sirenspull Application
Player Information
Name: Tracy
Age: 21
AIM SN: turbotracy14
email: within_eternal_dreams@yahoo.com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Yes
Currrently Played Characters: Zoey Redbird
Conditional: Activity Check Link: HERE
Conditional: Official Reserve Link: HERE
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Graceling
Canon Format: Books
Character's Name: Greening “Po” Grandemalion
Character's Age: 20
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played. N/A
What form will your character's NV take?
An iPad 2. Specifically silver in color with a gold symbol on the back. He’ll have a stylus with it so he can write texts and whatnot, since he won’t be able to see the keys on the screen. There will be a video function available and audio, of course but video will rarely be implemented. And since he can’t see the buttons to activate that function, it will have to be voice operated to an extent, just to change NV modes. The commands to change it will be simple: “Function: Video/Audio/Text”
And of course, he’ll have to learn that on his own. Unless of course, if it’s okay with the mods, I think once he tries to activate it for the first time, it’ll have a recorded voice with instructions for him.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: Po is a Graceling. Where he comes from, the Seven Kingdoms (Specifically Lienid but I’ll get into how important that is later), some children become Gracelings. It’s never known which children will become Gracelings until their eyes change. You can tell then because one eye is one color and the other eye is another color. Only Gracelings have this trait.
Po has one silver eye and one gold eye. Early on in the books, he leads everyone to believe that he is a Graced fighter but that is not the case. His Grace is actually that of perception and, to an extent, mind reading. He can sense the intentions of people around him, which includes whether they are hostile, untrustworthy, lying or otherwise. When a persons thoughts turn specifically to Po, he’s automatically tuned in and knows what they’re thinking in regards to him. It functions as a sort of self-defense mechanism that his Grace provides him with.
Using his perception to sense people’s intentions, it was the easiest thing in the world for him to make it seem as though her were a Graced fighter, because he could sense his opponents intentions towards him, knew which way they would move and what move they intended next.
Later on, after his sight is lost, Po discovered that his Grace is much greater than perception. It gives him a sense of the world around him, shows him the form of things but not the beauty. In a manner of speaking, he doesn’t entirely lose his sight.
“You’ve lost something, and you’ve every right to feel sorrow for what you’ve lost. They’re not the same thing, sight and your Grace. Your Grace shows you the form of things, but it doesn’t show you the beauty. You’ve lost beauty.”
In six of the Seven Kingdoms, a Graced child must be given over to the king to train and serve. If the child has a useless Grace (like tree climbing or being able to communicate with birds) then the child is sent home. In Lienid, where Po was born and raised, those that are Graced are honored and free. It’s a concept that Po’s love, Katsa, is infatuated with after years of being King Randa’s personal thug.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them? N/A
Weapons: Po spent years training in combat, as the Lienid princes are meant to, and because that was his “Grace”. So he is skilled with the used of knives, swords and bows. Upon arriving in Siren’s Port, all he’ll have is the bow and the arrows that Katsa made him when she left him behind so she could get Bitterblue to safety.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History:
Po was born to the king and queen of the Lienid and has six other brothers. Each son was given a castle, Po’s being the smallest but he’s more than happy with that. At an early age, his eyes changed from the typical Lienid gray, to silver and gold. The seventh son of the Lienid king was Graced. He confided in his mother and grandfather the nature of his Grace and both agreed that his perception Grace must be kept secret. Were his father or brothers to find out, they’d be increasingly eager to take advantage of his Grace. Between the three of them, they decided that they’d cover his Grace and claim it as a fighting Grace.
As per tradition, Po was trained in combat. His Grace of perception gave him an advantage over his trainers and, later, his brothers. Not a soul doubted that his Grace was anything less than fighting. Po grew and grew well. His arms were tattooed, another tradition among the Lienid, and those tattoos would only be seen and found attractive by the woman he’d someday marry.
On each of his fingers, he wears a ring: six plain gold bands of varying widths on his right hand for his brothers and four on his left hand, another plain gold band, a thin one with an inlaid gray stone, one with a heavy and sharp white stone and one plain gold ring with the same design on it as his tattoos. The last is his signet ring, a ring which identifies that he is the seventh son of King Ror. Each ring is to symbolize family: his six brothers, his mother, his father and his grandfather as well as himself.
(Wearing rings for family is yet another Lienid tradition.)
Po is a slightly restless young man and spends many years as he grows, traveling. As such, he has a unique knowledge of the Seven Kingdoms and when his grandfather, Prince Tealiff, is kidnapped, Po travels through each one of the kingdoms in search of him. In Sunder, when meeting with King Murgon, Po encounters Katsa. Unknown to him at the time, she was there to rescue his grandfather from the dungeons. He confronted her as she was knocking the guards around the castle unconscious. They fought for a very short while until Po conceded and told her that he trusted her. This only resulted in a swift kick to the head, knocking him out as well.
