Understand the secrets and have some fun

[these_balls]

APPLICATIONS!
Currently: Closed!
Route 29 has closed as of May 30th. For the continuation of the game, please visit victory_road!

Applications will be normally checked during the weekend following the first and third Sunday of each month unless otherwise stated, and we will allow one application per person during one application cycle. Remember, the most characters one player can have at a time is currently set at five.

Applications received after 11:59 PM EST on Saturday of the first and third weekend of each month will be checked the following app weekend unless otherwise stated.

We now ask that potential applicants post their application in comments rather than linking. If their application contains explicit references to 'hard' spoilers (character death, unforeseen plot twists, big reveals, he was evil all along etc), players should put the application in their own journal or their character's journal and link it, making sure to mention the presence of spoilers within. For further clarification on our spoilers policy and whether or not your application needs to be linked, please check this page. Thank you for your cooperation!

The comment character limit on dreamwidth is 16,000 characters so apps no longer need to be split into multiple comments; however this is at players' discretion.

Please use the form below and post your application in comments rather than linking if you can. If you have any questions, feel free to ask either of the mods. You can reach us through emails, IMs, or PMs.

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Helpful links!
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Please do not app a character from either of these unless you reserved them!
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A compiled list of the starter pokémon to choose from offered in Route 29!
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Navigation


<u><b>Player</u></b> <b>Name:</b> <b>Personal Journal:</b> <user name=""> <b>E-mail:</b> <b>AIM/Plurk/Etc.:</b> <b>Timezone:</b> <b>Current Characters in Route:</b> <b><u>Character</u></b> <b>Name:</b> <b>Series:</b> <b>Timeline:</b> <b>Canon Resource Links:</b> Here we would have the links to wikis and other information sites. If none of those seem to provide enough information, feel free to add more about the character here. However, please do not use this section as a full history section unless your canon is ridiculously obscure. General rule of thumb: if there are a good amount of descriptive resources, please just link them and use this section to add in what may have been left out, as opposed to writing an entire history section. <b>Personality:</b> Give us at minimum 2-3 full paragraphs of how you understand your character's personality. Talk about basic characteristics, any major developments over the course of their canon, their motives, their social behavior, and anything else you can think of that shows off your knowledge of this character. <b>Strengths/Weaknesses:</b> Try to cover the good points of what they can do, their life skills (not necessarily powers, but things they're just good at). Go into their biggest fears and what they just can’t do. <b><u>Pokémon Information</u></b> <b>Affiliation:</b> What career path will your character be taking? Breeder, Trainer? Or maybe even down the dark path of becoming a member of Team Rocket? Note: All Rocket members start as grunts. (For right now, only those three positions are available, whether your character chooses to follow their assigned path or not.) <b>Starter:</b> What starter pokémon do you want your character to have? Please use the list linked above to choose from. Certain pokémon have an orange star next to their names; if you choose one of these starters (Deino, Zorua, Litwick, Pikachu, Scyther, Dratini, Bagon, Gible, Axew, Ralts, Riolu, Beldum, Larvitar, Eevee, or Beldum) you must provide reasoning. You do not need to explain your reasoning for pokémon other than those listed above. <b>Password:</b> This is where you'll put the passwords from the Rules and the F.A.Q. There are two words, to assure you've read both. <b><u>Samples</u></b> <b>First Person Sample:</b> The sample must take place in Route_29's setting. Eight sentences is the minimum. This is a PokéConnect post--one that will be on the character's journal, broadcast to the network. Although it is short, it needs to show how your character would communicate with others, as well as be descriptive enough to express the character's voice without sounding too generic. <b>Third Person Sample:</b> The sample must take place in Route_29's setting. The minimum is 300 words. Please note that what we are looking for is an inner working into the character’s thoughts and actions, and how the character responds to the setting, not something that could be taken as an excerpt fanfic. You may use other characters to bounce your characters actions off of, but everything should still be mostly from their point of view.

Comments

Harvey Finevoice | Atop the Fourth Wall | Not Reserved

[milliondollarpipes]

Player
Name: Lu
Personal Journal: lluosogrwydd
E-mail: lluosogrwydd@gmail.com
AIM/Plurk/Etc.: lluosogrwydd
Timezone: Eastern Standard
Current Characters in Route: None

Character
Name: Harvey Finevoice
Series: Atop the Fourth Wall
Timeline:
Canon Resource Links: There isn’t really one, so I just wrote up some history. Let me know if you need elaboration on anything!

Not much is known about Harvey's history, but what is known is fairly tragic. He's certainly a fairly well-known singer, having performed on stage with the likes of Dean Martin, and at the height of his career he had a wife and son. Sadly, Charlie Finevoice died at a young age of unknown causes. Harvey was completely shattered by this loss; he stopped working and began drinking to excess, spending many hours simply standing outside the cemetery where his son was buried and trying to gather the strength to go see him. Unable to handle this behavior along with her own grief, his wife divorced him and left to parts unknown.

Alone and rapidly self-destructing, Harvey finally found a stroke of luck when he passed out drunk on the side of the road just as Linkara happened to be filming nearby. The concerned critic called for help, and then went the extra mile and stuck with Harvey, making sure he got the help he needed. Harvey got sober, started singing again, and eventually ended up sharing an apartment with Linkara and a few others. He managed to avoid most of the kid's strangeness for a while - he had enough issues without robots and magic - but finally got caught up in it during the evil robot Mechakara's first attack. Initially, he joined his housemates in attempting to fend the cyborg off. Once it became clear that his bullets were useless, however, he joined everyone but Linkara in fleeing the scene.

That was the last time he'd ever leave the kid in the lurch. By the time the name of Lord Vyce first began to crop up, Harvey had become a much more solid member of the team. After Linkara's kidnapping, he stuck close to home, helping Pollo manage the show, counseling Iron Liz and fighting off the Shades that beamed down along with Linkara when he returned. He was there after Vyce beat Linkara too, though he left that matter to Liz, seeing correctly that only she could really help him. When the final battle against the dimensional conqueror came, he stayed and fought, encouraging the others to keep getting up after they were knocked down. Harvey didn't agree with Linkara's final decision to exile Vyce rather than executing him, but he went along with it.

After Vyce was defeated, things returned to normal for a little while. Harvey restarted his weekly karaoke nights, the gang hung out, and all was well. Until the Ninja-Style Dancer disappeared. Shortly after this, Harvey himself happened across the Book of the Entity. Looking it over, he realized what it was: MISSINGNO. But it was too late; before he could warn anyone of what he'd discovered, the Entity itself arrived and absorbed him. He wasn't seen again until after its defeat, but he seemed to recover fairly quickly from the experience.

After the Entity, there was another short period of calm. Lord Vyce returned, which very nearly resulted in Pollo's death, but Harvey was traveling for a good deal of that, and was only on hand during the final confrontation, where it was revealed that he held one of two self-destruct codes for Comicron One. He was, however, present for the arrival of the next antagonist: the Gunslinger.

Almost immediately after the Gunslinger's arrival, Linkara's magic stopped working. Against Harvey's (incredibly vehement) advice, he went off on a quest to find out why, leaving a holographic copy of himself in his place. This copy quickly grew cruel and cold towards the living people in the apartment, beginning with a threat to crush 90s Kid's heart. Harvey did his best to defend his friends against it, but even with the technical advice of Pollo and Dr. Linksano, there was little any of them could do; had Linkara not come back in the nick of time, the hologram likely would have killed them all. Once the threat was vanquished, the team went out for Dairy Queen, seemingly all happy to move on from the incident.

But Harvey hadn't forgotten. He was just pretending everything was fine, and eventually maybe it would have been, had it not been for what happened that October. For no reason any of them could divine, Linkara, 90s Kid, Linksano, and Harvey found themselves unable to leave their apartment. The protective spells over the place prevented them from breaking out, and calls to the outside didn't work. They were trapped.

As time passed, tempers started to fray. Harvey was the first to snap, insulting the others and hurling accusations that one of them was to blame for this somehow. Everyone else quickly became angry and paranoid as well; by the time 90s Kid noticed the mysterious shadow haunting the apartment, Linkara and Harvey were in a vicious shouting match, both with weapons drawn. The two broke apart and instantly joined forces in trying to drive off the intruder, which was revealed as an entity brought by the Gunslinger, which was capable of lowering people's inhibitions and possibly inducing anger.

But the damage was not so easily healed as that. Harvey missed the family meeting afterwards, feeling that the others wouldn't want to see him after what he'd said and done. After it was done, he went to speak to Linkara alone. While the kid was willing to let everything go, dismissing it as all a result of the Gunslinger's manipulation, Harvey couldn't. He confessed that in the heat of the moment, he'd been so angry that he was willing to shoot Linkara dead. At the time, even he didn't realize exactly why he'd been so pissed; he just knew that he'd almost lost control. Unable to deal with that guilt, he left to go on tour, without telling when - if ever - he might return.

After an encounter with some Christmas ghosts (look, every show does this once), he managed to actually find some peace regarding Charlie's death and returned home, where things continued as normal. That is to say, of course, that there were some villains to be fought and space battles to be won, but these things happen.

Personality: Harvey's about as smooth as a lounge singer ought to be, with just a dash of cockiness on the side. He’s proud of his talents and he's not shy about talking himself up to others, especially dames. Lately he hasn’t been involved romantically, but he does have an image to maintain. Luckily, his confidence is well-placed - he's charismatic and a good performer. Most of his image is completely genuine; he really does enjoy dressing sharp, and he does talk a little bit like a mobster. There are some other interests he keeps quieter, such as his love for children’s video games, but that’s just a stage thing. I his personal life, he’ll do whatever he likes no matter what anyone else thinks.

Despite being a performer, he's actually pretty reserved when it comes to his personal life. He's friendly, if occasionally rather blunt, but it can be difficult to really get to know him. He doesn’t always trust easily, and even when he does, he’s not very forthcoming with personal details. While he was always fairly private, most of this is because of his past; he doesn’t like talking about the loss of his family, and how can he talk about anything without tripping over that? If pressed, he’s more likely to get angry and defensive than actually lie, but it’s not a good way to get information out of him.

He's very loyal and protective towards his friends. Though he’s often off on his own business, he still checks in regularly and will always have their back if they get into trouble. It doesn’t have to be physical danger either. Harvey’s also quite perceptive when it comes to other people’s issues, and generally gives good advice. It isn’t always taken, but when he thinks he’s right he’s stubborn enough to keep giving it anyway. For example, he’s a bit more pragmatic than his heroic friends, and his suggestions to just kill their enemies instead of sparing their lives don’t generally fly. Sure, he gets the idea of mercy and all, but he’d rather just deal with the problem once and have it over with. He’s also not quite as eager to risk his neck for total strangers – while he’ll defend people if he thinks he’s capable of it, he’d prefer not to get himself killed trying to play hero.

Unless there’s kids involved, that is. He’ll fling himself into danger with absolutely no regard for his own well-being if it means keeping kids safe. Harvey’s got a strong nurturing streak; he’s good with kids and likes them. His definition of “kid” does tend to be rather broad, generally encompassing anyone younger than himself or who he just thinks needs taken care of, but he naturally tries to ensure the welfare of any younger people he’s around regardless of their relationship. This can easily become overbearing, as he’s very protective and generally thinks that he knows what’s best. In more peaceful times, though, he’s perfectly content just to make sure that everyone’s happy and well-fed.

As dependable as he is, Harvey also depends very heavily on those around him. The loss of his son and wife left him pretty much emotionally shattered, and for a long time it was only his friends that kept him from completely self-destructing. He’s good enough at hiding his emotions that it took years for any of them to realize he might even have problems. Since then, he’s worked through some of these issues, but even after accepting the fact of Charlie’s death he’s still not very emotionally open with other people and it isn’t always obvious how much he cares about others. The only feeling he’s ever entirely clear about is anger; Harvey has a bit of a temper, and while he tries to control it it does still flare up in stressful situations. In the worst of times, he can even get violent. This is rare, but he generally feels ashamed of it afterwards – and, like with all other such vulnerabilities, internalizes it and never really talks it out.

He’s got a lot of communication issues.

Strengths/Weaknesses: First and foremost, Harvey is staunchly loyal to the people he cares about. He can be reserved and difficult to get to know at first, but once he’s your friend, he’s there for life. This is possibly his greatest strength, simply because he refuses to let his people down. If they need him, he’ll make sure that he comes through no matter what. This can be a double-edged sword, however, because once he’s lost someone dear to him, he finds it extremely difficult to let go. Harvey’s greatest weakness is probably the sheer amount of emotional baggage he’s constantly lugging around with him. His son’s death and his divorce make him terrified of losing anyone else, sometimes to the point of overprotectiveness. Don’t expect him to ever actually express these feelings directly, however; he’s pretty tight-lipped about his own feelings and hates to look vulnerable. Usually he just bottles up any negative feelings deep inside until he either finds something to take them out on, or just starts lashing out.

Additionally, his coping mechanisms are not the greatest. He’s an alcoholic, and later became a smoker while trying to stay sober. He’s managed to mostly kick that habit as well by now, but he still deals with some temptations when things get tough. Lately, his weird life has provided him a lot of evil robots and junk to fight with, though, and that does help him let off some steam. Despite being a professional entertainer, Harvey is reliable enough in a fight and no longer easily intimidated by much of anything; he’s fought monsters that really shouldn’t even exist. He can shoot and handle himself in hand-to-hand combat – not with any kind of martial arts, mind, but he’s been in enough brawls to manage. Unlike his teammates, he doesn’t use any special weaponry; he’s still too set in his ways to truck much with either magic or newfangled technology. Actually, he’s really bad with technology in general outside of whatever he needs to play the latest Pokemon game, and he may or may not understand how the Internet works.

Despite being so emotionally constipated himself, Harvey’s actually pretty perceptive when it comes to other people’s feelings. He gives good advice and can be very encouraging when he tries to be. He’s also not super easily shaken anymore. As mentioned before, his life got weird after he met Linkara; he can roll with an awful lot of strangeness. He doesn’t always understand everything that’s happening, but that’s a secondary concern at best. Pragmatism is the name of his game, and as long as he can figure out a way to solve the problem at hand, he doesn’t much care about theory.

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer!
Starter: Murkrow
Password: Cherries Strudel

Samples
First Person Sample:
[The video feed opens onto a view of a city over a hill.]

Hey, check it out! Goldenrod City! [Harvey turns the camera to face himself.] I think I'm gonna stay here for a while, recover from the road. Catchin' Pokemon is fun and all, but I could really use a decent night's sleep in a real bed. I'm gettin' old for all this campin'...

Anyway. Does anyone know any places around here that could use some entertainment? Seems like ages since I did a gig.

Third Person Sample:
It's been a while since he ended up in Pokemon Land, and Harvey thinks he's adapting about as well as anyone could reasonably expect. If he had to be kidnapped, at least it’s to a place he’s pretty damn familiar with already. He’s played all these games through before; he hardly needs the map to find his way around Johto. Admittedly, hiking through the goddamn woods all day is pretty different from just sitting on the couch and playing video games, but hey, he can deal. Goldenrod City is still sounding pretty nice, but if he wants to go get all the gym badges, he's gonna have to get used to the travel, right?

And, really, what's the point in being here if you ain't gonna go on a Pokemon journey?

Right now, he's hangin' around the area south of Violet, lookin' for Wooper. It'd be good to have a ground-type with him, since Sadie's weak to electricity and all. It seems kinda weird to be strategizing about things that are actually real - real creatures, with feelings and stuff, instead of just pixels - but it couldn't hurt, right? He'll just...make sure the Wooper's happy. Give it a name and stuff, just like Sadie. The Murkrow is helping him look, hopping through the grass nearby and occasionally bursting into raucous caws when she finds something she wants to fight. She's pretty into battling, enough that he hasn't really worried about the morals of the whole thing. Obviously if he had one that didn't want to fight, he wouldn't make it. Them? Whatever.

Somewhere to his right, she shrieks again, and Harvey tromps through the grass towards her. "C'mon, that's a Sentret. You don't gotta fight every single Sentret - do you even GET experience points?" The Murkrow shoots him a look over her shoulder and dives in to start pecking. Harvey sighs. "Yeah, yeah, okay. Just...yeah, use Peck."

[these_balls]

Hello! Before we can make a decision on your application, we have two requests for you.

First, your application appears to be missing a stated canonpoint; we will have to ask that you please provide us with a specific canonpoint that you are pulling your character from.

Second, and somewhat relatedly, we as a team are currently on the fence as to whether Atop The Fourth Wall can be considered an appable canon for the purposes of Route 29's game standards. To better aid us in that consideration, we would like to ask for any supplemental canon resource links you can provide us with, as well as your own reasoning for what distinguishes ATFW as a standalone work of fiction in its own right. In your discussion, please give us as much insight as possible into the qualities that make ATFW a work of narrative fiction, referencing characters, plotlines, and other such storytelling conventions that help to define it as a canon in its own right.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and thank you for your understanding! You will have one week to complete these requests.

Rupert Giles | Buffy the Vampire Slayer | Reapp, No Reserve

[poundcoins]

Player
Name: Rona
Personal Journal: N/A
E-mail: magicalseagulls@gmail.com
Plurk: ochrona
Timezone: PST (-8)
Current Characters in Route: N/A

The following is a reapplication featuring a dramatically updated canonpoint, so the app has been written fresh. (Giles was here in early 2012, as a Breeder, from early Season 2.)

Character
Name: Rupert Giles
Series: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Timeline: (Buffy) Season 10, #13
Canon Resource Links: Wiki! Horrifically long, so the following section will include major points of character history.

Personality:

Let's take a linear approach to this.

It began with the three Fairweather sisters: two women who used their magic to remain eternally youthful-- the better to con demons out of beauty products as a hobby-- and a third who joined the Watcher's Council, a group dedicated to fighting supernatural forces and saving humanity. She had a son, who grew up to be a proper, respectable, duty-bound Watcher, and he had a son, whose name was Rupert.

Young Rupert had his grandmother's skill for magic, so he was sent to the Watcher's Academy, to study horrible monsters and be steadily traumatized until the age of seventeen. Then his final exam went wrong, the entire class except Rupert was brutally killed, and his dad tried to talk him down from it. Rupert yelled a lot and went off to London to join a punk band.

In London he made some black-magic friends, they sold their souls to an ancient demon for a really good high, and it went predictably and fatally wrong. Rupert's grandma found him, helped him kill some vampires, said some inspirational things about redemption, and brought him back.

Two decades later: enter Rupert Giles, a proper, respectable, duty-bound Watcher with a mild nature and a lot of tweed. Over eight seasons of canon, Giles is most immediately defined by being English-- polite, dry-humored, exasperated with teenage Californian culture-- and bookish. He takes the role of researcher, delights in cross-referencing, becomes eagerly excited at the news of an unusual threat. He reads a ridiculous number of languages, and speaks several, from Latin to Cantonese, earnestly though at varying levels of fluency. He is the show's source of exposition and obscure-but-useful information, in everything from ancient mystic rituals to offhand comments on botany.

After that, he is loyal. Steadfast, brave, deeply supportive-- most of the time-- to Buffy and her little group of outcast teenagers. He is reluctant to speak on deeply emotional topics, but it makes his gentle pep talks and pledges of support more powerful when they come. He writes Buffy a large cheque to cover the bills, once her mother dies. He sits through "eating cookie dough and talking about boys" with young Dawn, and does so fondly. He scolds the children, complains about behavior he thinks is silly, and makes snide comments a little more bitingly than is called for, but he always joins them in a crisis. He'll charge into the heart of the battle without hesitation; he is brave and sarcastic even when captured; he does not balk at a fight he is highly unlikely to come out of. He shakes off injuries and goes stubbornly back to work.

When Giles does betray his group, it's a matter of end-justifies-the-means pragmatism: he goes behind the backs of others because it is for their own good, and he's resigned himself to being the one who makes the hard calls. This means, of course, that he will entirely bypass everyone else's feelings because he thinks he sees a flaw in their logic, and considers his approach more sensible. He tries to have Spike killed behind Buffy's back because he thinks her emotionally compromised; he abandons the group when Willow and Buffy badly need his help and intervention, because he thinks that he's providing an unhelpful crutch. On the occasions that he does something cruel or violent, he's remorseless, because he thinks that this is how things have to be. And he has a vicious, sadistic temper, rare though it is; he is so rarely the most physically powerful person in the room that it is a release when he lashes out.

But he is also, when among his little ragtag family, a complete dork. When the end of the world is likely to come tomorrow, he can be convinced to sit down and play a dwarf in D&D. He notes that an object must be magical because it's so shiny. In the earlier, more carefree seasons, he flies into impassioned speeches on the merits of rugby over American football, acts as though technology is a personal affront, and has to practice his "will you go out with me" speech on a chair. Even at the latest points in the show, he still goes stammeringly horrified that a school library would be taken over by computers.

Since Giles was resurrected-- Angel rescued him from eternal torment, and his great-aunts tried to get him a second chance at childhood-- all of these core traits remain true. But he came back as a child with the memories of a man, not a man in the body of a child. He lacks adult maturity; he's quicker to snap at someone who doesn't deserve it, unthinkingly self-centered in his mindset, and will fly into a furious tantrum without apparent shame. His attention span is a disaster and he loudly voices his jealousy. Because he's used to being respected, he is embarrassed and despairing to have the social and combat ability of a child. He feels disconnected from his group, and hasn't figured out what to do about it, except that he is startled and hurt every time he isn't allowed a drink.

While he is still stubbornly loyal and most comfortable as the team researcher (and, now, more eager to play video games and keep Batman figurines on his desk), he is lonelier than ever. Giles is back to disregarding everyone else's needs and keeping himself apart. He is glad to be alive; he resents the way he's come back, and hasn't yet come to terms with his new self.

Strengths/Weaknesses:

For strengths: he can read and speak a really silly number of languages, and delights in a challenge or mystery, particularly if it can be tackled with help of a library. He is used to high-pressure, high-stakes situations; the looming end of the world is pretty much a normal Tuesday, and violence is constant in his life. He is creative with any given resources, and frequently finds his way out of bad situations through clever use of magic or surroundings. He has, given his new inability to be much good in a physical fight, accepted magic as his primary weapon and tool, and won't shy away from Pokemon battles. Showing up in another world won't throw him; he already knows very well that those exist, and that very odd creatures live in them.

For weaknesses? At this canonpoint, he is an absolute trainwreck of frustrations, insecurities, and juvenile impulses. Giles' interpersonal skills always hinged a bit on being bookish, and sarcastic, and very loyal to a very exclusive group; he has many allies, but rarely many adult friends. Now that he's some in-between of adult and child, this will be cranked up to eleven. He will be off-put when speaking to young people, because he expects a certain dynamic that isn't there; he will try to befriend adults and become quickly impatient with his lack of credibility. His attention span is shot, his emotions are all over the place, he is easily distracted by a villain's cleavage, and he hasn't reconciled the concept of a second chance with liking who he was before. He's also useless in a fight, without magic, and more likely to flinch and hide when things get bad.

On the upside, his new youth means a new take on the Pokemon world. The adult Giles-- from early canon, as I played him here before-- was curious about the world, but mostly functioned as a mentor figure, not a proper participant. This Giles, who reluctantly delights in video games and pyjamas with dinosaurs on them, will bring a new element of excitement and stubborn enjoyment to the concept of a Pokemon journey.

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer
Starter: Ponyta
Password: Cherries Strudel

Note: Giles will not retain his memories of being (rather briefly) in Route several years ago, but it would be charming if the Ponyta recognized him and, so to speak, began with higher-than-average happiness and a marginally higher level (lv.7).

Samples
First Person Sample:

[ Good morning, Route. Here you have a boy of about twelve, who's evidently accepted his schoolkid clothes. He addresses the camera with a sort of hesitant nod of hello, as though he's not quite sure he's done it right. ]

I'm speaking as, um, a new arrival. My name is Giles. [ He can remember being fifty and respectable, he'll not tolerate an entire crowd of teenage strangers calling him Rupert. So. ]

I'd like to learn more about this world. The mythology, especially. [ And here he brightens a little, leans forward a little to look into the camera. ] I've heard of, um, legendary Pokemon-- god-like beings, by all account. Is there any reliable source of information on these?

[ This is the poshest-sounding kid to skip right through the "confused and incredulous" stage on the network. So long as someone can point him to a library, he'll be happy. ]

Third Person Sample:

He panics much more easily, now that he's twelve.

Giles-the-man would have been on his feet carefully, and examining his surroundings with due caution; Giles the not-quite-boy scrambles, and stumbles, and gets caught in the bedsheets, and is immediately angry at the music.

It's mechanical in a canned sort of way, and he isn't sure where it's coming from. The bedroom is irritatingly bland, if not immediately threatening. He occupies himself with the probably more important topic of where he is.

Not San Francisco; the size of the place could tell him that. The amount of green out the window suggests it isn't California at all, and when he goes to the glass to look, the trees are-- what are the trees? This wouldn't be his first time waking in an altered world, but typically he stays in the same country.

Ten minutes later, the trees are of lesser interest; he is more occupied with the fact that flaming horses exist.

The creature blinks at him with large dark eyes. He rode, as a proper child, and in the summers between boarding school, and whenever he returned from California to the London house. He's not had the opportunity to see a horse since he returned from the dead. Certainly not a-- foal? Does the name Ponyta imply that it's reached adult size, when the proportions are off? Does its coat withstand all intense heat, or is the fire itself magical? Is it entirely illusionary?

He reaches out a careful hand, palm up, and startles when the creature steps forward and noses softly into his palm.

"Hello," he says, and stammers on it, a little. The horse doesn't seem to mind, and nuzzles up against his hand and in toward his chest, fire-mane flickering. Giles makes an undignified little startled noise, and tries to shy safely away-- but the heat doesn't even reach him. Oh.

"Is, is it only for show? Or do you control the heat?" The Ponyta only looks at him, patiently. With a little more confidence, Giles rubs a hand down its nose.

"Well," he decides, because the music keeps plinking away and the grass is irritatingly green but he has a horse that's on fire, and it likes him, and he wants to know everything-- "it's good to meet you."

[these_balls]

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon!
Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.

Now that you've been accepted...
[○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must!
[○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: # thru G, H thru O, or P thru Z.
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[○] Join the following communities: route_29, route_006, route_1065, pokedaycare. Only Team Rocket personnel should join rocket_hq, but we ask that all Route members subscribe to it.
Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places.
[○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted.
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We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!

Thank you! See you in the Pokémon world!

Oerba Yun Fang | Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning Returns | Reserved

[baremyfangs]

Player
Name: Riddle
Personal Journal: meadowed
E-mail: Sycophantism@hotmail.com
AIM/Plurk/Etc.: tiger_eyes
Timezone: GMT -5
Current Characters in Route: Sansa Stark stonebird

Character
Name: Oerba Yun Fang
Series: Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning Returns
Timeline: On the day of the Apocalypse.
Canon Resource Links: Drink it in.

Personality: "Now, don't you worry. I'll come and find you, no matter where you go."

Crystal Stasis has done a number on Fang. She was always a fiercely independent woman bent on protecting those precious to her, however, as the years passed her by and the world(s) changed dramatically, she learned to distance herself from her grief and pain. Before she encountered Lightning, Snow, Hope, Sazh and Serah, there were only two people she cared about: Vanille and herself. Everyone else was on their own. It was easier to operate that way. She knew she and Vanille couldn't carry on if they were bleeding hearts to every lost cause.

Yet that didn't mean her heart was dead. It wasn't hard for her to make the decision to follow Lightning, Snow, Hope and Sazh on their journey to fulfill their Focuses and save Serah. They were people in the same position as her and Vanille and she knew, if they worked together, they had a greater chance of seeing their Focuses through.

However she didn't put her entire heart into the task right away. Some part of her kept distant - a task easily accomplished by being a sarcastic smart ass - until she witnessed for herself how far Lightning in particular was willing to go. Then there was no question: Fang had her back until she was reunited with Serah again - even if that meant defying their Focuses and wiping their brands clean.

Fang had already seen one world destroyed; she wasn't about to see Cocoon destroyed too just to please some "higher being". She is a warrior and a guardian down to her very soul. Perhaps that is why Ragnarok is drawn to her. She simply will not back down and call it a day. However she is weak when it comes to her family - both old and new. At the end of the first game, she reveals that she would rather suffer endlessly (at the hands of Orphan) than see any of them (Vanille in particular) hurt.

The aforementioned Crystal Stasis comes calling again after Orphan is destroyed. However this time, Fang and Vanille have gotten good at using it to their advantage. During the events of the second game, they are able to communicate with Serah and guide her on a path to not only save her sister, but to also save the world.

Who knew Oerba Yun Fang could be such a hero?

For her, it isn't about being heroic, though she likes to strut her stuff in battles especially. This is what you do for family. Risking her life for someone she loves is as natural as breathing and she doesn't regret any of the close calls in her past. Instead, she focuses on the future, which unfolds when she awakens from her Crystal Stasis a second time - five hundred years later.

"Perfect timing. Glad you could make it. Took you long enough, didn't it?"

Of all the things that have changed in the world - and the oncoming Apocalypse - Fang remains the same. She doesn't trust anyone at the drop of a hat - there is always a trial period where she sizes them up - and, when she finds the company lacking, she goes off on her own. Vanille might be content to hear the voices of the dead and be worshipped, but Fang doesn't like the atmosphere. She senses something is off and wrong before she has any evidence to prove it. In this way, she is like a wild animal who senses danger on the wind - on her skin - and needs no logic or human reasoning to tell her she's right or wrong.

It's a relief for her to be reunited with Lightning and she is glad to see everyone else too, but her main concern is getting worse. She knows Vanille is being used and she needs the redhead to come to her senses and see the truth. With Lightning by her side, she feels like she has a better chance of getting through to her. However there is something dirty about her using Lightning's influence to free Vanille; something that Lumina picks up on.

She hasn't seen the woman in a thousand years - at least not face to face - and right off the bat she is only considering Lightning's usefulness in saving Vanille. When Lightning tells her that she is the only one that can save the redhead, she realizes she's right. She needs to confront the woman truthfully and not hide behind the savior's brilliance.

On the final day, she fulfills her promise to Lightning and arrives at Luxerion Cathedral in order to stop Vanille from completing the Soulsong. Her fear for Vanille - as well as all the souls that Bhunivelze wants destroyed - is palpable and she shows, at last, that she isn't always a strong woman. Her love is fierce and death can't conquer it, so if Vanille chooses to save the souls and go against Bhunivelze's wishes, she won't do so alone.

"Don't even think of trying to help us, or bring us back, or whatever stupid plan you might come up with. Don't you dare. You worry about yourselves, you hear me?"

