Severa (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
squanderlust) wrote2015-09-01 03:31 pm
squanderlust) wrote2015-09-01 03:31 pm
Entry tags:
carvaka app
▸PLAYER
Name: colin
Means of Contact: roseward at plurk or this email address
Age: 27
Other Characters Played: N/A
▸CHARACTER
Name: Severa
Journal: squanderlust
Canon: Fire Emblem: Awakening
Age: 19
Canon Point: Endgame: Grima
Background Information: http://fireemblem.wikia.com/wiki/Severa -- everything there except stuff that relates to The Future Past (canon AU, irrelevant here) and Fates (the next game in the series, hasn't happened yet)
Personality: For someone raised to be a warrior, Severa sure is a little brat. She's known as the army's biggest squanderer for a reason: There's nothing she likes more than splurging. Being the daughter of the army's biggest sweet tooth didn't help that. Whether it's candy or clothes or even new weapons, Severa's got to have it, and damn the expense. Her daddy, Gaius, was an enormous pushover -- and still is, now that she's 19 and living in the past -- so she never really learned how not to be spoiled.
On top of being bad with money, she's also bad with people! She's very emotionally closed off and suffers from a completely imagined inferiority complex -- then again, you grow up with someone like Cordelia as your mother and see how great you end up feeling. For all of Severa's childhood, she had to endure her mother being the star fighter in Ylisse's Pegasus Knights, earning all kinds of accolades and fame and just generally being perfect in every way. Severa learned to seal herself up and throw up a whole host of prickly, snarky walls to keep everybody away from who she really is.
It's still kind of a point of contention, her relationship with her mother, but it's not something she likes talking about. Stabbing people is easy, but emotions are hard. Yes, she cares about the safety and well-being of her friends, but she's a warrior, a mercenary, and she comes from a time where spending too much time caring about people is liable to get you killed. Really, she likes seeing her friends happy, even if she doesn't like to admit that they're her friends. But it's going to take a lot of work to get to that point, and it might not even be worth it -- for either person. She's much more judgmental of other people than she is of herself, so if she catches you slacking off, being a sexist pig, acting unwomanly, insulting her cooking, or wearing a dumb-looking mask, she's definitely going to bring the hammer down on you.
The main reason Severa started guarding her feelings so much is that she viewed being free with her feelings as something undesirable. Like most of Severa's personality, this was molded by her mother: Cordelia pined for Prince Chrom's heart until her dying day, and that just grated on Severa's nerves so much that she could barely take it. In fact, the last thing Severa ever said to Cordelia before she died was how sick she was of hearing about Chrom. Because of that incident specifically, there's a constant undercurrent of regret that Severa has to deal with whenever she considers getting close to someone in really any way.
Now that she's gotten to resolve that issue with her mother (thanks to the time travel) her regret is lessened, but by no means all gone. They're all still at war; there's still a lot of battles to fight and a lot of mistakes Severa could make. She's always been prickly even in her original timeline, but she knows that she won't get another second chance like this one. She's taking no further risks. It's better for her to pretend that she doesn't care about anyone than accidentally say the wrong thing at the wrong time and have some stupid off-the-cuff moment of emotional vulnerability irreversibly ruin a friendship. Give her an excuse to act on any moments like that under the pretense of survival, though, and things might play out a little differently.
Growing up more or less on the battlefield led to her getting close to her fellow soldiers whether she liked it or not, so she feels responsible for a lot of them, even if they don't want her to feel that way. There's the exceptionally unladylike Kjelle, who's become Severa's personal project in an entirely made up Warrior Ladies' Finishing School; the thug son of nobility Brady, who's just curmudgeonly enough for Severa to sort of possibly give a crap about; and the insecure archer Noire, who is definitely Severa's closest friend. Severa's helped Noire through things that really shouldn't have been as overblown as Noire made them -- you know, going to the bathroom at night or spilling dinner, stuff like that. Even after she discovered that it was because Noire was leaning on her for a sense of security, Severa didn't really mind it. Not a lot of people rely on her for anything, least of all emotional support, so it's actually kind of nice to feel wanted.
