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[these_balls]

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<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

Lapis Lazuli | Steven Universe | Reserved

[gemofthedeep]

Player
Name: Kiyuu
Personal Journal: kiyuubey
E-mail: kiyuuchan@gmail.com
AIM/Plurk/Etc.: AIM and Plurk are both @ Kiyuukins
Timezone: EST
Current Characters in Route: Elsa (defyingfrigidity)

Character
Name: Lapis Lazuli
Series: Steven Universe
Timeline: after the events of 1x49, "Jailbreak"
Canon Resource Links: Lapis @ Steven Universe Wikia

Personality: Lapis is a rather interesting individual, and despite her relatively short screentime, she made quite a splash. I promise that will be the only intentional water pun in this app.

Lapis is, first and foremost, driven by her desire to be free. For hundreds - if not thousands - of years, she was trapped in a mirror, forced to show any user information she had witnessed since the moment of the mirror's creation. When she was freed from that, she was taken prisoner not long after. Therefore, her desire to just be free and live her life is pretty understandable. And even in her cracked, semi-corrupted state, that's all that really matters to her.

This leads to her doing some... rather questionable things. And by "rather questionable" I mean "outright bad". When Steven freed her from her mirror prison, she attacks the Crystal Gems, and later steals all the water in the ocean. This actually isn't out of malicious intent, believe it or not; she was defending herself in the former, and in the latter, she was just doing the only thing she knew how to do to go home. After everything that happened to her, all Lapis wants is to be left alone, but people and circumstances keep getting in the way of that, and so, she lashes out.

Besides, it's hard to tell if this malicious behavior is even part of her normal character. When she did what she did, her gem was cracked badly; this, as we saw this Amethyst, can lead to a gem acting addled and irrational. And while Lapis seemed more lucid, her gem was still damaged badly enough to affect her considerably strong powers, so it's very likely it affected her emotional state as well. This is supported by the fact that, when captured by the Homeworld Gems, Lapis makes no effort to escape, and in fact seems pretty resigned to her fate. Then again, with what we've seen of Homeworld's capabilities, it's pretty reasonable that she didn't fight back, especially against Jasper...

Lapis has, thanks to her consecutive imprisonments, become a very pessimistic person. She lost all faith in Homeworld upon seeing how corrupted the Homeworld Gems have become, and even though she gave the Crystal Gems ample time to prepare with how early she sent out her warning, she believes that there's no point in fighting them. She even tried convincing Steven to just do as Jasper and Peridot said and hope that they're merciful. This is a far cry from the scared, lonely girl who fought so hard just so she could go home. Because of all these events, it's pretty likely that Lapis has become completely disillusioned with her people, and will likely be wary of them for a long time to come.

That being said! Lapis isn't all doom and gloom. Underneath that lonely, pessimistic attitude is a girl who, when given a chance to shine, is a fiercely loyal friend.

When Steven earns her friendship during her time in the mirror - simply by treating her as a person rather than an object - she quickly becomes fiercely protective of him. She defies orders, goes behind the backs of her own kind and generally does whatever is in her power to help Steven stay safe. So great is her desire to help her only friend that she gave up any chance that she had at freedom - the one and only thing she wanted after escaping the mirror - to keep Jasper trapped at the bottom of the ocean. Part of this was for herself, of course; Lapis was absolutely fed up with being used and imprisoned by nearly everyone she came in contact with, so when the chance to turn the tides I'm sorry I know I promised no more water puns appeared before her, she took it without second thought. She was taking back some measure of control of her life and helping the friend who gave her the encouragement she needed to do so at the same time.

Lapis also has quite the playful side to her, if her actions while trapped in the mirror are anything to go by! She was rather mischievous in this form, laughing along with Steven's antics, encouraging him, and even blowing raspberries during Mayor Dewey's speech, just to get everyone to laugh. She can be silly, can play and joke the same as everyone else, and there could be hope that this side of her can still come out. She just... yanno. Needs to be in a situation where she or her wellbeing isn't being threatened.

