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Name: Knives Millions Door: Door Pass (Dom) Canon: Trigun Maximum Canon Point: Post-Canon Age: 150+ Appearance: Here Please note: Knives no longer has blond hair. Due to the liberal use of his abilities, his hair is now pitch black. History: Here Personality: [CW; This personality section touches on self-harm and suicide ideation. It's in the last paragraph under the "unstable" heading. Avoid that paragraph if necessary! Stay safe app reviewers!] Unstable - Knives is an extremely unstable individual. He suffers at the whims of his emotions, which vary wildly from apathy to extreme fury. When he's angry he can lash out violently. A perfect example of this is when Knives finds out that Vash's hair has started to turn black (a sign that he is losing power and will come to the end of his life). He's so enraged by this fact that he lashes out and kills Conrad. He can't handle the twist of emotions that news brings to him, so he kills one of the few people who understand how his abilities work - even despite the fact that Conrad probably still had some uses to him. Knives's mental state is just as volatile as a malfunctioning nuclear reactor. This is true throughout the manga, but now that Knives has experienced defeat this makes his psychology even more unstable. On top of that, his body is just as unstable. He describes his body as being dead, just barely held together through his will. This means his physiological state is just as unstable as his psychological state. Because he is post canon, he has a very fraught emotional state. He has come to realize that his actions weren't okay and regrets harming his siblings. He even describes that guilt during his final fight with Vash, but claims he has been on this path for so long and has done so many terrible things while on it that he isn't sure how to stop. His emotional state wasn't healthy before this, and now it's even worse. Another reason for that is that he adsorbed a lot of other Plants and their memories and personalities became a part of him. These different perspectives and points of view are what forced him to grow a conscience. While he was still with them, his sisters would sometimes give him memories of good, peaceful moments with humans, and those memories haunt him even now. He is no longer connected to the ark, and his sisters have been released from his body, but their influence has scarred and changed him. A lot of his instability also comes from the trauma of uncovering what happened to Tesla. Before that event, he had been hopeful that he and Vash could live together with humans in peace. After it, his world view shattered and the pieces he picked up to carry with him into adulthood were jagged and broken. He still hasn't handled the trauma centered around Tesla and this has lead him to reacting violently whenever Vash brings her up. They even have a conversation in which Vash flat out points out Knives hasn't dealt with it and Knives just throws it back at him in a furious, sarcastic way. He simply refuses to admit how much damage that had done to him, and how much it contributed to his mindset being so unstable. [NOTE: Here is the paragraph to skip if you need to! Please stay safe!] Another important hint that Knives's mental state is crumbling is his desire to no longer be. He already has proven to be prone to self-harm due to how he responded to Tesla's death. Both brothers responded to finding Tesla with self-harm, while Vash starved himself, Knives started cutting his own skin. At the end of the manga, Knives has accepted that he should die and lets go of his physical form - he ceases to exist. In order to be drafted into the LIES program, the city will have forced him back into his body. Knives will still desire to return to that state of nonexistence. This will manifest in a passive sort of suicide ideation at first, a "wish to not exist." It may become more active depending on what happens in the game. Hateful - Before the end of the manga, this would have been the main personality trait for Knives. His main motivation throughout the manga is centered around a deep, undeniable hatred towards humans. His ultimate plan was to kill them all. He was driven by this desire for a century and a half. It tainted everything else he had - including his relationship with Vash. He has very recently grown a conscience and he doesn't really know how to handle it. That amount of hatred doesn't just go away over night, but he understands now that it's wrong - at least on some level. Because it bares mentioning, Knives still harbors a pretty intense hatred of Rem. His brother is motivated through love of Rem, whereas Knives is the opposite. He despises Rem for making him believe that he and his brother could live side-by-side with humans. He loathes her for ruining his brother too. In his mind, Vash is completely unable to understand his own nature as a Plant. Vash doesn't use his abilities if he can help it. He lets his body be scarred and marked for the sake of humans. He lives among the humans. He sees them as equals. He allows them to use their sisters because they need to in order to survive, and all of this - in