Within days, Po traveled to the Middluns, to the court of King Randa, Katsa’s uncle. There, he meets her again, finding her fascinating. During one of Randa’s dinners, when Katsa left prematurely, Po excused himself and followed her to the archery range to speak with her. This actually lead to them fighting again, but Po wasn’t fool enough to drop his guard this time. Sometime in the fight, both started laughing, enjoying that they didn’t have to hold back on their skills with each other.
Once they returned to the castle, Katsa took him to see his grandfather whom Raffin was caring for under Randa’s nose. Raffin (a friend to Katsa and Randa’s son) commented on how both looked pretty beat up and soon after, Council meeting was called to hear information regarding the Lienid grandfathers kidnapping. There Giddon, one of the people that Katsa often associated with, took great offence to the bruises and cuts on Katsa’s face and Po realized that it was because he was in love with Katsa. Following the meeting, the two agreed to start sparring with each other as an excuse to keep Po at Randa’s court.
They spent days training together. Po started out without his rings on the first day, to avoid cutting Katsa’s face again and it eventually developed that they didn’t wear their boots either, after Katsa cut Po’s forehead open. It’s during this time that they grow closer, eating meals together in Prince Tealiff’s room after sparring. As summer came to an end, they’d grown close enough to consider each other friends and with Katsa’s questioning, revealed that his nickname, Po, came from his brothers in reference to the Po Tree in Lienid whose leaves turn silver and gold in the autumn. He revealed that he had six older brothers and many other things.
Eventually, Po asked Katsa how she’d react when Giddon asked her to marry him. She thought it was nonsense, denied it strongly and then ran off to question Raffin on whether Giddon loved her or not. The night lead to another council meeting and even less information regarding Po’s grandfather’s kidnapping than they’d had before.
After several weeks, Po and Katsa training nearly everyday, Randa interrupted them to send Katsa on a mission. Po spoke with her as they ate after their practice, telling her about how she must someday fight him for his family to see. And when he realized her distraction, he said that she’s the one that gave Randa the power to control her. That she made herself savage when she bent herself to Randa’s will. Which lead to her punching him. Hard. Although she immediately felt guilty once she realized that Po wasn’t going to defend himself.
“I told you before, Katsa, I won’t fight when you’re angry. I won’t solve a disagreement between us with blows.”
He questioned her then, what would happen if she were to refuse Randa’s orders? It was following this that Katsa gave Po a very valuable clue as to what happened to his grandfather, when she mentioned the strange grieving that Queen Ashen, his aunt, is going through. He began to plan to journey to Monsea, where King Leck ruled.
Leaving on her mission, Po spent several days with Raffin and his grandfather. And within that time, he told Raffin the truth of his Grace in the hopes that he’d help him when Katsa found out. And find out, Katsa did. When she returned to Randa’s court, she stormed through seeking out Po. Angry was an understatement although she also completely misunderstood Po’s Grace. It took plenty of time for her to calm down enough to look and talk at Po again. More time than she had, it seemed. Thanks to Po, Katsa realized something about herself, refused Randa’s orders and left with Po after Randa threatened her with death.
She was a free Graceling, like the Lienid. It still took several days for her to forgive him, even longer to get used to the truth of his Grace but she did. Eventually. And Po was glad for that because Katsa was the one person he was truly eager to have accept it. They spent a couple nights in the woods, practicing with Po’s Grace and started training again, even came up with the idea to train in the dark, to compensate for the advantage Po had with his Grace.
Po told Katsa the story of King Leck, a former orphan boy that lost an eye and was taken in by the King and Queen of Monsea’s servants. He was eventually adopted by the King and Queen who shortly thereafter, died. Mysterious, no?
They traveled to an inn the following days and with the help Po’s Grace, when a group of men approached them with (false) information, he was able to learn plenty. He confirmed that King Leck, the husband of his fathers sister (because that’s how it’s phrased in the book) was involved. The following day, they set out for Monsea. The journey there lead to several eye openers, such as Po and Katsa loving each other. It’s around then that he suggested that her Grace is more than fighting.
Along the way his Grace evolved, the world filling out piece by piece and clearing up any fuzziness, allowing him to sense the presence of Winterberries and other plants and the like. He admitted that it was disorienting and made him a bit dizzy.
By the fifth day of their travels to Monsea, Po continuously made Katsa promise to do exactly what he told her when they encountered Leck and it was midmorning of that day that they saw Queen Ashen running in terror. Behind her was King Leck and an army of men and the king was armed with a bow. He shot Ashen and then spoke of it as a tragedy, ensnaring Katsa with his Grace. Po urged her to give him her bow but she refused so he instead made her run away with him before they were killed as well. They hid in a high tree and Po helped Katsa regain her thoughts and they revealed that they had to find Bitterblue or she’d suffer a much more tortuous fate than her mother.
It took a lot of searching, and even more coaxing but they found Bitterblue. She was wary of her cousin Po but as long as she was safe, that was Po’s only concern. They were forced to kill fifteen of Leck’s soldiers with Bitterblue in sight of it but she wasn’t as frightened as Po would have thought she’d be. They made camp and while Katsa hunted for them, Po built a fire with Bitterblue’s help. He commented to Katsa later that she’s surprisingly strong-willed and stubborn for a ten year old. And he did not neglect to notice how tightly his little cousin grasped a knife her mother gave her, as if she were wary of men paying her kindness.