This also helps set her apart from the Homeworld Gems. She happily played with someone who appears to be human, unlike Jasper and Peridot, who just seem to view humans as vermin. Lapis may hold no love (or hate) for humanity as a whole, but she didn't lash out or intentionally torment the Beach City residents when she stole the ocean's water, even though she could've done so easily. This is certainly worth noting, as Lapis is from a time where even the Crystal Gems looked down on humanity. She's far from being a lover of humans, but at the very least, she doesn't seem to see them as beneath her.

Strengths/Weaknesses:

+ Technological understanding: the Gem Homeworld is a highly advanced civilization, whose technological advancements are thousands of years ahead of Earth's. Though Lapis is a bit behind the times with Homeworld's tech as it is in this day and age, she's still familiar with tech far more advanced than our own.

+ Affinity to Water: Though she won't have her powers in Route, she's still pretty in-tune with the ocean without them. She seems to care a lot about aquatic life; when she made a pillar with all the water of Earth's oceans, she made sure to keep the wildlife inside of it, rather than let them die on the newly uncovered land.

+ Mental Strength: Lapis is mentally (and physically) strong enough to maintain a fusion with someone she's not totally in sync with - something that, as seen with Amethyst and Pearl, was thought to be impossible. She's also strong enough to be the dominant one in the fusion, and can still use her powers, even against herself (as part of the fusion).

- Trauma: Lapis has been pretty traumatized by everything that's happened to her. Between being trapped in a mirror for a few hundred years, being taken prisoner by her own kind, and being forced to fuse with her jailor, she's... a little bit emotionally exhausted with everything.

- Wariness Around People (Who Aren't Steven): Lapis has been imprisoned by more or less everyone she interacted with for the past few hundred years, so she'll probably be a bit suspicious if people try and get her to go along with even the most harmless-sounding plans.

- Apathy for Other People (Who Aren't Steven): on that note, Lapis doesn't particularly care for the fate of humanity or the Crystal Gems. Everything she did after returning to Homeworld she did to help Steven or herself. That's it. Whether she'll have a change of heart right now remains to be seen.

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer
Starter: Horsea
Password: Cherries Jubilee

Samples
First Person Sample: This isn't funny! [... Hey... hey there, Route. There's a rather angry-looking girl glaring into the 'gear this fine day.] You really think it's funny to kidnap someone and act like nothing's wrong?! What is wrong with humans?

[The girl grits her teeth, and her expression softens from anger to a bitter frustration. She's mumbling now, more to herself than to her audience on the network.] This happens.... this always happens... I try to do something and it always just blows up like this... I don't know why I keep trying.

[... Because she had someone who believed in her. That's why. And that someone was now in danger. If she was here, alone, then that meant that Jasper was free back in Beach City's ocean. Jasper can go after the Crystal Gems - go after Steven - and she can't let that happen.]

Listen, I... I can't stay here. I need to go-- go back to the place I came from. [Because Beach City wasn't home. She didn't really have a home anymore, did she?] There has to be some way out. Someone here better tell me!

Third Person Sample: Months. It had been months since Lapis had last seen the ocean. Time wasn't really something that Gems paid much attention to, but in this world, Lapis wasn't a Gem. She was a human, with human perceptions, so a few months felt like an utter eternity to her. And an eternity without being close to her element, unwillingly trapped in a completely strange land? It was almost as bad as her time in the mirror.

She may not have the same bond with the ocean she had as a Gem, but there was still something there. A tugging in her chest, a sense of longing simultaneously mixed with a wave of calm washing over her as she caught the scent of the sea, and heard the cry of the Wingull overhead. It was like being whole again, so when she and Steven reached the beach city everyone talked so fondly about, she had immediately taken off in the direction of the shoreline. She's sure Steven would follow, or go off on his own and look for her later, so she let him do his own thing.

And so, here she was, shoes off and toes wiggling in the sand as she sets her things down away from the water. Her Horsea is out, already splashing happily in the shallows, and Lapis couldn't stop a grin from spreading across her face. For the first time in countless years, she felt like she was home. Not even returning to Homeworld felt this good.

