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for 's SDL

Rank: 148

WINS: 0
LOSSES: 2
FORFEITS: 0

Duel 1: Neej vs Rykio of Opponent's entry: [link]

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This is Neej.

He is 10 years old, and something of a street thug. Well, thief. He's a thief.

He doesn't want to be, though.

His father was a very notorious thief, known to many as Rubato. He died in his prime, soon after Neej was born, but his name still lingers on the tongues of many.

Neej grew up knowing nothing of his father other than what he heard from others, particularly people who knew of his relationship to the famed vagrant. This is, of course, aided largely by the oversized coat Neej wears, which was a staple of Rubato. The thief was never seen without it, and anyone who ever recognized it would immediately be visited by the memories. Neej has faced much harassment and abuse in his lifetime.

However, he always had respect for his father, simply because he was his father. He couldn't imagine why the man who would have been raising and mentoring him were he still alive would stoop to something so low and degrading as thievery.

His mind still young, he couldn't fathom any logical reason, but he could use his imagination. He eventually decided that it had something to do with the coat. There was something about the coat that made people steal. He rationalized this by reasoning that he too had stolen food once or twice when he was hungry. That proved it, right?

The coat did it.

As the boy grew a bit older, he grew to fear the coat. If it could control people in such a way, then it must be alive somehow. Eventually, he began to hear it speak to him. Only occasionally at first, but over the years, it would begin to have full-on conversations with the boy, and in his eyes it would even move around. Neej was afraid of the coat, but at the same time, he began to see it as a part of him. He couldn't leave it behind, because it was what kept him alive. He had grown to be very skillful at stealing, and since he couldn't find a way to get what he wanted within the law, he had no other choice. Over time, however, the idea of the coat began to take over him, and there would be times when he would actually believe that he wasn't in control of his own body. The coat would "control" him, and generally go on a thievery spree, taking anything and everything it could find, and storing the items inside of itself. When it was over, Neej would come back in control, as if waking from a deep sleep.

In reality, the coat is just a coat, though still a rather magnificent one. It can hold a marvelously grand amount of things, almost seeming to the point of infinite. Neej has found this useful in both storage and defending himself. If he is ever being assaulted or tailed, he has a veritable arsenal of varying weapons at his disposal. Granted he only has any real skill with a few, most notably his daggers, an assortment of very small-scale explosives, and a large flail. Among dozens of other things, he also has a foreign-made handgun that he has learned to use, though he rarely has more than a couple shots for it, as the ammo is incredibly hard to find.

<s>Goddamn that was long. I'll probably come back tomorrow, look at it, hate it, then edit it. Cross your fingers.</s> Haha, disregard that, I suck cocks!