ᴏɴᴇ (au: jasmine g.) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
selfloving) wrote2017-08-27 11:11 pm
selfloving) wrote2017-08-27 11:11 pm
recolle app
PLAYER
YOUR NAME: Shay
18+?: Y
CONTACT:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
antiquating
CHARACTERS IN GAME: Nui Harime (eyestitch).
RESERVATION LINK: over here
YOUR NAME: Shay
18+?: Y
CONTACT:
CHARACTERS IN GAME: Nui Harime (
eyestitch). RESERVATION LINK: over here
CHARACTER: CANON SECTION
NAME: One
AGE: Are you ready for this? : )
Chronologically 2, physically 14-15, mentally 18-20s
CANON: Drakengard 3
NAME: One
AGE: Are you ready for this? : )
Chronologically 2, physically 14-15, mentally 18-20s
CANON: Drakengard 3
CANON HISTORY:http://drakengard.wikia.com/wiki/One
As well as a bit more information on the main page here: http://drakengard.wikia.com/wiki/Drakengard_3
CANON PERSONALITY: Ostensibly, One wants to save the world.
One has been motivated by justice for most of her short life. Intent on ridding the world of cruel, abusive lords who ran an unjust system, she encouraged her four younger sisters on a crusade to depose them by whatever means necessary. Her goal has always been to eliminate wrongdoing and corruption. This impulse is probably combined from two sources: the rebel girl executed alongside Zero after being caught trying to liberate her people, who died still proclaiming that “what we did was right," and, more importantly, Zero's own unexpressed hatred of injustice. (In general, while the Intoners weren't entirely "created" from memories of the rebels Zero met at the end of her life, some of their desires and actions mirror those paths, so it seems there's still some correlation there.)
As the oldest of the five girls born from Zero’s flower, One is also their leader, and she’s committed to being both elder sister and ruler. She encourages them to rule their separate provinces the best that they can, which means being empathetic providers who protect and nourish the people.
The most holistic overview of the traits One strives for can probably be found in her “memories,” which are short source entries found in her DLC. In these memories, One lists seven words by which she wishes she and her sisters could live and rule: Cooperation, Strength, Wealth, Wisdom, Law, Justice, and Love. For the most part, One tries her hardest to embody these characteristics. She worked together with her four sisters to resist the tyrannical ruler that came before them. She is already ready to use her strength to fight for what she believes in. She is sympathetic to the people still living in the hollowed-out crapsack of a world she and her sisters liberated and wants to provide the best for them. She is intelligent and voraciously consumes whatever knowledge she can get her hands on, driven by curiosity to read whenever she can. Law and justice, as mentioned above, drive her constantly. And she loves her younger sisters all, even when it becomes clear that their sanity is being claimed by their powers. Likewise, she loves her “brother” clone despite his ignorance, and she cares very deeply for her dragon companion. While the playful, protective relationship she once had with Gabriella disappeared with Gabriella’s consciousness, One is still quite protective of the demonized Gabriel and emotionally attached to him.
She takes her burdens very seriously, and as she’s grown and her intelligence and knowledge have grown with her, One has become a taciturn, mostly humorless snob who spends most of her time plotting or studying the history of her country. While she was once a positive, cheerful girl with a sense of humor when very young, as One developed and realized more and more, she became more and more serious and taciturn. She blows this off when asked about it, saying that she was only happy because she was foolish, too unaware and uneducated.
Because she is so reserved, One often masks her more severe emotions. While all Intoners suffer from a nearly insatiable sexual appetite, One is initially resistant to rely on anyone else’s help to satisfy them (claiming that she’ll “manage”). When she does give in and satiates these compulsions with her clone of herself, she’s described as being guilty and sad.
Her self-control and acuity mean that, among all five sisters, One is the most in control of herself mentally. She has the most luck resisting the Flower’s insanity-inducing effects, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t immune. Injustice enrages her, and despite her love for her other sisters, she treats Zero like an arch-nemesis.