Her feeling of contentment didn't last long, however. It seems that her Horsea thought Lapis was taking a bit too long to join her. With a disgruntled squeak, it shot a small jet of ink straight at her face. With a surprised yelp, Lapis falls back into the water.

"Oooh, you..." She tries to sound angry, but the grin on her face is quickly turning devious, and she jumps back up, shoving a wave of water right at her pokemon.

"You're gunna pay for that!!!"

[these_balls]

Before we make our final decision on your application, we would like a revised personality section for Lapis. We feel that the current section relies too heavily on citing canon events without sufficiently demonstrating how those events show aspects of Lapis's personality in a clear and concise way. Rather than placing the emphasis on the things Lapis has done and attempting to rationalize them through aspects of her personality, we would prefer the revised section to place the focus on detailing and analyzing the concrete traits of Lapis's personality, with canon references cited where relevant to showcase those traits. In the revised section, please present a clear and concise look at who Lapis is as a person, citing to canon as a means of illustrating and discussing how her experiences have shaped her as a character. You will have one week to complete these requests before the character is available again.

[gemofthedeep]

alrighty, I think I got this...!

--

Lapis is, first and foremost, driven by her desire to be free. For hundreds - if not thousands - of years, she was trapped in a mirror to be used as a power source against her will, and later taken captive by her own kind. Even in the (nearly) eternal life of a gem, this is a very long time to be confined, and so, Lapis places a high value on her freedom. She'll fight for it, she'll do bad things for it, and in the beginning, nothing is enough to stop her. She's willing to fight her only friend for her freedom.

But this doesn't mean Lapis is a malicious person! Oh, she knows what she did was wrong, and realizes it was a foolish plan, but she was desperate. Like a cornered animal, she did what she thought she had to do to get out. All Lapis wants is to simply be left alone, that's all. It may seem like an odd choice, given the fact that she was alone for so many years, but this at least is her choice. Along with her freedom, Lapis just wants control of her own life back.

Needless to say, being denied both of these things - freedom and her own agency - has left Lapis rather pessimistic. For a time, she refused to fight, and thought it was best to just do what her captors said and plead for mercy. It's unknown just what went down when she returned to Homeworld, but it likely wasn't very good to put her in that state. She recovers eventually, though, and when given the chance to finally take control of her own life, she... chooses to trap herself and her enemy at the bottom of the sea. Partially in revenge, partially because she just wants to have some sort of control for once, and partially because she became a fiercely loyal friend to Steven, and was doing what she thought was something that could protect him.

Having been beaten down and controlled for so long, it's difficult to tell just what Lapis was like before her imprisonment. But there are hints to a much kinder, even gentler gem underneath all that doom and gloom. She cares enough about Steven to sneak behind the backs of her captors, and immediately latched onto him when he began talking to her through her mirror. This alone sets her well apart from the Homeworld Gems; she happily played with someone who appears to be human, unlike Jasper and Peridot, who just seem to view humans as vermin. Lapis may hold no love (or hate) for humanity as a whole, but she didn't lash out or intentionally torment the Beach City residents when she stole the ocean's water, even though she could've done so easily. This is certainly worth noting, as Lapis is from a time where even the Crystal Gems looked down on humanity. She's far from being a lover of humans, but at the very least, she doesn't seem to see them as beneath her.

She also has a pretty playful side to her, as well. And possibly a crude side as well. She thought fart jokes were amusing, for instance. So amusing that she entertained Steven with them for almost a full day. Lapis can be playful, even a bit immature, and while she's definitely wary of the majority of people at first, when treated with enough kindness and respect, Lapis can open up into a person that could almost be considered normal.

Except for the fact that, yanno. She has zero concepts of what it means to be a human or live on Earth, like all Gems do. But it's a learning process! One that she might be a bit unsure of how to proceed with, but under her own power, she'll try.

[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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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!

[gemofthedeep]

this will be Lapis's journal!