☈ a p p l i c a t i o n .
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Player Info
Player Name: Icky
Player LJ: ravaging
Player Instant Messenger Type and Handle: aim; ickysaur
Player Email: ickysaur ( at ) gmail ( dot ) com
Are you 18 years of age or older? Yep!
Character Info
Character Name: Oerba Dia Vanille
Character’s Age: 19 physically, 519 chronologically.
Fandom: Final Fantasy XIII.
Timeline: After the defeat of Orphan, before the fall of Cocoon.
Appearance: ❝ Cute girl like me, it's hard to close your eyes. ❞
Vanille is short, about five foot three, and slender. She looks pretty delicate, but she's more than capable of taking care of herself. Her hair is somewhere between pink and orange, and she wears it in two low curly pigtails. Her eyes are large and very bright green. She is about 80% legs. On her upper-left thigh is a black mark, where she was branded by the fal'Cie Anima. The longer she goes without finishing her Focus, the more the brand changes, growing arrows at first, and finally a red eye in the center that slowly opens.
For clothing, she tends toward the brightly-colored. She wears a pink midriff-baring halter top with thin straps, a very colorful short orange and yellow skirt, and a bear skin... buttcape. It seems to function as the back half of her skirt, though it's longer than the rest of it, hanging down to about the backs of her knees. Most notable are her many accessories; a lot of thin bracelets, wood and beaded necklaces, and strings of beads hanging down her front and wrapped around to her back. Her shoes are fur-trimmed ankle-high low-heeled boots, and look quite stylish, though they seem to accentuate how pigeon-toed she is. Finishing up her outfit are several leather pouches and straps (also with beads), in which she can carry things. Her weapon folds up and is carried strapped to her lower back.
All in all, Vanille looks like someone who would punch you in the face with happiness if she could, and really, really likes beads.
History: ❝ It's easy to lose sight of things, in a world as wide as this one. ❞
At this point in the game, Vanille has fully taken responsibility for her actions, and come clean about all her lies, both outright and of omission. She has gained a new perspective, accepted the others as part of her family, decided to stand up and fight instead of run away, and perhaps most importantly, found a way to atone for everything her actions have caused.
I'll be taking her right from the point where she and Fang decide to become Ragnarok to save Cocoon, while the others are floating away. /single noble tear
Personality: ❝ I'm not all smiles and sunshine! ❞
On the surface, Vanille is your average Final Fantasy genki girl: cute, bubbly, and a little goofy. Or in Vanille's case, a lot goofy, with a plethora of semi-sexual sound effects and a ridiculous hip-shaking skip even in the most hopeless of times. She's the one with boundless energy and enthusiasm, with a smile and a hug ready for anyone who looks a little down. Pretty much the group cheerleader, Vanille's main role for a large portion of the game seems to be to keep the party's spirits up with her wacky antics and inappropriately cheerful reactions to strange and terrifying situations. Her nonchalance and apparent ignorance as to the severity of the situation even leads one of the characters to ask himself, “What's wrong with her?”
It's nothing too serious, poor Vanille's just got herself a serious case of Stepford Smiler. Underneath all that joy and wide-eyed naivety hides a whole lot of guilt, fear, and knowledge that could save everyone a whole lot of trouble, only she's not telling yet - and there'll be quite a lot of damage done before she does.
Vanille's personality is one that seems to be made up of contradictions. She is a kind, caring, good person, and yet she lies, deceives, and makes decisions which have huge, negative impacts on the people around her. While this failure to be straightforward and truthful is essentially the catalyst for many of the game's major events, including the branding of several of the main characters, Vanille is at heart not a deceptive or dishonest person. It is clear throughout the course of the game that her knowledge wears at her, that her lies grow increasingly more difficult to tell, and that she feels an overwhelming sense of guilt for her role in the predicament the party members find themselves in.
Basically, while it's definitely a part of who she is, all that surface childishness and perkiness serves as something of a front to hide the fact that a lot of what goes wrong for the party over the course of the game is at least partially her fault.
