Empatheis App
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adorablenecromancerPlayer: Beryl
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alchemypie
Age: 38
Current Characters: None. Previously Sachiko Shinozaki and Yagyu
⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Marona
Age: 13
Canon: Phantom Brave
Canon Point: After the events of the main story. I am not taking into consideration her cameos in other games, and she is from the main timeline, so has no knowledge of the events of the 'Another Marona' storyline.
Background: Marona is from a world known as Ivoire, a relatively low technology world where magic is fairly common. In this world people are frequently born with special abilities unique to them. Occasionally abilities would overlap however, and that was the case with Marona's parents. Both of them had the ability to see and interact with the ghosts of the dead, an unfortunate ability that earned them a bad reputation despite the fact they used it to help others, not hurt them. They had each other, and a single close friend that knew them as the kind people they were. And eventually, they had Marona as well.
For the first five years of her life, Marona lived a secluded but love-filled life with her parents and their friend, a man by the name of Ash. The trio made ends meet by working as 'Chromas', people who hired out the unique ability they were born with as a sort of mercenary. Even with their bad reputation, they still were able to find people who were willing to pay them, but eventually they took on a job that was too much for them. They were sent to the appropriately named Island of Evil, a place which would eventually play a large part in Marona's life as well. On this island, they were faced with an overwhelming amount of specter-like monsters as well as a larger one which seemed to be in control of the others. All three were stricken down but with the last of his power, Marona's father attempted to save Ash's life. He failed to do so, but was able to save his spirit, which found its way back to Marona and became her ghostly caretaker.
With her parents having moved on to the next life, she had only Ash to depend on as she grew up. She lived a secluded life on the small island her family had called home. But this island was only rented, not owned, and she was not able to grow into adulthood before she was forced to follow in her parents footsteps and begin working as a Chroma as well. It did not take long for her to realize that she had inherited the rumors which had surrounded her parents. While Ash shielded her from the worst abuse, she could still see it in the way people looked at her. Her clients had no problem cheating the 'Possessed One', as she had become known, out of her wages, and she was rarely paid what was agreed on. She found this out when she accepted a job to convince 'Raphael', a famed swordsman who had apparently started pillaging a small island, to stop doing so. Naturally it was a fake, but even though she drove him away as promised, she still was given almost nothing in payment.
Despite this, she kept on accepting every job she could, and it was not long before doing so started the chain of events that would eventually cause the world to accept and adore her. It seemed like a normal job, other then one thing; the request mentioned 'evil phantoms'. Marona hoped to reason with them rather then fight, but as soon as Ash saw what these 'phantoms' were, he knew it'd never work. The monsters she'd been sent to deal with were the same ones that had killed Marona's parents, as well as Ash himself, though thankfully in smaller numbers. Forced to fight to defend herself, she began clearing away the creatures, discovering them to be pouring out what looked like a ripple in the air.
She had no idea how to handle the situation, but before she could even put any thought into it, it was handled for her. An elderly man bearing a massive sword appeared. Seeming to not even take notice of her, he absorbed the portal into his blade, and walked away without even addressing her. This was the first of two figures she met on what was supposed to be an ordinary job that would influence her future. She met the second not long after. With no portal for them to come out of, cleaning up the last of the monsters should have been an easy task, but it was made more complex when she was attacked by a man named Walnut. He proudly declared himself a 'Chroma Oxide', a person that steals jobs from other Chromas. Intent on stealing this job from, he challenged her but was defeated. It should have ended well for Marona, but it turned out the person who had hired her for the job had no knowledge of the rumors about her, a fact that Walnut changed before she could claim her reward. The reward went to the thief, and she went home empty-handed and with a heavy heart. Having the client's opinion of her change so easily was a harsh reminder of just what people thought of her.
It was not long before life decided to teach her another lesson. She was offered another job, this time by a rather eccentric fellow named Canary who claimed to want to protect endangered monster species. She was asked to find a creature called a Putty, but it was not until she'd already traveled to the island it was supposed to be on that she was given the full story. The Putty was actually a circus attraction, and Canary had released it without permission. Once it was found, Marona was presented with a rather lackluster reward for her efforts, but was startled when the creature suddenly made it vanish into thin air. This angered Canary, who yelled his head off at the creature, and in the process attracted the owner of the circus he had 'freed' it from. He explained that he'd actually saved its life before putting it back into its cage and taking off. While not nearly as important as her previous job, she was taught a few valuable lessons by taking it. One, people aren't always what they seem. The circus keeper had come across as the bad guy until she learned more about the situation. More importantly, she learned that no matter what she does, there would always be situations where not everyone involved could be happy.
