Tower of Animus//profile
Player Information
Name: Cee
Personal LJ: ceexdoll
Age: 17
Contact Info:
AIM - ceexdoll
Skype - karri-chan
Other Characters Played: N/A
Character Information
Character Name: Aqua
Character Series: Kingdom Hearts
Character Age: 19
Character Gender: Female
Original Canon
Canon Point: Long after the conclusion of Birth by Sleep and shortly after the end of KH1; before Chain of Memories, but 358/2 Days has started.
Background Link: Here (contains spoilers, obviously).
Personality: More than anything, Aqua is a maternal older sister figure who is fiercely protective and loyal. She is the first to defend people if their honor is challenged and will go to great lengths for them no matter what. Aqua tends to play the good cop for as long as she can, as proven in her speaking up against Master Eraqus when it came to the matter of Terra's darkness. She gives people the blessed benefit of the doubt, even people she is not close to or not well-acquainted with, as she thinks that everyone deserves at least that much. A firm believer in innocent until proven guilty, Aqua will stand up against anything she perceives as an injustice, regardless of who or what is involved. She is more a progressive defender than an instigator -- she fights because of an innate need to protect, not for the rush of victory.
Despite her faith in peoples' goodness, though, Aqua is not naive; she will speak the truth -- even if it is harsh -- if it is something she has seen and validated with her own eyes. In this way, she might be perceived as somewhat callous, even by those who are close to her. But, the truth is, she pretty much only tells the cold, hard truth to people that she knows can handle hearing it -- even if it doesn't seem that way. If she doesn't think that the person she is talking to is in a strong enough state to handle the truth, she may sugarcoat things, or tell a half-truth or white lie. It's always with a "for the greater good" motivation and a desire to maintain balance, and Aqua doesn't like to hide the truth, but if she deems it necessary -- or even if she is told to by Master Eraqus -- then she will, though it's with no small amount of guilt.
She's fortunately not quick to take offense to negative remarks about her character, and trusts in the bond that she and her friends have in spite of the differences between them that sometimes arise in not-so-nice ways. Aqua is the kind of person that would watch over her friends even if they were to stop liking her, or forget about her altogether.
She takes things seriously, but of course, everyone is prone to their own occasional flights of fancy, and sometimes Aqua's will show through (mostly in subtle ways). She attaches sentimental value to little things, like her Wayfinder or the wooden Keyblade that Terra once gave to Ventus, and puts more stock in legends, fairytales, and destiny than she lets on to most people. She has the mentality of a girl who was forced to grow up too fast; she was raised and behaves as a proper Master of the Keyblade should, but deep down, she likes making good-luck charms, listening to stories, and goofing off with her boys. She just doesn't allow herself to indulge in these things too much, for fear it might stunt her ability to carry out her duties. She is mature and grounded, a hopeful optimist but not foolish or unrealistic in the way she approaches most things.
On the outside, Aqua pays attention to politeness, propriety, and friendliness. She has the capacity to get very embarrassed and apologetic if she has made some sort of social faux pas or offended someone. Yet, in spite of her conscientiousness of these things, it seems there are still situations that she doesn't quite know how to approach...like being asked out on a date. It's hard to fluster Aqua, but that's definitely one way to do it. Her embarrassment in these scenarios could be attributed to her upbringing, as she tackles things with humility, having been raised as a knight of sorts. She may even be called "gentlemanly" in some regards; she will help people down stairs, hold doors open for them, offer to carry things, or hold out a hand if someone has fallen, in addition to her compulsion to protect those who are in danger.
There are few things that can shake her, but hitting close to her heart is one of them. Threatening her friends or her home world is the easiest way to strip away the elegant soldier and bring out the raging mother bear. It's very difficult to get under her skin, but when it happens, Aqua easily becomes twice the danger that she normally is, as she's not one to lose her rational mind even in the face of intense emotion. She may temporarily lose sight of the big picture in her anger, as her goal tends to become "eliminate the threat" when it comes to keeping the things she loves safe, but considering she was raised to be an efficient fighter, she is always far from becoming totally illogical. It takes something special to make Aqua lose it, and as of yet, she hasn't discovered that thing.
