App for thevelvetkey
Player Info:
Nickname: Miki
Age: 24
Personal LJ: sanzo_holic
Method of Contact: pm - email: JackofAntics@gmail.com - plurk: kansaiphones - AIM: Yamiryu7
Characters Played: none/newbie
Character Info:
Name: Saori Nakagawa
Age: 27
Canon: Original Character
Pull Point: After her death.
Background Info:
History:
Saori’s world is modeled after our current world. However, her world also contains gods, spirits, ghosts and other supernatural creatures. Humans rarely encounter them in plain sight, but their actions can influence the human realm such as ‘spirited away’ cases, people going insane or unsolved homicide cases. Lowly spirits can increase their powers and sometimes evolve by consuming strong emotions. Because of this, they often harass humans they see as a potential meal until they are ripe for eating. In the case they devour strong negative emotions and/or human flesh, they evolve into mononoke.
Saori's parents moved to Kyoto when her mom was still pregnant with her. The move happened because her father got a new job there. Her mother was a home maker while her father worked at a university, as a literature professor. Three years later, Akira was born. All was good until Akira was 4 and Saori was 7, when their mother got sick. Her health began to deteriorate until she finally passed away. That left Saori to basically become the caretaker of the house. Her father was devastated with the lost of his wife and his children's mother so the depression began to set in.
One year later, the father went to work but never returned. She vividly remembers walking to the train station with him where they departed to take their own trains. (Saori would later find out he was devoured by a mononoke and later kills it, but she was too late to retrieve and purify his soul.) Their grandmother who lived nearby took them in. When her age made it difficult to raise them to her best of her skills, Saori took over.
In high school, grandmother thought showing her around Kyoto’s Gion district might convince her to become a geiko, an apprentice geisha. After a traditional tea ceremony, she ended up falling in love with tea instead. During her spare time, she looks for new books (specifically on ghost/paranormal subjects) or manga, or buying different kinds of tea.
Her curiosity about the supernatural started when she was little. Her father worked until his disappearance on translating several folklores from classical Japanese to the modern version. While Akira would be scared out of his wits by some of the stories, Saori would always ask for more. Her love for folklore is later reflected in her college work.
Saori eventually graduated high school and attended a college in Osaka. She even studied abroad in America for a year. She graduated college with a degree in English. However it wasn't without a hitch. A week before her graduation, Akira disappeared. There was a police search, but with no leads, it quickly became a cold case.
Saori worked in a publication company after graduation, specializing in translation work for three years, but found the work to be not as satisfying over time. It was then Grandmother suggested she maybe do something she liked: cooking. So she began to plan out making a cafe.
One day, she was visiting the Fushimi-Inari temple in Kyoto. As she climbed up the stairs to the main building, she heard the sounds of little bells chiming. Thinking it was nothing, she continued. Then the chimes got louder and louder as she went up until he finally looked back. That was the last anyone ever heard from Saori.
She’s captured by a Nopperabou, a faceless mononoke who has taken her deep in the neighboring mountain side.
It's explained that mononoke change from the weaker ayakashi when they feed on a human's strongest emotion. In most cases, it's a very bad thing. However in exchange for the power boost, they lose their identity. However there is a way to overcome this. If they consume a soul of someone who despite many hardships occurring in their life are still pure, not only does their power increase but their lifespan increases as well without losing their identity.
Just as the Nopperabou eats her soul, a man by the name of Tenjou intervenes. However that doesn't stop the mononoke from ripping Saori’s soul from her body. Tenjou is able to finish it, but cannot repair the soul-body bond, rendering Saori now as dead in the human world.
Tenjou then decides to take her to see Inari, his father, about her options since she died prematurely according how much time was left in her lifespan. And while she is able to be reincarnated, she wouldn’t be able to do very soon. The next chance she’s able to be reborn won’t be for another century.
The realm of supernatural is known as Kuukan. Inari decides that Saori can stay under Tenjou's care. It through touring around Kuukan and staying with Tenjou, she realizes his purpose. He’s the leader of Inari's elite corps dedicated to protecting humans from being eaten by ayakashi who want to be mononoke, lower their population and maintain balance to Kuukan.
