(scorched) application.

player name: Lisa
player livejournal: fruitsgrow
playing here: n/a
where did you find us? /revolving door, sob.
are you sixteen years of age or older? y.



character name: Shirley
fandom: Legend of Dragoon
timeline: somewhere between the end of chapter three (disc three) and chapter four (disc four)
character's age: well over 10,000 — she is nearly twelve millennia old, actually, but when asked, Shirley's answer varies, mostly because Legend of Dragoon varies in its own reference to the amount of time passed since the creation of Dragoons. ...basically, what I mean is I attempt to reflect canon in this answer!

powers, skills, pets, and equipment:

See here, please! Shirley's ability post contains a list of her combative skills, magical power (as seen in canon as well as inferred, which I expanded upon in game, so her powers are, hopefully!, not considered new — plus, notes of what the Mist has disabled), and her, ah, "pet" that doubles as equipment. The White-Silver Dragon Stone did not arrive with her in her previous stays; the stone was gifted by the Door, during the Shadows of History event, and remained in her possession following the event. This time, the Dragon will arrive as she does and in her possession. If you would like, you can refer here, her first application, for a compare and contrast of what is only shown in canon.

canon history:

So Legend of Dragoon is a fantasy-driven video game; centered on a useless male protagonist, the story is, primarily, about women. Women run this joint; women protect this joint; and women will decide if we blow this joint. Which is well and good but the women of this world — the story takes place on a continent called Endiness, and the nations of Endiness are a smörgåsbord of the real world, but no, of course. We never hear the planet's name! — have to deal with asshole men, fucking shit up as they go. Seriously, you spend three discs of this game, thinking you are out to curbstomp some assholes in it for...well, something, and then! Then, you reach the end of disc three, and no. LoD is a cosmic horror story, and not only do you have to punch out Cthulhu, you have to give God the middle finger. Why anyone in this story believes they will go to Heaven is beyond me, but I suspect some people were perfectly fine to be ignorant of God's plans before they were pinballed across Endiness.

Of the faces of Eve, Shirley is a crone: she has much to give but little to say and even less to feel. By the present timeline, she is a ghost of a collapsed shrine, and for the plot to progress, she is the only hope. Her future successor, Shana, is poisoned by a Dragon; to cure her, the party must find a Dragoni Plant — supposedly, located in Shirley's Shrine. Naturally, the only hope is not sunshine and daises, though.

First, it's a pain in the ass to walk about the ruins. Monsters are e v e r y w h e r e, and shit, man, you just want to find the clues to the lock on the second and third level. But no! Not only do monsters make this trip difficult, the shrine is boobytrapped every step of the way — one even includes a primitive rail ride that dumps your ass into the lake surrounding the shrine. Eventually, you figure it out, and you beat the hell out of the bandit jackass responsible for the shitty ride. (No ticket refunds, though.) Then, Shirley appears. Want the plant? Oh, sorry. She has none, but she does have this handy, shiny rock that can neutralize Dragon poison. Want that? Prove yourself. If the party can overcome her, they may have the cure; if not, Shana is to die. It's that simple. And you know what? It's not even a battle. It's some sheath your sword, impossible to win fight, and they have to give the philosophical answers Shirley deems correct.

SURPRISE, they give the right answers. They receive the White-Silver Dragon Stone, curing Shana and advancing the plot into further convolution. Trusting Rose's word, the rest of the party assumes Shirley has, finally, passed onto Heaven. Oh, dear. We will never see the hottest dead woman again...

— haha, no. She appears before the cosmic horror reveals itself, asking a "favor" of Rose: free the tormented spirits in the Dragoon Towers. They are both hers and Rose's old comrades and require assassinate in passing on. It is a sidequest, at least, but Shirley appears every time you pass the towers and, story-wise, is very insistent you free those souls. This, however, is truly the last time Shirley is seen in the present timeline; and there is absolutely no indication of where she has gone, but I, legitimately, have no idea how anyone thinks she, or her comrades, are chilling in Heaven.

(Like, really. Guys, you openly defy God. What makes you think he wants you in his parts!)

Now, we are going to backpedal a bit, and by a bit, I mean 10,000 years.

A long, long time ago — no, wait. The world of Legend of Dragoon begins with the Tree of Life, otherwise known as the Divine Tree; the Divine Tree births all life, and from its fruit, Humans and Winglies spring forth. Apparently, LoD's creators are seriously optimistic about humanity because humans are simple and peaceful people — they aren't dickbags, no way. That's on Winglies! Winglies are a humanoid species of people, albino and born to use magic. Maybe the magic corrupts them, maybe they were meant to be assholes per God's plan, but assholes, they are. Their leadership dominates Endiness, and the lands beyond it, enslaving race after race of people.

This unchallenged power does not last, though, because born from the Divine Tree are Dragons as well. Humans learn to harness their magic, becoming Knights of the Dragon — or, did you guess!?, Dragoons; and with this power, they wage war of unimaginable magnitude. Only seven Humans are chosen to wage said war, but they unite under Holy Emperor Diaz of Gloriano (the only known free land during the Wingly Reign of Terror) and kick some major booty. So goes the Dragon Campaign.

