OOC: Survey of Doom
...oh god this turned out to be such a tl;dr fest.
Body and Appearance
1. Describe the character's height and build. Is she heavyset, thin, short, rangy?
She’s about 5’3” and she’s pretty thin, around 95 pounds. Due to her lack of eating on a constant time frame, Tira looks a bit scraggly when close up.
2. How old is she?
Currently, Tira’s eighteen.
3. Describe her posture. Does she carry herself well or does she slouch?
It depends on which personality is in control. Her optimistic, ‘Jolly’ personality has very good posture; always alert and ears perked up for any change. She holds her ring blade high when she fights. She’s constantly rolling forwards and backwards on her feet.
On the other hand, her ‘Gloomy’ personality is a slumped over mess. She won’t stand up straight even for Nightmare, preferring to keep low and never making eye contact. When fighting in this personality, she keeps her ring blade limp over her shoulder.
4. How is her health? Is she fit or out of shape? Any illnesses or conditions? Any physical disabilities?
She’s very fit, yet her health suffers a bit because of lack of sleep and proper food. She mostly goes off pure manic energy from her ‘Jolly’ personality most of the time. After all, if she paused even just for a moment she wasn’t serving Soul Edge.
5. How does she move? Is she clumsy, graceful, tense, fluid?
Again it depends on what personality is in control. Her ‘Jolly’ self is more fluid, every movement melding together in perfect harmony. Her ‘Gloomy’ is jerkier, no less graceful but shows more edges in her movement.
6. How attractive is this character physically? How does she perceive herself in the mirror?
When she’s actually taken the time to take care of her hair properly and applied make up correctly (which isn’t often), Tira’s more of the ‘cute’ type than beautiful. Before she lost her (already fragile) mind, she was definitely more careful of her appearance than she is now. Currently, she doesn’t care what she looks like.
7. Describe her complexion. Dark, light, clear, scarred?
Pale, almost sickly; she has quite a few scars even though most of them have faded. There’s a large one on her face, just across her nose and cheek. It’s pretty faded and most won’t notice it until they got up close to her. Her hands in particular are scarred-which is one of the reasons she always wears gloves of some sort.
8. Describe her hair: color, texture, style.
It’s naturally a dark brown, though she has died it bright green in the past. Currently, Tira puts her hair up in two pigtails and a braid. Why? She doesn’t even know herself. In texture it appears soft but it’s greasy, unkempt. She just doesn’t seem to care.
9. What color are her eyes?
Violet with a hint of red due to Soul Edge’s taint.
10. Does the character have any other noteworthy features?
Like I said before her scars are quite apparent close up. She also has a beauty mark under her left eye.
11. What are her chief tension centers?
The middle of her back and shoulders; Tira’s ringblade constantly strains her back.
12. What is the character's wardrobe like? Casual, dressy, utilitarian? Bright colors, pastels, neutrals? Is it varied, or does she have six of the same suit?
She loves bright colors, even though it doesn’t seem natural for an assassin to have such a pastel collection of clothing. As with everything in Tira’s life she just doesn’t care anymore; as long as she can move and kill in it, it doesn’t matter what she wears. Currently, she favors scarlet and other red shades. Better to hide the red, you see.
Tira’s love of birds does show through the many feathers she adorns herself with.
13. Do her clothes fit well? Does she seem comfortable in them?
Even though her clothes seem illogical (come on, that outfit can’t reasonably be comfortable), Tira doesn’t seem to have trouble moving around in it.
14. Does she dress the same on the job as she does in her free time? If not, what are the differences?
She really doesn’t change her outfit much, no need to. Even when Tira was sane (for her, anyways) she didn’t really make a habit of changing clothes unless she was trying to hide her identity.
15. You knew it was coming: Boxers, briefs or commando?
Panties. You look up a picture of her in her Soul Calibur IV outfit and you can see them. No, seriously.
Speech
1. What does this character's voice sound like? High-pitched, deep, hoarse?
Oh boy, like most things it depends what personality is in control. ‘Jolly’ Tira has a very high-pitched voice; it’s childish at best and annoying at the worst of times. This personality’s voice belongs more to a young, inexperienced child more than to a homicidal assassin.‘Gloomy’ Tira has a deeper voice, hoarse, more feminine; it always has a hidden growl to it: the voice of an experienced killer that’s deeply depressed and angry.
2. How does she normally speak? Loud, soft, fast, evenly? Does she talk easily, or does she hesitate?
Like I said above, it depends.
‘Jolly’ Tira speaks fast. She’s manic in the way she speaks: she just has to say it before her energy fades. It has to be now never later. Sometimes she speaks so quickly that you can’t understand what she says. She prefers a more immature vocabulary. It’s better to say “told you so, dummy!” than to say “see, idiot, this is how you do it”. She doesn’t seem to care if she sounds like a child when she says things like that; it just has to happen right away. It doesn’t matter if it hurts her pride; life’s too good to be worried about stupid garbage like “honor”. In fact, when she’s not spouting endless streams of word, Tira stops to laugh in the middle of a sentence: long and high-pitched brays.
