Application (Trans_9)
Your name: Zoki
Your LJ: azora_mysta (that I never use, of course)
Your email: bluezoki *at* gmail *dot* com
Your AIM, MSN, or Yahoo handle: AIM: zokiblue
Character's name: Yuna
Character's LJ: leapoffayth
Character's canon: Final Fantasy X
Brief (around 300 words) personality outline of your character:
Like all the people of her world, Yuna is inescapably linked to death. Her whole life through, she has watched her world continue its spiral of death and destruction at the hands of the awful beast called Sin. Her whole life through, she has mourned the lives lost to Sin, including both of her parents' deaths in her childhood, but after a point she became determined to find the solution to end that pain.
In that world, the only known way to give temporary peace from Sin is to follow her father's path, the path of a summoner: train hard, connect with the spirits of those who had sacrificed their lives to give power to the summoners, and sacrifice their own lives in a great battle. Since she was a child, Yuna has followed this path---to be a pawn for slaughter. And she has done it all without a word of complaint.
In her mind, it is a sacrifice worth making. When explaining her reasons for becoming a summoner, she says that in a world where cities are torn apart, families are ruthlessly separated by death, and no one is certain if they'll be alive tomorrow, any period of time safe from the horrors of Sin's attacks is worth the whole world. Yuna lives for the smiles on others' faces that break the sorrow, and is urged onward by the thought of the smiles that will exist on Spira after she dies.
It would be a mistake, though, to assume that self sacrifice and duty are all there is to Yuna. The girl displays an iron will that breaks past her soft-spoken exterior, determined to end sorrow no matter how many obstacles are thrown in her path. She has battled a leader of her religion when his evil ambitions were made known, married said leader to have a chance at finishing him off, and continued on her quest despite being condemned by the world's religion (and therefore most of the population) for her actions against that leader. Through it all, no betrayals from friends or murder threats have stopped her from moving forward with her pilgrimage to beat Sin.
Yet even under all that seriousness, there exists small shreds of playfulness. She says that she wants her last journey to be full of laughter and ensures it, lightly teasing her friends along the way, but it comes across as awkward. Theirs is not a world where true laughter happens often. It is simply a tool, a band-aid holdover until the world's next Calm period. With practice, she might improve and truly discover what she wants for herself, but it is doubtful that she'll ever be fully free from duty.
Brief (around 500 words) history and background of your character OR link to a really good wiki page with their history. In either case, explain where they cut off from the timeline:
History here!
It cuts off after the second-to-last paragraph of the Final Fantasy X section, just before the descent to the Zanarkand Ruins where the truth about the summoners' sacrifice is revealed.
Sample post (just a general, everyday, puttering-around-the-ship post; please include a snippet of dialogue):
Right here!
If the character has magic, mutant, or otherwise metahuman abilities, please explain what they are and outline EXACTLY how they function, as their powers may not work due to the nature of the ship or may need to be limited somehow:
Yuna has two main classes of abilities: white magic and summoning. Stronger spells tire her out faster, and the strongest ones can't be spammed. I'll mark those up. White magic is affected by an MP system in-game, which I'm gonna approximate by saying how much they drain her and that it can be recharged after a nights' sleep. Usually.
*White Magic, curative:
Esuna: Treats various status ailments, but poison is the only one likely to come up in-game, the others are canon specific. So I'll say that this one stops the body-ravaging effects of many poisons.
Cure: Cures various injuries. The lighter version that can be used very frequently patches up relatively shallow cuts, a stronger version that costs twice as much energy can cure burns and knit arteries and muscles if they're injured in cuts, and if cast a few times, the strongest version can repair some of the damage from a broken limb. That one, though, is limited to three times per day.
Life: Restores enough energy to a heavily damaged unconscious person to sustain them for an hour, but they will definitely need more aid. Heavily drains Yuna and can only be cast on the target once per battle (again, self-nerfing). There are stronger versions of the spell that fully revive the person, but they're too overpowered.
*White magic: protective:
Nul-Blaze/Tide/Frost/Shock: These spells temporarily protect the person they were cast on from any fire, water, ice, or electrical damage. They don't take much energy to cast, but they're not very useful because (self-nerfing) they can only be used once a battle per person, and the protection goes away after just one hit from that type of damage. Fades after one hour if an elemental attack doesn't end the protection first.
Protect/Shell: Moderately draining protection spells that halves the damage of physical attacks (for Protect) or magical attacks (for Shell). Fades after one hour.
