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mayfield_ooc2012-01-02 05:19 pm
mayfield_mods) wrote in mayfield_ooc2012-01-02 05:19 pm
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Applications
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• All content for the personality and sample entry in your app must be written or roleplayed by you; for the personality section in particular, we do not accept copied text from wikis or other sources. Obviously, you may not copy your app from other players, whether in Mayfield or other games. Application plagiarism will result in a ban from the game.
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• Other special requests would also best go in the beginning of the application. Remember, grammar and spelling are important -- if your app contains errors, you will be asked to revise.
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• If you apply for a character that has already been reserved, we will inform you and ignore the application until the reserve runs out. You may not apply for more than two characters from the same canon. For the sample entry, you may write your own entry, or use a post from a musebox, dressing room, or other game. We recommend
• After you're accepted, please follow all of the instructions given. You will need to reply to the acceptance, post your journal to the friend add page and your canon post, join the communities, and use the friend add page to update your journal. Once you're accepted, please introduce yourself on the community when you're ready to play.
• If your app is "Pending", do not freak out! This means that we need you to make some revisions, and does not mean you're rejected. We generally give players a chance to revise before rejecting them, but we will reject apps that do not address the concerns stated when we asked for a revision. If you have been rejected, our reply will clearly state this to be the case. If we have not gotten back to you yet, under no circumstance does this mean you are rejected. If it has been over a week since our last reply, it would be a good idea to contact us with a reminder, otherwise, please be patient!
• If you have received a "Pending" notice, you will have one week to supply us with your revisions, or your reserve will be considered expired and that someone else is free to apply for the character.
• The typical wait for a reply on apps may be anywhere from a day to a little over a week. If any part of your application requires a pending, it may be another week after your reply to that before we can get to you. We process a high volume of apps every round, so please be patient.
• If you have not heard back on a pending for over a week after apps close, please send a PM directly to the mod account.
Saori Nakagawa | Original Character | Not reserved 1/?
Personal Journal:
Contact Info: Email: JackofAntics@gmail.com, AIM: Yamiryu7, Skype: JackofAntics, Plurk:
Other Characters Played: Keroro Gunsou
Preferred Housing: N/A
Character Name: Saori Nakagawa
Character Age: 28 physically, 80 mentally
Background:
Saori’s living world is modeled after our current world. However, her world also contains gods, spirits, ghosts and other supernatural creatures. Humans rarely encounter them in plain sight, but their actions can influence the human realm such as ‘spirited away’ cases, people going insane or unsolved homicide cases. Lowly spirits can increase their powers and sometimes evolve by consuming strong emotions. Because of this, they often harass humans they see as a potential meal until they are ripe for eating. In the case they devour strong negative emotions and/or human flesh, they evolve into mononoke.
Saori's parents moved to Kyoto when her mom was still pregnant with her. The move happened because her father got a new job there. Her mother was a homemaker while her father worked at a university, as a literature professor. Three years later, Akira was born. All was good until Akira was 4 and Saori was 7, when their mother got sick. Her health began to deteriorate until she finally passed away. That left Saori to basically become the caretaker of the house. Her father was devastated with the lost of his wife and his children's mother so the depression began to set in.
One year later, the father went to work but never returned. She vividly remembers walking to the train station with him where they departed to take their own trains. (Saori would later find out he was devoured by a mononoke and later kills it, but she was too late to retrieve and purify his soul.) Their grandmother who lived nearby took them in. When her age made it difficult to raise them to her best of her skills, Saori took over.
In high school, grandmother thought showing her around Kyoto’s Gion district might convince her to become a geiko, an apprentice geisha. After a traditional tea ceremony, she ended up falling in love with tea instead. During her whatever spare time she does have, she looks for new books (specifically on ghost/paranormal subjects) or manga, or buying different kinds of tea.
Her curiosity about the supernatural started when she was little. Her father worked until his disappearance on translating several folklore from classical Japanese language to the modern version. While Akira would be scared out of his wits by some of the stories, Saori would always ask for more. Her love for folklore is later reflected in her college work.
Saori eventually graduated high school and attended a college in Osaka. She even studied abroad in America for a year. She graduated college with a degree in English. However it wasn't without a hitch. A week before her graduation, Akira disappeared. There was a police search, but with no leads, it quickly became a cold case.
Saori worked in a publication company after graduation, specializing in translation work for three years, but found the work to be not as satisfying over time. She got her projects done on time, but there other things that bothered her. It was mostly the social pressure she felt from her higher ups. She was already past 25 and still not married. She already saw countless co-workers come and go as soon as they found a suitable husband to marry. It was then Grandmother suggested she maybe do something she liked: cooking. So she began to plan out making a cafe.