In summation, Fang is a layered women. On the outside - especially to strangers - she can be distant, combative, sarcastic and even downright flirtatious. It's easier for her to cloak her own misgivings under a fiery attitude. However, once that layer is peeled back, friends and family will discover that she is a fiercely loving and fiercely loyal protector who has no problem jumping head-first into a fray. Oftentimes that trait in particular is the one that gets her in the most trouble. But she lives on a motto of never having any regrets. Who knows if tomorrow is your last day?

However, despite the self-confidence she might exude from time to time, Fang is not a woman free of doubt or guilt. She has done things in her past that she isn't proud about; when the world is crashing down around you, you either run or fight. She did a little of both. And those are burdens she will carry for the rest of her unnaturally long life.

But nothing beats being alive and spending time with those you love. Family is everything to Fang. No matter where she goes, she will carve out a niche for herself and find those who need an overly-meddlesome Gran Pulsian in their lives. Even in strange lands, she has a tendency of always landing on her feet. She is a survivor and experienced enough to know that when change comes, you better find something to hang onto.

Strengths/Weaknesses: Strengths:

◁ Physically Fang is fit, well-muscled and she can take a punch. She is very active - something that was probably encouraged on Gran Pulse in her younger days - and she is a practiced warrior and hunter. She and Vanille have been without roots for centuries, so she has had to learn how to ensure they survive in a chaotic world (which would include hunting for a meal as well as showing enemies exactly what she thought of them).

◁ She is very talented with her Bladed-Lance. It is not only used as a weapon, but also as a means to vault herself off of the ground and, when the situation calls for it, a means to stop someone dead in their tracks (by holding it like a bar before them or jamming it into machinery to halt it or make it malfunction). She is very resourceful - and brave - in her numerous battles, which was likely what led to her becoming the leader of some bandits in the final game.

◁ When her mind is set on something, good luck getting her to back down. She is feisty, strong-willed and always ready for a debate (or a spar). Her arguments with Lightning in particular highlight this trait. However, when she is proven wrong or misguided, she is honorable enough to accept her punishment without too much complaining.

◁ Underneath her fire, sass and bravery (traits of which she has in spades), Fang has a soft heart. She hates seeing someone in pain or lost - especially if they're friends or family. An example of her breaking down and showing her softer side was when Vanille admitted to not telling her the whole truth. At first she was angry, but then she broke down and revealed that the anger came from hurt that Vanille didn't trust her/depend on her.

◁ It probably goes without saying that Fang is loyal - and likely to a fault. Her friends are her family and she will protect them even if it means sacrificing herself. (However Vanille will always be her number one concern. She hates herself for using her other friends to ensure Vanille's safety in the last game, but that doesn't stop her from doing it.)

Weaknesses:

◁ For all her physical strength, Fang has some major soft spots when it comes to her emotions. If her friends - Vanille in particular - are messed with, she goes down for the count. Failing them spells the end for her and it's a burden she can't bear. (Her reaction to all of them, briefly, turning into Cie'ths at the end of the first game was evidence enough of that.)

◁ Sometimes her stubbornness can get her into trouble. While it's nice for her to be so grounded and so determined, there are times where she is simply wrong. By the time she realizes her mistake, it's usually too late to backtrack - such as when she and Vanille were first turned into l'Cies. She gets hot-headed, thinks she knows best and acts rashly.

◁ Her lack of ever having a regular, healthy family (she was orphaned at a young age) has had a negative impact on her. She clings to Vanille in an unhealthy way at times and she forgets - or ignores - the fact that others are just as bad off as the red-head. One of the reasons she bonds so well with Lightning to begin with is because they share a one-tracked mind. Serah is Lightning's world and Vanille is hers. (Of course having such a narrow world and pushing others who care about you out of it will only end in heart-break eventually.)

◁ Fang carries a monumental amount of guilt. Precious few will ever see how much weight she carries on her shoulders and she wants it to be that way. Her mistakes - her failings - her fears and her nightmares are hers to bear. However that means that everyone is kept at a distance. She might not look it - she is adept at hiding it - but Fang is very lonely woman with a heavy conscience. Even the gods can't relieve her of that, though they are the main causes of it.

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer
Starter: Purrloin
Password: Cherries, Strudel

Samples
First Person Sample: (Technology is grand, but Fang has no patience for it. It's only thanks to her new furry friend that she hasn't smashed the communicator to pieces.)

Alright, is it on? Can anyone hear me? (The thick accent of a female Gran Pulsian is probably pretty startling to hear anyway. However there is an almost husky edge to this voice, perpetually sounding as if she has just woken out of a long slumber.

Which isn't far from the truth.) M'not sure how much I should say. The world doesn't seem t'be endin.

(The juries out on whether or not that's good.)

This cat thing can't talk. (Yes, she sounds disappointed by that.) So she directed me to this.

(There's a low expletive and a sigh.)

Guess there's no use in hidin' it. I'm Fang and if anyone could point me in the Savior's direction, I'd appreciate it.

(No! That doesn't sound insane at all!

Another button is pressed on accident - technology can take a hike, seriously - and bright green eyes can be seen, narrowed in frustration.)

Where's the off switch? (Have no fear, a Purrloin comes to the rescue, tapping the screen with a delicate paw. Does its grin seem wicked to anyone else?)

Third Person Sample: She was good at hiding the strain the years had put on her. Hell, she was old when she met Lightning, Snow, Hope and Sazh. Now she was practically ancient, though heaven help anyone who had the nerve to say so to her face. It wasn't her fault she had spent so many years chained up in a crystal!

But it wasn't Vanille's fault either and she knew, in her heart and soul, that her sister needed her. Breathing in deeply and leaning on her Bladed Lance, Fang forced herself to think about what needed to happen next. Lightning had been right. She was the only one that could save the redhead.

The only question was - how? Talking hadn't convinced Vanille before - but she hadn't known the full truth then.

"They've been with her longer, fillin' her head with Etro knows what..." she clenched her teeth, held her weapon tighter and stalked toward a building. After climbing a ladder to the roof, she surveyed the city below, green eyes fixed on the monsters as they devoured the citizens.

"No time left."

It was now or never. If she failed and Vanille followed through with Bhunivelze's plans, that was it for them. For all of them.

We couldn't go on... She cut that thought short. No point in dwelling on that now. It was time to dig deep and find her cocky assurance that all things would work out, one way or another. But boy was she tired of the gods using them as play-things.

She would dearly love to take her Bladed Lance to Bhunivelze's face in particular. He didn't need a nose or eyes, did he?

"I leave that to you, Savior." her lips twitched into a tight smile, "You get Serah and I get Vanille. Then we go home and -" she couldn't finish that sentence.

What home? Was there a new beginning waiting for them? What would that be like?

A world without gods. Sounds heavenly.

The gods had something else in mind for her, however. Just as she resolved herself to seeing the end - one way or another - she felt a blur of motion and found herself sprawled on a bed in a strange room.

Well, actually, it wasn't strange at all. It was normal and that was what made the hair stand up on the back of her neck. Rolling onto her side and vaulting herself onto her feet, she stalked to the window and peered out warily.

Sunshine. Birds singing. People walking calmly and not running for their lives.

What the hell is goin' on?

Purring made her jump and spin around, her Bladed-Lance clutched tightly in her hands. A...purple?...cat had taken her spot on the bed and was currently smiling all too mischievously.

"I don't know what you are, but spill it." she pointed the tip of her lance at the creature. Etro knew she had seen worse than a talking cat.

Yet no verbal answer came. Instead, the cat hopped onto her lance and daintily walked up the shaft to perch on her shoulder. Fang raised a brow and chuckled, scratching the feline's chest.

"Well hello to you too."

If she was going mad, at least she had some company!

[these_balls]

Before we make our final decision on your application, we would like a revised personality section for Fang. We feel that the current section as it stands focuses too strongly on reciting canon events and too little on the personality traits demonstrated by those events, making it read as more of a history section than as one designed to showcase Fang's personality. In the revised section, we would like to see the focus on Fang's personality traits brought to the forefront, with references to canon events as needed to show how those traits are demonstrated in canon. You will have one week to complete these requests before the character is available again.

Duster | Mother 3 | Not Reserved

[mindofathief]

Player
Name: Mutant
Personal Journal: mutanthairything
E-mail: mutanthairything@hotmail.com
AIM/Plurk/Etc.: AIM: mutanthairything / mutanthairything
Timezone: CST
Current Characters in Route: N/A

Character
Name: Duster
Series: Mother 3
Timeline: At the end of the final cinematic when the apocalypse arrives, but before the epilogue.
Canon Resource Links: Mother 3 Summary | Duster's wiki page | Leder's Infodump

Personality:

Duster doesn't make the best of first impressions: he's described to look like a bum, he has bad breath, he often has a gloomy expression, and he walks with a limp. His quiet nature doesn't help. Without a strong sense of self-care and self-preservation, physically and at times emotionally, it's easy to be looked over. But like many other things that are "ugly" on the outside, inside, Duster is a kind, humble, loyal friend who lets things be as fate demands.

His naming screen describes him as a nice guy, and it's no exaggeration. He jumps at the chance to help Flint investigate, waits for him outside the jail to console him, speaks politely, and thinks of others before himself. However, when his first thought when untied from a pole after being captured is "I'm glad you're alright, guys!", this can be a problem. He instinctively put his needs aside, whether protecting his friends or letting his father's pride take precedence over his emotional health. For reasons like this, he needs friends to keep an eye on him and intervene when necessary.

His tendency to passively let things happen as they are may have developed as a way to cope with his upbringing. The universe dealt him a lousy deck in life, being raised by a possibly abusive father, away from the other villagers in order to train day in and day out for the day the village might need a hero. Because of his isolation, he's socially awkward, having difficulty making new friends without coming off as weird. Yet he remains one of the most optimistic characters in the story. As the game's resident Butt Monkey, he has his share of bad luck, but as long he and his friends come out of it okay, he sees himself as lucky. While he does become more certain in that he wants to help Lucas on his quest to save the world, he has a tendency to get dragged into situations by other people or by stroke of luck.

He's aware that he's a strong fighter and decent thief, but Duster has moments of self-doubt. He makes mistakes, overlooking certain details like any other human. His musical skills is the one thing he's completely confident about, but when it comes to his other skills, he doesn't find it much to brag about. When using Wall Staples for the first time in-game, he comments that he isn't sure if he'll do well, as he's only done it for practice before. His speech is uncertain, trailing his sentences off in a quiet voice. More frequently than any other character in the game, he hesitates when he's about to speak. But if he's needed somewhere, he'll do his best to help, no questions asked. Once he has a task, any mission, he will dedicate himself to seeing it to the end.

Strengths/Weaknesses:

+ Combat
Duster has been trained most of his life how to fight, focusing on strong, rapid kicks and first strikes. Not only does he have fast reflexes and powerful legs, he also has great upper body strength from all those Wall Staples he drives into cliffs.

+ Creative Use of Tools
To aid in battle, Duster utilizes his Thief Tools to weaken or distract the enemy. Apart from the smoke bomb and hypno-pendulum, they are unconventional items used in creative ways (a mask to scare the opponent and lower their Attack, a feathery stick to tickle them and lower their defenses, a Siren Beetle to have enemies turn away, and giant staples to pin them down). When given a limited set of items or attacks, Duster knows how to strategize and use them to his advantage.

+ Musician/Sense of Rhythm
Duster is the bassist of the most popular band in the Nowhere Islands. DCMC plays songs ranging form jazz to rock, and judging from the soundtrack, Duster's really good. His excellent sense of rhythm stems from Mother 3's combat system, where hitting the attack button to the beat of the battle music lands extra hits.

+ Diligence
Wess' training left a strong sense of dedication in Duster. When he has to practice something, he'll practice it until he's good at it, though not to the point where it's painful. If he has a quest to complete, he'll see it to the end.

+ Empathy
Duster has a soft spot for kids and small animals. He'll speak gently with kids that need help and look after anyone that falls under his protection.

When rescued by the Mr. Saturns, Duster quickly warms up to them to the point where he can understand them and read their body language, despite them being creatures possessing only heads and feet. Though their manner of speech is odd, he knew that they wanted the party to go north because "[he] can tell by the look in its eyes". While Pokémon don't speak, Duster will have a better understanding of what they want by careful observation.

+/- Just Roll With It
Duster takes a lot of things as they are and moves on. If he gets hit by lighting, he'll push himself up and go back to the task on hand. If his father calls him a moron, he'll feel awful but say nothing.

+/- Loyalty
Duster is fiercely loyal to his friends, not in the sense of killing anyone who messes with them, but by sticking by his loved one's side. This is great when it comes to his band mates and party members, but it's also why he sticks with his father. They're family, and Duster should respect him. When a supposed friend slowly starts to treat him badly, Duster may not realize it's time to bail out. On the other hand, his friends know that he's dependable and will always watch their back.

+/- Welcome to the World of Mother 3
Mother canon is filled with quirky items and enemies, and a lot of unusual animals won't weird him out at all. Sure, he's never seen an Abra before, but it's not all that weird, even if it uses psychic attacks. And look, Charmander used a variant on PK Fire.

However, some of the odder Pokémon, especially those that seem to be a combination of two different animals, remind him of the chimera experiments and creep him out. Electric mice like Pikachu are a borderline example, but Girafarig? Nope-ing the hell out of there.

- Lack of Hygiene
Duster's introduction to the story comes with a comment on how awful his socks smell. While Duster knows how to groom himself for a concert, he usually forgets to tuck in his shit, doesn't shave too often, and can never seem to get his bad breath under control. When sleeping outside, he don't put a lot of effort into looking fresh.

- Indecisive
When confronted with a major decision, Duster takes a long time on picking his choice. At the end of Chapter 4, he has to decide whether to stay with the band or help Lucas on his journey, but he comes to the conclusion that either outcome ends with disappointing the other party. Lucas and the DCMC members need to rig a rock-paper-scissors tournament to decide for him without him feeling guilty.

As the story progresses, Duster decides that he wants to help Lucas out of his own volition, showing that he can think for himself in certain situations, given enough time.

- Passive
As mentioned above, Duster's initial instinct is to let others decide for him, though he's gotten better about this. He prefers being a follower instead of a leader, and while his helpfulness is a good trait, he neglects to think about himself. It's an opportunity for overbearing people to walk over him.

- Disability
Duster has a bum leg, resulting in his distinctive limp. He has long learned how to live with it, but he needs to account for it when doing complex footwork. Carrying heavy objects gets tricky when he can't distribute his weight evenly.


Note: Duster will be arriving with his hypno-pendulum in his pocket. It has no supernatural abilities, but it's useful for putting people and Pokémon to sleep, though it has about a 75% success rate.

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer
Starter: Scraggy
Password: Cherries Strudel

Samples
First Person Sample:
[The camera tilts back and forth, shifts upwards and downwards, until the image centers on a concerned, unshaven man.]

Ah, it's working.

...I need some advice abou my...Scraggy, right?

[Said Pokemon pops into the frame and glares at the screen before ramming into it, knocking it to the ground. Muffled footsteps on grass and a shout of "Lucas, no!" come from off screen as Scraggy shuffles away. Duster picks up the PokéConnect.]

Sorry, he keeps doing that.

[The muffled sound of Scraggy yelling at a new enemy in the distance.]

I'm kind of worried about those...pants? Skin? What he's holding onto with one hand. I feel kind of bad for him, never having both of his hands free...so I was wondering if I should buy a belt for him. I don't know if Pokémon like wearing clothes or if there are belts that can work in this situation! That's why I need to ask you guys:

Is this a good ide-Lucas get back!

[The screen goes black.]

Third Person Sample:
The bed was unexpected. The ground, some sort of glowing void would make more sense, unless this was how dying worked.

His eyes shot open. This could be the new world Lucas created. Duster pushed himself off the mattress and rolled out of bed. This certainly wasn't his old basement bedroom or his private performance studio. And it had way too much stuff in it to have been built recently. Did he fall unconscious and was taken to someone else's house?

"Duster?" An unfamiliar voice called from downstairs. Hesitantly, he pushed the door open, walked down the stairs, and spotted a complete stranger zipping up a backpack. He debated whether to make a dash for the door or stay and observe her, but it was too late. She spotted him. "You sleepyhead, it's about time you woke up!" The mystery woman smiled and before Duster could answer, she dumped the bag into his hands. Why was she acting like she was his mother? She can't be his, Wess said she died long ago. Who was she? Why is she pushing him out the door? What journey? Where are the others?

The door slammed behind him. Kicked out of his own house, though it never was his in the first place.

It had to be the new world the Dark Dragon created. Probably. Sure. He didn't think it would add towns and pre-made families with it, unless that was Lucas's doing.

Where was the boy? "Lucas?" Duster called out. "Lucaaas?" With no reply, he set to investigating the contents of his backpack. Food, clothing, a red-and-white sphere, and a small machine. Duster held the Pokéball on the tips of his fingers while he poked at the button. It was a stupid idea: there was a bright light (did that lady give him a flash bomb?!) that startled him and he tossed it, turning away and covering his face.

A minute passed before he felt something tugging his pant leg. When he thought about it, he must have looked really stupid: a grown man cowering beside an open, harmless backpack. He sighed. Months of fighting chimeras, facing the end of the world, and this is what scares him.

He didn't react to the Scraggy tilting its head at him. What was Lucas thinking, having the Dragon create something like this?

Right, Lucas. He had to find him. "Lucas?" He walked around Scraggy to pick up his pack. "He has to be somewhere nearby."

This town was tiny and full of unfamiliar faces. He decided to take his searched into the nearby grassy area. The patter of tiny feet followed him. It appeared he found a pet. "Lucas?"

"Scra-!!" The creature replied.

Duster paused and took a good look at it. The poor thing's pants were falling, and it had to hold onto them himself. Duster made a note to buy the animal a belt at the nearest shop. "Right. We'll be looking for him together. Come on." He beckoned for it to walk beside him. Instead, it ran past him and dove into the grass, where it rammed into a Sentret.

"What-no!" Duster pushed the tall stalks aside to find Scraggy standing atop its defeated opponent, on hand holding onto its baggy skin, the other thrust into the air in triumph.

"..." Duster help a finger up, but let it drop. "We're going." He pushed onwards, not looking back. If his new pet would rather fight than stay with him, fine. Let it makes its own decisions.

[these_balls]

Before we make our final decision on your application, we would like a revised personality section for Duster. Though the current section does a thorough job at outlining Duster's traits, we feel that the current section places a large emphasis on reciting his behaviors, without delving deeper into exploring how those behaviors may have shaped him as a person. In the revised section, we would like to see more discussion and analysis of how his canon experiences have made Duster who he is, with references to canon events as you see fit to help illustrate who he is as a well-rounded character in his own right. You will have one week to complete these requests before the character is available again.

Ming Numara || Lost Odyssey || Unreserved

[eclipse_of_time]

Player
Name: Faye
Personal Journal: said_scarlett
E-mail: red.headed.rapunzel@gmail.com
AIM/Plurk/Etc.: plurk: crossthesky
Timezone: Arizona
Current Characters in Route: Lust, Jimmy Darling

Character
Name: Ming Numara
Series: Lost Odyssey
Timeline: Post-game

Canon Resource Links: Ming's Canon Wiki Page. But as it's little more than her description from the instruction manual copied over, I've fleshed out some major points below.

Ming Numara is a powerful Sorceress, known in her word for being the Queen and founder of the Free Ocean State of Numara. She is also an Immortal and has ruled Numara (mostly alone) for the past 1000+ years. She existed at first in a place called The Shining World, as a being of pure energy, before her world began to die. She and four others were sent through a magical gate to another world, one which existed directly connected to her own. There, she lost all memories of The Shining World and was reformed into a human body. She was separated from her companions and came to live in a small coastal village. She knew only she had been sent here, and she was to live among the native peoples of this world and study their magical energy.

Unfortunately, her powers of healing marked her a witch, and the villagers she had healed and cared for turned against her. When she wouldn't die at their hands, they tossed her into the sea. Eventually she washed up on a barren group of islands. The people there were poor and unable to coax much life from the rocky soil and sweltering climate. But they didn't fear Ming. Rather they welcomed her with open arms and cared for her. In turn, she used her gifts to transform the barren islands into the flourishing paradise now known as Numara, and has ruled it ever since.

She instituted an isolationist policy, to ensure that her own country would always be a place of peace. And it was, until the sorcerer and fellow Immortal Gongora set great monsters to destroy Numara, chaining Ming and offering her an ultimatum: either he destroyed her beloved people, or she sealed away her own memories of who she was and why she was here. She sealed her memories and was a puppet ruler, used by her general, for thirty years. By then, Gongora had caused enough trouble that plenty of other people were looking into him. Ming ended up reuniting with her Immortal companions, though none of them had their memories - only a vague sense they knew each other.

Together they set out to bring down Gongora and recover their own memories, something that took two years. During that time, Ming fell in love with a mortal man, saw more of the world than she ever had before, and regained her memories of the last thousand years before Gongora was finally defeated. It all came to a head in a magic tower that connected both worlds, in which Ming's closest friend was lost in the final battle. Ming returned home to Numara, and eventually wed the human mage she'd fallen in love with on her journey. She returned to ruling Numara and offering her help in rebuilding all that had been destroyed over the last two years, no longer as content to sit and rule in isolation for all eternity.

Personality: Ming Numara is at her heart a patient, gentle and kind woman who is ruled by her emotions. She spent a thousand years keeping herself closed off from people, not allowing anyone close or beneath her calm public mask. She was known sometimes as the Melancholy Queen, and it was oft remarked there was an air of quiet sadness about her. But in her mind, it was better this way. A dull, constant small sadness was much better than the grief and pain that came from betrayal and loss. This thousand year span of self isolation has had a great effect on her personality. She still struggles with connecting honestly with people, and forming close bonds. She still instinctively keeps herself emotionally closed from other people, despite her depth of feeling for others.

She turned all the love and kindness in her heart to her people as a whole. A thousand years of meditating and studying pacifistic religions has given Ming a sense of calm and peace within her.

She's remarkably difficult to anger, and tries to see all sides of any given problem. She believes fully in giving the benefit of the doubt, and tends to think the best of people. Unless, of course, she's been given a reason different. Even then, she hopes and often waits too long before taking action. There was a general she was fond of, and one day she saw in his eyes the capacity to betray her. Rather than dealing with the problem then and there, Ming decided to wait and allow the general to make his own choice when the time came. But, as tended to happen, he attempted to take power from her and she was forced to execute him as a traitor - the only crime in Numara that carries that particular penalty.

Due to Ming's incredibly optimistic and kind nature, and her habit of not getting deeply close with others, she can be a poor judge of character and blindly defend people she really shouldn't. Most of her knowledge comes from books and entertainment and watching her own people - who's lifestyle and culture she herself carefully influenced and shaped to suit what she believes is 'best'.

She's easily charmed and can be taken advantage of before she even realizes she should be suspicious.

Due to the fact she kept herself away from people and out of social situations (or anything that wasn't being a priestess mage queen), she tends to have an almost childlike sense of wonder and excitement. New things amaze her, and she has an ability to find goodness and beauty in everything. She's very inquisitive, and loves to listen to the stories of other people. Having so few adventures of her own, the adventures of others are her favorite sort of things to hear. She can listen for hours and hours, content to not say a word, only nod and lose herself in the exciting lives of others. And now that she's moved beyond her crippling fear of emotional involvement of any sort, she takes great pleasure in meeting people and gathering new stories and new experiences from them.

Despite her pacifistic stance, Ming is more than willing to get her own hands dirty if she or her people are threatened. When her temper is finally roused, Ming's anger is swift and cold. It takes an extreme event to rouse that anger, however, or break through her calm kindness. Hurt a child or animal, or threaten her loved ones however, and the wrath of Ming is a terrible thing.

She executes justice (she'd never think to call it vengeance. A queen's vengeance is justice, as far as she's concerned) clinically and quickly, with little fanfare. She justifies this hypocrisy with her nature - with her abilities and immortality, she can't be bound by conventional rules of humanity. Ming does sometimes fully believe that she has the 'right' to make life or death decisions of a grand scale, moreso than others.

Ming can get frustrated and exasperated when she isn't getting her ideas across, or when she feels unnecessarily challenged. As the only female monarch in her world, she fears not being taken seriously or dismissed due to her gender. She's easily put out if she isn't afforded what she considers respect or common courtesy.

But as long as she's being given what she considers her polite due, she treats everyone with the same manner of respect and amicability. Unless given a very good reason to dislike someone, Ming typically doesn't.

She has a rather girlish sense of humor, and is quite easily amused - though she's not at all good at making jokes herself, and she often struggles with picking up sarcasm, though she's perfectly familiar with the concept.

Even though Ming enjoys new experiences, she fears losing control of herself or having her wits addled. She doesn't like to drink - she's had two drinks in her entire life, both of which knocked her out immediately - and won't knowingly touch anything that could possibly muddle her senses. At first it was due to not wanting to slip up and accidentally get close to someone, these days it's lingering fear from when her memories were scrambled and she wasn't herself.

Strengths/Weaknesses:


Strengths - Ming keeps a very calm and level head in a crisis or among highly charged emotions. She's often the voice of reason, and is skilled in mediation. She tends to be a very calming presence in general, and uses that.

She's a highly competent leader, ruling her country prosperously and peacefully single-handedly for a thousand years.

She's an exceptionally gifted musician and artist. She's skilled with the harp and her voice, and with three dimensional art.

Ming is a skilled healer, not only magically but through herbal remedies and first aide. In conjunction with this, she has quite the green thumb.

Ming has great organizational skills.



Weaknesses - Ming is entirely too trusting. She let a man she'd just met essentially kidnap her to no consequence because he seemed nice, and that's just one indecent.

She's so terrified of losing people that she's very hesitant to get close to others. She finds it easier to isolate herself rather than risk the pain that can come from emotional bonds.

Ming refuses to drink any alcohol, or take anything that will alter her senses even the slightest. She has deep paranoia over not being in complete control of her actions.

When she does form a deep emotional bond with someone, she can become dependent and obsessive to the point of blind selfishness. She was perfectly willing to risk her original world dying, just to stay with the man she'd fallen in love with.

Living almost all of her existence as a magic goddess queen, Ming doesn't really know how to take care of herself down to even some simple levels. It's been over a thousand years since she even dressed herself.


Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Breeder
Starter: Lapras
Password: Cherries, strudel

Samples
First Person Sample:


[If nothing else, this sort of broadcasting and storage and communication device isn't entirely unfamiliar to Ming. But everything else certainly is. First and foremost her own body. Where's the pulsing thrum of her magical energy? Even the mark on her chest is dull and decorative. It's a frightening thing to see. She can feel the passage of time, something only once felt briefly. And terrifyingly. The seconds are moving by her, taking her with them.]

[She realizes she can't feel any any magical energy. Not in the atmosphere, not in the earth, not in the large creature that follows her. It's an unfamiliar beast, but one that looks as though it would be right at home on the paradisaical beaches of her island kingdom.]

[If this is a kidnapping, it's a frightfully strange one. She's nowhere near Numara. This place isn't familiar at all! But she's not restrained. Quite the opposite. She's made it to a bench in the little village she awoke in, and then that overwhelming feeling that threatens to steal her consciousness slips upon her and she sits, shaking and confused, to fiddle with the portable teleson.]

What...what is this place?

[There's a high note of fear and confusion in Ming's lightly accented voice.]

Something's wrong...something's terribly wrong...what's been done to me?

What's going to happen to me?

[Without her magical energy, what is she? Her magic is her soul, her consciousness, her very being! She's never felt so tied to this human shaped shell in all of her existence. She's certain she can feel the decay and dying of mortal cells. Is this dying?]

Could someone please...I'm in desperate need of assistance...

[It doesn't occur to her to explain further - there's not a single sentient thing in her world that doesn't know her face and who she is. What she is.]

[Surely someone can aide her!]




Third Person Sample:

It was growing more and more difficult to stay calm. That pressing sensation of time and existence was squeezing her! She felt it in every fiber of her being, each biological part of her sloughing off useless bits as her body aged second by second. It wasn't stopping.

She reached for her energy but it was an empty well. Even the ancient sides were bone dry. It was like being blind and deaf all of a sudden, her most relied upon senses ripped away from her. Even her crystals appeared to be simply pretty bits of colored glass now.

What had been done to her? She'd never experienced true mortality before, only that terrible moment in the light of the magic mirrors. It was the only reason she understood the sensations she was feeling now. But how could this be? There was no existence that didn't radiate with magical energy. Even if its use was beyond the scope of mortals, the trees and rocks and earth itself radiated it naturally!

A frightening thought occurred to her. What if there was energy all around her, but she had simply been robbed of all ability to sense it? It seemed an impossible idea, but less impossible than the alternative.

"Oh goodness." The mild curse slipped from her lips in a nervous breath. How long could she survive without her energy? She already felt trapped and limited in this body. She was suffocating in her own skin!

Ming tried to take a few deep breaths. The creature that had seemed to latch onto her brushed its head against her gently and made a soft, musical sound. Her expression softened slightly. It reminded her somehow of Holy Beast, though the two didn't share much physical resemblance. She rested a hand on the beast's neck, taking comfort in what she assumed was a friend. It had such kind eyes.

"This is quite the predicament, I'm afraid." Perhaps verbalizing things would help her find her way to calming her mind. At least she could be certain that if she'd been abducted somehow, Jansen would come for her. If she could stay alive long enough!

"Perhaps we can find some help."

[these_balls]

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Roy Mustang | Fullmetal Alchemist | Not Reserved

[ifwishesweremustangs]

Player
Name: Captain
Personal Journal: wingsofcover
E-mail: wingsofcover at gmail dot com
AIM/Plurk/Etc.: wingsofcover on aim and plurk
Timezone: U.S. Central
Current Characters in Route: none

Character
Name: Roy Mustang
Series: Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)
Timeline: A couple months after the Promised Day
Canon Resource Links: Roy Mustang, Flame Alchemist

Personality:

The first part of Roy a person sees is a carefully constructed public persona. The main reason behind the exaggerated public persona is Roy's driving ambition. When he first studied Alchemy and made the decision to join the military and become a State Alchemist, it was to be part of the foundation of the country and protect it and its citizens. His time in Ishval crushed that idea, as he became the 'hero' of a massacre and killed thousands of people under the orders of the military. The losses were staggering on the military's side as well, and at the end Roy saw that despite the power of Flame Alchemy he was only able to protect a handful of the people who served in his squad. Roy decided then that if all he could do was protect a handful of people, then that's what he would do, and ensure those handful of people would protect another handful of people until everyone in Amestris was safe. In order to do that he would have to be at the top, so he set his sights on becoming Fuhrer. That goal is the main driving force behind many of his actions in the series, and he chooses to pursue it above personal relationships and other interests.