There is one aspect where it could be argued that she loses her head, though, and that is her habit of sacrificing her own safety to ensure that of someone else. The ways she has done it range in extremity, of course, but she would not -- and has not -- hesitated to lay down her life when it comes to Ventus and Terra. She's never considered herself a reckless person (and generally isn't -- she will gladly think of less dangerous alternatives if time allows it), but when push comes to shove, it can become arguable.
Aside from foggy matters of doing bad things for someone's own good, Aqua has a fairly strong moral compass that she rarely deviates from. She will protect the balance between light and darkness, and she will protect her friends, no matter what it takes; that's the long and short of it, really.
Abilities: To start with the most basic of the basic, Aqua wields a weapon called the Keyblade. It is a weapon reserved only for the strong of heart, and its power is legendary; in the right hands, it has been said to be able to bring both prosperity and ruin to the worlds. The physical Keyblade itself is not so much a marvel. It takes the shape of a large key-shaped sword and its appearance varies on a number of things, from the state of the user's heart to the keychains it is accessorized with. Aqua's Keyblade -- known as "Stormfall" -- is mostly a navy blue in coloration, with a straight, undecorated shaft and silver diamond-shaped ornaments accenting the teeth of the weapon. The handle is also silver, and the guard is a dark gray. Its keychain is shaped like a droplet of water.
Aqua has been trained to be able to summon Stormfall without even having to think about it; the Keyblade reacts to her "fight or flight" instinct, and will automatically come to her hand in the face of danger. It is pretty much wielded in the same fashion that a traditional sword is, but Aqua and the other apprentices of Master Eraqus have also been taught to use the Keyblade as transportation by transforming it into a rocket-powered glider of sorts. Stormfall controls almost like a cross between a hang glider and a waterski. In addition, as part of her apprenticeship beneath Master Eraqus, Aqua has a magically augmented suit of armor, which she can materialize by striking the circular piece on her pauldron. She only uses the armor in times of extreme danger or if she is traveling the Lanes Between, as it is designed to help protect her from the outside influence of the darkness.
For a time, Aqua lost access to Stormfall, her armor, and her glider, as her tie to these things was severed when she left them behind in the world of light to save Terra, who had been possessed by Master Xehanort. While trapped in the world of darkness, the Keyblade that came to her bidding was none other than the Keyblade of the late Master Eraqus, which she had previously used to transform the ruined Land of Departure into Castle Oblivion, in order to keep the comatose Ventus safe. When their world (universe?) was destroyed and Aqua was brought to the Tower of Animus, though, her connection with her own Keyblade and armor was re-established; she can still use Eraqus' Keyblade, but she cannot summon it or synchronize with it the same way she can with Stormfall.
Chosen Keyblade wielders can also perform the Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony. This is something that can be done by accident as well as on purpose, so it is important to note, to prevent the Keyblade from falling into the wrong hands. To perform the ceremony, a Keyblade wielder must choose a successor and test their strength of heart by allowing them to hold the Keyblade. If the Keyblade stays in their hand and glows briefly, instead of immediately returning to the hand of its master, then it can be assumed that the ability to wield it has been successfully passed on. In the event of an intentional ceremony, there is a short rhyme that can be said, but it is not necessary to complete the ceremony. Aqua herself unintentionally passed the ability on to a young Kairi when Kairi touched her Keyblade, so needless to say, it's a power that has to be watched carefully.
As far as specific talents go, Aqua is, above all, a mage. She is physically capable and has the build of an acrobat, able to do elaborate spins, double jumps, air dashes, and handsprings. But her true strength lies in her expertise with magic. She has mastered the basic uses of almost every element available to a Keyblade wielder (that is, Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, Cure, Aero, Gravity, Stop, Reflect, and Magnet). She has a higher mastery of most of these elements, as well, able to use high-tier spells like Firaga and Curaga, and with some she has gone even further still, utilizing the element in more creative and destructive ways.
She is especially talented with Fire and Blizzard spells, as these are the two elements a mage is most traditionally taught to control. She has learned to use them in a variety of ways, from things like an explosive Fission Firaga to causing ice crystals to spike from the ground in an Ice Barrage. She also has become especially attuned to her Reflect magic, enough so that it's almost reflex -- it is one of the few spells that she does not have to verbalize no matter when she uses it. With enough focus, she can even turn her barrier into a weapon after it is struck; with the careful timing of a normal counterattack, if stress is put on the barrier, then Aqua can shatter it, causing it to fly in all directions towards her enemies. In a few instances of panic, Aqua has also demonstrated the ability to teleport away from an attack, but this is extremely rare, disorienting, and not something she has learned to control in the least.
