Soul_Campaign Application
[ PLAYER INFORMATION ]
Player Name: Jessie
Age: 28 (god I’m old…)
Timezone: EST
Personal Journal: talia_of_eragon-I NEVER use it, better off contacting willing_sheath
Contact Information:
Instant Messenger: AIM: TaliaOfEragon
Email: taliaoferagon@gmail.com
Current Characters: n/a
Activity Checks: n/a
[ CHARACTER INFORMATION ]
Name: Himura Tomoe, Yukishirou Tomoe
Age: 19-she tends to be mistaken as older because she looks and acts so mature
Gender: female
Fandom: Rurouni Kenshin manga
Timeline: post-death, chapter 178
History: wiki, I have an extended history here (just ignore the info for Damned).
Character Personality:
There are many facets to Tomoe’s personality, but first and foremost she is an extremely private person. The way this is perceived by other people is a cold aloofness in her behavior. She rarely emotes and usually the only real clue to what is going on inside is to read her body language, which is still a feat because those changes are subtle as well. Ultimately she comes off as an uncaring emotionless ice queen because she is so guarded on all fronts.
The sad part of this is that the opposite is true for her. She feels things very deeply whether she shows it or not. The reason behind this is multifaceted: first and foremost she has very traditional and conservative ideals regarding social norms and always holds herself in check to what she perceives an ideal for a proper Japanese woman-which is quiet, reserved, organized, in control. The second factor that has contributed to this aspect of her personality is the fact that she essentially took control of her family from the age of nine when her mother died, going from a child to an adult in the span of a few weeks in order to care for her new born brother and keep their household standing while their father couldn’t. She has been forced from a young age to be a pillar of strength to keep everything running, keep everyone fed, ensure that the finances were in order, all of it. She couldn’t afford to be emotional, she couldn’t afford to “crack” or lose control of herself through those times because she had to be strong when no one else would. She has kept herself like that for so long that she no longer knows how to be any other way.
But she does have emotions, whether she is able to display them or not, and she becomes consumed and blinded by them at times. Tomoe can be extremely biased when it comes to people she cares about and develops tunnel vision, seeing the positive aspects of those people rather than the negative. The best examples of this include how she sees her younger brother: she describes him to Kenshin as a ‘good kid’ despite his obvious issues-for god’s sake, he bit the man twice earlier in the day completely unprovoked, that is not a ‘good kid’, that is a child with some issues. Likewise this ‘forgiving’ tunnel vision falls on Kenshin as well. Once she sees him as human and starts developing feelings toward him she is able to look past the fact that he is a hitokiri and the fact that he killed her fiancé. On the flip side of this she also easily becomes biased against ideas, situations and people that grate against things she cares about-people or otherwise-until she is proven wrong. It was this bias and tunnel vision, combined with her negative emotions (grief and guilt) utterly consuming her with no outlet that drove her to abandon everything in Edo to seek revenge on Kiyosatto’s killer in Kyoto. Her view of ‘Battousai’ was only repealed once it was made clear to her that he wasn’t a demon but just a man-a boy to be more precise.
Stepping away from the more volatile aspects of Tomoe’s personality, there are several key points that are always there and subtly affecting her. First: Tomoe is very proud. She does not like admitting when she is wrong and she does not like being insulted. She is also extremely stubborn, set in her ways and has difficulty bending. This can be interpreted in different ways, but the key thing to remember with Tomoe is that everything is subtle and normally under the surface and unseen. She can’t bend her demeanor to tell Kiyosatto to stay in Edo-to do so would break the image she had of herself, it would insult his honor, it would trod on her own pride, it would turn most of the things she held dear on their head. Expanding on her stubborn nature, Tomoe can be controlling as well and this, like her repressed demeanor, comes from running a household from a young age. She keeps order in her house, bottom line. She is an assertive, hard worker and in most situations she slowly becomes the person in charge for that reason alone, even if it is a hidden control. This is not difficult to accomplish with men like her father or Kenshin (or likely Kiyosatto if he hadn’t died).
Tomoe is a strong woman, despite her many, many flaws. Her strength is mostly strength of will: as stated repeatedly, she is not assertive verbally or physically, but that certainly doesn’t make her weak. She holds a quiet strength and tends to become the pillar supporting those around her. She is self-sacrificing in this way to those she cares about. She gave away her childhood to raise her brother and support her father when he was weak. She reached out to Kenshin when she saw him floundering under the weight of his crimes. She left to meet the Yaminobu by herself, hoping to spare both her brother and her husband from the repercussions and willingly sacrificed her life to try to right it when she failed.
