[OOC] Application
For permanent_way.
OOC info:
Name: Cherry
Method of contact:
Email: ryoushirogane@yahoo.com
AIM: Platinum Ryou
IC info:
Character name: Tear Grants
Age: 16
Gender: Female
Original canon: Tales of the Abyss
Target canon: Mobile Suit Gundam SEED
Canon background:
*I have tried condensing this section as much as humanly possible since I have a bad habit of tl;dring.*
*Planet Earth in Gundam SEED has been switched to a simplified version of Planet Auldrant from Tales of the Abyss. I kept references to Auldrant's religion (the Score), the Tower of Rem, the floating land, the miasma, and the use of fonons as energy and for special abilities. The names of the Sephiroth (originally PLANTs) and other cities come from Abyss, as do most of the words that have been used to rename the Gundams and other weapons. ZAFT has become the main organization within Abyss, which is the Order of Lorelei, and the Earth Alliance Forces became the Auldranti Alliance Forces based on the planet change. The Oracle Knights were originally the military unit within the Order of Lorelei, but they now represent the Mohs faction which follows the Score to the word - it seemed an appropriate group to support Naturals, because Coordinators would not be mentioned within this holy text (it was a major issue for replicas in the game).
The Abyss characters more-or-less fill the roles of the characters from SEED. There are exceptions where I switched events around to more accurately reflect the characters and their original personalities. Relationships between characters are mostly based on Abyss - for example Van is still Tear's brother, and Jade and Dist were involved in fomicry research together. I also kept hyperresonance, which is now a way of piloting mecha because Luke is not smart enough to use a computer. Mechanical rappigs have replaced Haros, and Mieu replaces Birdy. I have also kept Luke and Tear's relationship similar to the way it was in Abyss, in addition to a hair-cutting scene, because, as cute as Kira and Lacus are, I didn't want to tamper with what made the pairing so appealing to me in the first place.*
Tear Grants (16) is a female Oracle Knight who grew up beneath the planet's surface in a place known as the Qliphoth. After discovering that her brother Van plans to destroy the Outer Lands as revenge for the collapse of his birthplace, Tear accepts an assignment under Grand Maestro Mohs in order to follow him to the surface and stop him - killing him if necessary. She tracks him to a manor in Kimlasca's capital where he has been teaching a young noble swordplay. After putting the servants to sleep with a fonic hymn and facing off against her brother, her efforts are thwarted by Van's student, Luke fon Fabre. A hyperresonance occurs between the seventh fonons present in both of their bodies, and they are blasted into the Tataroo Valley in enemy Malkuth territory.
From there Tear takes responsibility in returning Luke to his home in Baticul. This proves much more difficult than originally anticipated - not only are they blown further from the capital than they thought, but Luke is very much a burden - spoiled, arrogant, and highly temperamental. The two are arrested and taken aboard a Malkuth landship where they are interrogated by Colonel Jade Curtiss, Fon Master Ion, and his guardian Anise Tatlin, in addition to a cheagle named Mieu. Luke and Tear join the others' efforts to promote peace between the enemy kingdoms. They meet up with Luke's servant, Guy Cecil, along the way back to Baticul, and shortly after arrival in said city, are sent out on a mission along with Princess Natalia Luzu Kimlasca-Lanvaldear to evacuate a mining city that is suffering from a poisonous miasma. In the miner's city, Akzeriuth, Van convinces Luke to use his hyperresonance to destroy the passage ring supporting the area, falsely stating that it will clear up the miasma and make him a hero. Instead, the whole area collapses and thousands of lives are lost in an instant. The party is rescued by another one of Tear's hymns and they fall down into the Qliphoth. Tear then takes them to Yulia City, and Luke faces off against a man with an uncanny resemblance to himself, discovers he's only a replica created in the likeness of this "Asch" person, loses to him and falls unconscious. The other party members, disgusted by Luke's selfish behavior, abandon him and return to the world above. Tear stays behind and as a result is the first to witness Luke's desire to change. He cuts off his hair with one of her Oracle knives and asks her to watch him.
Tear does just this throughout the rest of the game, initially cautious and cold, but gradually admitting her trust in Luke and even developing feelings for him. The group manages to come up with a plan to stop the rest of the land from collapsing and for getting rid of the miasma; with the help of friends and acquaintences, they begin putting these ideas to action. In the process, Tear absorbs poisoned fonons into her body, and it's feared that she may die from it. Despite this, they continue lowering the land for everyone's sake, and Tear is cured as a result of a dear friend's sacrifice. As the game progresses, Tear is able to learn more fonic hymns and even put them together into Yulia's legendary Grand Fonic Hymn, she's forced to watch many of her superiors and people precious to her die, and she even nearly loses Luke. She discovers that, after ridding the world of miasma, Luke's body has become weak and the fonons comprising it are coming apart. But they must persevere, because Van still hasn't given up and refuses to listen. Van (with the help of his associates) creates a replica of his birthplace, Hod, and has absorbed the planet's very memory (Lorelei) into himself. It takes the entire party to defeat him, and the Grand Fonic Hymn to coax out Lorelei. Luke stays behind on the crumbling replica city in order to free Lorelei and send it into the fonbelt surrounding the planet. Tear is the last to leave, begging him to come home and promising to always be waiting for him. The game ends with Luke, holding the now dead Asch, being thanked by Lorelei and fading into oblivion.