Which brings us to the caveat: All of this would work out wonderfully if One really was a normal young woman blessed with the magical talent she needed to save and govern the world lawfully. Unfortunately, the Intoners are complete abominations with an evil destiny, so many of One’s traits are the result of world-destroying foes. One, like Zero, understands the true nature of the Intoners—vessels for a great, world-destroying evil—and she knows their reign over Midgard must eventually end. Believing that she is the only one with the right to end the danger, One is working on her own to fix the problem, creating a clone of herself in secret to kill her once she’s the last alive and transforming her dragon companion, her “very best friend,” into a monster to boost her strength. She will literally do whatever it takes.
Her reserved nature also comes from this revelation, and as she grapples with the reality, One has become more that taciturn—being joyless, sour, and even angry. Her stubbornness and determination combined with her inflated ego and pride make her completely unwilling to yield, even to reason, when she thinks she’s in the right. The traits that would make her a good main magical girl therefore make her a bullheaded, calculating antagonist instead.
The ends so justify the means for One that she will damn herself to achieve those ends. In the abovementioned Intoner memories, she questions her own motivations, wondering if they were really “pure” in the end, and she goes so far as to tell her “brother” that they “don’t get” to answer the question of whether they’re good or evil for killing the tyrant lords and their followers.
One is also incredibly petty to the point of spitefulness. This can be seen in her banter with Zero every time they encounter one another. These conversations begin with snark before eventually devolving to venomous, raging screaming at one another. (While her younger sisters seem to hold some affectionate feelings for Zero, One outright despises her, refusing to even respect her). Despite their differences (and their mutual claims that they are nothing alike), One is in fact a strong foil to her older “sister” Zero, and they share more than they’d like to admit, as they are both hardheaded and driven. They really do seem like sisters.
SKILLS/ABILITIES: ‘Drakengard doesn’t explain shit: the section.’
+Song Powers: All of the Intoners have a nebulously defined “song powers” which make them a type of magical girls in their own right. These powers are triggered by sound (not singing, as the name might imply, but hellish atonal shrieking). In canon, these song powers have been seen to create magical shields (both single-direct and bubble), large self-destructing explosions, other energy-based attacks, and weapon enhancements. When the Intoner has worked up enough of a frenzy, she can activate…
+“Intoner Mode”—a bloodlust attack enhancer that boosts speed and strength. It exchanges control for sheer powerand makes the background music go all trippy and vocalized. This is a short burst enhancement and can last no longer than a minute.
+Other Song Enhancements: Intoners can also use their powers to strengthen other people. People enhanced with the power of song can become stronger, more resilient, or calmer—it works as a buffing agent apparently tailored to the caster’s whims. Unfortunately, this is like shooting those people with a highly addictive magical drug. Anyone who’s enhanced in this way becomes dependent on the originating songstress at best, an inhuman lump of garbled flesh and deteriorating thoughts at worst. If the Intoner does have a disciple, he can draw on their power to enhance others too.
Combat Skills/Strength: Being an Intoner also gives One enhanced combat skills, strength, and agility. She’s been seen fighting with at least two different weapons: She used a longsword as a young girl when the Intoners were overthrowing the lords of the land, and she currently fights with a chakram, a circular bladed weapon attached to a chain that can be slashed or thrown and recalled.
+Daemon Summoning: Unlike her four younger sisters, One does not need the magic assistance of a Disciple to summon her daemon. Daemons are magical behemoth creatures pulled through a portal by the summoning ritual. One has two (technically three, but the third isn’t worth mentioning). The first is Abdiel, three rock golem creatures who are powered by the same magical core. Far more important, however, is Gabriel, a demonized version of One’s former good friend and partner, the dragon Gabriella. Gabriel is extremely loyal even though his mind has become feral; a “pact” made over a year ago binds him symbiotically to One’s life force. If she dies, he will die as well.
+Regeneration: Intoners can heal a lot of damage. The only foolproof way to get rid of One when she’s fully powered is to use a dragon against her. Common dragon methods include dragon tooth swords and just having the damn dragon eat the Intoner. Since regenerative ability seems to be linked to how well the Intoner has bonded with “the Flower,” One isn’t the most regeneration-happy of her sisters, but she can still soak up a lot of hurt and be fine.
+Enhanced Senses: All of the Intoners have one attribute that increases constantly (power, fingernail length, etc.). One’s senses continue to grow. Her eyesight gets sharper, her hearing gets stronger, and she is unable to enjoy food because her sense of taste has multiplied exponentially.
