✿ APPLICATION: CEREALIA

[journaler]

Applicant Info

◎ Name: Amm
◎ Journal: ammchan
◎ Contact:

✿ [AIM] yammdere
✿ [Plurk] Ammchan (private plurks are best for a quick response)
✿ [PM] journaler or my personal (ammchan)

Character Info

◎ Character's Name: Leia Rolando
◎ Character's Canon: Tales of Xillia 2
◎ Character's Age: 16
◎ Canon Point: Chapter 15 end (as they are preparing to enter the Land of Canaan).
◎ Background/History:

✿ From the Wiki: Leia's page, plus a small description here.
✿ Plot/General: Tales of Xillia

Childhood friends. After Leia joins the party late in the game, Milla and Jude continue to be her inspiration. When they are chased out of Gaius's castle and must use their mana together to open the gates before they are caught, Leia is the slowest, and the last to finish. She is upset at holding everyone back; she cries, and Milla consoles her in the only manner she knows how: by helping her and outright demanding that she stop thinking she's inferior to anyone else.

It's worth noting that, while no details are given, Leia alludes to an illness she used to have as a child. While game combat and the events in the story show that she's mostly over it, this may explain why she needed the assistance; and it may also explain why she trained so relentlessly in the martial artes with her mother--to the point of bullying Jude into practicing with her, often unexpectedly, when they were still just kids.

Her fervor for improvement continues on even into her teenage years. Both her physical strength and her strength as a character after traveling with the party truly shine, culminating in a confrontation with a traitorous Alvin after Milla's death. With Jude overcome with grief to the point of shutting down, only Leia stands between him and Alvin, who is not shy about attempting to take their lives as part of his contract with Muzet. Her fighting back and defending Jude is the reason they are able to survive; and though Alvin succeeds in shooting her, she hangs on long enough to recover and see Jude do the same.

She continues traveling with the party, which slowly starts to come together again. They have another confrontation with the Chimeriad (Gaius's protectors) atop the Nia Khera Hallowmont during which Agria, a member, falls and loses her life after Leia tries to save her. She holds tightly onto her hand, urging her to live... but Agria lets go, hating her to the end. It's something that still haunts Leia in Xillia 2, but like with anything else... she moves forward.

After reuniting with Milla in the Temporal Crossroads and spending time in the unfamiliar land of Elympios, she spends a restless night deliberating on her choices: return home, or continue fighting for a better future. She ultimately decides to stick with the party--and Milla's mission--to the end, and she cites Jude's smile as her admittedly simple reason.

✿ Plot/General: Tales of Xillia 2

Becoming a journalist. In Xillia 2, Leia's character takes a backseat to that of Ludger and Elle. Most of her screen time comes from her character episodes, which focus on her growth as a journalist and the struggles she faces in her new chosen career with their world so divided.

An important one is the prejudice she faces as a Rieze Maxian working for an Elympion newspaper. People are uncooperative with her, and even her boss is unhappy with her work, only sending her on meaningless fetch and delivery quests while she finds herself and learns the true meaning of writing and journalism.

Leia's work begins to crossover with Ludger's, and she travels to a fractured dimension with him and Alvin, who is also prevalent in her episodes. They enter with the intent of destroying it; but it turns out to be a universe in which she succeeds in saving Agria, and they become friends, which is something that hits very close to home. It is here that she begins to show doubt in Ludger's work: whether they're really doing the right thing by destroying these fractured dimensions. In the end, however, she is forced to accept it. She asks Agria to watch over her and decides to use these fractured dimensions as inspiration for her writing, so that they can live on through her, even after their death.

This is an important milestone for Leia in gaining her boss's acceptance. She continues to enlist Ludger and Alvin's help, even scoring an important interview for an article about the future of the two nations--namely whether they can truly be at peace--and that night, she commandeers Ludger's room to write and meet her deadline.

She proudly turns in her article without moral support from Ludger or Alvin; and though her boss doesn't say it directly, he says she has potential.

◎ Is the character a hacker and/or do they have a sixth-sense? No, neither.

◎ Personality:

Even before she makes an appearance, Leia Rolando is mentioned offhandedly by Jude, who paints her as an excitable, zealous child. Milla's misunderstanding about her behavior aside, the reality isn't too far off the mark: Leia's very first scene, after all, involves her racing in a wheelchair with other children in Leronde, and landing right into the water when she goes just a bit too far, too fast. This doesn't even surprise Jude, suggesting that this behavior is essentially... well, normal.