‘Gloomy’ Tira talks far less than her counterpart. She doesn’t care much for long dialogues; the only real person she talks to is herself. It’s obvious that she rarely talks to anyone else: her speech is slow but each word has biting hate and self-loathing behind it. She thinks of herself as some sort of expert on sociological matters and sometimes stops in the middle of a conversation to try to change the subject to these. Everything seems to annoy her; nothing makes her smile or makes her tone lighten. It’s as if she is gripped in a deep bout of depression. Her vocabulary is far more mature than her counterpart’s and includes far more cusswords.
3. Does the character have a distinct accent or dialect? Any individual quirks of pronunciation? Any, like, you know, verbal tics?
‘Jolly’ Tira tends to go heavy on the “likes” and “you knows” but other than the above mentioned things, none.
4. What language/s does she speak, and with how much fluency?
It’s probable that she’s either German or Scandinavian in origin, so she speaks German fairly well. Her weapon’s name is-after all-a German one. Tira probably also has a grasp on other European languages: French and the like. If you’re trained in an assassin society that spreads across the whole of a continent you’re going to know lots of languages. She’s probably only really fluent in German (or Danish if you’re going with the Scandinavian origin, for myself I’m saying she’s German) but is passable in several different ones, including English. She probably knows a few important words in more exotic languages (for 1500’s era Europe, anyways).
5. Does she switch languages or dialects in certain situations?
Other than her personality changes? No.
6. Is she a good impromptu speaker, or does she have to think about her words?
She rarely thinks about what she says, so she’s fairly impromptu on virtue because of that.
7. Is she eloquent or inarticulate? Under what circumstances might this change?
While she can speak articulately on occasion (mostly when ‘Gloomy’ Tira is in control), she doesn’t seem to notice this herself. ‘Gloomy’ Tira thinks of herself as some sort of deep thinker, as I said before, and would say that she’s very eloquent at times. This isn’t true; her ‘deep thinking’ is normally just observations an average person would pick up. Once, she could have deep insight, but this moment has passed: her worsening mental condition has made any truly deep insight impossible; deep for her, perhaps, but not to the general public.
On the other hand, most of the time it’s ‘Jolly’ Tira speaking; which means, she’s somewhat inarticulate half the time. She likes to interrupt herself with harsh braying laughter, pretending everything she says is simply hysterical. Though, some of her intense anger does show through this personality as well. She’s not likely to notice this, but it’s there. In Soul Calibur IV, she can yell, “Just break already!” while in this personality while performing a throw.
Mental and Emotional
1. How intelligent is this character? Is she book-smart or street-smart?
If I could put aside her madness for a moment and she’s thinking clearly, she’s intelligent. Mostly cunning, of an innate animal kind, but a kind of cunning that could be used to manipulate others into situations that they simply don’t want to happen. Even when she’s thinking clearly she’s no rocket scientist and I doubt you would want her as a partner on a science project, but she’s no slouch either.
When she’s thinking clearly. Normally she just doesn’t think clearly. Tira’s still cunning and dangerous but to a lesser degree; she’s less able to control her impulse to kill. She’s obviously a threat or, at the very least, clearly an unstable young woman that you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark ally.
Tira’s mostly street-smart, though. Working in the underground criminal world does that to you; you grow up fast and you grow up mean but you know how people’s dark impulses work. Just how intelligent she is belied by her madness: Tira’s quite a manipulator when she actually stops and tries to be.
2. Does she think on her feet, or does she need time to deliberate?
Normally Tira thinks on the balls of her feet, manically. She doesn’t stop. It’s a constant string of thoughts, from the normal (huh, it looks like rain) to the absurd (I think I’ll get a horse!). A mind-reader would be constantly confused by this endless pounding of random, unrelated thoughts. This does get her in trouble because, as I’ve said before, she’s at her most dangerous when she stops and thinks. These days, though, she does the exact opposite.
3. Describe the character's thought process. Is she more logical, or more intuitive? Idealistic or practical?
It’s a very intuitive style. Tira’s a person ruled by emotion: her emotions define her and her emotions are very…extreme. Her intelligence, as I’ve said above, comes from an animalistic cunning. This lends itself hand in hand with her manic emotion-ruled thinking process. She’s constantly hopping from one idea to another, sometimes to the degree that even she doesn’t know what she’s talking about half the time.
Tira doesn’t just feel happy, she feels ecstatic. She doesn’t feel anger, she feels heart-wrenching fury. She doesn’t feel a ‘little down’, it’s always ‘goddammit the world’s out to get me and my stupid dog got ran over’ depression. Every emotion is felt as if it’s going to be her last. This goes for the softer emotions as well but she has less experience at those.
4. What kind of education has the character had?
A street education, basically, Tira was raised and educated by the assassin group called the Birds of Passage. Her grasp of languages (as I said before) was a priority for taking jobs up in other countries since the Birds did work in many countries. Since DramaDramaDuck is a game where mostly everyone communicates through text, I’m saying she has some reading skills though she probably wasn’t officially taught that skill.