Following the credits, Tear and the others are waiting in Tataroo Valley on the eve of Luke's 20th birthday. They see a young man approaching in the distance and when Tear asks him why he's there, he comments that the area has a nice view of Hod and that he made a promise. It's left intentionally ambiguous, but many fans believe this person is Luke.
AU background:
*If this makes no sense, I have some name conversions and a rough timeline typed up that summarizes everything faster. I attempted to focus in on the stuff pertaining to Tear.*
*I tried to follow the plot of SEED very closely, with several exceptions. I changed some events around to reflect the Abyss characters' personalities, but the end results are largely the same. The use of mobile suits, space travel and colonization are purely a Gundam ideal, as Abyss scientists had barely experimented with even airplanes. I kept the use of Coordinators rather than using replicas from Abyss, because there are far more Coordinators than replicas... basically those labelled as Coordinators will keep simplified forms of their powers from Abyss, and Naturals will be stripped of them completely. Replicas are mentioned, however, as a synonym for clones.*
In its 21st century following the creation of the Score, Auldrant has made its way into outerspace, a dream once thought impossible.
During the Dawn Age, scholars had sought to reach the stars via a staircase known as the Tower Of Rem. The project was eventually abandoned as the scientific community focused its attention on a way to solve environmental problems - predominantly the issue of miasma, a poison that had begun seeping outwards from the planet's core. As research to find a cure for the miasma was put under way, another group of scientists insisted that now more than ever, it was important to fund and research a space program. A staircase was not going to work - Auldrant needed to create flying fonmachines to propel its people into space. Following several violent protests, they finally saw the government backing they had desired. Now, centuries later, fontechnology has seen incredible promise and advancement, leading to the creation of those very fonmachines - space ships. This revolution also produced a temporary fix to the miasma problem (as proposed by Yulia Jue) by raising cities above the earth's crust - but Auldrant had been bitten by the bug; enthusiasm for space exploration had reached an all-time high. The space program saw great success, and with the world's enthusiasm, it established a lunar base as well as free-floating colonies known as the Sephiroth, named after the fabled pillars that supported Auldrant's great cities - so too, Auldrant hoped to support the future of humanity.
Human advancement didn't end there, however. Dr. Southern Cross proposed that, through experiments known as fomicry, humankind could reach into its yet untapped potential. After years of research, Coordinators were created. Coordinators were humans gifted with enhanced genetic data and could perform in ways that normal humans could not. Commonly their intelligence was increased, their speed was increased, they were immune to most diseases, and they could utilize energy particles known as fonons (already used to power all manner of fonmachines) to tap into previously undiscovered abilities such as hyperresonance, telepathy, and fonic artes.
However, normal human beings failed to accept these Coordinators, seeing them as abominations. A group called the Oracle Knights was formed, seeking to rid the world of Coordinators whom they believed went against the teachings of the Score and thus had no place in their pure world. Likewise Coordinators could not understand why the Naturals refused to embrace genetic enhancement as a form of progress. These abilities were, after all, traits that would one day manifest themselves in humans through natural selection - fomicry was simply speeding up the process. This, as most arguments do, led to war. Further fomicry research was banned. The Coordinators established themselves in the Sephiroth, forming an organization known as the Order of Lorelei to oppose the Auldranti Alliance Forces, the Naturals.
Tear Grants, younger sister to Supreme Council Chairman Van Grants, has lived out most of her life on one of the Sephiroth, Yulia City, along with their grandfather, Teodoro Grants. She is a well-known idol singer with military experience, thanks to her brother. She has been trained by Major Giselle Oslo (codename "Regret" or "Legretta"), one of her brother's subordinates, and is betrothed to Crimson fon Fabre's son, Asch fon Fabre, who is one of the Order of Lorelei's pilots, and royalty in his own right.
In the year 2018, The Order of Lorelei sends its group of Coordinators to obtain top secret mobile weapons from a neutral Daathic space colony known as Akzeriuth. All but one of the five weapons are captured. The last is piloted by a young Coordinator named Luke who manages to rewrite the OS in a matter of seconds by carving out new controls via hyperresonance. On the battlefield, Luke comes face to face with Guy Cecil, a friend who had always insisted that fighting born from hatred and revenge was wrong and one of the few faces he can remember from his childhood. The Order's pilots retreat, leaving Luke and his friends in the hands of the Auldranti Alliance Forces. They are ordered to board the Tartarus, since, even as civilians, they have just witnessed top secret government information.
Luke proves to be a horrible charge. He's always complaining and, though he's an excellent pilot, frequently gets sick afterwards. He's afraid to kill anyone, and has nightmares about the battles he's forced to endure. Luke soon realizes, however, that if he does not fight, the people aboard the Tartarus and countless others will be killed. Not willing to allow that to happen, he agrees to continue piloting the Nebilim until the Tartarus can reach Keterburg safely back on Auldrant. Of course, this will be far from easy, as the Order of Lorelei wants to get their hands on the mobile suit that got away, not to mention its pilot.
During one such mission, Luke retrieves a lifepod that has been abandoned. The lifepod is taken aboard the Tartarus, and there, the group discovers none other than Tear and one of her mechanical rappigs. Tear had been on a mission to pay tribute to the remains of Hod, a colony destroyed during the Bloody Valentine massacre seven years ago, when the spaceship she was on ran into trouble. Tear had been ejected into a lifepod in an effort to save her. The captain and the others decide that Tear should be taken to one of the rooms and commanded to stay there until further notice - since she is, after all, with the Order of Lorelei and thus an enemy.
