Futurology Application
27 Apr 2016 21:51![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
celenaAPPLICANT INFO.
NAME: Dilly
CONTACT: Inbox here, e-mail dilandau.firestarer [at] gmail.com or PM![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
squigglebat
CURRENT CHARACTERS:None
CHARACTER INFO.
NAME: Celena Schezar, formerly known as Dilandau Albatou
CANON: The Vision of Escaflowne
AGE: Seventeen
APPEARANCE: Link
CANON POINT: Two years after the end of the series
BACKGROUND:
Celena was born the younger child of the noble Schezar family in the Kingdom of Asturia on the planet Gaia. Her father was an adventurer obsessed with finding the Mystic Valley, and frequently abandoned his family to go hunting for clues. On one of his adventures he angered Emperor Dornkirk of Zaibach by refusing to share the secrets he’d discovered. Dornkirk had him killed, but failed to discover his secrets in his belongings, so in his spite Dornkirk ordered Celena’s kidnapping. She was taken to his Sorcerers to use in their Fate Alteration experiments in order to prove that it was possible for humans to alter destiny. She was five years old.
The Sorcerers succeeded in altering Celena, turning her from a gentle girl into a memoryless boy they renamed Dilandau Albatou. Dilandau was raised to be a loyal Zaibachan soldier and proved himself in battle repeatedly until he was given the rank of Captain aged 15. His unit, the Dragonslayers, were assigned the task of capturing The Dragon, a being that was obscuring Dornkirk’s visions of a perfect future.
This Dragon was the Escaflowne, an ancient mecha that belonged to the newly-crowned King Van of Fanelia. Under the command of Folken, Fanelia’s former crown prince, Dilandau razed Fanelia to the ground but failed to capture the Escaflowne due to the magic surrounding Hitomi, who'd arrived from Japan to Fanelia only days before.
Dilandau pursued Van and Hitomi across the continent, driving them out of wherever they sought to hide. Celena's elder brother Allen joined the pair after Dilandau razed his outpost and Princess Millerna of Asturia joined them later. Dilandau briefly captured Van and Van cut his face open while escaping, leaving Dilandau permanently scarred and vengeful. Eventually, Van was driven in desperation to confront Dilandau and his Dragonslayers directly.
Dilandau and the Dragonslayers surrounded him, but Van awoke Escaflowne’s dormant powers and slaughtered all of Dilandau’s men. Dilandau escaped, but the loss of his men drove him mad. He was sent back to the Sorcerers as he was now useless for battle.
In Zaibach, the Fate Alteration reversed and Dilandau became Celena again, albeit with no memories at all. Jajuka was assigned to watch over her. Over the next few months the Sorcerers tried to fix the Fate Alteration and Dilandau was sent back to fight several times, but he was never stable. During this time, he briefly became Celena again and was found by Allen. She spontaneously Altered in front of him, and he learnt the truth about her disappearance. Jajuka swept in and took Dilandau away before Allen could ask questions.
In the final battle, Van and Dilandau met again. Van nearly killed Dilandau, but Jajuka blocked the attack with his own body, begging Dilandau with his dying breath not to be afraid to become Celena again. This shock of his death finally reversed the Fate Alteration permanently. Allen jumped in and fought Van to a standstill, and the siblings were reunited at the end of the battle. Celena returned home to begin reliving her true life.
After the series ended, peace fell over the land. Celena maintained her memories of her former life and spent many months struggling both with being suddenly a woman again and coming to terms with the crimes she committed, as well as with being thrust from Dilandau’s active role as a front-line soldier to her passive role as rescued, recuperating noble maiden.
Celena worked to regain what she missed out on over the last decade, cramming in studies on manners, elocution and acceptable activities such as music and riding. However, her attempts to integrate into the social circle that should have been hers were hampered by the secret of her past, so her true confidantes were restricted to Princess Millerna, who ascended to the throne when Celena was sixteen, her brother and her brother's men.
When representatives of the Zaibach Empire were invited to the second annual remembrance of the end of the Destiny war, a move Celena vocally opposed but was ignored over, that was a spur for her to re-examine the skill of her former life. Fearing that she would be too weak if the Zaibachans came for her, she began training herself back into physical fitness.