Tomoe is very multi-facetted and it is difficult to cover everything that makes up her personality without almost being contradictory in places: but ultimately she is proud, altruistic, stubborn, conservative and above all else, reserved to the most extreme degree possible.
Character Abilities:
Tomoe is just a plain old human, there is nothing overtly special about her. She is very practical and to the point and has a no-nonsense attitude where work and home are involved. As such, she is a good organizer and manager and would do well running something like a business provided she had the necessary knowledge about it. In a setting like Death City that sort of practical cool-headedness would be useful for behind the scene support. That same practical cool-headedness works well as a mask as well. She is very good at hiding her emotions, including when she is upset or panicked. As such, it helps keep the people around her calm and give the sense that she can be leaned on for support. (This isn't always true, but if they don't know otherwise it doesn't really matter). That mask is both a strength and a weakness, depending on the situation, since she can keep it in place so well--it makes her exceptionally difficult to read and thus she is good at keeping secrets and disguising lies.
Character Weaknesses:
In general, Tomoe is physically weak. She is not sickly by any means, but she simply is not a physically strong person nor does she have any sort of training to offset the fact. She was raised to be a wife and mother and physical prowess is simply not something that was necessary for her.
Tomoe's single greatest weakness, ironically is also one of her strengths. The mask she keeps in place that hides her emotions and reactions and gives the sense that she is 'in control' also hides when she truly needs help from those who would help her. This combined with the fact that she absolutely will not reach out for help makes her emotionally unstable and essentially a ticking time bomb. She will bottle problems and emotions to a breaking point, and when that point comes she often does something extreme--such as running away from and throwing away her life rather than trying to mourn properly, or wandering off to face certain death alone rather than revealing the mess she's made in order to try to fix it with help. She has a very distinct "all or nothing" attitude, there is little room for compromise.
[ SOUL CAMPAIGN SECTION ]
What are the abilities that your character will retain in Soul Campaign? As the abilities Tomoe possesses are purely normal human abilities she will maintain everything.
What are the weaknesses that your character will lose or gain in Soul Campaign? Again, as Tomoe has no special abilities or weaknesses everything will remain the same.
Keeping the game’s premise in mind, please give us a brief explanation of your plans for your character in Soul Campaign.
One of the most interesting aspects of playing Tomoe is exploring her reactions to her own death, its permanence and the fact that whatever scenario she is placed in that that is her new reality. Soul City will be her new reality as there is no returning to her own world unless she wants to return to death. As such, I will be exploring the acceptance of her death as well as how she will learn to interact with those around her--be they cast mates or otherwise. Being brought into a setting with a clear purpose will be different and it will be very interesting to see if she accepts the role or rejects it. Ultimately? The setting and premise sounds interesting and I just want to see what she does in a survival game where she's been given a real purpose.
If your character has difficulty communicating (or can't communicate at all, e.g., most animal characters), we require you to please elaborate on how you intend to treat this in the game. n/a
[ WEAPON ONLY SECTION ]
Why your character should be a Weapon:
Tomoe is not a fighter in any sense of the word. If she is cornered she will fight tooth and nail but be completely unsuccessful because she has the physical prowess of a kitten. That is my first reason to expect her to be a weapon rather than a meister. Beyond that, she has always been in a supportive role and is more likely to lend her strength to someone else rather than assertively take a stand herself.
What is your character's Weapon form?:
Tomoe's weapon form is a tessen, the decorative part of the fan depicting plum blossoms in gold leaf on a white background (essentially this fan, only with steel prongs that extend roughly two inches beyond the decorative portion of the fan where they are sharpened into blades to be used when the fan is shut as either a club or something similar to a short dagger). This form suits Tomoe specifically because it hides a deadly nature behind and innocent and feminine appearance, echoing her deceptive role in the plot to destroy Battousai.
Ability 1: When resonating, Tomoe can protect her meister's mind from outside influences like the madness wavelength or mind reading/control. The protection comes more easily when the outside influence is passive, like the madness wavelength, the calming wavelength, or meister abilities like moe soul or soul irritate. However, a higher amount of resonance is required to go against the more active forms of mind manipulation. The pair will have difficulty against stronger opponents, like witches.