Tear is not treated terribly well, but she manages to "befriend" Luke, who, like herself, is a Coordinator. By "befriend" I mean that Tear very pointedly tells Luke that he has a bad attitude and that he needs to shape up. Luke begins to question what he should do. Not only is his friend on the wrong side, but there's another pilot, one Asch fon Fabre, that bears an uncanny resemblance to Luke himself.
When the 8th Fleet comes to rescue the Tartarus, they are attacked and wiped out by the enemy Albiore. Anise, whose father was on one of the Fleet's ships and is now emotionally unstable, alerts the Albiore that Tear is on board. With this knowledge, the Albiore withdraws.
Deciding that this treatment of Tear is wrong, even if she treats him coldly, Luke goes to find her, and with help, the two sneak out aboard the Nebilim. He returns Tear to the Order, under the condition that Guy be the one to meet him and make the exchange. Guy begs Luke to join them, but Luke refuses, citing his friends aboard the Tartarus. Tear is then returned to Asch who is aboard the Albiore and later flown back to Baticul.
The fighting doesn't stop, however. The Tartarus is trailed to Auldrant where Luke and company must fight against a wide variety of Order members, and even make a few allies in Natalia Luzu Kimlasca-Lanvaldear and the Daath Union. Due to the casualities of close comrades, Luke and Guy are finally driven to try to kill one another. Guy ends up detonating his Gardios, and each man believes his once-friend dead.
Luke, unconscious, is whisked away by Reverend Tritheim to Baticul, where he is left in the care of Tear. There, the two realize that this war must ultimately come to an end, and that nothing good can come of fighting. Though Luke wishes to give up, he realizes that he can't just leave his friends on the Tartarus behind. To show his resolve, that he will no longer live in the past, Luke cuts off his hair. Tear then leads him to a hangar where the Order has been building its own mobile weapon. This new mobile suit, the ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam, is four times stronger than the late Nebilim. Tear gives the weapon to Luke, telling him that she, too, will now be singing the song of freedom.
Luke returns to his friends back at the Roneal base in Keterburg, but Tear isn't so lucky. Van and the higher ups have discovered that she just gave away an important military weapon and she is declared a traitor to the Order of Lorelei and her engagement to Asch is called off. Tear and her supporters decide to flee, but she does leave a clue behind so that Asch can trace her. She meets with Asch (who initially pulls a gun on her) at Aramis Spring and questions his beliefs and what he's truly fighting for. She tells him that she left the Freedom to Luke and that he may find an ally in him. Members of the Order show up and surround the area, but Tear manages to get away. Tear goes back into hiding, traveling from place to place trying to gain support through brief broadcasts meant to counter Van's own. In addition, she continues to search for clues about the remaining Yulian hymns, believing that the holy songs might aid her in the search for peace. Teodoro, refusing to assist Van, is killed by his soldiers.
Asch, now aiding Luke and Guy, returns to Baticul to try to gain his father's ear, warning him that Van's ideas are too extreme. Crimson refuses to listen, and while the two are talking, Van appears in the doorway and demands to know what has become of both the Freedom and the Justice. When Asch refuses to talk, Van has him arrested, but he manages to escape with the help of Tear's so-called "Yulia Faction". They board the Uniceros along with Ginji, Pere, and Spinoza, and go to aid the Tartarus and the Princess Natalia, forming the Three Ships Alliance. After docking in Engeve, Tear is reunited with Luke and the others once again. At this point in time, not only are they up against the Order of Lorelei, but the Earth Alliance Forces - specifically one commanded by Mohs (an Oracle Knight radical) and their own Cantabile.
Several hard battles ensue, and Luke is forced to face his origins when he discovers through Dist that he was a part of advanced fomicry research - a "replica" of Asch and the only viable offspring from an experiment to create the ultimate Coordinator. Jade tries to snap him out of it, but Luke is falling into an abyss, questioning his own worth, existence, and whether he even has the right to be alive. Luke manages to drag the wounded Jade back aboard the Tartarus and passes this information on to his friends. Tear assures Luke that, despite everything, Luke is his own person, with his own thoughts, feelings, and memories that only he has experienced. She insists that the important thing is not where or how one is born, but what one chooses to do with his life.
After the Auldranti Alliance Forces discover that the mobile suits have passage ring operating technology, they resort to using high-fonic weapons. Tear and the crew aboard the Uniceros do their best to support Luke and the others. In retaliation, Van orders the use of the ELDRANT, a huge fonon-ray laser which easily wipes out the majority of the Auldranti fleet. The heroes are forced to regroup and plan a course of action. Tear takes the opportunity to beg Luke to come back to her after everything is over and he agrees to that promise. The others fight their hardest while Tear uses the Yulian Fonic Hymns to try and sway the spirits of those caught in battle. In the end, there are many sacrifices, but the ELDRANT is destroyed and the Sephiroth call for a cease-fire.
