The Headmisstress of Etoile Academy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
etoileheadmistress) wrote2014-03-31 02:32 pm
etoileheadmistress) wrote2014-03-31 02:32 pm
Applications
APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN!
OOC:
Mun Name: Tell us your name! You can also list what pronouns you'd like us to use here.
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IC
Character Name: What's their name? If they have any important nicknames or aliases, note them here as well.
Canon: What canon do they come from? If your character is an OC or an AU, please note here.
Medium: Anime, western cartoons, comics, video games...?
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Magical Girl Academy AU Information
AU Personality Changes: Whatever changes to your characters personality you make for this AU, please note them here!
AU History Changes: Note whatever changes you make to the character's history here.
Other AU Changes: What other changes occur in this canon?
Magical Girl Info:
Title: What they will be referred to when transformed. Giving your real name to other magical warriors is something only to be done between trusted allies!
Appearance: Again, an image or a description is fine.
Transformation Item & Phrase: How do they transform? What item do they use? What's their transformation call?
Powers and Attacks: What makes your magical girl special? Tell us all about them!
Weapon: Do they have a special weapon? Fill us in!
Extra: Is there anything else we need to know, that we didn't mention above? Note it here!
Samples: As much as we'd like to pretend, we're afraid that we at MGA don't know everything about every canon out there! So please give us links to things we can use to brush up on your canon -- clips, scans and anything we can use to research your canon.
Writing Sample: Please provide two samples; one prose and one in action tags.
Please provide either a link to a comment thread that has at least ten comments (from you) or use multiple threads (with at least three comments from you) to add up to the ten comment minimum.
For prose, you can either provide a link to a thread (that used prose) or write a short prose sample about your character.
Oriko Mikuni | Not Reserved | Part 1
Mun Name: Guessy
Contact Details:
IC
Character Name: Oriko Mikuni
Canon: Puella Magi Madoka Magica verse (Puella Magi Oriko Magica manga specifically)
Medium: Manga
Canon Point: ...Complicated, but basically immediate post-contract / pre-Manga (see AU changes)
Type: Canon character-ish (again, see the AU changes; since canon!Oriko's motives are closely linked to how Puella Magi work, putting her in the Etoile universe shakes up a few things)
Species: Human
Appearance: here
Age: Not specified, but presumably 15-16 abouts.
History:
(Putting this first before Personality because it will explain so much)
Daughter to a congressman, her father ran on an anti-corruption platform and claimed to be aiming to save the world (to her, at least; Oriko was quite young at the time). Believing helping him achieve this would in turn help everyone, when growing up she strove to represent him as best possible; achieving high grades, always having a polite and helpful manner, achieving student council president in a prestigious school, helping him with his political campaigns and so on.
Whilst this meant Oriko was effectively seen as a reflection on her father, it was done so deliberately on her part (if not quite consciously; bear in mind she was only about 10-11 when this process began); Oriko essentially became a master at manipulating herself to fit whatever goal she set forward.
...And then, of course, her father was arrested for corruption and embezzlement, and committed suicide to avoid the charges.
In the immediate aftermath of this, Oriko (still being seen as a reflection of her father) was rejected and outcast by society, losing her role on the student council and basically becoming a shut-in in her own house, where she quite probably would have died alone had Kyubey not found her and made a contract. Her wish, in canon, was:
"Everyone could only think of me as my father... If I'm only a part of my father, then why am I alive? I wish to understand the meaning of my life!"
With this, Oriko gained a number of things; firstly, she became a Puella Magi, secondly, she gained an even greater understanding of how her mind worked generally (the 'self-manipulation' part I mentioned earlier) and thirdly, the power of precognition.
The canon fate of Puella Magi (becoming Witches) she coldly accepted; it was the revelation that Kaname Madoka would contract and then create a Witch powerful enough to end the world in a matter of days that really spurred her into action and made her into the villain of her own manga series; to avert the world's destruction, she set her sights on assassinating Madoka before the Incubators could make their contract.
In this, she was assisted by Kirika Kure, whom she met at some intermediate period between making her wish and the start of the manga itself, a girl who quickly became her sole confident and friend despite not being terribly sane thanks to Kirika's own wish (it's probably the most telling part of Oriko's personality; being trustworthy is more important than being a yandere sycophant).
In the end, it all fell apart; Kirika failed to recruit Mami and instead wound up fighting her, resulting in her damaging her soul gem and putting a very final timelimit on their actions, resulting in a rushed, desperate assassination attempt that involved setting a Witch (Kirika's) loose on Mitakihara Middle School and trying to fend off the other local Puella Magi to get in a clean shot. It ultimately succeeded, but at considerable cost; the deaths of many students as collateral damage to the minions of Kirika's witch form, Kirika and Oriko themselves; Oriko actually died making an utterly meaningless action to defend Kirika's corpse, but was still able to kill Madoka through a wall by launching a shard of Kirika's dying Witch form at her.