It's not so simple, but the fact the campaign is, in actuality, a civil war that happens to benefit the rest of the world is a little unnecessary for Shirley's history. Whether she knew or not is moot. Whether she verbs anything is moot. Her existence before "shit, we need a magic plant" is characterized by two things: by being the original White-Silver Dragoon and by other people. Again and again, we hear how noble she is. So noble, in fact, the original Golden Dragoon loved her; and he loved her so deeply, he died for her. She died, then, too — avenging his death and obliterating his body, her own, and a monster's in the process. (Good job, Shirley. You verbed something!) The Dark Dragoon knew her as a savior. The Violet Dragoon knew her as a woman that recruited him for a just cause. The world knew her as a hero.

But we really don't know about Shirley.

personality: STONE COLD BITCH.

(Please, see the Important Development and Events under Previously Played Information because I don't know how to tackle this as separate... Things.)

why do you feel this character would be appropriate to the setting? Staying in one place for a hella long time? Par for the course.



previous game: Scorched
length of time: 31 August - 10 October, 20 February - 11 October

important development and events:

Okay, so. Once upon a time, Shirley was a person — a real person! As evidenced by her adoring harem, she was a lovely person. Supposedly, "disagreeable" with violence — noble, as that very harem says of her, and therefore, compassionate but righteous, passionate — dedicated in her revolution, and to have died with a comrade speaks volumes of her loyalty to her causes. But there was a dark underbelly, though; after all, to recruit a man like Kanzas, easily mistakable for a serial killer in behavior, Shirley had to be deeper and darker than a one-dimensional saint. In what way, though, we don't know.

At least not before her death.

Ten millennia is a long time to exist, conscious or even half-conscious, and Shirley is much like any other character in LoD this aged: numb. She is a woman with a purpose, but her purpose is all she acts like — nothing ruffles her, and nothing happies, saddens, excites, frightens, verbs her now. She exists at a state of being, and nothing else.

She is utterly callous in the face of need. She is unapologetic in her cruelty. She is forceful in her teaching.

It's a neutral state of good, where good is not nice but good understands the world, because Shirley is still the same woman made of virtue as before. Callous but she helps. Cruel but she means well. Forceful but she knows best. She can't be moved, no, but she still cares; so she doesn't let the world suffer when it doesn't have to.

Then, Scorched happened.

Like Rose, Shirley is an exercise in numbness that can be broken down, and where Rose's psychology has been flattened by centuries upon centuries of massacre, Shirley's psychology is flattered by centuries upon centuries of loneliness. Maybe she sought the solitude for a reason, but thrown into a city, small in comparison to a world you can't see, she proved she only needed reminders.

People in Anatole, slowly, broke Shirley of this stone bitchiness. She ignores the morally questionable in people, still, and she has twisted ways of guiding people, too, but she was given a good, hard shake that she is a person. People have feelings, Shirley. You have feelings. Embrace the feelings! ...this didn't work, though.

You open your heart after a long time, and it's like statistics you will get your heart stomped on; there is good, of course, but the good seems like a giant cocktease in comparison. Shirley knows better, but you can't really know when you feel different. First, Belzac, the old flame that died for her, appeared during the Shadows of History event, and shadow or not, he reminded Shirley of who she use to be: compassionate without the strings attached and involved in the world. Then, Remus Lupin appealed to her nature as a healer, and she decided, why not? Why not discover if I'm who I was or if I'm a monster? And that's when people got under her skin — the worst part about it, though, is she doesn't relate to the world as it is but as it was for her. So people aren't people; they're a version of her comrades, her family, her loved ones, and when they leave again, it fucking hurts.

She managed for a while, you know, but then, Shirley was affected by the Turn Back the Clock event in all her player's infinite wisdom. When it was all done and over, she remembered a lot: her family, her childhood, her comrades, her war, her everything. It's a shock to the system! It shakes things up.

So when Ezio Auditore, someone that was under her skin as he was, disappeared, she...pretty much lost it. Like, "hey, you know what is a good idea? Walking into the Mist and wishing this all away!" lost it.

Humanity? Rejected!

Scorched is good for her, though, because here is this woman. Shirley has waited millennia for her comrades to be released, and even if that is her sole reason for her wait, what do you do when such a long cause is finished? You get lost, and you get confused, and you sit in a place like Anatole, learning to gather yourself to do... Something. Anything. Going home, even for a second, was good, too, though. Because it's where she knows she belongs, if only as home, and it's where she looked around and realized, her time is over.

Once, when Lupin recruited her to play clinic staff, she thought that maybe Anatole is her new "war:" to challenge herself and to shake off the false peace she had in her shrine. And it's cool because she is here again, and she isn't going to do it without falling on her face a few times, but this time, she will learn to embrace humanity. Shirley was a hot mess before, but we're going to take it slow now.

It takes baby steps, and it takes sacrifice, and it takes time, and it's scary as hell. But hey, she gave God the middle finger. What can't she do?

notes: Now that I have a handle of her character again, Shirley will remember the entirety of her time in Anatole. And as you can see, I will be using a new journal for her, so I suppose this means she will receive a new Forge! L-lastly, as I mentioned, the White-Silver Dragon Stone will arrive in her possession this time. I mean, if the application is acceptable.



Network Post Sample, Third Person Sample: The timeline, of her previous stays, has well over 100 thread listings to chose from...


Anything else? I like gingers, and I cannot lie. Hi. Apparently, early October is a shitty period for me?? I told you it was me!