They decided that Po would assassinate Leck the following day. He left his signet ring with Katsa in case something should happen and took food, a horse, a bow and a quiver of arrows, one dagger and two knives and set out early that morning. The plan failed though and Po barely escaped with his life. The perimeter that his guards held around him, many of them Graced themselves, was too tight, forcing Po to kill a man to get a clear shot at Leck. It raised an alarm immediately, Po had no time to knock back another arrow and was forced to flee. He made it back to his horse and fled but no before Leck soldiers were able to put several arrows in his horses neck and one in Po’s shoulder. Somehow, they outran them and made it towards Katsa and Bitterblue but the horse fell from the cliff it was stumbling along.
Po fell with it into the river below, smashing face first into the water. As if that weren’t painful enough with the arrow in his shoulder, the horse fell with him. Katsa was able to save Po but the horse was too far gone and too heavy to pull out. She pulled the arrow from his shoulder but the shock of everything left him completely unresponsive to the pain of it and he vomited from his head injury. She urged him until he told her what happened to Leck then pulled him and Bitterblue onto her horse and led them away in an attempt to get away from Leck before he found their trail.
They built camp and rested for awhile, eating fish and Po was semi-pleased as his cousin began to trust him. Even though his assassination attempt on her fathers life had failed. The following days, his head continued to hurt, he had no balance and it took until then for him to remember that he must hide the truth of his Grace from Bitterblue. And he spent a lot of time rubbing at his eyes as though they bothered him.
Finally, along the way, Po told Katsa that she must leave him behind if they were to protect Princess Bitterblue. They found an old cabin in the woods and Po decided he’d stay there. Katsa was still resistant to the idea but eventually accepted it. There was a pond out back that had a cave under water that lead up to a dry cave. He could hide there when Leck got close. She made him a basket to contain fish and then made him a bow and arrows so he could hunt. And then… He was alone.
Within two days of Katsa leaving, Po woke without sight. The injury he sustained from falling off the cliff had damaged something, explaining the irritation in his eyes. Leck’s soldiers searched the cabin only once, and Po had thankfully made it to the cave in time. Their search was quickly finished so he made it back and started a fire to warm and dry himself.
Katsa returned to Po after about six months with Queen Bitterblue, and one of Po's brothers (Skye) and an armed escort. He eventually revealed to her, after a comment from Bitterblue to Katsa, that he was blind. A very understandable explanation for his depression. With several days of coaxing, he eventually took back his signet ring, and his place as seventh prince, and agreed to travel with Katsa for Bitterblue coronation. It's after that, that he decided to return to Lienid.
Point in Canon: Two days after Katsa leaves him, so he’s blind
Conditional: Brief summary of previous RP history: N/A
Character Personality:
Po is a charming and sweet young man with a strong desire to just fit in. The people he trusts have to be very close to him because, as things stand in the Seven Kingdoms, Gracelings aren’t treated as much more than the kings servants except in Lienid. Those he trusts with his life, trusts as much as his mother and grandfather, he’ll entrust with the truth of his Grace. Thus far, only Raffin and Katsa are trusted enough with the truth of it besides his grandfather and mother which was a huge risk on his part.
He’s very concerned about the wellbeing of others but not entirely selfless. As with all humans, there is a certain amount of selfishness in every action. When sparring with Katsa, he cut her face with one of his rings. From then on, he didn’t wear his rings while sparring with her, both to avoid causing her unnecessary harm and because he didn’t want to offend Giddon, who had fallen in love with Katsa. Although, it was mostly out of concern for Katsa.
Po does not trust easily. It took a couple months for him to get close enough to Raffin in order to trust him with the truth of his Grace and if Raffin hadn’t been caring for his grandfather, then it’s likely that Po would never had revealed the truth to him at all. As close as he’d grown to Katsa, within another couple months he’d have likely told her as well if she hadn’t discovered part of it herself.
Which brings us to how easily he’s hurt. Usually it’s not that easy at all but when it’s someone close to him, the hurt is great. After Katsa discovered part of the truth of his Grace, she was sharp, impatient and cruel with him. Of course, this is common with everyone who is close to someone and they hurt them. But with Po, it’s much worse because when thoughts are focused on him, he can hear everything. He can hear the words being held back and it hurts.
He can also be very calm at times. In fact, most of the time he is a very calm person. This likely comes from the senses his Grace provides him with. He’ll always know when he’s threatened so he has extra time to formulate a plan. When others are angry with him, he makes the extra effort to stay calm so he doesn’t worsen the situation. He won’t easily rise to bait, he’ll walk away.
Po is also brave. Knowing he was the only one that could fight off King Leck’s Grace, knowing that the odds of him surviving was one out of a thousand with Leck’s personal guards, he went out alone to assassinate him in order to protect his cousin, Princess Bitterblue. This could also make him self-sacrificing. He knew the risks and gave his signet ring to Katsa as a result of this revelation. And in part, he was quite correct, he suffered a great loss in the following attempt.