The last words Severa ever said to her mother, at least before time travel got involved, were bitter, cutting remarks that, we would come to see, had not been how she'd actually felt about it at all. From there we can assume that this facade she puts up isn't really helping anybody, but she feels it's necessary to keep people at arm's length to avoid that kind of regret again. It's a safe bet that she thinks it's easier to make enemies than friends, even though she does legitimately care about the people she's being a jerk to. She's just not the best at showing it; take a look at the way she treats Kjelle, for example. As a childhood friend and combatant, Kjelle is a pretty important person to Severa, but the way Severa chooses to show it is by picking apart Kjelle's actions as unladylike and improper. A lot of her other friendships focus on the same sort of thing: Everybody's acting improperly for their age and sex, and Severa's the only one who actually knows how people should be acting.
She doesn't, of course. She's just parroting things that people have said about her mother that she herself has tried to emulate her entire life. Being told to be more perfect isn't the way that she was shown love, so it isn't like it's a "this is the only way she knows" kind of thing, but it is the strongest association she has with her formative years, so it stuck around. She never saw her mother make mistakes, so she doesn't think it's acceptable to make mistakes, and that idea has also stuck with her. Even if she has no idea what she's doing, and even if she knows she has no idea what she's doing, she's going to see something through once she gets the idea to start doing it. She doesn't back down from anything, and she doesn't admit to making mistakes, which makes her seem a lot more confident than she actually is as a person.
Her parents are the only ones who see the "real" Severa on any regular basis. They've raised her through most of her life, but her friends came into her life at a time when she was old enough to put on a persona. So her parents are the only people who have seen her at her absolute worst: Whiny, self-defeating, and convinced that she's useless if she fails at any task, ever, no matter how minor. Even to her best friends, her "most vulnerable" (which usually manifests as meaningless, outward-directed anger) is only a fraction of how bad it can actually get. Why the difference in personas? Why does she insist on playing herself off as a perfect, infallible lady to her friends while she's so much more honest with her parents? Probably because her friends haven't already died once before. She's getting a second chance with her parents, so she's trying to make up for it. She's trying to prevent the last thing she ever says to them from being as awful and biting as they were the first time around.
And that's kind of trickling down to the rest of her friends, too. Since she did screw up so badly with her parents' last words, she has a lot of regret and a lot of problems letting herself get close to people. Her parents are both alive again, but she knows that's a chance that she will not get again with anybody else. So she's trying to power through that regret and force herself to open up more. There aren't any more second chances coming, so why ruin your first chance? But she has a long road ahead of her. Right now, the best way to get her to open up is to make her feel needed, which isn't something she has a lot of experience in. Actually, genuinely validate her presence in your life (like Noire does by being a kind of major screw-up, or like Lucina did by making her part of the army in the first place) and she won't immediately stop being that cold, closed-off jerk, but she will start treating you the best way she knows how. Which still isn't great, but it's better than when she started.
Appearance: http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/fireemblem/images/e/e9/Serena_%28FE13%29.png -- though her hair is more orange, since she inherited that from her father
Abilities: Severa doesn't have any superhuman or magical abilities; she's just pretty good with a sword. Otherwise, totally normal human girl.
▸SAMPLES:
First Person:
[a crudely drawn picture of a woman with two long pigtails appears on the network and begins bouncing idly while its narration is actually being written. it acts out many of the things that are written below it as they appear; the writing is, in contrast, pretty elegant. it's fancy script, but not unreadable, if the magic powering this whole thing doesn't just render it in the same style regardless.]
You're telling me I could have anything I imagine. Gold, jewels, trinkets, anything. I just have to think it into existence, and it's there. But the only way to get the power to do that is to abandon all my scruples as the lady I am and indulge some of the most disgusting urges one could indulge in? I certainly hope that the possessions are a reward for that, and not the other way around.
[her little drawing makes a disgusted face rather than act out anything involving sex.]
Couldn't anyone have thought of a more dignified means of distraction? Swordplay, or
[the text stops abruptly. a blot of ink appears next to the drawing.]
I've just been told that "swordplay" is ALSO a type of debauchery. Gods, is there nothing you haven't sullied? If this is really the only way to go about things, I'll do it. But I don't plan on being happy about it. I consider myself lucky there are some people I already know here. I don't know how you'd expect me to do this sort of thing with somebody completely new.