*Summoning:
Yuna's summons are called Aeons, great beings about 1.5-2 times typical human size. Each of them is the physical manifestation of a fayth, the soul of a person who sacrificed their lives long ago to exist in a seemingly eternal dream state and power the summon magic. The power of the Aeons comes from fayth statues, depictions of the Aeon form and the human who became a fayth. Each statue is enshrined in a temple of Yevon, the planet's religion. There are five Aeons (three more from optional sidequests, but I"m not using those) so as long as the five statues (and possibly the temples too) were saved somehow, the Aeons can be summoned.
Here is a list if you prefer pictures and the wiki's descriptions. I'm only using the five Aeons listed under 'Required'.
Each of them can only sustain about as much damage as a strong human fighter before they are dismissed, unable to be summoned for a few days while their strength recovers. It takes fifteen seconds from the time Yuna calls them for them to appear, only one Aeon can be active at a time, and their attacks are about 1.5x as strong as a human fighter's. They have twice-as-strong Overdrive attacks that can sometimes be built up and used in a long battle, but that Aeon is dismissed for the remainder of the battle afterward.
Valefor: Yuna's first Aeon from Besaid Temple and her personal favorite. She's a majestic flying bird who can use her wings for wind gust attacks and fire a laser from her beak in the Overdrive attack. She's big enough to carry a human or two on her back.
Ifrit: The fiery Aeon of Kilika Temple, he can lob fireballs at enemies. He's heavy when he hops around and slow to move, but his slaps and fireballs have some power behind them. He has moderate (slight burn) fire magic that can be used to damage the enemy or heal himself.
Ixion: The lightning unicorn of Djose Temple. He's speedy but weaker than the others (except Valefor), big enough to ride, and can use thunder magic to heal himself or damage the enemy.
Shiva: An icy Aeon from Macalania Temple. She uses icicle-based attacks that can heal herself or damage the enemy.
Bahamut: From Bevelle Temple, this dragon Aeon is the strongest of Yuna's arsenal, and therefore the most draining to summon, used as a last resort. After this, don't expect her to summon any more. His attacks are slow to execute but powerful blasts, especially the Mega Flare overdrive---but it so drains both Aeon and summoner that it's only used if absolutely necessary.
Non-superhuman special abilities of note (Is your character a master ventriloquist? A naturally-occurring super-genius? The best martial artist in the world? Say so here): Not really! Unless the occasional corny joke counts.
Your LJ: azora_mysta (that I never use, of course)
Your email: bluezoki *at* gmail *dot* com
Your AIM, MSN, or Yahoo handle: AIM: zokiblue
Character's name: Yuna
Character's LJ: leapoffayth
Character's canon: Final Fantasy X
Brief (around 300 words) personality outline of your character:
Like all the people of her world, Yuna is inescapably linked to death. Her whole life through, she has watched her world continue its spiral of death and destruction at the hands of the awful beast called Sin. Her whole life through, she has mourned the lives lost to Sin, including both of her parents' deaths in her childhood, but after a point she became determined to find the solution to end that pain.
In that world, the only known way to give temporary peace from Sin is to follow her father's path, the path of a summoner: train hard, connect with the spirits of those who had sacrificed their lives to give power to the summoners, and sacrifice their own lives in a great battle. Since she was a child, Yuna has followed this path---to be a pawn for slaughter. And she has done it all without a word of complaint.
In her mind, it is a sacrifice worth making. When explaining her reasons for becoming a summoner, she says that in a world where cities are torn apart, families are ruthlessly separated by death, and no one is certain if they'll be alive tomorrow, any period of time safe from the horrors of Sin's attacks is worth the whole world. Yuna lives for the smiles on others' faces that break the sorrow, and is urged onward by the thought of the smiles that will exist on Spira after she dies.
It would be a mistake, though, to assume that self sacrifice and duty are all there is to Yuna. The girl displays an iron will that breaks past her soft-spoken exterior, determined to end sorrow no matter how many obstacles are thrown in her path. She has battled a leader of her religion when his evil ambitions were made known, married said leader to have a chance at finishing him off, and continued on her quest despite being condemned by the world's religion (and therefore most of the population) for her actions against that leader. Through it all, no betrayals from friends or murder threats have stopped her from moving forward with her pilgrimage to beat Sin.
Yet even under all that seriousness, there exists small shreds of playfulness. She says that she wants her last journey to be full of laughter and ensures it, lightly teasing her friends along the way, but it comes across as awkward. Theirs is not a world where true laughter happens often. It is simply a tool, a band-aid holdover until the world's next Calm period. With practice, she might improve and truly discover what she wants for herself, but it is doubtful that she'll ever be fully free from duty.