Due to his blindness, Po is kind of moody at times. He’ll avoid direct questions regarding his sight. Those that try to push the subject will end up having him lash out at them or having him ask them to leave him alone or stay away from him. It’s not that he likes or dislikes your character, but his blindness is a very sensitive subject to him and he detests it, finding it a weakness in himself and despising that he won’t be able to see anyone’s face anymore or see the Po trees in Lienid and not even his castle by the sea.
Loving strongly, it drives Po to travel through all the Seven Kingdoms in order to find his grandfather Tealiff. It also leads him to give up his position as a prince in order to ensure that Katsa is comfortable and can complete her journey in order to protect his cousin, Bitterblue.
In the beginning, Katsa regards him as cocky. And that’s true, to a point. Po knows much more than any normal person would know, more than many Gracelings would know and about as much as the Council knows. Perhaps it’s more that he’s over-confident with how his Grace perceives things. Normally, cocky would mean a person believes in their own perfection or finds himself more attractive than other and Po isn’t like this. But he does hold himself in a way that makes people think he is until they get to know him better.
Vanity is one thing that Po doesn’t suffer from. While in Randa City, Po makes no effort to hide the black eyes and cuts that Katsa inflicts on his day in and day out as they train together. And, as mentioned in the book, no vain man would submit himself to that everyday and let himself be scarred up so much.
Conditional: Personality development in previous game: N/A
Character Plans:
Po’s going to spend days trying to adjust to how Siren’s Port works, the layout and hopefully he’ll run into someone who can solve his sight problem. The new city will put him on edge and many days he’ll suffer bouts of nausea at everything his Grace picks up until he finally lets it do as it pleases and expands. He’ll then learn that his Grace, once he stops fighting it and trying to force it away, everything will sort of open up and come together and anything irrelevant will fade away a bit, naturally.
This process will go quicker should anyone notice his blindness and figure out the real nature of his Grace, and try to help him.
Appearance/PB: Callan McAuliffe for his PB
Po is a tall young man with dark hair and a strong build fit for one who posed as a Graced fighter for most of his life. His eyes are typical for a Graceling, two different colors though those colors are very unique to him alone: one gold and one silver. Though when he was born and before his eyes settled into his Graceling colors, his eyes were gray, like all Lienid. His ears are pierced, and he wears a ring on each and every one of his fingers: So ten rings. Each one represents a family member except his signet ring which marks that he is a Prince. And on his upper arms are a pair of tattoos that are meant to be found attractive by the woman he'll marry.
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[A young man with unfocused silver and gold eyes is sitting tiredly in the baseball diamond. He’s looking right at the his NV but it doesn’t seem that he’s actually focusing. His words have a light lilt to them, something unique, and he's curiously fingering a ring that's hanging on a chain.]
I gave this to Katsa... Some poor joke this is.
[And then he addresses the NV and the people watching.]
I am Prince Greening Grandemalion although I prefer being called Po.
[There’s a laugh but it’s not filled with much humor. In fact, it may seem just a tiniest bit bitter as he realizes that he’ll never be able to look upon Po trees ever again. He’ll never get to see Katsa’s face again. Or his mothers and his brothers or father. Not even his grandfather.]
I’m afraid that I may need some assistance. The Greeter told me what he could but…
[He didn’t want to mention that he was blind! He certainly didn’t want anyone’s pity or even want to face the day that he had to tell Katsa. Suddenly, he was very glad that he’d given her his signet ring. A plan was formulating in his mind. Katsa could live as a princess, have a home again now that she had his ring.]
I merely don’t wish to become lost in my first days. Especially after the Greeter mentioned those creatures.
Third Person Sample
Siren’s Port was large. Much larger than Po had thought. All the people around him, the animals, the rumble of vehicles on the street… It was overwhelming. His head ached from trying to see around him and block out the unnecessary things. Vehicles passing him by startled him often and even more often, he was tripping over himself to avoid bumping into people. The Lienid prince was very unsteady still and he was starting to feel sick again from the pain in his head.
Sitting down somewhere that his Grace showed was safe, he leads his head back against a tree and breathed heavily, wishing he’d had the sense to take along some water before he’d stepped out of his apartment. Actually, he was desperately wishing that he’d never set foot outside of it in the first place.
“Oh Katsa, my dear Katsa, I wish I were with you. And with Bitterblue. If only I hadn’t fallen, I wouldn’t have been a burden. I wouldn’t have slowed you down.” Po spoke softly, the thought of Katsa was calming. Her lovely blue and green eyes, her Graced eyes and then the revelation of her Grace came to mind.
“Po. If you learned that my grace wasn’t killing, but survival… would it surprise you?”
Of course not, she was so good at getting them through everything. Had started a fire in the rain and hunted their food. His mind wandering eased some of the pain in his head and soon he was back on his feet and walking back to his apartment.