Third Person: http://metakosmia.dreamwidth.org/5305.html?thread=1517241#cmt1517241
Name: colin
Means of Contact: roseward at plurk or this email address
Age: 27
Other Characters Played: N/A
▸CHARACTER
Name: Severa
Journal: squanderlust
Canon: Fire Emblem: Awakening
Age: 19
Canon Point: Endgame: Grima
Background Information: http://fireemblem.wikia.com/wiki/Severa -- everything there except stuff that relates to The Future Past (canon AU, irrelevant here) and Fates (the next game in the series, hasn't happened yet)
Personality: For someone raised to be a warrior, Severa sure is a little brat. She's known as the army's biggest squanderer for a reason: There's nothing she likes more than splurging. Being the daughter of the army's biggest sweet tooth didn't help that. Whether it's candy or clothes or even new weapons, Severa's got to have it, and damn the expense. Her daddy, Gaius, was an enormous pushover -- and still is, now that she's 19 and living in the past -- so she never really learned how not to be spoiled.
On top of being bad with money, she's also bad with people! She's very emotionally closed off and suffers from a completely imagined inferiority complex -- then again, you grow up with someone like Cordelia as your mother and see how great you end up feeling. For all of Severa's childhood, she had to endure her mother being the star fighter in Ylisse's Pegasus Knights, earning all kinds of accolades and fame and just generally being perfect in every way. Severa learned to seal herself up and throw up a whole host of prickly, snarky walls to keep everybody away from who she really is.
It's still kind of a point of contention, her relationship with her mother, but it's not something she likes talking about. Stabbing people is easy, but emotions are hard. Yes, she cares about the safety and well-being of her friends, but she's a warrior, a mercenary, and she comes from a time where spending too much time caring about people is liable to get you killed. Really, she likes seeing her friends happy, even if she doesn't like to admit that they're her friends. But it's going to take a lot of work to get to that point, and it might not even be worth it -- for either person. She's much more judgmental of other people than she is of herself, so if she catches you slacking off, being a sexist pig, acting unwomanly, insulting her cooking, or wearing a dumb-looking mask, she's definitely going to bring the hammer down on you.
The main reason Severa started guarding her feelings so much is that she viewed being free with her feelings as something undesirable. Like most of Severa's personality, this was molded by her mother: Cordelia pined for Prince Chrom's heart until her dying day, and that just grated on Severa's nerves so much that she could barely take it. In fact, the last thing Severa ever said to Cordelia before she died was how sick she was of hearing about Chrom. Because of that incident specifically, there's a constant undercurrent of regret that Severa has to deal with whenever she considers getting close to someone in really any way.
Now that she's gotten to resolve that issue with her mother (thanks to the time travel) her regret is lessened, but by no means all gone. They're all still at war; there's still a lot of battles to fight and a lot of mistakes Severa could make. She's always been prickly even in her original timeline, but she knows that she won't get another second chance like this one. She's taking no further risks. It's better for her to pretend that she doesn't care about anyone than accidentally say the wrong thing at the wrong time and have some stupid off-the-cuff moment of emotional vulnerability irreversibly ruin a friendship. Give her an excuse to act on any moments like that under the pretense of survival, though, and things might play out a little differently.
Growing up more or less on the battlefield led to her getting close to her fellow soldiers whether she liked it or not, so she feels responsible for a lot of them, even if they don't want her to feel that way. There's the exceptionally unladylike Kjelle, who's become Severa's personal project in an entirely made up Warrior Ladies' Finishing School; the thug son of nobility Brady, who's just curmudgeonly enough for Severa to sort of possibly give a crap about; and the insecure archer Noire, who is definitely Severa's closest friend. Severa's helped Noire through things that really shouldn't have been as overblown as Noire made them -- you know, going to the bathroom at night or spilling dinner, stuff like that. Even after she discovered that it was because Noire was leaning on her for a sense of security, Severa didn't really mind it. Not a lot of people rely on her for anything, least of all emotional support, so it's actually kind of nice to feel wanted.