In the end, Celena avoided the celebrations completely and the Zaibachan diplomats left without incident, but by then Celena had rediscovered her love for swordplay. At the point of her falling through the rift to Oska, Celena was secretly training in earnest for the annual open tournament at the palace training grounds, intending to attend disguised as a man if she were barred as a woman competitor.
PERSONALITY:
In order to understand Celena, you need to understand Dilandau, the boy she was turned into from ages 5-15. She remembers all her years as him, and so the boy she was has strongly shaped the woman she's become.
Dilandau was a person who saw the world in extremes. As a mere experiment, his survival from childhood depended on proving himself to be a success. This infected him with a relentless drive to excel, for mediocrity carried a genuine threat of the experiment being terminated. As such, he never considered himself to have equals; the world only contained those who couldn't surpass him and those he planned to surpass. The only exceptions to this rule were the Sorcerers who created him and the all-seeing Emperor Dornkirk. In their presence he knelt and tried not to call attention to himself.
If he’d considered the situation rationally he’d have realised he’d be easily able to cut down the elderly Sorcerers. However, they effectively established a rule of terror over him when he was young, liberally using restraints and sedatives to keep him in check. Because of this Celena still hates needles.
With anyone who didn't hold such a tight power over him he jockeyed to be the alpha of the group. This could be seen with Folken, who he initially paid respects to as Dornkirk's second but quickly came to look down on. He insulted the man to his face for having less practical experience in warfare, though he acknowledged Folken's talents in strategy and technology. Because Folken didn't punish his insolence he listened when it suited him but obeyed only technicalities of his orders when he thought he knew better.
His confidence and talent gave him a certain charm to those who were looking for a sure leader. He knew exactly what he wanted and how he'd get it and those who could keep up were promised that they'd reap the glorious rewards with him. In the beginning of the series he had a number of loyal subordinates who he abused and grew enraged with if they failed to meet his high expectations. His reputation was a vital part of who he was, so if the men he'd chosen failed, he'd failed as well.
As well as his reputation another vital part of his self-image was his beauty. He was a narcissist, a hangover from his days as a cossetted girl praised for her prettiness. When Van cut open Dilandau's cheek he threatened him in a way only the Sorcerers had been able to do up to now. His beauty was ruined, his talent was inadequate to stop it from happening and from now on everyone who looked at him will know it. The only way he could make it better was to destroy Van utterly, to wipe him off of the earth so no one else would dare do the same. This drive for vengeance consumed him.
One obsession that he had trouble controlling was his pyromania. He took any excuse he could in battle to set his surroundings alight no matter what the casualties might be. The uncontrolled fire sent him into an equally uncontrolled frenzy of bloodshed, releasing all of the tension that had built up in him from the stresses of his existence.
His blunted sense of empathy from his raising meant he had difficulty seeing other people's needs. When Miguel was captured he was unworried about whether the man would suffer any torture, because he knew Miguel was loyal enough not to betray him. This blunted empathy could also be seen in his vicious response to his enemies being self-sacrificial. To him such an action was the height of foolishness, because one's survival depended on victory. He couldn't seem to see why someone else would do such a thing and thus hated it.
Though Dilandau had little empathy he was no loner. On the contrary, he depended on having people he could trust nearby. He was terrified of being alone, a terror that developed from Celena's experiences during her kidnapping. Isolation was incredibly stressful to his psyche and eventually caused his alteration to break down after his men were slaughtered.
Back to Celena, the key difference between Celena and Dilandau is that Celena remembers her formative years of being loved. She was doted on by her family and then later on by Jajuka. She knows that she is more than an experiment and that she has an innate worth. Where Dilandau struggled to interact with people in a non-aggressive way she knows the rewards of being kind.
The part of her past she finds hardest to deal with is knowing how badly she failed the dragonslayers. With her full memories she can now appreciate how fully they trusted her and the sacrifices they made to follow her. She bitterly regrets not knowing at the time how to understand and express to them how much they meant to her. She also feels guilty about the destruction she caused. Though part of her wishes to forget any of her years in Zaibach ever happened, more of her believes it would be a betrayal to the people she injured.