Name: Tracy
Age: 21
AIM SN: turbotracy14
email: within_eternal_dreams@yahoo.com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Yes
Currrently Played Characters: Zoey Redbird
Conditional: Activity Check Link: HERE
Conditional: Official Reserve Link: HERE
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Graceling
Canon Format: Books
Character's Name: Greening “Po” Grandemalion
Character's Age: 20
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played. N/A
What form will your character's NV take?
An iPad 2. Specifically silver in color with a gold symbol on the back. He’ll have a stylus with it so he can write texts and whatnot, since he won’t be able to see the keys on the screen. There will be a video function available and audio, of course but video will rarely be implemented. And since he can’t see the buttons to activate that function, it will have to be voice operated to an extent, just to change NV modes. The commands to change it will be simple: “Function: Video/Audio/Text”
And of course, he’ll have to learn that on his own. Unless of course, if it’s okay with the mods, I think once he tries to activate it for the first time, it’ll have a recorded voice with instructions for him.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: Po is a Graceling. Where he comes from, the Seven Kingdoms (Specifically Lienid but I’ll get into how important that is later), some children become Gracelings. It’s never known which children will become Gracelings until their eyes change. You can tell then because one eye is one color and the other eye is another color. Only Gracelings have this trait.
Po has one silver eye and one gold eye. Early on in the books, he leads everyone to believe that he is a Graced fighter but that is not the case. His Grace is actually that of perception and, to an extent, mind reading. He can sense the intentions of people around him, which includes whether they are hostile, untrustworthy, lying or otherwise. When a persons thoughts turn specifically to Po, he’s automatically tuned in and knows what they’re thinking in regards to him. It functions as a sort of self-defense mechanism that his Grace provides him with.
Using his perception to sense people’s intentions, it was the easiest thing in the world for him to make it seem as though her were a Graced fighter, because he could sense his opponents intentions towards him, knew which way they would move and what move they intended next.
Later on, after his sight is lost, Po discovered that his Grace is much greater than perception. It gives him a sense of the world around him, shows him the form of things but not the beauty. In a manner of speaking, he doesn’t entirely lose his sight.
“You’ve lost something, and you’ve every right to feel sorrow for what you’ve lost. They’re not the same thing, sight and your Grace. Your Grace shows you the form of things, but it doesn’t show you the beauty. You’ve lost beauty.”
In six of the Seven Kingdoms, a Graced child must be given over to the king to train and serve. If the child has a useless Grace (like tree climbing or being able to communicate with birds) then the child is sent home. In Lienid, where Po was born and raised, those that are Graced are honored and free. It’s a concept that Po’s love, Katsa, is infatuated with after years of being King Randa’s personal thug.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them? N/A
Weapons: Po spent years training in combat, as the Lienid princes are meant to, and because that was his “Grace”. So he is skilled with the used of knives, swords and bows. Upon arriving in Siren’s Port, all he’ll have is the bow and the arrows that Katsa made him when she left him behind so she could get Bitterblue to safety.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History:
Po was born to the king and queen of the Lienid and has six other brothers. Each son was given a castle, Po’s being the smallest but he’s more than happy with that. At an early age, his eyes changed from the typical Lienid gray, to silver and gold. The seventh son of the Lienid king was Graced. He confided in his mother and grandfather the nature of his Grace and both agreed that his perception Grace must be kept secret. Were his father or brothers to find out, they’d be increasingly eager to take advantage of his Grace. Between the three of them, they decided that they’d cover his Grace and claim it as a fighting Grace.
As per tradition, Po was trained in combat. His Grace of perception gave him an advantage over his trainers and, later, his brothers. Not a soul doubted that his Grace was anything less than fighting. Po grew and grew well. His arms were tattooed, another tradition among the Lienid, and those tattoos would only be seen and found attractive by the woman he’d someday marry.
On each of his fingers, he wears a ring: six plain gold bands of varying widths on his right hand for his brothers and four on his left hand, another plain gold band, a thin one with an inlaid gray stone, one with a heavy and sharp white stone and one plain gold ring with the same design on it as his tattoos. The last is his signet ring, a ring which identifies that he is the seventh son of King Ror. Each ring is to symbolize family: his six brothers, his mother, his father and his grandfather as well as himself.
(Wearing rings for family is yet another Lienid tradition.)
Po is a slightly restless young man and spends many years as he grows, traveling. As such, he has a unique knowledge of the Seven Kingdoms and when his grandfather, Prince Tealiff, is kidnapped, Po travels through each one of the kingdoms in search of him. In Sunder, when meeting with King Murgon, Po encounters Katsa. Unknown to him at the time, she was there to rescue his grandfather from the dungeons. He confronted her as she was knocking the guards around the castle unconscious. They fought for a very short while until Po conceded and told her that he trusted her. This only resulted in a swift kick to the head, knocking him out as well.