+Dragon Riding: She is capable of riding/flying a dragon, with or without reins and a saddle.
+Cooking: Apparently, she’s the best cook of all her sisters, even if she doesn’t care for food at all.
+Minor nonmagical abilities: Leadership skills, oration, well-read and hyper-literate.
As well as a bit more information on the main page here: http://drakengard.wikia.com/wiki/Drakengard_3
CANON PERSONALITY: Ostensibly, One wants to save the world.
One has been motivated by justice for most of her short life. Intent on ridding the world of cruel, abusive lords who ran an unjust system, she encouraged her four younger sisters on a crusade to depose them by whatever means necessary. Her goal has always been to eliminate wrongdoing and corruption. This impulse is probably combined from two sources: the rebel girl executed alongside Zero after being caught trying to liberate her people, who died still proclaiming that “what we did was right," and, more importantly, Zero's own unexpressed hatred of injustice. (In general, while the Intoners weren't entirely "created" from memories of the rebels Zero met at the end of her life, some of their desires and actions mirror those paths, so it seems there's still some correlation there.)
As the oldest of the five girls born from Zero’s flower, One is also their leader, and she’s committed to being both elder sister and ruler. She encourages them to rule their separate provinces the best that they can, which means being empathetic providers who protect and nourish the people.
The most holistic overview of the traits One strives for can probably be found in her “memories,” which are short source entries found in her DLC. In these memories, One lists seven words by which she wishes she and her sisters could live and rule: Cooperation, Strength, Wealth, Wisdom, Law, Justice, and Love. For the most part, One tries her hardest to embody these characteristics. She worked together with her four sisters to resist the tyrannical ruler that came before them. She is already ready to use her strength to fight for what she believes in. She is sympathetic to the people still living in the hollowed-out crapsack of a world she and her sisters liberated and wants to provide the best for them. She is intelligent and voraciously consumes whatever knowledge she can get her hands on, driven by curiosity to read whenever she can. Law and justice, as mentioned above, drive her constantly. And she loves her younger sisters all, even when it becomes clear that their sanity is being claimed by their powers. Likewise, she loves her “brother” clone despite his ignorance, and she cares very deeply for her dragon companion. While the playful, protective relationship she once had with Gabriella disappeared with Gabriella’s consciousness, One is still quite protective of the demonized Gabriel and emotionally attached to him.
She takes her burdens very seriously, and as she’s grown and her intelligence and knowledge have grown with her, One has become a taciturn, mostly humorless snob who spends most of her time plotting or studying the history of her country. While she was once a positive, cheerful girl with a sense of humor when very young, as One developed and realized more and more, she became more and more serious and taciturn. She blows this off when asked about it, saying that she was only happy because she was foolish, too unaware and uneducated.
Because she is so reserved, One often masks her more severe emotions. While all Intoners suffer from a nearly insatiable sexual appetite, One is initially resistant to rely on anyone else’s help to satisfy them (claiming that she’ll “manage”). When she does give in and satiates these compulsions with her clone of herself, she’s described as being guilty and sad.
Her self-control and acuity mean that, among all five sisters, One is the most in control of herself mentally. She has the most luck resisting the Flower’s insanity-inducing effects, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t immune. Injustice enrages her, and despite her love for her other sisters, she treats Zero like an arch-nemesis.
Which brings us to the caveat: All of this would work out wonderfully if One really was a normal young woman blessed with the magical talent she needed to save and govern the world lawfully. Unfortunately, the Intoners are complete abominations with an evil destiny, so many of One’s traits are the result of world-destroying foes. One, like Zero, understands the true nature of the Intoners—vessels for a great, world-destroying evil—and she knows their reign over Midgard must eventually end. Believing that she is the only one with the right to end the danger, One is working on her own to fix the problem, creating a clone of herself in secret to kill her once she’s the last alive and transforming her dragon companion, her “very best friend,” into a monster to boost her strength. She will literally do whatever it takes.
Her reserved nature also comes from this revelation, and as she grapples with the reality, One has become more that taciturn—being joyless, sour, and even angry. Her stubbornness and determination combined with her inflated ego and pride make her completely unwilling to yield, even to reason, when she thinks she’s in the right. The traits that would make her a good main magical girl therefore make her a bullheaded, calculating antagonist instead.
