him and those who live in it, but through organic connections and getting more in touch with his feelings, he might just get people to believe him when he says he's a good guy now.


POWERS/ABILITIES:
Mephisto is one of the eight demon kings, and is also known as the King of Time, Samael. He's described as being the second most powerful demon in Gehenna (not including Satan) and has near complete control over time and space. I've listed below every ability we've seen him use in canon, with applicable nerfs listed alongside them.

Physical
• Superhuman strength: Despite being a scrawny beanpole of a man, he has strength far beyond what he looks to be capable of. Not throw-a-car strong, but he could probably tilt one on its side without breaking a sweat.
• Augmented healing: He can heal from very serious wounds in minutes, making him rather difficult to kill. Likewise, he'd be unlikely to die from blood loss. In-game: The rate at which he heals is proportionate to how much chroma he has at the time.
• Transformation: He can transform his body into seemingly any living creature (his own size or smaller), though his preferred form is a small white scottish terrier. He even turned into a cockroach once, with a little top hat and bow tie and everything. In-game: He cannot use this ability to transform into another character.

Magical
• Time Control: The ability to temporarily stop time in a limited space. Stopping time in a single location for long periods of time is possible for up to 6 months, but doing so takes a heavy physical toll on his body. In-game: Stopping time for even a second would so thoroughly deplete him of Chroma that he would die instantly, so it's essentially nerfed. After unlocking the exalted moon blessing, he'll be able to freeze time in a very small area around himself for roughly five seconds when Sanguis is full.
• Splitting Timelines: He can preserve a location by creating an alternate timeline where only that location exists, presumably using one of his closed spaces. Time still passes in these separate timelines, and the extent of what he can do is unknown. In canon, it was used to preserve an old laboratory that was torn down in the "real" timeline. In-game: This is only barely explained in canon, so it's 100% nerfed.
• Omniscience Through Time: He is shown to be completely aware of himself as he exists at every point in time. He greets characters who've traveled back in time from the future as if he were just talking to them, despite having not met them yet. Though not outright stated, the series hints at the fact that is aware of future events and alternate timelines, and it's implied he has experienced multiple timelines as well.In-game: There is no realistic way to even play this, 100% nerfed.
• Gaps Between Dimensions: He can create and move between empty "closed spaces" that exist in the gaps between time and space, allowing him to spy on others without being seen (example). These spaces also function as a sort of hammer-space for where objects exist when he summons/unsummons them. He can also temporarily bring others into these spaces mentally, by transferring only their consciousness and leaving their physical body untouched. In-game: Closed spaces will be limited to hammer-space for summoning objects and blatant voyeurism kink with player permission.
• Telekinesis: He can move or levitate objects using his mind, including himself, and has been shown to use this power to throw someone backwards against a wall.
• Teleportation: He can instantly teleport himself or others to a different location. He can't teleport to a place he's never been. He can also teleport objects to him, such as a box of tissues or a pot of tea, pulling them out of hammer-space with a snap of his fingers. In-game: He can't teleport objects larger than a small car, and teleporting more than one person will severely exhaust his Chroma. Teleporting is limited to within the city, and he can't teleport to the moons.
• Magic Keys: He can create keys that connect to any single location, allowing that location to be accessible from anywhere, as long as it can be unlocked with a key. These keys are used in canon by most exorcists, and thousands can be assumed to exist at one time. The location can be as specific as "the third stall in the third floor men's bathroom" or as nebulous as "the place you want to be right now".In-game: New keys can only be created using summoning chalk via the Ware Wolf Shop, and are limited by the same rules as teleporting.
• Magical prisons: He can conjure a giant cuckoo clock that traps its victims by suspending them in time indefinitely, just as they were when they were caught. Once freed, they'll suddenly reappear as though no time passed for that person while locked up. In-game: Characters can only be held for up to an hour (or less, depending on player preference) before reappearing.
• Magical barriers: He can create magical "labyrinths" that function as barriers, protecting specific locations by preventing just anyone from reaching them, usually in a way so that the person stuck in the labyrinth doesn't realize they're actually just constantly taking a wrong turn or walking in circles. The space itself does not physically change in any way, it's just how the "victim" perceives that space. In-game: Only one labyrinth can exist at a time.
• Summoning: He can summon demons and familiars to do his bidding, just as exorcist tamers do. In-game: Nerfs will follow the same rules outlined in the link. Notable familiars will be included as separate inventory slots.

INVENTORY:
-A pink umbrella he uses as a conduit for his bat familiar.
-Three wise monkeys, who function as a single demon possessing statues made of three parts.
-Death, who despite its name, is not actually death itself. Note that its ability to kill will only work in the instance of a previously made contract being broken and cannot be used on command.
-Two magic keys.
-A pink flip phone.

MOONBLESSING: Sanguis

tbd

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