Powers:
Fonic Voice: As a Coordinator, Tear has the ability to manipulate seventh fonons. As a result, her voice has the power to soothe others. There are seven holy melodies known as "Yulian Fonic Hymns" that Tear can sing to create a particular effect. The first encourages rest, the second grants protection, the third restores energy, the fourth has healing properties, the fifth creates warmth, and the sixth is said to summon the divine. The effect of the final hymn is unknown. Together they make up the "Grand Fonic Hymn". She can only use the fonic hymns when she has ample concentration and a clear understanding of their meanings and melodies. They can be interrupted and cancelled out, for example, if she was attacked while singing them.
Fonic Artes: Tear is able to perform several other fonic artes without having to sing. Most of these artes have healing properties. Like the fonic hymns, they can be cancelled or interrupted; elemental rules and immunities apply here - like, a spell backed with fifth fonons (fire) would have little effect on a sea creature and so on.
Personality:
*My reasoning here is that Tear would behave like canon!Tear in most circumstances except when she is on stage. As a soldier, Tear is expected to be serious and efficient, and so she behaved that way and hid her weaknesses. As an idol, however, and an advocate for peace, Tear is supposed to seem approachable - in this situation, behaving in a more girlish manner would be acceptable, so while she's singing, or while she's alone, Tear will allow herself to relax and just be herself. In canon she pretty much did not relax at all, although as the game progressed and she became more comfortable with the other party members, she developed some "softness".*
Tear's personality is a bit conflicted. She had undergone combat training, seeing as her brother is Chairman, and as a soldier she is cold and detached. She tends to look at situations objectively and has a blunt manner of speaking. She very much takes after her instructor, Giselle Oslo (codename "Regret"), who has taught her that one cannot be soft if one expects to survive on the battlefield. However, this personality is the result of what people have come to expect of her - a responsibility of sorts to keep up professional appearances.
As an idol and public speaker, however, Tear is able to let her true self shine through - she doesn't have to hide her feminine side because it is what people expect from a singer. While Tear will not sugarcoat the truth, her views are still hopeful, if realistic. She does not tell people what they should do, but instead asks them to evaluate themselves. Tear has a penchant for cute things and likes dressing up in fancy outfits. She will blush bright red whenever she comes into contact with a child, animal, or other object she finds cute. She especially seems to have a soft spot for the mechnical rappigs that Guy creates for her. Even though she enjoys dressing up in costume, Tear gets embarrassed easily if her body becomes a topic of conversation or if she is asked to expose too much skin - in some cases she will start scolding people - completely forgetting the manner at hand. She also possesses an irrational fear of ghosts and the occult. If she is forced into a haunted house, for example, she will latch onto the closest person, will get stiff, pale, and scream if provoked. She tries to cover this up by acting indifferent, but this is always obvious by the way she raises her voice.
Tear greatly values friendship. Van and Asch are rarely around for long, so she harbors some feelings of loneliness. Her military training distances her from some, while her fame distances her from others. Then too, as a Coordinator, she must suffer through the hatred projected on her by Naturals. Perhaps this is why she can relate to Luke and refuses to completely give up on him, even though he was nearly intolerable when they first met. She has an obvious fondness for Luke, and has stated as much to Asch after she gives the Freedom to Luke. She does not admit her feelings to Luke himself until after he discovers the truth about who he is, and it's unknown if Luke heard her words. The two tend to have a rather hit-or-miss relationship and oftentimes they quarrel about petty things - Tear insisting that Luke should learn to think for himself, and Luke that Tear should quit behaving in such a cold-hearted manner with him when she acts like a completely different person on stage.
Possessions:
Star Saphire Pendant: A memento of her mother's.
Map: Basically useless aboard the train, but it's a map of the galaxy where Auldrant and the Sephiroth can be found.
Key: A key to one of the hangars back in Baticul.
Sheet Music: Copies of the songs she has released thus far.
Clothing: A bag containing a three of her outfits.
Fluffy (Mechanical Rappig): Tear dotes upon her mechanical rappigs, which were created for her by Asch's childhood friend, Guy Cecil. Her favorite is one she calls "Fluffy". The rappigs have a habit of sticking their noses into just about everything. Somehow they manage to find their way into places that are strictly off-limits, even going so far as to nudge doors open or trip alarm systems. Aside from being annoying and excellent escape artists, they are fairly unintelligent and have no speaking capabilities whatsoever. Tear, however, will talk to them as if she understands what the grunts and snorts mean. She will be bringing Fluffy with her.
Sample post: (First-person, please!)
A train? I've read about them in books, but I wasn't aware that any of the Sephiroth had utilized them as a form of long-distance transportation. The rail cars in Baticul don't cover more than a few city blocks and only manage to move in a straight line along cables from point A to point B.
I suppose they would be fairly useful for transporting supplies within a colony, if one was unable to access a space craft, but this one appears to be transporting people. The tracks stretch out as far as the eye can see, but to where are we traveling?
Even though ELDRANT has been destroyed, I wonder if the war will ever truly be over. Will we ever manage to achieve peace given the heavy price all sides have had to pay? The loss of life has been far from miniscule, and I suspect this war will do nothing to quell anti-Coordinator sentiments. If anything, it might make those fires of hatred burn even brighter. It's all very unfortunate.
I hope Luke will be able to manage without me. I know I promised to watch over him, but right now, that can't be helped. I'm sure the others are doing all they can, and therefore it's my responsiblity to make the most of this situation.
Well then. Let's go, Fluffy. The sooner we discover what it is we must accomplish here, the sooner we can return to our friends.