The ends so justify the means for One that she will damn herself to achieve those ends. In the abovementioned Intoner memories, she questions her own motivations, wondering if they were really “pure” in the end, and she goes so far as to tell her “brother” that they “don’t get” to answer the question of whether they’re good or evil for killing the tyrant lords and their followers.
One is also incredibly petty to the point of spitefulness. This can be seen in her banter with Zero every time they encounter one another. These conversations begin with snark before eventually devolving to venomous, raging screaming at one another. (While her younger sisters seem to hold some affectionate feelings for Zero, One outright despises her, refusing to even respect her). Despite their differences (and their mutual claims that they are nothing alike), One is in fact a strong foil to her older “sister” Zero, and they share more than they’d like to admit, as they are both hardheaded and driven. They really do seem like sisters.
SKILLS/ABILITIES: ‘Drakengard doesn’t explain shit: the section.’
+Song Powers: All of the Intoners have a nebulously defined “song powers” which make them a type of magical girls in their own right. These powers are triggered by sound (not singing, as the name might imply, but hellish atonal shrieking). In canon, these song powers have been seen to create magical shields (both single-direct and bubble), large self-destructing explosions, other energy-based attacks, and weapon enhancements. When the Intoner has worked up enough of a frenzy, she can activate…
+“Intoner Mode”—a bloodlust attack enhancer that boosts speed and strength. It exchanges control for sheer power
+Other Song Enhancements: Intoners can also use their powers to strengthen other people. People enhanced with the power of song can become stronger, more resilient, or calmer—it works as a buffing agent apparently tailored to the caster’s whims. Unfortunately, this is like shooting those people with a highly addictive magical drug. Anyone who’s enhanced in this way becomes dependent on the originating songstress at best, an inhuman lump of garbled flesh and deteriorating thoughts at worst. If the Intoner does have a disciple, he can draw on their power to enhance others too.
Combat Skills/Strength: Being an Intoner also gives One enhanced combat skills, strength, and agility. She’s been seen fighting with at least two different weapons: She used a longsword as a young girl when the Intoners were overthrowing the lords of the land, and she currently fights with a chakram, a circular bladed weapon attached to a chain that can be slashed or thrown and recalled.
+Daemon Summoning: Unlike her four younger sisters, One does not need the magic assistance of a Disciple to summon her daemon. Daemons are magical behemoth creatures pulled through a portal by the summoning ritual. One has two (technically three, but the third isn’t worth mentioning). The first is Abdiel, three rock golem creatures who are powered by the same magical core. Far more important, however, is Gabriel, a demonized version of One’s former good friend and partner, the dragon Gabriella. Gabriel is extremely loyal even though his mind has become feral; a “pact” made over a year ago binds him symbiotically to One’s life force. If she dies, he will die as well.
+Regeneration: Intoners can heal a lot of damage. The only foolproof way to get rid of One when she’s fully powered is to use a dragon against her. Common dragon methods include dragon tooth swords and just having the damn dragon eat the Intoner. Since regenerative ability seems to be linked to how well the Intoner has bonded with “the Flower,” One isn’t the most regeneration-happy of her sisters, but she can still soak up a lot of hurt and be fine.
+Enhanced Senses: All of the Intoners have one attribute that increases constantly (power, fingernail length, etc.). One’s senses continue to grow. Her eyesight gets sharper, her hearing gets stronger, and she is unable to enjoy food because her sense of taste has multiplied exponentially.
+Dragon Riding: She is capable of riding/flying a dragon, with or without reins and a saddle.
+Cooking: Apparently, she’s the best cook of all her sisters, even if she doesn’t care for food at all.
+Minor nonmagical abilities: Leadership skills, oration, well-read and hyper-literate.
CHARACTER: AU SECTION
AU NAME: Jasmine Geteilt
AU AGE: 22
PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES: Since Jasmine actually looks her age and hasn’t given away her youth in a pact, Jasmine’s appearance is more like One’s adult form, seem briefly in the Utahime Five manga: in the top left here
In short, this means that she is taller (around 5’ 6”), her hair is longer (falling somewhere between shoulder blades and mid-back), and puberty’s had more of an obvious effect on her. Her voice, however, still is roughly at the same level in pitch and affect.