One day, she was visiting the Fushimi-Inari temple in Kyoto. As she climbed up the stairs to the main building, she heard the sounds of little bells chiming. Thinking it was nothing, she continued. Then the chimes got louder and louder as she went up until he finally looked back. That was the last anyone ever heard from Saori. She’s captured by a Nopperabou, a faceless mononoke who has taken her deep in the neighboring mountain side.
It's explained that mononoke grow from the weaker ayakashi when they feed on a human's strongest emotion. In most cases, it's a very bad thing. In exchange for the power boost, they lose their identity. However there is a way to overcome this. If they consume a soul of someone who despite many hardships occurring in their life are still pure, not only does their power increase but their lifespan increases as well without losing their identity.
The Nopperabou is able to pull away her soul from her body. A man by the name of Tenjou arrives to take it down but it’s too late. The Mononoke pins down Saori’s soul and eats her physical body in front of her and Tenjou. The man finishes the creature but the damage is done. Tenjou then decides to take her to see Inari, his father, about her options since she died prematurely according how much time was left in her lifespan. And while she is able to be reincarnated, she wouldn’t be able to do very soon. The next chance she’s able to be reborn won’t be for another century. A soul without a body must reside in the supernatural realm for extra protection against Mononoke.
The realm of supernatural is known as Kuukan. All souls return here after living their most recent past life and wait to be reincarnated onto the next. There are judges who determine, based on the deeds they did, their next incarnation, when they will be reborn and where they can stay as they wait. If they wish to be reborn into something better, ie human or above, they can use the wait period to tip the odds in their favor and ask for a second judgment.
Kuukan in general is a chop suey of cultures and time periods. While firearms of today’s caliber can be found, magic tends to be the most effective manner of combat when it arrives. Since wait period between incarnations can be quite long, it’s not uncommon for souls to develop “another life” such as creating a family or starting a new business.
The realm is split into “districts” even though they are about the size of a small densely populated country. There are four main districts, which transitional areas between. The First District belongs to the deities from past and present mythologies. Said deities are not immortal and are subject to the rules of reincarnation as well. Because of this, the name of the gods are more of legacy title that’s passed on to those the predecessor finds worthy to share. While it’s possible for one person to carry that title like Tenjou’s father, many prefer to share the title with their spouse. It not only serves a check and balance system but its said there extra benefits like power boosts and extra abilities exclusive to those who share titles. They work in sync with each other to decide what events will occur Those who work under them reside in both the First and Second Districts. Majority of the Second Districts are souls or supernatural creatures whose good deeds outweigh the bad. The biggest district is the third district. It can be considered a “purgatory” where those deemed as neutral reside. It serves as the gateway and orientation center for souls returning from the living world. The final and currently the fast growing area is the Fourth District. Hell is a common name for it. It’s home to souls, ayakashi, and malicious supernatural creatures. Unlike the other districts, because of its rapid increase, security at the borders is much more restricted.
Inari decides that Saori can stay under Tenjou's care. After touring around Kuukan and staying with Tenjou, she realizes his purpose. He’s the leader of Inari's elite corps dedicated to protecting both the living and souls in Kuukan from being eaten by ayakashi who want to be mononoke. In the past century, the influx of souls returning from their time in the living realm has decreased due to the rogue supernatural creatures consuming said souls. The problem with that is two fold for another reason. Souls that were consumed by them are forcibly removed from the cycle and new souls are extremely hard to produce and only arrive in small batches every fifty years or so. With mononoke consuming at a rate faster than production, this throws the balance between the living realm and Kuukan off. This became a great concern to many of the gods. Inari was the one who spearheaded the creation of the corps and other gods have given their support to it.
Saori comes to a decision to help Tenjou so more people won't suffer the same fate as her. Tenjou objected but eventually gives in. She goes through training with Pluto, the corps second-strongest, and it would take her a few years until she got Inari's blessing and joined in the corps. During her training, Saori learned when souls are not attached to a living body they can tap into their innate powers. They can vary from purification to manipulation of elements. In her case, she can manipulate smoke to take on forms her will. While she can use different types of smoke, her strongest affinity is for smoke from lit incense. Plus its purifying abilities make it a better anti-ayakashi/mononoke weapon.
Inari would later reveal to Saori that his ‘name’ is technically a title and has to be passed down to his son but traditionally the title of a god was shared by someone so he must marry if he intends to inherit. Fortunately over the years of working together Tenjou proposes to Saori. And while they have their duties as gods to fulfill prayers of the various sorts, they often go out to deal with the constant mononoke problem. This is where I’m pulling Saori from.