Roy has a reputation as a lazy, irresponsible officer who can be found sleeping at his desk, making personal calls from his office phone, and generally avoiding doing any real work himself unless there's a chance to advance his career. He has stolen more than one girlfriend away from other soldiers, and many of his dates are covers to buy information on political opponents and other military officials. Underneath the loud womanizing and obvious flirting, Roy genuinely enjoys the social interaction, flirting, and his time spent with women. But his ambition to become Fuhrer comes first, and his guilt over his actions in Ishval would make it difficult to have a deep emotional connection, so all his romantic relationships are casual. There's also the fact that Roy uses his connections with a number of women to get information, and is wary of falling into that same trap himself. His dislike of tedious paperwork isn't entirely feigned, but Roy is more than capable of putting in the long hours and necessary work on his own, without Hawkeye standing over him. He manages to handle all his official duties as well as laying plans to overthrow the government and manage his spies without the help of his trusted subordinates once they're all transferred out from under him.

In line with his long-term goal and the fact that he created and maintains a public persona for the advantages it offers, Roy is very good at planning, managing people, and manipulating events to his advantage. When his trusted subordinates are transferred to different regions of the country they continue to support him and be useful, with Hawkeye passing vital information to him about the Fuhrer's son being a Homunculus, and messages relayed through all of them to coordinate plans at the series finale. Roy appears to have been maneuvered into a corner and allows the opposition to think that, but makes very good use of his team in their new positions even though he can't be seen making too much contact with them without putting them at risk. The groundwork for this information transfer had been set out well in advance of when it's actually used, and he's a master of working important subtle cues into seemingly normal conversations. His tendency to engage in casual banter supplies a perfect disguise for such interaction.

Exaggerated vanity and over-the-top arrogance are an important part of the appearance he likes to project. Roy also takes very good care of his body and appearance and has an incredible amount of confidence in his abilities. He's almost always clean shaven and his hair is carefully cut to keep a wild but appealing appearance. When he's out of his uniform he favors classy suits and formal attire, including gloves and a scarf and dress shoes to add to the suit. His confidence in his own abilities is, for the most part, well founded. Roy's signature Flame Alchemy requires finesse and control, and he can use it with such pinpoint accuracy as to take out the legs of a large number of enemies in a crowded room while leaving his allies scattered among them completely unharmed. To put it simply, he's great at a lot of things and he knows it. But that confidence doesn't extend to suicidal recklessness: when he rushes into a situation without a plan it's for an entirely different reason.

While Roy normally favors calm planning and has a superb tactical mind, his protectiveness towards his friends and subordinates can make him rush into situations or make incredibly poor choices. When Scar is in town and Ed is out with Al, Roy rushes to the scene of a fight just in time to see Ed almost get killed. Confronted with such a sight Roy not only rushes into battle, he actually hands off his side-arm after having already drawn and fired it to free up his hand for flame alchemy, completely forgetting that he can't make a spark when the gloves are wet and that he is standing in the rain. Likewise even when his plan for luring out a hidden enemy has been carefully set up so it can be executed while he is obviously and loudly somewhere else with a perfect alibi, he abandons that plan to rush in and save Hawkeye and Fuery. Even knowing the terrible price to be paid for human transmutation, and the fact that the Homunculus need him to perform it to complete their plans, Roy struggles with the decision to perform human transmutation or watch Hawkeye die. In the end, he's only able to refuse when she signals to him with her eyes that help is on its way.

Roy has a fairly complicated relationship with Riza, Flame Alchemy, and his Alchemy teacher, who was Berthold Hawkeye and Riza's father. Roy initially was not considered worthy of learning Flame Alchemy, and left to attend the military academy despite his teacher's disapproval of the military. When he returned, Berthold still initially refused to impart the secrets of his research to Roy. After Roy spoke about his dream of using Alchemy to protect people, and that Berthold should use his Alchemy to improve people's lives, his teacher changed his mind. It was too late, though, as Berthold died in Roy's arms shortly after saying he left his research to Riza, and that she would give it to him if he was willing to only use Flame Alchemy for the right reasons. Riza, convinced Roy is a good person who will use Flame Alchemy responsibly, shows him the tattoo on her back which contains the Flame Alchemy array.

Roy has a lot of regrets for his past actions, particularly during the massacre in Ishval, and he's aware of his failings as a human. He knows his strengths as a soldier, politician, and alchemist, and the devastating destructive power of Flame Alchemy. He knows his own moral compass is a little screwed up and that the consequences of failure will be disastrous, that he might one day repeat those mistakes is a very real fear of his for most of the series. Because of that, he trusts Riza to not only watch his back, but to shoot him if he steps off the right path. The regret he has for using Alchemy to kill thousands is incredible, not only because of the terrible act itself, but because Berthold Hawkeye clearly knew it was a possibility if he became a State Alchemist, and because Riza trusted him to be better than that. When she asks him to destroy the tattoo on her back so there could never be another Flame Alchemist, Roy agrees out of guilt for having misused it, and to free her of the burden of being responsible for such dangerous knowledge. He burns portions of the tattoo with Flame Alchemy.

Despite the heavy guilt and regret, Roy is determined to do better in the future. He knows he can never make up for what he did in Isvhal, that it's too impossible a goal, so he wants to make sure he changes Amestris so it will never happen again, that the Alchemists and soldiers of the next generation will never be ordered to do anything so terrible. It's not only his own suffering, but seeing the way the war affects both Hughes and Riza, that they've all been turned into killer. Wallowing in his own misery and regret will accomplish nothing, and though Roy might occasionally drink to numb the pain or suffer quietly over what he has done, he only allows himself to be dragged down by those memories during his off hours. Letting himself forget what happened would be unforgivable in his mind, and make it even more likely he would make the same mistakes and misuse Flame Alchemy again.

He's later proven to be correct in the fear that he might lose sight of the better future he wants to build when he's confronted with the murderer of his best friend. Although fueled by anger when he confronted and killed Lust, Roy was acting out of determination to save the people close to him. While using Flame Alchemy to cauterize his wounds and Havoc's wounds to stop the bleeding was extreme, as was carving his array into the back of his hand, it's not an all-consuming rage like he experiences with Envy. Unlike in the battle with Lust, where he repeatedly incinerated her until he wore down her regenerative ability, Roy toys with and taunts Envy. He takes advantage of his pinpoint accuracy with Flame Alchemy to incinerate the Homunculus' tongue, and eyeballs, all the while taunting him about how much it must hurt and how he's going to make Envy suffer. When Envy taunts Roy and even takes on Hughes' form to attempt to throw him off, it only fuels the desire for revenge and brings out the darker side of Roy's personality that he was afraid would lead him astray.

Riza sees that Roy has become consumed with rage and the desire for revenge, and knows that killing Envy won't bring him out of it, but only cement it in his mind. Killing Envy won't make the pain of Hughes' loss or the anger he feels at Envy go away, so she pulls her gun on him. Even with Riza, Ed, and Scar warning him about the path he's going down, Roy can only think about revenge. When Ed grabs the tiny lizard form Envy takes on near death, Roy even threatens to burn off his automail arm to get to the Homunculus, a clear sign that his anger has taken over a large portion of his desire to keep people he cares about safe. When he's unable to convince Riza to let him kill Envy, he tells her if she's going to shoot, to do it. In the end, he's only able to reign himself in when he asks what she'll do after he's dead, and she says she'll die once the battle is over. Faced with being responsible for Riza's death, Roy relents, unable to bear the thought of her dying, and worse, the knowledge that it would be his fault.

Despite his deep affection and the desire to protect those he cares about, Roy mostly keeps that side of his personality to himself, aware it can be used against him. Most of his close personal relationships are marked by friendly teasing and banter or heated arguments. Roy always acts irritated with Hughes 'intruding' on his life, complains that Riza is too harsh and demanding. He also enjoys getting into arguments with and intentionally provoking Ed. His close personal relationships are also very much tangled up in his professional life and ambitions. Hughes, his best friend since the military academy, is the first person to know of Roy's ambition to become Fuhrer, and pledges his support. Before his death, Hughes keeps Roy apprised of what's going on in central and frequently passes his information. Likewise, his Foster Mother and the girls she employs play a large part in Roy's intelligence network and information gathering. Roy also has an extremely close relationship to Riza and cares about her a great deal beyond their professional relationship. However, being superior and subordinate means they can never have a romantic relationship, and Roy, while he might take actions that threaten his ambition when Riza is in danger, could never abandon it for the sake of personal happiness. He needs to be in the military to pursue his ambition, and he needs her to be in the military to help him get there.

Strengths/Weaknesses:
Strengths

• Planning ahead


• Managing people


• Strategy and tactics


• Quick thinking


• Science


• Flirting


• Alchemy


• Determination

Weaknesses

• Doesn't think things through when people he cares about are in danger


• Short temper when people threaten his subordinates (or hit on Hawkeye)


• War trauma


• Too secretive sometimes


• Trouble letting go of the past


• Sometimes enjoys pissing people off for his personal amusement


• Frequently presents himself as a very unlikable person


• Manipulative


• Water

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer
Starter: Growlithe
Password: Cherries Strudel

2/2

[ifwishesweremustangs]

Samples
First Person Sample:
[Roy is seated on a couch with books and papers strewn around him and he looks more than a little irritated about something. He sets the pokegear down on something in front of the couch and adjusts the camera until it's on him again and gives it a very serious look. From the new angle a Fletchinder that appears to be reading a book is visible beside him.]

Whoever named the different pokemon types shouldn't be allowed to name things anymore.

[He pulls up a carefully color coded chart of the different pokemon types.]

Words like 'fire, water, ground, electric' are fine, I can accept 'steel' although it should really be 'metal' types. But we can't use the types I just mentioned and then decide to name other types as mythical creatures like ghost, fairy, and dragon.

Also 'flying type' is incredibly misleading if there are going to be pokemon who can fly and are not also flying types.

[The Fletchinder beside him starts trying to stealthily walk off view but knocks a few papers off the couch. Roy's attention immediately goes to the bird.]

Where do you think you're going? If you want to battle, you're going to learn this too. You can't keep flying in at everything that looks like an opponent and hope for the best.

[Roy reaches over and turns off the pokegear so he can get back to what he was doing, after he's done arguing with his ridiculous fire spitting bird.]

Third Person Sample:

Roy was pretty sure he set a new personal best for long distance running when he dashed through the doors of the pokemon center. He was out of breath and he'd lost his scarf somewhere along the way but that was far less important than handing over the three pokeballs of his three unconscious pokemon. Keeping them in their pokeballs wasn't exactly his favorite thing, but aside from Fletchinder they didn't seem to mind. He also couldn't drag his weird octopus jellyfish poison water monster across the countryside with him, so Tentacruel stayed in the pokeball when there wasn't a place for him to relax in the water.

Despite the assurances that his pokemon would be fine, Roy knew he wasn't going to be able to relax until they were fine and back with him and he could see for himself. He was less anxious about them than he had after the first pokemon battle that had gone disastrously wrong, because he knew they would make a complete recovery. Getting so attached to the strange little creatures wasn't the smartest move, but it was hard not to like their loyalty and bravery, and the way they gladly jumped in between him and an angry mass of vine monsters. He would miss them when he managed to go home.

There was nothing he could do now to help, and it wasn't like there was much he could do at the time either aside from tell them what to do and stand back and watch them fight, so he helped himself to the truly awful coffee. He pulled out the latest book he had to pass the time, though he soon found he'd read the same paragraph three times and not retained any of it. He gave that up and leaned back in the chair and put the book down. Apparently he'd become accustomed to the warm furry company of Growlithe at his side, and her absence was just as noticeable and uncomfortable now as her constant presence had been when he first arrived.

Roxas | Kingdom Hearts | No Reserve (Reapp)

[seasaltkey]

Player
Name: Silas
Personal Journal: gilbo
E-mail: twilightforestlullaby@gmail.com
AIM/Plurk/Etc.: chromatus
Timezone:US PST
Current Characters in Route: Lightning Farron, Rise Kujikawa

Character
Name: Roxas
Series: Kingdom Hearts
Timeline: After the Axel battle, before rejoining with Sora
Canon Resource Links: http://kingdomhearts.wikia.com/wiki/Roxas#Story

Personality:
Roxas is unique when it comes to Nobodies since he is capable of real emotions. He possesses an actual heart, though he has been told by the members of Organization XIII that he was like them, a being without a heart. It's that emotion and his memories, though some have been erased, that shape who he is in the game.

Roxas displays the fact that he is a rather happy, carefree, cheerful and at ease kid when around friends. He makes friends easily, and loves to spend time with them. Axel was his first friend in the Organization, and they had their own tradition of meeting on top of the Clocktower. This gave Roxas something to look forward to and cherish, even with the addition of Xion into the mix. He continued this tradition with his new friends, Hayner, Pence and Olette when he arrived in Twilight Town despite having no memories of his former life in which he did this with his other friends. Just like with his former friends, Roxas was always glad to be doing things with them like adventures around town. He expressed his happiness with smiles and teasing his friends and planning things to do with them, such as a beach trip with the Twilight Town crew. They were a regular group of kids that were enjoying their last week of vacation with as much fun and excitement as they could. As an Organization XIII member, he was far from regular, but his two friends were still able to make him smile.

He is also an extremely loyal friend. He is more than willing to stand up for them and defend them when someone questions or insults them. He does this for his Twilight Town friends when Seifer refers to them as losers to goad them into fighting him, fighting Seifer to make him take it back. This loyalty also extends into promises. He promised Axel and Xion that he would always meet them after their missions on the Clocktower to eat ice cream. Roxas promises Hayner that he would face him in the Struggle Tournament, and was able to keep that promise to his friend. If he does break the promise, he does whatever he can to rectify this, such as when breaking the promise to go to the beach with his Twilight Town friends. This also translates into him being fiercely protective of both sets of friends.

Roxas shows he can be kind and caring. When he heard that Axel may have been killed, he becomes devastated with worry, showing how deeply he cared for his friend. This is remedied when Axe does manage to make it back alive, and Roxas becomes overjoyed and lets his friend know he much worried about him. He shows his caring to Xion when he was more than willing to help her do her missions when she became incapable of wielding the Keyblade, even if it meant doubling his load. His caring extends to his friends in Twilight Town as well. After winning the Struggle championship, he presents them each with a marble from the trophy. His friends are everything to him, so he does what he can to show he appreciates and cares for them, even if he doesn't get anything in return for it.

He is far from unintelligent. This intelligence builds over time, as he originally was at about the intellectual level of a newborn when he first entered the Organization. It made him seem naive and slow to the other members, but as more things were explained to him and he learned, his rate of intelligence went up drastically, despite still having no memory of who he really was. In Twilight Town, he shows how intelligent he was by seeing things for what they really were and weren't. He isn't easily fooled by his enemies, and thinks things through before making a decision if his anger doesn't get in the way. He is quick to retain any knowledge he receives, such as knowing how to fight with a Keyblade even if his Twilight Town self doesn't remember what the weapon actually was.

The young man can also be rather determined and competitive. The determination he shows to do his missions, or even to win the Struggle Tournament, can make him seem stubborn. If he thinks he can do it or beat it, it is very hard for him to back down. Seifer is able to use his competitive side to goad Roxas into a fight when they were on a mission to retrieve the pictures that were stolen. His missions with the Organization were also met with that stubborn determination, especially when certain rememberer of the Organization, namely Saix and Xigbar, question his actual abilities and strength. His determination helps him win the Struggle Tournament against Setzer, and he proudly displays his Championship Belt to the crowd.

Roxas can be prone to bouts of melancholy, stoicism, episodes of solemn attitude, and can become distracted. When he starts finding out about who he was and what he was in his time with the Organization, he would at times withdraw from even his friends. When in Twilight Town, this occurs once more, and he starts feeling lost and confused. The happenings around town and the strange dreams he has while in Twilight Town add to the heap of confused feelings and brings out more of his sadness. When Naminé reveals the truth to him about everything, it was then he truly hit rock bottom with his depression. Xion's death also affected him greatly, as he starts crying as she fades away.

A temper that comes along with a devil-may-care attitude is one of his worst traits, as well as . When angered enough, his anger becomes out of control and difficult to reign in. A source of anger to him in the Organization was whenever Saïx referred to Xion as an 'it', yelling at his superior in rage. When he infiltrates the mansion, his victim of rage is the computer that DiZ had in the basement of the building. His rashness, cocky attitude, and flares of temper at times makes him jump into battle without thinking of the possible consequences, such as his fight with Axel. When irritated, his words can be clipping and blunt, which is shown when he snaps at his friends in Twilight Town for not believing him when he tells them about what he saw. He rebels when the Organization try to tell him where his “place” in all this was, and rebels against DiZ's commands to go back to his other half. He can hold resentment, such as against Xigbar and Sora, which adds to his anger. Though it can be both a positive and a negative, Roxas is a strongly independent individual. He has little patience for people who seem to try and bend his will or try to confuse him, such as certain Org members and Diz.

Despite being happy and carefree, he does not have an extreme lust for life, doesn't see everything with a bright outlook, yet still has wishes and his own desires. His desire for friends keeps him grounded in both cases, and he does his best to achieve what he wants with their help. He also does not want to stand out, preferring to not have the Keyblade and wanting to lead a perfectly normal life. Having his friends in Twilight Town lets him experience just that.

Roxas's lack of memories of his former life do not stop him from being who he is. The emotions he experienced and grew within him as an Organization member easily blends in with his Twilight Town self.

Update: Upon seeing Sora and having one last conversation with DiZ, Roxas is resigned to his fate. This make him feel melancholic, though he shows his maturity by not being bitter towards Sora in the least. This makes him more accepting of what will happen, since he'll be part of a whole heart and be able to have new experiences.

Strengths:
Loyalty: Will do anything for his friends since they are the most important people to him.

Determination: Will not back down from a challenge, no matter what happens.

Perception: During battle he is capable of reading the situation and using it to his advantage.

Fighter: He knows how to fight and defend himself. He is also able to dual-wield Keyblades. He's also physically stronger than normal people, and capable of jumping higher than most. It also makes him rather durable.

Caring: He'll show and go out of his way to let his friends know he cares for them. Whether it is by sharing his prize, or getting ice cream for their visits on the clock tower, he enjoys being around them and making them happy.

Weaknesses:
Temper: He is not very good at keeping his temper under control. When pushed far enough, he will act out aggressively. It also makes him rash and impulsive.

Melancholy: When he gets sad, he gets immensely sad to the point where it hard to snap him out of it. These bouts can go away quickly, or last for long periods of time.

Stubborn: If he gets too determined, he will become as stubborn as a bull to get what he wants done.

Rebellious: Will fight anyone who tries to tell him what to do or where his place in life was.

[seasaltkey]

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Breeder
Starter: Dedenne
Password: Cherries Strudel

Samples
First Person Sample:
[When the screen pops up, there is a spiky haired blond on the screen. A small, mouse like creature sits on his shoulder squeaking softly. The boy sighs before smiling softly.]

Hey, Johto. Guess I’m back here again. Part of me is really happy to be back! The other part? I guess that doesn’t really matter. It’ll just be there, like nothing happened when I get to go back.

[He gives the little mouse some attention by scratching it under the chin, which earns him a contended squeak.]

For those who don’t know me, I’m Roxas. I was here a while ago. I don’t really know how long I was gone, so I don’t know if some of my old friends are still here. If you are, hey guys! Our adventures not over yet. Oh!

[Roxas moves the little mouse into his arms.]


This little guy is a Dedenne, and his name is Vivi.

[He looks back at the screen, more serious this time.]

Rin, if you’re still here and have Braig…. I don’t want him back. Ever.

Third Person Sample:
Being back in Johto, in New Bark town, was not what Roxas had expected. Instead of being thrown out of the house, he walked out before the mother character even had a chance to yell at him. Of course he made sure to grab the bag along the way. He needed it. Talking to the professor ended with him just taking the Pokéball and walking off on the old man, too.

He was surprised to see a Dedenne pop out of the ball instead of a Swablu. This world seemed to have decided he would do better with an electric mouse than a bird. Who knows, this little guy would probably be better off as a Pokémon than Sky, his Altaria had been. That thought made him sad, and his heart tweaked softly. He already missed her, wondering if she went to one of his friends, or if she was now in the wild. Could he find her out there? Probably not. All he wanted for her was happiness.
With a smile, he picks his new companion up and pokes its nose. The Dedenne chirped happily and nuzzled its trainer’s hand. “You’re cute, you know that? And really, really tiny. You’re smaller than a Pikachu for sure.”

Thinking about what Roxas could name this little guy filled him with all sorts of memories about his friends and what he had done right before he came here. He was about to join with Sora, to make the other boys heart whole, accepting that this needed to happen in order for the worlds to be saved. He smiled at the memories he himself had made and the ones he shared with the other boy.

And then he was filled with irritation at how DiZ had treated him. How he smashed to computer in anger. Yes, he could accept being part of Sora again. What he couldn’t accept was how he had been treated by people he didn’t even know, to be part of a plan he wanted no part of.

His Dedenne must have felt his trainer’s emotions, as he chirps softly and tries to get Roxas’ attention. Roxas blinks before looking down at the little guy. “Sorry. Guess I was lost in thought…. Hey, how do you like the name Vivi? Vivi was really small, but he sure packed a punch!”
His Dedenne was more than happy to accept the name, climbing onto his trainer’s shoulder and settling in on top of his head. “Right. Let’s get going, Vivi! We got a lot of ground to cover before we hit Goldenrod.”

Agent York | Red vs. Blue | No reserve

[ratherbelocky]

Player
Name: Asher
Personal Journal: asherdashery
E-mail: ash (dot) sofman [at] gmail (dot) com
AIM/Plurk/Etc.: asherdashery
Timezone: EST
Current Characters in Route: N/A

Character
Name: Agent York
Series: Red vs. Blue
Timeline: The end of Out of Mind Part V
Canon Resource Links: York on the RvB wiki | Project Freelancer on the RvB wiki, for context

Personality:

[This section of the app contains SPOILERS for the Out of Mind miniseries and seasons nine and ten of Red vs. Blue. It all came out years ago so I'm not linking the app, but, you know, just noting that to be safe.]

"What's the story? Am I the only one on this team that knows how to talk?
"I don't think talking is your problem."
"Oh no."

Red vs. Blue, an action-comedy set in the Halo universe, introduces Agent New York as part of an experimental Special Operations program called Project Freelancer (PFL), and understanding everything this man chooses to be is impossible without putting him in that highly specific military context. PFL, like many different groups during the Great War that serves as the backdrop to RvB, sought a way to combat the alien Covenant. Their proposed solution is to implant already greatly-skilled soldiers with AI fragments that will help manage their powerful, but dangerous, power armor enhancements. They determine the order of implantation partially according to a leaderboard that ranks the Freelancer agents according to their performance both in training and on missions. This leads to bitter competition among the Freelancers, despite their need to work as a team on the field. York ends up at the top of the lists just behind Agent Carolina, who is the undisputed leader of the elite squad pulled from those top players.

It's against that dangerously competitive, high-stakes backdrop that York establishes himself as a calm, grounded thinker, irreverent banterer, and all-around laid-back guy. Like many of the Freelancers, he's got a penchant for flashy entrances and dramatic one-liners, but he's just as likely to say something stupid as something clever. He keeps his speech patterns light and casual, as if everyone's included in some running in-joke of his, as if they're all bros even when they're at one another's throats. He talks incessantly, even at the most inappropriate moments, and cracks wise on the field and off. One might assume he doesn't take PFL's mission seriously and then forget to take York seriously in return. Some of his teammates do.

That would be a mistake. It's clear, both from the leaderboard rankings and from watching York in action, that he's one of the most capable and versatile soldiers PFL has to offer. He is one of only a couple operatives we see sent into missions alone both by Carolina and by the Project's Director himself, and when he's left to his own devices off-screen, he always returns having efficiently satisfied his objectives. (It's only on-screen that he fucks up.) Thus, he can back up the easy confidence he projects; his seeming disinterest in the battle for leaderboard slots underlines, not undermines, how he's earned his position behind Carolina.

York rather uses his levity--well, mostly to entertain himself, but also to gauge his team's emotional state and keep the bonhomie flowing. If Carolina is understood to be leader on the field, York sometimes lands in the unenviable position of peacemaker for PFL's most arrogant--and most dangerous--squad. This is sort of terrible because he's kind of insufferable, but he's the only one who even tries. He makes jokes to lighten the mood on missions and prevent their competition from interfering with their teamwork; if it isn't received well, he makes a note of it and adjusts his behavior to account for it so as not to strain communications. He breaks one of PFL's rules to help ease the AI implanted into his closest friend and thus make life easier on that friend, for a time. He tries to pull squad-mates back when they take their violence too far and shows himself to be, for the most part, of a team-oriented mindset. He's perspicacious and supportive and, while he can be stealth-mean (it's sometimes hard to realize he's just insulted someone when he still sounds like he's cracking a joke with them rather than at them) to the less-skilled members of his team, he gets vocally excited when any of them shows off a cool new trick.

"So can you open it or not?"
"Of course I can! It's just much harder. I just brought it up 'cause I wanted you to realize how kick-ass I am."

York likes to play himself up to people as if just begging to be shot down. While he's happy enough to accept the praise should someone go along with it, he seems most comfortable when people respond sarcastically to his bragging. It follows that he treats others the same way; while his tone is never serious, he's constantly picking on his teammates, and if they don't push back he just comes off as an insensitive asshole. And he is an asshole, but he's an asshole who accepts this back-and-forth mutual bullying as the military way of life and is more than capable of taking his own licks in return.

He does this because he's well aware of his own weaknesses and limitations. He doesn't oversell his abilities when people need a straight answer--he notes when Carolina or Delta will have to factor his bad eye into their plans--and he makes no effort to hide his obvious attachment to Carolina, despite their positions as leader and subordinate within PFL. Rather than hiding his vulnerabilities, he maintains his and others' awareness of them so that, should anyone ever feel the need to attack him, they'll choose the routes he's left open for them; and because he's so conscious of them, he'll be prepared to defend himself.

(You know, in theory. This doesn't always work out as well as he plans. York fucks up a lot, and usually because he's overestimated himself.)

But those weaknesses remain weaknesses. York's relationship with Carolina, while never explicitly named, defines his life almost more than PFL itself does. He's seen to linger at her bedside for days as she recovers from nasty complications from her AI implants; he watches her training into the late hours of the night because he's worried about her furious rivalry with Agent Texas; when she's presumed dead, he clings to hope for her return and a chance to make things right between them once again. It's hopelessly romantic and honestly really sad. York would have done almost anything for her.

"How long has he been there?"
"He hasn't left her side yet."
"It's been days."
"And he's dedicated."

Still, for all that dedication, he leaves her in the end.

Without going into too much detail: A few PFL agents independently realize what the Project has done to procure the AI fragments implanted within them. York, perceptive and analytical as he is, is one of those agents. They stage an attack to free the Alpha AI, which ultimately fails, but York escapes with his life and his own AI fragment, Delta. They go into hiding and turn to petty theft for a living for the next several years.

It's a sticky moral situation: He attempts to do "the right thing" only to resort to stealing from others to survive when that fails. But it's telling. York cares much more about those immediately in his circle than humanity or justice in general; his stake in turning against the Project was to save Carolina from being hurt like she had and to prevent AIs from being implanted into any more of his fellow Freelancer agents. Afterwards, though, he's on his own except for Delta, and his world narrows to keeping him and his helpless digital friend alive. The people he steals from don't really factor into his thoughts.

So he survives and he holds out for Carolina. He keeps tabs on Freelancer communications in hopes of tracking her down, of hearing that she now understands why he did what he did so they can reconcile and be what they once were. It's selfish wish-fulfillment and grossly unrealistic, but he doesn't give up until he has to.

But when he does have to--when he has no other reason to believe Carolina's alive--he lets her go. York isn't a stubborn enough man to pursue a lost cause, and for all his strength, he's smart enough to recognize what he cannot change and bow to the inevitable. To focus on what he can do.

So when one of the other rogue agents tracks York down and asks him to help her destroy PFL property (and maybe one of its agents, too), he agrees. For pride.

After giving so much of himself--the years of his prime, his strength and brain, the love of his life, his eye--to the Project only to find out he and the other agents were just used and lied to all along, and then sinking into obscurity and poverty after throwing away everything he ever wanted, the pull of doing something about it is irresistible. He's always been one of the best, even if he's made a point never to make a big deal about it. And if he's lost everything else, he might still redeem his life a little bit by helping out one person he'd never be able to best.

"Omega and Allison were always the best. No one could compete with them. Not me, not Wyoming, not anybody. Trying to beat them when I should have given up is how I got hurt in the first place."
"Oh, so it is pride. I was registering an emotion, but I incorrectly categorized it as 'stupidity.'"
"Yeah, they're closely related."

Tl;dr: York is a grounded, confident, devoted, but obnoxious asshole who just wants to do good by his people. You know, people in general, too, theoretically. But in practice he mostly just looks out for his own--for the poor souls who manage to put up with him.

Strengths/Weaknesses:

+ Combat and infiltration: York is a talented and highly-trained military operative. He fights with keen spatial awareness, despite his damaged eye, and attacks precisely and efficiently, with little wasted movement. He's also a "locksmith," and by locksmith we all actually mean lockpick. He's used to the tech of the Halo universe though and may not have much truck with any locks in Pokéworld. It does mean he's got a good grasp of computers and encryption, though.
+ Analytical thinking: While it's often hard to gauge what York really thinks with all his joking around, he's sharply observant and realized fairly quickly after the AI implantation process started that something was wrong. He can gauge a situation with speed and come to his own conclusions about how best to tackle it, without orders.
+ Multi-tasking: Look, the guy can talk and fight and deal with an AI in his brain all at the same time. It's an important skill for a Freelancer.
+ Cool under pressure: Don't trust York not to screw important things up. He's going to. What he is reliable for, though, is keeping his head and adapting his strategy on the fly. He will get you into trouble, but he will also, with grace and humor, get you out.

+/- Dedication: When York devotes himself to something, he is all in. Just ask Carolina. It can get kind of annoying. And unhealthy.
+/- Pride: Pride leads to so many of his falls, but it keeps him on the straight and narrow, too. Or, well, mostly on it. While he's not as competitive as some of his fellow Freelancers, he's not proof against showing off. Once people know what to look for, they could very well try to manipulate him in this way. He also tends to overestimate himself and mess up, even in critical situations.