OOC info:
Name: Cherry
Method of contact:
Email: ryoushirogane@yahoo.com
AIM: Platinum Ryou
IC info:
Character name: Tear Grants
Age: 16
Gender: Female
Original canon: Tales of the Abyss
Target canon: Mobile Suit Gundam SEED
Canon background:
*I have tried condensing this section as much as humanly possible since I have a bad habit of tl;dring.*
*Planet Earth in Gundam SEED has been switched to a simplified version of Planet Auldrant from Tales of the Abyss. I kept references to Auldrant's religion (the Score), the Tower of Rem, the floating land, the miasma, and the use of fonons as energy and for special abilities. The names of the Sephiroth (originally PLANTs) and other cities come from Abyss, as do most of the words that have been used to rename the Gundams and other weapons. ZAFT has become the main organization within Abyss, which is the Order of Lorelei, and the Earth Alliance Forces became the Auldranti Alliance Forces based on the planet change. The Oracle Knights were originally the military unit within the Order of Lorelei, but they now represent the Mohs faction which follows the Score to the word - it seemed an appropriate group to support Naturals, because Coordinators would not be mentioned within this holy text (it was a major issue for replicas in the game).
The Abyss characters more-or-less fill the roles of the characters from SEED. There are exceptions where I switched events around to more accurately reflect the characters and their original personalities. Relationships between characters are mostly based on Abyss - for example Van is still Tear's brother, and Jade and Dist were involved in fomicry research together. I also kept hyperresonance, which is now a way of piloting mecha because Luke is not smart enough to use a computer. Mechanical rappigs have replaced Haros, and Mieu replaces Birdy. I have also kept Luke and Tear's relationship similar to the way it was in Abyss, in addition to a hair-cutting scene, because, as cute as Kira and Lacus are, I didn't want to tamper with what made the pairing so appealing to me in the first place.*
Tear Grants (16) is a female Oracle Knight who grew up beneath the planet's surface in a place known as the Qliphoth. After discovering that her brother Van plans to destroy the Outer Lands as revenge for the collapse of his birthplace, Tear accepts an assignment under Grand Maestro Mohs in order to follow him to the surface and stop him - killing him if necessary. She tracks him to a manor in Kimlasca's capital where he has been teaching a young noble swordplay. After putting the servants to sleep with a fonic hymn and facing off against her brother, her efforts are thwarted by Van's student, Luke fon Fabre. A hyperresonance occurs between the seventh fonons present in both of their bodies, and they are blasted into the Tataroo Valley in enemy Malkuth territory.
From there Tear takes responsibility in returning Luke to his home in Baticul. This proves much more difficult than originally anticipated - not only are they blown further from the capital than they thought, but Luke is very much a burden - spoiled, arrogant, and highly temperamental. The two are arrested and taken aboard a Malkuth landship where they are interrogated by Colonel Jade Curtiss, Fon Master Ion, and his guardian Anise Tatlin, in addition to a cheagle named Mieu. Luke and Tear join the others' efforts to promote peace between the enemy kingdoms. They meet up with Luke's servant, Guy Cecil, along the way back to Baticul, and shortly after arrival in said city, are sent out on a mission along with Princess Natalia Luzu Kimlasca-Lanvaldear to evacuate a mining city that is suffering from a poisonous miasma. In the miner's city, Akzeriuth, Van convinces Luke to use his hyperresonance to destroy the passage ring supporting the area, falsely stating that it will clear up the miasma and make him a hero. Instead, the whole area collapses and thousands of lives are lost in an instant. The party is rescued by another one of Tear's hymns and they fall down into the Qliphoth. Tear then takes them to Yulia City, and Luke faces off against a man with an uncanny resemblance to himself, discovers he's only a replica created in the likeness of this "Asch" person, loses to him and falls unconscious. The other party members, disgusted by Luke's selfish behavior, abandon him and return to the world above. Tear stays behind and as a result is the first to witness Luke's desire to change. He cuts off his hair with one of her Oracle knives and asks her to watch him.
Tear does just this throughout the rest of the game, initially cautious and cold, but gradually admitting her trust in Luke and even developing feelings for him. The group manages to come up with a plan to stop the rest of the land from collapsing and for getting rid of the miasma; with the help of friends and acquaintences, they begin putting these ideas to action. In the process, Tear absorbs poisoned fonons into her body, and it's feared that she may die from it. Despite this, they continue lowering the land for everyone's sake, and Tear is cured as a result of a dear friend's sacrifice. As the game progresses, Tear is able to learn more fonic hymns and even put them together into Yulia's legendary Grand Fonic Hymn, she's forced to watch many of her superiors and people precious to her die, and she even nearly loses Luke. She discovers that, after ridding the world of miasma, Luke's body has become weak and the fonons comprising it are coming apart. But they must persevere, because Van still hasn't given up and refuses to listen. Van (with the help of his associates) creates a replica of his birthplace, Hod, and has absorbed the planet's very memory (Lorelei) into himself. It takes the entire party to defeat him, and the Grand Fonic Hymn to coax out Lorelei. Luke stays behind on the crumbling replica city in order to free Lorelei and send it into the fonbelt surrounding the planet. Tear is the last to leave, begging him to come home and promising to always be waiting for him. The game ends with Luke, holding the now dead Asch, being thanked by Lorelei and fading into oblivion.