Knives's mind - is Vash denying his own nature. He believes the only reason Vash is like that is because of Rem's influence, and he hates her all the more for it. Knives's hatred towards humans can also drive him to be very sadistic. He delights in the torment and torture of others, especially humans. A strong example of this is the scene in the manga when he recruits Midvalley the Hornfreak to the Gung Ho Guns. Midvalley's band has murdered the entire theater audience just to take out their target and Knives is completely, utterly enthralled by the sheer slaughter of it. He then almost gleefully kills the other members of Midvalley's band after they refuse his offer. That said, Knives's hatred is also pointed inward. Because of his newly formed conscience he suffers with intense self-loathing. He now knows that he is a monster and he doesn't know how to handle that. He is trying to get better, but his sadism and hatred will still shine through. This trait is likely to be useful to the LIES program as chances are he might take to his role as a Dom more than he'd like to admit. Hypocritical - Knives spends a lot of time in the manga ranting about how terrible humans are for using his siblings, but then he turns around and uses them for his own means. He rationalizes it by saying he's taking them into himself to protect them, but ultimately he uses them for his own means just as much as humans would. He literally snaps Legato's back in half and murders Conrad all because Vash has been hurt/threatened, but then turns around and torments his brother for a century. He cut off Vash's arm and left him chained in a middle the desert surrounded in a settlement that he had just killed all of the residents of. He's basically the most awful to Vash, extremely abusive towards him, and sadistic, but oh boy if you mess with his brother, you're in for a punishment. All of this is offered to show that Knives can be a deeply, deeply hypocritical individual. He claims that humans must be wiped out for the betterment of his siblings, but then he uses and hurts his siblings just as much. He hates Rem for "tainting" his brother, but then tries to forcibly get him to see his point of view. He insists his way is the best way and refuses to see any other perspectives, but then he claims that humans are the ones who are incapable of changing. He can be very thick headed and close minded and he responds to people - mostly Vash - pointing out his hypocrisy by hurting them. Protective - That said, he can still be very protective of what he considers his. He might hurt Vash, but no one else is allowed to. He really does think that taking his siblings into his body is the best way to free them from being used by humans. He considers it a way to break them out of captivity. His sisters cannot survive on their own, after all, they need a place to protect them. Knives's whole mission is also about protecting and saving the universe from what he deems the infection of humanity. He believes that his actions are protecting nature and those who are like him. While his protective urges are tainted by all of the negative ways he uses them, they are still there. He even shows signs of being protective of certain humans in his group, though they all have accepted that they will ultimately be killed by him. Most of the Gung Ho Guns he only considers tools, but he has been shown to go out of his way to save Legato Bluesummers and he does give Elendira the Crimsonnail what she needs to survive. That isn't to say he's kind to them - very much the opposite. He verbally and physically abuses Legato all of the time (he broke his back for crying out loud!), but while they are 'his' he does not allow others to kill them unless it's part of his plan. He even makes Crimsonnail collect Legato when Legato is about to be killed. The level of protection that he gives them is kind of similar to the protection you might give a favored object, though. (I was going to say pet, but it's even below that). This is something that could be exploited in the LIES program though, as Knives encounters beings who aren't Plants but also aren't humans, he might grow to feel protective of them. Powers and Abilities: Knives is a Plant. When you think of the 'Plants' in the Trigun universe, think more about a power plant rather than a leafy plant. Plants are basically interdenominational beings that humans invented to provide a lot of power and to terraform other planets. Because of this, Knives has the benefit of longevity. His lifespan is very different than humans. When he was born he matured quickly and then once he was in an adultish shape he stopped aging. Plants may even have the possibility of being immortal as long as they don't use all of their power. When a Plant's power is used up they turn black and suffer a final death push. In the case of Knives and Vash, their hair turns black. Knives's hair being all black is a sign that he's used all of his power. It is important to note that somehow Vash lives in the manga even after all of his hair is black, but that might just be because Vash is uncommonly strong. (He's even stronger than Knives, he just doesn't embrace his Plant abilities) Plants