Celena loves her brother. After losing her family, the dragonslayers and then Jajuka, regaining Allen was like a blessing. Initially she clung to him, as her fear of isolation plagued her into barely letting him leave her alone, but she slowly gained independence as she settled into her new life. Nowadays she finds him to be overbearing at times, but she fears somewhere that he'll leave if she pushes the matter too hard, so tries to stay pleasant as much as she can while staying true to herself. When she’s stressed, her terror of the dark rises up once more.
Discovering how little Allen is like the impression Dilandau formed helped Celena to see how much else of his perceptions were warped. Though she is quick to pass judgement on people, nowadays she tries hard not to let herself set on that decision, for that judgement could be very wrong. If anything, she's a little uncertain of her impressions of people and will seek second opinions. The only snap judgements she trusts are those for threats, for that instinct is incredibly honed.
Though she’s no longer the stew of testosterone and terror she once was, she's still had to learn to watch her temper when she becomes frustrated, because even quietly cursing gets her the sort of looks she doesn't appreciate. At first when among strangers she tried to pretend she was simply imprisoned in Zaibach, but she slipped up enough times that she changed her story to a white lie about being a member of one of Zaibach's ceremonial women's corps. It's made her more comfortable, since she can relax about little slip ups such as knowing too much about battle.
Freed from the stressors of Zaibach, her pyromania no longer itches at her as it once did, but she still finds fire far too fascinating. Like a recovering alcoholic she never takes a sip, fearful of reawakening her appetite for destruction. Thus, though she may stare at fires, she makes her servants light them for her.
The determination that was once Dilandau's still lingers strongly in her. Once she became stable enough to reenter society it drove her to try and master the feminine skills expected of a woman of her rank. When she thinks it's necessary for her to learn something she ploughs into it fiercely. Those who pity her lack of skills only drive her on more, as do those who think she's unable to handle more academic studies because of her womanhood.
With men who show sexual or romantic interest, she's aloof. She enjoys being admired and will happily listen to an ego stroke, but she's spent enough time in barracks to be very cynical about the intentions of those men who want to take her on long walks or spend time alone, to the point where she's turned down genuine suitors.
But all of these difficulties means that she’s not a content person. Two years of study cannot compensate for not being raised as the person she was meant to be and she’s both aware that she’s an outsider and aware that others perceive her as an outsider. This is part of why taking up her exercise routines has become so addictive to her: her woman’s body is smaller and weaker than it used to be, but these are skills she mastered a long time ago and are second nature to her. She justifies relearning the sword again by thinking of herself as a weapon forged by Zaibach: rather than letting herself go rusty in a lace sheath, she intends to sharpen herself and then place her hilt into the hands of her own people, to defend against those Zaibachans who once tormented her.
ABILITIES:
INVENTORY:
WRITING SAMPLES.
NETWORK SAMPLE:
[Celena appears in darkness, kneeling near one wall of the viewing room. She's lit only by sunlight glittering off the ocean washing softly in the large frame beside her, but from what can be seen she's got the strained look of someone who's been down there far too long.
She doesn't start with introductions; she assumes anyone of note will know of her by reputation if not by personal experience]
When Hitomi came from Earth to Gaia, she was surprised that our sea smells just the same as hers. I understand how she felt now: the ocean looks like the ocean and grass looks just like grass on so many worlds. I have been looking in these mirrors for a glimpse of home for so long, and over and over I've thought I've seen familiar landscape only to see buildings or creatures that don't exist in Gaia, or perhaps they do exist but just on a continent that I've never travelled to and-
[The picture shifts as she lowers her wrist rapidly, hiding her face from view as she sucks in deep breaths to regain control of her distress. She is not going to lose her face completely in public.
A few moments later she raises her wrist again and stares into the camera. She's got a firmer grip on herself now and her jaw is set]
But I am rambling. Does anyone know of any books or devices or scholars who can predict what worlds these mirrors will show? Has anyone ever seen their homeland here, or am I pining like a fool in front of a wall of dead ends?
LOG SAMPLE: Celena helping out some friends at her previous game
NAME: Dilly
CONTACT: Inbox here, e-mail dilandau.firestarer [at] gmail.com or PM
CURRENT CHARACTERS:None
CHARACTER INFO.
