application for sirenspull
Character Information
General
Canon Source: 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors
Canon Format: Video Game (Visual Novel)
Character's Name: Clover (Clover)
Character's Age: 18
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played. N/A
What form will your character's NV take? A basic flip-top cellphone with two cameras; it's been decorated with faux leopard fur and rhinestones, and two pink bobbles serve as a decorative strap.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: As a child, Clover was found to have a certain degree of telepathic ability, playing the 'transmitter' to her brother's 'receiver.' She must have shown some exceptional talent, because she was deemed fit for an experiment that involved transmitting thoughts from a stationary building to a ship out in the ocean. However, she is not explicitly stated to use this ability as an adult. It's safe to say that whatever telepathic ability she had as a child has faded away, either because of lack of use, or because of her own unconscious desire to suppress the trauma she associates with it.
Clover's fit, but she doesn't show any particular athletic ability. She's capable of displaying surprising strength, however: in one of the game's endings, she has no trouble using an axe to murder people. She's also apparently a decent driver, and she possesses an international driver's license.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them? Just as she once 'transmitted' her thoughts to her brother, the Core will cause Clover to regain the ability to send her thoughts, feelings, and experiences to another person's mind. Initially, this ability won't be well-controlled, and Clover will find herself intermittently transmitting to other people even if she doesn't want to.
Note, though, that whoever 'receives' her thoughts won't necessarily take on those feelings themselves-- they'll simply be aware of what she's seeing/sensing as though it's been superimposed onto their own thoughts. Initially, her power will be triggered by strong negative emotions such as fear or anger. Once she gets the hang of it, though, she'll be able to project coherent thoughts to specific people at great distances. She'll also be able to 'receive' telepathic messages, not having a natural shield against that kind of thing.
The quality of the connection will depend on how well she resonates with the person she's trying to communicate with; as well as any mental blocks the person has! If her brother happens to be present in the Port, her strongest telepathic connection will obviously be with him.
Weapons: None.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: Not much information is known about Clover's early childhood. As she's six years younger than her brother, Snake, it's likely she was very young when an accident took away his left arm and his sight. It isn't explicitly stated when or how, but it can be surmised that it was during Snake's rehabilitation for his injuries that they first came into contact with Cradle Pharmaceuticals, a company that would later play a much larger role in their lives. Clover and Snake were subjected to tests designed to test their telepathic ability, performing well enough that the company took an interest in making them participate in a much more sinister experiment.
Just before Clover's ninth birthday, she and her brother were kidnapped from their home and forced into what eventually came to be referred to as the First Nonary Game. Nine pairs of siblings were placed in two different locations: the SS Gigantic, a replica of the Titanic, and Building Q, a warehouse in Nevada whose interior was remodelled to resemble the ship. The children in Building Q, Clover among them, were to solve the puzzles given to them and "transmit" the solution to their siblings on the SS Gigantic. Failing to do so within nine hours, they were told, would result in a bomb being set off on the Gigantic, sinking the ship-- and their beloved brothers and sisters-- to a watery grave.
Under the immense mental pressure of this life or death situation, the researchers of Cradle Pharmaceuticals hoped to learn more about how to tap into morphic fields-- fields that could allow them to access an immense amount of information across space and time-- at will. While the profit that could be made from learning about the morphic fields was one thing, one man had a particular personal interest in the experiment: Gentarou Hongou, whose obsession for a cure for his prosopagnosia led him to believe that morphic fields could be the answer he was looking for.
However, the experiment did not go as planned. Seven, who was then a detective, found his way onto the SS Gigantic, managing to rescue the children on the ship. All except one, a girl named Akane Kurashiki, who was never supposed to be on the ship at all...
And thus the stage was set for the Second Nonary Game, nine years later.
More information about the game's actual events (and sundry plot twists) can be found on its Wikipedia page. As far as the other players of the Nonary Game are concerned, "Clover" is merely a codename based on the number on her bracelet, which is "4."
What is particularly interesting about Clover is that she, out of all the characters, has the most varied endings. Depending on choices Junpei (aka the player) makes, Clover may either end up the victim of an unknown murderer, reunited happily with her brother, or completely psychopathic, murdering her fellow "players" in order to secure her escape.
Hope, Faith, Love, and Luck. These are the words Junpei reminds Clover of, the words that each leaf of a four-leaf-clover stands for. These were the same words that Snake told the other children aboard the SS Gigantic, to keep them together when it seemed like there was nothing they could do to save themselves. Where she's taken from, Clover carries the memories of those words with her to give her strength... but whether it will be enough to keep her from sliding back into despair remains to be seen.
Point in Canon: From the "True Ending" Path, which requires Junpei to go through doors 4, 7, and 1. She'll be taken from just after exiting Room [1] (and thus being aware that Snake is possibly somewhere, alive).
Conditional: Brief summary of previous RP history: n/a
Character Personality: With a personality as vivid as the color of her hair, Clover isn't a girl one can easily forget. Mercurial would be an appropriate description, as she shifts from one mood to the next in the blink of an eye.