Her eyes (red in canon) are dark brown here. While she was born with light blonde hair, it’s gotten darker as she’s gotten older and it’s closer to honey now.
She has a few other minor physical differences from not being a “perfect” human. Jasmine no longer has the magically enhanced senses that made One’s life questionably miserable. She can eat strong or spicy foods easily, and she wears glasses for reading. She also has chromesthesia, a color-based type of synesthesia, which causes her to see color in response to sound.
AU NAME: Jasmine Geteilt
AU AGE: 22
PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES: Since Jasmine actually looks her age and hasn’t given away her youth in a pact, Jasmine’s appearance is more like One’s adult form, seem briefly in the Utahime Five manga: in the top left here
In short, this means that she is taller (around 5’ 6”), her hair is longer (falling somewhere between shoulder blades and mid-back), and puberty’s had more of an obvious effect on her. Her voice, however, still is roughly at the same level in pitch and affect.
Her eyes (red in canon) are dark brown here. While she was born with light blonde hair, it’s gotten darker as she’s gotten older and it’s closer to honey now.
She has a few other minor physical differences from not being a “perfect” human. Jasmine no longer has the magically enhanced senses that made One’s life questionably miserable. She can eat strong or spicy foods easily, and she wears glasses for reading. She also has chromesthesia, a color-based type of synesthesia, which causes her to see color in response to sound.
AU HISTORY: * I have permission from Zero/Rose’s potential player (Kaye) and Tifa’s potential player (Robyn) to use their characters in my backstory!
Jasmine and her entire family contribute to Recolle’s enormous orphan population with their own uniquely sad histories. There are nearly as many broken families in the city, it seems, as there are happy ones.
Born in Recolle to a very young, struggling couple, Jasmine was ultimately removed from her parents’ care when they were deemed unfit by the state after multiple brushes with the law and other offenses that made it difficult to care for their four year-old daughter. Jasmine was removed from the home and, unable to be placed with family at the time, brought into state care. Like some children with behavioral issues and other difficulties, Jasmine was initially sent to a group home, where she stayed on and off for several years. There, she met another parentless girl, Rose, who was a couple of years older and, for some reason, magnetic. Jasmine latched right on.
Jasmine and Rose grew close and slowly attracted a small group of younger children, mostly girls, from the group home. They bonded immediately, called themselves “sisters,” and became so fiercely and inexplicably attached to one another that it baffled most people around them. Though the girls were still “encouraged” to take behavioral management opportunities like martial arts classes and music groups, many of them were transitioned through to foster care, and spent many years moving between foster families and the group home. Luck and Recolle’s zoning laws kept them largely in school together, and they grew up with one another—to varying degrees of “with.”
With things settled down into more or less normalcy, Jasmine focused on school, a place where she felt she had the most control. She immersed herself in studying and extracurricular activities. Martial arts were a bust, but she kept going with some of her “sisters” after becoming friends with other children, including Tiffany Lockhart, who eventually became her best friend. She also spent time in several music clubs, even saving money to pay for classical voice lessons every now and then and studying piano, making the most of her natural talent with music and perfect pitch.
Jasmine and the other children grew up fine, mostly, basic needs usually covered, but the situation was at times unstable. There were a lot of moves, a lot of cut funding, a lot of foster families with poor money management…a lot of being pulled apart and brought together again. While Rose started working under-the-table around the city to get extra spending money and “support her family,” Jasmine, mature from a young age, supported everyone on the home front, putting in emotional labor and becoming “the other big sister” by providing support, overseeing play, and keeping kids in line.
The system served some sisters and failed others. Rose stayed in the group home until she aged out at 18. Jasmine, despite two promising almost-adoptions, similarly was unable to find a permanent home before she became an adult. Tensions that were already growing between her and Rose came to a head when Rose, who continued taking work that toed lines of legality, couldn’t pull it together in time to take any of the younger girls into her care. Regardless, Jasmine still sees all of them as family, going so far as to legally change her last name to Geteilt to match.