The last words Severa ever said to her mother, at least before time travel got involved, were bitter, cutting remarks that, we would come to see, had not been how she'd actually felt about it at all. From there we can assume that this facade she puts up isn't really helping anybody, but she feels it's necessary to keep people at arm's length to avoid that kind of regret again. It's a safe bet that she thinks it's easier to make enemies than friends, even though she does legitimately care about the people she's being a jerk to. She's just not the best at showing it; take a look at the way she treats Kjelle, for example. As a childhood friend and combatant, Kjelle is a pretty important person to Severa, but the way Severa chooses to show it is by picking apart Kjelle's actions as unladylike and improper. A lot of her other friendships focus on the same sort of thing: Everybody's acting improperly for their age and sex, and Severa's the only one who actually knows how people should be acting.
She doesn't, of course. She's just parroting things that people have said about her mother that she herself has tried to emulate her entire life. Being told to be more perfect isn't the way that she was shown love, so it isn't like it's a "this is the only way she knows" kind of thing, but it is the strongest association she has with her formative years, so it stuck around. She never saw her mother make mistakes, so she doesn't think it's acceptable to make mistakes, and that idea has also stuck with her. Even if she has no idea what she's doing, and even if she knows she has no idea what she's doing, she's going to see something through once she gets the idea to start doing it. She doesn't back down from anything, and she doesn't admit to making mistakes, which makes her seem a lot more confident than she actually is as a person.
Her parents are the only ones who see the "real" Severa on any regular basis. They've raised her through most of her life, but her friends came into her life at a time when she was old enough to put on a persona. So her parents are the only people who have seen her at her absolute worst: Whiny, self-defeating, and convinced that she's useless if she fails at any task, ever, no matter how minor. Even to her best friends, her "most vulnerable" (which usually manifests as meaningless, outward-directed anger) is only a fraction of how bad it can actually get. Why the difference in personas? Why does she insist on playing herself off as a perfect, infallible lady to her friends while she's so much more honest with her parents? Probably because her friends haven't already died once before. She's getting a second chance with her parents, so she's trying to make up for it. She's trying to prevent the last thing she ever says to them from being as awful and biting as they were the first time around.
And that's kind of trickling down to the rest of her friends, too. Since she did screw up so badly with her parents' last words, she has a lot of regret and a lot of problems letting herself get close to people. Her parents are both alive again, but she knows that's a chance that she will not get again with anybody else. So she's trying to power through that regret and force herself to open up more. There aren't any more second chances coming, so why ruin your first chance? But she has a long road ahead of her. Right now, the best way to get her to open up is to make her feel needed, which isn't something she has a lot of experience in. Actually, genuinely validate her presence in your life (like Noire does by being a kind of major screw-up, or like Lucina did by making her part of the army in the first place) and she won't immediately stop being that cold, closed-off jerk, but she will start treating you the best way she knows how. Which still isn't great, but it's better than when she started.
Appearance: http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/fireemblem/images/e/e9/Serena_%28FE13%29.png -- though her hair is more orange, since she inherited that from her father
Abilities: Severa doesn't have any superhuman or magical abilities; she's just pretty good with a sword. Otherwise, totally normal human girl.
▸SAMPLES:
First Person:
[a crudely drawn picture of a woman with two long pigtails appears on the network and begins bouncing idly while its narration is actually being written. it acts out many of the things that are written below it as they appear; the writing is, in contrast, pretty elegant. it's fancy script, but not unreadable, if the magic powering this whole thing doesn't just render it in the same style regardless.]
You're telling me I could have anything I imagine. Gold, jewels, trinkets, anything. I just have to think it into existence, and it's there. But the only way to get the power to do that is to abandon all my scruples as the lady I am and indulge some of the most disgusting urges one could indulge in? I certainly hope that the possessions are a reward for that, and not the other way around.
[her little drawing makes a disgusted face rather than act out anything involving sex.]
Couldn't anyone have thought of a more dignified means of distraction? Swordplay, or
[the text stops abruptly. a blot of ink appears next to the drawing.]
I've just been told that "swordplay" is ALSO a type of debauchery. Gods, is there nothing you haven't sullied? If this is really the only way to go about things, I'll do it. But I don't plan on being happy about it. I consider myself lucky there are some people I already know here. I don't know how you'd expect me to do this sort of thing with somebody completely new.
Third Person: http://metakosmia.dreamwidth.org/5305.html?thread=1517241#cmt1517241