Right away, however, despite a clumsy first impression for players, Leia is shown as a compassionate, caring person. She's only just met Milla, and already treats her as a friend--in a "any friend of Jude's is a friend of mine" kind of way. She's quick to help Milla into a wheelchair and gives it her all at their search for the spirit fossils necessary for Milla to regain use of her legs. Milla even gives her credit once they succeed, after a dangerous trip through the Felgana Mines--and Leia's enthusiasm, especially when it comes to helping and caring her for friends, certainly doesn't deteriorate or change much from there.

Much later on, when Jude falls into despair after Milla's death, it is Leia, and only Leia who sticks by him--despite being treated horribly. He lashes at her verbally--he throws the food she so carefully brings him against the wall, wasting it, and she displays far more patience with him than he rightfully deserves. Her behavior is especially notable here because it's only after Milla's death that Jude really realizes--or admits--that he really had fallen in love with Milla. Despite Leia so obviously having those same feelings for Jude, she doesn't get jealous or mad at him. She is persistent in taking care of him. She accepts his grief and his feelings, despite her own... because after all, Milla was her friend, too.

She takes her apparent death far better, and in a much more mature way than he does.

"Milla saved your life. You can't throw it away! Don't you understand, Jude?"
From this, it can definitely be said that Leia is resilient. She's able to move forward for Milla's sake, inspiring both Jude and Alvin to do the same while ultimately forgiving both of them. When she considers you a friend, it's hard to offend her, and harmful words... even ones that sting, like "I hate you!" from Elize, bounce right off her. She is quick to admit when she doesn't know how to handle something, like seeing Agria again after her death; and even then, she's able to turn it into inspiration for her articles. She worries for Alvin dealing with Presa's death a second time by himself, but then goes onto assure Ludger that she believes in him--and as his friends, it's their duty to help however they can.

It's no surprise, then, that Leia values effort over victory. She's competitive by nature--her reaction to the Xian Du Coliseum makes that obvious, if it isn't already--and while she's very proud when she succeeds or wins at anything, her losses and slip-ups only make her try that much harder. She is determined and gives 110% into everything she does, which can be both admirable and... a bit overwhelming.

Leia comes off this way sometimes: very in-your-face and hard to ignore, to the point of being a bit naggy. After seeing Jude for the first time since he left home to attend medical school in Fennmont, she demands to know why he never responded to any of her letters. Jude explains how they were very difficult to respond to because she wrote so much about herself; and then she demands to know what she missed. (In 10 seconds at that!) In Xillia 2, when Ludger gets his usual call from work during Alvin's final character episode, Leia finally says enough and literally takes the phone from him, telling Vera that Ludger's too busy--thus getting him out of work in favor of Alvin's celebration. He certainly doesn't complain; nor does Jude.

Jude, in fact, cites this quality in Leia as the only reason he was able to recover at all from Milla's death. Her persistence and effort saved both of them; and while she certainly wasn't smiling then, her overall cheerful demeanor really helps the morale of the party in the worst of times.

Rowen: You seem quite happy!
Leia: Being cheerful is what I do!
Rowen: And don't ever, ever give that up.
Because Leia is such a positive character, many of her qualities are painted as such--but they have room to be negative, too. She's emotional: as happy as she tends to be, she is still prone to tears, so it can really go either way, depending on the situation.

She always strives to better herself, however. She promises Ludger she won't cry anymore, after doing so for Julius's sake.

And if you asked, anyone would say they're lucky to be her friend.

◎ Powers/Abilities:

✿ From the Wiki: Leia's Fighting Style
✿ From the Wiki: List of the spirit artes (magic spells) Leia has access to

About spirit artes. Spirit artes are magic technically borrowed from spirits that coexist symbiotically with humans, even before anyone realized they were there. The process begins when a person emits mana from their mana lobe as an offering (casting). Spirits are drawn to the mana and feed on it, and an incantation is spoken by the person to indicate what kind of spell they need. The spirit then performs it, completing the pact.

✿ From the Wiki: List of skills Leia can learn via her Allium Orb

About the Allium Orb. The Allium orb replaces the Lillium orb, the level-up system that was in place in the first game. It serves the same purpose however--that is, it's an object that allows Leia to learn new artes, skills, and even enhance old artes by making them more effective (take less mana to cast; make the arte more powerful, etc). This is done through collection of elemental ore, which can be found anywhere on the field as well as dropped from enemies.

Unlike the Lilium orb, however, the Allium orb needs an extractor. Depending on what kind of extractor is equipped, different properties are extracted from the elemental ore collected, be it fire, water, wind, earth etc. These then lead to new artes and skills as requirements to learn them are met.