Within days, Po traveled to the Middluns, to the court of King Randa, Katsa’s uncle. There, he meets her again, finding her fascinating. During one of Randa’s dinners, when Katsa left prematurely, Po excused himself and followed her to the archery range to speak with her. This actually lead to them fighting again, but Po wasn’t fool enough to drop his guard this time. Sometime in the fight, both started laughing, enjoying that they didn’t have to hold back on their skills with each other.
Once they returned to the castle, Katsa took him to see his grandfather whom Raffin was caring for under Randa’s nose. Raffin (a friend to Katsa and Randa’s son) commented on how both looked pretty beat up and soon after, Council meeting was called to hear information regarding the Lienid grandfathers kidnapping. There Giddon, one of the people that Katsa often associated with, took great offence to the bruises and cuts on Katsa’s face and Po realized that it was because he was in love with Katsa. Following the meeting, the two agreed to start sparring with each other as an excuse to keep Po at Randa’s court.
They spent days training together. Po started out without his rings on the first day, to avoid cutting Katsa’s face again and it eventually developed that they didn’t wear their boots either, after Katsa cut Po’s forehead open. It’s during this time that they grow closer, eating meals together in Prince Tealiff’s room after sparring. As summer came to an end, they’d grown close enough to consider each other friends and with Katsa’s questioning, revealed that his nickname, Po, came from his brothers in reference to the Po Tree in Lienid whose leaves turn silver and gold in the autumn. He revealed that he had six older brothers and many other things.
Eventually, Po asked Katsa how she’d react when Giddon asked her to marry him. She thought it was nonsense, denied it strongly and then ran off to question Raffin on whether Giddon loved her or not. The night lead to another council meeting and even less information regarding Po’s grandfather’s kidnapping than they’d had before.
After several weeks, Po and Katsa training nearly everyday, Randa interrupted them to send Katsa on a mission. Po spoke with her as they ate after their practice, telling her about how she must someday fight him for his family to see. And when he realized her distraction, he said that she’s the one that gave Randa the power to control her. That she made herself savage when she bent herself to Randa’s will. Which lead to her punching him. Hard. Although she immediately felt guilty once she realized that Po wasn’t going to defend himself.
“I told you before, Katsa, I won’t fight when you’re angry. I won’t solve a disagreement between us with blows.”
He questioned her then, what would happen if she were to refuse Randa’s orders? It was following this that Katsa gave Po a very valuable clue as to what happened to his grandfather, when she mentioned the strange grieving that Queen Ashen, his aunt, is going through. He began to plan to journey to Monsea, where King Leck ruled.
Leaving on her mission, Po spent several days with Raffin and his grandfather. And within that time, he told Raffin the truth of his Grace in the hopes that he’d help him when Katsa found out. And find out, Katsa did. When she returned to Randa’s court, she stormed through seeking out Po. Angry was an understatement although she also completely misunderstood Po’s Grace. It took plenty of time for her to calm down enough to look and talk at Po again. More time than she had, it seemed. Thanks to Po, Katsa realized something about herself, refused Randa’s orders and left with Po after Randa threatened her with death.
She was a free Graceling, like the Lienid. It still took several days for her to forgive him, even longer to get used to the truth of his Grace but she did. Eventually. And Po was glad for that because Katsa was the one person he was truly eager to have accept it. They spent a couple nights in the woods, practicing with Po’s Grace and started training again, even came up with the idea to train in the dark, to compensate for the advantage Po had with his Grace.
Po told Katsa the story of King Leck, a former orphan boy that lost an eye and was taken in by the King and Queen of Monsea’s servants. He was eventually adopted by the King and Queen who shortly thereafter, died. Mysterious, no?
They traveled to an inn the following days and with the help Po’s Grace, when a group of men approached them with (false) information, he was able to learn plenty. He confirmed that King Leck, the husband of his fathers sister (because that’s how it’s phrased in the book) was involved. The following day, they set out for Monsea. The journey there lead to several eye openers, such as Po and Katsa loving each other. It’s around then that he suggested that her Grace is more than fighting.
Along the way his Grace evolved, the world filling out piece by piece and clearing up any fuzziness, allowing him to sense the presence of Winterberries and other plants and the like. He admitted that it was disorienting and made him a bit dizzy.
By the fifth day of their travels to Monsea, Po continuously made Katsa promise to do exactly what he told her when they encountered Leck and it was midmorning of that day that they saw Queen Ashen running in terror. Behind her was King Leck and an army of men and the king was armed with a bow. He shot Ashen and then spoke of it as a tragedy, ensnaring Katsa with his Grace. Po urged her to give him her bow but she refused so he instead made her run away with him before they were killed as well. They hid in a high tree and Po helped Katsa regain her thoughts and they revealed that they had to find Bitterblue or she’d suffer a much more tortuous fate than her mother.
It took a lot of searching, and even more coaxing but they found Bitterblue. She was wary of her cousin Po but as long as she was safe, that was Po’s only concern. They were forced to kill fifteen of Leck’s soldiers with Bitterblue in sight of it but she wasn’t as frightened as Po would have thought she’d be. They made camp and while Katsa hunted for them, Po built a fire with Bitterblue’s help. He commented to Katsa later that she’s surprisingly strong-willed and stubborn for a ten year old. And he did not neglect to notice how tightly his little cousin grasped a knife her mother gave her, as if she were wary of men paying her kindness.
