application [HOMETRAIL]
player info.
name/handle: Yukina
contact info: OkamiAmaterasu66 [AIM]
personal journal: inksmears
previous characters: N/A
character info.
character name: Oerba Dia Vanille
canon & medium: Final Fantasy XIII - Video Game
age & species: 19 (physically); 519 (chronologically)
appearance: HERE
timeline: Chapter 11, after she gets her summon.
background/history link: HERE
personality: On the surface Vanille comes across as a cheerful and bubbly young girl. She's energetic and happy-go-lucky, always smiling and understanding. She also seems to have a child like innocence to her. She's compassionate yet very playful. In this regard she often comes across as a bit of an airhead. Her attitude can often be described as flippant, even toward the most serious of situations. Vanille can seem annoyingly happy at times, always smiling with a bounce in her step like nothing ever bothers her. Yet this can also be described as being wonderfully refreshing at the same time. She isn't overbearing with her cheerfulness, she simply and honestly wants those who are sad to smile. Thus Vanille is certainly a very kind and caring individual. She is shown on numerous occasions to be quite empathetic to people's plights, especially those of young Hope when his mother died. She is naturally caring and there is no ulterior motives for this behavior whatsoever.
However Vanille is much more than what she appears. Her cheerfulness, while still very much her, is also a very good front. She smiles and laughs because that's how Vanille copes with her fear. She's afraid of what she has done in the past and what her future has in store for her. Often she simply closes her eyes and "loses herself in happier days" to escape reality. In this sense Vanille is also a bit of a coward. Her mantra is "face it later" and she often takes it to heart. Rather than confront Vanille chooses to runaway and in the beginning of the game she encourages her friends to all do the same. At the same time her mantra is a considerate gesture. "If you can't face it right now just face it some other time," she tells Hope after his mother's death. So although she might mean well her habit of never wanting to face her problems, her reality that she's created, is mostly a bad trait. Her other unfortunate vice is her tendency to lie. Although most are white lies these white lies do, eventually, cause a lot of grief for her and those around her.
Yet Vanille is not a bad individual by any means. Although she lies she starts to grow increasingly guilty about it. She clearly regrets her lying. She becomes aware as she travels with Sazh and the others just how much her actions and lies have hurt innocent people. She even begins to gather the courage to tell Sazh the truth about her involvement with his son's crystallization, however she never gets the chance when the enemy reveals the truth first. In response she breaks into tears and offers to let Sazh have his revenge on her, desperate to somehow make amends even if it means her death. Thus Vanille wants to do the right thing and does nothing out of spite, only out of fear. Through the course of her journey she changes and begins to slowly shed these vices. She decides she no longer wants to deceive not only others but also herself.
Generally she really is a cheerful person. She enjoys having fun more than anyone else in the group and simply loves the thrill of the journey. Although somewhat emotionally uncertain, Vanille is not weak by any stretch of the imagination. Her magical and physical strength is formidable. The fur she wears at her waist is from a bear she killed all by herself. Although she may look like a weak and innocent child she is far from it and can definitely hold her own in battle. As a result she can often come across as reckless to others. Seeing a small girl rushing into dangerous situations is often a shock to those who don't know her that well. To some extent their impression of recklessness isn't all that far from the truth. She can be fickle and hesitate during important moments, yet in the end her heart is always in the right place and it's more often than not she will come through. She cares for those she calls her friends and will show them fierce loyalty.
Overall Vanille is a kind hearted girl who has done some not so good things but wants to make up for them. She wants to make amends and protects those she cares for most of all. Bright and cheerful, strong minded and stubborn, kind and empathic, cowardly and yet brave... all of these describe Vanille. She's a complex individual and is not what she appears to be at first glance.
abilities: Vanille's speciality is magic. She can wield a variety of elemental spells such as Fire, Water, Aero and Blizzard. These spells come in varying degrees of levels as well, generally three. Fire is the weakest, Fira is medium level and Firaga is the strongest. She can generally cast the first two levels of every spell and all three levels of Blizzard. In the game this role is called Ravager.