Most of her education went into the art of the Dance of Death, the skill to wield the Birds of Passage’s signature weapon: the ringblade. She was probably taught the other skills of the trade; how to use poison, how to use a knife in close quarters, how to garrote without causing a large ruckus, how to stage a scene to make it look like a suicide or an accident, the art of disguising your weapon, the art of disguising yourself, and other such things. It’s likely that Tira was taught basic lock-picking and pick-pocketing as well.
Tira probably was good at these things and still remains very well versed in them-when (when being the key word) she’s not consumed by her own madness, that is.
5. What are her areas of expertise? What, if anything, is she interested in learning more about?
The arts of assassination and violence are where Tira shines. She cares little for everything else-mostly. She does love animals of the avian kind; learning names of the local species by heart. Tira’s other love is birds of any kind; if she could do anything else than be a murderer she’d likely be a fulltime birdwatcher of some kind.
6. Is she an introvert or an extrovert?
She’s loud but definitely an introvert. She tries to keep her inner emotional life hidden. She tries, people. She’s just…not very successful, sob.
7. Describe the character's temperament. Is she even-tempered or does she have mood swings? Cheerful or melancholy? Laid-back or driven?
Mood swings? Tira having mood swings? What gives you that idea? Of course she has mood swings! She has the most drastic mood swings you can ever imagine. Her two personalities were created from the fringe edges of her original personality’s mood swings. See, she was bipolar: a rapid cycler, one that constantly switches between mania and depression. When Soul Edge split her mind, it separated the mania into ‘Jolly’ Tira and the depression into ‘Gloomy’ Tira.
She’s cheerful and melancholy, laid-back and driven. It just depends what personality is in control. The fact that her two personalities are called ‘Gloomy’ and ‘Jolly’ should give you a clue which one is what.
8. How does she respond to new people or situations? Is she suspicious, relaxed, timid, enthusiastic?
‘Jolly’ Tira greets new situations or people with manic joy. She’s ready to overcome new situations, slaughter newcomers, gain new experiences. Anything goes with her! She’s ready for anything.
‘Gloomy’ Tira just grumbles and let’s her other self handle the new situations. She prefers to stay in the background.
9. Is she more likely to act, or to react?
React.
10. Which is her default: fight or flight?
Fight.
11. Describe the character's sense of humor. Does she appreciate jokes? Puns? Gallows humor? Bathroom humor? Pranks?
‘Jolly’ Tira finds everything funny. Though, mostly Tira’s (both of them) jokes tend to be dark and morbid, usually about killing things. It tends to be sarcastic as well.
12. Does the character have any diagnosable mental disorders? If yes, how does she deal with them?
Her most visible mental disorder is dissociative identity disorder; her problem with multiple personalities. This was formed after Soul Edge clashed with Soul Calibur which unleashed a burst of magic that fried Tira’s mind. She clawed her mind back together: she was lucky to not be brain dead from this experience but her personality was permanently split and her mind started to go downhill at a faster pace.
She originally, before her mind was broken (literally), had manic-depression or bipolar disorder. Tira was what we call a rapid cycler; someone that rapidly switches between mania and depression. For most of her time in the Birds of Passage, she was in a long time manic phase. Then the events of her adoptive family’s death happened after the Birds were ended. This started up her first depression phase. This disorder also lent itself to her homicidal tendencies, since manic-depressives can be extremely violent people.
I suppose one could say she slightly has a dependent personality based on the lengths she went to become a servant of Soul Edge and how she stays more in a depressive state when she’s on her own.
The final disorder I’d say that Tira has is an addictive personality. She would have been addicted to something, no matter how she was raised. It just happened that the thing she was exposed to was murder. It could have been drinking, gambling, sex…but Tira got unlucky that her addiction turned out to be homicide.
I don’t think Tira’s a sociopath. She does seem to have some sort of capacity for empathy (noting that she thought that Sophitia was a terrible mother for leaving her children alone for so long, for example) but she doesn’t show that side very often to humans. She does show empathy in a selfish manner half the time but on the other hand, she’s seen to have a deep connection to her birds. A sociopath tends to abuse animals weaker than themselves; one is probably unlikely to form the connection Tira has to her avian pets. It’s more likely her homicidal tendencies came from her upbringing as an assassin and a deadly mixture of manic-depression and an addictive personality. In other words, she’s capable of empathy in theory but very unlikely to show it.
As for how she deals with these disorders? The answer is that Tira doesn’t. She knows she’s different than most of the world but she doesn’t care. She doesn’t want treatment, she doesn’t care that her mental health is going down the drain. Tira’s far too gone to realize how bad she’s gotten.
13. What moments in this character's life have defined her as a person?
Three come to mind: the destruction of the Birds of Passage, her adoption and the later death of her adoptive family, and her joining Nightmare.
The destruction of the Birds of Passage left her without direction. So she wandered until she was adopted.
During the time she was adopted she tried so damn hard to be normal, to curb her appetite for murder. She wasn’t very successful. She thought that she could live with that life: having two parents that cared for her and even a (slightly annoying) little sister. But that little sister had a pet bird that was kept in a cage. Tira, for whatever reasons (even she herself never knew why), released the bird. Her adoptive parents scolded her for this.