Ability 2: The wind produced by the fan is surprisingly cold and strong. At low resonance the wind Tomoe will produce would score an 8 on the Beaufort Scale (so a wind gust between 39-46 mph). At perfect resonance the wind produced would score a 12 (so a wind gust 75 pmh or above). The attack itself can only be directed in a straight line (so against one opponent) to be effective, likely covering a space roughly ten feet wide and ten feet high and the gust only maintains its force for about fifteen feet out before it becomes a harmless breeze. The attack can effectively push back susceptible opponents or even knock them off their feet depending on how well they can stand up against sudden gale-force winds.
Ability 3: At high or perfect resonance, the wind can freeze an opponent in place for a short amount of time depending on the opponent's strength, allowing Tomoe's meister to rush in for a chance at a higher damaging attack. For example, an opponent of equal strength would be frozen for roughly 15 seconds. An opponent of lesser strength would be frozen for roughly 30 seconds. The length of the freeze is affected by resonance and discrepancies in strengths of Tomoe and her meister and the opposition.
Ability 4: When resonating it is possible to create a literal wall of wind, similar to the Ability 2 (I swear I'll try to come up with names for these at some point e__e;). Rather than single gusts of wind meant as individual blows, a constant air flow will be created by the meister through a series of motions. The strength of the wind will depend on resonance, the regularity of the motion, and the meister's endurance. The wind has a building effect and can slowly become stronger the longer the meister can continue the motion--but it is a taxing process and will wear on his or her stamina and cannot be kept up for long (to begin with Tomoe and her meister will only be able to accomplish this for a length of 30 seconds, which will slowly become longer with the more practice Tomoe and her meister have). Essentially this wall can be used most effectively (or most... usefully) in a group melee as a means to separate opponents and allies to regroup. The effectiveness against opponents, as with Ability 2, will rely on those opponents' ability to stand up against the gale-force wind produced by the fan.
[ SOUL INFORMATION ]
Soul Description: controlled, prideful, altruistic, resolute, protective, devoted.
Soul Appearance: Tomoe's soul is average sized and a very pale violet and has the shape of her hair framing the face and a hit of her looped ponytail at the back. While it isn't expressly frowning, there is a distinct, quiet sadness there.
[ SAMPLES ]
First Person: (for IC ease I am writing this several days after arrival and as though she is unaware of any canon mates in the game)
[When the feed comes on it seems to pick up a rather haphazard scene, portions of the video blocked off by something solid, a moment later light meets it as… the device was apparently on the bottom of a stack of various items. The only sound being picked up is a matter of rustling, the image shifting to pick up a room’s ceiling momentarily before finally coming to rest at just the right angle to pick up a young Japanese woman in a white kimono. The slight upwards view reveals that the device is sitting just to the side of her on a tabletop-and if her utter disregard for it means anything, she likely activated the feed as she was clearing space.]
[She is a somber thing, quite lost in thought as she takes up a ballpoint pen. She looks at it momentarily with perhaps a bit of disdain before she sets it down (likely against a loose bit of paper or perhaps a book) and begins to write, only the movement of the visible end of the pen suggesting what she is doing. Her expression remains primarily the same at first, though the longer she writes small bits of emotion seem to enter into her features-her brows drawing, her lips pressing to a thin line, a distinct sort of stress building around her eyes.]
[We are arrogant creatures, humans, thinking that we know so much of the world and how it works. We’ve gone for years, teaching what we believe the world to be and what we believe follows when we die, and yet there is no one who actually has passed on and returned to tell what happens afterward. Never had I imagined the afterlife to be like this. Never had I imagined I would transition from what I knew into something so bizarrely alien that I scarcely have words to describe it. Of course I have been repeatedly told that this is not any sort of afterlife, though that is almost ironic with the name of the establishment here being ‘Death City’. I am unsure what I should believe and what I shouldn’t. No matter how I approach what is in front of me it is utter madness, whether I believe that I have died and that this is what has waited for me or that the strange circumstance that was described to me has nothing to do with death at all and that mine is a special case in the madness.
There comes a point where one must only accept what is in front of them despite how their sanity rails against it. It has been several days and this has not proven to be a dream or hallucination. There is nothing that I can do to put any logic to what is in front of me: different worlds colliding… people who physically become real weapons… a war against witches of all things. There is no untangling the mess that is in front of me and so the only thing I can do is accept it for what it is, though perhaps that is just as unsettling as anything else.