There are also states that Aqua can access called "Command Styles". By using specific kinds of magic, Aqua can channel the energy into her body and her Keyblade to release abilities that normally lay dormant inside of her. What abilities are unlocked depends on the kind of magical energy she takes in, but the easiest and most common one for her to access is a style called "Spellweaver", where her feet glide over the ground and her Keyblade hovers at her hand, maintained in an almost psychokinetic grip so that she has a much greater range with her strikes. Of course, the excess energy must eventually be released or it becomes dangerous to Aqua, so each Command Style has something one could call a "finisher", where all the leftover magic is expelled in an attack. For Spellweaver's finisher, Aqua spins on her toes much like a figure skater and holds her Keyblade above her, so the magic rains outward and down upon her enemies.
With time, though, Aqua has actually learned to access secondary Command Styles, but it is very taxing to her and takes a massive amount of focus and magic (which, after a while, is something Aqua cannot afford to spare). Whenever she does resort to this, she tends to utilize something she calls "Ghost Drive", where she is given a drastic increase in speed and taps into her neglected abilities of teleportation to maneuver around and create afterimages of herself in the wake of every attack. The finisher for Ghost Drive is a simple series of strikes around an enemy to create a circle before the magic manifests in an explosion.
Following with the creative use of magic, Aqua and her comrades can also use it in a way they have named a "Shotlock". This involves picking out a target, much as you would if looking through a sniper scope or rocket launcher, and firing a barrage of focused magical attacks at them. More often than not, Shotlocks are ranged, and they are unique in that they don't actually require much magical energy -- just a lot of focus and discipline (and a steady hand), or they're impossible to execute. Aqua's favored Shotlock is named Bubble Blaster, and is basically exactly as its name entails; through usage of light Blizzard magic, Aqua assaults faraway enemies with charged bubbles. The damage capability lies more in quantity than in quality, for Shotlocks.
Unfortunately, Aqua's impressive repertoire of destructive skills is mostly magic, and magic can run out -- quite easily. Being a mage, she does have more spiritual stamina than the average person, but her truly fearsome attacks have to be used in moderation, or she risks weakening herself to the point of danger. With that as the case, she is more often than not forced to rely mostly on her basic spells and her physical, rather than magical, mastery of the Keyblade. And while her abilities in that regard are certainly nothing to sneeze at (she's been described as no less than "tricky" with the way she fights and moves), Aqua, in all honestly, cannot afford to take too many hard hits. The reasons for her acrobatic fighting style lie more in the need to dodge attacks than to confuse her opponent -- that's just not something you casually admit to people.
Sample Entry: Aqua stared down the golden rings suspended from the huge swinging arms of the training device, sighing out her trepidation. It was early -- far earlier than they needed to be up for the day's training -- and the sun had not even broken the horizon yet, the graying sky the only evidence of its slow approach.
She curled her fingers in anticipation of her Keyblade's approach, and with a few petals of ethereal light, Rainfell was weighing her right arm. The young apprentice hefted the weapon experimentally, lightly hitting the shaft against her opposite hand as if trying to agitate the batteries in a flashlight. The blade seemed to pulse in response, but it was only a dull sign of life, a dormant power just waiting to be awakened.
Aqua raised the Keyblade, pointing it at the center hollow of one of the rings. Her toes curled in her boots; her fingers flexed around Rainfell's handle, reaching out to the magic that would heed her summons.
"Fire!"
She felt it spark in the air first, raising the hairs at the back of her neck and on her arms. Then it traveled, down her limbs, out through Rainfell, and finally exploded into existence at the tip of the blade, shooting out to blast through the center of the ring and dissipate into the morning mist a few yards past. The only evidence that remained of the Fire spell was the faint scent of ignited contaminants in the air.
She took in a deep breath. Her Keyblade was warm, thrumming with life and magic, ready and willing to respond to Aqua's beck and call. As she relaxed her hold on it, allowed it to droop in her grasp and come down from the sudden surge of energy, it seemed to calm, returning to its sleepy state of non-use. She wasn't sure she'd ever stop marveling at the connection between her and this mythical weapon. It was so much more than just a sword; it was the one companion that had never failed her, never would or even could fail her. If there were to ever be any failure, it would only be Aqua's.