She killed both her adoptive parents and her little sister in a blind rage. As she coolly examined the bodies this was when she decided that she could never be ‘normal’. No matter how hard she tried.
Joining Soul Edge and Nightmare gave her a purpose again.
14. What does she fear?
Before her mind was split, she has a faint fear of being devoured by Soul Edge. This fear was shoved down in-between the chasm of her split personality when her mind was destroyed and pulled back together.
15. What are her hopes or aspirations?
To be devoured by Soul Edge so they can be one forever.
16. What is something she doesn't want anyone to find out about her?
That she feels slight guilt over her adoptive family’s murder.
Relationships
1. Describe this character's relationship with her parents.
Genetic parents? Dead. Adoptive parents? It was good, and then she killed them.
2. Does the character have any siblings? What is/was their relationship like?
Only child but she had an adoptive little sister. Tira killed her.
3. Are there other blood relatives to whom she is close? Are there ones she can't stand?
None.
4. Are there other, unrelated people whom she considers part of her family? What are her relationships with them?
None.
5. Who is/was the character's best friend? How did they meet?
Her best friends are her ravens, the Watchers. She met up with them after joining Nightmare and Soul Edge.
6. Does she have other close friends?
Nope.
7. Does she make friends easily, or does she have trouble getting along with people?
She’s a homicidal maniac, what do you think?
8. Which does she consider more important: family or friends?
Her ravens.
9. Is the character single, married, divorced, widowed? Has she been married more than once?
Single, not looking for love.
10. Is she currently in a romantic relationship with someone other than a spouse?
No.
11. Who was her first crush? Who is her latest?
Nightmare and Soul Edge.
12. What does she look for in a romantic partner?
Is it a suit of armor with a talking sword? No? Then no interest whatsoever.
13. Does the character have children? Grandchildren? If yes, how does she relate to them? If no, does she want any?
No and, um. It’d be a really bad thing if Tira reproduced.
14. Does she have any rivals or enemies?
Does the whole world count? She considers Sophitia as a person who she loathes fiercely because of her mothering skills or lack thereof.
15. What is the character's sexual orientation? Where does she fall on the Kinsey scale?
I’d say a two? She’s really not interested, even though she’ll kill you with a poisoned kiss if she had the chance.
16. How does she feel about sex? How important is it to her?
She’s had sex before but she’s not really interested. Murder is far more exciting to her.
17. What are her turn-ons? Turn-offs? Weird bedroom habits?
Killing people is her way to get turned on.
Beliefs
1. Do you know your character's astrological (zodiac of choice) sign? How well does she fit type?
Tira was born in the Year of the Dog (do you know how hard it was to find that out?) and is a Leo. She’s got the loyalty of a Dog down pact.
2. Is this character religious, spiritual, both, or neither? How important are these elements in her life?
She’s spiritual as in she believes that Soul Edge will rule the world one day. That’s a deep belief but there’s nothing really else.
3. Does this character have a personal code of morals or ethics? If so, how did that begin? What would it take to compromise it?
She really doesn’t have any morals, per se. Other than her basic rules that Soul Edge and Nightmare are always right. Oh and hurting birds or keeping them as pets is a big no-no.
4. How does she regard beliefs that differ from hers? Is she tolerant, intolerant, curious, indifferent?
She’ll kill anyone and everyone? Tira really doesn’t care what other people believe.
5. What prejudices does she hold? Are they irrational or does she have a good reason for them?
See above.
Daily Life
1. What is the character's financial situation? Is she rich, poor, comfortable, in debt?
She’s…poor as hell. But she doesn’t mind.
2. What is her social status? Has this changed over time, and if so, how has the change affected her?
She’s the leader of Nightmare’s servants. Which is a position that nobody likes but she’s damn proud of that, thank you very much. She wanted to become a servant of Soul Edge so she did. Nothing to it, really.
3. Where does she live? House, apartment, trailer? Is her home her castle or just a place to crash? What condition is it in? Does she share it with others?
She lives in Ostrheinsburg, the evil capital, with the other servants of Soul Edge. It’s a giant degraded haunted castle. Tira loves it there.
4. Besides the basic necessities, what does she spend her money on?
No money, so nothing.
5. What does she do for a living? Is she good at it? Does she enjoy it, or would she rather be doing something else?
Tira kills people and harvests their souls for Nightmare and Soul Edge. She loves every moment of it.
6. What are her interests or hobbies? How does she spend her free time?
Just…spying on people with her ravens, really.
7. What are her eating habits? Does she skip meals, eat out, drink alcohol, avoid certain foods?
She only eats when she’s starving. Tira does make a point never to eat poultry, though.
Associations
Which of the following do you associate with the character, or which is her favorite:
1. Color? Red
2. Smell? Spilled blood
3. Time of day? Midnight
4. Season? Winter
5. Book? Edgar Allen’s poetry
6. Music? Nightwish
7. Place? Germany
8. Substance? Iron
9. Plant? Nightshade
10. Animal? Raven
END
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Body and Appearance
1. Describe the character's height and build. Is she heavyset, thin, short, rangy?
She’s about 5’3” and she’s pretty thin, around 95 pounds. Due to her lack of eating on a constant time frame, Tira looks a bit scraggly when close up.