- Injured eye: York can't really see out of his left eye, and even ubiquitous tasks like reading cause trouble for him. This sight problem led directly to his death and is his most glaring physical weakness.
- Obnoxious: His jokes and teasing get old really, really fast. He's not even funny. He just makes people think he is because his voice is so charming.
- Unused to this age's technological situation and cultural mores: He's a space soldier. These are fuzzy alien creatures who could kill a man by looking at him, all in a world where human violence is a punishable offense and not a lifetime career. He's not ready.
- AI implant: York's spent the last several years of his life with a brain tenant who ended up being his combat partner and sole friend, and it's going to take some time for him to acclimate to the emptiness where another mind used to be.

[ratherbelocky]

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Breeder
Starter: Elgyem
Password: Cherries Strudel

Samples
First Person Sample:

...Okay, I guess we're live. Hold it steady now, D-2.

[The video feed bobs a little as whatever's holding it gets comfortable, though it still seems to be meandering up and down very slowly, as if it sits on the crest of a small wave in slow-motion. The speaker--a strongly-built man with a serious scar from his left eye down the side of his face--sits back from the 'Gear and crosses his arms, easy and confident. He looks almost lazy, but in a practiced kind of way; it's a life's effort to pose this casually.]

Hey there. You can call me York. As you might see, I'm new here. Yeah, hey, nice to meet you, pleasure's yours, et cetera.

[York shrugs expansively.]

I've gathered over the last couple days that if you've got a question or some fascinating commentary to offer, broadcasting it on an open frequency seems to be the local standard. And who am I to knock a system that works?

[He lifts one hand to wave vaguely at whatever's behind the camera.]

I've heard enough about these Pokémon guys to understand the idea's to train them up, though I think I'm still missing some crucial, cosmic why to it all. But that's not my issue. My deal is, Delta Two here's--[And something interrupts with "El, Elgyem." With only a brief pause in his speech, York reaches over and takes the 'Gear to show this cute kid, who ducks her head shyly.]--clearly some kind of...brainy...supernatural telepathic thing, judging from the floating and the unsolicited cerebral noodging.

[York hands the 'Gear back to the Elgyem, recrosses his arms, and shifts his weight, still somehow looking all I'm-not-a-model-the-Pokégear-just-turned-on.]

I don't think our traditional method of throwing her straight into supervised CQC matches with safeties off is going to do much for Miss Cleo over here. So, any of you folks who've gone before--got tips to offer the new guy on non-physical training, or some other form of engagement for the little lady? Either way, I appreciate your time and attention. York out.

Third Person Sample:

[This section of the app contains SPOILERS for the Out of Mind miniseries of Red vs. Blue.]

All right. He'd left the bizarre little Earth town--and the delusional woman calling herself his mother, despite being probably his age, if not younger--behind, taking the only road out of Dodge he could find. Once those quaint, picture-book houses disappeared behind the treeline, York took the opportunity to duck into the shade and get out of sight, too. It was high past time to take stock of himself and get his bearings.

He wasn't sure what the hell this place was supposed to be, here, but 'supposed to be here' sure wasn't what York was.

"Well, D, this isn't unsettling at all. What's our status?" he asked without taking his gaze off the road. Was it really just grass and dirt? Did these people not have vehicles? Why wasn't anyone wearing armor, and what had happened to his? What had happened to him? Where in the goddamn galaxy was he?

Delta didn't answer him.

York frowned and looked to one side. "Delta?"

Nothing. Delta wasn't there. For the first time since Project Freelancer had implanted the persistent little AI into his skull--for the first time in years--Agent New York found himself truly alone with his thoughts. The memory came to him unbidden: 'The spontaneous ejection of A.I. can be catastrophic to the psyche of an agent.'

"Not helping, D," he muttered nervously to himself. To himself, and only himself. Delta was gone, and they'd had that conversation only a little while ago, York remembered, and he also remembered--

Pain. Massive pain punched right through his chest like a train drove right through him, falling and hurt and Texas yelling. Gunfire. Delta didn't yell, but York heard his voice above it all, like the AI was speaking in his ear, like the AI was right inside his head. He was. He had been.

'York has sustained two wounds to his upper-left chest. Recommend evac stat.'

York felt at his chest and took a deep breath. One to five, in; five to ten, out. Nothing. Nothing out of the ordinary, anyway. It sure didn't feel like he'd taken two slugs to the ribs. Also, he wasn't dead. Living and breathing sort of disproved the whole 'shot in the chest' thing, as far as York was concerned.

"Unless this is some kind of death hallucination," he said, and then looked around again at the impossible greenery, went over again the illogical behavior of his 'mother' and the other townsfolk he'd briefly seen. Something had been weird with the fauna, too. Something he didn't really want to think about. "...Whhhhich I guess it could be, all things considered."

He listened to the faint rustling that defined the silence there on the road, and added, "Man. If this is a hallucination, I'm a goddamn basket case."

And if this were all a figment of his dying mind, York might have hoped to see Carolina there. Ah, man. He always had been a lost cause.

Delta didn't reply, and York had to remind himself again that he was gone. Alone, now. It made sense, maybe, if he were dead or dying, that Delta wouldn't be able to reach him anymore, even if he were plugged directly into York's brain. He couldn't help but reach up to run his hand over the back of his neck, like he could physically trace the wires there back to Delta somehow. He didn't think he was going crazy--not like Reggie--but maybe he just needed time to let the loneliness sink in. He could feel his thoughts still reaching back for Delta, waiting for a clinically dry retort to his totally witty one-sided banter.

Instead, he felt a shy, gentle nudge against his mind. He froze, but then, wary but curious, brought the mental sensation gently into focus, the way he had when they'd first given him Delta all those years ago.

"Hey there, little guy," he murmured as a...something. A something floated timidly towards him from behind a tree.

York had given his whole adult life over to fighting aliens. To killing them. The little grey thing--well, it definitely wasn't human. He remembered seeing it in the room he'd woken up in, crouching just beyond the bed to watch him with its button green eyes. But its head took up more than half its body and its eyes looked like a stuffed animal's, and its posture was that of a diffident child's, and all it was broadcasting was the particular anxiety of someone who already liked him, but wasn't sure he liked them back. He watched it for a moment, then crossed his arms and leaned back against the tree whose shade he was borrowing, easy and casual.

"It's okay, dude. I'm not gonna hurt you."

The little grey thing moved further forward, encouraged, and sent him another mental wave of impressions: something of safety, something about belonging, 'nice-to-meet-you,' 'hi,' 'wobbly-shy-embarrassed-laughter, girl-identity,' 'elgyem.'

It--she?--repeated it out loud, from. Somewhere. Did she have a mouth? "Elgyem."

"Elgyem," he repeated, too, in an obliging mood. All disbelief had now been temporarily suspended. Everything about this was completely fucked up, but in a way, the mental connection--however she was doing it, since he doubted his neural implants were involved--helped, somehow, form a buffer against losing Delta.

York shifted his shoulders and lifted his chin, regarding the creature with his one good eye. There was still a lot of background information to sift through; he could sense it beyond the surface of her mind, as alien from his as Delta's was, and as alien from Delta's, too.

But Delta had been his last friend, in the end.

"All righty then. I guess this is what's happening now." If he were dead, then what did he have to lose anymore? York smiled wryly, knelt in the undergrowth, and offered his new companion a hand. "You mind if I call you D-2?"

Agent Carolina | Red vs Blue | Not Reservedj

[secondplacing]

Player
Name: Luciano
Personal Journal: je_ri_cho
E-mail: lucdionicioperez @ gmail
AIM/Plurk/Etc.: gueyprince @ plurk
Timezone: EDT/EST
Current Characters in Route: none

passwords: cherries and strudel

Character
Name: Agent Carolina
Series: Red Versus Blue
Timeline:Season 13 finale just after defeating the main foe
Canon Resource Links: Carolina on the RVB | Project Freelancer

Personality:

Carolina comes from a canon that is, for the most part, a comedy. A comedy about soldiers. A comedy specifically about space marines, based on Halo.

Carolina comes from a comedic fan fiction about Halo, basically. That said, her story isn’t exactly hilarious. But we’re not here to tell the Carolina History summary! We’re here to talk about how she is as a person. And yes, as a person, she actually is kind of hilarious.

She plays somewhat of a straightman to the crew of idiots that makes up the Blood Gulch Crew (the combination of Red team and Blue team), a host of, again, real idiots, with what seems to be A-rank luck. Or E-rank luck. It depends on how you look at it. Regardless, her former teammate, Agent Washington, is the real straightman to the group, but Carolina starts out pretty much right along there with him.

Carolina was actually trained as a sophisticated and intelligent soldier. The Blood Gulch Crew, of course, was not. With her strong military background and overwhelming grudge against the director of the project she was once a part of, Carolina had quite a bit of trouble adjusting to the attitudes of the Blood Gulch Crew when she first met them. Her experiences had hardened her heart, and losing the Freelancers, the team with which she was ‘raised’ as a soldier, had left her unwilling to trust the merry men of the reds and blues. At the time she came across only as a hardened soldier with no regard for anyone’s feelings, uncompromising, forceful, and dedicated only to revenge.

It took a certain AI named Epsilon to start pulling the real Carolina from past the wall of her own distrust and anger— as well as the words of Carolina’s late teammate, Agent New York, with whom it’s heavily hinted she had a romantic history. His words of apology and forgiveness started to soften her heart again— and Epsilon and the Blood Gulch Crew got in the next big go at it.

After Carolina’s need for revenge was sated instead with closure, her personality started to become more clear— and a look into her past revealed even more about her. Though being a big tough soldier is a HUGE part of her personality, she’s also quite nuanced. For one thing, she cares. She cares almost too much. She cares about these idiots that have ended up in her life and will do anything to keep them safe— even going so far as to refer to them as a second family. She’s a bit awkward in social situations that are new to her; when told to loosen up she cracks a joke that has the whole crowd silent, and the reaction leaves her confused. But she’s also easily amused by her ridiculous ‘family’, often heard with an amused tone of voice when watching the reds and blues do silly things. In her past she even seemed to find York amusing, which is terrible. He’s not even funny. He’s just stupidly charming, somehow, and Carolina has a shitty sense of humor for finding him funny. What are you doing, Carolina.

It was also revealed that her rivalry against another character, Texas, had stemmed from her time as a part of Project Freelancer. Carolina had been at the top of the leaderboard in the project, a role that meant much more than an ego stroke to her; it represented the way things should be. Everything had been going just fine when she was the leader and York was second place; missions were successful, she could trust her teammates, and she could trust Project Freelancer. Only when Tex took her place on the leaderboard did things start to tank.

(Another important point is that her found family has always been important to her— more important than rankings, more important even than orders. A teammate of hers defects to join a rebel sect and Carolina’s team is ordered to track her down and kill her. However, it’s obvious from the start that Carolina neither wants to kill the teammate nor intends to do so, and probably hopes to disable and disarm the teammate. When Agent Texas strikes a fatal blow to their former teammate just before said teammate and their companion get away, Carolina is furious and tells Texas that she needs to learn the difference between her friends and enemies, a line that is turned against her when she fails to trust the blood gulch crew so many years later.)

Carolina’s competitiveness never seems to leave her; Epsilon mentions her ego more than once in the present day portions of the series, and her fight scenes are a bit flashy (read: she once punches a giant robot. to death. with her fist.) She’s a showoff and she likes to be the best, and she’s well aware of it— but she holds that Epsilon is just the same. And while she comes across as mature compared to the blood gulch crew, her over-competitiveness and tendency to throw a little bit of a tantrum when things don’t go her way show that she’s not exactly much better off than they are in some respects.

Carolina’s care for her team and strong leadership qualities, however, outweigh her immaturity both in the eyes of the Blood Gulch Crew and the fans. She’s a highly respected character often depicted like a glorious heroine and the reds and blues, who at first feared and resented her, now trust and love her, treating her as one of them.

Strengths/Weaknesses:

+ : Soldier

Carolina’s experience as a soldier leaves her with an analytical, tactical, and physical advantage. Despite the fact that much of her power is due to the enhancements on her armor, she was still required to be in top shape to use them. She is muscular and knows how to move her body. She knows how to analyse a situation for the best solution. She responds to things militaristically, with the mind of a soldier always at the forefront.

-/+ : flashy/showoff

All eyes are on Carolina in a fight. She knows how to out-perform every soldier on the battlefield while still getting the job done and god help her if she can look cool while kicking your ass she will do it. Punch a robot in the face? Check. Punch a flame-throwing super soldier through a train door? Check. Are you watching. Do you see how cool she looks are you stroking her ego yet

+/- : Competitor

To Carolina, first place is more than just being the best. It’s keeping things in order. That’s why she has to be the best, and will take almost any challenge down. Mercenaries and Freelancers generally tend to be won over with favors or money, but Carolina prefers to be won over with a challenge. She’ll take on anyone. She’ll kick your ass. She’ll kick your dog’s ass. She’ll kick her own ass. Carolina loves money just as much as anyone else, but you can avoid paying if you realize she’ll put her pride before a price.

- : shitty humor

She thinks York is funny. She thinks Tucker victory dancing at prisoners is funny. She thinks she herself is funny. There’s nothing more to say about this. The only thing she’s right about is teasing Washington. Teasing Washington is funny.

- : afraid to lose

Losing first place meant losing everything to Carolina. It meant losing the family she had, losing the goals she had, and losing the belief that she and the other freelancers were helping people. Nowadays losing means losing another family, and Carolina freely admits that she is afraid to lose them.

+ : compassionate

Carolina always believed that Project Freelancer was helping people. She likes to be a hero, she likes to show off— but more than that, she likes to help. When she discovers shady dealings on Chorus, her first goal is to shut them down and help the people of Chorus before she focuses on getting home. While the only way they can get home is by helping, it’s obvious that Carolina does want to help, often offering advice to the officials in charge and leading the Blood Gulch Crew to assist them.

- : awkward

Carolina hasn’t been around people in a long time. She’s a bit uptight because of it and doesn’t always know the right way to interact with people— especially not people that act more like civilians than soldiers. It can lead to a few awkward moments when business is no longer on the line. Social situations are… a work in progress.

- : Can’t stop, won’t stop

York is not the only person who remarks that Carolina’s competitive nature can be self-destructive. She doesn’t stop, even when she’s hurt, and that has caused her even more physical pain on numerous occasions. Relaxing is not an option for her. But what’s interesting is that York himself states that it’s less like Carolina doesn’t want to stop and more as though she’s incapable, that her drive and her pride and determination prevent her from slowing down.

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainier
Starter: Growlithe
Password: Cherries, Strudel

Samples

First Person Sample: This is Agent Carolina, reporting in from New Bark Town.

[Carolina’s tone is just as militaristic as ever, as though she’s making a call straight from Chorus. She holds the pokégear steady despite the squirming, wiggling growlithe in her other arm.]

I understand that I— hey, calm down—

[Yeah, hold that thought. Carolina has to put the growlithe down before she’s going to be able to say anything else.

Completely deadpan, she stares back into the video feed.]

I understand this network is used for regular communication, and so I’d like to put out a request. I’m in charge of a crew of soldiers who refer to themselves as the reds and blues [(though, the way she says that, it sounds more like she’s their babysitter)] and if I’ve turned up here, it’s just as likely they will, too.

If you hear from anyone going by the names Washington, Church, Tucker, Simmons, Grif, Sarge, or Caboose, please send word to me. They can be a bit of a handful, but I’d really appreciate it.

[That last bit is said with a hint of an affectionate smile, and she quickly shakes her head.]

In any case, thank you in advance, and it’s… nice to meet you all. I’m sure we’re not all here under the best of circumstances… but…

[She looks lost for a moment, as if searching for the next thing to say.]

Anyway. Thank you for your time, and if… anyone is experienced with the pokémon ‘growlithe’, I’d appreciate any pointers.

Agent Carolina, signing out.

Third Person Sample:

There have been times when the agents of Project Freelancer have done what has seemed impossible. They have stolen artifacts from highly protected facilities, destroyed entire enemy bases. Even the Blood Gulch reds and blues have done things that seemed impossible; namely, existing. They have seen armor and weaponry that surpassed the technological capacities of mankind here in Johto, and witnessed the alien technology of centuries-old civilizations light up giant floating towers.

So why is it that Carolina can't scale a god damn ledge?

"What is going on?" she asks herself, fists balling up at her sides as she stares the foot-high cliff, gritting her teeth. This doesn't make sense. This is a small hunk of dirt. A slight elevation. But even Stripes, the little growlithe panting and waiting beside Carolina's foot, doesn't seem to be capable of scaling it. When instructed, he simply tilts his head, despite the fact he'll follow anywhere else.

Staring at the little cliff, Carolina lifts her foot again and tries to grab a foothold over the ledge-- nothing. Misses. Misses again. Slams her foot down and-- slips, as though the ledge is muddy, right onto her face.

With a furious exclamation, Carolina lifts her head, raises her arm, reaches forward-- reaches--!! There's no way it can stop her from pulling herself up it, right? She closes her eyes to breathe in her frustration and is so sure that she's pulled herself forward and up--!

But when she opens her eyes again, she's right where she was before, flat on her stomach, staring a small bit of elevation in the face.

Carolina is a first class specialist soldier who has punched robots in the face and she cannot climb a god damn ledge. Another scream of frustration, and she buries her face in her arms-- if only because there's no one besides Stripes to witness.

A bit worried, the little growlithe approaches her, snuffling at her face with a whine. When Carolina looks up, lifting her head just enough for one eye to peek at Stripes, she raises a brow. Stripes responds with another set of whines, and Carolina sits up, pulling Stripes into her lap.

"Alright, alright," she says in a voice that's half pout and half comforting, "I'm okay. Don't worry." Her shoulders slouch as she pets Stripes, whose tail wags a mile a minute. It's relaxing, she supposes, though it certainly doesn't fix anything completely. For Carolina it's more than stupid ledges. It's being completely powerless, torn away from her comrades-- and she can only barely rest in the security that their battle had just ended the last she remembered. It seemed too easy, it all had to have been too easy, there was no way that could have been all--

She notices her fists start to clench again and to avoid getting Stripes's fur caught between her worry-cramped fingers, Carolina leans back on her palms, closes her eyes, and starts to breathe.

There is nothing she can do for Washington or Church or Tucker or anyone here. She needs to stop, to stop thinking about it, to just calm down, but the powerlessness of it all starts to well up in her, starts to overwhelm her, as though she can't breathe and her thoughts race and--

And then she notices a peculiar feeling on her face, which she soon comes to recognise as Stripes licking her cheeks. Her fingers find his fur, her voice a "shhh, shhh" pattern to repeat, and her breathing a slow rhythm to follow. Burying her face in Stripes's fur, Carolina starts to recall that not everything is hopeless just because she isn't in control.

[these_balls]

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon!
Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.

Now that you've been accepted...
[○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must!
[○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: # thru G, H thru O, or P thru Z.
[○] Comment to the Friend Add/Remove, and update your friends list.
[○] Join the following communities: route_29, route_006, route_1065, pokedaycare. Only Team Rocket personnel should join rocket_hq, but we ask that all Route members subscribe to it.
Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places.
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We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!

Thank you! See you in the Pokémon world!

Lockon Stratos ;; Mobile Suit Gundam 00 ;; Reserved

[pointe]

I have entirely too much time on my hands at work, so I finished this earlier than anticipated!

Player
Name: Tarma
Personal Journal: pointe
E-mail: lunasets@gmail.com
AIM/Plurk/Etc.:
morgues @ plurk
finalfantasyfootball @ skype
Timezone: CST
Current Characters in Route: n/a

Character
Name: Lockon Stratos (Neil Dylandy)
Series: Mobile Suit Gundam 00
Timeline: http://gundam.wikia.com/wiki/Lockon_Stratos

Personality: Lockon (given name: Neil Dylandy), at first glance, is a charming, flamboyant young man. He is sharp as a tack and always up for idle conversation just to bust up an awkward silence. He isn't the type to let fly a sudden outburst or nasty remark-- even when the situation could call such a reaction rather appropriate. He handles it with maturity and a certain grace that is-- where he comes from --refreshing. He takes it upon himself to play mother hen and big brother to his crew. This generally involves him having to wrangle and raise morale in an otherwise stilted, appropriately tense environment. His loyalties run strong and incredibly deep.

As a seasoned sniper, Lockon is sharp as a tack. He possesses an eye which can only be truly appreciated by somebody in his field. Analyzing a situation first is what matters in a mission. For example, being paired up with the less technical and more impulsive Setsuna is a full-time undertaking. Lockon is more or less forced to have handy little interventions with his teammate for the sake of protecting their identities... Which has led to him literally firing on Setsuna in the midst of fighting Ali Al-Saachez. Ali escaped but the real crisis was averted. His priorities might look a tad skewed but in the long-run, he knows what he is doing better than anyone.

Arguments among the Meisters often threaten to boil over, resulting in more "interventions" having to be manned by him in the process. He will readily step in to shove rationality into a heated situation-- whether his words are heard or not. Frustrating, yes, but he has no problem doing so if it ultimately keeps everyone's throats and minds intact. After that little stunt with Ali, Lockon has to whack Setsuna over the head and explain how shitty his decision was-- ALSO having to keep Tieria from shooting Setsuna for almost screwing all of them over in front of a top-tier terrorist. It isn't a stretch to say that he always has his hands full. And yet he still keeps his cool and does his best to keep everyone stitched together like the team that they are supposed to be. That also includes giving advice (wanted or unwanted), playing Devil's Advocate, and being a pushy "big brother" when he has to. He fancies himself to be fair at least when it comes to being a mediator.

However, all of those positive do-dads come with a price. Lockon has a scathing dislike toward the world he lives in. Or rather the state of it. His personal experience of losing his whole family in a bombing when he was a child has left him with a bitter aftertaste beneath the Nice Guy shell. If someone so much as insinuates support toward an act of baseless violence, he becomes irrationally angry-- though he tends to keep it to himself until he is in private. Thusly, his real drive in life and subsequently as a member of Celestial Being is to change the world and make it safe again for the people who are currently living and those who will follow in their footsteps in the future. His beliefs have little qualms about taking over and causing him to become stubborn and headstrong should they be challenged in any way. Becoming a giant dick in the face of having his opinions questioned isn't something that he is proud of, but he will never bend in those beliefs. When he thinks something is right or wrong, there is really no changing his mind no matter who you are.

Nothing proves this more than in his final battle. Ali argues that Celestial Being is just a terrorist group who tries to stop war using their own brand of violence. That they are no different from himself and the groups who are fighting each other. Needless to say, he loses his shit and winds up going after Ali BY HIMSELF and getting his dumb ass killed in the process just to defend what he believes is right. The integrity of Celestial Being and his teammates is of utmost importance. He took all of that to his grave in a blaze of glory. A blaze of glory that destroyed the feelings of weebs everywhere.

Strengths/Weaknesses:
PROS:
⇢ Up-beat, cool-headed, and rational are the three traits that lead at the forefront of his personality. In the most trying of times, he can maintain a (mostly) positive attitude which ups the morale of his team and benefits himself as somebody who needs to have unshakable focus. And all the while, he is totally chill with lying on the ground in his Gundam just waiting for a target to pass by without a care in the world.
⇢ He cares very deeply for those he works with, harboring a bond with them that surpasses reason. People will actively seek him out for company or advice-- professional or personal. Lockon dies defending what Celestial Being ultimately stands for.
⇢ He is smart as Hell. As a sniper, he has to know the ins and outs of math, geography, and other heavily scientific details on the fly. Very rarely is he wrong when he puts his brain into something.
⇢ For somebody who spends the better part of their time floating around in space with like seven other people, he's pretty on the ball when it comes to socializing and making friends. As you have read throughout the application, people are kind of his "thing" in a way and keep him more or less sane and focused.
⇢ He is more than physically fit for traveling. He has been conditioned to not only pilot a giant gun-toting robot, but to live in space with all of its otherworldly weather conditions and mentally-trying status changes.

CONS:
⇢ Showing when he is upset isn't his strong suit. In a way, it is safe to say that he thinks that he will bring other people down or disappoint them if he betrays his otherwise sunny attitude. Even with all the issues that he has welled up inside of him, Lockon saves face by bottling things up. Which doesn't have the greatest of results if you have been paying attention..........................
⇢ Lockon's deep hatred toward those who harm the innocent has a habit of getting in the way of how he thinks and feels in certain situations. Flip the right switch, and he will lose his shit.
⇢ When he does get upset enough for him to freak out about it, it is on a large scale. He is convinced that what he thinks is right is right and what is wrong is wrong, and he is hardheaded enough to not listen to anyone daring to say otherwise or challenge him.
⇢ He has a big brother complex the size of Jupiter. While that is also a "pro" of sorts, it has a tendency to get in the way of recognizing the need for independence that some of his comrades need. He looks out for their best interest, but doesn't necessarily wind up always doing the right thing for them.
⇢ Purely situational in this case, but Lockon had lost his right eye during a scuffle a while back. Upon landing in Johto he will have it restored-- HOWEVER, he will have an equivalent of astigmatism in that eye due to not having use of it for so long. His vision will be goofy and blurry on the right side which might cause him a bit of trouble down the line.

[pointe]

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer!
Starter: Ponyta
Password: Cherries Strudel!

Samples
First Person Sample:

[The video feed sparks with a lick of static that is sure to catch the eye of anyone perusing at the time. A one-two tapping at the screen follows as though the person handling it is merely trying to see how well the bit of hardware holds up against a spot of roughness. The finger moves away and the face of a young man appears while trying to steady the device. Something in the way his lips twitch and his eyes sort of drift this way and that signals that he is a little bit frazzled beneath an otherwise steady smile.

In the background, one can hear a muffled snuffling...]

Oh, uhm... Hey there. [Clearly it has to work like any other transmitter he has messed with, right? At least he seems to know his way around it. His jaw shifts and he tilts his chin up a touch to take on a more "professional" look.]

This is Lockon Stratos requesting a... [A beat. He is rolling the words around inside of his mouth as if something doesn't sound particularly right. He's in a place, somewhere, not on a ship or a military outpost. Still...] ... Status report in regards to the location of NewBark Town.

[His shoulders drop a bit along with one side of his lips. His voice drops to shake away the stilted austere from before. It is more tender this time and has an inflection of genuine curiosity.] Or anything, really. It looks like I'm new here, and it certainly isn't anywhere close to where I was the last time I remembered much of anything. [The corners of his lips twitch upward into a smile this time around--] I'd really appreciate it!

[A cream-colored nose bumps its way into his shoulder and he hops up to turn the device about, revealing an elegant-looking Ponyta with its ears up and dark eyes round and curious.]

ALSO... I found somebody's horse. I can't say I know what to do with it, but here it is!

Thanks again!

Agent North Dakota | Red vs Blue | No Reserve

[usedlightscreen]

Player
Name: Ri
Personal Journal: resplendentri
E-mail: cheetah1090@yahoo.com
AIM/Plurk/Etc.: ResplendentRi; JoyBringer5002 @ AIM
Timezone: EST
Current Characters in Route: none

Character
Name: Agent North Dakota/"North"
Series: Red vs Blue
Timeline: roundabouts Recovery One; just post-death
Canon Resource Links: North Dakota on the Red vs Blue wiki

Personality: The first thing that is obvious about North is that he is the Team Dad to an almost fussy extent. His first (living) appearance in canon is him nagging his sister to turn on her motion trackers so that he can better watch her back through his sniper scope. He is dependable and trustworthy, and very loyal and devoted to causes and people that he cares about, even going so far as to climb on top of a moving ship and use dangerous and untested technology to protect his sister and teammates despite being weakened by multiple gunshot wounds to the chest. It's this dependability that leads him to be assigned the AI Theta, the fragment of "Trust," who takes the form of a young, timid boy. North's supportive and gentle nature, honed from years of looking after his troublemaking and feisty twin, made him the perfect candidate for an AI with such a fragile temperament. He is also shown visiting Agent York in the medical bay after York is injured, and he and South are there when Washington wakes up after the Epsilon implantation.

North's fatherly tendencies are nowhere as well-exhibited as they are with Theta. His behaviors with the AI seem to explicitly mirror a new father's, to the point of getting very little sleep at night because he soothes Theta through his nightmares, and getting up and walking the halls at night because the simple motion helps soothe his nervous and timid AI. He states that it reminds him of his dad driving around in the middle of the night to soothe his fussy twin sister as a baby. While he obviously won't have Theta in Route, his starter will be the tiny baby pokemon Togepi, so his fatherly tendencies are still very definitely going to shine through.

Still, North is not without his flaws. He is trusting and forgiving to a fault, although it's implied that he does realize this flaw and just fails to act to correct it. For instance, when York asks him if Project Freelancer is really the good guys, North can't give him an answer, despite devoting his best effort to the Project in the past, presumably because he has suspected that the Project is up to some shady dealings but hasn't wanted to voice these suspicions without proof. Another example is just how he handles the matter of his sister. South's volatile temperament and violent outbursts of anger threaten both the team dynamic and sometimes the safety of their teammates themselves, and yet North does little outside of trying to calm her immediate outbursts to fix her behavior. He sweeps her attitude under the rug, and doesn't seem to realize how much this contributes to her resentment of him for being chosen for AI implantation.

Sweeping his sister's resentment under the rug bites him sorely in the ass later, because when the Meta finds them in its quest to assimilate all the AI fragments South puts herself and her own survival first. It's as a result of this that North ends up dead, and the Meta claims both Theta and North's domed energy shield armor enhancement. Despite Arceus healing any potential physical side effects of having his neural implant ripped out, North will still have to deal with the grief from having an AI that was basically his child taken from him. Knowing that he's dead will keep him from getting all "I have to get back and save Theta," but he'll still have to adjust to no longer having that little voice in his head. He'll also have to adjust to not having his sister around which, despite any rockiness their relationship had, will be the first time that he's been without South practically in his life.


Strengths/Weaknesses:
+Caring: If there's one trait that defines the way that North interacts with his fellow freelancers and with pretty much everyone around him, it's how much he cares. He's present at Carolina's bedside when she's unconscious (well, he's watching over York, who's planted himself at her bedside), and later he and South are the only two Freelancers who show up to check on Wash after the Epsilon implantation disaster.

+Devoted: North is definitely devoted, both to the people he cares about and works with and to causes that he believes in. He's devoted to protecting his friends, family, and teammates to the point where he's willing to risk or even give his own life to protect them (taking bullets to the chest for his sister, climbing on top of the pelican and deploying his dome shield to deflect enemy fire, even though he had a one in one thousand chance of surviving). However, when his causes come into conflict with his people, he'll fight for his causes and beg forgiveness later, such as when he breaks up the fight between Texas and South by dual-wielding sniper rifles at his own sister.