A frown turned her lips. She couldn't fail. She'd been given this power for a reason -- trained her whole life to make sure people were safe and the world order was maintained. She had a destiny now, and she had to fulfill it, for all those people out there that weren't fortunate enough to have a trusty Keyblade or the world's love on their side.
The student aimed out into the distance again, and the word came to her lips: "Freeze!" Cold overtook her hands, blossomed at the tip of her nose, and finally manifested in a flying flurry of ice crystals that assaulted the air and clung to the metal edges of the target ring.
With the magic still surging, Aqua whirled on the ball of her foot, pretending she had precious cargo at her rear and a violent enemy at her front. Without incantation this time -- as with the magic already in her presence, it wasn't necessary -- she thrust her blade outwards, hurtling chunks of ice into the side of the mountain.
Still protecting her imaginary charge, she let the front of her body start to fall to the side, catching herself in a one-armed handspring. When she landed back on her feet, she cut the air with a horizontal swipe from Rainfell, following it up with a diagonal slash.
She parried an invisible attack, only remembering to call up Reflect magic when it was theoretically too late (a poor oversight, she'd have to work on that with a real sparring partner), and then retaliated with a spinning attack, motivated all the while by the safety of the child or the princess or whoever it was that she was supposed to be protecting. Whatever demons clawed at her charge, she would banish them, push back the darkness that nipped at the heels of the light.
Aqua let her arms fall to her side, struggling to take breath from the thin morning air. It was admittedly hard to train when she was alone. It was silly, but it felt like without a presence at her side that she wasn't really working for anything or anyone. An absurd notion, as she knew she was working for herself, above anything else. But it still felt nicer to not have to conjure up just an image of something to keep safe.
She wrinkled her nose and sighed, weighing Rainfell in both of her hands again. "We'll work together. Alright?" The sound of her own voice was a little surprising to her, and to be addressing her Keyblade, of all things...
Aqua chuckled softly, dismissing the weapon in a flash of light. She'd just continue training when the others rose. Clearly she needed a little more sleep.
Name: Cee
Personal LJ: ceexdoll
Age: 17
Contact Info:
AIM - ceexdoll
Skype - karri-chan
Other Characters Played: N/A
Character Information
Character Name: Aqua
Character Series: Kingdom Hearts
Character Age: 19
Character Gender: Female
Original Canon
Canon Point: Long after the conclusion of Birth by Sleep and shortly after the end of KH1; before Chain of Memories, but 358/2 Days has started.
Background Link: Here (contains spoilers, obviously).
Personality: More than anything, Aqua is a maternal older sister figure who is fiercely protective and loyal. She is the first to defend people if their honor is challenged and will go to great lengths for them no matter what. Aqua tends to play the good cop for as long as she can, as proven in her speaking up against Master Eraqus when it came to the matter of Terra's darkness. She gives people the blessed benefit of the doubt, even people she is not close to or not well-acquainted with, as she thinks that everyone deserves at least that much. A firm believer in innocent until proven guilty, Aqua will stand up against anything she perceives as an injustice, regardless of who or what is involved. She is more a progressive defender than an instigator -- she fights because of an innate need to protect, not for the rush of victory.
Despite her faith in peoples' goodness, though, Aqua is not naive; she will speak the truth -- even if it is harsh -- if it is something she has seen and validated with her own eyes. In this way, she might be perceived as somewhat callous, even by those who are close to her. But, the truth is, she pretty much only tells the cold, hard truth to people that she knows can handle hearing it -- even if it doesn't seem that way. If she doesn't think that the person she is talking to is in a strong enough state to handle the truth, she may sugarcoat things, or tell a half-truth or white lie. It's always with a "for the greater good" motivation and a desire to maintain balance, and Aqua doesn't like to hide the truth, but if she deems it necessary -- or even if she is told to by Master Eraqus -- then she will, though it's with no small amount of guilt.
She's fortunately not quick to take offense to negative remarks about her character, and trusts in the bond that she and her friends have in spite of the differences between them that sometimes arise in not-so-nice ways. Aqua is the kind of person that would watch over her friends even if they were to stop liking her, or forget about her altogether.