2. How old is she?
Currently, Tira’s eighteen.
3. Describe her posture. Does she carry herself well or does she slouch?
It depends on which personality is in control. Her optimistic, ‘Jolly’ personality has very good posture; always alert and ears perked up for any change. She holds her ring blade high when she fights. She’s constantly rolling forwards and backwards on her feet.
On the other hand, her ‘Gloomy’ personality is a slumped over mess. She won’t stand up straight even for Nightmare, preferring to keep low and never making eye contact. When fighting in this personality, she keeps her ring blade limp over her shoulder.
4. How is her health? Is she fit or out of shape? Any illnesses or conditions? Any physical disabilities?
She’s very fit, yet her health suffers a bit because of lack of sleep and proper food. She mostly goes off pure manic energy from her ‘Jolly’ personality most of the time. After all, if she paused even just for a moment she wasn’t serving Soul Edge.
5. How does she move? Is she clumsy, graceful, tense, fluid?
Again it depends on what personality is in control. Her ‘Jolly’ self is more fluid, every movement melding together in perfect harmony. Her ‘Gloomy’ is jerkier, no less graceful but shows more edges in her movement.
6. How attractive is this character physically? How does she perceive herself in the mirror?
When she’s actually taken the time to take care of her hair properly and applied make up correctly (which isn’t often), Tira’s more of the ‘cute’ type than beautiful. Before she lost her (already fragile) mind, she was definitely more careful of her appearance than she is now. Currently, she doesn’t care what she looks like.
7. Describe her complexion. Dark, light, clear, scarred?
Pale, almost sickly; she has quite a few scars even though most of them have faded. There’s a large one on her face, just across her nose and cheek. It’s pretty faded and most won’t notice it until they got up close to her. Her hands in particular are scarred-which is one of the reasons she always wears gloves of some sort.
8. Describe her hair: color, texture, style.
It’s naturally a dark brown, though she has died it bright green in the past. Currently, Tira puts her hair up in two pigtails and a braid. Why? She doesn’t even know herself. In texture it appears soft but it’s greasy, unkempt. She just doesn’t seem to care.
9. What color are her eyes?
Violet with a hint of red due to Soul Edge’s taint.
10. Does the character have any other noteworthy features?
Like I said before her scars are quite apparent close up. She also has a beauty mark under her left eye.
11. What are her chief tension centers?
The middle of her back and shoulders; Tira’s ringblade constantly strains her back.
12. What is the character's wardrobe like? Casual, dressy, utilitarian? Bright colors, pastels, neutrals? Is it varied, or does she have six of the same suit?
She loves bright colors, even though it doesn’t seem natural for an assassin to have such a pastel collection of clothing. As with everything in Tira’s life she just doesn’t care anymore; as long as she can move and kill in it, it doesn’t matter what she wears. Currently, she favors scarlet and other red shades. Better to hide the red, you see.
Tira’s love of birds does show through the many feathers she adorns herself with.
13. Do her clothes fit well? Does she seem comfortable in them?
Even though her clothes seem illogical (come on, that outfit can’t reasonably be comfortable), Tira doesn’t seem to have trouble moving around in it.
14. Does she dress the same on the job as she does in her free time? If not, what are the differences?
She really doesn’t change her outfit much, no need to. Even when Tira was sane (for her, anyways) she didn’t really make a habit of changing clothes unless she was trying to hide her identity.
15. You knew it was coming: Boxers, briefs or commando?
Panties. You look up a picture of her in her Soul Calibur IV outfit and you can see them. No, seriously.
Speech
1. What does this character's voice sound like? High-pitched, deep, hoarse?
Oh boy, like most things it depends what personality is in control. ‘Jolly’ Tira has a very high-pitched voice; it’s childish at best and annoying at the worst of times. This personality’s voice belongs more to a young, inexperienced child more than to a homicidal assassin.‘Gloomy’ Tira has a deeper voice, hoarse, more feminine; it always has a hidden growl to it: the voice of an experienced killer that’s deeply depressed and angry.
2. How does she normally speak? Loud, soft, fast, evenly? Does she talk easily, or does she hesitate?
Like I said above, it depends.
‘Jolly’ Tira speaks fast. She’s manic in the way she speaks: she just has to say it before her energy fades. It has to be now never later. Sometimes she speaks so quickly that you can’t understand what she says. She prefers a more immature vocabulary. It’s better to say “told you so, dummy!” than to say “see, idiot, this is how you do it”. She doesn’t seem to care if she sounds like a child when she says things like that; it just has to happen right away. It doesn’t matter if it hurts her pride; life’s too good to be worried about stupid garbage like “honor”. In fact, when she’s not spouting endless streams of word, Tira stops to laugh in the middle of a sentence: long and high-pitched brays.