In the end, we see them in the afterlife, with Oriko unable to move under the weight of all the people's she's killed, and Kirika finding her and offering to take half of it.
Personality: Coldly pragmatic roughly sums Oriko up, combined with an inability to trust anyone other than herself. She essentially sees people as 'rational actors'; always performing some action in expectation of the reaction - or in other words, if you approach her with pure-hearted altruism, she will be immediately suspicious of ulterior motives. She will not take anyone on their word, and will always seek to confirm things personally. This is not to say she finds charity and altruism impossible, just that she's extremely cautious; Oriko trusts actions, never words.
It should also not be assumed that Oriko doesn't care. She does. She does a whole damn lot; to her, there is nothing more precious nor fragile than a human life; accordingly, to save as many as possible and achieve the least suffering, each decision has to be made carefully, each consequence measured and weighed in advance. She does not care about her own satisfaction nor even satiating her own conscience; as long as as many people are alive and well as possible, that's all that matters. It's a morality of scale, in a sense; to achieve the most possible good with the limited resources available. She takes no pride in what she does and bitterly hates it when she feels forced to risk or take lives to save others, but she will do it just the same.
When not basically destroying herself to try and save the world, Oriko values calmness and politeness (manners and words cost nothing, basically), and will generally try to be helpful and courteous as much as possible in a given situation... mostly out of habit by this point. She also very strongly values honesty; unless she absolutely has to, or is dealing with a group of known manipulative liars herself (ie, Incubators), Oriko will be bluntly honest, and will value those who act the same in return. She cannot understand the sort of person who would lock up out of fear; for her, fear and desperation is what drives her and forces her to act, not the other way around. Basically, Oriko tries, but is all too aware of her limits, of the limits of those around her, and of the world which is not kind. She values real results over intentions or boasting, and distinctly does not like being used or lied to.
There's an inherent contradiction here: the Oriko that desperately wants to save the world, and the Oriko that coldly and pragmatically sacrifices the few for the many. This divide, between effectively the 'real' Oriko and the 'ideal' one, is what can slowly drive her to snap under the weight of her own perfectionist tendencies and expectations. She is her own worst enemy; essentially too good at forcing herself to do things she doesn't really want to, whilst utterly terrible at letting herself relax or take time off; with every victory, she analyses how it could have gone better or been achieved more efficiently. With every loss, she curses not thinking up a solution - any solution - quick enough. She cannot congratulate herself, only critique; trying to hone herself to a degree that is frankly impossible to achieve. It's an unpleasant combination that can lead to a point where Oriko really does just snap and stop caring, and goes all out into well-intentioned extremist mode without giving a damn to the consequences of her actions (which is more or less what happens at the end of her canon once she realises Kirika is dying).
With the Oriko I'm apping here, that threshold hasn't been broken yet, and whether it is or not is essentially dependant on what happens in the game. She might snap, or she might defuse; it's kind of up in the air. She cannot live up to her own expectations; either these expectations will be relaxed, or she will break. The worst part is she herself is aware of this, but through fear and desperation is unable to stop all the same; saving others will always come first. Her own wants and needs she essentially considers irrelevant.
Otherwise, Oriko tends to keep herself to herself, and follows more intellectual / personal pursuits such as reading and tending flowers (though the latter seems to purely be habit; her father liked them). She's a natural loner and introvert. With other people, she is either helping them, ordering them or analysing them; her ability to relax around other people is absolutely atrocious; Kirika is the only person she was ever comfortable with in canon.
Magical Girl Academy AU Information
AU Personality Changes: Given that there is presumably no world-ending Witch threat and equally presumably Oriko never attains the power of precognition (since RPing that would be kind of impossible), Etoile!Oriko is a lot less desperate and a lot more cautious in her actions given she can no longer see the future and thus has to deal with unpredictable consequences the same as everybody else, aka Major Flaws Of Utilitarianism 101; without precognition she'd never go nearly as far down that route as canon.
To give an example that could potentially happen in the Etoile Universe, were she able to confirm the wish-granting aspect of collecting 13 Shadow Jewels, she may try to arrange with other students to pool them as a reserve (ie to use the wish to avert a disaster, for example) or if that wasn't viable, farming them herself for the same purpose. Most notably, she would not attempt the 'wish Shades out of existence' trick, since the wishes can solve potentially any other problem in addition as they arise (like, say, if a meteor was about to hit Earth or something equally crazy).
(It should be noted that she would definitely be looking into how the headmistress is granting wishes with them first, along with her motives for doing so, and why exactly she is leaving it in their hands to decide what to wish for).