They decided that Po would assassinate Leck the following day. He left his signet ring with Katsa in case something should happen and took food, a horse, a bow and a quiver of arrows, one dagger and two knives and set out early that morning. The plan failed though and Po barely escaped with his life. The perimeter that his guards held around him, many of them Graced themselves, was too tight, forcing Po to kill a man to get a clear shot at Leck. It raised an alarm immediately, Po had no time to knock back another arrow and was forced to flee. He made it back to his horse and fled but no before Leck soldiers were able to put several arrows in his horses neck and one in Po’s shoulder. Somehow, they outran them and made it towards Katsa and Bitterblue but the horse fell from the cliff it was stumbling along.
Po fell with it into the river below, smashing face first into the water. As if that weren’t painful enough with the arrow in his shoulder, the horse fell with him. Katsa was able to save Po but the horse was too far gone and too heavy to pull out. She pulled the arrow from his shoulder but the shock of everything left him completely unresponsive to the pain of it and he vomited from his head injury. She urged him until he told her what happened to Leck then pulled him and Bitterblue onto her horse and led them away in an attempt to get away from Leck before he found their trail.
They built camp and rested for awhile, eating fish and Po was semi-pleased as his cousin began to trust him. Even though his assassination attempt on her fathers life had failed. The following days, his head continued to hurt, he had no balance and it took until then for him to remember that he must hide the truth of his Grace from Bitterblue. And he spent a lot of time rubbing at his eyes as though they bothered him.
Finally, along the way, Po told Katsa that she must leave him behind if they were to protect Princess Bitterblue. They found an old cabin in the woods and Po decided he’d stay there. Katsa was still resistant to the idea but eventually accepted it. There was a pond out back that had a cave under water that lead up to a dry cave. He could hide there when Leck got close. She made him a basket to contain fish and then made him a bow and arrows so he could hunt. And then… He was alone.
Within two days of Katsa leaving, Po woke without sight. The injury he sustained from falling off the cliff had damaged something, explaining the irritation in his eyes. Leck’s soldiers searched the cabin only once, and Po had thankfully made it to the cave in time. Their search was quickly finished so he made it back and started a fire to warm and dry himself.
Katsa returned to Po after about six months with Queen Bitterblue, and one of Po's brothers (Skye) and an armed escort. He eventually revealed to her, after a comment from Bitterblue to Katsa, that he was blind. A very understandable explanation for his depression. With several days of coaxing, he eventually took back his signet ring, and his place as seventh prince, and agreed to travel with Katsa for Bitterblue coronation. It's after that, that he decided to return to Lienid.
Point in Canon: Two days after Katsa leaves him, so he’s blind
Conditional: Brief summary of previous RP history: N/A
Character Personality:
Po is a charming and sweet young man with a strong desire to just fit in. The people he trusts have to be very close to him because, as things stand in the Seven Kingdoms, Gracelings aren’t treated as much more than the kings servants except in Lienid. Those he trusts with his life, trusts as much as his mother and grandfather, he’ll entrust with the truth of his Grace. Thus far, only Raffin and Katsa are trusted enough with the truth of it besides his grandfather and mother which was a huge risk on his part.
He’s very concerned about the wellbeing of others but not entirely selfless. As with all humans, there is a certain amount of selfishness in every action. When sparring with Katsa, he cut her face with one of his rings. From then on, he didn’t wear his rings while sparring with her, both to avoid causing her unnecessary harm and because he didn’t want to offend Giddon, who had fallen in love with Katsa. Although, it was mostly out of concern for Katsa.
Po does not trust easily. It took a couple months for him to get close enough to Raffin in order to trust him with the truth of his Grace and if Raffin hadn’t been caring for his grandfather, then it’s likely that Po would never had revealed the truth to him at all. As close as he’d grown to Katsa, within another couple months he’d have likely told her as well if she hadn’t discovered part of it herself.
Which brings us to how easily he’s hurt. Usually it’s not that easy at all but when it’s someone close to him, the hurt is great. After Katsa discovered part of the truth of his Grace, she was sharp, impatient and cruel with him. Of course, this is common with everyone who is close to someone and they hurt them. But with Po, it’s much worse because when thoughts are focused on him, he can hear everything. He can hear the words being held back and it hurts.
He can also be very calm at times. In fact, most of the time he is a very calm person. This likely comes from the senses his Grace provides him with. He’ll always know when he’s threatened so he has extra time to formulate a plan. When others are angry with him, he makes the extra effort to stay calm so he doesn’t worsen the situation. He won’t easily rise to bait, he’ll walk away.
Po is also brave. Knowing he was the only one that could fight off King Leck’s Grace, knowing that the odds of him surviving was one out of a thousand with Leck’s personal guards, he went out alone to assassinate him in order to protect his cousin, Princess Bitterblue. This could also make him self-sacrificing. He knew the risks and gave his signet ring to Katsa as a result of this revelation. And in part, he was quite correct, he suffered a great loss in the following attempt.