NAME: Celena Schezar, formerly known as Dilandau Albatou
CANON: The Vision of Escaflowne
AGE: Seventeen
APPEARANCE: Link
CANON POINT: Two years after the end of the series
BACKGROUND:
Celena was born the younger child of the noble Schezar family in the Kingdom of Asturia on the planet Gaia. Her father was an adventurer obsessed with finding the Mystic Valley, and frequently abandoned his family to go hunting for clues. On one of his adventures he angered Emperor Dornkirk of Zaibach by refusing to share the secrets he’d discovered. Dornkirk had him killed, but failed to discover his secrets in his belongings, so in his spite Dornkirk ordered Celena’s kidnapping. She was taken to his Sorcerers to use in their Fate Alteration experiments in order to prove that it was possible for humans to alter destiny. She was five years old.
The Sorcerers succeeded in altering Celena, turning her from a gentle girl into a memoryless boy they renamed Dilandau Albatou. Dilandau was raised to be a loyal Zaibachan soldier and proved himself in battle repeatedly until he was given the rank of Captain aged 15. His unit, the Dragonslayers, were assigned the task of capturing The Dragon, a being that was obscuring Dornkirk’s visions of a perfect future.
This Dragon was the Escaflowne, an ancient mecha that belonged to the newly-crowned King Van of Fanelia. Under the command of Folken, Fanelia’s former crown prince, Dilandau razed Fanelia to the ground but failed to capture the Escaflowne due to the magic surrounding Hitomi, who'd arrived from Japan to Fanelia only days before.
Dilandau pursued Van and Hitomi across the continent, driving them out of wherever they sought to hide. Celena's elder brother Allen joined the pair after Dilandau razed his outpost and Princess Millerna of Asturia joined them later. Dilandau briefly captured Van and Van cut his face open while escaping, leaving Dilandau permanently scarred and vengeful. Eventually, Van was driven in desperation to confront Dilandau and his Dragonslayers directly.
Dilandau and the Dragonslayers surrounded him, but Van awoke Escaflowne’s dormant powers and slaughtered all of Dilandau’s men. Dilandau escaped, but the loss of his men drove him mad. He was sent back to the Sorcerers as he was now useless for battle.
In Zaibach, the Fate Alteration reversed and Dilandau became Celena again, albeit with no memories at all. Jajuka was assigned to watch over her. Over the next few months the Sorcerers tried to fix the Fate Alteration and Dilandau was sent back to fight several times, but he was never stable. During this time, he briefly became Celena again and was found by Allen. She spontaneously Altered in front of him, and he learnt the truth about her disappearance. Jajuka swept in and took Dilandau away before Allen could ask questions.
In the final battle, Van and Dilandau met again. Van nearly killed Dilandau, but Jajuka blocked the attack with his own body, begging Dilandau with his dying breath not to be afraid to become Celena again. This shock of his death finally reversed the Fate Alteration permanently. Allen jumped in and fought Van to a standstill, and the siblings were reunited at the end of the battle. Celena returned home to begin reliving her true life.
After the series ended, peace fell over the land. Celena maintained her memories of her former life and spent many months struggling both with being suddenly a woman again and coming to terms with the crimes she committed, as well as with being thrust from Dilandau’s active role as a front-line soldier to her passive role as rescued, recuperating noble maiden.
Celena worked to regain what she missed out on over the last decade, cramming in studies on manners, elocution and acceptable activities such as music and riding. However, her attempts to integrate into the social circle that should have been hers were hampered by the secret of her past, so her true confidantes were restricted to Princess Millerna, who ascended to the throne when Celena was sixteen, her brother and her brother's men.
When representatives of the Zaibach Empire were invited to the second annual remembrance of the end of the Destiny war, a move Celena vocally opposed but was ignored over, that was a spur for her to re-examine the skill of her former life. Fearing that she would be too weak if the Zaibachans came for her, she began training herself back into physical fitness.
In the end, Celena avoided the celebrations completely and the Zaibachan diplomats left without incident, but by then Celena had rediscovered her love for swordplay. At the point of her falling through the rift to Oska, Celena was secretly training in earnest for the annual open tournament at the palace training grounds, intending to attend disguised as a man if she were barred as a woman competitor.