+Level-Headed: North is the rock on which many of the other freelancers lean. He is a steady and confident presence, and despite his relatively low ranking on the leaderboard he's a valued member of the team for more than just his sharpshooting. He's a stark contrast to his sister's loud, obnoxious everything, calm and collected, which is part of the reason why he's chosen to foster the AI Theta, who has a gentle, shy, childlike personality. He keeps a cool temper during conflict as well, often a silent observer when the more temperamental agents are throwing tantrums.

-Passive-Aggressive/Condescending: A consequence of him keeping a cool head constantly is that he comes across as passive-aggressive and condescending. His attitude toward the rookie, Agent Washington, is the same way an older kid treats somebody's little brother who had to come along for the day. He humors him more than anything, and while he's passive enough to actually listen he doesn't always let it register.

-Nagging: One of the negative sides of him being so caring and devoted is that he can also be a huge fussbudget. His first speaking appearance is him nagging his sister to set her trackers so that he can trace her movements and keep an eye out for threats. It's just a way that he shows worry, but it can be irritating. It will also be amped up to 11, now that he's lost Theta and lost his twin, anybody who triggers his protectiveness will be nannied to death.

-Overly forgiving/lenient: Possibly North's biggest character flaw is just how easily he lets go of any slights and wrongdoings. He's particularly blind to his sister's seething resentment and rage, willing to write it off as just how she is despite how it shouldn't be an attitude that a super soldier has, and how it's putting the team dynamic and the team itself at risk. However, he also turns a blind eye to the wrongdoings of Project Freelancer itself, until York and Texas convince him to follow them when they rebel (even then, he remains the inside man, unlike York and Tex who went AWOL and had to break back in). It's clear that it's not just obliviousness, because when York asks him if Project Freelancer are really the good guys, he doesn't immediately jump to its defense, he just doesn't have an answer. He's willing to forgive and continue working for the Project because he believes that it wants to do good, and that he can do good while he's in it.

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Breeder
Starter: Togepi
Password: cherries strudel

Samples
First Person Sample: The sample must take place in Route_29's setting. Eight sentences is the minimum. This is a PokéConnect post--one that will be on the character's journal, broadcast to the network. Although it is short, it needs to show how your character would communicate with others, as well as be descriptive enough to express the character's voice without sounding too generic.

[The man on the 'Gear is wearing a dark purple t-shirt that is probably a couple of sizes too small for him, holding a tiny foot-tall Egg pokemon that is definitely a couple sizes too small for him. He looks sheepish, fidgeting with his clothes a little bit. He also looks exhausted, deep circles around his already tired-looking eyes that make him look nearly hollowed out.

Still, his smile looks friendly enough.]

Does anybody know if there's a place to order some clothes for, you know. Tall people? I'm used to skintight bodysuits, but these overalls are all but painted on right now.

[The Togepi in his arms trills and bounces a little, drawing a warm chuckle out of him as he bounces it in return, like an actual baby.]

Calm down, buddy, you're okay. I've got you. I'm almost done.

So, if anyone has a Big and Tall catalogue to forward to me, I'd appreciate it. Thanks. Over.

Third Person Sample: The sample must take place in Route_29's setting. The minimum is 300 words. Please note that what we are looking for is an inner working into the character’s thoughts and actions, and how the character responds to the setting, not something that could be taken as an excerpt fanfic. You may use other characters to bounce your characters actions off of, but everything should still be mostly from their point of view.

Toge, Toge, Toge, Toge- Togepi toddled ahead of his trainer, while North followed bemusedly a few feet behind him.

"Don't wander off too far," he called. It'd been so long since he was on a planet, let alone in school, but it was hard to forget how many creatures in the wild thought of eggs of other species as easy prey. Snakes, Raccoons, even some other birds weren't above an omelette or two. Still, the little guy had wanted to walk, so North wasn't going to carry him forever.

He frowned when he turned a corner in the path and realized that Togepi had disappeared.

"Hey, buddy?" he called into the grass. "Come on, it's okay. Come on out..." His voice wavered on the last part, fear starting to creep in and itch along the lightningstrike scar on the back of his neck.

PRIIIIIIIIIII! Suddenly, his little egg-monster tumbled ass over teakettle out of the grass, big eyes wide and watery and his mouth creased in a terrified frown. He saw North and burst into waterworks, toddling over to him and taking refuge behind his legs. He bent down closer to its level.

"Hey, what's the matter? It's okay, I've got you." The Togepi buried his face in North's leg as fat baby tears continued to flow. "You're okay," North said, almost half-laughing. He carefully detached the tiny arms and pulled the pokemon into his arms, letting him cling to his shirt instead of his leg.

And then he saw what the little pokemon had been afraid of. A little red and black scraggly-looking hawk was eyeing up North like an obstacle to get past in order to get to the poor upset pokemon in his arms.

"Go on, shoo, get out of here," North said sternly, scuffing a bit of dust at the bird pokemon. It cawed at him and flapped away, and North sighed in relief. "See, it's gone. You're okay no--oh boy."

Fifty caws filled the air, as a shadow passed overhead.

"Oh boy," North said again, looking up at the swarm of angry pokemon flapping and squawking in the air above him. He held on tighter to the little guy in his arms and took off running back the way they'd come. "Okay," he said to the little egg pokemon in his arms. "New rule: no going into the grass without me."

[these_balls]

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon!
Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.

Now that you've been accepted...
[○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must!
[○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: # thru G, H thru O, or P thru Z.
[○] Comment to the Friend Add/Remove, and update your friends list.
[○] Join the following communities: route_29, route_006, route_1065, pokedaycare. Only Team Rocket personnel should join rocket_hq, but we ask that all Route members subscribe to it.
Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places.
[○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted.
[○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms!
[○] Route 29 has an optional spam/meme community; it's slowpoke_gif!
[○] You can also find our mod plurk at RouteMods; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!

We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!

Thank you! See you in the Pokémon world!

Draculaura | Monster High | Not Reserved

[veggie_vamp]

Player
Name: Melissa
Personal Journal: melplayspersonal
E-mail: Melcat33@aol.com
AIM/Plurk/Etc.: KawaiiUsagi33 (AIM), melcat33 (plurk)
Timezone: EST
Current Characters in Route: N/A

Character
Name: Draculara (No last name given)
Series: Monster High
Timeline:Post “Frights Camera Action”
Canon Resource Links: Wiki!

Personality:
Draculara is 1600 years old, yet she’s still as peppy and energetic as a teenager – without any of the emotional and mental maturity that probably should have come with that number. The truth is she had a slightly sheltered upbringing, and as a result she’s a little spoiled and mostly naïve. It’s not that she expects people to do things for her, but is always surprised at how hard things are for other people. Yet she loves to learn new things and takes things in a positive attitude. She’s also a crybaby, so she tends to be in two extremes – either super happy, or super sad.

She had few friends growing up in the vampire court, so she’s always lapping up kindness whenever it’s offered. The majority of her crushes were based on how nice they were to her (and good looks, let’s face it) until she finally found a relationship with substance with Clawd. She’s a gigantic romantic, enjoying stories of true love, forbidden love, tragic love, you name it. As a result she wants everyone to find love, but this has often made her pushy and demanding, such as when she tried to force her friend Clawdeen into a relationship, despite said friend repeatedly saying she didn’t want one. Draculara doesn’t think she knows better, she just wants her friends to be happy and thinks if they reject her methods, they’re rejecting happiness. She did manage to ease up after seriously talking things over with Clawdeen, but she’s still very love-obsessed.

She tends to be more of a follower than a leader, often going along with the latest trends in fashion while only occasionally making up her own style – though it’s been noted that when she does choose to be creative, it’s an inspiring look. (She was once haunted by a Japanese ghost because of how great she looked!) She also finds it difficult to stand up for herself when she’s bullied, and has low self-confidence about herself due to how long it took for her vampire powers to emerge. However she’s very vocal and stubborn when it comes to her friends or setting things right – such as when she loudly interrupted a movie because of its historical inaccuracy towards vampires.

She’s super polite to the point of being a pushover – when she was ‘fused’ with Robecca, the two had trouble controlling their body because they kept trying to insist the other take charge. But an area she does take control over is her meals – she is noted as being one of the only, perhaps first, vampires that refuses to drink blood. The mere sight of a steak can make her faint! She’s a vegetarian and even ran a newsletter trying to advocate other vampires to do the same. She also cares very deeply about her culture – assigned from the mentioned movie rant, she desperately went around the world trying to find the true Vampire Queen, not just to save herself from a tricky situation, but because she genuinely believed doing so would help all vampires.


Strengths/Weaknesses:
+ Very kind, very forgiving, and very positive. She always tries to see things in a bright light, and wants to find the best in a bad situation. She refused to be upset when she was fused with Robecca, seeing the silver lining in that she was fused with a good friend.
+ Creative and fashionable when she puts her mind to it. She enjoys making people feel their best, and has often come up with beautiful ideas for clothes and amazing looks on make-overs.
+ Determination to do what’s right, and never giving up. When she finds a cause worth fighting for, she won’t give up until the goal is accomplished, no matter the risks and dangers.

- Stubborn when she thinks she can force happiness on others. Clawdeen isn’t the only one she has forced into dating – when she tried to hook up Abby with a good guy, she was so focused on finding what she thought was the perfect guy, she ignored the fact Abby liked someone already.
- Her spoiled and naïve nature - it comes in play when she expects her friends (and even strangers) to buy gifts way out of their budget and making her birthday into an all day spectacular, never one realizing the monetary limitations they have.
-In terms of physical limitations, because she refuses to drink blood and her vampire powers were late in blossoming, she’s very weak physically. As a result, she’s exhausted faster and not as strong as the average vampire, or even the average human.

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer.
Starter: Noibat
Password: Cherries Strudel

Samples
First Person Sample:
[The screen turns on quickly, as if whoever is on this end is frantically pushing buttons. Draculara’s face pops up, looking ready to burst at the seams from glee.]

Oh My Ghoul, how come NOBODY told me about Pokemon Contests before? They are absolutely fang-tastic! It’s almost like a fashion show for our furry friends! I was in the audience, and I was so engrossed I totes forgot to record it!

[She then moves the camera function so she can show off her Noibat – who has a red ribbon around its neck, sparkly red fake glasses and a red rose around one ear. Noibat chirps, enjoying the attention.]

I don’t know if we’d ever be ready to enter one, but I just had to buy all the souvenirs they had after the show! They had all of these adorable clothes, and accessories, for the both of us, and I bought extras for the rest of my Pokemon, and… Um.

[She sheepishly smiles, about to reveal the real reason for this broadcoast.]

I kind of… spent… all the money I have. Every single last one. Would anyone mind lending me a little bit? I totes promise to pay you back!

Third Person Sample:
It could be questioned if vampires were dead or alive, but at this moment, Draculara felt close to death. How could "normies", normal humans, stand to walk this long? It wasn't fair! She sat down on the grass, leaned against a tree, and breathed heavily with her eyes shut. She wasn't going to make it. How could anyone be expected to do this for days on end? Maybe if she had her skates, or was a ghost, or Clawd could carry her...

For a moment, she allowed herself to be lost in daydreams of Clawd valiantly arriving on a dragon - or a dragon-type Pokemon, she mused, perhaps one of those Dragonite things she heard of - so he could sweep her off her feet and take care of all this silly walking. But in the daydream, Clawd was frowning, and she could hear his voice... "Giving up that easily? Come on, that's not my Draculara!" And he lightly tapped her face over, and over, and over...

She blinked, realizing the tapping was real, though it didn't belong to her werewolf boyfriend. Instead it belonged to her Noibat, who was lightly nudging her face with his wing. Perhaps he had been concerned, or annoyed, but either way, Draculara suddenly whipped her hands out, grabbing her companion. "Clawd's right!" She declared out loud, ignoring her Pokemon's clearly confused face. "I can't give up! Everyone is waiting for us in the next city! I can totes do this!"

With a puff of her chest, she climbed back onto her feet, still securely holding onto her Pokemon. "I just have to keep going forward! And when we get there, maybe they'll have a big 'Welcome Draculara' party waiting for us!" With that image firmly planted in her mind, she plopped Noibat on her shoulder, and marched on, eyes glittering with the possibility of fun and friendship. "And think of all the clothes we can buy, and the people we can meet, and all those nice big beds to take naps in..."

[these_balls]

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon!
Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.

Now that you've been accepted...
[○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must!
[○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: # thru G, H thru O, or P thru Z.
[○] Comment to the Friend Add/Remove, and update your friends list.
[○] Join the following communities: route_29, route_006, route_1065, pokedaycare. Only Team Rocket personnel should join rocket_hq, but we ask that all Route members subscribe to it.
Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places.
[○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted.
[○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms!
[○] Route 29 has an optional spam/meme community; it's slowpoke_gif!
[○] You can also find our mod plurk at RouteMods; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!

We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!

Thank you! See you in the Pokémon world!

* * *
Hey, October applicant! Please be aware that we've got a gamewide plot coming up later in the month (as seen on our calendar), so we strongly suggest heading over to have a look at that, as well!

Dio Brando | Jojo's Bizarre Adventure | Reserved | 1/3

[diosmio]

Player
Name: Steve
Personal Journal: chargingstar
E-mail:nephroblargh@gmail.com
AIM/Plurk/Etc.: opticblast
Timezone: MST
Current Characters in Route: Gundam Tanaka | infinityunlimitedflame

Character
Name: Dio Brando
Series: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
Timeline: Chapter 5, just prior to the timeskip at the end of the chapter.
Canon Resource Links: Dio's coming in from fairly early on in canon, so here's a couple of links. If you need more, let me know!

Wiki page for Dio
Overview of Phantom Blood

Dio Brando | Jojo's Bizarre Adventure | Reserved | 2/3

[diosmio]

Personality:
From the way he presents himself to others, Dio seems like an incredible rags to riches story. His father's dying wish was to collect a favor from the Joestars and have his son taken in by them. And take him in they did, and Dio got a better upbringing, ended up having a bunch of friends, and got a good education, and sure he's a little arrogant, sure he's got some anger issues, but he's definitely a cool guy! Certainly not like that loser Jonathan Joestar.

If only those were his biggest flaws. No, Dio's got a lot more going on than that. In fact, let's start with this perception of him being a little arrogant. Dio is a little arrogant in the same way the sun is a little hot. Everyone is beneath Dio. His father, his adoptive family, his so called friends, they're beneath him and for the most part little more than stepping stones on the path towards whatever future he wants at this point. This trait is going to get a lot worse as he gets older (like a lot worse), which says a lot for someone who's already killed twice at this point.

Which is a great way to move into discussing just how awful Dio is about things. This is a guy that moments after meeting Jonathan Joestar, he proceeds to knee his dog in the face and mentally voice his intentions of destroying Jojo's life and usurping it for himself. Of course, his intentions to do the later were made completely clear when he declares that he'll take the Joestars' fortune for himself just prior to spitting on his father's grave, but that's certainly a way to make a memorable entrance. But the point here is that Jonathan has done nothing to deserve Dio's behavior. It just happens, because to Dio, Jonathan is another stepping stone to Dio being Dio. But Dio is also the type of person to enjoy trampling on these things, so it's going to get worse (it always gets worse with Dio).

Because you see, Dio can play the long game. He's not just awful, but he's also smart and manipulative (of course he is, traits like that always seem to end up stacking together). He knows how to play people (gaining the favor of Jojo's father and teacher by presenting himself as everything Jojo is not), he knows how to carry himself in public (he's actually fairly popular, despite being a gigantic asshat to Jonathan...sometimes because he's being a giant asshat to Jonathan actually). It doesn't seem to matter how long it takes (later on, he'll wait seven years just for the chance to ruin the Joestars), so long as the end result is a flawless victory for Dio.

But he's not infallible. The downside of thinking everyone is beneath him is that he doesn't quite know what to do when things don't go according to plan. And when that happens, things sort of snowball and then his overconfidence ends up coming back to bite him. After stealing Erina's first kiss by force, simply because that way it wouldn't be with Jojo, Dio ends up getting the crap kicked out of him by Jojo and he can't believe it. He can't believe that Jojo learned from the dirty tricks he used in their boing match, he can't believe Jojo is getting the upper hand on him, and as he himself says, he can't believe that something like this could happen to him, Dio. He can't deal with it. The shame of having some sort of lesser being stand on par with him or above him is worse than any physical pain he could bear (and he sure did bear a lot of that).

And that infallibility is what leads Dio to hate. Given that at this point the two people he hates are Jonathan Joestar and his father, Dario Brando, it almost seems impossible to narrow down what triggers his hatred. One is an upstanding member of society who somehow overcomes the Dio shaped roadblock life has thrown at him. The other is a weird looking alcoholic who robs carriage wrecks. They couldn't be more different. Especially when it's taken into account that Dio brings up that his father worked his mother to death and made Dio sell her clothes for liquor. From this, it seems like he has legitimate reasons to hate Dario and none to hate Jonathan. But if you take into account the possibility that each, in their own way, constantly serve as impediments to his future, it becomes clearer.

Dio hates anyone and anything that reminds him that the universe does not revolve around him, Dio. And things like that must suffer and be removed. In the case of his father, he poisoned him to death and proceeded to monologue about his father being garbage and spitting on his grave. In the case of Jonathan Joestar, Dio's first act of retaliation was to pull a switchblade on him. When that didn't pan out, he threw Jojo's beloved dog Danny into an incinerator. Admittedly, Dio probably would've done something to Danny anyway, but the fact that it was done out of hatred here is notable. Also worth noting is the fact that he acknowledges that dealing with Jojo probably isn't the best idea. His feelings of hatred haven't subsided (and won't), but he'll find ways to deal with him, no matter how long it takes. So earning the wrath of Dio is certainly an ill advised course of action. He will bide his time and strike whenever he feels the time is right, and odds are it will end horribly.

As a final mention, it's worth noting that due to his canon point, every trait here, both positive and negative...mostly negative, will only get worse as time goes on. Sure, he seems like a shining example of the worst type of person at this point, but he's still a person, so this is sort of just the tip of the iceberg for him.

Strengths/Weaknesses:
+ Dio is smart. From the looks of it both street smart and book smart. The kind of guy who can get good marks in school, but also the kind of guy who knows where to get the good poison from in the shadier parts of town.

+ He's a pretty tough guy too. Dio can definitely deal with the hiking and all the other physical rigors of the Pokemon world.

+ He knows when to keep his mouth shut. Dio's the type to internally monologue about his villainous plans but not really the type to should to the world about them, unless he knows no one can do anything to him.

+ As a side note to that, Dio's also coming in from a point where he...not necessarily enjoys taking orders from people (he's Dio, this has never happened ever), but he can still sort of go along with it. While he abhors not being the center of attention, he can at least pretend to go along with things at this point. If this were later, that really wouldn't be the case.

+ Since he's coming in as a Rocket, the fact that he has absolutely no qualms about getting his hands dirty should be considered a strength.

- Dio can't handle losing. At all. In Pokemon world, it's almost a given that he will lose and he will take it badly.

- At best, Dio's a jerk. And should people find out he's a jerk, it won't go well.

- Even though he's recently had his ass handed to him, he still considers himself to be above everybody. He's in control here. Nothing can go wrong. And that will probably bite him in the ass here repeatedly

-Dio's from the late 1800s. He's about 100 years behind the times at best. He's got some serious catching up to do.

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Rocket
Starter: Level 15 Yamask and a level 5 Zubat.
Password: Cherries Strudel as of 9/28

Greed | FMA: Brotherhood | Reserved

[princeofavarice]

Player
Name: Rizu
Personal Journal: rizuk01
E-mail: earthderpiest[at]gmail.com
AIM/Plurk/Etc.: RizuK01
Timezone: Mountain Standard Time (MST, GMT – 7)
Current Characters in Route: N/A

Character
Name: Greed
Series: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009 Anime)
Timeline: Post-Series End
Canon Resource Links: Greed, Homunculus, Manga/Brotherhood

Personality: Being a literal embodiment of the greed expelled from Father, Greed's avarice knows no limit. He wants for everything, as he will occasionally state himself: Money, Status, Women, Sex, Power, Immortality, and all of the finer things in life. As such, Greed will do anything and everything to get what he wants in his possession, and to keep it for as long as possible. What he won't state openly is that, more than anything, he longs for friends who would do anything for him and stay by his side, for the hole in his heart is something he has slowly come to regard as loneliness that can really only be fulfilled by true companionship.

Over time (and with having Ling as a very active "roommate"), Greed has learned to become at least a little more charitable, finding some scrapes of satisfaction from being genuinely helpful near the end of his life. After his care was rewarded with the visible worry of those he could then call his allies, to himself he could tell that he had done well and had, somehow, formed a mutual bond with them that was more valuable than any material possession or position of power existing in the world.

However, in spite of all his growth and change, Greed is above all else possessive of his belongings – minions or objects, friends and companions, if he deems it as belonging to him he won't stand for anyone stealing from him or, in more extreme cases, breaking his things. He becomes furious and vicious, and he will take any vengeance he can on those who he deems as thieves who have either stolen or damaged his goods, which can alternatively be labelled as a protectiveness over his minions and allies.

One thing some might consider odd is Greed's inherent blunt honesty; though there are aspects of himself he chooses to hide for the sake of his own pride, Greed doesn't believe in lying to others and in fact is simple in the way that he states what he wants and when he wants it. It makes him straight-forward with no filter or tact, leaving what he wants and what his intentions are bared and open with no room for doubt. Even in his final moments he dislikes that he told a lie, even if it consequently was the noblest thing he could have done at the time.

Greed is also highly intelligent and perceptive, taking in important information and formulating strategies based on what information he knows and using that knowledge to his every advantage. He'll even let someone else take the lead if he knows their intelligence in a given situation outclasses his own, although such times are only ever temporary as he will want control back in the end.

The last thing is his slightly old-fashioned policy regarding women; it doesn't seem as if he regards them as weak, but even so he strongly dislikes the aspect of fighting them, even encouraging them to leave the battle before getting started as it isn't his style to fight with them. Of course he will if it comes right down to it, but he won't actively seek fights with them. What he will actively do, however, is flirt with them.

Strengths/Weaknesses: + Charismatic
+ Cunning
+ Perceptive
+ Intelligent
+ Relaxed
+ Protective

+/- Honest
+/- Possessive
+/- Flirtatious
+/- Stubborn
+/- Persistent
+/- Ambitious

- Vicious
- Arrogant
- Avaricious
- Vengeful
- Disrespectful
- Indulgent

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer
Starter: Axew – its hard skin and possessive nature are a perfect match to Greed's canonical abilities and traits shown frequently throughout his appearances in the series.
Password: Cherries Strudel

Samples

First Person Sample: Gotta say, you people know how to live in luxury. There definitely weren't any ships like this back where I came from!

[ When the feed starts streaming video it shows a teenage boy of Chinese(?) descent grinning, sitting in a lounge chair on the deck of the ferry to Pallet Town. There's a cold, frosty glass of beer in view on the side table next to him, and the man lounges back in the chair with a relaxed sigh as he adjusts to catch the sun a bit more. ]

Good booze, fine-looking women, and powerful little creatures fit to be perfect minions with lots to collect. Shame they can't hold a conversation that well, but the world after death could be a hell of a lot worse. Don't know what I did to get to this paradise but like hell I'm gonna complain about it!

[ He laughs, almost bellowing with it before he looks into the camera once more. ]

So if I've got this thing workin' right, I wanna ask. Just what do a lot of you do for fun around here? I'm lookin' to keep entertained and take in as much life as I can here, so don't leave anything out!

Third Person Sample: Damn.

Greed couldn't help feeling furious with himself as he sat in the Pokémon Center's lobby, a scowl clear on his features while he waited for the service he had demanded. Those were his pokémon in there. Nothing but the best for them, and yet they had gotten their asses kicked against the gym leader... He was starting to wonder if they deserved that.

The thought was immediately followed by Greed's sigh and his shaking head. Of course they did, because they were his possessions. No one else was allowed to hurt or break them. He'd get his revenge in a fight against that prick, and it'd be the same pokémon who would do the winning next time. He'd get them to work hard and make sure that the same kind of defeat never happened to them again. It was a little too real, a little too much like a previous experience he had.

Maybe it was Ling rubbing off on him.

Frustrated, Greed got to his feet and began pacing, ignoring the odd looks and the requests to just relax from the nurses. Maybe on another day he might have tried to hit on them, because they were pretty damn hot. Today though, he just needed to hear that his pokémon -- his things -- were healed and ready to go. It didn't matter if he'd heard the rumors of the things being unable to die, the thought that they had been damaged on his watch when he and they should have had the strength to win was infuriating. It was almost exactly like when Wrath...

That memory was fuzzy, but it still pissed him off. Funny, how it was the homunculus Wrath who did that to him. Good thing the bastard wasn't there or he'd tear him to pieces all over again, but he'd have to take things in order. He'd wait for the moment, at least until he knew his team was fully healed.

[these_balls]

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon!
Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.

Now that you've been accepted...
[○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must!
[○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: # thru G, H thru O, or P thru Z.
[○] Comment to the Friend Add/Remove, and update your friends list.
[○] Join the following communities: route_29, route_006, route_1065, pokedaycare. Only Team Rocket personnel should join rocket_hq, but we ask that all Route members subscribe to it.
Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places.
[○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted.
[○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms!
[○] Route 29 has an optional spam/meme community; it's slowpoke_gif!
[○] You can also find our mod plurk at RouteMods; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!

We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!

Thank you! See you in the Pokémon world!

* * *
Hey, October applicant! Please be aware that we've got a gamewide plot coming up later in the month (as seen on our calendar), so we strongly suggest heading over to have a look at that, as well!

Stanley Pines ❥ Gravity Falls ❥ Not Reserved

[pointe]

Player
Name: Tarma
Personal Journal: pointe
E-mail: lunasets@gmail.com
AIM/Plurk/Etc.:
morgues @ plurk
finalfantasyfootball @ skype
Timezone: CST
Current Characters in Route: Lockon Stratos

Link for spoilers!

[these_balls]

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon!
Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.

Now that you've been accepted...
[○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must!
[○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: # thru G, H thru O, or P thru Z.
[○] Comment to the Friend Add/Remove, and update your friends list.
[○] Join the following communities: route_29, route_006, route_1065, pokedaycare. Only Team Rocket personnel should join rocket_hq, but we ask that all Route members subscribe to it.
Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places.
[○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted.
[○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms!
[○] Route 29 has an optional spam/meme community; it's slowpoke_gif!
[○] You can also find our mod plurk at RouteMods; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!

We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!

Thank you! See you in the Pokémon world!

* * *
Hey, October applicant! Please be aware that we've got a gamewide plot coming up later in the month (as seen on our calendar), so we strongly suggest heading over to have a look at that, as well!

Kain Fuery ll Fullmetal Alchemist ll Reserved Pt 1 of 3

[drunk_scraplet]

Player
Name: Re
Personal Journal: drunk_scraplet
E-mail: gdamnitnpc@gmail.com
AIM/Plurk/Etc.: redalertlackey (AIM) // pinkparasol (PLURK) // pinkparasolmage (SKYPE)
Timezone: US Eastern
Current Characters in Route: N/A

Character
Name: Kain Fuery
Series: Fullmetal Alchemist (Manga)
Timeline: Post Promised Day
Canon Resource Links: Personal and a Basic Plot outline

Kain Fuery ll Fullmetal Alchemist ll Reserved Pt 2 of 3

[drunk_scraplet]

Personality:
Fuery is a puppy. Well not literally, even though this canon could make such a possibility, but let’s not go down that route. Ahem, Fuery’s personality and the way certain traits of his are exhibited in canon can be very likened to that of a puppy or still not fully grown dog. Though you don’t have to take my word for it, but I’m certain as you read about him you’ll start to agree.

Let’s start from the top and work our way into understanding Sergeant Major Kain Fuery.

For being an enlisted soldier Fuery doesn’t seem like it, there’s no harsh edges or the puffed up chest that people typically think of when thinking of military guys. Then again Fuery mostly joined to make a career out of his hobby of tinkering with radios. So yes, in several ways Fuery fits the nerd aspect due to this. He’s a timid in some cases, quiet, and soft spoken individual. Well, soft spoken when you compare him to those like Major Armstrong and such. Mostly though, Fuery is pretty content to be in the background and doing his duties while letting others (Mustang) play politics and climb the rank ladder.

Though, don’t let this fool you into thinking he’s weak or not at all ambitious. It’s just that all of his strengths and dedication have been coopted into the service of Roy Mustang. Like many tales both well known and locally known about dogs being faithful and loyal to their owners to extremely high levels. Fuery has that same level of loyalty to Mustang. After all not just anyone is willing to endure being on the frontlines only to desert from the military the moment Mustang calls for his scattered unit to reunite. (The loyalty points double when you take into account that desertion from his military post would most likely lead to his execution of Mustangs coup failed or if Fuery had been caught in transit from his post to the meeting point for said coup.)

One could say it’s a bit foolish to put so much trust and confidence into one person, but Fuery isn’t alone in doing so, and well he’s not exactly known for having a lot of points in life experience.

Yes, some may find it funny or even worrying that this young military man is still considered naive in several instances of the word. One has to recall though that Fuery is pretty young and likely went straight into his career path early on. The fact he joined when most of the large scale fighting was over, and his skill set making him more valuable remaining within reach then being given a gun and doing grunt work on a contested border also adds to him being sheltered in a way. To some this would appear to be a barrier or the base worth in regards to Fuery, meaning many would overlook him and any potential he has because they look at his lack of experience as a negative and not something that can be cured over time.

This potential is likely why he was tapped and enfolded into Mustang’s unit outside of his general kindness that is.

I mention this as officially Mustang apparently labeled Fuery as a person of interest and potential subordinate due to said kindness, and how well Fuery treated those ranked lower then him and placed in under his command. As Fuery is naturally good natured and helpful it lends him to being a bit of the optimistic and good cheer in the unit at times. Almost as a sort of mascot role to an untrained observer or one who dismisses his radio expertise as hardly worth any note amidst the talent pool of Mustang’s unit.

Within this unassuming and chipper man is steely resolve and strength that makes him make up for his lack of combat experience and prowess into being a devoted and extraordinary support type. This resolve seen clearly when due to an attempt to weaken Mustang the entire unit was scattered to the four winds, and had Fuery end up in the trenches on the border conflict with Aerugo. Despite not being a frontliner and watching friends and comrade be killed, while he is avoiding suffering the same death by shellfire; he doesn’t cower or hesitate at all. Instead telling himself that he would survive and he would once again help Mustang in his plans.