Following the credits, Tear and the others are waiting in Tataroo Valley on the eve of Luke's 20th birthday. They see a young man approaching in the distance and when Tear asks him why he's there, he comments that the area has a nice view of Hod and that he made a promise. It's left intentionally ambiguous, but many fans believe this person is Luke.
AU background:
*If this makes no sense, I have some name conversions and a rough timeline typed up that summarizes everything faster. I attempted to focus in on the stuff pertaining to Tear.*
*I tried to follow the plot of SEED very closely, with several exceptions. I changed some events around to reflect the Abyss characters' personalities, but the end results are largely the same. The use of mobile suits, space travel and colonization are purely a Gundam ideal, as Abyss scientists had barely experimented with even airplanes. I kept the use of Coordinators rather than using replicas from Abyss, because there are far more Coordinators than replicas... basically those labelled as Coordinators will keep simplified forms of their powers from Abyss, and Naturals will be stripped of them completely. Replicas are mentioned, however, as a synonym for clones.*
In its 21st century following the creation of the Score, Auldrant has made its way into outerspace, a dream once thought impossible.
During the Dawn Age, scholars had sought to reach the stars via a staircase known as the Tower Of Rem. The project was eventually abandoned as the scientific community focused its attention on a way to solve environmental problems - predominantly the issue of miasma, a poison that had begun seeping outwards from the planet's core. As research to find a cure for the miasma was put under way, another group of scientists insisted that now more than ever, it was important to fund and research a space program. A staircase was not going to work - Auldrant needed to create flying fonmachines to propel its people into space. Following several violent protests, they finally saw the government backing they had desired. Now, centuries later, fontechnology has seen incredible promise and advancement, leading to the creation of those very fonmachines - space ships. This revolution also produced a temporary fix to the miasma problem (as proposed by Yulia Jue) by raising cities above the earth's crust - but Auldrant had been bitten by the bug; enthusiasm for space exploration had reached an all-time high. The space program saw great success, and with the world's enthusiasm, it established a lunar base as well as free-floating colonies known as the Sephiroth, named after the fabled pillars that supported Auldrant's great cities - so too, Auldrant hoped to support the future of humanity.
Human advancement didn't end there, however. Dr. Southern Cross proposed that, through experiments known as fomicry, humankind could reach into its yet untapped potential. After years of research, Coordinators were created. Coordinators were humans gifted with enhanced genetic data and could perform in ways that normal humans could not. Commonly their intelligence was increased, their speed was increased, they were immune to most diseases, and they could utilize energy particles known as fonons (already used to power all manner of fonmachines) to tap into previously undiscovered abilities such as hyperresonance, telepathy, and fonic artes.
However, normal human beings failed to accept these Coordinators, seeing them as abominations. A group called the Oracle Knights was formed, seeking to rid the world of Coordinators whom they believed went against the teachings of the Score and thus had no place in their pure world. Likewise Coordinators could not understand why the Naturals refused to embrace genetic enhancement as a form of progress. These abilities were, after all, traits that would one day manifest themselves in humans through natural selection - fomicry was simply speeding up the process. This, as most arguments do, led to war. Further fomicry research was banned. The Coordinators established themselves in the Sephiroth, forming an organization known as the Order of Lorelei to oppose the Auldranti Alliance Forces, the Naturals.
Tear Grants, younger sister to Supreme Council Chairman Van Grants, has lived out most of her life on one of the Sephiroth, Yulia City, along with their grandfather, Teodoro Grants. She is a well-known idol singer with military experience, thanks to her brother. She has been trained by Major Giselle Oslo (codename "Regret" or "Legretta"), one of her brother's subordinates, and is betrothed to Crimson fon Fabre's son, Asch fon Fabre, who is one of the Order of Lorelei's pilots, and royalty in his own right.
In the year 2018, The Order of Lorelei sends its group of Coordinators to obtain top secret mobile weapons from a neutral Daathic space colony known as Akzeriuth. All but one of the five weapons are captured. The last is piloted by a young Coordinator named Luke who manages to rewrite the OS in a matter of seconds by carving out new controls via hyperresonance. On the battlefield, Luke comes face to face with Guy Cecil, a friend who had always insisted that fighting born from hatred and revenge was wrong and one of the few faces he can remember from his childhood. The Order's pilots retreat, leaving Luke and his friends in the hands of the Auldranti Alliance Forces. They are ordered to board the Tartarus, since, even as civilians, they have just witnessed top secret government information.
Luke proves to be a horrible charge. He's always complaining and, though he's an excellent pilot, frequently gets sick afterwards. He's afraid to kill anyone, and has nightmares about the battles he's forced to endure. Luke soon realizes, however, that if he does not fight, the people aboard the Tartarus and countless others will be killed. Not willing to allow that to happen, he agrees to continue piloting the Nebilim until the Tartarus can reach Keterburg safely back on Auldrant. Of course, this will be far from easy, as the Order of Lorelei wants to get their hands on the mobile suit that got away, not to mention its pilot.
During one such mission, Luke retrieves a lifepod that has been abandoned. The lifepod is taken aboard the Tartarus, and there, the group discovers none other than Tear and one of her mechanical rappigs. Tear had been on a mission to pay tribute to the remains of Hod, a colony destroyed during the Bloody Valentine massacre seven years ago, when the spaceship she was on ran into trouble. Tear had been ejected into a lifepod in an effort to save her. The captain and the others decide that Tear should be taken to one of the rooms and commanded to stay there until further notice - since she is, after all, with the Order of Lorelei and thus an enemy.
