faceblocks (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
faceblocks) wrote2022-02-05 11:14 pm
faceblocks) wrote2022-02-05 11:14 pm
Entry tags:
application for deer country
Character Base
• Character Name: Vi(olet)
• Age: Around 21
• Canon (Date/Year Released)/Canon Point: (Arcane/2021) end of episode 9, "The Monster You Created".
• Items Coming Along: Vander's gauntlets, her outfit with the red jacket, a cupcake with a blue marble on it, some athletic tape, her prison files.
• Content Warnings for Character: physical violence, parental death, child death, death in general, war, prison, ptsd, substances, mental health issues.
Character Background
• History: here & here & some details on her time in Stillwater prison (Screenshots here if the links below are wonky due to site navigation):
Problem Child I
Problem Child II
Reputation I
Reputation II
Reputation III
Inmate 516 I
Inmate 516 II
Inmate 516 III
Inmate 516 IV
• Core Relationships:
Powder/Jinx Vi's closest and most important relationship is her younger sister, Powder. She was Powder's defender, big sister, and arguably a mother figure after their mother's death. Vi was extremely protective of and encouraging to her sister, and though she was devastated to find out that it was Powder's monkeybomb that was responsible for the explosion that killed the rest of their adoptive family (and was likely a huge factor in what resulted in Vander's death) ...and upset enough to verbally berate her and strike her in anger - she still had never ever meant to abandon her sister. The whole time she's been imprisoned in Stillwater, it's been the idea of reuniting with Powder that's kept her going, kept her sane, kept her human. She doesn't realize that the person she still feels such a close bond to is ultimately a different person now, one that she is unable to accept in the end: Jinx. But despite this, even after being horrified at how violent her sister has become, moments after having a gun in her face, they're fighting together, back to back. It's complicated. Even moreso now that Silco is dead and Jinx just fired a missile at Piltover. She loves her sister even if she cannot come to terms with who Jinx is. Jinx tells her that she's incorrect in thinking Silco "made" Jinx when she says: "Wanna know a secret? Silco thinks he made Jinx, with all his rants and his hard-won lessons. “Excise your doubts, Jinx. Be what they fear, Jinx.” Like everything was the same as when Vander left him. But he didn’t make Jinx. You did." Vi is still trying to grapple with that, and it confirms her worst fears. Another subtle/not so subtle nod to this are Vi's tattoos, as they are all gears and machinery. Vi is not a tinkerer or scientist but she had mad respect for and faith in her sister's skills, and it's also a way of showing how hope for reunion and the possibility of Powder being alive has held her up all these years whilst she was imprisoned. ♥♥♥
Vander Found Vi and Powder as traumatized orphans, and gave them pretty much the only stability, guidance and love they've known since. He knew their parents, and became a father figure to both children. Vi especially looked up to and trusted him, wanting to follow in his example (even in fighting, which was not always the best option, as Vander himself pointed out) - literally willing to trade her freedom to make sure he could stay safe and protect the undercity. She truly takes after Vander and is sneeringly referred to as Vander's "prodigy" by Silco.
Ekko Was part of Vi's undercity found-family. Around Powder's age, Vi looked on him as a little brother in her ragtag group, and a smart, sharp-eyed source of information and ideas. She taught him to fight and he looked up to her as an "asskicker". Her affection for him is obvious when they meet after the timeskip. One "fuck you”, and the next thing is a hug with tears. Despite their differing opinions on Jinx/Powder, Vi still immediately trusts Ekko's plans regarding the hexgem, and he comes to her aid on the bridge—ultimately fighting Jinx so that Vi can get Caitlyn to safety. There's a lot of unspoken trust there. ♥♥♥
Mylo & Claggor Both were part of her crew, and her adoptive brothers - peers closer to her own age that she could spar, banter and scrap with, and though there's more closure here for Vi than there is for say, Powder/Jinx, it's still a wound. Not so much an open one, but a scar. When it came down to it they all had each other's backs, even if Vi was the obvious leader. Their importance is highlighted in Vi's tattoos, as there are two keys incorporated into the design with their initials nested inside each key.
Caitlyn Kirraman Vi's friendship with Cait is newfound, and she has been surprised by this topsider's kindness, perseverance, and general goodness. She had no reason to trust her at the outset, but begrudgingly took a chance and Cait has come through for her every time. She's the only new person to get a glimpse of Vi's softer, squishy, full-of-feelings side. Though she tries to push her away a few times, it's out of care: she doesn't want to see Cait hurt. Their romance is just beginning to blossom when it looks like their world is about to go to shit. ♥♥♥
Jayce Talis Vi respected Jayce because Caitlyn puts her trust in him. As Cait's longtime friend, that grants him a chance she might not give to some other Piltie, especially someone on the Council. While she considers him an ally, she's disappointed that one fight causes him to basically bail because things got messy. Granted, it resulted in the death of a child, but since there are a great many children being affected by the corruption and blind eyes in both cities, she finds this a cowardly view.