PERSONALITY:
In order to understand Celena, you need to understand Dilandau, the boy she was turned into from ages 5-15. She remembers all her years as him, and so the boy she was has strongly shaped the woman she's become.
Dilandau was a person who saw the world in extremes. As a mere experiment, his survival from childhood depended on proving himself to be a success. This infected him with a relentless drive to excel, for mediocrity carried a genuine threat of the experiment being terminated. As such, he never considered himself to have equals; the world only contained those who couldn't surpass him and those he planned to surpass. The only exceptions to this rule were the Sorcerers who created him and the all-seeing Emperor Dornkirk. In their presence he knelt and tried not to call attention to himself.
If he’d considered the situation rationally he’d have realised he’d be easily able to cut down the elderly Sorcerers. However, they effectively established a rule of terror over him when he was young, liberally using restraints and sedatives to keep him in check. Because of this Celena still hates needles.
With anyone who didn't hold such a tight power over him he jockeyed to be the alpha of the group. This could be seen with Folken, who he initially paid respects to as Dornkirk's second but quickly came to look down on. He insulted the man to his face for having less practical experience in warfare, though he acknowledged Folken's talents in strategy and technology. Because Folken didn't punish his insolence he listened when it suited him but obeyed only technicalities of his orders when he thought he knew better.
His confidence and talent gave him a certain charm to those who were looking for a sure leader. He knew exactly what he wanted and how he'd get it and those who could keep up were promised that they'd reap the glorious rewards with him. In the beginning of the series he had a number of loyal subordinates who he abused and grew enraged with if they failed to meet his high expectations. His reputation was a vital part of who he was, so if the men he'd chosen failed, he'd failed as well.
As well as his reputation another vital part of his self-image was his beauty. He was a narcissist, a hangover from his days as a cossetted girl praised for her prettiness. When Van cut open Dilandau's cheek he threatened him in a way only the Sorcerers had been able to do up to now. His beauty was ruined, his talent was inadequate to stop it from happening and from now on everyone who looked at him will know it. The only way he could make it better was to destroy Van utterly, to wipe him off of the earth so no one else would dare do the same. This drive for vengeance consumed him.
One obsession that he had trouble controlling was his pyromania. He took any excuse he could in battle to set his surroundings alight no matter what the casualties might be. The uncontrolled fire sent him into an equally uncontrolled frenzy of bloodshed, releasing all of the tension that had built up in him from the stresses of his existence.
His blunted sense of empathy from his raising meant he had difficulty seeing other people's needs. When Miguel was captured he was unworried about whether the man would suffer any torture, because he knew Miguel was loyal enough not to betray him. This blunted empathy could also be seen in his vicious response to his enemies being self-sacrificial. To him such an action was the height of foolishness, because one's survival depended on victory. He couldn't seem to see why someone else would do such a thing and thus hated it.
Though Dilandau had little empathy he was no loner. On the contrary, he depended on having people he could trust nearby. He was terrified of being alone, a terror that developed from Celena's experiences during her kidnapping. Isolation was incredibly stressful to his psyche and eventually caused his alteration to break down after his men were slaughtered.
Back to Celena, the key difference between Celena and Dilandau is that Celena remembers her formative years of being loved. She was doted on by her family and then later on by Jajuka. She knows that she is more than an experiment and that she has an innate worth. Where Dilandau struggled to interact with people in a non-aggressive way she knows the rewards of being kind.
The part of her past she finds hardest to deal with is knowing how badly she failed the dragonslayers. With her full memories she can now appreciate how fully they trusted her and the sacrifices they made to follow her. She bitterly regrets not knowing at the time how to understand and express to them how much they meant to her. She also feels guilty about the destruction she caused. Though part of her wishes to forget any of her years in Zaibach ever happened, more of her believes it would be a betrayal to the people she injured.
Celena loves her brother. After losing her family, the dragonslayers and then Jajuka, regaining Allen was like a blessing. Initially she clung to him, as her fear of isolation plagued her into barely letting him leave her alone, but she slowly gained independence as she settled into her new life. Nowadays she finds him to be overbearing at times, but she fears somewhere that he'll leave if she pushes the matter too hard, so tries to stay pleasant as much as she can while staying true to herself. When she’s stressed, her terror of the dark rises up once more.