Brief (around 500 words) history and background of your character OR link to a really good wiki page with their history. In either case, explain where they cut off from the timeline:
History here!
It cuts off after the second-to-last paragraph of the Final Fantasy X section, just before the descent to the Zanarkand Ruins where the truth about the summoners' sacrifice is revealed.
Sample post (just a general, everyday, puttering-around-the-ship post; please include a snippet of dialogue):
Right here!
If the character has magic, mutant, or otherwise metahuman abilities, please explain what they are and outline EXACTLY how they function, as their powers may not work due to the nature of the ship or may need to be limited somehow:
Yuna has two main classes of abilities: white magic and summoning. Stronger spells tire her out faster, and the strongest ones can't be spammed. I'll mark those up. White magic is affected by an MP system in-game, which I'm gonna approximate by saying how much they drain her and that it can be recharged after a nights' sleep. Usually.
*White Magic, curative:
Esuna: Treats various status ailments, but poison is the only one likely to come up in-game, the others are canon specific. So I'll say that this one stops the body-ravaging effects of many poisons.
Cure: Cures various injuries. The lighter version that can be used very frequently patches up relatively shallow cuts, a stronger version that costs twice as much energy can cure burns and knit arteries and muscles if they're injured in cuts, and if cast a few times, the strongest version can repair some of the damage from a broken limb. That one, though, is limited to three times per day.
Life: Restores enough energy to a heavily damaged unconscious person to sustain them for an hour, but they will definitely need more aid. Heavily drains Yuna and can only be cast on the target once per battle (again, self-nerfing). There are stronger versions of the spell that fully revive the person, but they're too overpowered.
*White magic: protective:
Nul-Blaze/Tide/Frost/Shock: These spells temporarily protect the person they were cast on from any fire, water, ice, or electrical damage. They don't take much energy to cast, but they're not very useful because (self-nerfing) they can only be used once a battle per person, and the protection goes away after just one hit from that type of damage. Fades after one hour if an elemental attack doesn't end the protection first.
Protect/Shell: Moderately draining protection spells that halves the damage of physical attacks (for Protect) or magical attacks (for Shell). Fades after one hour.
*Summoning:
Yuna's summons are called Aeons, great beings about 1.5-2 times typical human size. Each of them is the physical manifestation of a fayth, the soul of a person who sacrificed their lives long ago to exist in a seemingly eternal dream state and power the summon magic. The power of the Aeons comes from fayth statues, depictions of the Aeon form and the human who became a fayth. Each statue is enshrined in a temple of Yevon, the planet's religion. There are five Aeons (three more from optional sidequests, but I"m not using those) so as long as the five statues (and possibly the temples too) were saved somehow, the Aeons can be summoned.
Here is a list if you prefer pictures and the wiki's descriptions. I'm only using the five Aeons listed under 'Required'.
Each of them can only sustain about as much damage as a strong human fighter before they are dismissed, unable to be summoned for a few days while their strength recovers. It takes fifteen seconds from the time Yuna calls them for them to appear, only one Aeon can be active at a time, and their attacks are about 1.5x as strong as a human fighter's. They have twice-as-strong Overdrive attacks that can sometimes be built up and used in a long battle, but that Aeon is dismissed for the remainder of the battle afterward.
Valefor: Yuna's first Aeon from Besaid Temple and her personal favorite. She's a majestic flying bird who can use her wings for wind gust attacks and fire a laser from her beak in the Overdrive attack. She's big enough to carry a human or two on her back.
Ifrit: The fiery Aeon of Kilika Temple, he can lob fireballs at enemies. He's heavy when he hops around and slow to move, but his slaps and fireballs have some power behind them. He has moderate (slight burn) fire magic that can be used to damage the enemy or heal himself.
Ixion: The lightning unicorn of Djose Temple. He's speedy but weaker than the others (except Valefor), big enough to ride, and can use thunder magic to heal himself or damage the enemy.
Shiva: An icy Aeon from Macalania Temple. She uses icicle-based attacks that can heal herself or damage the enemy.
Bahamut: From Bevelle Temple, this dragon Aeon is the strongest of Yuna's arsenal, and therefore the most draining to summon, used as a last resort. After this, don't expect her to summon any more. His attacks are slow to execute but powerful blasts, especially the Mega Flare overdrive---but it so drains both Aeon and summoner that it's only used if absolutely necessary.
Non-superhuman special abilities of note (Is your character a master ventriloquist? A naturally-occurring super-genius? The best martial artist in the world? Say so here): Not really! Unless the occasional corny joke counts.