Saori Nakagawa | Original Character | Not reserved 2/2
Saori’s an older sister/motherly type of character. She’s quite independent because she had to help take care of her little brother, grandmother, and herself for a good portion of her life. Akira was a handful as a child, so she had to be more mature than other kids her age. When their grandmother was getting too old to run the household herself, Saori took on the responsibility. That also meant getting permission to work a part time job while in high school and college, which left barely enough time to for herself.
As she took on the guardian role, she essentially became an anchor not only to her family to her husband. Tenjou and his corps were in a period of feeling burned out from the rise of rogue mononoke attacking both in Kuukan and the living world before she arrived. Her presence helped to lift their morale. Even though Tenjou didn’t want to admit it, he took the fact he couldn’t save Saori very personally. She always reassures him it was never his fault. While they have their bickering moments, the two grow rather close.
If a person needed someone to talk to or needed something, Saori would be there to help in anyway possible. She always waits for them to finish and never says her opinion out loud unless they do want to hear it. In many cases she tries to get all sides of the story. She’s considered by her peers as a very reliable and diligent hard worker.
However, she does tend not to be open about herself to others in return. She mostly keeps it to herself unless she has someone who she completely trusts and has managed to stay by her side for a very long time. Building those long term relationships is even harder. After losing her family and regrettably saying no to her first marriage proposal, it’s hard for her to imagine herself having those types of relationships. This would explain why it would take Tenjou ten years to get close enough to her to propose to her.
Some, including her own husband, have argued her kindness makes her unfit to be part of the corps. Her kindness does not make her a doormat. She does get angry and stands up for herself if her close friends and family get hurt, she’s being pestered at work, or someone insults her skills without providing any sort of constructive criticism.
Violence is a last resort for her. In her line of work however there isn’t much of a choice, but Saori always tends to be the one who checks on the victims first before anything else. After experiencing the multiple deaths in the family and her own, she knows the value of life very well.
At the same time however, Saori often puts others’ needs before her own. In doing so she often forsakes her own happiness. She turned down her boyfriend’s marriage proposal because her brother was still a minor and needed a guardian to provide a roof over his head and food. In fact it was her brother who encourage her to go study abroad. Even though she had her moments where she overdid being a motherly figure to him, Akira wanted Saori to have a chance to find her own happiness. When he found out, an argument broke out between them and that was the last conversation they ever had.
Money isn’t what drives her to work. She knows what kind of career she chose and accepted it. Though it took her awhile to adjust to it, she never regretted her choice. When it was revealed she could retire from the work and maybe possibly from the cycle of reincarnation, she turned it down. She knows what she is doing will save others in turn. She has a good sense of morals so she would never manipulate anyone for her own benefit.
Abilities:
Smoke manipulation: By using her free will, Saori can shape smoke to into objects or use it for offensive and defensive purposes in combat. She often carries vials filled with incense smoke, which she has the strongest affinity towards.
Regeneration: Small to medium wounds only. The most she can do is broken bones.
Super strength: Only to a small degree--about three times her own weight.
Hand to hand combat: She often wears bandages wrapped around her hands like a boxer. These (regainable) bandages have special purification properties that can burn a mononoke on contact.
Parkour: Since some areas in Kuukan are easier to traverse on foot than a vehicle, Saori learned how to move around faster though her training.
Sample Entry 1:
[phone, unfiltered]
Well, I’ve tried to do some research about this place and I keep running into dead ends. A shame the library is so heavily censored too. It’s very frustrating to say the very least. What I’ve heard from my “family” is there are a lot of twisted events that happen here. It’s horrible that everyone, especially the children, get involved. No one should have experience such things.
[Her voice sounds rather pained with that last sentence but she clears her throat before continuing.]
The real reason why I’ve decided to call is, I’d like to know if there are people here who are dedicated to protect all of us non-drones. I know I don’t look like one but I am a fighter. This place may have taken my powers but I can fight without them.
Sample Entry 2:
[It’s after dinner and Saori sits on backyard porch. She’s been here for a few weeks and regained a small incense burner with some incense sticks. Since she was limited with how much she could use, she only had one lit. Her eyes were closed as the smoke wafted through the air. With each breath she took, it brought back memories. Some of them were painful while others were pleasent. Eventually they came back to the husband she was pulled away from. ]
Tenjou...I know I shouldn’t worry about you, but I am. I don’t know why I was brought here, but there must be a reason. I promise I’ll survive and come back.
[She hears someone from the house call for her. By now, the incense was nothing but ash in the burner. Quietly she picks up her items and returns inside. ]
Sorry for the wait. Did you call for me? Sure, you know I’m always happy to make your lunch for tomorrow. What would you like?
ACCEPTED
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