Strengths/Weaknesses:
+/- Fuery has a very solid foundation in mechanics, especially radio technology. However considering his world, aside from magical Alchemy shounen powers, has the general level of technology that would fit right in with the European Industrial Revolution (19th century) that puts him at a disadvantage when compared to things like pokegear.

+ Though this large information gap may seem daunting, Fuery is intelligent and resourceful enough to do all he can to close this technological gap and gain understanding in how such devices in this world will work.

+/-Fuery’s optimism and stubbornness will make it hard for him to give up once he sets his mind on something.

- Despite his military career and everything he’s gone through back in his world, Fuery is still naive and possibly overly trusting in some areas. Which could be bad if he’s quick to forgive when he should instead be wary.

- Because of the time period setting of his world, Psychiatric help isn’t exactly a large thing. Thus, Fuery and his time on the front lines likely will result in various symptoms linked to untreated Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

-Fuery needs glasses, though how strong of a prescription they are and whether it’s near or far sightedness. Considering he spends a lot of time staring into the innards of machines, reading telegrams, and looking over technical diagrams it’s likely a case of nearsighted problems.

+ Because of his military career Fuery is in good shape and is used to carrying large amount of weight on his back due to rucksacks, ammo, and the backpack like contraption seen in canon that is used to run telephone wire through the trenches in order to connect various outposts.

+ In this same vein Fuery is at least adapt in firearms, and likely has some, if only minimal, hand to hand combat training.

- Likewise, due to being military Fuery is used to a command structure and the rigid guidelines that one follows in regards such. Meaning he’ll likely have habits that won’t die easily and will look for some sort of chain of command as a touchstone to steady himself as he settles into this world.

Korra | Legend of Korra | Reserved (1/2)

[bent_the_world]

Player
Name: Faye
Personal Journal: said_scarlett
E-mail: red.headed.rapunzel@gmail.com
AIM/Plurk/Etc.: Plurk - crossthesky
Timezone: Arizona
Current Characters in Route: Lust, Jimmy Darling, Ming Numara

Character
Name: Korra
Series: Legend of Korra
Timeline: Post-series
Canon Resource Links: Korra's Wiki Page

Personality: The key component to Korra's personality stems from her Avatar identity. Unlike previous Avatars, Korra was aware from a very young age just what she was. She was able to bend three of the four elements since she was a small child, something she herself has always been aware is practically unheard of. We see her as a little girl, bending fire, earth, and water, and shouting 'I'm the Avatar, deal with it!'. She grew up knowing she was extremely special and destined for great things, and internalizing this deeply - despite not fully understanding what it is to BE the Avatar. Even once she begins her proper training.

But by the time she's seventeen, at the start of the series, Korra is confident in herself to the point of brashness and egotism. Still not yet able to bend air, she assumes her training will be a simple thing, because she's Korra. She's the Avatar. Why wouldn't it be simple? She begins with an assumption that life and the tasks beyond the isolated compound she was raised on will be a breeze for her, because of her abilities and her duties. All her life, she's thought of little beyond being the Avatar and helping the world. When she learns her air bending teacher, Tenzin, can't stay with her in the South Pole due to duties in Republic City, Korra tries to negotiate, uses emotional outbursts, and finally loses her temper when she doesn't get what she feels she should have. She even goes so far as to ignore her parents' and Tenzin's wishes, and sneaks out to go to Tenzin in Republic City.

When her air bending training proves difficult, Korra's response is to lash out and lose her temper. She destroys a priceless training artifact in a fit of rage, over simply not being able to pick up air bending as easily as she feels the Avatar should. This is a very stark example of two intrinsic points: Korra has little control over her temper, and isn't used to working for things.

Being raised on a compound for her own protection - something she was unaware of, most of her life - kept her isolated but also provided an environment where everyone looked after her. She was handed everything she needed, physically speaking, and was already a master of water, earth, and fire before even leaving the compound. Growing up, she was best at everything, or at least considered herself to be. She admits in canon 'I've always just had people take care of me.' When she first comes to Republic City, she attempts to do what she's always known she was born to do - help people. But she ends up causing a great deal of property damage and getting arrested, a situation she doesn't react well to. She's the Avatar! She stopped a crime! She can't understand why something like local laws are more important than that.

Even her physical interactions with people display her assertiveness and deep seated belief in her own importance as Avatar. She invades other people's personal space often when arguing or making a point, and often grabs or touches people to make sure they're paying attention to her.

It's no surprise, with what's been detailed already, that Korra is impulsive and impatient. She does what she feels is best, in the early days throwing herself even into situations she's been specifically told not to. She always wanted to see a pro-bending match, and when she's told by Tenzin she can't, she sneaks out anyway. And then ends up joining a pro-bending team, when the opportunity presents itself. And encounters another instance where she's not quite as awesome at everything as she thought. Despite being the Avatar, she's never see pro-bending or been exposed to modern bending styles. She does miserably, losing her temper and breaking the rules to use all her available styles of bending, not just water. She can't take the fact that she isn't flawless at this from the start, either.

But this point also marks an important developmental point for Korra. She starts to realize that her stubborn insistence that she can do everything, and do it her way, may not be right. She implements the teachings of Tenzin that she's been ignoring, and finds herself doing well on the pro-bending court. From here, we see subtle shifts in her way of thinking. She starts relying a little bit more on others - going to the authorities for help instead of rushing in headlong herself, laying out her ideas calmly instead of losing her temper every time she's challenged. But her pride and her self identity not just as Korra but AVATAR Korra are still the strongest facets of her personality. She's able to be manipulated into joining a dangerous task force, by calling out her bravery and Avatar abilities.

When her bending abilities are threatened by the first season's villain, Korra breaks down. The idea of losing her bending is more than just the loss of her abilities, it's the loss of herself. She can't conceive of being anything the Avatar. It's something that shakes her to the core and is a recurring theme through the series - Korra struggling with her identification as the Avatar. She breaks down again in season 2, when her connection to her previous Avatar lives and connection with the light spirit Raava is severed, believing herself useless without her Avatar abilities.

As the series progresses and Korra experiences more of the real world and more worldwide crises, the growth that was started in season 1 continues. Korra is able to connect with her spiritual side, and continues to rely more on the help of others. She begins to understand how the world works, and starts finding her true place in it, not just the place she thought she needed. With the aid and guidance of her friends and loved ones, Korra is able to reevaluate the Avatar's role in the world and therefor her own.

But the largest change in Korra occurs in the third season. When she's poisoned by the third season's villain, she comes as close as she's ever come to dying. While she's able to break free and Zaheer is captured in the end, the mercury poison in her system did her serious damage. Even once removed, she was physically, spiritually, and mentally broken down, unable to walk or care for herself. Her connection with Raava and her Avatar spirit was broken. Her recovery took three years, in which she began losing herself. What good was an Avatar that couldn't even be the Avatar? Her helplessness over losing her connection to the previous Avatars returns, she couldn't even ask them for guidance. She fell into a deep depression, and eventually began hallucinating herself in her Avatar state - a wild, haunting version of herself. What was once her greatest strength and pride was now the greatest source of distress in her life.

This is the final point of Korra's maturity. Even once recovered physically, her hallucinations persisted and she couldn't fight or bend the way she used to. She was easily knocked out in an underground bending match. She fled, from everyone, lying about where she'd be so she couldn't be found, to try and reclaim herself. When she learns there's still poison in her body, she is quick to blame that for all her problems. When she finds she has to remove it herself, it's a struggle. Again, we see a resurgence of her not wanting to work for something, returning in her depressed state. She wants it to be easy, a quick fix. But she's able to get over it and remove the poison...which makes no difference. It's here that she really starts examining herself and her role as Avatar. She confronts the idea 'the world doesn't need you'. She realizes that's part of the real problem - her own belief that this could be true. Her visions come because she's still terrified of what was done to her, that she was nearly defeated even in her Avatar State. It was a traumatizing experience she ran from rather than confronted.

Once Korra makes peace with that as best as she can and resumes her Avatar duties, she settles back to something closer to the brash, impulsive, optimistic young woman she was five years ago, but more matured and mellowed. She understands that while she went through traumatic and terrible things, suffering is necessary for true compassion.

While still quick to jump to action and short of temper, Korra tries to think things through and keep her temper in check. She begins using diplomacy before fighting, and putting herself in her opponent's place to understand them instead of just relying on a black and white idea of 'good' and 'bad' people. She's more humble, more quick to apologize, she's able to forgive. She's able to open up to and rely on others. She can see her own flaws and tries to do better. She finally learns to give of herself, Korra the person, not just Avatar Korra. While her Avatar identity is still extremely important to her, it's no longer the whole of her.

Despite all these changes, she's still optimistic, passionate, devoted to her loved ones, inquisitive, and committed to the greater good. As well as perfectly okay with using violence if talking doesn't work. She still has growing and healing to do, and still can be plagued with self doubts, but one of her greatest strengths is her ability to do just that: grow and heal.


Strengths/Weaknesses: Physically, Korra is a tank. Her raw physical strength is ridiculous - she can pick up a grown man and three children at the same time with ease. She is thick and buff, and proud of it.

Mentally, her ability to recover from repeated trauma and come out of it changed for the better is a serious strength. Despite everything she goes through, despite feeling her breath being literally stolen from her lungs by a man who completely overpowered her and literally destroyed her deeply held world view, she still is able to find her way back to herself.

Her loyalty and devotion to her loved ones is another strength. She is selfless and willing to do nearly anything for those she cares about, and in many ways this is something that helps her to grow and develop. Seeing the burdens of her loved ones and learning to help shoulder those burdens, instead of punching the problem and assuming that would fix everything.

She can think quickly in a crisis, leaping into action immediately. She isn't one to freeze up, and tends to be clever and creative when confronted with a sudden fight or disaster, making use of her environment and whatever happens to be on hand.

She's a skilled martial artist, she has numerous survival skills, and she knows extensive first aide.



While Korra is clever and quick thinking, and demonstrates a proficiency for immediate tactical planning, long term planning and tactical reasoning aren't her strong suit. She's not so great with puzzles and riddles, or thinking many steps ahead. This includes predicting other's next moves ahead of time, and long term consequences to quick decision actions.

Korra's passion can be a source of great strength, but the power her emotions have over her decision making can be a serious weakness. She can have the bad habit of letting her emotions dictate her actions - such as when she threatens to have her polar bear dog crush a judge's skull in her jaws if he doesn't change her father's sentence and release him, or staying in a relationship where the emotions are about the only thing that can be agreed on.

Which brings us neatly to Korra's temper. She's quick tempered, and her rage is explosive. She expresses it physically, and vents through destruction or physical exertion, or lashing out verbally. She often regrets what she says later, but in her rage will let loose with some particularly cruel barbs - even to those closest to her. She has a number of screaming matches with Mako, lashes out angrily at her father when she learns he was involved in the decision to keep her isolated in a compound, turns on Tenzin when she's frustrated with her own failure to quickly master air bending...

She can be painfully and dangerously stubborn, though this is something she's working on. But she still digs her heels in when she's sure she's right - for better or for worse. Even going so far as to lash out at those trying to tell her differently, no matter their intentions.

Despite her ongoing recovery, both mental and physical, Korra is still prone to self doubt and questioning herself and her actions after the fact. She still suffers from PTSD, and still struggles with a deep inner fear of failure. She can get hung up going over things again and again in her mind.


Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer
Starter: Growlithe
Password: Cherries streudel

Re: Korra | Legend of Korra | Reserved (2/2)

[bent_the_world]

Samples
First Person Sample:

Whoah!

[Hey, this thing works! Korra peers into the screen of her 'Gear with a puzzled expression, turning it this way and that before holding it up right in front of her so her face fills the screen.]

What is this place? Because it's definitely not the spirit world. The lack of any spirits at all is a pretty big clue.

[And last thing she remembers, that was definitely where she'd been heading. With Asami. She's even still dressed exactly the same. It's like she stepped into the portal but instead of taking her to the field in the spirit world, it took her...here.]

[She's pretty sure spirit portals don't work that way. At all. And if that's what happened, she shouldn't be alone. She's not too freaked out yet - she hasn't been hurt, no one's holding her captive, everybody seems friendly if unhelpful, and the tiger puppy thing chewing it's feet on the ground next to her makes her grin. She's pretty sure she's not in any danger, but she has no idea what's going on. And wherever she is, her bending doesn't seem to be working right now. Not exactly the best circumstances.]

Can people really hear me through this? There's somebody I need to find...

Third Person Sample:

"Did you just breathe fire? You totally just breathed fire!"

Tiger puppy was officially awesome. "I'm gonna call you Iqniq. I think we're gonna get along great. Wish you could just tell me what was going on. I guess this thing's supposed to be able to get me in touch with other people?"

Korra held her 'gear out as though Iqniq could give her some tips on how to use it. The puppy only nosed the piece of equipment and let out an excited growl. About what Korra had actually expected. She turned the 'gear around in her hands, squatting on her heels on the side of the road and frowning thoughtfully.

"Maybe there's instructions in one of the manuals in the bag they gave me." Another point for not being in any danger, that weird mom-lady had given her supplies. Not much in the food department, but they were useful supplies.

Too bad Asami wasn't here. She'd have this thing figured out and probably ideas for improvement already. Where was Asami? They'd been holding hands when they went into the portal. At the exact same second. They should have stayed together, that was how it worked.

That was really the most upsetting part of everything. There were all kinds of reasons why her bending wouldn't be working, but not many explanations for Unexpectedly Absent Asami. Maybe she was just...somewhere else around here. In a different creepy little house, or something.

"Let's just hang out here for a little bit, okay?" Korra patted Iqniq and settled in crosslegged on a grassy slope just off the road. That way she could see anyone else coming out of the little village she'd woken up in. Hopefully Asami would be along soon. If not...well, Korra wasn't going to think about that right now.

Regina Mills | Once Upon a Time | Unreserved

[happyneverafter]

Player
Name: Wes
Personal Journal: thewesside
E-mail: floridiancheese@gmail.com
AIM/Plurk/Etc.: bornthisgaybaby @ plurk
Timezone: UTC
Current Characters in Route: None!

Character
Name: Regina Mills
Series: Once Upon a Time
Timeline: The end of Season 4
Canon Resource Links: The series wikipedia article and Her own wiki article

Personality: Once upon a time, Regina was a good, kind woman who believed in true love and happiness, who was content in her life and didn't seek anything more- but that all fell apart when Snow White let slip Regina's secret love to her mother and Regina's mother killed him. It set Regina on a dark path, where she became intent on ruining Snow White's happy ending so that she could finally have her own.

Regina became angry, bitter and murderous and as Queen, she ruled with an iron fist, striking fear in the hearts of everyone. To her, being feared was powerful. If she couldn't gain people's loyalty naturally, then she would get it other ways. But more than that, the darkness really went deep. It wasn't rare for her to make appearances in her kingdom and torment her subjects, often times ending with a death or two. She would not tolerate any form of disrespect and anyone associated with Snow White would pay the ultimate price.

For the longest time after her love's death, the only person Regina cared for and opened up to was her father, and he's the only one in her family that she truly trusts; obviously she has a low opinion of her mother after what happened, resenting her more than anything for what happened. She also has a poor relationship with her sister, barely able to stand being in the same room with her for more than a few minutes given everything she's been put through. To everyone else- at least those capable of being around her without dying- she's cold, distant, often condescending and abrasive. She wouldn't hesitate to manipulate and them to get what she wanted, often turning around and stabbing them in the back in the end. For those she couldn't manipulate, she would literally rip their hearts from their chests and use it to control them that way.

Regina is also intelligent and cunning. She knows how to play and she plays dirty. She doesn't hesitate to go into a fight, confident in her own abilities and unafraid of getting her hands dirty when she has to, having gone toe-to-toe with powerful sorceresses and other magical beings without second thought. As mentioned, she isn't afraid of cheating- she'll use people's weaknesses against them without a second thought if it means getting what she wants.

At least, that's how she is in the beginning. Over the course of the series, Regina goes through a lot of changes. Her life becomes a battle between her evil tendencies and trying to be the hero that she wants to be and that her son believes she can be. She realizes that she doesn't have to be evil to get her happy ending. It's not an easy battle for her, though. Regina often struggles with doing the right thing. She's got a quick temper and it's easy for her to fall back into old habits, but she's strong-willed and believes that she's capable of putting her past behind her. She's far from an optimist when it comes to getting her happy ending, though. As much as she wants it, she has a hard time believing that it's even possible for someone like her to be happy. After so many setbacks, it's easy for her to feel like she's destined to be a villain forever and that she won't ever find true love. These feelings are further cemented when people assume the worst of her and still view her as the Evil Queen instead of who she is now, given how hard she's working to distance herself from that person.

Henry is her biggest motivation when it comes to changing her ways. He's the one that believes in her the most and the one that keeps her on the right track, he's the one who made her want to be a better person In the first place. Without him, Regina would never have changed. She is fiercely protective of Henry and would do anything within her power to keep him safe. Henry is often the cause of many arguments between Regina and Emma, usually brought on by jealousy (which Regina would obviously never admit to). Regina's biggest fear is losing Henry, because for the longest time, Henry was the only good thing in Regina's life. Then along came Robin Hood, who's helped Regina realize that she's capable of loving again. Regina wants to believe that the two of them can be happy together and she's willing to fight for him, despite all of the obstacles that have kept them apart. At times her faith is tested, but her determination keeps her going.

On the subject of Emma and the "heroes" in general, Regina has a stable, though occasionally strained, relationship with all of them. She's learned to tolerate them, not only for Henry's sake but because in their own way, they make her life better. Regina doesn't always agree with the way that they handle things and she's usually the realist of the group. She's a good balance to their optimism and heroics, even if she tends to opt towards the more dangerous paths, such as when she pretended to be evil again in order to get information from the other villains. While they may not always get along, Regina has found a little niche with them and has come to care for them; there isn't much she wouldn't do for them- just the same as they would now do for her. Emma in particular is someone who's become one of Regina's best friends and someone she cares deeply for. The two of them still have their disagreements, but- usually in regards to Henry, or how to handle certain situations, but Regina knows they both have Henry's wellbeing at heart and she no longer perceives Emma as the threat she once did.

Regardless of these changes that Regina's gone through, she still has some issues to work through. Regina still isn't the easiest person to get along with, she's still distant and comes off as emotionally detached. She also still has the habit of being a fairly antagonistic person, even often getting into arguments and sass-offs with her allies. She may consider herself one of the good guys now, but Regina still has quite the bite to her if you push her buttons. Despite how much she's changed, there are still people who view her as the evil queen and incapable of changing and that bother angers her and makes her doubt herself, even if she won't admit it. There's always that little struggle to remain on the right path, but overall she's on the right track to get where she wants to be.

Strengths/Weaknesses:
+Strong willed
+Brave
+Intelligent- she can usually work out a plan to get herself out of any situation she finds herself in.
+Adaptable- She's been to Neverland, she's been to Wonderland, she's been to our land and she's survived all of them. She knows how to adapt to places.
+Can sword fight
+ / -Manipulative when she needs to be, not always a good thing depending on the circumstances

Overall Regina's strengths are in the fact that she's a determined individual, when she's set on something it takes a lot to stop her. If you get in her way, then you can bet she won't hesitate to defend herself and she's willing to face whatever challenge she has to. She's seen a lot in her lifetime and it takes a lot to shake her and even more to actually scare her.


-Abrasive
-Pessimistic
- Quick temper
-Violent, if pushed too far
-Though she's adaptable, Regina is rather used to relying on magic to solve her problems, so having it will be an inconvenience to her

Regina's faults are in her recklessness and her inability to get close to people and that stems from the fear of losing them. Her biggest fear was always losing Henry, having lost so much already. There's a part of her that needs someone to love her, whether it be true love or familial love. Regina, overall, doesn't want to be alone and sometimes she sabotages herself without even meaning to.

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer
Starter: Ponyta
Password: Cherries, Strudel

Samples
First Person Sample:
[When the feed comes on, Regina can be seen staring into it, lips pursed and eyebrows furrowed lightly. She takes in a long breath before speaking, just to get her thoughts in order.]

It's obvious that I'm not the only one dragged here from another world, so I'm not going to bother asking anyone how I'm supposed to get home. If anyone knew the answer to that, I assume none of us would be here.

[A light roll of her eyes, before she straightens herself up a little more.]

What I do want to know is if this world has any magic. Any at all? God knows I would settle for even some pixie dust at this point. And who's in charge here? There has to be somebody that I can talk to, I don't care how pointless it is.

[Because if there's one thing that Regina Mills is, it's stubborn. Obviously no one else has managed to convince the powers that be to send them home, but she's damn sure going to try anyway.

Regina is about to turn off video when something else comes to mind.]

Oh, and one more thing. How do I work these balls? This… horse, if you can even call it that, is taking up too much space. I want to be rid of it for now. [She points the camera at Ponyta, before shifting it back to herself so she can give a pointed look before turning off the feed.]
Third Person Sample:
"Give me a room."

Regina's voice was sharp, perhaps more than she had intended as she stepped up to the counter at the inn she had managed to find and threw some money onto it. When she saw the look she received from the receptionist, Regina narrowed her eyes slightly. "Please," she added, clearly put out at being forced to use manners when she was already so frazzled.

The receptionist eyed her critically before glancing over her shoulder. "We prefer Pokémon to be put in their balls," she said, while grabbing a key.

"What? You mean this horse from hell that's following me?" Regina glanced at it irritably. "What am I supposed to do with it?"

After a few more back and forth exchanges, Regina finally found herself in a small room in the inn, where she sat on the edge of the bed. Much to her annoyance, her Pokémon ended up following her. "Now what?" she asked to no one in particular, staring around the room with a growing sense of helplessness. Once again she was in a world without magic, with no way of getting home or contacting anyone. She was alone. Again.

It would be easy to give up. Admit defeat. But Regina wouldn't do that, not yet. Did she miss everyone? Was she afraid that by some chance she would never see them again? Yes. But she wasn't going to just give up and fall into a hopeless rut. Not yet. Not when she had to get home so that she could help Emma. They needed her, who else knew how to fight a darkness light… well, the Dark One? The thought it made her both angry and a little scared, which only fueled her resolve to find a way to make it home.

"I don't suppose you know how I can get home?" she asked, staring at the flaming horse with an unimpressed look. It let out a snort in response. "I'm reduced to talking to a horse. Fantastic." It was going to be a long night.

[these_balls]

Before we make our final decision on your application, we would like a revised personality section for Regina. Unfortunately, we feel that the section as it currently stands does not go into sufficient depth discussing certain character relationships that have played a large part in defining Regina as a person, particularly at the application's chosen canonpoint. In particular, we would like to see more focus on her relationships with Robin and her sister and how they have affected her individual character, her growth, and her development as of her chosen canonpoint. We also feel that certain influential canon events were insufficiently touched on in the section, such as when Regina's alignment and backstory were temporarily rewritten at the end of the season. In the revised section, please make sure to discuss these significant events as well, as they pertain to her personality. You will have one week to complete these requests before the character is available again.

Yasuhiro Hagakure | Dangan Ronpa | reserved + reapp

[crystalballer]

This application contains spoilers for Hagakure's side-novel in Dangan Ronpa Another Episode!

I've updated Hagakure's personality and strengths/weaknesses sections to explain any developments or further insights gained from Ultra Despair Hagakure. The samples are from his first time around in the game, though I feel that they still reflect his core personality well.

Player
Name: Seto
Personal Journal: fearow
E-mail: tehseto[at]hotmail[dot]com
AIM/Plurk/Etc.: Arystar
Timezone: CST
Current Characters in Route: N/A

[crystalballer]

Character
Name: Yasuhiro Hagakure
Series: Dangan Ronpa
Timeline: after the events of Ultra Despair Hagakure
Canon Resource Links: Dangan Ronpa Wiki article, Hagakure's article on the DR Wiki
Hagakure's DR Wiki article has a good summary of Ultra Despair Hagakure in it as well!

Personality:

Let's start with the biggest aspect of Hagakure's character. Hagakure is the Super High-School Level Fortune Teller, so his life practically revolves around fortune-telling and other things involving the occult and supernatural. He's well-practiced in all sorts of fortune-telling methods and is very knowledgeable about all of them, such as palm-reading, tarot-reading, numerology, oneiromancy (dream-reading), crystal-gazing, conversing with spirits, etc. He also claims to have clairvoyance (the official translation reflects this by naming his title Ultimate Clairvoyant), often receiving many of his fortunes through visions. And get this you guys, his predictions and visions are extremely accurate 20% of the time! Sometimes 30%!

... No wait don't give him that look, it's amazing!

Needless to say, basically no one takes him seriously, and it actually hurts him a bit.

He's a firm believer in cryptozoology and other subjects concerning the unexplained. For example, he loves talking about cryptids like skyfish along with extraterrestrial life (true story: his burger was abducted by aliens once), but the only thing he doesn't like is ghosts. He's absolutely terrified of those. Apparently he has a large collection of OOParts, out-of-place artifacts that shouldn't have been able to be created with the technology of the time they were made. He's extremely passionate about his art, and easily gets riled up at skeptics trying to berate it.

And since we're on the topic, another big part of Hagakure's personality that is often brought up in the game is his relationship with the subject of the supernatural. It seems confusing to everyone that Hagakure says he hates the occult/supernatural while still believing in subjects that are regarded as the occult/supernatural. You see, to him, calling something "occult" or "supernatural" assumes that it don't exist or isn't confirmed by science. In his eyes, his work is real and scientific. OOParts are legitimately made by ancient supercultures, sometimes with the help of aliens. It's all just being covered up by the government because it doesn't want people to know that these things are real, but Hagakure's out there to spread the truth!

The next major trait of Hagakure's personality is, as all comic relief-designated characters tend to have, he's kind of an idiot. Okay, "kind of" is putting it lightly. Really, it's a wonder Hagakure was able to survive the entirety of this story with how dense, gullible, and irresponsible he is. This will be expanded upon in the strengths/weaknesses section, but basically, Hagakure comes across as someone who doesn't really think and just stumbles along in life. It's pretty evident when right off the bat at the beginning of the game, he doesn't take any of the red flags seriously, like everyone suddenly passing out and waking up with the school barricaded and all the exits blocked off. He doesn't take Monobear or Monobear's ultimatum that if they want to leave they have to kill someone seriously. He doesn't even take Maizono's death seriously until Junko is killed after her. That's when it finally hits him that, holy shit, he's trapped in this school and could possibly be killed like these girls. He then proceeds to do exactly what would be expected, stumble along and try not to get killed. It leads to him getting framed for murder, nearly committing murder, and nearly sending a classmate to death so he could survive within the school for life (and even that was questionable because you never know if the Mastermind is being sincere or not). His inability to stop and think gets him into a lot of trouble.

Ultra Despair Hagakure gives us some insight on just how his thought process works, and we see that he for sure has a lot of moments where he'll say things without thinking, but what's interesting is we also get to see what happens when he really gets called out on the things he says. When he actually realizes what he says can hurt someone, he learns from that. When one of his comments about Kanon's outdated way of speaking makes her cry, he genuinely does feel bad and refrains from saying it again until she actually asks him to. He begins to adapt and know when the best time to not say anything is, whether it's when giving Kanon some space and time to vent her feelings without judgment or holding back potentially dangerous questions when he knows it could risk his own safety (unfortunately, it's still painfully easy to get him to spill his guts in that regard). He's also shown to have a very hard time reacting to life-threatening situations, even after the events of the first game. He's easily paralyzed by fear, even shutting down completely in the face of death multiple times. He has a hard time fighting back against these forces, leaving Kanon to rescue him.

In most situations though, Hagakure is a pretty carefree guy. He likes to sit back and enjoy life, and ignore all the horrible things going on when he can. Most of the time he prefers to keep an upbeat attitude, but it's pretty difficult to do inside a school of mutual killing or in a world ravaged by despair and killer Monobears, so instead he just comes off as really delusional. Hey, no one's actually going to get killed, the school just staged it all as a joke! Aside from that though, in his free time events he likes to make conversations lighthearted and just talk about stuff that doesn't have to do with killing classmates. Granted, most of the things he likes to talk about make no sense to his classmates.

Now, at the beginning of the game, Hagakure admits that he was held back three years. Surprisingly enough, it has nothing to do with how dense he is. All ridiculousness aside, he's a decent student. What got him held back had to do with his SHSL skill. While he is a pretty good fortune-teller and he predictions do come true sometimes, he has a bad habit of spending money on supernatural artifacts he believes are real. Bad spending habits means he has to make money to support that habit. And because of that, he pushes the truths about his skill just a little too far. Meaning, yes, sometimes he does con more gullible people for his services, charging far more than he really should be. And the following story is the main insight into Hagakure's background that we get. He pulled this stunt on a rich girl, and it came back to bite him on the ass. Long story short, he spent three years on the run from gangs and whatnot with a huge debt and target on his back. This is a good representation of a lot of his traits. He honestly sees nothing wrong with conning people sometimes, and he didn't think, "hey, maybe this is a bad idea and I could get in major trouble for this!" Then there's the whole fact that he went and spent all that stolen money on fake objects. Talk about gullible. The worst part about it all is that he didn't have any friends to talk him out of these terrible ideas.

... So let's be honest, Hagakure is pretty difficult to understand to most people, and the main reason for that is from his interests and SHSL skill. He refers to those things a lot in conversations, like bringing up the story of cattle mutilation and aliens during a conversation about whether or not he believes in the occult, or his belief in chapter 5 that Kirigiri is an advanced model of ghost, leaving his fellow students clueless as to what he's trying to say. There have been multiple occasions where a student will outright say they don't get him at all. He's one of the only students who didn't really bond with anyone except for Naegi if you do free time events, and even then, Naegi only got more confused by Hagakure the further he got to know him. So he's something of a black sheep to the rest of the class. It's not hard to believe then, that he didn't have any friends at all before coming to Hope's Peak.

As we learn more about Hagakure in Ultra Despair Hagakure, we see that even after the events of the game, all aspects of his personality remain intact. But he does gain a rather important aspect to add on top of it all: he gains the qualities of a protagonist in his own right. At least, a little bit. After having to be saved by Kanon so many times, when Kanon herself is in trouble he is able to answer the call to try do something himself for a change, and not expect to be saved or simply cave in to despair. He realizes who he is: a member of the Future Foundation. He's survived through so much already, and now he's supposed to be able to save people, even if his fortunes tell him there's a good chance that he can't. Even with the odds stacked against them both, he attempts to save himself and Kanon from certain death and succeeds. Even if he can be pretty reckless, in this particular moment it really paid off. Sometimes you just gotta rely on the power of hope, y'know?