Given the Etoileverse is aware of magic in advance, this would also mean Oriko has formed opinions on them beforehand as well; before her father's suicide, she likely idolised and respected them, but felt herself too busy to be one and thought she was helping to save the world in her own way. Given that she's arriving very shortly after said suicide (see AU!History), her new opinion will have yet to fully form, and she will be cautious. Obviously, the foundations of her life have been considerably shaken up, and she is still figuring out what to do with what's left.
AU History Changes: Basically, she is as canon up to the part where Kyubey contracts her, given Kyubey presumably doesn't exist herein. Etoile!Oriko, in a supreme case of irony, became a magical girl taking down the Shade formed from the negative emotions surrounding her father (which invaded her house in the place of QB in canon), and was recruited the day after, calmly accepting her new role and casting her old life aside to become a magical girl.
(This also means she won't have met Kirika yet, nor have anything at all to do with the rest of the cast of Puella Magi)
Other AU Changes: Cutting out the precognition, since it's kind of impossible to RP with that.
Oriko Mikuni | Not Reserved | Part 2
Magical Girl Info:
Title: ...Oriko being Oriko, she is totally the sort of person to completely ignore the 'don't give real names' rule and will just introduce herself as herself.
This is for a variety of reasons, the biggest being that Oriko does not have a 'civilian' side; she has tossed her old life aside and now is only the Magical Girl. The other one being that inventing a fancy title feels self-indulgent, something she'd avoid.
If required for admission, she'd probably put down something bland and unimaginative (like "White", after her outfit) and then just proceed to never use it, ever. She probably wouldn't respond if called by it or even try to remember it.
Transformation Item & Phrase: One of the roses from her garden, which now no longer wilts or changes. Whatever phrase she's using, she just whispers very quietly, making it hard to pick up (it's actually just 'for the world', but Oriko being Oriko, she considers that extremely private)
Weapon: Her canonical metal spheres, which she can summon and telekinetically fling about like cannonballs.
Extra: We take our Puella Magi entirely seriously.
Samples: 'Girls and the End of The World', by nobita (the only translation I know of is on danbooru, so I apologise for the NSFW ads) - this is a doujin, but it's short and very well done.
Mahou Shoujo Oriko Magica on MangaReader.
Writing Sample:
Action tags
Kirika explains her wish, DramaDramaDuck - good for highlighting Oriko's mental process, trust issues and the complicated Kirika relationship.
Prose
She could, with considerable certainly, state that she had not quite expected to be in this situation.
So. A Magical Girl then. A funny thing to have to reaffirm to oneself when already sitting on the train, having already been visited by the Etoile Academy headmistress and having already survived her first Shade battle, but here she was. By her side, there was a single suitcase of luggage. She needed nothing more.
I suppose, at least, I can still save the world...
Leaning back in her seat as the train rattled along, Oriko closed her eyes, and considered.
This wasn't the first time she'd thought of Magical Girls. They came up on the news, they came up in conversation, they were a part of her father's political platform. She was aware of the tangle of issues they involved, from being a base necessity to keeping society running, to being child soldiers, to the ethics surrounding their idolisation towards young girls in the required age bracket, to the rumours of wish granting, shade farming and all the other possible conspiracies in-between. Politically, sympathy had always been the best course, whilst still trying to court parents and rights groups within the electing base, but certainly denying them or even exerting much control was both impossible and, potentially, dangerous to society as a whole. The Magical Girls, until a more ethically pleasant and effective alternative could be devised, were a necessary public good, along with due process, running water and electricity. On an individual level, she was thankful to them, but the concept as a whole...
...Neutral. She frowned. There was no opinion. She was, herself, completely neutral.
It was a new lease of life, at least.
So, who was she? What did this make her? "Oriko Mikuni, Magical Girl"? Was that how she would be introducing herself? Was that how she would be seen? Certainly, it was a better alternative - now - to "Oriko Mikuni, Congressman Mikuni's Daughter", but somehow... it just didn't ring completely true. She knew the usual publicity spiel. "Oriko Mikuni, Defender of Justice?". Hah. Who would ever even believe that?
...I will safe as many as can be saved.
At least a Magical Girl was something concrete. Every Shade destroyed meant a life saved; no ifs nor buts about it. You could not, for example, claim to be saving and improving peoples' lives whilst secretly siphoning off and embezzling public funds. Fighting the Shades was a concrete action with a concrete result; no politics involved there.
Thank God.
Of course, that won't be all there is to it...
Naturally. The Etoile Academy was an institution, and institutions were run by people, with all the individual flaws, ideologies and intentions that entailed. Nothing was perfect. Any system exploitable.
...It would pay to be cautious.
But not until I've arrived.
...Quite. What would be seen, remained to be seen. It was pointless speculating whilst still on the train.
Sighing wearily, she let herself drift off into a dreamless sleep. Her new life, and what it meant, would become clear soon enough.
ACCEPTED!
You'll be notified as soon as the game begins properly.
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