She takes things seriously, but of course, everyone is prone to their own occasional flights of fancy, and sometimes Aqua's will show through (mostly in subtle ways). She attaches sentimental value to little things, like her Wayfinder or the wooden Keyblade that Terra once gave to Ventus, and puts more stock in legends, fairytales, and destiny than she lets on to most people. She has the mentality of a girl who was forced to grow up too fast; she was raised and behaves as a proper Master of the Keyblade should, but deep down, she likes making good-luck charms, listening to stories, and goofing off with her boys. She just doesn't allow herself to indulge in these things too much, for fear it might stunt her ability to carry out her duties. She is mature and grounded, a hopeful optimist but not foolish or unrealistic in the way she approaches most things.
On the outside, Aqua pays attention to politeness, propriety, and friendliness. She has the capacity to get very embarrassed and apologetic if she has made some sort of social faux pas or offended someone. Yet, in spite of her conscientiousness of these things, it seems there are still situations that she doesn't quite know how to approach...like being asked out on a date. It's hard to fluster Aqua, but that's definitely one way to do it. Her embarrassment in these scenarios could be attributed to her upbringing, as she tackles things with humility, having been raised as a knight of sorts. She may even be called "gentlemanly" in some regards; she will help people down stairs, hold doors open for them, offer to carry things, or hold out a hand if someone has fallen, in addition to her compulsion to protect those who are in danger.
There are few things that can shake her, but hitting close to her heart is one of them. Threatening her friends or her home world is the easiest way to strip away the elegant soldier and bring out the raging mother bear. It's very difficult to get under her skin, but when it happens, Aqua easily becomes twice the danger that she normally is, as she's not one to lose her rational mind even in the face of intense emotion. She may temporarily lose sight of the big picture in her anger, as her goal tends to become "eliminate the threat" when it comes to keeping the things she loves safe, but considering she was raised to be an efficient fighter, she is always far from becoming totally illogical. It takes something special to make Aqua lose it, and as of yet, she hasn't discovered that thing.
There is one aspect where it could be argued that she loses her head, though, and that is her habit of sacrificing her own safety to ensure that of someone else. The ways she has done it range in extremity, of course, but she would not -- and has not -- hesitated to lay down her life when it comes to Ventus and Terra. She's never considered herself a reckless person (and generally isn't -- she will gladly think of less dangerous alternatives if time allows it), but when push comes to shove, it can become arguable.
Aside from foggy matters of doing bad things for someone's own good, Aqua has a fairly strong moral compass that she rarely deviates from. She will protect the balance between light and darkness, and she will protect her friends, no matter what it takes; that's the long and short of it, really.
Abilities: To start with the most basic of the basic, Aqua wields a weapon called the Keyblade. It is a weapon reserved only for the strong of heart, and its power is legendary; in the right hands, it has been said to be able to bring both prosperity and ruin to the worlds. The physical Keyblade itself is not so much a marvel. It takes the shape of a large key-shaped sword and its appearance varies on a number of things, from the state of the user's heart to the keychains it is accessorized with. Aqua's Keyblade -- known as "Stormfall" -- is mostly a navy blue in coloration, with a straight, undecorated shaft and silver diamond-shaped ornaments accenting the teeth of the weapon. The handle is also silver, and the guard is a dark gray. Its keychain is shaped like a droplet of water.
Aqua has been trained to be able to summon Stormfall without even having to think about it; the Keyblade reacts to her "fight or flight" instinct, and will automatically come to her hand in the face of danger. It is pretty much wielded in the same fashion that a traditional sword is, but Aqua and the other apprentices of Master Eraqus have also been taught to use the Keyblade as transportation by transforming it into a rocket-powered glider of sorts. Stormfall controls almost like a cross between a hang glider and a waterski. In addition, as part of her apprenticeship beneath Master Eraqus, Aqua has a magically augmented suit of armor, which she can materialize by striking the circular piece on her pauldron. She only uses the armor in times of extreme danger or if she is traveling the Lanes Between, as it is designed to help protect her from the outside influence of the darkness.