So while Hagakure's core self, the occult-loving gullible idiot that he is, remains, Ultra Despair Hagakure shows that he's able to grow and rise to the occasion to show his strengths when needed.

Karma Akabane | Assassination Classroom | NEW CHALLENGER APPROACHES

[dixxymouri]

Player
Name: Kit’s roommate Dixxy
Personal Journal: dixxymouri
E-mail: dixxymouri@hotmail.com
AIM/Plurk/Etc.: Plurk: DixxyMouri, Skype: Dixxy Mouri
Timezone: EST
Current Characters in Route: None

Character
Name: Karma Akabane
Series: Assassination Classroom
Timeline: After “Assassination Island” arc
Canon Resource Links:
http://ansatsukyoshitsu.wikia.com/wiki/Karma_Akabane
Personality: In short? Karma’s a snarky little shit with a penchant for violence who’s too smart for his own good.
Karma is in all seriousness the smartest student in Class 3-E and one of the smartest students in his entire junior high. Most likely he would have remained in one of the top-ranked classes had the incident during his second year happened, causing him to completely lose faith in educators. He regularly skips classes, believing he can get by on his intelligence and good luck. He’s casual and aloof, choosing to sit in the back of the class despite being the top ranked student and wearing a casual option for his school uniform.
That said Karma is also has a violent streak that he enjoys entertaining – being put in Class 3-E has given him the chance to actually kill one of his teacher’s, something he says he’s always wanted to do, and he’s also spent some time beating up random street thugs.

His main drive appears to be doing things that interest or amuse him. Despite having grades that could easily get him back into the top classes at the school, he chooses to stay in 3-E because it’s more entertaining to involve himself with the so-called “assassination classroom”.
Strengths/Weaknesses: Karma’s extremely intelligent and physically apt at combat, especially after a semester of training with Mr. Karasuma in the art of assassination including but not limited to hand to hand combat, marksmanship, evasion (which he wasn’t directly taught but picked up observation) and using blades. He’s also relentless when he decides he wants to do something going above and beyond conventional methods, and is also capable of thinking on his feet and putting together plans on short notice if needed. If his target is a person, he’s not afraid to mock, tease, or steal from them to get them unsettled. He’s a bit of a sadist, going so far as to shove spicy foods up
He’s also VERY good at reading people, possibly including seeing through false facades (episode 13 – I’m not sure on this one but I suspect he knew something was up with Mr. Takaoka when his classmates didn’t) and predicting the moves of an opponent (episode 22).
While I’m not sure what Karma’s afraid of (he threw himself off a cliff in an assassination attempt and he’s willingly gone toe to toe with a very dangerous foe before) he isn’t without his weaknesses. He sometimes gets TOO confident in his abilities and it sometimes bites him in the ass (though this has gotten better), and his personality tends to turn people off (for example, most of the girls in his class agree he’s the best looking of the boys but most of them don’t consider him “attractive” due to his psychotic tendencies). This isn’t to say he’s incapable of making friends (he’s not) but he’s certainly a “does not play well with others” type to be sure.

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer.
Starter: Snivey (Froakie used in writing sample, might change this a bunch before Saturday)
Password: “Pumpkin” and “Seeds” (a ha ha I see what you did there) (10/31/2015)
Samples

First Person Sample:

[Centered in the frame is a Rocket Grunt duct taped to a tree. His mouth has been duct taped shut and the word “TURD KING” has been written across his forehead in black permanent marker and a cheap cardstock crown from a fast food restaurant has been place on top of his head, slightly askew.]

[Karma steps into the frame, Bubbles the Froakie sitting on his head and sniffing the Rocket Grunt’s hat, and a marker in the teen’s hand.]

Hello, Kangaskhan Police? I’d like to report an attempted Pokemon theft. Don’t worry about apprehending the thief, I already took care of it for you.

[Gestures to the Rocket Grunt, whose eyes widen in fear at the sight of Karma. Karma shoots him a grin and he screams into the duct tape.]
You see, me and my little buddy here were minding our own business when his highness here thought he was entitled to the Pokemon being cared for by the nice little old couple at the Day Care, so since we had nothing better to do we thought we’d teach him a little lesson in manners. Don’t worry, I didn’t rough him up too much, but you can find him tied to a tree just outside of Goldenrod City, okay? Great, thanks.
Third Person Sample:
Route 34, eh? Looks like a good spot for a nap to me.
Sure someone had told Karma that after leaving Ilex Forest his next stop should have been a visit to Goldenrod City and its gym leader, but he was in no rush and neither was Bubbles. The Froakie was sitting on the edge of the riverbank, staring at something in the water, maybe a bug or another Pokemon she wanted to play with. Karma yawned and stretched.

They’d spent the better part of the afternoon trying (and failing) to catch the same damn Abra, but since he hadn’t figured out a way to make to the stupid thing stop teleporting away before he could catch it their efforts had been fruitless. He’d even gotten desperate enough to trying leaving a small pile of Pokemon food under a box propped up with a stick – oh, sure, the box fell over and the Abra was underneath when it fell, but it simply teleported away again.

Whatever. He’d catch it eventually, just like he’d eventually catch a certain octopus in his crosshairs once he got home . . . if he ever got home . . . if there was even a home to return to if it took him too long to get there.
Ah well. All they needed was a little breather and then they’d try again. He’d catch the little bastard eventually – there had to be lots of fun he could have with something that could blink in and out of existence.
There was disturbance of some sort nearby. Karma sat up and stared in the direction of the commotion. Bubbles had hopped over to his side and was now halfway in his lap, blinking one eye at a time. “Froakie?” she asked.
“You wanna check it out, buddy?” Karma asked. Bubbles croaked in response. “You’re right, might be fun. Let’s see what we got.” Karma got to his feet as his Pokemon crawled up and onto his shoulder. He shoved his hands in his pockets and headed towards the Day Care, the source of the commotion.
There was a member of Team Rocket, boldly holding an old man and an old lady . . . no way. Gunpoint? I didn’t think they actually had guns here! Bubbles didn’t flinch – either Bubbles had never encountered a gun in her very sheltered life before, or she didn’t care because he’d trained her to be a badass and she knew she could handle it.
“You thinking what I’m thinking? And are you sure you can handle it?” Bubbles croaked and nodded enthusiastically. Karma cracked his knuckles and chuckled, a mischievous glint in his eye. “All right, just follow my lead and this afternoon won’t be such a bust after all.”

[these_balls]

Unfortunately, we can't accept your application at this time. On the whole, we felt the application seemed rushed in places, and did not present to us a clear and cohesive look at who Karma is as a three-dimensional character in his own right. The personality section is very short, focused more on citing traits in isolation rather than demonstrating how these traits all come together in Karma as a person, and lacks support for those traits by failing to back them up with canon examples. We likewise feel that the strengths/weaknesses section is overly simplistic, and in one place even appears to be left incomplete. Finally, we found certain factual inconsistencies in this application that do not reflect an accurate portrayal of the game's setting as it stands. For these reasons, we cannot accept your application at this time. Please feel free to reapply as many times as you like.

Dave Strider | Homestuck | Reserved (1/3)

[callbacks]

Player
Name: Asher
Personal Journal: asherdashery
E-mail: ash (dot) sofman [at] gmail
AIM/Plurk/Etc.: asherdashery, AIM: asherdashery
Timezone: EST
Current Characters in Route: Agent York | Red vs. Blue | ratherbelocky

Character
Name: Dave Strider
Series: Homestuck
Timeline: [S] Game Over
Canon Resource Links: Dave's entry on the MSPA Wiki

Personality:

DAVE: i just say things it is just like this force of nature no one can control or even try to, least of all me
DAVE: we just have to cross our fingers and hope for the best

-- But I'll try to keep this short, since this app's already running long and I go over a lot of this in Strengths/Weaknesses.

If Mowgli were a feral child raised within internet bro-dude culture rather than in the jungle, he might have turned out to be a lot like Dave. Dave is a mouthy, self-aware, clever nineties kid whose entire worldview seems to run on memes and storytelling tropes, but he's also deeply loyal, blindingly insecure, and just a little bit self-martyring. That may not be surprising given that his canon title is the Knight of Time. For all his claims to cool irony (and god I hope that's the last time I have to use either of those words in this app), when the chips are down, what Dave shows is love and valor, not distance.

He buries his chivalrous core beneath a trash-heap of pop culture references and pithy commentary. Like many Homestuck characters, he likes to hear himself talk, and his favorite game is wordplay--he's a self-described rapper but is also strangely well-read, given that he's spent his life since he was thirteen on a literal space rock. He doesn't even need an audience to spit words at; Dave is perfectly content to talk to himself should no conversation partner be available. If that sounds a little lonely, well. Yeah. It is. As chill as he makes himself out to be with the state of his world, he's an apocalypse survivor, and isolation shapes a lot of how he interacts now with the world. With the living population of his immediate world reduced to six, and less than half of those six willing even to speak with him, he's internalized a lot of unhealthy ideas and doesn't even know how to verbalize what's bothering him.

Some of this stems back to his relationship with his late legal guardian, Bro. In another, less abysmal timeline, Dave admits that, given the way Bro alternately neglected and picked on him, he can only think that Bro actively hated taking care of him and thought of the exercise as an ironic (damn it) game. The neglect has made Dave weak to positive attention; he'd do most anything for anyone who indulges in his absurd meme games or shows interest in his interests. The attacks have made him expect antagonism as a matter of course, but he hates it; he'd rather avoid conflict and pain than engage, even if in the long run it hurts him. And he responds to genuine kindness like a light-starved flower turning to the sun. Also, because Bro was so emotionally unavailable, Dave gathered most of his ideas on How Things Work from movies, with, you know. About as much success as one might imagine he'd achieve.

Dave at this canonpoint hasn't even begun to unpack his feelings on the Bro Situation, and likely will still say that Bro was within an acceptable range of eccentricity for a parental figure. He's never had another model of behavior with which to compare Bro. After being orphaned and tossed into a little space can with a bunch of other traumatized teenagers, he has no idea what being cared for responsibly actually looks like--and he doesn't know how to show others he cares, either, except through stupid and often pointless acts of sacrifice that they never wanted from him.

Because he does care, profoundly, horrifically, about the people who do care about him. About anyone who pays attention to him, really. His friends, who really like him, who indulge his weird memes and share their interests with him, too, despite his professed Better Opinions, are the most important parts of Dave's life, and he's died for them repeatedly. He's generally encouraging to creepy strangers on the internet--or, well, willing to engage in conversation, anyway, as long as they're not actively harassing him and his. He believes that there's a right way to behave, and that adhering to that unstated code should make things come out all right--which means, when things go "wrong," his first instinct is to blame himself. The importance of the Time aspect in Homestuck doesn't help with the whole taking-responsibility-for-unavoidable-shit problem.

Basically, someone just come help this mess of a child, oh my god. He'll love you forever and will grow so much given a little time and care. You'll never meet a more loyal nerdy rap ninja.

Dave Strider | Homestuck | Reserved (2/3)

[callbacks]

Strengths/Weaknesses:

STRENGTHS

✓ Loyal

Here's how it goes: You made friends with Dave! Dave will now die for you. I wish I could say this is an exaggeration, but Dave doesn't skimp when it comes to his crew: He's quietly gone to his death more than once to assist his friends and family and tends to trust without question the advice of people he thinks like him--right up until it's too late to salvage either himself or his opinion of them.

His dedication extends to ideas as well as people. Dave runs on intuition and an unexamined assumption that there's a right and wrong way for the world to go, the basis for which is largely rooted in the structure of Western narratives. To his thinking, heroes should always win, and good people either shouldn't suffer or should recoup more than was taken from them.

The flipside of this is that his loyalty and belief in a positive future can be pretty easily used against him. He can also trap himself into thinking things have to be a certain way because it feels right or adheres to his general outlook on life when it would be wiser to seek an alternate path.

✓ Clever

While he's no Rose or Jade, Dave can be surprisingly resourceful, particularly when it comes to exploiting loopholes for stupid gains. He's good at noting what's available in his environment and working around obstacles in unexpected ways rather than ramming through--see his breaking the legendary sword to get it out of the stone, or deploying the intellibeam laserstation to make a copy of his server disk for Jade.

Some of this stems from a vaguely scientific curiosity to test boundaries and see just how dumb things can possibly get. The rest comes from his quick, intuitive way of thinking; he's used to working on instinct and has a good head for when things do or don't feel right.

Flipside: Mostly he uses this intellect for inane reasons. Also, because he draws conclusions so fast, he can miss a lot, be easily distracted, or make too many surface assumptions.

✓ Takes things in stride, up to a point

Dave's got a fairly high-level ability to take what the world presents him and just, like, accept that that's what's going down. It's not exactly that he's chill; he's just resigned to never understanding anything, ever. He bears a sense of miserable obligation to everything being both a) stupid and b) awful, so that when bad things happen, he just goes on and concentrates on the things he CAN do. Sometimes those things are limited to drawing crappy cartoons while trying to forget all the badguys he'll eventually have to fight.

He's going to take to Pokéworld like a duck to water.

Flipside: What he's really doing is ignoring the problem until it either goes away or it's too big for him to "deal" with. This does not actually constitute dealing with anything at all, and will usually come back around later to bite him in the butt, especially when it comes to emotional issues.

This also means he doesn't often say no to people, even when he's uncomfortable.

✓ Brave

But when the chips are down, Dave lives up to his title as the Knight of Time. As insecure as he is, as scared as he can get, the boy is very, very brave, and he will give everything for what he thinks is right: his friends, through thick and thin.

Flipside: It frequently gets him killed.

WEAKNESSES

✗ Easily influenced

Dave has no leadership skills whatsoever and cannot take initiative. He barely makes his own decisions half the time, and spends most of his time in SBURB following others' orders, even if he drops some token snark about it. A troll that he knows indirectly killed his best friend (if in an alternate timeline) wins him over with relative ease by playing into his silly meme games, and he trusts her to the point that she gets an alternate version of him killed just to prove a point. And even after THAT, in this timeline, the two of them end up romantically involved to some capacity.

It's unbearably easy to get Dave to like, or at least accept, anyone who pays attention to him, and the dumb, distractable boy lets just about anyone boss him around for it.

✗ Emotions, what are those

On those occasions that events overwhelm Dave's ability to go with the flow--confronting his own mortality, for instance, or the death of a loved one--he doesn't seem to know how to work through his emotions. He often freezes up, and his thought process always gets a little erratic, his choices lean towards recklessness and self-destruction. It's under greatest duress that he most falls back on ideas of heroism and sacrifice to suss out what he's supposed to do, and that road leads to dead Daves.

He also doesn't really know how to deal with other people's feelings--not in this timeline, anyway. He often responds to distress with platitudes or wipes his hands of responsibility entirely, too unsure of his footing in the emotional field to risk messing up.

✗ Highly insecure

A lot of his problems come back to this, actually: He's terrified of messing up, and he won't commit to action without knowing that it's the right thing to do, as if there's a code or model on which he can base his life. All the posturing and deflection stems from his fear of not measuring up to an ideal he's drawn from movies and from his weirdo Bro. He doesn't want to disappoint people. He constantly seeks validation. That and his distraction are what make him so easy to manipulate. He just wants people to tell him he's cool because he's scared, not even that deep down, that he isn't.

✗ Inexperienced

Dave's skill set, while entertaining, is almost entirely inapplicable to a non-apocalpytic universe in which he does not have to take on a number of invincible endbosses with a magic sword, nor does he know how to survive in a world where he cannot "alchemize" food into existence with a few cards and a button. He is going to die. Someone please help him.

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer
Starter: Ralts

Because Dave is the Knight of Time, I thought it'd be thematically appropriate to choose the Pokémon that evolves into Gallade, one of the most knightly Pokémon out there. I'm specifically going with Ralts rather than, say, Shelmet/Karrablast or Honedge, because the canon point I picked for Dave is a negative one that cheats him out of a lot of healthy discussion about who he is and what he stands for; the Ralts line's empathetic nature will help heal the loneliness and the damage done, while Ralts' eventual evolution to Gallade will give Dave insight into his own growth--and where he still needs work.

Plus, Gallades are cool. Dave can stand to have one cool thing in his life.

Password: Pumpkin Seeds

Oerba Dia Vanille | Final Fantasy XIII | Reserved (sort-of)

[hipstermark]

Player
Name: Kururu
Personal Journal: [personal profile] kururu[personal profile] kururu
E-mail: firion2j [at] gmail [dot] com
AIM: vinciolol
Timezone: +10
Current Characters in Route: None. I missed u people.

Character
Name: Oerba Dia Vanille
Series: Final Fantasy XIII
Timeline: After being taken onto the Palamecia/the end of Chapter 8.
Canon Resource Links: Here's a wiki!

Personality:
Oerba Dia Vanille, 19+500 years old, is more complicated then she may look at first appearances. For a bit of a history lession, Vanille comes from Gran Pulse - hated by all of Cocoon. Gran Pulse - or just Pulse - is a land below Cocoon, which is a floating sort of orb in the sky - and the two had a massive war, ending 500 years ago. (Vanille and Fang, actually, were part of this war!) Ever since then, Cocoon-kind have been, quite frankly, terrified of what Pulsians could do - and pretty much hate them. The same, however, goes with Pulsians to Cocoon-kind. A bit before the start of the game, the god (the gods are called fal'Cie, by the way.) Anima started all this by branding a certain Serah Farron who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Not only that, but Vanille is a l'Cie - people marked with forced destinies (which they call Focuses) by the gods of the world (if they don't fufill these marks, these destinies, they become monsters, basically. Pretty scary stuff. If they do fulfill them, they turn to crystal). There are l'Cie of both Pulse and Cocoon origin - it all depends on which god turned you into one of these things.
Vanille's Focus - along with Fang, who I'll get to later - was to destroy Cocoon. But seeing as Cocoon is the setting of quite a bit of the game, that clearly failed. That little fact is pretty important to her history - so remember it.

Vanille, at first, appears to be the stereotypical cheerful girl - you know the sort. Nothing seems to hurt them, they just keep on going with a smile and a laugh. Vanille does fit into this when you first meet her - even after Hope loses his mother in the Purge, Vanille encourages him to go to Snow, even though she really... doesn't know them. She barges into their relationship, and tries to make at least a little difference. Vanille is also quite excitable - she tends to make a lot of excited grunts, she pushes Sazh around quite a bit, she loves the land! Especially nature.
And, for a bit, yes. This is Vanille. She's kooky and silly, and doesn't understand the gravity of what's going on...

...At least, that's the cover. Vanille is cheerful, yes. But she's a lot deeper then that. Oerba Dia Vanille is a liar, simply put. She keeps saying what people like hearing, and tries to lie about her own past. This even begins at the beginning of her waking up - she fakes amnesia to Fang, in order to try and make everything better for them.
Vanille, truthfully, is a lot different then the facade she puts up. Though she can put up a smile, she is quite scared of who she is. She doesn't want to be the monster everybody portrays her as - no, she wants to help as many people as she can before becoming a monster. She understands that if she continues trying to hide who she is, eventually it'll bite her in the ass. In fact, that just happened - at her current canon point, she just confessed her misdeeds to Sazh. Well, not all of them.
Vanille is also pretty cowardly. As I mentioned in her strengths/weaknesses, Vanille would rather flee from her fate then take it head-on. She also hesitated in her past, 500 years ago - and for that, was turned to crystal alongside Fang. She wants people to like her, yes. She wants a family once more...
Not only is Vanille a liar - but Vanille has trouble telling the truth, after creating her webs of lies. She couldn't just tell Serah that she thinks she was the cause for turning her l'Cie (in fact, Serah never understood Vanille's sort-of sorry - though Serah is actually quite an inspiration to Vanille, one of the reasons she decided she wanted to protect Cocoon instead of just running back home and failing her Focux), it takes too long for Vanille to even try and tell Sazh the misdeed she did in turning his son (so long, in fact, that it ended up being Jihl who told Sazh and it turned out... messy...) - in fact, her lying pretty much set off a lot of the events of Final Fantasy XIII. If she'd told Fang the truth about their 'lost' memories, perhaps things would have gone a lot differently. She also tells Hope, in a future canon point, that she sometimes forgets what are the lies, and what's the truth.

Now, let's get onto that Fang person, okay? Because... well, Fang is pretty much the most important person in the world to Vanille. Coming from different clans, but both being orphaned - they both awoke to being in Cocoon. Vanille and Fang have a very odd - but clearly close - relationship. Vanille would do anything to protect Fang - in fact, that's why she pretended to have forgotten her Focus. Because she didn't want Fang to go though that again, becoming Ragnarok and all. If it meant returning to Fang, Vanille would pretty much do anything. Because both her and Fang are Pulse l'Cie, they both can really only trust each other at the beginning of their journey - which makes Vanille quite a bit more scared when Fang shoves her away.
However, Fang protects Vanille most of the time - Fang knocked Vanille away from some guards, starting Vanille's wanderings before the game took place. Vanille misses her so much - and she wishes to meet with her again, no matter what.
Fang is like family to Vanille - which leads me to something else important to Vanille. Oerba, the clan, was a clan who saw every member in it like family - and that extends to Vanille and Fang. Though they haven't seen the ruins of their home yet, Vanille is still seeking a family - a group who accepts her, a group where she feels she belongs. She's actually longing for that, but is - once again - hiding this desire under her cheerfulness.

Fate is a major theme of Final Fantasy XIII - shown what they must do, will these people fight their fates, or just accept it? And Vanille, at her canon point, is at a pretty major turning point. Until now, she's been willing to accept what will happen to her for turning her back on her fate - waiting for a miracle to save her, or just waiting for it to happen. However - Vanille has also just been yelled at by Sazh for this, and taken to get executed, after seeing Fang once more on the fancy screens. So, right now, Vanille is on the cusp of changing her mind, and working towards saving herself and her new friends. She's not quite there, mind.
Another minor/major point: Vanille will probably be rather happy in Johto, because her brand - the timer before she becomes a monster - will have stopped. This will affect her quite a bit, yes - so, when she arrives, she will be a bit happier then her normal happiness. Though she'll also be terrified... ah, the joys of canon points.

Strengths/Weaknesses:
+ Vanille, surprisingly, can defend herself - though she is more of a mage in-game, she is still a main character. Plus, you know, the whole 'going with Fang to be Ragnarok but chickening out thing'.
+ Liar or not, Vanille is pretty good at motivating people.
+ And helping others, too! More then herself. She wishes to help as many people as she can before turning to a monster.
+ Actually, Vanille seems to believe in fate a lot - though, she wants to change others fates... she's also the sort to make a family around her, and defend that family until the bitter end.

+/- Vanille is a freaking good liar - she says every thing, true or not, in the same tone and look. This is both a plus and minus, seeing as it helps her in her own goals - but, as she puts it, she sometimes forget what lies she's told somebody. Yeah. Her lies actually set a lot of Final Fantasy XIII in motion...

- Vanille tends to flee from her problems instead of talking about them or anything like that - she doesn't like her past, she doesn't like the things she's done. She also doesn't like having to fight - that's why she joined Sazh in running from dying.
- Vanille is also, well, a mage. She's not good at striking people, her attack style is magic. This won't count too much in Route - it just means that she'll be weaker then somebody who was a fighter before-hand.
- Also, right now, Vanille is in a sensitive place - she was just caught to get exucuted. She'll be fragile - though, how is this a weakness? Because, Vanille will try to mask that, of course. She'll just want to work on helping others, instead of working with her own problems. Because, whelp, her lying. Her guilt also did just get shown RE: Dajh, and she still is blaming herself - no Sazh forgiving her yet.

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Breeder
Starter: Her old Vanillite, Scoops - leveled down, of course.
Password: Pumpkin Seeds.

Samples
First Person Sample:
[Vanille had been spending quite a few weeks working in Goldenrod - she'd been there for a few weeks! And she hadn't been chased out or anything - nobody here was scared of Pulsians! The Pokegear flicks on as Vanille is holding a small stone - a Moon Stone.]
And there we go! A full set of Evolution Stones!
[But, Vanille, why did you collect those? She gives a bit of a happy... sound, before digging around her pocket - and getting out a necklace. Of evolution stones.]
Don't they just look so nice like this? I tried to fit an Upgrade on, but it made it too heavy.
[Pout. Vanille then stood, the Pokegear coming with her.]
So, when I finish this shift, I'll be back at the National Park. It's a pretty nice place - but what's your favorite place? I haven't looked around this land too much - I've been busy working!
[A slight pause, as her Vanillite floated into screen.]
Oh! Right! I think Scoops close to evolving - she's been training a lot on her own. I wonder if she'll stop frowning so much? I can't stand it! She just never looks happy!
[Vanille does sound a little grumpy - but she's kidding. Really. If Scoop wants to be grumpy, Scoop can be grumpy. A slight um came from Vanille, as she turned off the feed.]

Third Person Sample:
It had been a few days since Oerba Dia Vanille had awakened. It had also been a few days since Oerba Dia Vanille had started chasing that silly monkey-like creature who had stolen her PokeGear. She was just looking it over and - yoink! How very naughty!
But, today, Vanille had stopped to check something. Something rather important... something that had been on her mind this whole time. Sure, she'd checked when she first arrived - maybe it had gone away - but it had still been there.
Her Brand, the mark which showed she was a L'Cie. She could hide it under her clothes, but if it was still progressing - well, that would be rather bad here. She hadn't seen a single soldier, nobody seemed to be looking for her. She had her Scoop, but Scoop wouldn't be able to topple her if she... well. Vanille bit her lip a little, as she dropped to the ground and pulled up her skirt, so very nervously.

Her nervous expression, however, turned to a huge smile not a second later.

Her Brand was exactly as she had seen it when she was with 'mother'. Oh, that mother! She acted like Vanille's own, and Vanille liked her! After all, family is family, even if they're but new. Plus, it had been a while since she'd gotten such a nice, homecooked meal before heading out to a place which smelled so natural. She would have stayed in New Bark for longer, but. Well. Monkeys with hands on their tails are sneakier then you might think.

Vanille let out such a happy sigh, though. Maybe this meant she could finally rest - if only until it started again. This couldn't be that free of a trip.
But... Vanille's thoughts were turning to her friends. Sazh had still been locked up - what happened to him? And what about the others - were they safe?

What about Fang?

"Well! Let's get going, Scoop! That monkey's not going to wait for us!" Vanille soon said, getting to her feet and putting a hand to her Vanillite. Scoop let out a small sigh, as Vanille hugged the ice cream a little - before starting to skip off.

[these_balls]

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon!
Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.

Now that you've been accepted...
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Thank you! See you in the Pokémon world!

Penny | RWBY | No Reserve

[in4apounding]

Player
Name: Phasma
Personal Journal: phas
E-mail: geoduelist87@yahoo.com
Plurk: Phasma
Timezone: EST
Current Characters in Route: n/a

Character
Name: Penny
Series: RWBY
Timeline: After s2e4, ‘Painting the Town’
Canon Resource Links:
The RWBY Wiki
Penny on the RWBY Wiki

Personality:
On the surface, Penny is a lonely, more-than-a-little awkward girl desperate to make friends. It took very little for her too attach herself to Ruby, her now one and only friend; being called ‘friend’ as a generic greeting of sorts. Taking the nickname literally, she immediately began acting as if she and Ruby were already incredibly close. Her social inexperience also showed itself in her rather shallow understanding of what friendship actually entailed; she talks excitedly about sleepovers and makeovers, sounding more like someone describing a teen sitcom than anything based in reality. Additionally, she doesn’t have the best grasp of personal boundaries, at least once taking a statement of “let’s go” as an invitation to come along herself. Her grasp of social subtleties is loose, at best – she reacts with genuine confusion to the idea of two friends fighting, and her emotional reactions are more than a little exaggerated. She’s cheerful almost to a fault, on at least one occasion happily greeting someone who literally ran into her and knocked her down. As far as Penny was concerned, this was a totally ordinary first encounter – she further saw nothing wrong with carrying on a conversation prone on the city streets, only rising when asked if she wouldn’t like to get up. This awkwardness –the loneliness, desperation for friends, and lack of social grace− is all rooted in her upbringing, or lack thereof. Penny is a combat android, built in a lab and considered something of a military secret. She’s been forbidden, both by her ‘father’ and the military that assisted in her construction, from exploring too far away from their care (and perhaps from doing so entirely) and from more than very casual social interaction. Feeling incredibly isolated as a result, Penny has repeatedly struck out into the world anyway, trying her best to blend in and find acceptance as a “real girl”. She’s expressed deep fear of anyone finding out about her robotic nature, running in fear when she encounters Ruby for the first time after displaying her inhuman combat abilities. Even after Ruby’s acceptance of her true origins, Penny begs that it remain a secret from anyone else. Despite them being the cause of her isolation Penny is very loyal to her father and the Atlas Military, speaking about their restrictions as attempts to keep her safe and insisting that her father in particular is a wonderful man. Her robotic nature and isolation also shows itself in slightly idiosyncratic or archaic phrasings, such as her favored use of ‘salutations’ as a greeting; given this and her sheltered nature, it’s likely that her father may be somewhat old-fashioned himself, and passed this on in his programming of Penny.

Very eager to prove herself, Penny is supremely confident in her own abilities. Despite her awkward appearance and behavior, she expresses great excitement at testing herself in a biennial fighting tournament, repeatedly stating that she is “combat ready”. This confidence is at least partially due to her awareness of her own strength and durability; Penny knows for a fact she can withstand far greater punishment than even the aura-empowered humans of Remnant can withstand, and uses it to her advantage. When she sees Ruby falling under attack Penny twice jumps into action without hesitation, once stopping a speeding truck barehanded and once taking on a large squad of heavily armed criminals without fear, even though her actions ultimately lead to her exposure as an artificial being. As stated above, this exposure as a robot is one of the few weaknesses in Penny’s self-confidence. She’s aware of how different her origins make her from everyone else, and rejection as not being “real” is her greatest expressed fear. The dichotomy between her desire to fit in and find acceptance in the real world and her desire to please her father and General Ironwood, fulfilling her ultimate purpose of “saving the world” is a great source of conflict to her. She largely seems to deal with it by glossing it over mentally, striking out on her own as much as possible despite her father’s wishes, and quietly acquiescing when she’s ultimately brought home.