Tear is not treated terribly well, but she manages to "befriend" Luke, who, like herself, is a Coordinator. By "befriend" I mean that Tear very pointedly tells Luke that he has a bad attitude and that he needs to shape up. Luke begins to question what he should do. Not only is his friend on the wrong side, but there's another pilot, one Asch fon Fabre, that bears an uncanny resemblance to Luke himself.
When the 8th Fleet comes to rescue the Tartarus, they are attacked and wiped out by the enemy Albiore. Anise, whose father was on one of the Fleet's ships and is now emotionally unstable, alerts the Albiore that Tear is on board. With this knowledge, the Albiore withdraws.
Deciding that this treatment of Tear is wrong, even if she treats him coldly, Luke goes to find her, and with help, the two sneak out aboard the Nebilim. He returns Tear to the Order, under the condition that Guy be the one to meet him and make the exchange. Guy begs Luke to join them, but Luke refuses, citing his friends aboard the Tartarus. Tear is then returned to Asch who is aboard the Albiore and later flown back to Baticul.
The fighting doesn't stop, however. The Tartarus is trailed to Auldrant where Luke and company must fight against a wide variety of Order members, and even make a few allies in Natalia Luzu Kimlasca-Lanvaldear and the Daath Union. Due to the casualities of close comrades, Luke and Guy are finally driven to try to kill one another. Guy ends up detonating his Gardios, and each man believes his once-friend dead.
Luke, unconscious, is whisked away by Reverend Tritheim to Baticul, where he is left in the care of Tear. There, the two realize that this war must ultimately come to an end, and that nothing good can come of fighting. Though Luke wishes to give up, he realizes that he can't just leave his friends on the Tartarus behind. To show his resolve, that he will no longer live in the past, Luke cuts off his hair. Tear then leads him to a hangar where the Order has been building its own mobile weapon. This new mobile suit, the ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam, is four times stronger than the late Nebilim. Tear gives the weapon to Luke, telling him that she, too, will now be singing the song of freedom.
Luke returns to his friends back at the Roneal base in Keterburg, but Tear isn't so lucky. Van and the higher ups have discovered that she just gave away an important military weapon and she is declared a traitor to the Order of Lorelei and her engagement to Asch is called off. Tear and her supporters decide to flee, but she does leave a clue behind so that Asch can trace her. She meets with Asch (who initially pulls a gun on her) at Aramis Spring and questions his beliefs and what he's truly fighting for. She tells him that she left the Freedom to Luke and that he may find an ally in him. Members of the Order show up and surround the area, but Tear manages to get away. Tear goes back into hiding, traveling from place to place trying to gain support through brief broadcasts meant to counter Van's own. In addition, she continues to search for clues about the remaining Yulian hymns, believing that the holy songs might aid her in the search for peace. Teodoro, refusing to assist Van, is killed by his soldiers.
Asch, now aiding Luke and Guy, returns to Baticul to try to gain his father's ear, warning him that Van's ideas are too extreme. Crimson refuses to listen, and while the two are talking, Van appears in the doorway and demands to know what has become of both the Freedom and the Justice. When Asch refuses to talk, Van has him arrested, but he manages to escape with the help of Tear's so-called "Yulia Faction". They board the Uniceros along with Ginji, Pere, and Spinoza, and go to aid the Tartarus and the Princess Natalia, forming the Three Ships Alliance. After docking in Engeve, Tear is reunited with Luke and the others once again. At this point in time, not only are they up against the Order of Lorelei, but the Earth Alliance Forces - specifically one commanded by Mohs (an Oracle Knight radical) and their own Cantabile.
Several hard battles ensue, and Luke is forced to face his origins when he discovers through Dist that he was a part of advanced fomicry research - a "replica" of Asch and the only viable offspring from an experiment to create the ultimate Coordinator. Jade tries to snap him out of it, but Luke is falling into an abyss, questioning his own worth, existence, and whether he even has the right to be alive. Luke manages to drag the wounded Jade back aboard the Tartarus and passes this information on to his friends. Tear assures Luke that, despite everything, Luke is his own person, with his own thoughts, feelings, and memories that only he has experienced. She insists that the important thing is not where or how one is born, but what one chooses to do with his life.
After the Auldranti Alliance Forces discover that the mobile suits have passage ring operating technology, they resort to using high-fonic weapons. Tear and the crew aboard the Uniceros do their best to support Luke and the others. In retaliation, Van orders the use of the ELDRANT, a huge fonon-ray laser which easily wipes out the majority of the Auldranti fleet. The heroes are forced to regroup and plan a course of action. Tear takes the opportunity to beg Luke to come back to her after everything is over and he agrees to that promise. The others fight their hardest while Tear uses the Yulian Fonic Hymns to try and sway the spirits of those caught in battle. In the end, there are many sacrifices, but the ELDRANT is destroyed and the Sephiroth call for a cease-fire.