They claim that this is not any sort of afterlife, but even if it is not… I know that I died. Just as much as I could never imagine these surroundings, I could not imagine that pain nor that outcome. I wouldn’t… And so accepting that as truth… I do not know what I can do with that information. What am I supposed to do? It’s pointless. I don’t even know what ultimately happened. I don’t know if he survived in the end. I don’t know if Enishi returned to Edo safely or if he fell victim to some retribution before I’d even arrived. I don’t know… and by the sounds of it I never will. What good is it that they will be able to send me and the others drawn here back if I am to be sent back to death itself? Even then will I know? Is there anything waiting or is it simply the end? We are so arrogant to think we know anything and now…
…]
[At one point she pauses, her left hand coming into view to cover her mouth with the backs of her fingers, that worry or sadness or whatever it was that wanted to creep into her face at its most prominent. She looks away momentarily before turning back to her writing, the hand resting against her brow as she stared down and wrote one more line before setting the pen down and covering her eyes further with her hand.]
I did this to myself…
[Her voice was quiet, clearly a private thought regardless of how public the moment was made. She moved again a few moments later-and finally then, as her eyes happened to move over the device she froze with the first hint of recognition in her eyes.]
[She dropped her hand, her posture straightening ever so slightly, her expression falling back to something beyond neutral to cold as she stared at the device suspiciously. The stare down only lasted another moment before she abruptly reached out and flipped the device down so that it was recording the desktop-and another moment later there was the sound of a drawer opening and another brief sign of motion and light as it was moved again, followed by the unmistakable sound of a drawer snapping shut.]
Third Person:
Everything was dark with only bare hints of smoky shadow breaking the pitch. Whatever or wherever this was it was cold, the sort that pierced through the body to settle deep in the bones before one would ever know it. Time had no meaning in this darkness, the cold stillness seemed to drag on forever and even then only for a moment-until sound began to leak into the silence, muffled and far away. Shouting voices coming as through gallons of water…
This is the way it should be… so please don’t cry…
And suddenly everything was filled with blinding white light: sun reflected off of snow, and the dull cold became sharp prickling needles enough to bring tears to the eyes. She was running-scrambling, really. It was a short distance, a scant ten steps but it felt like miles in the desperation that flooded her being only a few steps and only a few seconds to act before it was too late-and then she was there, haphazardly throwing herself in front of a mountain of a man for the sole purpose of blocking his next blow to the smaller man behind her, a kaiken raised threateningly in her left hand in some feeble means of defense.
White hot pain ripped through her body, the intensity of it enveloping all that was the not-quite-dream, not-quite-memory until it was nothing but a roar--
Tomoe came up screaming, her mind a blur with the remembered trauma, so much that she neither saw nor cared about her surroundings. She jolted upright off of the floor, her eyes wild as her hands shot to her right shoulder, trying to hold the gaping wound that should have been there. Her voice continued to come out in strangled cries with each gasping breath, slowly quieting as the realization that she was not wounded and she was not in pain seemed to sink in. But that wasn’t right… She hadn’t been dreaming-she had gone to the Yaminobu, she had inadvertently drawn her husband directly into their hands-and she had risked her life to right the situation again and…
She died. Even hunching over there on the dark, clinging to her very much uninjured shoulder she remembered it. She remembered the blindingly intense pain that had ripped through her whole body and the utterly complete numbness that had followed… and she remembered watching her husband as her own vision had faded to black and the pure agony that had been etched into his face…
Finally she raised her head to look around her, breath coming deep and hard in an attempt to calm herself and not fall to sobs the way her mind desperately wanted to. She had died, and knowing that, this could only be the afterlife... but then why did she need to breathe? Why could she feel her heart beating? Why did she feel as though she would be sick? Such physicalities should have been left behind... should they not have?
She slowly worked her weight beneath her before carefully standing as she took in the darkness. She didn't know what she had expected to find, and really no one could know that until they experienced it, could they? She staggered once, one arm curling around herself, the other raising to cover her mouth as her eyes tried to focus in the darkness, still alarmed by how heavy her body felt and still fighting the urge to crumple with the flood of thoughts and emotions moving through her.
Whatever she'd expected in the afterlife, this wasn't it... it was too material between the feel of her body and even the surroundings--beaten and broken pillars and statues--it looked like the scene of a battle. The addition of light in the darkness was the first note of anything surreal and it made her stop and straighten, slowly turning to face whatever it was, the hint of movement enough for her to pull her panicked thoughts back and to hide behind a deceptively calm mask, only betrayed by the stress around her eyes. Her voice came out soft and even despite it all, even in death unwilling to betray her emotions. "What is this place?"