A lifetime of experiences with different degrees of social work and civil service made Jasmine want to pursue a similar career, convinced that she could do better if she was only given the chance. An essay she wrote about her “family” netted her the scholarship money she needed to cover some of her tuition; loans and financial aid accounted for the rest. Jasmine studied social work in college, minoring in music performance and political science. She took on too much, as she was always prone to do, stacking her schedule with too many credits and joining more organizations than she could reasonably manage. She found time, sometimes at the expense of herself. When causes she particularly cared about (gross miscarriages of justice, the education system, child abusers walking free) reached boiling points, she would often hit the street with protesters or marchers. By the time she reached her senior year, Jasmine had gotten into a few altercations during these protests, leading to a couple of arrests and citations as well as other minor punishments. For her part, she’s proud of these moments in her history because she knows she was doing the right thing.
After graduating last spring, Jasmine eventually found work with a former internship as a case manager assistant while deciding whether to pursue graduate or law school. While she was eager to have a positive effect on the very network that had caught and shuffled her around as a child, she quickly found the position more straining than she anticipated. Change was slow and unlikely, and even individual cases could end poorly for no reason whatsoever. Now, just over a year into the job, she’s already feeling the strain of her “take of everything” initiatives, and finds herself worrying about flying into the sun.
She’s very tired! But things aren’t hopelessly terrible, and Jasmine still knows she has her entire future to make the changes she wants to see. She even recently started a relationship with Tiffany, her childhood friend who, despite all of the upsets and changes she’s been through, somehow has always been there.
AU PERSONALITY: Me writing Nui’s app: The personality differences are largely because she’s a human now! Me writing One’s app: The personality differences are largely because she’s a human now! (sweats)
Despite the huge differences in background—like having a childhood at all—many of the cornerstones of One’s personality remain intact in Jasmine, albeit to a less exaggerated degree. One of the main differences in all aspects of her personality is in their authenticity. Where One’s thoughts and feelings largely depended on her fake perceptions of a life she never had, Jasmine really experienced 22 years of stimuli and events that shaped who she became. Therefore, while One’s two-year character development from a heroic, outspoken magical girl hero to a recalcitrant, moody, withdrawn adult were the result of her realizing this fakeness, Jasmine’s changes in personality come from growing up with dreams of changing a system that ultimately is not that easy to overhaul. One is a product of trying to live while completely removed from normal humanity; Jasmine is a produce of being shoved up too closely against her own humanity for years. Jasmine therefore is less snobby and more down-to-earth; while she's still proud of her accomplishments, there's much more self-consciousness beneath the surface, and while she's still petty from time to time, fewer of her actions are motivated by COMPLETE SPITE. Nevertheless, Jasmine maintains the same hatred of injustice and oppression.
Like her canon counterpart, Jasmine was much freer with her emotions when she was younger. She had a roiling temper and liberally applied her affection. Though she’s gotten moodier and more serious with age, she lacks the barrier that One erects between herself and others. Jasmine is still reserved, yes, and would still rather take on tasks by herself to keep others from suffering, but she has an empathy and ability to understand others that One sometimes lacked. Where One might have responded to someone else’s weakness by internalizing her pity and vowing to do better herself, Jasmine is much more willing to sit down with the “weaker” person and try to understand what’s wrong. Intoners are revered as goddesses, and Jasmine is not, so she is far more down-to-earth in her approaches to saving everyone and everything. It’s the difference between “I’m the only one who can do this and I’m going to do it alone” and “I’m going to do this even if I have to do it alone because if I do nothing, I fail.”
So, while Jasmine can still be very aloof, that lack of complete removal from other people allows her to be more emotional in general. While she has difficulty always expressing herself or forming intimate attachments, she’s willing to try. And, while she’s still a woman of convictions, commitment is much harder for her, and she’s more likely to buckle before forming a permanent, close relationship. Her temper is also (outwardly) still a lot worse. She just can’t be as internal with her anger, and is more prone to getting into prolonged arguments or, more often, shooting venomous comments in the heat of the moment. Fortunately, it’s also easier for her to be openly kind: She will praise people more readily, acknowledge that others are right, and admit her positive feelings for others. (A lot of the differences in these last two paragraphs can be seen in her TDM thread with Ayano, which I’ve linked in my sample below!)