have the ability to survive what would be a fatal blow to humans. It's is pretty clear with Vash, who has scars all over his body showing that, but it's true for Knives as well. When he forces Vash to destroy July, Knives is caught up in that blast. His ruined body is found by Conrad and Legato and they are able to get him into one of the containment units that usually house his sisters. Plants have an innate healing capabilities and with the right resources Knives even survives that ordeal. It just takes him a while to fully recover. Independent Plants also have basic superhuman skills. They have a high IQ and ability to learn quickly. When they are young, Knives uses the ship's computer to learn everything about human history and he's able to retain that information. Plants also have enhanced speed, strength, and agility. Vash displays these abilities all over the manga and anime, and Knives has those skills as well. Plants also aren't purely solid. They aren't limited to just their human-shaped form. Knives very casually changes his shape all of the time. Usually what he does is change his limbs into a kind of amorphous shape. Once he starts taking on his sisters, he becomes this massive being that is infused with a flying ship called The Ark. Because it's kind of hard to describe, here are some visual examples one, two, three, four, five. Because their physical form isn't consistent, Plants can use their body for shields or weapons. Vash even uses this ability from time to time to block bullets from hitting people, where as Knives uses his to form projectiles and blades that can be used to kill people. He calls himself a "collector of sharp knives" but really his entire body can become a sharp knife if he so chooses. Knives also has the ability to take in or adsorb other Plants. This was touched on throughout the app because it turns out to be his ultimate plan. He takes in each of his sisters, going from human city to human city and stealing the Plant they need to survive. This eventually turns him into a giant conglomerate - the biggest one even the Earth Forces have ever seen. The only other Plant in Duplicity at this time is his brother, though, and Vash is too powerful for him to adsorb safely so this likely won't come up much - but it might be open for some cross canon fun if we have another powerful character who might be able to share their strength with him. It would all have to be worked out with the players, of course. In general, all Plants are connected. Vash and Knives share an emotional and psychological link that often lets them experience each other's memories or emotions. They can also sense each other's presence because of that. That ability doesn't just limit itself to other Plants though, as Knives and his siblings have some level of telepathy. They can even perform the memory sharing with humans if they are in the right state and can project an aura around them. We mostly ever see this in the manga as either Vash portraying an aura of harmlessness or killing dread. Knives has this same ability, though he's much more likely to choose to do the second. Plants were created to be a source of power and terraforming and Knives still has that ability too. He specifically is pretty good at the terraforming part of that. He is shown making plants (this time we do mean the leafy kind) grow. His final act in the manga is making an apple tree for the family that took him and Vash in to let them heal. Now, all of this leads to an extremely overpowered being, but luckily, Knives has his powers capped. He has this because his hair is black. He's basically running on low battery. Whereas before he could make an infinite number of blades from his body, here in Duplicity he'll be able to only make 1-3 blades at a time, at most. (I'll be honest, I mostly plan to use these for bloodplay so I want to keep them around just for that.) He won't be able to commit mass slaughter with ease anymore because his form will mostly be solid and human-shaped. He'll only be able to transform his shape fully during sex acts, otherwise he'll only really be able to go fuzzy around the edges before snapping back into shape. (Again, I mostly want to keep this for kink purposes, we can always say the city powers him somehow when he's doing what they want him to do.) He will still have some of his natural capabilities with speed, healing, agility, etc. and his natural connection with Vash and other Plants will still be strong, but he won't be able to just shape and reshape his body at will, or create weapons instantly to murder everyone around. Inventory: So Knives will have his regular clothes that don't count as an inventory item but ALSO he will have this crazy, kinky leather get-up that he wears a couple times in the manga. I need it for... uh... totally innocent reasons. Samples: Here he is on the TDM. Here is a very long thing that ZZ and I were doing to help me figure out if Knives would fit in the world. It got very out of hand (It's over 570 comments....) and it's based on the premise that Knives and Vash contract (not possible atm as Vash is contracted with someone else), but it should help establish how Knives is with his brother. |