Not every job brought sorrow to her, however. Next she was hired by someone on a place called the Isle of Healing Waters to deal with monsters. Most of the people on the island had abandoned the place, but the ones that hired her had stayed behind because their daughter, Castile, was bedridden with a crippling sickness that made moving her difficult. Not long after the job had been explained to her, she was forced to deal with the situation, when a startled scream from the girl's room was heard. There were monsters outside of her window, and Marona was quick to deal with them.
She was surprised when the morning after, the girl she'd saved asked to speak with her. She was scared she'd inadvertently done something to offend the girl, but found out the exact opposite was the truth. Castile wanted to thank her personally. At first she didn't know how to react. She'd been given so little gratitude in her life that she wasn't used to it. She was even more surprised when the girl seemed entirely unafraid of her abilities, instead finding them something to be impressed with. But the biggest surprise came when the girl asked for Marona's friendship. It was the first time she could remember that someone had been so kind to her, and didn't treat her horribly based on rumors alone. She forgot about the agreed payment almost right away, and rushed off to finish her task of clearing off the island, only to come face to face with a much more dangerous monster then expected. It was one she'd never seen before, but that had influenced her life a great deal. It was the same one that had killed her parents, and Ash as well. It did not succeed in killing her however, and was seemingly destroyed. The task nearly compete, only a single small monster remained. Before it could be struck down, Castile's father finished the task himself, claiming that since he had done it, he couldn't pay the agreed on price. Marona didn't argue at all, she was more sad that he thought she even WANTED money after becoming his daughter's friend. She left the island behind, familiar sorrowful feelings in her heart, ready to go back to her life of solitude. But that sorrow was lifted the next day, when she received a letter and a gift from her friend. Neither was much, a necklace made out of a seashell and a few kind words, but it was enough to lift the sorrow from her heart and remind her that at least one person, other then Ash, cared about her now. That day, where she knew for sure that she had a real, true friend that saw her for who she really was, became one of her most cherished memories.
After so many emotional highs, her next request was fairly calm. The request came from an elderly noble by the name of Count Malt who was looking for an old lost friend with the dramatic name 'Scarlet The Brave'. This was not as simple a request as it sounded though, the one in question was a legendary hero who had saved the world 30 years prior. The Count told Marona the story of how Scarlet had saved the world from a horrific monster known as Sulphur which had attacked the world multiple times in the past, but vanished right after the battle finished. Sadly, the lead was false, but the Count, unlike many others in the past, was good to his word. He had asked to see if the rumor of Scarlet's location was true, and though it was not, he still paid up in full.
At this point she had grown used to her work, so receiving yet another request was not a surprise at all. What DID come as a surprise was that the request came from a large and influential pharmaceutical company known as Bamboo Co. She was offered what seemed like a run-of-the-mill job with a large cash reward in store once she finished. She was to clear the monsters off of an island where the company wanted to build a new facility. However, she came to discover that the 'monsters' on the island were actually of the same sort that she had tried to rescue from the circus. The island was the home of the Putties, and she couldn't bring herself to drive them from their own home. For the first time in her life, she lied, saying the island was overrun by dragons and not putties. She lied to a famed businessman, and in doing so gave up what to her would have been a small fortune. The normally honest girl wasn't too fond of lying, but knowing that doing so would save so many innocent little lives made it bearable. In the end she was still rewarded, but it was by the putties instead of a businessman. They gathered all sorts of valuables from their island, and shipped them to Marona's. In this situation, she got to have her cake and eat it, too.