Sevika Silco's second. It's possible Vi's hatred of Sevika is even worse than of Silco, as she'd known the woman since she was a kid, as part of Vander's ...team. As one of his people - the very people he was trying to protect. Seeing Sevika's condemnation and subsequent betrayal of Vander was one of the most despicable things to her, and her first move after being released from Stillwater (besides eating and paying a visit to the brothel for any intel on her sister's whereabouts) is to launch her knee at Sevika's face and proceed to go balls to the wall until she almost dies. She risks making her presence known to Silco, and her own life over this. And she does it again in a later rematch. She never does this to Silco, even when she encounters him.
Silco To Vi, he's the monster that came for her sister, the Big Bad that she 'failed' to protect her from. He's the reason for every bad thing in Zaun, according to Vi, and she's blindly committed to this view. He kidnapped Powder, he "twisted" her and filled her head with "bullshit". Vi truly believes that it's his influence that made her sister the way she is now, basically attributing to him a supernatural level of manipulative and hypnotic qualities when that's ...not entirely true. She most likely doesn't know about the details of Vander's break with Silco, or how close they were before - close enough to consider each other brothers. She's made Silco into a larger than life villain in her mind, though there's some conflicting evidence when Jinx kidnaps both of them, along with Caitlyn. She is unwillingly coming to grips that Silco ...cared about Jinx, though she is loathe to admit it. Curiously, she doesn't attack him directly when she has a (tiny) chance, but that's most likely due to recovering from not dying very shortly before the encounter. She does bring a building down on him, but doesn't stick around to make sure he's dead. (And she's distracted by a flare that could be Powder - that's far more important.)
Marcus Is only a core relationship because he forcibly kidnapped and chloroformed her just as she was going back for Powder, kicking off a reality in which Powder had no real reason to believe Vi didn't abandon her. She's not even 100% sure why he did this, or if he had help. To make matters worse, Marcus imprisoned Vi in Stillwater for roughly seven years because he couldn't think of a safer (LOL) better place to hide her from Silco and his goons. She was beaten regularly, and he couldn't have not known this. He probably thinks of himself as a real stand-up dude for not being able to kill a kid, but what the actual fuck, Marcus?
Character Personality Through Key Moments
(2+) Positive Experiences:
Vi is brave. She steps up to defend her crew against would-be thieves, holding her own in the ensuing fight and making sure that anyone pounding on her friends eats all the dirt - to the point of bringing her fists to a knife-fight. (She basically ends a would-be knife fight with a glare.) She puts herself between her crew/family and Silco's many henchmen as Mylo & Claggor try to free Vander. As a young teen, she is willing to fight every one of these grown-ass adults some of whom wield knives and in one case, a hammer, and all of them much larger than her. When she sees that she has to fight a terrifying Shimmer beast, her only hesitation is a less-than-a-second widening of her eyes before she's all in. She does this without being asked. It's just who she is.
She is self-sacrificing. She sends the message to Grayson and is fully willing to turn herself in for an unspecified amount of jail time, to protect her friends, found family, and The Lanes. She understands the balance that Vander had struck - the fragile peace. No one asks this of her, either, and she goes about it silently and deliberately, making sure to say her goodbyes without triggering any sort of alarms.
This makes her a good leader. She accepts her responsibility in the fiasco causing the enforcers to need a "pound of flesh". She's upset when Vander shows up and foils her plan - she was clearly 100% committed to following through.
Her compassion is evident in the way she makes sure to reassure Powder that she is part of the group, and she is valuable and useful and lovable just the way she is, without having to be like anyone else. Without having to be a fighter. She sees Powder's tinkering as a strength, something unique to Powder, and she is proud of her. Vi points out that she believes Powder's devices will work some day, goes out of her way to tell her it’s okay when she loses the loot, and defends her to Milo even when she isn’t there. When Vander warns her of the dangers of fighting with Piltover, Vi's thoughts are for a better life not just for herself, but for her sister.
After years in a shithole of a prison, Vi still has managed to not lose her humanity.