Player Name: Jessie
Age: 28 (god I’m old…)
Timezone: EST
Personal Journal: talia_of_eragon-I NEVER use it, better off contacting willing_sheath
Contact Information:
Instant Messenger: AIM: TaliaOfEragon
Email: taliaoferagon@gmail.com
Current Characters: n/a
Activity Checks: n/a
[ CHARACTER INFORMATION ]
Name: Himura Tomoe, Yukishirou Tomoe
Age: 19-she tends to be mistaken as older because she looks and acts so mature
Gender: female
Fandom: Rurouni Kenshin manga
Timeline: post-death, chapter 178
History: wiki, I have an extended history here (just ignore the info for Damned).
Character Personality:
There are many facets to Tomoe’s personality, but first and foremost she is an extremely private person. The way this is perceived by other people is a cold aloofness in her behavior. She rarely emotes and usually the only real clue to what is going on inside is to read her body language, which is still a feat because those changes are subtle as well. Ultimately she comes off as an uncaring emotionless ice queen because she is so guarded on all fronts.
The sad part of this is that the opposite is true for her. She feels things very deeply whether she shows it or not. The reason behind this is multifaceted: first and foremost she has very traditional and conservative ideals regarding social norms and always holds herself in check to what she perceives an ideal for a proper Japanese woman-which is quiet, reserved, organized, in control. The second factor that has contributed to this aspect of her personality is the fact that she essentially took control of her family from the age of nine when her mother died, going from a child to an adult in the span of a few weeks in order to care for her new born brother and keep their household standing while their father couldn’t. She has been forced from a young age to be a pillar of strength to keep everything running, keep everyone fed, ensure that the finances were in order, all of it. She couldn’t afford to be emotional, she couldn’t afford to “crack” or lose control of herself through those times because she had to be strong when no one else would. She has kept herself like that for so long that she no longer knows how to be any other way.
But she does have emotions, whether she is able to display them or not, and she becomes consumed and blinded by them at times. Tomoe can be extremely biased when it comes to people she cares about and develops tunnel vision, seeing the positive aspects of those people rather than the negative. The best examples of this include how she sees her younger brother: she describes him to Kenshin as a ‘good kid’ despite his obvious issues-for god’s sake, he bit the man twice earlier in the day completely unprovoked, that is not a ‘good kid’, that is a child with some issues. Likewise this ‘forgiving’ tunnel vision falls on Kenshin as well. Once she sees him as human and starts developing feelings toward him she is able to look past the fact that he is a hitokiri and the fact that he killed her fiancé. On the flip side of this she also easily becomes biased against ideas, situations and people that grate against things she cares about-people or otherwise-until she is proven wrong. It was this bias and tunnel vision, combined with her negative emotions (grief and guilt) utterly consuming her with no outlet that drove her to abandon everything in Edo to seek revenge on Kiyosatto’s killer in Kyoto. Her view of ‘Battousai’ was only repealed once it was made clear to her that he wasn’t a demon but just a man-a boy to be more precise.
Stepping away from the more volatile aspects of Tomoe’s personality, there are several key points that are always there and subtly affecting her. First: Tomoe is very proud. She does not like admitting when she is wrong and she does not like being insulted. She is also extremely stubborn, set in her ways and has difficulty bending. This can be interpreted in different ways, but the key thing to remember with Tomoe is that everything is subtle and normally under the surface and unseen. She can’t bend her demeanor to tell Kiyosatto to stay in Edo-to do so would break the image she had of herself, it would insult his honor, it would trod on her own pride, it would turn most of the things she held dear on their head. Expanding on her stubborn nature, Tomoe can be controlling as well and this, like her repressed demeanor, comes from running a household from a young age. She keeps order in her house, bottom line. She is an assertive, hard worker and in most situations she slowly becomes the person in charge for that reason alone, even if it is a hidden control. This is not difficult to accomplish with men like her father or Kenshin (or likely Kiyosatto if he hadn’t died).
Tomoe is a strong woman, despite her many, many flaws. Her strength is mostly strength of will: as stated repeatedly, she is not assertive verbally or physically, but that certainly doesn’t make her weak. She holds a quiet strength and tends to become the pillar supporting those around her. She is self-sacrificing in this way to those she cares about. She gave away her childhood to raise her brother and support her father when he was weak. She reached out to Kenshin when she saw him floundering under the weight of his crimes. She left to meet the Yaminobu by herself, hoping to spare both her brother and her husband from the repercussions and willingly sacrificed her life to try to right it when she failed.