With all her successes, along with selling the putty's gifts, she had managed to amass a good amount of money, so decided to go speak with her landlady Sienna about purchasing the island instead of continuing to rent it. Things went sour almost right after she expressed her desire to purchase Phantom Isle. A notorious 'Island Collector' called Cauldron interrupted saying that HE wanted to buy it instead. However she refused to sell to either of them, claiming the island was too special to sell. Instead, she agreed to give the island to the one that fulfilled a dangerous request: To go the the Island of Evil and recover a creature called the Rainbow Bird. This was the very same island that had claimed the lives of so many people in Marona's life and now she was being asked to go there personally. This would end up being even more dangerous then it could have been, as Cauldron was so determined to win the challenge that he hired numerous powerful mercenary groups to claim the animal for him. As if that wasn't enough, Walnut, the man who had attacked her in the past, had infiltrated one of those groups intent on claiming the reward for himself. He continually harassed the mercenary groups, and always found a way to make it look like Marona was at fault. She had to fight each of them one by one, eventually running across Raphael, the REAL one, who had already captured the bird. However unlike the fake, this was a man of honor, and he offered Marona a simple challenge. Defeat him in battle, and he would give up the bird. But even after winning the difficult battle against the legendary swordsman, she was still not safe. Walnut, his plot at its end, appeared to challenge her. In the end she won again. But as he collapsed, muttering about how much he needed money, she couldn't be angry. All she felt was pity. With a gesture she cast curative magic over his unconscious body, and tried to leave the bird behind for him to find when he woke up. But with a sudden flash, it broke free of its cage and flew away. She returned to Sienna empty-handed, but to her surprise the woman suddenly decided to give her the deed to her island without asking anything in return. She was shocked to say the least, but Sienna assured her and Ash that it was an act of kindness and nothing more. Returning to the island that could now call her home, she allowed herself to truly relax for once.
But after all she'd done, a different sort of rumor had begun to spread about her, positive ones. Work offers became less infrequent and, though she no longer needed as much money, the nice person in her could not bring herself to turn them away. First she was summoned again by Count Malt, who sent her to his homeland because he feared a monster that Scarlet had sealed in the past had broken free. He was right, and quite shocked when he learned Marona had actually defeated it. His doubt was quelled when Ash showed him one of the creature's fangs. She barely made it back home before she received another request, this time in person. The creature she'd looked for before had managed to escape a second time, and after verifying that Marona wasn't hiding the creature in her house, the circus ringmaster asked for her help in finding him, though what he really wanted was a photograph that the creature had taken when it had escaped. She never actually agreed to the job, so when it turned out the Putty WAS hiding at her house after all, she decided to keep that info to herself.
Her next job sent her to deal with a familiar threat, someone claiming to be Raphael and terrorizing an island. This time, however, things were different. The fake seemed to be afflicted by a strange darkness of a sort she'd never seen. She didn't have to wonder what it was for long, though. The true Raphael, hearing of 'his' misdeeds, came to investigate, and revealed the source of the energy: Sulphur, the same monster Count Malt had told her of. Just when the fake seemed to be unbeatable, another familiar face showed itself. It was the same elderly man she'd met in the past, and she absorbed the energy from the fake, causing him to collapse. Raphael revealed him to be 'Sprout', the most powerful and renowned swordsman in the entire world. After a brief argument, he stomped away. He was a scary man, but Marona couldn't help but have a heart filled with pity when she looked at him. Despite being imposing, he was clearly a man filled with sorrow.
Once arriving home, she instantly looked for her small, leafy guest, finding the Putty upstairs. Just as it had done in the past, it caused an item to vanish into thin air, but this time it was the necklace Castile had given her. While not angry, she was sad about it, and went to apologize personally. Her friend, of course, was more then willing to forgive her, and she ended up leaving the creature in Castile's care as she moved on to her next job. It was a job from a client with familiar name, the same one who had tried to buy her island out from under her. Cauldron seemed overly friendly to her now though, perhaps impressed by the results of her trip to the Island of Evil. Someone had been causing trouble on one of the islands he owned, and as coincidence would have it, it was the same man who had asked her to rescue Putty so long ago. He got himself in over his head, and Marona was forced to fight to save him. After calming the monsters down, she knew she had to do something. She pleaded with the infamous island collector to let the monsters of the island live in peace. Surprisingly, he readily agreed. Despite his past actions, he really seemed won over by her kind nature. Marona was so grateful she declared the towering merman 'Papa Cauldron'. The selfish man had his heart softened by first being humbled on the island of evil, and then finding it impossible to deny her request. Thus was the offficial Maronakins Fan Club born!