◎ Weapons & Other Special Inventory:

✿ Staff: Wind Striker
✿ Allium Orb: Fissure (Extractor that draws out wind and earth properties from elemental ore.)
✿ Apple gels
✿ Orange gels
✿ Life bottles
✿ Her GHS (cell phone)
✿ Her notebook

CEREALIA-Specific

◎ Element: Air (Wind)
◎ Sense: Touch. Leia has had hands-on training as both a nurse (at the Mathis Clinic) and a martial artist (with her mom) since she was little, and both involve physical touch. It would make sense for it to be the most developed of the five.
◎ Seven Character Traits:

✿ resilient
✿ determined
✿ compassionate
✿ competitive
✿ prideful
✿ overbearing
✿ emotional

Samples

◎ First-Person Sample:

Whoa--this is kind of like being on TV, isn't it?

[A bright young girl appears on the video feed suddenly, with the camera spinning around to show her face. Her surprised expression melts into a smile, even a bit of a laugh.]

Jeez. I probably should have thought this through a little better... but hey! To all of you watching out there, the name's Leia. [A playful salute, and she winks.] You might've seen me at that meeting earlier today, but if you missed me, that's okay, too. It's taking me a little while to get my bearings, anyway.

[Her tone is cheerful enough, yet a bit gloomy at the same time--the implication being, of course, that she wants to talk to everyone. She has so many questions, after all, but she knows how annoying those can be.

She'd rather leave it in their hands.]

That was a lot to take in, so if you want to talk it out, don't be shy, okay? Even if you don't know me, I don't mind.

[...]

Oh. [She holds up the notebook that looks a bit worn like she's been taking notes.] And um, if anyone happens to come across another notebook like this one, with my notes all over it... be sure to let me know. I'll even let you read it if you want.

[Not that it would mean anything to many people outside of her friends. But she digresses.]

... Thanks.

[And finally, after all that babbling: click.]

* * *
✿ ALSO THE TEST DRIVE MEME (1, 2, 3, 4)
✿ and another meme

◎ Third-Person Sample:

The funny thing is: Leia was far more at home in ViViD than she could ever be in the meeting. Monsters coming from every direction, getting in her way--yeah, she's used to that. Sure, she was a lot less graceful about it alone... but she managed, didn't she? Even if she hesitated, in the end. Even though she... it seemed so familiar to her.

It had to be her imagination. Just like everything else they showed her... none of that was real, was it?

“Stop it,” she chides herself. She makes her way to the residential district, taking in the sights as she goes. Welcome distractions, to be sure, but her thoughts still stray and wander, making her halt. “Even if none of that was real, that's all the more reason I've got to stay focused and break through their lies. That's what a good journalist does! If this is some sort of fractured dimension...”

Then Spirius messed up BIG time.

She trails off, reaching for her favorite pink pen that makes its home in her pocket. She takes a deep breath, ready to review her notes she took at the meeting with a clearer head. Underlining, circling... a journalist's true weapons! Yet... something is missing.

A second notebook, which she only just realized was gone from her side. 'Data' that was unable to be recovered, no doubt.

“No! My Elle diary! Where...?”

She twirls in a circle slowly, scanning the ground at her feet as well as the immediate path behind her. Surely she couldn't have dropped it...?! She starts to backtrack, making a displeased, yet concerned groan.

If she can't find it... she'll just have to start a new one...

* * *
Despite being in a brand new world, the ground still isn't terribly interesting. Leia feels herself losing interest in her search quickly, despite how important her notes are to her, for Elle's sake; and finding herself in the shopping district certainly doesn't help matters either. Had she taken a wrong turn somewhere...?

Even as absorbed in her thoughts as she was, she definitely would have noticed passing by such a large marketplace. It's hard for her to even concentrate on any one thing. Her eyes dart around from one store to the next, with barely any time to absorb what they're selling. What are they all? All she knows is that this whole planet has got the largest collection of spyrixes she's ever seen.

This starts to make her a little uneasy...at least, until she sees the food.

Her eyes widen, and though guilt and homesickness already start to tug at her, it doesn't stop her legs from moving totally on their own. I just realized I'm starving, she thinks to herself--as if it's never happened before. Maybe she's finally starting to feel a little self-conscious about babbling aloud to no one in particular; but it only results in her mumbling more quietly.

“Okay. Guess I'll just eat enough for everyone,” she jokes, balling her hands into determined fists. “And maybe then... we'll figure a way out of this.”

She takes a deep breath, inhaling the smell of food traveling freely in the air; and like always, she moves forward, hoping for the best.

◎ Is your character retaining any previous game memories? No.