Tomoe is very multi-facetted and it is difficult to cover everything that makes up her personality without almost being contradictory in places: but ultimately she is proud, altruistic, stubborn, conservative and above all else, reserved to the most extreme degree possible.
Character Abilities:
Tomoe is just a plain old human, there is nothing overtly special about her. She is very practical and to the point and has a no-nonsense attitude where work and home are involved. As such, she is a good organizer and manager and would do well running something like a business provided she had the necessary knowledge about it. In a setting like Death City that sort of practical cool-headedness would be useful for behind the scene support. That same practical cool-headedness works well as a mask as well. She is very good at hiding her emotions, including when she is upset or panicked. As such, it helps keep the people around her calm and give the sense that she can be leaned on for support. (This isn't always true, but if they don't know otherwise it doesn't really matter). That mask is both a strength and a weakness, depending on the situation, since she can keep it in place so well--it makes her exceptionally difficult to read and thus she is good at keeping secrets and disguising lies.
Character Weaknesses:
In general, Tomoe is physically weak. She is not sickly by any means, but she simply is not a physically strong person nor does she have any sort of training to offset the fact. She was raised to be a wife and mother and physical prowess is simply not something that was necessary for her.
Tomoe's single greatest weakness, ironically is also one of her strengths. The mask she keeps in place that hides her emotions and reactions and gives the sense that she is 'in control' also hides when she truly needs help from those who would help her. This combined with the fact that she absolutely will not reach out for help makes her emotionally unstable and essentially a ticking time bomb. She will bottle problems and emotions to a breaking point, and when that point comes she often does something extreme--such as running away from and throwing away her life rather than trying to mourn properly, or wandering off to face certain death alone rather than revealing the mess she's made in order to try to fix it with help. She has a very distinct "all or nothing" attitude, there is little room for compromise.
[ SOUL CAMPAIGN SECTION ]
What are the abilities that your character will retain in Soul Campaign? As the abilities Tomoe possesses are purely normal human abilities she will maintain everything.
What are the weaknesses that your character will lose or gain in Soul Campaign? Again, as Tomoe has no special abilities or weaknesses everything will remain the same.
Keeping the game’s premise in mind, please give us a brief explanation of your plans for your character in Soul Campaign.
One of the most interesting aspects of playing Tomoe is exploring her reactions to her own death, its permanence and the fact that whatever scenario she is placed in that that is her new reality. Soul City will be her new reality as there is no returning to her own world unless she wants to return to death. As such, I will be exploring the acceptance of her death as well as how she will learn to interact with those around her--be they cast mates or otherwise. Being brought into a setting with a clear purpose will be different and it will be very interesting to see if she accepts the role or rejects it. Ultimately? The setting and premise sounds interesting and I just want to see what she does in a survival game where she's been given a real purpose.
If your character has difficulty communicating (or can't communicate at all, e.g., most animal characters), we require you to please elaborate on how you intend to treat this in the game. n/a
[ WEAPON ONLY SECTION ]
Why your character should be a Weapon:
Tomoe is not a fighter in any sense of the word. If she is cornered she will fight tooth and nail but be completely unsuccessful because she has the physical prowess of a kitten. That is my first reason to expect her to be a weapon rather than a meister. Beyond that, she has always been in a supportive role and is more likely to lend her strength to someone else rather than assertively take a stand herself.
What is your character's Weapon form?:
Tomoe's weapon form is a tessen, the decorative part of the fan depicting plum blossoms in gold leaf on a white background (essentially this fan, only with steel prongs that extend roughly two inches beyond the decorative portion of the fan where they are sharpened into blades to be used when the fan is shut as either a club or something similar to a short dagger). This form suits Tomoe specifically because it hides a deadly nature behind and innocent and feminine appearance, echoing her deceptive role in the plot to destroy Battousai.
Ability 1: When resonating, Tomoe can protect her meister's mind from outside influences like the madness wavelength or mind reading/control. The protection comes more easily when the outside influence is passive, like the madness wavelength, the calming wavelength, or meister abilities like moe soul or soul irritate. However, a higher amount of resonance is required to go against the more active forms of mind manipulation. The pair will have difficulty against stronger opponents, like witches.
