stedelweiss Application
PLAYER
NAME: Pi
AGE: 19
PREFERRED PRONOUN: she
PERSONAL LJ: thepichef
TIMEZONE: EST
EMAIL ADDRESS: thepichef@hotmail.com
AIM SCREENAME: piku chef
EXPERIENCE RPing: Various games, for a little over two years now on LJ. Tack on a couple more years for IM roleplay.
CHARACTER
I. STATS
NAME: Riku
AGE: 16
HEIGHT: 6’1”
WEIGHT: 175 lbs
SEX: Male
NATIONALITY: Going with Japanese, given that his name is such and his appearance... could be anything, really.
II. CANON
FANDOM: Kingdom Hearts
TIMELINE PERIOD: At the end of the second game.
ABILITIES: Riku is able to harness the Darkness that is inside him thanks to numerous dealings with Maleficent and later, Xehanort’s Heartless. In the second game (the timeline I’m bringing him from), his darkness-based abilities include Dark Aura (which involves multiple Dark Firagas, essentially fire magic with a darkness twist) and Dark Shield (similar to a reflect spell, a magical barrier). He also has a Limit Attack when fighting along side Sora called Eternal Session, in which he uses various darkness-based physical attacks, as well as what appears to be almost warping around short distances in quick succession. His other abilities are Cure Potion, a heal-all ability which costs all of his magic (similar to Sora’s Curaga spell) and being able to summon his Keyblade, Way to Dawn.
While at St. Edelweiss, all of Riku’s magic will be considerably weakened. During the night when he actually can use it, everything will be at around half-strength. As for his Keyblade, during one night Riku will be able to either summon it and use nothing else, or use magic and not be able to call Way to Dawn. While his magic will bring mostly combat uses and one for healing injuries, the Keyblade can be used for combat and to unlock most locks (that aren’t plot-sensitive).
NOTES: Reserved.
III. CHARACTER BACKGROUND
Riku spent his entire life up until age 15 on a group of islands- Destiny Islands, to be exact. He and his best friend Sora went out to a smaller island to play all the time when they were young- but a stranger was there one day. He spoke with Riku about the existence of other worlds beyond the islands, and the ability to see them someday. Though he didn’t know its true purpose, the stranger passed to him the ability to wield the Keyblade, but told him to keep it a secret.
Not long after, there was a meteor shower that brought with it a mysterious young girl, the same age as Riku and Sora. Named Kairi, the girl couldn’t remember where she had come from, but Riku was certain she was from another world. She became friends with Riku and Sora, and they even allowed her to see their secret hiding place- a cave on the island with a strange door in it. Riku was the only one with such a fixation on the door though- he had seen a keyhole appear in it and knew it had to be connected to the outside world somehow.
As the years went by, Riku grew up with his two best friends, Sora and Kairi, and the three spent most of their time on a play-island where much of the islands’ youth hung out. Riku eventually got the idea to build a raft so the three of them could go see if there were really other worlds out there. However, the night before they were supposed to leave, Riku finally managed to open the door in the secret place and unknowingly let the darkness out onto the islands. Sora found him shortly after, and Riku tried to get Sora to leave with him via the darkness, but Sora was then chosen by the Keyblade (which picked a replacement since Riku had allied with the darkness) and Riku disappeared without him.
Riku utilized the darkness to escape his own world and wound up in a world called Hollow Bastion. Maleficent found him there, and provided him with a place to stay. However, she began to manipulate his perspective of Sora, who had joined Donald and Goofy in an attempt to find Riku and Kairi. She was able to make him believe that Sora had abandoned him and Kairi for new friends, and Riku’s own jealousy was only amplified.
Riku continued to be further manipulated by Maleficent, growing to hate Sora and kidnapping six of the seven princesses of heart according to Maleficent’s plan. He confronted Sora a few more times, each time becoming more hostile, until they met in Hollow Bastion. There he took the Keyblade from Sora and left him with just a wooden sword. Sora fought his way back to Riku though, and the two battled after Sora regained the Keyblade from Riku.