It first appears that Vanille has very little to do with the events of the game, and that she is there solely for the player to wtf at. It is gradually revealed, however, that a great deal of the game's events are centered around her and Fang, and it is her relationship with Fang that shows the deepest parts of Vanille's character. Five-hundred years prior to the events of the game, Vanille and Fang lived on Gran Pulse, which was having some sort of war with Cocoon. People died a lot, including their families, which made Fang mad and Vanille sad. Anyway, Fang went to the fal'Cie Anima to ask to become a l'Cie to help fight the war against Cocoon, but she ended up yelling at it for letting all these horrible things happen to the people of Gran Pulse. Vanille had followed, but had not intended to become a l'Cie, and when Fang's outburst led to the priests of Anima calling for her death, Vanille covered Fang's body with hers, and begged them to let Fang live in exchange for her own freedom as a human - to make them both l'Cie.
This type of self-sacrifice is typical of her, and is illustrated several times throughout the game. She boards the Purge train of her own free will to avoid her Focus - which is not an act of cowardice as it might seem, but one of bravery. She would rather become a Cie'th and experience an eternity of misery than become Ragnarok and destroy a world, or let Fang bear that burden for her. When the party learns of their Focus, Vanille takes advantage of Fang's lost memories and tells them all that she was the one who became Ragnarok, broke Cocoon's shell, and wiped out Gran Pulse so that Fang doesn't have to feel guilty about it. At the end of the game, she and Fang together sacrifice themselves to save a world that hates them.
Vanille is a very empathic character, capable of reading those around her and fitting herself into whatever role she believes they need. This is most apparent with Sazh and Hope, with whom she takes on the roles of surrogate daughter and older sibling, respectively. However, when her own guilt clouds her mind, she is notably less able to find and fit into such roles, as is the case with Lightning and Snow. She seems to actively avoid forming any sort of bond with them, likely because she is aware of and blames herself for the crystalizing of the one person most important to the both of them.
In spite of the problems she causes for others, she is not selfish or cruel. At worst, she is motivated by guilt and fear, and at best she is motivated by a desire to save the world and atone for the trouble her lies have caused. She seems to believe that she is deserving of whatever punishment the others deem fit, as illustrated by her asking Sazh to shoot her for her part in what happened to his son, and her closing her eyes to take it when she thinks Fang is going to hit her after her lies are revealed.
She is almost childishly self-centered in that she does not seem to look beyond her own involvement in things before placing blame on herself. Her actions do lead to suffering for the party and those close to them, but everything that happens is a direct result of fal'Cie whims. While she decided to deny her Focus and board the Purge train, leading the fal'Cie Anima to brand Serah, it was ultimately the fal'Cie who caused everything, not Vanille. But she blames herself and emos out and lies about it anyway, which complicates everything for everyone.
Without Fang, Vanille is generally at a loss. She is a follower rather than a leader, and often takes a back seat to Fang's brash recklessness. When the two are separated, Vanille is not very good at taking care of herself, and seems to attach herself to the nearest person. Taking care of Hope, and helping him in his quest to confront Snow seems to give her some direction. Their course of action during the events of the Purge is perhaps not the most logical, but it is clear that while functioning as sort of a caretaker for Hope, Vanille is able to push her own fear to the side and try to help Hope deal with the loss of his mother. She seems to take on the older sister role with him, and the surrogate child role with Sazh, out of a need to have someone to be with and something to do about as much as she does it to be helpful. Though she has ample opportunity to tell the party the truth, she does not do so, as they are the only people she knows, and she does not want to risk them hating her for what she has done. So she is not entirely free of blame, but her reactions to the situation she finds herself in are very human. She attaches to the nearest people because she is somewhat dependent by nature, and avoids giving them important information so they won't hate her and abandon her, but it is made extremely clear that this deception is contrary to her usual behavior, and that she feels terrible for it the whole time.
Though her cheerfulness and enthusiasm are exaggerated to cover up her intense feelings of guilt, Vanille is really a happy person. She likes to take care of people, and to make others happy makes her happy. She often gives the other characters a push in the right direction, whether they want it or not, and even if it can make her appear a little inconsiderate, she does it with their best interests at heart. She's emotional, the sort of person you wouldn't expect to be a good liar. She is prone to crying, though she is capable of putting on a brave face when the situation calls for it. She does not like to inconvenience others with her problems, and prefers to cover up her sadness so as not to worry anyone. She is also a little sassy, not afraid to tell others when she thinks their behavior is silly. All in all, Vanille's a good kid trying to do what she thinks is best in a terrible situation.