Curious about everything, Penny’s primary goal when sneaking away from her caretakers seems to be learning as much about the world around her as possible; people in particular. Whenever Ruby has encountered her Penny has been wandering almost aimlessly through the city, watching and observing people. Social awkwardness aside, Penny is more observant than one might assume – she realizes that Blake Belladonna is a Faunus after only a short meeting, despite Blake successfully keeping her species a secret from the people she’d been living with for months. Her line of questioning in conversations also seems to focus on people, and specifically social interactions and mores – trying to understand friendship and conflict. Her relationship with Ruby carries great importance to her; strongly implied to be Penny’s first and only friend, Ruby is thus far the only one Penny has revealed her true nature to. The importance of this friendship is also the only thing so far seen to cause Penny to directly lie (badly); first in an attempt to conceal her true nature from Ruby, and then to protect Ruby from possible trouble or harm from the soldiers charged with her protection.

Strengths/Weaknesses:
✓ Combat Ready: Penny was quite literally built for battle. Becoming human will remove her incredible strength, durability, and weapons; but she'll retain her tactical knowledge and instincts.
✓ Observant: Despite her lack of social graces, Penny is more observant than one might think. She easily recognizes Blake as a Faunus, not even realizing it was something Blake was hiding.
✓ Enthusiastic: Highly spirited, Penny seems to feel emotions more intensely than most people, and always seems greatly excited about new experiences.
✓/✗ Makes Friends Easily: Penny latches onto people very easily, whether they'd like her to or not.
✓/✗ Curious: Eager to learn and explore, Penny has repeatedly wandered off despite rules (ostensibly in place for her safety) to the contrary.
✗ Inexperienced/Socially Awkward: Penny has lead a very sheltered life, with very little real-world experience in anything. She's also notably lonely, and desperately afraid of what might happen if people knew she was a robot. Complex social dynamics, like the concept of friends fighting, seem to confuse her.
✗ Poker Face: Though capable of lying, Penny hiccups whenever she does so. Figuring out her 'tell’ wouldn't take a genius, to say the least.
✗ How Do I Human: Related to her inexperience, Penny has at best textbook knowledge of what being a human -or any kind of organic being- entails.

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer
Starter: Joltik
Password: Pumpkin Seeds

Samples
First Person Sample:
Salutations, Johto!

[Wow, it is way too early in the morning for someone to be that chipper. Nonetheless, there’s a redheaded girl beaming out from the Pokégear at everyone. A Joltik is perched on one shoulder, making vaguely threatening gestures into the camera. Penny seems to be ignoring –or unaware of- the tiny Pokémon’s posturing.]

I was wondering, can anyone offer assistance in navigating Dark Cave? The subterranean networks here are VERY interesting, but it’s been –a week, I think?- and we seem to have gotten turned around a bit.

[Penny that is not something to sound so upbeat about…]

But we made a new friend!

[The camera spins to show a Teddiursa picking at a small pile of berries in the dim light of the cave.]

I’m not certain what to call him yet. He put up QUITE the fight when we captured him, but he seems so quiet now!

[The view returns to Penny, still smiling placidly – the very picture of someone who HASN’T been stuck in a cave for a week.]

Still, as interesting as this has been, I think we all really WOULD like to get back out into proper daylight again. So any assistance anyone could offer would be greatly appreciated!

[A quick, chipper wave before the feed shuts off.]

Thank you all!

Third Person Sample:
Of everything in this new world the Pokémon were, on balance, the most normal. They were nowhere near as aggressive as the monsters back home, and no one from Remnant would ever THINK of trying to tame a Grimm, but supernatural creatures that attacked those who wandered from the safety of civilization? That was practically normality. It was everything else that seemed strange. Steel and plastic spontaneously turning into flesh and blood was the most personally obvious –and the biggest upside!- but everything from the strange music that lingered in the air to the lack of city walls was an entirely new experience. The most immediately strange, though? May have been the ledges.

“Amber, use String Shot.”

Penny pointed upwards, indicating the top of the ledge in front of them. The tiny Pokémon obliged, nearly-invisible threads of silk arcing up from its spot on Penny’s shoulder to the slope above. Gingerly taking the threads in her hands, Penny wrapped her fingers in the loose ends and gave them a few firm tugs to confirm they had anchored securely. It was, like the Pokémon themselves, another odd variation on home. Far more tactile and organic than the strings she was used to manipulating, but at the same time offering a strange sort of comfort and familiarity.

“Sensational! Excellent work, Amber. This should prove MOST helpful.”

Taking a firmer grip on the strings, Penny planted a foot onto the upward slope of the ledge and began pulling herself up. Amber’s strings pinched around her hands, a sharp reminder of the whole new world of senses that had opened up to Penny upon her arrival in Johto. She kept her footsteps up the slop firm and rhythmic, in a practiced motion. It wasn’t pulling down an enemy aircraft, but the same basic principles still applied, even if she couldn’t actually anchor herself to the ground anymore. It did feel strange, though, as if she were still dragging herself against a force greater than gravity alone-

With a sudden, almost metallic twang, the strings supporting Penny and her Joltik snapped – the trainer and Pokémon flying through the air, landing roughly on the ground below.

“…That was incredibly unexpected. Are you all right, Amber?”

The spider chittered in annoyance as Penny plucked it from her shoulder, inspecting the Pokémon for injuries. It waved its front legs at Penny from her palm, hopping around a bit before facing the ledge and hissing at it like it was about to physically fight it.

“Oh, good. Totally unharmed! Though perhaps for future tests you should remain inside your ball- oh.”

Penny cut off, a slow throb in her free hand belatedly catching her attention. A small scrape on her palm, slowly welling up with deep red – she stared at it, detached clinical knowledge of human anatomy meeting personal experience for the first time.

“Amber, look! Blood!”

She held the Joltik up to her bleeding hand like she was showing off some grand prize or badge of honor. The Pokémon inspected it briefly before turning to its chirping threats against the landscape that had dared reject them.

“Human blood,” Penny continued, looking more enthralled with her injury than was generally healthy. “MY human blood. Because I’m human now.”

There was a moment of silence –broken only by Amber’s ranting- as the physical reality of Penny’s new humanity sunk in again.

“…Is this what pain feels like, then? Sen-SATIONAL. …Ow.”

[these_balls]

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Peridot | Steven Universe | Reserved (1/2)

[peridork]

Player
Name: Possum
Personal Journal: awkwardpossum
E-mail: impossumblerp@gmail.com
AIM/Plurk/Etc.: AIM: thesnarkypossum Plurk: awkwardpossum
Timezone: EST
Current Characters in Route: N/A

Character
Name: Peridot
Series: Steven Universe
Timeline: “Too Far”
Canon Resource Links:

Steven Universe Wiki has a pretty in-depth history section now, but in summary:

Peridot was initially introduced as an antagonist, sent to Earth to case out the planet’s status and report back on the progress of some seriously nasty Gem experiments that were still going on there. When zapping to the planet using warp pads and conducting her work via remote controlled technology ceased to be a feasible option, she and two other gems arrived from Homeworld via spaceship, to complete the mission that was laid out for her by their leader, Yellow Diamond.

They were thwarted of course, as antagonists on kids’ shows often are, and Peridot was stranded on an unfamiliar alien planet in hostile territory, without her escort or her informant to help her. Eventually the Crystal Gems succeeded in capturing her (after several failed attempts), though she was almost immediately released by Steven. Trapped on Earth and with little other choice, she is now willingly working with the Crystal Gems to try and stop the earth-destroying menace that is The Cluster.

Personality:

Peridot has come quite a long way since she appeared for the first time. A younger gem with little life experience outside of the confines of her job, there is much we have learned about her since she began living on Earth and started working alongside Steven and the other Crystal Gems, and there’s a night and day difference between the Peridot of the past and the Peridot we see now.

In her first appearance, Peridot exuded a calm and detached aura. She was hyper-focused on getting her job done and getting it done well, doing precisely what she was assigned to do with swift efficiency. Being in a controlled environment where nothing immediately cataclysmic happened (and armed with the knowledge that, should something go wrong, it could be solved with a simple report back to her superiors for further instructions), she pulled the job off with little to no incident. She even reacted calmly in the face of minor snags on the way; discovering evidence that the site may have been compromised did not trigger a Chicken-Little style meltdown. On the contrary, because she knew what to do and how to handle things in advance, she very calmly pressed pause on her work and went to report the anomaly with haste.

In actuality, Peridot is not as calm or as experienced as she would like her enemies to believe. Though she is a naturally brilliant technician, she does not perform well under pressure and comes off more like a grad student sent into the field for the very first time, rather than a seasoned veteran; she’s all book smarts, and no street smarts. Unexpected turns and changes of circumstance throw her for a loop and lead her to panic and grow flustered very easily, and this is demonstrated with increasing frequency with each subsequent appearance that she makes through the series.

The change of attitude does not come without reasonable cause. Peridot is thrown way out of her depth when she becomes stranded on Earth, where she is in very serious danger and has very little idea of how to proceed. Far from the calm persona she projects when recording her log at the Galaxy Warp, the message she sends to her superior, Yellow Diamond, shows her growing steadily unhinged and desperate, starting out with her trying to craft a sensible request for help, and ends when it swiftly falls apart into a panicked plea for rescue.

These examples represent two extremes of Peridot’s complex personality, but it isn’t until Steven reaches out to her in “Catch and Release” that we get a good sense of what she truly is. Naturally suspicious, arrogant, boastful, and easily frightened by the unknown, Peridot is very much a product of the highly segregated caste hierarchy that Homeworld represents. She is extremely confident in her abilities as a technician and seems to revel in lording her skills over the others, firmly believing that she’s the only one of the five of them that’s capable of doing what she does, because she’s the only one who’s “officially” qualified for it – she initially can’t accept that Pearl might be as good of a technician as she is, because the intended function of a Pearl is as a more or less ornamental servant or vanity piece. Peridot outright refuses to treat her as an equal, even when Pearl proves herself an even match. After witnessing Steven and the other Crystal Gems defend and support Pearl so unconditionally, though, Peridot eventually reaches an understanding with the other gem, and she learns to work together with her with something more closely approaching mutual respect.

Respect is not something that Peridot easily affords to others unless they are of a gem type that outranks her, and humans are barely even worth consideration in her eyes; she is aggressively disinterested in their affairs, and blows off explanations of things that she deems irrelevant. She makes no attempt to hide her rather nasty personality around those she’s used to considering beneath her, and she has a tendency to be extremely snide and rude to most people as a result. On the other hand, she will act out and suck up in an attempt to gain the favor of those she does respect and/or see as an authority.

Slinging petty insults is a favorite tactic of hers, and Pearl mentions that she is prone to throwing “temper tantrums” when she becomes aggravated to the point of being overwhelmed. Desperately insecure in unfamiliar social situations, she’s impressionable, and will sometimes pick up gestures, language and habits and parrot them back at people in an attempt to seem witty or “in the loop”. We see this happen a few times, such as in “Catch and Release” when Steven uses the “What’s that on your shirt” bit to get her to look down so he can flick her nose. She attempts the same move a few minutes later, but messes up and says “What’s your shirt?” instead. This kind of behavior projects an image of immaturity, particularly by human standards. She is also incredibly defensive, and becomes infuriated when people fail to take her seriously. She does not enjoy being called “cute” or “harmless”, which hints at a strong, hidden desire to be respected, and that she considers such descriptors to be degrading.

Contrasting that, Peridot can be very cold and ruthless, which is another likely byproduct of her Homeworld influenced morals. In “Marble Madness”, she thinks very little of harming Steven, and would have crushed him with a giant remote-controlled hand without a second thought had Garnet not intervened. She also doesn’t have much concern for what the Cluster or the Kindergarten will do to Earth until she becomes trapped there and it directly affects her own safety. Often callous in social situations, she’s blunt and speaks in what she considers to be absolute truths, without any consideration for the damage her words may cause to the feelings of others. Emotions in general seem somewhat foreign to her, and when forced to talk about them she describes them in vague terms, like calling the sense of guilt that she felt after upsetting Amethyst as making her “feel small”. In general, she just doesn’t do very well with social interaction. Whether this is a result of her upbringing on Homeworld or merely an inherent facet of her personality is anyone’s guess, but the end result is the same: Peridot struggles greatly with engaging with people in abstract, emotional terms. She struggled so much with verbalizing her thoughts properly under the pressure of a face-to-face interaction that she had to record her apology to Amethyst on a tape recorder.

She’s also cocky, cruel, and tends to be a bit of a bully when she thinks she’s in a safe and untouchable position, or when she thinks that she has the upper-hand. Contrast that with the cowardice that she displays in “Keeping it Together”, wherein the Crystal Gems wound up chasing her all over the Kindergarten, while she evaded them with the increasingly ridiculous gadgets she had at her disposal. In this case, Peridot was clearly panicked and terrified (if her constant wailing and yelping as she tried to dodge their attempts to catch her are any indication), since she was physically in the same place as the lot of them and in very real, tangible danger.


Strengths/Weaknesses:

As a rather sheltered and inexperienced individual, Peridot has her fair share of weaknesses and nasty personality flaws.

Her social skills are pretty sub-par, even among other gems, though it’s especially egregious when it comes to interacting with residents of Earth. She displays a very linear way of thinking that can often lead to her misunderstanding and deeply upsetting others without her even meaning to, such was the case in “Too Far”. Amethyst found Peridot’s scathing descriptions of her fellow Crystal Gems to be hilarious and laughed uproariously at them, which encouraged Peridot to continue to behave that way. Of course, Peridot simply could not understand why Amethyst didn’t find it as funny when she moved on to targeting her with her rude jokes next. It’s as if Peridot views social interactions almost like they are mathematical formulas, where a certain combination of actions will always yield the same results. She fails to recognize a successful conversation as a shifting thing, containing infinite variables that one needs to learn to adapt to in order to achieve the desired results.

She is very efficient, and this kind of doubles as both a strength and a weakness. Peridot performs tasks quickly and without any nonsense or idling, but that same efficiency can lead her to be very terse and callous with people. She’s impatient to an extreme fault, and becomes aggravated when things don’t move at her pace, which causes her to get sloppy and make mistakes.

As far as practical skills go, Peridot is a capable technician. This is her function as designated on Homeworld according to her gem type, and she demonstrates it constantly by using and maintenancing advanced gem tech, and easily building advanced contraptions (such as a giant, pilotable robot, for example) with ease. Though this is a widely applicable and very useful skill, it’s also the only one that she knows. She’s extremely cocky and overconfident in her abilities, but also panics easily and, much like Pearl, has a hard time adapting to changes in plan. The argument she got into with Jasper over readjusting the parameters of the mission that they were both on highlights this pretty well.

Her greatest strength, on the other hand, is that she has the capacity and willingness to learn from the Crystal Gems, and shows a desire to desire to grow as a person. She is aware that she has a lot to learn about living on Earth, and openly expresses a desire to understand things better. Though somewhat set in the close-minded ways of her home planet, on multiple occasions Peridot has shown a willingness to compromise and/or readjust her views on things. Her relationship with Pearl is a great example of this.

As a final but important weakness, it’s necessary to note that her knowledge of Earth is completely abysmal. At the canon point I’m taking her from, she at least has the benefit of some basic experience under her belt. But, considering that before she started hanging out with the Crystal Gems she had no idea what simple things like thunderstorms, wheels, towels or toilets were, she’s still bound to struggle with some things. Human expressions and phrases also confuse her greatly, as she tends to take things very literally, but she usually catches on pretty quickly once the actual meaning is explained to her. Peridot is bright and inquisitive… she just happens to have lived a very sheltered life in a culture completely different from our own before she met Steven.

(2/2)

[peridork]

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Team Rocket
Starter: Elgyem (Lv. 15) and Houndour (Lv. 5)
Password: Pumpkin seeds!

Samples
First Person Sample:

[ The video feed starts with her face veerrryy close to the camera. She readjusts before starting: ]

Alright, which one of you dolts wants a horrible obnoxious bird--?

[ She’s cut off by the distinct voice of a chatot, which is echoing her last few words from where it’s perched in the background: “Obnoxious bird, obnoxious bird!” Peridot whips her head from the camera to glare over her shoulder at it. ]

GaaaaaAAHHHH, SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!!!!

[ “Shut up! Shut up!” The chatot chimes right back, making Peridot wince. She turns back to the camera, looking even more hassled than before. ]

Look, I caught this horrible beaked menace because it was following me around, mocking me and loudly repeating private conversations for everyone in the vicinity to hear. I had no choice. There was no other way to get rid of it!

[ “Get rid of it! Get rid of it!” Peridot pauses to take a deep, shaky breath before continuing, dragging her hands down her face.] Please… Please, someone just take it from me. [ When she removes her hands from her eyes the look on her face is one of sheer, pained desperation, a miserable grin plastered on her face. ] We don’t even have to trade, I’ll just give it to you! For free! [ “For free! For free!” Says chatot. The gem kind of looks like she wants to cry. ] The only condition is that you just get it as far away from me as possible. My number is attached to this message. PLEASE HELP ME--

[ Chatot takes this moment to launch itself at the camera, squawking raucously. Peridot is shrieking obscenities, unseen behind a wall of fluttering feathers. The video cuts off there. ]

Third Person Sample:

Gems don’t really do ghost stories. Gems don’t really do ghosts, because death is not as much of an inevitable conclusion for members of their race like it is for humans. Thus, Peridot has little context for these so called “ghost type” Pokemon that she’s been sent out to catch from Burnt Tower, of all places, in the middle of the flipping night, because apparently that’s the only time of day in which they’re guaranteed to appear.

She so misses the days when she didn’t need to sleep to survive.

“Diamonds it’s dark in here,” she grumbles to herself, eyes adjusting slowly to the inky black. She also misses the days when she still had her limb enhancers, instead of having to rely on multiple separate devices. She could have sworn that she packed a flashlight for this expedition, but when she’d dug through her bag to look for it moments ago, she’d come up empty handed. And so, instead of nice, reliable technology, she has…

“Can’t you do something about this?” she waspishly demands of her Elgyem, who is dutifully floating at her side as usual. It turns its expressionless gaze up toward her, blinking slowly, and then lifts up its stubby little multi-colored fingers. They glow softly and blink, casting an eerie, technicolor halo in a short radius around itself. It’s not very effective.

“...Wow. Thanks,” Peridot growls sarcastically, rolling her eyes. She hates this. Having to rely on other gems to do things for her was bad enough, but have to rely on these tiny little organic creatures that aren’t even sapient? She’s really out of her element in this world.

“What else what else what-- a-hah!” She gropes at her belt for another Pokeball, releasing the monster inside as soon as it’s in her grasp; Houndour emerges, nearly impossible to see against the gloom. “What about you. Can you lighten things up in here?”

There’s a pause, shortly followed by a burst of flame that illuminates the whole room. It just throws its head back and starts spewing fire straight up in the air??? Unbelievable??? WHY WASN’T SHE MORE SPECIFIC WITH HER ORDERS? Tongues of flame lick at the already burnt rafters above, and Peridot’s too shocked by her blunder to act for a moment.

“No no no no no no no no!!” the gem hisses frantically, voice cracking with panic, brain finally catching up. She forces Houndour back into its pokeball and stands there, stock still, bathed in darkness once more as she strains her ears, listening to see if that idiotic display managed to wake up one of the caretakers. Are those footsteps? Those sound like footsteps.

Screw it, she’ll take a failure for this job. It’s time to go.

She snatches Elgyem up under her arm and books it back outside, swearing under her breath and berating herself the whole way...

Jade Harley | Homestuck | Not reserved (1/2?)

[eclectictype]

Player
Name: Mozart
Personal Journal: owlzart
E-mail: inzivil at gmail dot com
AIM/MSN: inzivil for aim
Timezone: PST
Current Characters in Route: Maka Albarn | soundmind, Botan | styxiedust, Xion | faintwaves

Character
Name: Jade Harley
Series: Homestuck
Timeline: Before meeting Calliope
Canon Resource Links: Here

Personality: Jade is the last kid to be introduced in Homestuck, but that by no means is indicative of her being unimportant. In the beginning she is described as a silly girl!!! often energetic despite her fits of narcolepsy (though this wasn't her fault) and gets along well with the rest of the kids, indeed none of them have a negative thing to say about her (well except the falling asleep thing, but again that's not her fault). Jade is optimistic and often had a penchant for just "knowing" things, gained from seeing visions in the clouds in her dream world of Prospit while she's asleep. Jade very often has many things on her mind, whether awake or asleep, and so keeps her thoughts straight with colorful reminders tied to her fingers (though she still has some difficulties keeping things straight anyway). Living alone for most of her life allowed Jade to build up a sense of independence and a gamut of skills (though she still speaks of her grandfather lecturing her STERNLY to make sure she brings along plenty of ammunition for safety purposes long after he died and she stuffed his corpse) as well as several INTERESTS that are stated immediately in her introduction.

She has peaceful hobbies like gardening and playing the bass, as well as an interest in nostalgic cartoons and fauna of an anthropomorphic persuasion, yet is also a skilled markswoman and often spars with Bec to keep herself in practice. Though she would never actually put her crosshairs on any innocent creature, Jade is by no means defenseless or unwilling to fight (she spars/plays with Bec in this manner actually) but she is not violent at the same time and will only seek actual physical combat as a last resort. Most significant is her interest in nuclear physics and building robots, her dreambot helped her keep her dreams straight (mentioned earlier as seeing visions in the clouds of Skaia) with its recordings and interact with her friends when her narcoleptic fits hit, as they were often unpredictable and she doesn't recall them happening when she wakes up. Her interest in robotics as well ends in making a gift for John with the help of her pen pal Jake.

Her relationship with Bec is an important one throughout her history, as well as her relationship with the other kids, but what brings out her other traits most of all is her relationship with the trolls. It's easy to think that Jade is just cheerful and positive all the time, though that is not so, the trolls have often harassed her throughout her life (time shenanigans, Homestuck is full of them) she outright dislikes them all and is either antagonistic or bossy with quite a few of them, though the ones that are friendly towards her (such as Kanaya and Tavros) she listens to and even befriends (though mind you she even befriended Karkat eventually after giving him a second chance, he admitted that he was being a bulgerot to her and she didn't deserve it). She even…well, awkwardly forgave Tavros when she found out that he killed her grandpa when he was under the mistaken impression that Grandpa Harley was an intruder and out to hurt Jade. Though she also had to (gently, mind you) let him down when he admitted to having red feelings for her. From this it can be easily assumed that she is willing to befriend and forgive anyone that is friendly to her first or proves themselves worthy of having a second chance.

Her bossy and temperamental side, which comes out when she's at the end of her rope of patience, has a way of making her go loco and smack the hell out of people, even herself in sprite form. While Jade was sympathetic towards Jadesprite's crying at first, trying to converse with her incited a reaction of extreme distaste. Indeed, being confronted with Jadesprite and how defeated she was did seem to shake Jade into outrage. Jadesprite was weepy and refused to do anything except cry and wail about wishing to be dead again even though Jade informed her that she had to help for the sake of their friends. Jade is brave, Jade does what's best for her friends, Jade gets things done, Jade does not lie down in defeat and cry as Jadesprite does, yet Jadesprite is her, or at least a possibility for her. It's interesting in that Jade is so straightforward about herself and her feelings otherwise, yet there seems to be a hint of her holding herself to perfectionist standards and even beating herself up for making mistakes privately. But she makes no time to dwell on these things and instead moves forward. She does not hate herself, no, not by a long shot, but she does expect better of herself and wishes to do better for the sake of her friends and her responsibilities.

She tends to push her friends this same way for their own safety as well, though not in the insulting violent way that she did with Jadesprite or even Karkat (remember she didn't trust trolls at one point) when she was trying to wake up John's dreamself, yes, she smacked and yelled at him as he was about to die from falling out of Prospit (though she ended up dying herself for her trouble) but before that she was calmly sitting on his bed in the tower, scribbling out his self-deprecating messages to himself and covering them with hearts and words of encouragement like "you can do it john!!!" There's no stopping and no giving up.

That's right, Jade doesn't easily give up on something! Where there's a will, there's a way, as long as there is something worth fighting for she'll fight to the bitter end, even if it's not fighting with brute force, no, that is less strategic than how Jade approaches things preferring to feel things out and gain knowledge on what's to come first. Indeed, as most players of Sburb would confront the monster of their quest planet (called a denizen) as a final boss to defeat and destroy, Jade sought hers out specifically to ask for advice and even bargain with. Through their talks she reached a peaceful understanding with Echidna and she promised to take care of the other planets in exchange for Echidna's knowledge and advice that she so desired.

Besides her promise to Echidna, Jade takes on a lot of responsibility through the session as a Hero of Space and plans ahead on what she shall do next and how it will benefit the other players in her session, her class (Witch) being an active player enhances her already proactive personality. Frog breeding, orchestrating several things ahead of time and planning around them accordingly, working past setbacks and continuing to go forward all for the greater good is her duty in life and she will continue it all for the sake of her friends and protecting them, as well as keeping her promises.

As time goes on in the session, Jade seems to mellow slightly (there's only so much you can do when you are trapped on a spaceship with your friends for three years) and gains a liking for "so bad it's good" movies (she finds them charming in a cheesy enjoyable way). Most significantly, she appears to take on a role as a sarcastic "straight man" to her ectotwin's more overreactive nature. She seems perfectly fine with being on the ship and admits this as she likes being around so many people after being alone for her entire life on the island (though in the beginning of the trip she did offer to teleport John to be with Rose and Dave if that would make him happy, but he refused since he knew that would leave her alone). Jade even goes on to defend Davesprite's behavior towards her (and to John too as Davesprite has a tendency to be cold and distant to everyone by default) to John as "he's just going through a lot of things right now" after telling him that they broke up… though she puts her foot down at John calling science "stupid bullshit" DO NOT insult science when Jade Harley is around!

Obviously they make up later; Jade can't hold a grudge or stay mad at her friends for very long and is always more than willing to give a second chance as said before. Though she can go ahead of everyone and make moves that they might not necessarily agree with in order to protect them as exampled by her abandoning ship at the end of their journey (while John was asleep) and going off to save Jake and Jane from mortal peril. Who's completely unafraid and going to protect her loved ones no matter what? It's Jade, because it's her duty to be the hero, it's her.

Since it happened in canon, though I personally don't regard them as the same character or an accurate representation of Jade, when she falls under the Empress's mind control she becomes "Grimbark." A significantly crueler and more bitter version of Jade, acting as a puppet for the Empress specifically to screw up her friends' plans. Her way of speaking to Dave in particular is uncharacteristically defiant and mean, even going so far as to threaten the life of a friend of his to force him to do what she wants. At one point she claims to him that he "broke [her] heart" referring to the dissolving of her relationship with Davesprite, though the regular Jade wouldn't regard them as the same person at all. Whether it's the Empress acting through Jade or some "nightmare" version of her either way, she's ineffectual as a villain and even comments on this. The "true" Jade, after being killed, is unaware of any of this happening, though she feels a sense of guilt and sadness about doing "something bad."

[eclectictype]

Strengths/Weaknesses:

Some of these were already covered in her personality but--

Strengths:

-Optimistic
-Seriously, endlessly optimistic
-Friendly
-Forgiving
-Intelligent (seriously, nuclear physics)
-Inventive
-Brave
-Self-sufficient
-Loyal

Weaknesses:

-Headstrong
-When her fuse is lit, it's pretty bad
-Impatient
-Self critical
-Cats, although with the loss of her dog traits that wouldn't be so anymore
-Scatterbrained (too many things on her mind at once)
-Her loyalty serves as a weakness too, it's often at odds with what's best for her and she ignores the latter in favor of what's best for her friends
-HAS A TENDENCY TO BE REALLY REALLY REALLY SECRETIVE "oh hey guys don't worry I am sure everything will be all right, I actually am planning something but I can not tell you what it is yet :)"
-This secretiveness tends to...have her acting like everything is okay with her when it's really not, just so nobody worries


Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Breeder
Starter: Froakie
Password: Pumpkin Seeds

Samples
First Person Sample:

[The picture seems to be slightly jittering when the video turns on, like the hands holding the device are shaking--when one sees the snow falling in the background and the girl not in winter wear in the foreground, it becomes very clear why. She takes a second to remove her glasses as they started to fog after suddenly leaving a warm place, breath coming out in mist and shivers.]

J-Jesus, this is a weird dream! Was it dark so long because it had to load this snow? And who the heck was that lady, anyway? I am very certain it's impossible for her to be my mom!

[When she puts her glasses back on, a Froakie takes this opportunity to climb up onto her arm--probably to huddle for warmth as she pulls up her arm to pet the Pokemon gently.]

It's especially not good for an amphibious creature like yourself, I know. [Jade addresses the Froakie.] Though somehow it worked out on Lofaf? ...Is this Lofaf?

[The Froakie just stares at her.]

...You're right, that was a stupid guess, it's more like Lolaf now. Bluh. And that doesn't explain this device either, I think it is recording us right now--but who's watching? Hello? [She faces the screen, seeming very distressed--if she had dog ears, they'd be drooping (though she doesn't anymore).] John? Jake? Jane? Where are you guys? Are you okay? Please respond if you are out there!

Third Person Sample:

Jade most certainly was no longer the "Witch of Space" yet for some reason still had her witchy pajamas. Unfortunately, they had lost their inherent magic that made them eternally warm and comfy--now the girl is just wet and miserable, crouching by the door to "Mom's" house and looking around. The creature--she could swear that it's adorable mascot-like form is something familiar--is huddled up in her arms too.

"Maybe she will let you back in," Jade offers, hoisting around the bag she was given before being pushed out. "Apparently parental abandonment is the theme here with me, but she can't claim that she grew you in a lab, can she?"

The creature looks up at her, shaking its head after a moment. Oh, gosh, is it going to stay by her side like a loyal pet? That's so cute!

...But, it's definitely not a pet, that Jade can tell, and the discovery of a red and white sphere in her bag tells this in volumes.

"...Oh my god. Is this Pokemons?" She looks around the town with a sense of awe--yes, suddenly, it all looks more familiar--"Oh my god, I ended up in a Pokemons game! This is amazing!" What kid didn't dream of going on a Pokemon journey?

...Though Jade is a little too old to start the journey, she thinks. She's definitely not a plucky ten year old protagonist that never ages, and she certainly doesn't want to start this journey without her friends. God, where are they? She's so worried, and the feeling that something very terrible happened just keeps nagging and nagging at her.

All right, Harley, buck up, her thoughts tell her--sounding almost vaguely like her grandpa. There's people that need you, it's no time for you to sit around and mope! Let's try standing up and starting the journey!

"Okay...okay." It takes some doing, but after returning her frog friend to its Pokeball (don't want it to freeze out here in the snow) and hoisting her bag over her shoulder, Jade stands and inspects the area.

...There's sure a lot of snow, the thought strikes her. If John was here, they could build snow dogs.

Or John might bitch about how terrible that movie was. Jade smiles--she personally liked it a lot, though the false advertising left something to be desired. See? You're cheering up already! Come on, Jade, do the thing! Go on your journey!