She rarely had time to rest, and before she could do so, she received an unexpected visit from one of the putties she's saved early. Her lie had been discovered, and plans to move forward with the construction of the facility on their island was set to go through. Mercenaries had been hired to clear out the putties. She knew she couldn't just let it happen, so stood against them. In the end, she managed to defeat them, ending the plan once and for all to turn the island into a medical facility, but in doing so put herself in negative light to one of the world's most influential people. Still, she didn't feel any doubt that her choice was the right one. She had little time to worry about the possible negative impacts of her choice, though. She was summoned to by Castile's father, and to her horror discovered that monsters had reappeared, and this time her friend had actually been taken away by them. She wasted no time in rushing to her friend's aid, but things seemed to take a turn for the worse when the man who had twice attacked her, Walnut, appeared in her path. Amazingly, he said he wasn't there to interfere, and even begrudgingly worked alongside of her. He was weakened by the battle however, leaving Marona and Ash to move on without him. They managed to find Castile unhurt, but they also found something else. The same massive monster they thought they had vanquished before. They were forced to fight it a second time, and it seemed to be defeated, just like before. With it out of the way, Castile was taken back to her home. Marona, in checking on her to make sure she was okay, found out that she had discovered a way to talk to the Putty, and had even given it a name. She convinced it to return both the lost necklace and the ringmaster's photograph, which was returned to him much to his relief.
Sadly, her life rarely was calm for long, and from her island she was able to see a terrible darkness covering the island where she had first battled the small spirit monsters. No one asked for her help, but she went anyway, finding portals like the one she'd seen Sprout seal in the past. It was no coincidence she met the warrior there again as well. The pity and sorrow she felt toward him finally overwhelmed her, and she threw caution to the wind in a desperate attempt to get him to change his ways, latching onto him as if she could literally hug the darkness out of him. He scoffed at it, however, claiming revenge on Sulphur was the only thing that could ever give him peace. Despite claiming he had no mercy to give, he left her unharmed as he stomped away. This was the start of Ivoire's situation getting worse. The monsters appeared next on a desert island, Marona fighting them off to save the lives of some of the mercenaries she'd fought in the past. Next they appeared in Count Malt's homeland, and she rushed to his aid at the request of Sienna who, oddly, asked to not let the Count know she had been the one to hire Marona. It wasn't long before they surfaced yet again, this time in the middle of the main headquarters of Bamboo Co., the company she had fought against for the putties. She assisted the company at the request of the circus ringmaster and, in doing so, discovered the two to be estranged brothers who both clearly still cared about each other.
Rest was not in store for her, however. A letter summoned her to the Island of Evil, claiming that something terrible was happening. It was a trap, however. Walnut, who felt her very existence was a blight on his life, called her there with the intent to murder her. He failed, but in doing unleashing his power in that place, broke the final barrier preventing Sulphur from reentering the world. As it began to happen, they were forced to flee, only to find their boat missing. The situation seemed grim, but it was only moments before a ship, with Sienna and her assistant aboard, arrived to carry them away. It seemed the woman had already began making plans. In revealing them to Marona, she revealed another fact, that being that she herself was the legendary Scarlet the Brave that Count Malt had been looking for,. She' kept her identity secret after an injury removed her ability to fight, becoming 'Sienna' instead. She had not been idle in the 30 years since her disappearance though, and with Marona's help, began to set forth a plan to combat Sulphur. Sienna, or rather Scarlet, had a plan to fight but had no plan to truly solve the problem. That is where Marona, with her knowledge of the putties ability to send things to different dimensions, came in. The plan was to use this ability to seal the gate Sulphur entered the world through. There was only one catch though, only Castile knew how to talk to the putties, Marona hadn't had time to learn. That is how the plan came to be lead by a little ''possessed' girl and a pair of cripples. Marona provided the combat ability, Scarlet provided the name recognition to bring people to their side, and Castile acted as an intermediary with the putties.
All the people who's lives she touched to reach this point came together to see their world saved. All the mercenaries she'd been forced to fight once before were now there to help her see her task complete. Bamboo Co. sent trained medics to tend to anyone hurt in the battle. And no one had anything negative to say to her. People came together not just to defend the world, but because they trusted the young girl who was trying to do her best to do so. After all she'd been through, she had finally proven to the world what sort of person she was. She was no possessed monster, and everyone knew it. But the Island of Evil still had a few cruel surprises in store for her.
