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Player Information

Name: Daimon
Contact Info: AIM: yazooairspace, plurk: yazooairspace
Other Characters Played: [AU3] Riku Replica

Character Information

Character Name: Luke fon Fabre
Character Series: Tales of the Abyss
Character Age: 17
Character Gender: male

Alternate Universe
Canon Point: Post-Zao Ruins, just before entering Chesedonia
Background Link: Game entry on Tales wiki, Luke's entry
AU Background: Condensed version here, tl; dr below

The main difference between this AU and canon is that unlike in canon, Luke isn't a replica of Asch, but is instead Asch's younger twin. This doesn't affect the events of the story so much as it affects the relationships between the characters, so several of the events in the AU happen the same or similar to how they happen in canon.

In the AU, Luke and Asch grow up together for the first decade of their lives. Asch is still engaged to Natalia as in canon, since as the older of the Fabre boys he's technically the next in line for the throne (even if it's third in line after his mother and Natalia herself). He doesn’t seem to mind, unlike Luke who decides early on that Natalia is his mortal enemy.

The Score mentions both boys (at least vaguely, as it notes twins being born), but only mentions one of them in reference to Azkeriuth. The Closed Score mentions the destruction of the city by at least one of the ‘sacred flames', so it's unclear which of the boys it actually refers to, and those who know of that are simply waiting for events to play out which will reveal who it is. It turns out to be Luke, but not exactly in the way it was probably supposed to be.

When Luke and Asch are around 8, Van shows up at the manor and offers to start training them to sword fight. Both boys show an interest in it, Luke even more so, often neglecting his other ‘boring' studies in favor of sword training, often trying to persuade Asch to do the same, getting frustrated when it doesn’t work and going off to pester Guy instead.

A little less than two years later, the boys are kidnapped from the manor. Two replicas are created, one of each boy, but Luke’s replica turns out to be very unstable and fails to last more than a few hours. The reason for the failure of the first replica is unknown, and the experiment is attempted a second time on Luke to try to produce a stable replica, but it's interrupted by Asch with the help of the remaining replica. Luke insists on bringing the replica along, since he helped and it wouldn't be nice to just leave him behind. Asch agrees, and the three manage to escape the facility, though they don't get too far. Two unarmed ten-year-olds and a days-old replica are fairly easy prey for the more aggressive wildlife, and the only option for them is to run. They manage to attract the attention of a monster, though, and Asch is severely wounded when he puts himself in front of his brother and the replica to protect them. The monster is distracted by commotion elsewhere not long afterwards, and the boys take the opportunity to run again.

Neither of them know any healing artes, and Asch ends up dying of blood loss, but not before trying (and failing) to convince Luke to run. He does, after a few minutes of trying to revive his brother's body. He doesn't stay long enough to witness the big bang effect triggered by Asch and the replica, fusing them and thoroughly confusing Asch as to why he's not dead.

Luke is returned home, but due to shock and general trauma, is unable to give a complete story of what happened, just that he was taken and Asch died. A search team is sent out to find Asch's body, but gives up eventually and the gravesite erected for Asch remains empty.

As in canon, Luke is confined to the manor, but in the AU the reason given is so that there’s no more attempts to kidnap or harm him. This doesn’t sit well with him, as he was given free reign of the castle and city before, and he makes many attempts to escape the manor, all of which are unsuccessful due to heightened security. Over the years, his attempts become more successful, but he never manages to get outside of the city.

During this time, up until the start of the AU game canon, Van continues to visit the manor. He took precautions not to reveal himself during the kidnapping and replica experiments, so Luke doesn’t know of his role in them, and continues to train under him. When Van isn’t around, Luke also takes to hanging around Guy more often, picking up a little of Guy’s interest in fontech (though not to the same level as Guy). Also during this time, Asch sneaks into the manor grounds, having escaped from Van. He discovers that his family thinks he’s dead and changes his mind.

AU canon past this point is similar to game canon, in that Van's plans aren't drastically changed. The main difference with him is that instead of the original, he has (what he thinks is) one of the replicas, since he's heard of Asch's death. But Luke and Asch have the same abilities, so he can still use one or the other depending on what happens in the future.

What proceeds at Choral Castle is the same as in canon, as it's Luke whose fon slots are opened. Asch makes use of this to attempt to communicate with Luke, but is ignored for the most part.