At her best Clove is upbeat, forthright, and fearless, never hesitating to give someone a piece or her mind. Very much a teenager, she doesn't express any of the maturity or placidity her brother usually projects, but one can see the family resemblance as far as humor is concerned. Both of them can be suitably waspish when the situation calls for it, but her words are often far blunter than her brother's. When Clover loses her temper or becomes impatient, she can be childishly crass: she insults Seven by saying she thought a man his size would have bigger balls, and tells Junpei to shut up and tell her what he noticed about the body of the man they mistook to be Snake behind Door [3].
All in all, it's hard to believe she's a girl who's finished high school, much less a young woman of eighteen. Having said that, it's also a possibility that Clover's efforts to draw attention to herself are simply part of keeping attention away from her brother's disability. While her outlandish style and attitude have certainly come out of her own desire to stand out (she is only eighteen), being so young when her brother was in an accident probably left a great impression on her when she was growing up. Given how much she seems to adore her brother, the way she presents herself is far too diametrically opposed to Snake to be anything other than deliberate.
Despite her apparent immaturity, Clover is far from stupid, and there's little that can shake her. Having her life threatened by the Ninth Man (and then having to pass by his detonated body) doesn't seem to faze her much, at least not after the immediate danger has passed. As Junpei notices, she has little trouble keeping her spirits up, even if being in the Second Nonary Game probably brings back memories she'd sooner forget. Her confidence and bravado owe much, however, to the presence of her older brother.
If there is one thing that must be taken into account as far as discussing Clover's personality goes, it is her relationship with Snake. Clover has a fierce devotion to her brother, nearly to the point of dependency. It isn't immediately evident how strong this connection is until one sees the difference that Snake's disappearance makes. Without Snake at her side, Clover becomes withdrawn and sullen, retreating into herself and prone to lashing out at anyone who tries to draw her into conversation, if not ignoring them completely. What she usually expresses as snarky cynicism becomes something grim and fatalistic, revealing a well-hidden darkness that may stem from the First Nonary Game. When the players of the Second Nonary Game learn of Snake's "death," Clover predicts that her death will no doubt soon follow. Should Junpei fail to bring Clover back from the edge, she loses all sense of rationality, the idea of her brother's demise sufficient to turn her into a homicidal psychopath.
One thing, however, is clear: with or without her brother, Clover possesses a strength of character that allows her to keep moving forward, a survivor's instinct that persists even through the midst of utter despair. It's merely whether this tenacity takes a turn for the morbid or not which is left up to fate to decide.
Conditional: Personality development in previous game: n/a
Character Plans: The variety of possible endings for Clover makes her seem, to me, a character with several potential directions she can be taken in. I've chosen to take her from the middle of the story to preserve this ambiguity to her, and to see how things in Siren's Port play out. Should Snake be present in the city, she'll of course be immensely relieved to see him-- it will be the first time she has, since the moment of his disappearance from the Second Nonary Game. If he's not, exploring her development will be a really enjoyable challenge!
The game itself vaguely implies that characters may be able to recall the different endings (via morphic resonance and what-have-you), but for the sake of keeping chronology straight, Clover won't be remembering/know of any of the other possible routes the game could have taken.
Appearance/PB: Concept Art
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[ The pink-haired girl on the video feed looks shaken, but otherwise unharmed, clutching what looks like a big, plastic wristwatch in her fingers. She's gripping it hard enough that her knuckles have gone pale, but her voice is even enough when she starts to speak...
... Though her eyes don't quite look at the camera. ]
First of all, I need to know if anyone has seen other people wearing a bracelet like this. [ She holds the "wristwatch" up-- the screen is dead, and it's large, big enough to go over most of her wrist. If she had the choice, she wouldn't be using video at all, but she can't trust that anyone from her world will be using the same names here. ] Tell them Clover is looking for them.
[ Abruptly, her mood seems to change, brows knitting together as she glares at the camera. ]
This is the second time I've been kidnapped today. Zero, if you're out there... quit screwing around! This better not be one of your stupid games!
Third Person Sample
The glass under Clover's hands was still warm from the sun. The apartment room they gave her was small and cramped, but it wasn't nearly as horrible as the Gigantic's claustrophic interior, sinking down into oblivion inch by inch. It practically felt like heaven, albeit a very lonely one. Her eyes flickered to the (real) watch someone had put up on the wall, watching the minutes tick by.
Ten hours since arriving in the city. If she'd still been on the ship, she'd be dead by now.
Or would she? She'd screamed when the scientists touched her, called for her brother, Junpei, anyone. Then she'd been tranquilized, and when she woke up strapped down to a bed, a nurse in crisp white scrubs told her exactly where she was and how she'd gotten there.
There wasn't a bomb in her belly, waiting for the signal to detonate. Maybe there never had been. It was a relief, but it only made her head ache. If there hadn't been a bomb, then what had killed the Ninth Man? What had killed her... no, she corrected herself, Junpei had said it, hadn't he? A bone jutting out of the body's left arm. No matter who it was who had died in Snake's clothes, that person could never be her brother.
Her brother, who wasn't anywhere in the City. Her brother who, even if he was, couldn't see the same view she was seeing now, as the sirens sang out-- and the city changed, the Darkness sweeping over it and decaying everything in its path. Clover watched the world rot, separated from her by nothing more than a flimsy barrier that probably hadn't been cleaned for the last twenty years.
Perhaps she could have stayed at the window forever, waiting for a monster to break through, but a knock at the door and a voice softly calling her name made her pull away.