For a time, Aqua lost access to Stormfall, her armor, and her glider, as her tie to these things was severed when she left them behind in the world of light to save Terra, who had been possessed by Master Xehanort. While trapped in the world of darkness, the Keyblade that came to her bidding was none other than the Keyblade of the late Master Eraqus, which she had previously used to transform the ruined Land of Departure into Castle Oblivion, in order to keep the comatose Ventus safe. When their world (universe?) was destroyed and Aqua was brought to the Tower of Animus, though, her connection with her own Keyblade and armor was re-established; she can still use Eraqus' Keyblade, but she cannot summon it or synchronize with it the same way she can with Stormfall.
Chosen Keyblade wielders can also perform the Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony. This is something that can be done by accident as well as on purpose, so it is important to note, to prevent the Keyblade from falling into the wrong hands. To perform the ceremony, a Keyblade wielder must choose a successor and test their strength of heart by allowing them to hold the Keyblade. If the Keyblade stays in their hand and glows briefly, instead of immediately returning to the hand of its master, then it can be assumed that the ability to wield it has been successfully passed on. In the event of an intentional ceremony, there is a short rhyme that can be said, but it is not necessary to complete the ceremony. Aqua herself unintentionally passed the ability on to a young Kairi when Kairi touched her Keyblade, so needless to say, it's a power that has to be watched carefully.
As far as specific talents go, Aqua is, above all, a mage. She is physically capable and has the build of an acrobat, able to do elaborate spins, double jumps, air dashes, and handsprings. But her true strength lies in her expertise with magic. She has mastered the basic uses of almost every element available to a Keyblade wielder (that is, Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, Cure, Aero, Gravity, Stop, Reflect, and Magnet). She has a higher mastery of most of these elements, as well, able to use high-tier spells like Firaga and Curaga, and with some she has gone even further still, utilizing the element in more creative and destructive ways.
She is especially talented with Fire and Blizzard spells, as these are the two elements a mage is most traditionally taught to control. She has learned to use them in a variety of ways, from things like an explosive Fission Firaga to causing ice crystals to spike from the ground in an Ice Barrage. She also has become especially attuned to her Reflect magic, enough so that it's almost reflex -- it is one of the few spells that she does not have to verbalize no matter when she uses it. With enough focus, she can even turn her barrier into a weapon after it is struck; with the careful timing of a normal counterattack, if stress is put on the barrier, then Aqua can shatter it, causing it to fly in all directions towards her enemies. In a few instances of panic, Aqua has also demonstrated the ability to teleport away from an attack, but this is extremely rare, disorienting, and not something she has learned to control in the least.
There are also states that Aqua can access called "Command Styles". By using specific kinds of magic, Aqua can channel the energy into her body and her Keyblade to release abilities that normally lay dormant inside of her. What abilities are unlocked depends on the kind of magical energy she takes in, but the easiest and most common one for her to access is a style called "Spellweaver", where her feet glide over the ground and her Keyblade hovers at her hand, maintained in an almost psychokinetic grip so that she has a much greater range with her strikes. Of course, the excess energy must eventually be released or it becomes dangerous to Aqua, so each Command Style has something one could call a "finisher", where all the leftover magic is expelled in an attack. For Spellweaver's finisher, Aqua spins on her toes much like a figure skater and holds her Keyblade above her, so the magic rains outward and down upon her enemies.
With time, though, Aqua has actually learned to access secondary Command Styles, but it is very taxing to her and takes a massive amount of focus and magic (which, after a while, is something Aqua cannot afford to spare). Whenever she does resort to this, she tends to utilize something she calls "Ghost Drive", where she is given a drastic increase in speed and taps into her neglected abilities of teleportation to maneuver around and create afterimages of herself in the wake of every attack. The finisher for Ghost Drive is a simple series of strikes around an enemy to create a circle before the magic manifests in an explosion.
Following with the creative use of magic, Aqua and her comrades can also use it in a way they have named a "Shotlock". This involves picking out a target, much as you would if looking through a sniper scope or rocket launcher, and firing a barrage of focused magical attacks at them. More often than not, Shotlocks are ranged, and they are unique in that they don't actually require much magical energy -- just a lot of focus and discipline (and a steady hand), or they're impossible to execute. Aqua's favored Shotlock is named Bubble Blaster, and is basically exactly as its name entails; through usage of light Blizzard magic, Aqua assaults faraway enemies with charged bubbles. The damage capability lies more in quantity than in quality, for Shotlocks.