Asch is less hostile to Luke than he is in canon, first simply following him to check on him, something that Luke notices a couple times, but doesn’t give much thought to until the party is headed to Azkeriuth. Luke confronts Asch outside of Baticul (initially because of Ion), is shocked at his appearance, then accuses Asch of trying to impersonate him. He does it again in the Zao Ruins, irritating Asch further and prompting him to attack Luke, saying he never should have let Luke live.

Personality: This universe’s Luke is very similar to his canon counterpart. He’s still a selfish, obnoxious, spoiled brat of a teenager with has a tendency to throw minor (but loud)temper tantrums whenever confused, annoyed, or whenever the world happens to disagree with whatever he thinks it should do. Boredom comes easily to him, and he tends to ignore anything that fails to hold his interest long enough or doesn’t pertain directly to him.

However, his attitude isn’t as bad as his canon counterpart’s. While in canon he’s essentially a little kid in a teenager’s body, this Luke’s emotional, physical, and mental age generally match up. He has some social skills, though they’re extremely stunted, as he didn’t interact much with those outside of the castle or city as a young child and as a teenager, he had his parents and manor servants to keep him company ninety-nine percent of the time. Not that they were the best company, as his mother’s fragile health keeps her bedridden most of the time, his father was more interested in preparing Luke to take Asch’s place to do anything else with his son. As a result of this, he doesn’t really know how to deal with people who aren’t there to serve him or aren’t family and can come off as rude and condescending in most interactions.

His house’s servants are part of the reason he’s selfish and spoiled. As stated above, he’s not used to dealing with people who aren’t members or servants of the house, and most of the servants don’t argue with Luke’s opinions or desires, giving him a skewed sense of importance and the impression that he can do what he wants. He’s learned that this isn’t the case outside of his home, but it hasn’t stopped him from reacting badly when things don’t go his way. If allowed to, he’s likely to yell at whatever is bothering him, or if he’s particularly angry, he’ll throw or kick things. He’s also likely to react this way if he or thinks he’s being ignored or doesn’t understand something...which is fairly often.

Not that he’s an idiot, but he tends not to remember or learn things about anything that he’s not interested in. He has basic knowledge that most people his age would know, in addition to knowledge of most royal procedures and customs...not that he actually follows them, but he still knows of them. Sword fighting is just short of an obsession, and an interest in fontech is a fairly close second, even if it’s in more of a ‘cool, machinery!’ way than anything else.

Among the more common ‘bad’ traits is an interesting trait that Luke doesn’t normally actively display, and that's that he hates killing. He can deal with it when it’s animals over people, but he dislikes it either way and it’s extremely difficult for him to kill another human being, even in self-defense. Monsters are a little easier for him to deal with. Because of this, he prefers to knock his opponents out or disarm them, and has issues with hunting.

He also is willing to help people out if they need it, especially if he’ll get something out of it, despite any amount of griping he might do while he’s doing it.

Abilities: Luke is a student of Albert-style swordsmanship, which is a slower, harder-hitting style, and has been training in this style for most of the past 8 years. Currently, he knows the basics of the style, as well as a handful of fancier attacks.

Fang Blade - A downward sword swipe followed by a stronger upward swipe.
Havoc Strike - A downward kick that relies on gravity and Luke's weight to do damage.
Raging Blast - A blast of energy from Luke’s hand.*
Guardian - Protects against magic/physical damage for a short period, but leaves Luke open to attack for a few seconds afterwards.
Guardian Field - Luke summons a glyph that repels enemies and slightly heals allies standing nearby.
Rending Thrust - A sword thrust followed by an uppercut.

(*This ability is not related to Luke's hyperresonance.)

In addition to the sword skills, Luke also has the ability to cause a hyperresonance, which enables him to deconstruct and reconstruct pretty much anything. Normally it requires two people to do this, but both Luke and his brother can achieve it by themselves, as they’re physical manifestations of a godlike entity (called Lorelei) that represents the element of sound in their universe. He can’t control this ability yet.

Also, it isn’t really an ability of Luke’s, but it could potentially be. His Asch (and possibly other Aschs) can open a telepathic communication channel between himself and Luke that allows for them to talk and for Asch to see what Luke is doing. Lorelei can also do this to both of them, but Luke can’t do it to either of them. This causes Luke a severe headache the longer the connection remains open.