Saori comes to a decision to help Tenjou so more people won't suffer the same fate as her. Tenjou objected but eventually gives in. She goes through training with Pluto, the corps second-strongest, and it would take her a few years until she got Inari's blessing and joined in the corps. Inari would later say his ‘name’ is technically a title and has to be passed down to his son but traditionally the title of a god was shared by someone so he must marry if he intends to inherit. Fortunately over the years of working together Tenjou proposes to Saori. And while they have their duties as gods to fulfill prayers of the various sorts, they often go out to deal with the constant mononoke problem.
Personality:
Saori’s older sister/motherly type of character. She’s quite independent because she had to help take care of her little brother, grandmother, and herself for a good portion of her life. Akira was a handful as a child, so she had to be more mature than other kids her age.
If a person needed someone to talk to or needed something, Saori would be there to help in anyway possible. She’s considered by her peers as a very reliable and diligent hard worker. However, she does tend not to be open about herself to others. She mostly keeps it to herself unless she has someone who she completely trusts and has managed to stay by her side for a very long time.
Although she doesn't get angry easily, there are a few things that would be crossing the line with her. They are: close friends and family getting hurt, being pestered while she's working, and insulting her culinary skills (as in not constructive criticism). If she does get angry, she wouldn't throw a punch unless they seriously pushed her over the edge. She doesn't believe violence is a way to solve things unless there is really no other choice.
Money isn’t what drives her to work. She has a good sense of morals so she would never manipulate anyone for her own benefit. Saori believes in moderation and does not smoke, but will have a drink on a rare occasion. Also, she also knows her limits and tries not to step over them often.
Game Specific:
Arcana: Empress
Justification:
Motherhood: Saori spends a majority of her time being motherly to someone whether it’s cooking up a meal for them or giving them comfort through words and/or actions. While she’s not a strong fighter, she tends to be a strong anchor for the people she’s close to.
Assurance: Because of the untimely passing of her parents, she had to learn to grow up quickly and become a reliable person, especially in the eyes of her little brother. She always there to support those she cares about.
Emotional discord: While Saori goes out of her way to take care of people, she doesn’t let her own problems be known. Those are mostly coping with the lost of her family and being smothered by things like work. As she continues to bottle up her personal demons, it might hinder her at times, particularly if it's the death anniversary.
Over protectiveness: Because she’s lost many people she’s close with in her life, she can’t help but be a little over protective at times. While she does her best to curb it, sometimes it’s pretty clear she’s restraining herself for that person’s sake.
Samples:
First Person Sample:
[There’s a flicker before the video post starts. She shyly waves.]
Good morning, everyone. My name’s Saori Nakagawa. It’s nice to meet you all. I was just wondering: how easy is it to start a café here? It won’t be too big since it’ll just be me starting off. Maybe once I get things settled, I’ll hire some workers. But if there’s a café here I can work at, that would be great too!
Also, where’s the library located? I’d like to learn about the local folklore. I guess you can say it’s a hobby of mine.
Anyways, thank you in advance, and I hope to see you soon. [She smiles and clicks the video off.]
Third Person Sample:
Saori was so absorbed in her book; she barely noticed the time until the librarian personally came to her to say the library was closing. Of course, she had only recently arrived so she was still trying to get her bearings correct. The town seemed quiet and peaceful enough that she didn’t have to worry about being mugged or something like that. Well, there was nothing wrong with staying out a little bit longer. The sky was so clear, the moon lit the pathway long with the street lights.
She had to admit it was jarring experience. One moment, she was about to be eaten by some supernatural creature to only wake up on this island. There was nothing wrong about this place, but something didn’t seem right. Just then, her phone beeped. It was midnight already? Suddenly a chill went up her spine. Why did it suddenly feel like her last moments back home? She quickly looked behind her.
“What on earth…?”
PERSONA INFO:
Name: Brigid
Skills
level 01 - Agi (weak fire damage to 1 enemy)
level 10 - Dia (recovers small amount of HP to one ally)
level 20 - Diarama (recovers moderate amount of HP to one ally)
level 30 - Rakukaja (Increase ally's defense)
level 40 - Media (recovers small amount of HP to allies)
level 50 - Maha Agi (weak fire damage to a group of enemies)
level 60 - Mediarama (recovers moderate amount of HP to allies)
level 70 - Maha Agionn (moderate fire damage to group of enemies)
level 80 - Mediarahan (Recovers all HP to allies)
level 90 - Hellfire (heavy fire damage to group of enemies)
level 100 - Oracle (After a period of time, all status aliments will be lifted and health will be restored to the group.)