She was forced to battle against the mercenaries lead by Raphael, and then against the great swordsman himself, as they'd been afflicted by Sulphur's curse. After subduing them, she came face to face with both Sulphur and Sprout, the later of which seemingly overwhelming the forum. It seemed the world would be saved without her help after all, but naturally it was not that easy. The creature, having lost its body, fed off the decades of hatred in Sprout's heart, possessing him and driving him to battle against Marona and Ash. He was not able to kill them, and in the end took his own life as an act of atonement. This left just her and Ash to do battle with the legendary monster, and once the battle concluded, it was still not enough. The plan was failing, and it seemed like the demon would roam free. In the end, it was not Marona at all that defeated the beast. Her self-proclaimed 'rival' Walnut had never left the Island, and was there for the whole thing. His final act on Ivoire was (seemingly) sacrificing his life to drive Sulphur back through the gate he entered the world through, so the putties could finish what they'd started. It was a bittersweet victory, but in the end, it worked.
Personality: While her life may have had a difficult beginning, it is difficult to imagine a girl more open and friendly then Marona. She is vibrant, cheerful, the sort of girl who's innocent smile can make even a
This makes her easy to get along with, but it also makes her easy to take advantage of. She is an innocent minded girl, never thinking that someone might be trying to trick her. She tends to automatically think the best of everyone, and is likely to try to justify their bad behavior for them. If she isn't paid in full for a job, she'll tell herself its just because they can't afford it. Of course even that innocence has its limits. Little things are brushed aside, but more serious crimes are too much even for her to ignore. She is a compassionate enough person to understand WHY a person might turn to theft, but that doesn't mean that she is just going to ignore a crime being committed.
She can be surprisingly serious-minded for a girl her age. Perhaps it was so many years living without another live person to talk to, but she is not the type to put things off for later, and no one could ever describe her as lazy. She is a hard worker, particularly when working for someone else. Having spent so long alone, and then finding out the world hated her for something outside of her control, whenever she is actually praised for a job well done, its like injecting her with pure happiness. This is part of why she puts her all into everything she does. That feeling of gratitude reminds her that people no longer hate her. It also puts her into a chipper mood, though to be fair that is generally her default anyway.
It takes something serious to really put a damper on her normally good-natured personality. Little things are brushed aside and ignored, she is not the sort of person who tends to hold a grudge. But when something is really bothering her, its very difficult for her to hide it. She does a poor job of concealing when something is truly bothering her. She will attempt to not bother people with her worries, as she doesn't want to be a bother to them. But she is no good at hiding when she is not in a good mood. She is the type who wears her heart on her sleeve, possessing a book of emotions that is easily read. If she seems happy, it is genuine. If she seems sad, it'll be obvious to everyone around her. And if she seems angry, it is because something really pushed her.
Anger is easily the rarest emotion for her to display. She is beyond slow to anger, always wanting to find a peaceful solution to any issue that might come up. If she actually displays that particular emotion it is for something serious. Someone has done something unforgivable. This is not to say she might not occasionally get a little annoyed at something. She does her absolute best to always keep a positive and friendly outlook towards like. So she won't get angry if you steal the last cupcake. Burn down the bakery it came from? That is a much different matter! Even when angry, she still tends to attempt to be polite. Anger is such a foreign concept to her that she really doesn't know what to do with it.
Overall, she is a cute little bunny of a girl who wants nothing more then to be friends with as many people as she can. She has no grand schemes in life. She doesn't want to become rich, she has little use for fame. She appreciates the little things in life much more then the big. Time spent with genuine friends is much more valuable to her then a bar of solid gold.
Abilities: As a Chroma, Marona was born with an ability most people in her world don't have. Each chroma's ability is named after the color of energy it produces (thus the chroma, from chromatic). In Marona's case it was green, so is named Chartreuse Gale. It is this ability that allows her to see and interact with the spirits of the dead. A spirit that is hidden from most people is as plain as day to her, they would need to be particularly powerful to even hide from her. She can touch a spirit as if it was a living person without any problem. She can hear its voice when others might not be able to.
However, her interactions go far beyond this. The other half of her ability actually allows her to summon spirits, temporarily, back into the world of the living by anchoring their spirit to an inanimate object to form them a new body. The host object will change shape to resemble an exact duplicate of what the spirit looked like in life. This is not permanent and is actually rather short termed. How long it can be maintained varies from spirit to spirit, and puts a strain on Marona the more spirits she does this to at once, but is a matter of minutes rather then days. She isn't going to plant a whole army into a field of stumps, only a small handful of phantoms can be maintained at the same time. Once a spirit is released, either by Marona cutting the bond, no longer being able to maintain it, or the host body being destroyed the item that was used to form the body will drop wherever the ghost was standing at the time. Barring abilities she just doesn't know about, there is no danger to the actual ghost, all that happens to them if their body is destroyed is they no longer have a physical body.