After losing against Sora, Riku fled deeper into Hollow Bastion’s castle, but wound up getting possessed by the Heartless of a man named Xehanort (though he called himself “Ansem”) in his search for enough power to defeat Sora. Xehanort’s Heartless took control of Riku’s body, and fought Sora once again after revealing what Sora had to do to save Kairi. After he was defeated, Sora used the dark Keyblade left behind by Riku to free Kairi’s missing heart from his own and wake her up. Xehanort’s Heartless then appeared and advanced on her, but was stopped by Riku, who kept Xehanort’s Heartless at bay as a last ditch effort. Afterward, Xehanort’s Heartless gained full control of him once again, and went on to fight Sora in the final battle. When Sora won, Riku was restored, but forced to stay on the other side of the Door to Darkness with the King to help close it.
Sometime after the Door to Darkness was closed, Riku found himself in the lowest basement floor of a place called Castle oblivion. He was given the option by a mysterious voice to either stay there, between light and dark, and sleep- or to take a card offered to him and find the truth. He chose search for the truth and took the card, starting his journey up the basement floors of Castle Oblivion.
As he made his way through Castle Oblivion, Riku was forced to confront his demons, namely the one who called himself Ansem and who’s presence was still in Riku’s heart. The King also contacted him, offering much needed encouragement and promising to try and reach him in the castle. The half of the castle’s maintainers dwelling in the basement floors kept a close eye on Riku though, hoping to use him in their plans to thwart the castle’s lord Marluxia who had brought Sora to the castle for similar reasons. Riku also discovered while making his way to the ground floor that one of the Organization members, Vexen, had made a walking, talking replica of him and used it to test Riku’s strength and tempt him to go back to the darkness.
Riku overcame the replica Vexen had made though, and continued along his path up the castle’s basement floors, encountering the castle’s interpretation of worlds he had seen along the way. Eventually he met another Organization member, Lexaeus, who told him he would stop Riku’s castle ascent unless he reaccepted the darkness. Riku was set in his decision to conquer his darkness instead of submitting to it again though, and just barely defeated Lexaeus.
As he continued up the castle floors, Riku could tell when Marluxia, lord of the castle had been defeated. Another Organization member, Zexion, arrived and explained to Riku that Sora was the cause of it. He goaded Riku into taking the Destiny Islands card offered him, and Riku entered the castle’s version of his home world. There, Zexion tried to guilt trip him with all his past mistakes and convince him, as Lexaeus had tried, to return to the darkness. He then used an illusion of Sora to make Riku ‘face the light’. Namine appeared to him as Kairi though, and told him he couldn’t be defeated by light or darkness, and to accept both to drive away his fears. Riku was then able to truly utilize his dark powers, accepting them as a part of him and finally defeating Zexion, though he managed to make his escape before Riku could finish him for good.
As he neared the ground floor, Riku struggled with Xehanort’s Heartless for control again, but was rescued by the King, who had finally managed to reach him. He gave Riku the card that lead to their meeting, and it lead to the castle’s version of Twilight Town. There Xehanort’s Heartless appeared again, but Riku could tell by his smell that it wasn’t actually Xehanort’s Heartless, but the voice from the very beginning of his journey in Castle Oblivion. The voice belonged to DiZ, who told RIku he wanted him to choose between light and dark instead of staying in between, and to find Namine once he had decided. Riku discovered the Old Mansion where Namine was, but the replica demanded one last fight in the hopes of killing Riku and taking his place as the ‘real thing’. Riku defeated him though, saying that the replica’s heart would probably wind up wherever the real thing’s did in the end.
When Riku met with Namine, she offered to put him to sleep and seal away Xehanort’s Heartless and the darkness in Rikus heart, along with all the memories of them. Riku declined though, insisting on defeating Xehanort’s Heartless on his own. Diz then gave him a card to draw out Xehanort’s Heartless, and Riku told the King to destroy him if Xehanort’s Heartless won and took over. The King insisted he would only save Riku though, and Riku went to face Xehanort’s Heartless once and for all. Riku was able to overcome Xehanort’s Heartless seemingly for good, but Xehanort’s Heartless claimed a part of him still lingered in Riku’s heart and would return.
After the events of the castle, Diz told Riku to chose the road he would take from there, the one to the darkness or the one to the light- Riku chose neither, but the middle road- ‘the road to the dawn’.