Ability 2: The wind produced by the fan is surprisingly cold and strong. At low resonance the wind Tomoe will produce would score an 8 on the Beaufort Scale (so a wind gust between 39-46 mph). At perfect resonance the wind produced would score a 12 (so a wind gust 75 pmh or above). The attack itself can only be directed in a straight line (so against one opponent) to be effective, likely covering a space roughly ten feet wide and ten feet high and the gust only maintains its force for about fifteen feet out before it becomes a harmless breeze. The attack can effectively push back susceptible opponents or even knock them off their feet depending on how well they can stand up against sudden gale-force winds.
Ability 3: At high or perfect resonance, the wind can freeze an opponent in place for a short amount of time depending on the opponent's strength, allowing Tomoe's meister to rush in for a chance at a higher damaging attack. For example, an opponent of equal strength would be frozen for roughly 15 seconds. An opponent of lesser strength would be frozen for roughly 30 seconds. The length of the freeze is affected by resonance and discrepancies in strengths of Tomoe and her meister and the opposition.
Ability 4: When resonating it is possible to create a literal wall of wind, similar to the Ability 2 (I swear I'll try to come up with names for these at some point e__e;). Rather than single gusts of wind meant as individual blows, a constant air flow will be created by the meister through a series of motions. The strength of the wind will depend on resonance, the regularity of the motion, and the meister's endurance. The wind has a building effect and can slowly become stronger the longer the meister can continue the motion--but it is a taxing process and will wear on his or her stamina and cannot be kept up for long (to begin with Tomoe and her meister will only be able to accomplish this for a length of 30 seconds, which will slowly become longer with the more practice Tomoe and her meister have). Essentially this wall can be used most effectively (or most... usefully) in a group melee as a means to separate opponents and allies to regroup. The effectiveness against opponents, as with Ability 2, will rely on those opponents' ability to stand up against the gale-force wind produced by the fan.
[ SOUL INFORMATION ]
Soul Description: controlled, prideful, altruistic, resolute, protective, devoted.
Soul Appearance: Tomoe's soul is average sized and a very pale violet and has the shape of her hair framing the face and a hit of her looped ponytail at the back. While it isn't expressly frowning, there is a distinct, quiet sadness there.
[ SAMPLES ]
First Person: (for IC ease I am writing this several days after arrival and as though she is unaware of any canon mates in the game)
[When the feed comes on it seems to pick up a rather haphazard scene, portions of the video blocked off by something solid, a moment later light meets it as… the device was apparently on the bottom of a stack of various items. The only sound being picked up is a matter of rustling, the image shifting to pick up a room’s ceiling momentarily before finally coming to rest at just the right angle to pick up a young Japanese woman in a white kimono. The slight upwards view reveals that the device is sitting just to the side of her on a tabletop-and if her utter disregard for it means anything, she likely activated the feed as she was clearing space.]
[She is a somber thing, quite lost in thought as she takes up a ballpoint pen. She looks at it momentarily with perhaps a bit of disdain before she sets it down (likely against a loose bit of paper or perhaps a book) and begins to write, only the movement of the visible end of the pen suggesting what she is doing. Her expression remains primarily the same at first, though the longer she writes small bits of emotion seem to enter into her features-her brows drawing, her lips pressing to a thin line, a distinct sort of stress building around her eyes.]
[We are arrogant creatures, humans, thinking that we know so much of the world and how it works. We’ve gone for years, teaching what we believe the world to be and what we believe follows when we die, and yet there is no one who actually has passed on and returned to tell what happens afterward. Never had I imagined the afterlife to be like this. Never had I imagined I would transition from what I knew into something so bizarrely alien that I scarcely have words to describe it. Of course I have been repeatedly told that this is not any sort of afterlife, though that is almost ironic with the name of the establishment here being ‘Death City’. I am unsure what I should believe and what I shouldn’t. No matter how I approach what is in front of me it is utter madness, whether I believe that I have died and that this is what has waited for me or that the strange circumstance that was described to me has nothing to do with death at all and that mine is a special case in the madness.
There comes a point where one must only accept what is in front of them despite how their sanity rails against it. It has been several days and this has not proven to be a dream or hallucination. There is nothing that I can do to put any logic to what is in front of me: different worlds colliding… people who physically become real weapons… a war against witches of all things. There is no untangling the mess that is in front of me and so the only thing I can do is accept it for what it is, though perhaps that is just as unsettling as anything else.