In addition to this, she has a selection of more traditional spells, both offensive and defensive in nature. While she is a great deal more skilled at spells that cure wounds then cause them, she does know both kinds. Her personality lends her to be better at the healing type, however. She is also stronger then she appears. Far from superhuman, she is still able to hold items that look too heavy for her skinny little arms without much trouble. Not that this is particularly rare for anime-style characters!
Alignment: I am aligning her with Peromei, as it was her hope for a better future that kept her going in the more difficult parts of her life. At the same time, she also wanted to escape from the despair of her loneliness. More then anything else, those two emotions have had the biggest influence on her life so making this choice was pretty easy.
Other: Anything else you'd like to mention.
⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉
We have two sample requirements.
General Sample: We should see examples of the character's dialogue as well as some introspection or additional narrative to further show how you intend to write the character. This is the most important part of the sample and where most of the weight will be.
Emotion Sample: This is our "game setting" requirement. Essentially we want to ensure that you have a basic grasp of the game's premise, especially with the use of emotions. It can be a small scene, even incidental to the main sample. A reminder that apathetic characters will also create effects, such as loss of color, surface distortion, holes forming. This section doesn't have to be lengthy, but the effect must be clear for us to see.
The emotion sample can be part of the general character sample. If so, please link directly or directly quote that portion so that it's easier for us to quickly find it.
The samples can be "written" in three different ways and you can choose which one will work best for you:
Format wise, you can use either [ brackets ] OR narrative prose. We do require that the writing at least be coherent, have proper sentence structure, and is mostly grammatically correct (we realize that writing styles can be loose/creative in [ bracket ] form so we're giving a bit more leeway). One last suggestion we have is try to have the character interacting with the environment and try thinking of the sample less of a narrative piece but more like a post or thread prompt you might make in the game. That will help the sample show not only how you will write the character, but also how you will play them in practice.
Contact:
Age: 38
Current Characters: None. Previously Sachiko Shinozaki and Yagyu
Character: Marona
Age: 13
Canon: Phantom Brave
Canon Point: After the events of the main story. I am not taking into consideration her cameos in other games, and she is from the main timeline, so has no knowledge of the events of the 'Another Marona' storyline.
Background: Marona is from a world known as Ivoire, a relatively low technology world where magic is fairly common. In this world people are frequently born with special abilities unique to them. Occasionally abilities would overlap however, and that was the case with Marona's parents. Both of them had the ability to see and interact with the ghosts of the dead, an unfortunate ability that earned them a bad reputation despite the fact they used it to help others, not hurt them. They had each other, and a single close friend that knew them as the kind people they were. And eventually, they had Marona as well.
For the first five years of her life, Marona lived a secluded but love-filled life with her parents and their friend, a man by the name of Ash. The trio made ends meet by working as 'Chromas', people who hired out the unique ability they were born with as a sort of mercenary. Even with their bad reputation, they still were able to find people who were willing to pay them, but eventually they took on a job that was too much for them. They were sent to the appropriately named Island of Evil, a place which would eventually play a large part in Marona's life as well. On this island, they were faced with an overwhelming amount of specter-like monsters as well as a larger one which seemed to be in control of the others. All three were stricken down but with the last of his power, Marona's father attempted to save Ash's life. He failed to do so, but was able to save his spirit, which found its way back to Marona and became her ghostly caretaker.
With her parents having moved on to the next life, she had only Ash to depend on as she grew up. She lived a secluded life on the small island her family had called home. But this island was only rented, not owned, and she was not able to grow into adulthood before she was forced to follow in her parents footsteps and begin working as a Chroma as well. It did not take long for her to realize that she had inherited the rumors which had surrounded her parents. While Ash shielded her from the worst abuse, she could still see it in the way people looked at her. Her clients had no problem cheating the 'Possessed One', as she had become known, out of her wages, and she was rarely paid what was agreed on. She found this out when she accepted a job to convince 'Raphael', a famed swordsman who had apparently started pillaging a small island, to stop doing so. Naturally it was a fake, but even though she drove him away as promised, she still was given almost nothing in payment.
