Clover
Clover | |
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Profile | |
| Species: | Diel |
| Pronouns: | they/them |
| Height: | 160cm |
| Birthday: | April 28th |
Professional Status | |
| Affiliation: | Alcyon Corporation |
| Type: | Diel |
| Division: | Offense |
| Rank: | Sunlight |
Clover (クローバー, Kurōbā) is one of the supporting protagonists of the Oneirosea series. They are the latest new participant of Alcyon Corporation's diel program. They are currently working in the Offense Division, rotating between Ichika and Shuhei's teams.
Table of Contents
Appearance
In their shell, Clover appears similar to a human in their mid to late teens with a light pink-tinted skintone. Their hair is magenta with an orange mark on the top of their head shaped like a rounded X or stylized four-leaf clover. Their eyes are magenta and orange as well. Their diel bar code is positioned vertically under the right eye. Vent seams resembling doll joints are visible on their knees. They almost always sport a wild, wide-eyed expression, and rarely blink. Their lower canine teeth are slightly elongated, resembling small fangs.
Their usual outfit is a heavily modified version of the Alcyon Corporation uniform. They wear a white dress shirt with an orange ribbon tie, tucked into a pair of brown shorts. Their shoes are the standard loafers, paired with white slouch socks. Over the entire ensemble is a black and dark pink knee-length jacket, with oversized sleeves that drape over their hands. An orange division armband is over the jacket's left sleeve.
Demon Form
Clover's true form is about the size of a large dog. They have a serpentine body and two bird-like legs, resembling a heraldic wyvern without wings. They are primarily orange, with pink coloration at the ends of their tail, tentacles, and feet. Their head is pink and shaped like a jellyfish, with the bell facing forward and the tentacles pointed backward like a mane. Their eyes and teeth are tucked inside an X-shaped groove in the middle of the bell. The tips of their tentacles and tail end in small bulbs, which can bloom open to reveal a stinger.
Personality
Clover is cheerful and energetic by nature. However, as a diel with little experience with reality, they don't understand the gravity of many serious topics, and often act in ways which seem offputting or unpredictable to others.
Their first priority in most situations is to learn as much as they can. They consider all data equally valuable, even useless information like the taste of concrete. When faced with choices, they often impulsively take the one that will teach them something, regardless of all other factors. Their actions often come off as reckless or cruel because of this - e.g. allowing an enemy to sever their arm to experience what it feels like, or controlling someone with Hijack and not allowing them to breathe. Through the help of their teammates, they learn to be more cautious and follow regulations, but mostly to prolong their own existence so they can learn more; they struggle with understanding the rationale behind the company's regulations for a much longer period of time.
They treat most interactions with other people as opportunities to gather information as well. Clover often enters a conversation with the goal of finding a consistent way to provoke a specific emotional response from their conversational partner, which can make them frustrating to talk to. They especially enjoy receiving feedback, since it gives them insight into how their actions are perceived, but rarely act on any advice or change their behavior, unless it comes from someone whose judgement they trust.
Since Clover's goal is to become a repository of all knowledge, they attempt to be unbiased in all situations. They do not think of themselves as having a personality, and react with annoyance when asked about their personal feelings or opinions. However, it is clear that they do have preferences, just ones that they are not consciously aware of. In later arcs, their genuine concern for their friends comes into conflict with this goal, and they are forced to reassess and decide what they really want.
They have a particular affinity for machines and electronics, and have shown a talent for modifying and repairing them. Eventually, this evolves into an interest in illegal diel repair and modification.
History
Prior to joining Alcyon Corporation, Clover was a nameless demon in oneirosea. Although not notably powerful, they had a very stable sense of identity, which was partly due to their strong desire for knowledge, and partly due to a "carving" technique they developed where they can surgically removed unwanted personality traits from their body. They frequently hunted other demons in order to assimilate their mist and learn the information stored within. At some point, they ate a demon that granted them knowledge of Hiro's mysterious savior, but they don't remember any details about what the demon looked like or where this took place.
After learning of Alcyon Corporation, they joined the diel program in order to visit and learn about reality. They developed their wake within hours of being given a shell. They were not interested in choosing a name, so Irie Miwa nicknamed them "Clover" after the clover-like mark their wake leaves, for documentation purposes.
At the beginning of the story, Clover had just been cleared for active duty. They were placed on Ichika's team in the offense division.