‘Gloomy’ Tira talks far less than her counterpart. She doesn’t care much for long dialogues; the only real person she talks to is herself. It’s obvious that she rarely talks to anyone else: her speech is slow but each word has biting hate and self-loathing behind it. She thinks of herself as some sort of expert on sociological matters and sometimes stops in the middle of a conversation to try to change the subject to these. Everything seems to annoy her; nothing makes her smile or makes her tone lighten. It’s as if she is gripped in a deep bout of depression. Her vocabulary is far more mature than her counterpart’s and includes far more cusswords.
3. Does the character have a distinct accent or dialect? Any individual quirks of pronunciation? Any, like, you know, verbal tics?
‘Jolly’ Tira tends to go heavy on the “likes” and “you knows” but other than the above mentioned things, none.
4. What language/s does she speak, and with how much fluency?
It’s probable that she’s either German or Scandinavian in origin, so she speaks German fairly well. Her weapon’s name is-after all-a German one. Tira probably also has a grasp on other European languages: French and the like. If you’re trained in an assassin society that spreads across the whole of a continent you’re going to know lots of languages. She’s probably only really fluent in German (or Danish if you’re going with the Scandinavian origin, for myself I’m saying she’s German) but is passable in several different ones, including English. She probably knows a few important words in more exotic languages (for 1500’s era Europe, anyways).
5. Does she switch languages or dialects in certain situations?
Other than her personality changes? No.
6. Is she a good impromptu speaker, or does she have to think about her words?
She rarely thinks about what she says, so she’s fairly impromptu on virtue because of that.
7. Is she eloquent or inarticulate? Under what circumstances might this change?
While she can speak articulately on occasion (mostly when ‘Gloomy’ Tira is in control), she doesn’t seem to notice this herself. ‘Gloomy’ Tira thinks of herself as some sort of deep thinker, as I said before, and would say that she’s very eloquent at times. This isn’t true; her ‘deep thinking’ is normally just observations an average person would pick up. Once, she could have deep insight, but this moment has passed: her worsening mental condition has made any truly deep insight impossible; deep for her, perhaps, but not to the general public.
On the other hand, most of the time it’s ‘Jolly’ Tira speaking; which means, she’s somewhat inarticulate half the time. She likes to interrupt herself with harsh braying laughter, pretending everything she says is simply hysterical. Though, some of her intense anger does show through this personality as well. She’s not likely to notice this, but it’s there. In Soul Calibur IV, she can yell, “Just break already!” while in this personality while performing a throw.
Mental and Emotional
1. How intelligent is this character? Is she book-smart or street-smart?
If I could put aside her madness for a moment and she’s thinking clearly, she’s intelligent. Mostly cunning, of an innate animal kind, but a kind of cunning that could be used to manipulate others into situations that they simply don’t want to happen. Even when she’s thinking clearly she’s no rocket scientist and I doubt you would want her as a partner on a science project, but she’s no slouch either.
When she’s thinking clearly. Normally she just doesn’t think clearly. Tira’s still cunning and dangerous but to a lesser degree; she’s less able to control her impulse to kill. She’s obviously a threat or, at the very least, clearly an unstable young woman that you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark ally.
Tira’s mostly street-smart, though. Working in the underground criminal world does that to you; you grow up fast and you grow up mean but you know how people’s dark impulses work. Just how intelligent she is belied by her madness: Tira’s quite a manipulator when she actually stops and tries to be.
2. Does she think on her feet, or does she need time to deliberate?
Normally Tira thinks on the balls of her feet, manically. She doesn’t stop. It’s a constant string of thoughts, from the normal (huh, it looks like rain) to the absurd (I think I’ll get a horse!). A mind-reader would be constantly confused by this endless pounding of random, unrelated thoughts. This does get her in trouble because, as I’ve said before, she’s at her most dangerous when she stops and thinks. These days, though, she does the exact opposite.
3. Describe the character's thought process. Is she more logical, or more intuitive? Idealistic or practical?
It’s a very intuitive style. Tira’s a person ruled by emotion: her emotions define her and her emotions are very…extreme. Her intelligence, as I’ve said above, comes from an animalistic cunning. This lends itself hand in hand with her manic emotion-ruled thinking process. She’s constantly hopping from one idea to another, sometimes to the degree that even she doesn’t know what she’s talking about half the time.
Tira doesn’t just feel happy, she feels ecstatic. She doesn’t feel anger, she feels heart-wrenching fury. She doesn’t feel a ‘little down’, it’s always ‘goddammit the world’s out to get me and my stupid dog got ran over’ depression. Every emotion is felt as if it’s going to be her last. This goes for the softer emotions as well but she has less experience at those.
4. What kind of education has the character had?
A street education, basically, Tira was raised and educated by the assassin group called the Birds of Passage. Her grasp of languages (as I said before) was a priority for taking jobs up in other countries since the Birds did work in many countries. Since DramaDramaDuck is a game where mostly everyone communicates through text, I’m saying she has some reading skills though she probably wasn’t officially taught that skill.