Unfortunately, this openness has also contributed to Jasmine’s total burnout at a very young age. One was probably tired by the end of her life, but she’d also accepted the inevitability of her death. Jasmine is still plugging along with no end in sight, and sometimes her actions seem futile. Being more emotionally open means the impact shows more severely: Instead of being convinced that her plan MUST work, Jasmine fears that her actions will never be enough.
She doesn’t hate her older “sister” enough to kill her this time around. Actually, the problem is she doesn’t hate her at all. Jasmine still loves Rose despite what she sees as a betrayal: Because Rose was unable to get her act together and become a guardian to any of the other girls, Jasmine has deduced that she just didn’t care hard enough. She’s disappointed in Rose, angry at her, but, unfortunately, still loves her. Hurt as she is, she just can’t bring herself to say it anymore.
Jasmine and her entire family contribute to Recolle’s enormous orphan population with their own uniquely sad histories. There are nearly as many broken families in the city, it seems, as there are happy ones.
Born in Recolle to a very young, struggling couple, Jasmine was ultimately removed from her parents’ care when they were deemed unfit by the state after multiple brushes with the law and other offenses that made it difficult to care for their four year-old daughter. Jasmine was removed from the home and, unable to be placed with family at the time, brought into state care. Like some children with behavioral issues and other difficulties, Jasmine was initially sent to a group home, where she stayed on and off for several years. There, she met another parentless girl, Rose, who was a couple of years older and, for some reason, magnetic. Jasmine latched right on.
Jasmine and Rose grew close and slowly attracted a small group of younger children, mostly girls, from the group home. They bonded immediately, called themselves “sisters,” and became so fiercely and inexplicably attached to one another that it baffled most people around them. Though the girls were still “encouraged” to take behavioral management opportunities like martial arts classes and music groups, many of them were transitioned through to foster care, and spent many years moving between foster families and the group home. Luck and Recolle’s zoning laws kept them largely in school together, and they grew up with one another—to varying degrees of “with.”
With things settled down into more or less normalcy, Jasmine focused on school, a place where she felt she had the most control. She immersed herself in studying and extracurricular activities. Martial arts were a bust, but she kept going with some of her “sisters” after becoming friends with other children, including Tiffany Lockhart, who eventually became her best friend. She also spent time in several music clubs, even saving money to pay for classical voice lessons every now and then and studying piano, making the most of her natural talent with music and perfect pitch.
Jasmine and the other children grew up fine, mostly, basic needs usually covered, but the situation was at times unstable. There were a lot of moves, a lot of cut funding, a lot of foster families with poor money management…a lot of being pulled apart and brought together again. While Rose started working under-the-table around the city to get extra spending money and “support her family,” Jasmine, mature from a young age, supported everyone on the home front, putting in emotional labor and becoming “the other big sister” by providing support, overseeing play, and keeping kids in line.
The system served some sisters and failed others. Rose stayed in the group home until she aged out at 18. Jasmine, despite two promising almost-adoptions, similarly was unable to find a permanent home before she became an adult. Tensions that were already growing between her and Rose came to a head when Rose, who continued taking work that toed lines of legality, couldn’t pull it together in time to take any of the younger girls into her care. Regardless, Jasmine still sees all of them as family, going so far as to legally change her last name to Geteilt to match.
A lifetime of experiences with different degrees of social work and civil service made Jasmine want to pursue a similar career, convinced that she could do better if she was only given the chance. An essay she wrote about her “family” netted her the scholarship money she needed to cover some of her tuition; loans and financial aid accounted for the rest. Jasmine studied social work in college, minoring in music performance and political science. She took on too much, as she was always prone to do, stacking her schedule with too many credits and joining more organizations than she could reasonably manage. She found time, sometimes at the expense of herself. When causes she particularly cared about (gross miscarriages of justice, the education system, child abusers walking free) reached boiling points, she would often hit the street with protesters or marchers. By the time she reached her senior year, Jasmine had gotten into a few altercations during these protests, leading to a couple of arrests and citations as well as other minor punishments. For her part, she’s proud of these moments in her history because she knows she was doing the right thing.
After graduating last spring, Jasmine eventually found work with a former internship as a case manager assistant while deciding whether to pursue graduate or law school. While she was eager to have a positive effect on the very network that had caught and shuffled her around as a child, she quickly found the position more straining than she anticipated. Change was slow and unlikely, and even individual cases could end poorly for no reason whatsoever. Now, just over a year into the job, she’s already feeling the strain of her “take of everything” initiatives, and finds herself worrying about flying into the sun.