On the same line Vanille is a healer. She can cast high level healing magic that can relieve fatigue, revive those who have fainted and save someone from certain death. She can also heal up minor injuries and at least dull the pain of anything major. Vanille can heal single targets as well as multiple targets. Her healing spells are quick and accurate. This role is appropriately called Healer.
Her third magical inclined ability is officially called a Saboteur. With this role Vanille can slow down an enemy with various status alignments. This includes poisoning them, literally slowing down their movements, making them more susceptible to elemental magic, lowering their defense/offense, stopping them entirely and inflicting instant K.O. (Though that last one works only on rare occasions.)
While Vanille is mostly a magically inclined attacker she has a relatively moderate degree of physical strength. With her strange weapon known as a Binding Rod. As its name suggests it allows her to "hold" enemies for a short time and do some damage. It does this via strong wires that come out from the end of the rod and knock into/wap around the target. She can do some damage this way but is much more effective with her magic.
any plans for your character here? Not particularly! Just the usual. I'd like her to make lots of CR with other fandoms as well as develop her relationships with her canon mates (if there are any around).
possessions: Everyhting she's wearing and her Binding Rod. And her summon, which is always with her anyway, but she can't use that.
samples.
sample journal entry: Hup! That hurt! Ooooh! You're not getting away from me you--
... Eh? Wait, where do you go? Hellloooo? Mr. Sheep, are you here? I just wanted some of your fur...
[There's a long and thoughtful silence with some faint sounds of shuffling around on the ground. Possibly her standing up and dusting herself off. Then some rustling of brush and a small gasp.]
Huh, a village? Wait a minute, this isn't Gran Pulse. Actually it doesn't look like anything I've ever seen before. What a strange little place this is... Oh! Fang? Fang, where are you? I don't want us to be separated all over again.
Wow, is this for real? I'm here but I'm not sure what to think! Other worlds, giants that pull houses... It's all pretty amazing. At least everyone seems friendly.
Actually, I kind of like it here. Is that strange? When I'm here I don't have to keep running from soldiers or... Well the thing is, when I'm here I feel so much more free. I don't have to worry about anything.
[She laughs, but it has a somber tone to it.] It's selfish of me. ... Fang... You must be worried. I'm sorry. I like it here but I'll definitely return home. I'll come back to you and the others. I promise I won't run away anymore.
Oh! [She laughs sheepishly.] I sort of went off there a bit, didn't I? Okay, forget what I said! How about instead everyone tells me where they're from! I'd love to hear about the other worlds out there.
third-person sample: She had fallen. She couldn't remember what she had tripped over. A tree root or some uneven ground... it didn't matter in the end. She had fallen, attempted to catch herself and then plowed right into the ground with a force far greater than it should've been. The impact left Vanille disoriented for what felt like hours. She vaguely remembered the fall, of Fang's hand snatching her arm. But she had fallen anyway. She had expected to tumble down a hill, to sit back up immediately and laugh at her clumsiness. Then to stand and berate the sheep that had managed to dodge her lunge. Instead Vanille blacked out and when she came to she knew she wasn't in Gran Pulse anymore. Even if the surrounding wilderness looked similar, her eyes could not be fooled. This wasn't home.
But she wasn't scared. Whatever had happened did not scare Vanille. Instead she simply climbed to her feet, brushed herself off, and immediately went searching for the others. They had just been beside her. They couldn't have gotten that far.
Cupping her hands around her mouth Vanille shouted, "Fang! Fang, where did you go? Sazh! Hope! Someone!"
She walked around like this, calling and calling for her comrades. But they were no where to be found. If they were around they were somewhere out of range. In her search she stumbled into a clearing and paused. A village. A quirky little village too. Emerald eyes danced at the sight of its oddity. Pushing her worry for her friends aside for now, Vanille perked herself up and placed a smile on her face. Cheerfully she skipped down the small inclining hill to enter the village.
No, this was not Gran Pulse at all. But there had to be someone who could help her. Vanille was certain there was someone.