She is completely focused on finding her sister once she finds out that Powder/Jinx is alive. She never loses sight of this goal. Even wounded, fleeing falling wreckage after an encounter with Silco, she slips ahead of Cait again when she sees blue smoke. She assumes it is a flare she gave her sister when they were still kids:
She does. She fights to get to the source of the smoke, not even sure if it's her sister, but Vi keeps her word.
(2+) Negative Experiences:
Of course, her compassion is also a weakness - moments after beating Sevika to the ground she's foiled by the mere suggestion that Powder now works for Silco and isn't a captive. This emotional punch that Sevika delivers by telling her this is enough that Vi lets her guard down and gets stabbed - she's immobile. And when the words "she's like his daughter" are whispered in her ear it breaks her - in that moment she utterly gives up and seems resigned to ...die.
Negatives: "Compassion. (…"But you just said—?" "I F(&(ING KNOW WHAT I F^%@#ING SAID!")"
Is she adventurous? Absolutely, but she is also reckless. One could argue that acting on Little Man/Ekko's tip and keeping it from Vander, she set into motion the whole of a very terrible series of events. Vander tells her as much when he says this:
"Did you even stop to think what could happen to you? To them?"
"When people look up to you, you don’t get to be selfish. You say run, they run. You say swim, they dive in. You say light a fire, they show up with oil. But whatever happens, it’s on you."
Later, she gives Cait the slip and goes in fists blazing, which feels great until getting a knife in the gut. That impulsiveness and hot headedness might have cost her her life if not for Caitlyn's intervention. Also, because she couldn't cool her jets and not bodyslam herself into Sevika, Silco finds out thet she is alive and in the undercity. She kicks in a door instead of waiting on Mylo to pick the lock. Not the best decision when they're trying to rob a "Piltover palace" undetected.
Vi's temper also changed Powder’s life when she struck her and called her a "jinx". Her walking away to calm down was the right decision, but the wrong moment: this would be the last time she would see Powder until the timeskip.
She's stubborn, unwilling to let go of things. She holds grudges against Sevika for switching sides and betraying Vander; and Lock, one of Silco's goons, whose jaw she breaks as soon as she sees him. Her grudge against Silco is like ...tenfold that. Her stubbornness blinds to Powder's actual evolution into Jinx, thinking instead that Silco brainwashed her. She remains unable to accept Jinx as she is, despite claiming to do so. As much as she fights for her, she's fighting to try and bring back [her memory of] Powder, not Jinx.
Jinx to Vi episode 9: "I thought maybe you could love me, like you used to. Even though I'm... different.."
Vi is emotionally guarded and generally distrustful of topsiders. Even when someone, like Caitlyn, has earned her trust, it is easier for her to push them away than to let them get close, and risk losing them or otherwise getting hurt, herself.
Vi: "Oil and water. Wasn't meant to be."
Caitlyn: "You're just saying that."
Vi: "Do yourself a favor, Cupcake. Go back to that big, shiny house of yours and just... forget me, okay?"
Deer Country Attributes
• Canon Powers: I’m going with: none. She's very strong, and a scrappy, skilled brawler (even at 14-15) with some amazing parkour moves, but it’s not presented as a supernatural power. (It is mentioned in the Council Archives that she tattooed herself, and since she has a whole back piece that might be ambidexterity + a superpower ...how else would she manage to reach the middle of her back? <--JOKING BUT ALSO NOT JOKING.)
• Blood Type: Vileblood
• Omen: Wolf
• Blessed Day: May 2 (National Brothers and Sisters Day. Sounds about right.)
• Patron Pthumerian: Bausphomette (It might grow to matter to her more. She cannot stomach a bully or a true shitbag of a soul.)
• Blood Power Manifestation: This will manifest in a few ways. Her already high pain threshold will go even higher, at first subtly, growing over time. This will also result in a sort of "reservoir pool" to pull from. She can fight normally for a long time, but should she choose to dip into this limited reserve, she might be able to do something amazing, like punch through something she can't usually punch through, or send someone flying much farther than she intended. However! The more she does this, the longer she sustains it and the bigger the feat, the more she will be drained and unable to function normally without a proportionate rest or some sort of intervention - be it through magic, boon or blood. ALSO! Since her blood is poison, if her fists get bloody, she now has poison weapons. Or, if she spits blood in someone's eyes during a fight - it's poison blood! (Hey, it could happen.)
Writing Samples
One: TDM : thread with Sansa Stark/Alayne Stone
Two: TDM : thread with Jinx
(If more is needed:)
Three: TDM : thread with Johnny
Four: TDM : thread with Lucius
The Player
• Player Name: Aeri
• Player Age: I am dust. (It's sparkly dust, tho.)
• Player Contact:
• Permissions: Here.