She’s very tired! But things aren’t hopelessly terrible, and Jasmine still knows she has her entire future to make the changes she wants to see. She even recently started a relationship with Tiffany, her childhood friend who, despite all of the upsets and changes she’s been through, somehow has always been there.
AU PERSONALITY: Me writing Nui’s app: The personality differences are largely because she’s a human now! Me writing One’s app: The personality differences are largely because she’s a human now! (sweats)
Despite the huge differences in background—like having a childhood at all—many of the cornerstones of One’s personality remain intact in Jasmine, albeit to a less exaggerated degree. One of the main differences in all aspects of her personality is in their authenticity. Where One’s thoughts and feelings largely depended on her fake perceptions of a life she never had, Jasmine really experienced 22 years of stimuli and events that shaped who she became. Therefore, while One’s two-year character development from a heroic, outspoken magical girl hero to a recalcitrant, moody, withdrawn adult were the result of her realizing this fakeness, Jasmine’s changes in personality come from growing up with dreams of changing a system that ultimately is not that easy to overhaul. One is a product of trying to live while completely removed from normal humanity; Jasmine is a produce of being shoved up too closely against her own humanity for years. Jasmine therefore is less snobby and more down-to-earth; while she's still proud of her accomplishments, there's much more self-consciousness beneath the surface, and while she's still petty from time to time, fewer of her actions are motivated by COMPLETE SPITE. Nevertheless, Jasmine maintains the same hatred of injustice and oppression.
Like her canon counterpart, Jasmine was much freer with her emotions when she was younger. She had a roiling temper and liberally applied her affection. Though she’s gotten moodier and more serious with age, she lacks the barrier that One erects between herself and others. Jasmine is still reserved, yes, and would still rather take on tasks by herself to keep others from suffering, but she has an empathy and ability to understand others that One sometimes lacked. Where One might have responded to someone else’s weakness by internalizing her pity and vowing to do better herself, Jasmine is much more willing to sit down with the “weaker” person and try to understand what’s wrong. Intoners are revered as goddesses, and Jasmine is not, so she is far more down-to-earth in her approaches to saving everyone and everything. It’s the difference between “I’m the only one who can do this and I’m going to do it alone” and “I’m going to do this even if I have to do it alone because if I do nothing, I fail.”
So, while Jasmine can still be very aloof, that lack of complete removal from other people allows her to be more emotional in general. While she has difficulty always expressing herself or forming intimate attachments, she’s willing to try. And, while she’s still a woman of convictions, commitment is much harder for her, and she’s more likely to buckle before forming a permanent, close relationship. Her temper is also (outwardly) still a lot worse. She just can’t be as internal with her anger, and is more prone to getting into prolonged arguments or, more often, shooting venomous comments in the heat of the moment. Fortunately, it’s also easier for her to be openly kind: She will praise people more readily, acknowledge that others are right, and admit her positive feelings for others. (A lot of the differences in these last two paragraphs can be seen in her TDM thread with Ayano, which I’ve linked in my sample below!)
Unfortunately, this openness has also contributed to Jasmine’s total burnout at a very young age. One was probably tired by the end of her life, but she’d also accepted the inevitability of her death. Jasmine is still plugging along with no end in sight, and sometimes her actions seem futile. Being more emotionally open means the impact shows more severely: Instead of being convinced that her plan MUST work, Jasmine fears that her actions will never be enough.
She doesn’t hate her older “sister” enough to kill her this time around. Actually, the problem is she doesn’t hate her at all. Jasmine still loves Rose despite what she sees as a betrayal: Because Rose was unable to get her act together and become a guardian to any of the other girls, Jasmine has deduced that she just didn’t care hard enough. She’s disappointed in Rose, angry at her, but, unfortunately, still loves her. Hurt as she is, she just can’t bring herself to say it anymore.
SAMPLE August TDM | With Ayano
I have other threads from June and August's TDMs as well, if you'd prefer I supply different ones!
I have other threads from June and August's TDMs as well, if you'd prefer I supply different ones!