Powers & Abilities
Vent: Clover's shell has six vent slots - four along the hairline at the back of their neck, and two at the knees. The neck slots release their demon form's tentacles, while the knee slots project their demon form's claw-like legs over their calves and feet. Their time limit is about 15 minutes at full power.
Acidic Touch: Clover's tentacles burn to the touch, as if coated in corrosive venom. They can turn this ability on or off at will.
Limited Flight: While their leg vents are open, Clover can hover slightly above the ground and dart quickly in any horizontal direction. If they have a running start, they are capable of leaping dramatic distances both horizontally and vertically.
Vocal Mimicry: Clover is capable of dramatically changing their voice, and shows the ability to produce a wide variety of sounds not limited to human speech. They are also capable of mimicking specific people's voices, though they are much more accurate when speaking phrases that they have heard the target say before.
High Mist Capacity: Clover was a twilight-rank demon before becoming a diel, giving them a high mist capacity and the instinctive knowledge of how to use it. Their aura is orange.
Wake
Hijack is a manipulation-type wake that allows Clover to "control" objects or people to various degrees. To activate it, Clover stabs a target with the stingers on the ends of their tentacles. If one successfully penetrates the target, the tentacle becomes invisible, and a clover-shaped mark similar to the one on their head appears on the target centered on the point of entry. This can be blocked with mist-boosting or armor, and the effect ends if the invisible tentacle is found and severed.
The effect of the wake increases as more marks are made on the same target:
- One: Clover can apply force to the marked area in any direction at will, by pulling the attached tentacle. While relatively weak, this can be used to throw smaller targets like projectiles, or interfere with the actions of larger targets.
- Two: The strength of the pull increases. An average-weight human can be fully lifted into the air and held there, provided they do not resist.
- Three: Regardless of where the marks are located, Clover can make any of the target's large component parts move independently of each other. For example, they could make a book open and shut itself, but could not open it to a specific page.
- Four: Clover gains full, detailed control over every part of the target. They can operate complex machinery without touching the controls, or make a human target speak, pick up objects, or fight. If they do not understand the workings of the target, they risk breaking it by attempting something that is not naturally possible.
Relationships
Hiro Nimura
Hiro is Clover's teammate in the offense division, and later becomes his roommate as well. As energetic and extroverted people, they meshed well from the time they first met. Clover considers Hiro their best friend (though several characters express doubts over whether Clover knows what "best friend" means, or is just going along with what Hiro said).
Hiro is uncommonly cooperative with Clover's "experiments", allowing them to poke and insult and otherwise mess with him freely without taking offense. In return, Clover seems to genuinely care about him in a way that they rarely do with others: they value his opinions and take them into account, making a genuine effort to avoid upsetting him, even when they have no idea why he feels a particular way.
Ichika Sasaki
Ichika is Clover's team leader in the offense division. During their first few missions together, they clash with each other frequently: Clover often goes against Ichika's authority in order to indulge in their impulses or simply because they don't understand why they should listen to her. Over time, Clover grows to realize that Ichika makes good calls, and follows them in order to prolong their own existence. In later arcs, Ichika sometimes just bodily picks them up and places them away from their unwise decisions, and Clover allows this to happen without complaint.
Outside of work, Clover enjoys teasing Ichika because she reacts very consistently to many of the things they say. They sometimes team up with Hiro to drag her to new places together.
The "Other Team"
Clover refers to Shuhei and Akemi as their "other team", being the night shift team that they work with once Hiro and Ichika have clocked out. The two of them often disagree with each other and look to Clover to break their ties, even going as far as to bribe them with food and gifts to get Clover to take their side. Clover takes advantage of this situation to extract a modest "allowance" from both of them in order to fund their personal hobbies.
Despite this strange arrangement (which Ichika describes as "ethically troubling"), there are hints that Shuhei and Akemi genuinely do care about Clover, and vice versa. Even outside of work, Clover is sometimes unable to hang out with Hiro because they have plans with their other team.
Gallery
Trivia
- In a couple pieces of alternate universe art where Clover is a human, their name is written as 黒羽 (Kuroba), meaning roughly "black wings".
- Clover's employee ID is 176 214 841, which is the 12th Derangement number.
- Clover does not seem to fully understand the function of human hands. Throughout the series, they consistently prefer to use their tentacles or wake for fine manipulation, and move their arms only to gesture or carry objects. This may be because their true form does not have any arms.
- Clover likes the experience of eating, even though it is bad for their health. They are more interested in texture than taste, leading them to eat odd objects such as aquarium gravel.