During the year Sora was asleep, Riku spent time on his own for the most part, trying to rid himself of Xehanort’s Heartless’s presence and doing anything he could to help Sora recover. This involved a few meetings with a girl named Xion who was important to Sora’s restoration (though Riku doesn’t remember her after his second fight with Roxas), and a couple fights with a boy named Roxas. Diz told Riku that Roxas could help Sora to wake up, and so Riku fought him and lost the first time. The second time he defeated Roxas, but only by using the dark power he’d been hiding by way of a blindfold. This resulted in Riku taking on the appearance of Xehanort’s Heartless.
Roxas was then trapped by DiZ in a virtual version of Twilight town until it was time for him to merge with Sora. During that time, Riku kept an eye on Roxas to make sure he remained ignorant until the time was right, taking a few key items and keeping Namine from telling Roxas anything. After Namine finished her job of restoring Sora’s memories though, DiZ told Riku to eliminate her- Riku instead handed her over to Axel. After Riku left Diz, he encountered the King again and asked him not to tell Sora about him, to which the King agreed.
When Axel later tried to kidnap Kairi, Riku provided her with an escape route without revealing his identity. And again after a large battle in Hollow Bastion which left Sora, Donald and Goofy in an unfamiliar place, Riku was the one to leave them clues. He appeared again in the Land of Dragons to warn the Emperor of the Heartless dragon causing a threat, and wound up giving away a hint to his identity when Sora fought him, thinking he was an Organization member.
Riku continued to work behind the scenes until Saix cornered Namine and Kairi in The World That Never Was, where he stepped in and chased Saix off. Namine gave away his identity though, and Kairi was grateful to see him, even after seeing his current appearance. Riku also rescued Kairi when she was later swarmed by Heartless, giving her her own Keyblade to fight with. Once Sora and co were able to reach Kairi and Riku, Riku tried to slip away unnoticed, but Kairi stopped him and revealed who he was to everyone. They too were able to see past Riku’s appearance to his actual identity, and after a joyous reunion, the five resumed climbing the castle.
After the defeat of Saix, Riku revealed to Sora that Roxas was Sora’s Nobody, and realized he may have never really needed to fight Roxas to get him to return to Sora. After that, they met up with the King and Diz- now revealed to be Ansem the Wise. Ansem the Wise had brought with him a machine to try and capture Kingdom Hearts as data and ruin the last of the Organization’s plan, but he realized too late that it was impossible to measure hearts with numbers and the machine would soon self-destruct. After some banter between Ansem the Wise and Xemnas, the Organization’s leader and remaining member, the machine exploded in a brilliant flash of light, taking Ansem the Wise with it.
When the group came to, they saw that Riku’s natural appearance had been restored. From there, he discarded the blindfold and Organization coat and they resumed their ascent of the castle. At the top, the group confronted Xemnas, and after a harrowing battle, he appeared defeated. From there, Namine appeared and opened a portal to Destiny Islands to send everyone home. She and Roxas merged with Kairi and Sora respectively, and the trio headed for the portal home. It was forced to close before Sora and Riku could get through, however, and they fought Xemnas once again in several different forms.
The battle left both exhausted, with Riku the worse of the two. Sora and Riku eventually arrived at a dark beach, where they sat and discussed all the events that had happened since leaving the islands. After a long while, a letter in a bottle washed up on the shore, and Riku handed it to Sora to read. It was from Kairi, and as Sora read it aloud, the Door to the Light opened in front of them- the door home.
Riku will find himself at St. Edelweiss just after walking through the door with Sora.
IV. CHARACTER PERSONALITY
First impressions will tell that Riku is a fairly quiet but constantly sarcastic kind of guy. The pessimist of the group, he’s definitely not the one to encourage people when things are looking grim- at least not most of the time. Riku isn’t all dark rainy cloud, and he does try to persevere and keep going through the worst of it. He may be cynical, but giving up is not in his repertoire- he’s far too stubborn for that.
This is the kind of guy who will keep fighting until he can’t anymore, and then some. One his key flaws that he’s almost blind to, is that he pushes far past his own limits. If something important is at stake- especially if it involves his friends- he’ll push past as much injury as physically possible to keep going.
Riku is also extremely loyal to his friends- something that has cemented in his personality ever since he betrayed them and had to work his butt off for redemption. The guilt he still feels over all his past mistakes shows itself in his dedication to keep making up for things and to try to do the right thing whenever given the chance. He’s had his turn doing the wrong thing and going down the very wrong path, and he’s definitely learned from it.