Due to his blindness, Po is kind of moody at times. He’ll avoid direct questions regarding his sight. Those that try to push the subject will end up having him lash out at them or having him ask them to leave him alone or stay away from him. It’s not that he likes or dislikes your character, but his blindness is a very sensitive subject to him and he detests it, finding it a weakness in himself and despising that he won’t be able to see anyone’s face anymore or see the Po trees in Lienid and not even his castle by the sea.
Loving strongly, it drives Po to travel through all the Seven Kingdoms in order to find his grandfather Tealiff. It also leads him to give up his position as a prince in order to ensure that Katsa is comfortable and can complete her journey in order to protect his cousin, Bitterblue.
In the beginning, Katsa regards him as cocky. And that’s true, to a point. Po knows much more than any normal person would know, more than many Gracelings would know and about as much as the Council knows. Perhaps it’s more that he’s over-confident with how his Grace perceives things. Normally, cocky would mean a person believes in their own perfection or finds himself more attractive than other and Po isn’t like this. But he does hold himself in a way that makes people think he is until they get to know him better.
Vanity is one thing that Po doesn’t suffer from. While in Randa City, Po makes no effort to hide the black eyes and cuts that Katsa inflicts on his day in and day out as they train together. And, as mentioned in the book, no vain man would submit himself to that everyday and let himself be scarred up so much.
Conditional: Personality development in previous game: N/A
Character Plans:
Po’s going to spend days trying to adjust to how Siren’s Port works, the layout and hopefully he’ll run into someone who can solve his sight problem. The new city will put him on edge and many days he’ll suffer bouts of nausea at everything his Grace picks up until he finally lets it do as it pleases and expands. He’ll then learn that his Grace, once he stops fighting it and trying to force it away, everything will sort of open up and come together and anything irrelevant will fade away a bit, naturally.
This process will go quicker should anyone notice his blindness and figure out the real nature of his Grace, and try to help him.
Appearance/PB: Callan McAuliffe for his PB
Po is a tall young man with dark hair and a strong build fit for one who posed as a Graced fighter for most of his life. His eyes are typical for a Graceling, two different colors though those colors are very unique to him alone: one gold and one silver. Though when he was born and before his eyes settled into his Graceling colors, his eyes were gray, like all Lienid. His ears are pierced, and he wears a ring on each and every one of his fingers: So ten rings. Each one represents a family member except his signet ring which marks that he is a Prince. And on his upper arms are a pair of tattoos that are meant to be found attractive by the woman he'll marry.
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[A young man with unfocused silver and gold eyes is sitting tiredly in the baseball diamond. He’s looking right at the his NV but it doesn’t seem that he’s actually focusing. His words have a light lilt to them, something unique, and he's curiously fingering a ring that's hanging on a chain.]
I gave this to Katsa... Some poor joke this is.
[And then he addresses the NV and the people watching.]
I am Prince Greening Grandemalion although I prefer being called Po.
[There’s a laugh but it’s not filled with much humor. In fact, it may seem just a tiniest bit bitter as he realizes that he’ll never be able to look upon Po trees ever again. He’ll never get to see Katsa’s face again. Or his mothers and his brothers or father. Not even his grandfather.]
I’m afraid that I may need some assistance. The Greeter told me what he could but…
[He didn’t want to mention that he was blind! He certainly didn’t want anyone’s pity or even want to face the day that he had to tell Katsa. Suddenly, he was very glad that he’d given her his signet ring. A plan was formulating in his mind. Katsa could live as a princess, have a home again now that she had his ring.]
I merely don’t wish to become lost in my first days. Especially after the Greeter mentioned those creatures.
Third Person Sample
Siren’s Port was large. Much larger than Po had thought. All the people around him, the animals, the rumble of vehicles on the street… It was overwhelming. His head ached from trying to see around him and block out the unnecessary things. Vehicles passing him by startled him often and even more often, he was tripping over himself to avoid bumping into people. The Lienid prince was very unsteady still and he was starting to feel sick again from the pain in his head.
Sitting down somewhere that his Grace showed was safe, he leads his head back against a tree and breathed heavily, wishing he’d had the sense to take along some water before he’d stepped out of his apartment. Actually, he was desperately wishing that he’d never set foot outside of it in the first place.
“Oh Katsa, my dear Katsa, I wish I were with you. And with Bitterblue. If only I hadn’t fallen, I wouldn’t have been a burden. I wouldn’t have slowed you down.” Po spoke softly, the thought of Katsa was calming. Her lovely blue and green eyes, her Graced eyes and then the revelation of her Grace came to mind.
“Po. If you learned that my grace wasn’t killing, but survival… would it surprise you?”
Of course not, she was so good at getting them through everything. Had started a fire in the rain and hunted their food. His mind wandering eased some of the pain in his head and soon he was back on his feet and walking back to his apartment.