Unfortunately, Aqua's impressive repertoire of destructive skills is mostly magic, and magic can run out -- quite easily. Being a mage, she does have more spiritual stamina than the average person, but her truly fearsome attacks have to be used in moderation, or she risks weakening herself to the point of danger. With that as the case, she is more often than not forced to rely mostly on her basic spells and her physical, rather than magical, mastery of the Keyblade. And while her abilities in that regard are certainly nothing to sneeze at (she's been described as no less than "tricky" with the way she fights and moves), Aqua, in all honestly, cannot afford to take too many hard hits. The reasons for her acrobatic fighting style lie more in the need to dodge attacks than to confuse her opponent -- that's just not something you casually admit to people.
Sample Entry: Aqua stared down the golden rings suspended from the huge swinging arms of the training device, sighing out her trepidation. It was early -- far earlier than they needed to be up for the day's training -- and the sun had not even broken the horizon yet, the graying sky the only evidence of its slow approach.
She curled her fingers in anticipation of her Keyblade's approach, and with a few petals of ethereal light, Rainfell was weighing her right arm. The young apprentice hefted the weapon experimentally, lightly hitting the shaft against her opposite hand as if trying to agitate the batteries in a flashlight. The blade seemed to pulse in response, but it was only a dull sign of life, a dormant power just waiting to be awakened.
Aqua raised the Keyblade, pointing it at the center hollow of one of the rings. Her toes curled in her boots; her fingers flexed around Rainfell's handle, reaching out to the magic that would heed her summons.
"Fire!"
She felt it spark in the air first, raising the hairs at the back of her neck and on her arms. Then it traveled, down her limbs, out through Rainfell, and finally exploded into existence at the tip of the blade, shooting out to blast through the center of the ring and dissipate into the morning mist a few yards past. The only evidence that remained of the Fire spell was the faint scent of ignited contaminants in the air.
She took in a deep breath. Her Keyblade was warm, thrumming with life and magic, ready and willing to respond to Aqua's beck and call. As she relaxed her hold on it, allowed it to droop in her grasp and come down from the sudden surge of energy, it seemed to calm, returning to its sleepy state of non-use. She wasn't sure she'd ever stop marveling at the connection between her and this mythical weapon. It was so much more than just a sword; it was the one companion that had never failed her, never would or even could fail her. If there were to ever be any failure, it would only be Aqua's.
A frown turned her lips. She couldn't fail. She'd been given this power for a reason -- trained her whole life to make sure people were safe and the world order was maintained. She had a destiny now, and she had to fulfill it, for all those people out there that weren't fortunate enough to have a trusty Keyblade or the world's love on their side.
The student aimed out into the distance again, and the word came to her lips: "Freeze!" Cold overtook her hands, blossomed at the tip of her nose, and finally manifested in a flying flurry of ice crystals that assaulted the air and clung to the metal edges of the target ring.
With the magic still surging, Aqua whirled on the ball of her foot, pretending she had precious cargo at her rear and a violent enemy at her front. Without incantation this time -- as with the magic already in her presence, it wasn't necessary -- she thrust her blade outwards, hurtling chunks of ice into the side of the mountain.
Still protecting her imaginary charge, she let the front of her body start to fall to the side, catching herself in a one-armed handspring. When she landed back on her feet, she cut the air with a horizontal swipe from Rainfell, following it up with a diagonal slash.
She parried an invisible attack, only remembering to call up Reflect magic when it was theoretically too late (a poor oversight, she'd have to work on that with a real sparring partner), and then retaliated with a spinning attack, motivated all the while by the safety of the child or the princess or whoever it was that she was supposed to be protecting. Whatever demons clawed at her charge, she would banish them, push back the darkness that nipped at the heels of the light.
Aqua let her arms fall to her side, struggling to take breath from the thin morning air. It was admittedly hard to train when she was alone. It was silly, but it felt like without a presence at her side that she wasn't really working for anything or anyone. An absurd notion, as she knew she was working for herself, above anything else. But it still felt nicer to not have to conjure up just an image of something to keep safe.
She wrinkled her nose and sighed, weighing Rainfell in both of her hands again. "We'll work together. Alright?" The sound of her own voice was a little surprising to her, and to be addressing her Keyblade, of all things...
Aqua chuckled softly, dismissing the weapon in a flash of light. She'd just continue training when the others rose. Clearly she needed a little more sleep.