From time to time Riku still has his angsty moments, where he dwells a little too much on things he’s done. It took him over a year to really make up for all his mistakes in the first game, and even then, everyone but him was willing to extend forgiveness. He has a tendency to be just a tad too hard on himself sometimes, but it’s really just his way of trying to keep from ever straying from the path again.
Riku’s personality overall has changed quite a bit from the beginning of the first game to the end of the second, though his core traits stay the same. He’s still the somewhat prideful and competitive kid he’s always been, and still just as good at making sarcastic remarks, but the growth between ages fifteen and sixteen is quite visible. His cocky attitude has certainly been toned down from what it used to be, and though he pushes himself too far sometimes, he’s not so prideful as to think he can take on the world by himself. One thing he’s finally gotten his head around is that he doesn’t always have to do things alone. He does take a bit of time to really build up trust with people, but he’s willing to work together now and allow himself to rely on others for backup when he needs to.
V. IN-GAME
DANGER LEVEL: 1
WHY DO YOU WANT TO PLAY THE CHARACTER IN THIS PARTICULAR GAME AND SETTING?
For one, I absolutely love asylum- and hospital-setting horror survival types. It gives the chance to show a side of characters that canon doesn’t usually cover. In this case, it’s a darker setting than Riku’s canon; coming from a half Disney canon, he’s probably the most cynical of the “good guys”. Sticking him in a backdrop where things aren’t fueled by the power of friendship can serve to flesh out some of his deeper and darker issues- and boy does he have some to speak of.
WHAT WILL THEIR DIAGNOSIS BE?
Depressive Personality Disorder: Mostly as a result of his past mistakes and insecurity over friendship.
Multiple Personality Disorder: Explains his being possessed by Xehanort’s Heartless.
Masochistic Personality Disorder: Evident in his self-sacrificing behavior.
SAMPLES
VI. THIRD PERSON
(From silenthell_rpg:)
Within only a few minutes of arriving, Riku was already well aware of the rather strong smell of darkness in this place. A smell he was used to, sure, but definitely not one he was fond of. And with such a high amount of darkness, the Heartless would no doubt be plentiful here he figured, and better over-prepared than under.
What worried him more than waking up in a completely different world though, was the fact that no Keyblade answered his call. Being in unfamiliar territory, especially this steeped in darkness, he could handle. He’d done it before. Doing so without his primary means of defense, he wasn’t so sure he could handle. And sure enough, his secondary means of defense were gone too- no dark fire, even a spark, when he tried to make some. Which in itself was unsettling; he could sense his own darkness still there, still nice and in balance like it should be once again, but tapping into it was getting absolutely no results.
At least the Heartless had yet to make their appearance, though he was fairly certain they’d show once he moved out of this first room. So he stowed some of the the items found on the desk- primarily the phone, flashlight, and radio- in the pockets of his black coat and warily made for the door.
All the way out of the hotel and no sign of any Heartless. And to be honest, he wasn’t sure if that made him feel better or worse. At least Heartless were familiar, and he knew how to deal with them and what to watch out for. Here he had no idea what he was up against.
He soon found out though, as the radio crackled to life- a late warning, as he’d already spotted the figure through the fog. Barely though, and the fact that it was certainly not humanoid already had him on guard. As it approached, the details became clearer- and Riku almost wished they hadn’t. The thing might have been vaguely described as a dog, but if it had once been, it wasn’t anymore. And of course, it was now predatorily circling him. He mentally weighed his fight versus flight chances, deciding he’d rather run than take on a dog... thing empty-handed. So at the first lunging attack Riku rolled to the side and took off in the hopes of finding at least something to use should he run into any more of those, as he was sure he would.
VII. FIRST PERSON
(From silenthell_rpg:)
[Voice]
Don’t know who left this thing here, but I guess I might as well make use of it. Might find something I can really use it for later.
The last thing I expected was to wake up in such a... normal looking place. Guess he did say anything could happen though. Might explain why I’m- ...why I look like this again. I’m definitely not complaining about that.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we all got tossed to different worlds though. Guess I’ll just have to start looking.
...Who would have thought after all this, I’d end up looking for him?