Powers:
Fonic Voice: As a Coordinator, Tear has the ability to manipulate seventh fonons. As a result, her voice has the power to soothe others. There are seven holy melodies known as "Yulian Fonic Hymns" that Tear can sing to create a particular effect. The first encourages rest, the second grants protection, the third restores energy, the fourth has healing properties, the fifth creates warmth, and the sixth is said to summon the divine. The effect of the final hymn is unknown. Together they make up the "Grand Fonic Hymn". She can only use the fonic hymns when she has ample concentration and a clear understanding of their meanings and melodies. They can be interrupted and cancelled out, for example, if she was attacked while singing them.
Fonic Artes: Tear is able to perform several other fonic artes without having to sing. Most of these artes have healing properties. Like the fonic hymns, they can be cancelled or interrupted; elemental rules and immunities apply here - like, a spell backed with fifth fonons (fire) would have little effect on a sea creature and so on.
Personality:
*My reasoning here is that Tear would behave like canon!Tear in most circumstances except when she is on stage. As a soldier, Tear is expected to be serious and efficient, and so she behaved that way and hid her weaknesses. As an idol, however, and an advocate for peace, Tear is supposed to seem approachable - in this situation, behaving in a more girlish manner would be acceptable, so while she's singing, or while she's alone, Tear will allow herself to relax and just be herself. In canon she pretty much did not relax at all, although as the game progressed and she became more comfortable with the other party members, she developed some "softness".*
Tear's personality is a bit conflicted. She had undergone combat training, seeing as her brother is Chairman, and as a soldier she is cold and detached. She tends to look at situations objectively and has a blunt manner of speaking. She very much takes after her instructor, Giselle Oslo (codename "Regret"), who has taught her that one cannot be soft if one expects to survive on the battlefield. However, this personality is the result of what people have come to expect of her - a responsibility of sorts to keep up professional appearances.
As an idol and public speaker, however, Tear is able to let her true self shine through - she doesn't have to hide her feminine side because it is what people expect from a singer. While Tear will not sugarcoat the truth, her views are still hopeful, if realistic. She does not tell people what they should do, but instead asks them to evaluate themselves. Tear has a penchant for cute things and likes dressing up in fancy outfits. She will blush bright red whenever she comes into contact with a child, animal, or other object she finds cute. She especially seems to have a soft spot for the mechnical rappigs that Guy creates for her. Even though she enjoys dressing up in costume, Tear gets embarrassed easily if her body becomes a topic of conversation or if she is asked to expose too much skin - in some cases she will start scolding people - completely forgetting the manner at hand. She also possesses an irrational fear of ghosts and the occult. If she is forced into a haunted house, for example, she will latch onto the closest person, will get stiff, pale, and scream if provoked. She tries to cover this up by acting indifferent, but this is always obvious by the way she raises her voice.
Tear greatly values friendship. Van and Asch are rarely around for long, so she harbors some feelings of loneliness. Her military training distances her from some, while her fame distances her from others. Then too, as a Coordinator, she must suffer through the hatred projected on her by Naturals. Perhaps this is why she can relate to Luke and refuses to completely give up on him, even though he was nearly intolerable when they first met. She has an obvious fondness for Luke, and has stated as much to Asch after she gives the Freedom to Luke. She does not admit her feelings to Luke himself until after he discovers the truth about who he is, and it's unknown if Luke heard her words. The two tend to have a rather hit-or-miss relationship and oftentimes they quarrel about petty things - Tear insisting that Luke should learn to think for himself, and Luke that Tear should quit behaving in such a cold-hearted manner with him when she acts like a completely different person on stage.
Possessions:
Star Saphire Pendant: A memento of her mother's.
Map: Basically useless aboard the train, but it's a map of the galaxy where Auldrant and the Sephiroth can be found.
Key: A key to one of the hangars back in Baticul.
Sheet Music: Copies of the songs she has released thus far.
Clothing: A bag containing a three of her outfits.
Fluffy (Mechanical Rappig): Tear dotes upon her mechanical rappigs, which were created for her by Asch's childhood friend, Guy Cecil. Her favorite is one she calls "Fluffy". The rappigs have a habit of sticking their noses into just about everything. Somehow they manage to find their way into places that are strictly off-limits, even going so far as to nudge doors open or trip alarm systems. Aside from being annoying and excellent escape artists, they are fairly unintelligent and have no speaking capabilities whatsoever. Tear, however, will talk to them as if she understands what the grunts and snorts mean. She will be bringing Fluffy with her.
Sample post: (First-person, please!)
A train? I've read about them in books, but I wasn't aware that any of the Sephiroth had utilized them as a form of long-distance transportation. The rail cars in Baticul don't cover more than a few city blocks and only manage to move in a straight line along cables from point A to point B.
I suppose they would be fairly useful for transporting supplies within a colony, if one was unable to access a space craft, but this one appears to be transporting people. The tracks stretch out as far as the eye can see, but to where are we traveling?
Even though ELDRANT has been destroyed, I wonder if the war will ever truly be over. Will we ever manage to achieve peace given the heavy price all sides have had to pay? The loss of life has been far from miniscule, and I suspect this war will do nothing to quell anti-Coordinator sentiments. If anything, it might make those fires of hatred burn even brighter. It's all very unfortunate.
I hope Luke will be able to manage without me. I know I promised to watch over him, but right now, that can't be helped. I'm sure the others are doing all they can, and therefore it's my responsiblity to make the most of this situation.
Well then. Let's go, Fluffy. The sooner we discover what it is we must accomplish here, the sooner we can return to our friends.