Discovering how little Allen is like the impression Dilandau formed helped Celena to see how much else of his perceptions were warped. Though she is quick to pass judgement on people, nowadays she tries hard not to let herself set on that decision, for that judgement could be very wrong. If anything, she's a little uncertain of her impressions of people and will seek second opinions. The only snap judgements she trusts are those for threats, for that instinct is incredibly honed.
Though she’s no longer the stew of testosterone and terror she once was, she's still had to learn to watch her temper when she becomes frustrated, because even quietly cursing gets her the sort of looks she doesn't appreciate. At first when among strangers she tried to pretend she was simply imprisoned in Zaibach, but she slipped up enough times that she changed her story to a white lie about being a member of one of Zaibach's ceremonial women's corps. It's made her more comfortable, since she can relax about little slip ups such as knowing too much about battle.
Freed from the stressors of Zaibach, her pyromania no longer itches at her as it once did, but she still finds fire far too fascinating. Like a recovering alcoholic she never takes a sip, fearful of reawakening her appetite for destruction. Thus, though she may stare at fires, she makes her servants light them for her.
The determination that was once Dilandau's still lingers strongly in her. Once she became stable enough to reenter society it drove her to try and master the feminine skills expected of a woman of her rank. When she thinks it's necessary for her to learn something she ploughs into it fiercely. Those who pity her lack of skills only drive her on more, as do those who think she's unable to handle more academic studies because of her womanhood.
With men who show sexual or romantic interest, she's aloof. She enjoys being admired and will happily listen to an ego stroke, but she's spent enough time in barracks to be very cynical about the intentions of those men who want to take her on long walks or spend time alone, to the point where she's turned down genuine suitors.
But all of these difficulties means that she’s not a content person. Two years of study cannot compensate for not being raised as the person she was meant to be and she’s both aware that she’s an outsider and aware that others perceive her as an outsider. This is part of why taking up her exercise routines has become so addictive to her: her woman’s body is smaller and weaker than it used to be, but these are skills she mastered a long time ago and are second nature to her. She justifies relearning the sword again by thinking of herself as a weapon forged by Zaibach: rather than letting herself go rusty in a lace sheath, she intends to sharpen herself and then place her hilt into the hands of her own people, to defend against those Zaibachans who once tormented her.
ABILITIES:
- Sword fighting
- Piloting giant robots
- Unarmed combat
- Combat strategy
- Firesetting
- Playing the harp
- Singing
- Equine care and riding
- Minor skills in embroidery
INVENTORY:
- Clothing
- Lilac linen dress with white lace collar
- White elbow-length gloves
- White ankle shoes with lilac embroidery
- Linen undergarments
- Lilac knee stockings
- Accessories
- pearl and amethyst necklace set in gold
- pearl-tipped hair pins
- A golden, amethyst-decorated haircomb
- Weaponry
- A black-hilted steel sword
- Black scabbard on a red leather belt
- A small switchblade tucked under her neckline
WRITING SAMPLES.
NETWORK SAMPLE:
[Celena appears in darkness, kneeling near one wall of the viewing room. She's lit only by sunlight glittering off the ocean washing softly in the large frame beside her, but from what can be seen she's got the strained look of someone who's been down there far too long.
She doesn't start with introductions; she assumes anyone of note will know of her by reputation if not by personal experience]
When Hitomi came from Earth to Gaia, she was surprised that our sea smells just the same as hers. I understand how she felt now: the ocean looks like the ocean and grass looks just like grass on so many worlds. I have been looking in these mirrors for a glimpse of home for so long, and over and over I've thought I've seen familiar landscape only to see buildings or creatures that don't exist in Gaia, or perhaps they do exist but just on a continent that I've never travelled to and-
[The picture shifts as she lowers her wrist rapidly, hiding her face from view as she sucks in deep breaths to regain control of her distress. She is not going to lose her face completely in public.
A few moments later she raises her wrist again and stares into the camera. She's got a firmer grip on herself now and her jaw is set]
But I am rambling. Does anyone know of any books or devices or scholars who can predict what worlds these mirrors will show? Has anyone ever seen their homeland here, or am I pining like a fool in front of a wall of dead ends?
LOG SAMPLE: Celena helping out some friends at her previous game