Most of her education went into the art of the Dance of Death, the skill to wield the Birds of Passage’s signature weapon: the ringblade. She was probably taught the other skills of the trade; how to use poison, how to use a knife in close quarters, how to garrote without causing a large ruckus, how to stage a scene to make it look like a suicide or an accident, the art of disguising your weapon, the art of disguising yourself, and other such things. It’s likely that Tira was taught basic lock-picking and pick-pocketing as well.
Tira probably was good at these things and still remains very well versed in them-when (when being the key word) she’s not consumed by her own madness, that is.
5. What are her areas of expertise? What, if anything, is she interested in learning more about?
The arts of assassination and violence are where Tira shines. She cares little for everything else-mostly. She does love animals of the avian kind; learning names of the local species by heart. Tira’s other love is birds of any kind; if she could do anything else than be a murderer she’d likely be a fulltime birdwatcher of some kind.
6. Is she an introvert or an extrovert?
She’s loud but definitely an introvert. She tries to keep her inner emotional life hidden. She tries, people. She’s just…not very successful, sob.
7. Describe the character's temperament. Is she even-tempered or does she have mood swings? Cheerful or melancholy? Laid-back or driven?
Mood swings? Tira having mood swings? What gives you that idea? Of course she has mood swings! She has the most drastic mood swings you can ever imagine. Her two personalities were created from the fringe edges of her original personality’s mood swings. See, she was bipolar: a rapid cycler, one that constantly switches between mania and depression. When Soul Edge split her mind, it separated the mania into ‘Jolly’ Tira and the depression into ‘Gloomy’ Tira.
She’s cheerful and melancholy, laid-back and driven. It just depends what personality is in control. The fact that her two personalities are called ‘Gloomy’ and ‘Jolly’ should give you a clue which one is what.
8. How does she respond to new people or situations? Is she suspicious, relaxed, timid, enthusiastic?
‘Jolly’ Tira greets new situations or people with manic joy. She’s ready to overcome new situations, slaughter newcomers, gain new experiences. Anything goes with her! She’s ready for anything.
‘Gloomy’ Tira just grumbles and let’s her other self handle the new situations. She prefers to stay in the background.
9. Is she more likely to act, or to react?
React.
10. Which is her default: fight or flight?
Fight.
11. Describe the character's sense of humor. Does she appreciate jokes? Puns? Gallows humor? Bathroom humor? Pranks?
‘Jolly’ Tira finds everything funny. Though, mostly Tira’s (both of them) jokes tend to be dark and morbid, usually about killing things. It tends to be sarcastic as well.
12. Does the character have any diagnosable mental disorders? If yes, how does she deal with them?
Her most visible mental disorder is dissociative identity disorder; her problem with multiple personalities. This was formed after Soul Edge clashed with Soul Calibur which unleashed a burst of magic that fried Tira’s mind. She clawed her mind back together: she was lucky to not be brain dead from this experience but her personality was permanently split and her mind started to go downhill at a faster pace.
She originally, before her mind was broken (literally), had manic-depression or bipolar disorder. Tira was what we call a rapid cycler; someone that rapidly switches between mania and depression. For most of her time in the Birds of Passage, she was in a long time manic phase. Then the events of her adoptive family’s death happened after the Birds were ended. This started up her first depression phase. This disorder also lent itself to her homicidal tendencies, since manic-depressives can be extremely violent people.
I suppose one could say she slightly has a dependent personality based on the lengths she went to become a servant of Soul Edge and how she stays more in a depressive state when she’s on her own.
The final disorder I’d say that Tira has is an addictive personality. She would have been addicted to something, no matter how she was raised. It just happened that the thing she was exposed to was murder. It could have been drinking, gambling, sex…but Tira got unlucky that her addiction turned out to be homicide.
I don’t think Tira’s a sociopath. She does seem to have some sort of capacity for empathy (noting that she thought that Sophitia was a terrible mother for leaving her children alone for so long, for example) but she doesn’t show that side very often to humans. She does show empathy in a selfish manner half the time but on the other hand, she’s seen to have a deep connection to her birds. A sociopath tends to abuse animals weaker than themselves; one is probably unlikely to form the connection Tira has to her avian pets. It’s more likely her homicidal tendencies came from her upbringing as an assassin and a deadly mixture of manic-depression and an addictive personality. In other words, she’s capable of empathy in theory but very unlikely to show it.
As for how she deals with these disorders? The answer is that Tira doesn’t. She knows she’s different than most of the world but she doesn’t care. She doesn’t want treatment, she doesn’t care that her mental health is going down the drain. Tira’s far too gone to realize how bad she’s gotten.
13. What moments in this character's life have defined her as a person?
Three come to mind: the destruction of the Birds of Passage, her adoption and the later death of her adoptive family, and her joining Nightmare.
The destruction of the Birds of Passage left her without direction. So she wandered until she was adopted.
During the time she was adopted she tried so damn hard to be normal, to curb her appetite for murder. She wasn’t very successful. She thought that she could live with that life: having two parents that cared for her and even a (slightly annoying) little sister. But that little sister had a pet bird that was kept in a cage. Tira, for whatever reasons (even she herself never knew why), released the bird. Her adoptive parents scolded her for this.