Powers/Abilities: ❝ I'd rather fight and lose than give up without even trying! ❞
In Final Fantasy XIII, once the characters have been branded by the fal'Cie, they are are given access to a wide range of abilities. These abilities are divided into roles, and while every character can gain access to every role by the end of the game, each specializes in three in particular. It is these roles in which they gain the largest variety of abilities and are generally the most effective.
Due to high magic (she's second behind Hope), Vanille is most proficient in the Medic, Ravager, and Saboteur roles. She is widely considered the best Saboteur in the game, with access to most of the related abilities plus their multi-target versions, and an ability unique to her. As a Ravager, Vanille has access to all elemental abilities up to their -ra (hits a target and nearby foes) levels, with further specialization in fire and ice, where she learns the -ga (hits large areas of foes) levels. In the Medic role, Vanille gains all abilities, and is quite good at keeping the party in fighting shape, or bringing them back up with Raise if they happen to be knocked out.
➟ Medic
☼ Cure → Cura » Restores HP to party member(s).
☼ Curasa → Curaja » Restores HP to party member(s) depending on the amount of damage taken.
☼ Esuna » Removes debuffing status effects.
☼ Raise » Removes KO and restores some HP.
➟ Ravager
☼ Aero → Aeorora » Wind element damage to targeted foe(s).
☼ Blizzard → Blizzara → Blizzaga » Ice element damage to targeted foe(s).
☼ Fire → Fira → Firaga » Fire element damage to targeted foe(s).
☼ Thunder → Thundara » Lightning element damage to targeted foe(s).
☼ Water → Watera » Water element damage to targeted foe(s).
➟ Saboteur
☼ Death » Vanille's unique ability. 1% chance of dealing instant death, otherwise deals massive damage.
☼ Deprotect → Deprotectga » Decreases foe(s) resistance to physical damage.
☼ Deshell → Deshellga » Decreases foe(s) resistance to magical damage.
☼ Fog » Prevents foe use of magical abilities.
☼ Pain » Prevents foe use of physical abilities.
☼ Imperil → Imperilga » Increases foe(s) weakness to elemental attacks and susceptibility to debuffs.
☼ Poison → Poisonga » Drains a constant percentage of foe(s) health over time.
In addition to access to magic, being branded comes with the ability to summon an Eidolon, a giant creature capable of shifting into a second form. In Vanille's case, this is Hecatoncheir, a multi-armed earth elemental robot thing that transforms into a heavily armed (see what I did there) mech, which Vanille can ride around, using its missile/laser guns to attack.
As for physical abilities, Vanille's not too great at taking hits (her maximum HP is the fourth highest out of six), but she's not as weak as you might think, not quite a squishy wizard. Growing up in a tribal culture, Vanille learned how to hunt, and seems pretty effective at it. Her bearskin buttcape is from a bear she killed all by herself. The pace of the game is pretty fast - the party covers a lot of distance in a pretty short period of time - and Vanille seems able to keep up for the most part without problems. She doesn't have the strength and stamina of Fang, Snow, or Lightning, but she's stronger than you'd expect a tiny girl like her to be. Also, she seems to have incredible upper body strength. In one cut scene, she... air fishes... for a flying dragonlike creature, and is able to capture and hold it midflight. In order to accomplish this, she uses her weapon, the Bind Rod, which is sort of like a deer antler with fishing lines that extend from each prong. It's weird, yeah.
Limitations: ❝ Let's see some fireworks! ❞
First, Vanille will be limited to the three specialist roles listed above, which means she will have no access to the Commando, Sentinel, or Synergist abilities.
In the Medic role, Vanille will be knocked down only to her single-target abilities, Cure and Curasa. She will still have access to Esuna, but Raise will be unavailable. As a Ravager, she will have access to single-target spells only in most elements, but she will be able to use the second-tier fire and ice spells. As a Saboteur, she will only be able to use the single-target abilities, and will not be able to use Death at all. Every single-target spell will have a 1:5 chance to work, and the two second-tier spells will have a 1:8 chance, as well as suffering a decrease in overall power. In addition, repeated use of these powers will result in exhaustion and headaches.
As for Hecatoncheir, I would like her to be able to keep him. However, she will only be able to summon once a week, and will experience increasing fatigue and pain until he is dismissed. If she keeps him active for longer than five minutes, the pain and fatigue will ramp up until she faints. Additionally, he will be unable to transform into his Gestalt mode, and therefore not have access to his most damaging attacks, and neither will Vanille be able to ride him around adorably.
Writing Samples
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First Person Sample:
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