They claim that this is not any sort of afterlife, but even if it is not… I know that I died. Just as much as I could never imagine these surroundings, I could not imagine that pain nor that outcome. I wouldn’t… And so accepting that as truth… I do not know what I can do with that information. What am I supposed to do? It’s pointless. I don’t even know what ultimately happened. I don’t know if he survived in the end. I don’t know if Enishi returned to Edo safely or if he fell victim to some retribution before I’d even arrived. I don’t know… and by the sounds of it I never will. What good is it that they will be able to send me and the others drawn here back if I am to be sent back to death itself? Even then will I know? Is there anything waiting or is it simply the end? We are so arrogant to think we know anything and now…
…]
[At one point she pauses, her left hand coming into view to cover her mouth with the backs of her fingers, that worry or sadness or whatever it was that wanted to creep into her face at its most prominent. She looks away momentarily before turning back to her writing, the hand resting against her brow as she stared down and wrote one more line before setting the pen down and covering her eyes further with her hand.]
I did this to myself…
[Her voice was quiet, clearly a private thought regardless of how public the moment was made. She moved again a few moments later-and finally then, as her eyes happened to move over the device she froze with the first hint of recognition in her eyes.]
[She dropped her hand, her posture straightening ever so slightly, her expression falling back to something beyond neutral to cold as she stared at the device suspiciously. The stare down only lasted another moment before she abruptly reached out and flipped the device down so that it was recording the desktop-and another moment later there was the sound of a drawer opening and another brief sign of motion and light as it was moved again, followed by the unmistakable sound of a drawer snapping shut.]
Third Person:
Everything was dark with only bare hints of smoky shadow breaking the pitch. Whatever or wherever this was it was cold, the sort that pierced through the body to settle deep in the bones before one would ever know it. Time had no meaning in this darkness, the cold stillness seemed to drag on forever and even then only for a moment-until sound began to leak into the silence, muffled and far away. Shouting voices coming as through gallons of water…
This is the way it should be… so please don’t cry…
And suddenly everything was filled with blinding white light: sun reflected off of snow, and the dull cold became sharp prickling needles enough to bring tears to the eyes. She was running-scrambling, really. It was a short distance, a scant ten steps but it felt like miles in the desperation that flooded her being only a few steps and only a few seconds to act before it was too late-and then she was there, haphazardly throwing herself in front of a mountain of a man for the sole purpose of blocking his next blow to the smaller man behind her, a kaiken raised threateningly in her left hand in some feeble means of defense.
White hot pain ripped through her body, the intensity of it enveloping all that was the not-quite-dream, not-quite-memory until it was nothing but a roar--
Tomoe came up screaming, her mind a blur with the remembered trauma, so much that she neither saw nor cared about her surroundings. She jolted upright off of the floor, her eyes wild as her hands shot to her right shoulder, trying to hold the gaping wound that should have been there. Her voice continued to come out in strangled cries with each gasping breath, slowly quieting as the realization that she was not wounded and she was not in pain seemed to sink in. But that wasn’t right… She hadn’t been dreaming-she had gone to the Yaminobu, she had inadvertently drawn her husband directly into their hands-and she had risked her life to right the situation again and…
She died. Even hunching over there on the dark, clinging to her very much uninjured shoulder she remembered it. She remembered the blindingly intense pain that had ripped through her whole body and the utterly complete numbness that had followed… and she remembered watching her husband as her own vision had faded to black and the pure agony that had been etched into his face…
Finally she raised her head to look around her, breath coming deep and hard in an attempt to calm herself and not fall to sobs the way her mind desperately wanted to. She had died, and knowing that, this could only be the afterlife... but then why did she need to breathe? Why could she feel her heart beating? Why did she feel as though she would be sick? Such physicalities should have been left behind... should they not have?
She slowly worked her weight beneath her before carefully standing as she took in the darkness. She didn't know what she had expected to find, and really no one could know that until they experienced it, could they? She staggered once, one arm curling around herself, the other raising to cover her mouth as her eyes tried to focus in the darkness, still alarmed by how heavy her body felt and still fighting the urge to crumple with the flood of thoughts and emotions moving through her.
Whatever she'd expected in the afterlife, this wasn't it... it was too material between the feel of her body and even the surroundings--beaten and broken pillars and statues--it looked like the scene of a battle. The addition of light in the darkness was the first note of anything surreal and it made her stop and straighten, slowly turning to face whatever it was, the hint of movement enough for her to pull her panicked thoughts back and to hide behind a deceptively calm mask, only betrayed by the stress around her eyes. Her voice came out soft and even despite it all, even in death unwilling to betray her emotions. "What is this place?"