She killed both her adoptive parents and her little sister in a blind rage. As she coolly examined the bodies this was when she decided that she could never be ‘normal’. No matter how hard she tried.
Joining Soul Edge and Nightmare gave her a purpose again.
14. What does she fear?
Before her mind was split, she has a faint fear of being devoured by Soul Edge. This fear was shoved down in-between the chasm of her split personality when her mind was destroyed and pulled back together.
15. What are her hopes or aspirations?
To be devoured by Soul Edge so they can be one forever.
16. What is something she doesn't want anyone to find out about her?
That she feels slight guilt over her adoptive family’s murder.
Relationships
1. Describe this character's relationship with her parents.
Genetic parents? Dead. Adoptive parents? It was good, and then she killed them.
2. Does the character have any siblings? What is/was their relationship like?
Only child but she had an adoptive little sister. Tira killed her.
3. Are there other blood relatives to whom she is close? Are there ones she can't stand?
None.
4. Are there other, unrelated people whom she considers part of her family? What are her relationships with them?
None.
5. Who is/was the character's best friend? How did they meet?
Her best friends are her ravens, the Watchers. She met up with them after joining Nightmare and Soul Edge.
6. Does she have other close friends?
Nope.
7. Does she make friends easily, or does she have trouble getting along with people?
She’s a homicidal maniac, what do you think?
8. Which does she consider more important: family or friends?
Her ravens.
9. Is the character single, married, divorced, widowed? Has she been married more than once?
Single, not looking for love.
10. Is she currently in a romantic relationship with someone other than a spouse?
No.
11. Who was her first crush? Who is her latest?
Nightmare and Soul Edge.
12. What does she look for in a romantic partner?
Is it a suit of armor with a talking sword? No? Then no interest whatsoever.
13. Does the character have children? Grandchildren? If yes, how does she relate to them? If no, does she want any?
No and, um. It’d be a really bad thing if Tira reproduced.
14. Does she have any rivals or enemies?
Does the whole world count? She considers Sophitia as a person who she loathes fiercely because of her mothering skills or lack thereof.
15. What is the character's sexual orientation? Where does she fall on the Kinsey scale?
I’d say a two? She’s really not interested, even though she’ll kill you with a poisoned kiss if she had the chance.
16. How does she feel about sex? How important is it to her?
She’s had sex before but she’s not really interested. Murder is far more exciting to her.
17. What are her turn-ons? Turn-offs? Weird bedroom habits?
Killing people is her way to get turned on.
Beliefs
1. Do you know your character's astrological (zodiac of choice) sign? How well does she fit type?
Tira was born in the Year of the Dog (do you know how hard it was to find that out?) and is a Leo. She’s got the loyalty of a Dog down pact.
2. Is this character religious, spiritual, both, or neither? How important are these elements in her life?
She’s spiritual as in she believes that Soul Edge will rule the world one day. That’s a deep belief but there’s nothing really else.
3. Does this character have a personal code of morals or ethics? If so, how did that begin? What would it take to compromise it?
She really doesn’t have any morals, per se. Other than her basic rules that Soul Edge and Nightmare are always right. Oh and hurting birds or keeping them as pets is a big no-no.
4. How does she regard beliefs that differ from hers? Is she tolerant, intolerant, curious, indifferent?
She’ll kill anyone and everyone? Tira really doesn’t care what other people believe.
5. What prejudices does she hold? Are they irrational or does she have a good reason for them?
See above.
Daily Life
1. What is the character's financial situation? Is she rich, poor, comfortable, in debt?
She’s…poor as hell. But she doesn’t mind.
2. What is her social status? Has this changed over time, and if so, how has the change affected her?
She’s the leader of Nightmare’s servants. Which is a position that nobody likes but she’s damn proud of that, thank you very much. She wanted to become a servant of Soul Edge so she did. Nothing to it, really.
3. Where does she live? House, apartment, trailer? Is her home her castle or just a place to crash? What condition is it in? Does she share it with others?
She lives in Ostrheinsburg, the evil capital, with the other servants of Soul Edge. It’s a giant degraded haunted castle. Tira loves it there.
4. Besides the basic necessities, what does she spend her money on?
No money, so nothing.
5. What does she do for a living? Is she good at it? Does she enjoy it, or would she rather be doing something else?
Tira kills people and harvests their souls for Nightmare and Soul Edge. She loves every moment of it.
6. What are her interests or hobbies? How does she spend her free time?
Just…spying on people with her ravens, really.
7. What are her eating habits? Does she skip meals, eat out, drink alcohol, avoid certain foods?
She only eats when she’s starving. Tira does make a point never to eat poultry, though.
Associations
Which of the following do you associate with the character, or which is her favorite:
1. Color? Red
2. Smell? Spilled blood
3. Time of day? Midnight
4. Season? Winter
5. Book? Edgar Allen’s poetry
6. Music? Nightwish
7. Place? Germany
8. Substance? Iron
9. Plant? Nightshade
10. Animal? Raven
END
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