Application to witchesreign
Name: Ara
Journal: mangosherbet
Contact: Sickie Beaver @ AIM
Character Name: Kairi
Series: Kingdom Hearts
Gender: Female
Age & Canon Point: 15, post-KH2
Requested Sponsor: Carbuncle
Entry position: Cadet
History: KH wiki, KH13 and wikipedia links.
Garden History: n/a
Abilities & Physical Abnormalities:
Keyblade: Kairi can summon a keyblade, and use it...to some extent, as she has no training. She doesn't even properly know how to summon hers, yet. The Keyblade is a very particular weapon, in that it chooses its wielder or is transmitted to them via ritual (think Harry Potter wands) and will always return to them. No one else can hold it for long, and it can be thrown with impunity: it will always go back to its master's hand. Attracted to strong hearts, the Keyblade gives its wielder quite some power, namely that to open any door or lock, from the mundane (bike locks) to the magical (the barriers between worlds).
Heart: As a Princess of Heart, she has no darkness in her heart at all...whatever use that may be. Mostly it gives her the power to open Kingdom Hearts when she's with the other Princesses. It also means that if she's attacked and devoured by a Heartless, she won't become one. Both of these are obviously helpful in Balamb Garden!
Mostly she's a normal teenager with nothing more than a lot of courage and patience to see her through, and an incredible tolerance for the weird. Talking, walking animals? Dark portals? Dimension-traveling? What-ever.
Personality:
"Don't ever forget: wherever you go, I'm always with you."
Kairi's friends are everything to her. In the absence of the memories of her childhood, she formed extremely powerful bonds with the children of her adopted homeland; namely her two male best friends, Riku and Sora. Their dynamic was a well-practiced one, with Riku and Sora competing over Kairi's attention and Kairi in turn either goading them to action or stepping in to cool hot heads and wounded prides. As mediator, she played organizer and referee to games and matches, setting the finish line to races and calling the start, or making supply lists for 'adventures'. Despite being in possession of a playful streak a mile wide, she was and remains the most sensible of the three in comparison to Riku's smooth arrogance and Sora's rash enthusiasm. She is, however, prone to whimsy and the fantastical, full of mischief when she wants to be-she did, after all, agree to build a raft in order to leave the world. She's not a stick in the mud; if anything, she's perfectly happy being the tap of realism that turns harebrained ideas for play into realizable plans.
Dealing with the boys has also had the queer effect of both making her very patient and nurturing, and a tomboy at the same time. She likes rough-and-tumble games, and while she isn't a fighter by any stretch of the imagination (even Selphie beat her on that score), she doesn't shy away from physical exertion or a little spike of fear and adrenaline. Risk isn't a stranger to her: she ran away from Axel's attempt to kidnap her, right into the maw of a dark portal. Even he recognized that that took some guts. She's a correspondingly quick thinker and decisive in times of crisis, but she isn't a leader. She's motivated primarily by the needs and wants of others, especially her friends, and is happy to take orders and follow along if it means more people come out safe. That's not to say that she can't be rash, as well: she doesn't take her own safety nearly as seriously, leaping off a railing onto the floor below into a swarm of Heartless and hacking away with no training.
It only serves to show that when it comes to protecting her loved ones, Kairi does everything within her power...which admittedly isn't much, but she tries. She chases Sora across the worlds even when she'd only briefly ever left her own, and talks back to Saix when he threatens Sora, despite the fact he could break her in half. Her loyalty, once won, is difficult to lose, as when she immediately recognizes and accepts Riku despite his being trapped in Ansem's body. Optimistic, she never loses faith in either of them, even when things seem bleak. She remains practical, however: she's aware of her own limits and is content in a supportive, encouraging role on the sidelines, as long as she knows her friends are all right without her. Cheerleader to Riku and Sora's quarterbacks, essentially.
Morally reliable, she's outspoken about what she perceives as wrong, though her innocence and lack of experience make her easy to dazzle. She's generally a good judge of character (Axel, you creeper), but a lack of Darkness means she tends to see the good long before she sees the bad. (Also, this is Kingdom Hearts, where most of the time if you aren't a Big Damn Hero you're a raging, power-hungry douchebag bent on world domination. This is helpful in picking sides!) With strangers she's as friendly and sweet as you'd expect, unless they come with obvious bad intentions. Making new friends and being social comes easily to her, and she's the type to surround herself with a caring group of friends and allies. If someone is willing to get to know her, she's an open book for them, unafraid to let her true self shine through and never letting a lie past her lips. She appreciates honesty and openness in return, though: friendship should be true, and betrayal isn't taken lightly. She's always willing to dole out second chances, however, and even makes it easy to take advantage; she looks to the kindness in others to keep her safe.
What are your plans for the character in-game?
Probably having her join the GFC or another club, make aaallll the friends, and get better with that Keyblade of hers.
Anything else?
Complete TWO out of the FOUR options.
ii) Prose sample (can be general or a response to the post's prompt).
Kairi didn't like to fight. She didn't like the feel of a blade in her hands, even one as light and bright and true as the Keyblade, didn't like the singing and sparks of metal against metal, the roar in her ears, the pump of adrenaline. Trouble was, she didn't like being left behind more.
It had always been a kind of inevitability to her: the boys left on their summons, and she would stay, and wait for them to come back, to give them a hero's welcome when no one else could. She couldn't fight, she couldn't use magic, her experience with Axel and Saix had made it obvious she would do little but slow them down. They needed to do their work without worrying about her, or whether or not she was safe. They didn't have time to teach her. Instead of asking them to, she'd given them her blessing. It was the right thing to do, and she was comfortable with that decision.
But here, now, in Garden, she had an opportunity. A chance to make herself useful, to ally her brains and courage with some real skill. To transform herself into someone more capable, who wouldn't be left behind. She'd once thought that waiting wouldn't bring rewards anymore, and now was time to see if that was true.
It was hard, demanding work, physical work, something she'd never been accustomed to; not seriously. Her palms became rough and callused. Her head ached with memorizing spell names and elemental weakness charts. But looking at Riku and Sora, who went through the exercises with ease, made her blood pump faster. She'd catch up. Maybe not in weeks, maybe not even by the time she graduated, lacking the battle experience they had. But she was determined to prove herself; if she couldn't fight as well as they could, she'd dominate with magic and help with healing. She became intimate with the library and the training center, no matter how much the grats scared her. Lessons went by a flurry of notes and she was proud to note that eventually she stopped waking up in the morning feeling like she'd been run over. Seized-up calf muscles or no, Kairi was coming through; the world would just have to step aside.
iv) Thread link: here.