Despite this, she kept on accepting every job she could, and it was not long before doing so started the chain of events that would eventually cause the world to accept and adore her. It seemed like a normal job, other then one thing; the request mentioned 'evil phantoms'. Marona hoped to reason with them rather then fight, but as soon as Ash saw what these 'phantoms' were, he knew it'd never work. The monsters she'd been sent to deal with were the same ones that had killed Marona's parents, as well as Ash himself, though thankfully in smaller numbers. Forced to fight to defend herself, she began clearing away the creatures, discovering them to be pouring out what looked like a ripple in the air.
She had no idea how to handle the situation, but before she could even put any thought into it, it was handled for her. An elderly man bearing a massive sword appeared. Seeming to not even take notice of her, he absorbed the portal into his blade, and walked away without even addressing her. This was the first of two figures she met on what was supposed to be an ordinary job that would influence her future. She met the second not long after. With no portal for them to come out of, cleaning up the last of the monsters should have been an easy task, but it was made more complex when she was attacked by a man named Walnut. He proudly declared himself a 'Chroma Oxide', a person that steals jobs from other Chromas. Intent on stealing this job from, he challenged her but was defeated. It should have ended well for Marona, but it turned out the person who had hired her for the job had no knowledge of the rumors about her, a fact that Walnut changed before she could claim her reward. The reward went to the thief, and she went home empty-handed and with a heavy heart. Having the client's opinion of her change so easily was a harsh reminder of just what people thought of her.
It was not long before life decided to teach her another lesson. She was offered another job, this time by a rather eccentric fellow named Canary who claimed to want to protect endangered monster species. She was asked to find a creature called a Putty, but it was not until she'd already traveled to the island it was supposed to be on that she was given the full story. The Putty was actually a circus attraction, and Canary had released it without permission. Once it was found, Marona was presented with a rather lackluster reward for her efforts, but was startled when the creature suddenly made it vanish into thin air. This angered Canary, who yelled his head off at the creature, and in the process attracted the owner of the circus he had 'freed' it from. He explained that he'd actually saved its life before putting it back into its cage and taking off. While not nearly as important as her previous job, she was taught a few valuable lessons by taking it. One, people aren't always what they seem. The circus keeper had come across as the bad guy until she learned more about the situation. More importantly, she learned that no matter what she does, there would always be situations where not everyone involved could be happy.
Not every job brought sorrow to her, however. Next she was hired by someone on a place called the Isle of Healing Waters to deal with monsters. Most of the people on the island had abandoned the place, but the ones that hired her had stayed behind because their daughter, Castile, was bedridden with a crippling sickness that made moving her difficult. Not long after the job had been explained to her, she was forced to deal with the situation, when a startled scream from the girl's room was heard. There were monsters outside of her window, and Marona was quick to deal with them.
She was surprised when the morning after, the girl she'd saved asked to speak with her. She was scared she'd inadvertently done something to offend the girl, but found out the exact opposite was the truth. Castile wanted to thank her personally. At first she didn't know how to react. She'd been given so little gratitude in her life that she wasn't used to it. She was even more surprised when the girl seemed entirely unafraid of her abilities, instead finding them something to be impressed with. But the biggest surprise came when the girl asked for Marona's friendship. It was the first time she could remember that someone had been so kind to her, and didn't treat her horribly based on rumors alone. She forgot about the agreed payment almost right away, and rushed off to finish her task of clearing off the island, only to come face to face with a much more dangerous monster then expected. It was one she'd never seen before, but that had influenced her life a great deal. It was the same one that had killed her parents, and Ash as well. It did not succeed in killing her however, and was seemingly destroyed. The task nearly compete, only a single small monster remained. Before it could be struck down, Castile's father finished the task himself, claiming that since he had done it, he couldn't pay the agreed on price. Marona didn't argue at all, she was more sad that he thought she even WANTED money after becoming his daughter's friend. She left the island behind, familiar sorrowful feelings in her heart, ready to go back to her life of solitude. But that sorrow was lifted the next day, when she received a letter and a gift from her friend. Neither was much, a necklace made out of a seashell and a few kind words, but it was enough to lift the sorrow from her heart and remind her that at least one person, other then Ash, cared about her now. That day, where she knew for sure that she had a real, true friend that saw her for who she really was, became one of her most cherished memories.
After so many emotional highs, her next request was fairly calm. The request came from an elderly noble by the name of Count Malt who was looking for an old lost friend with the dramatic name 'Scarlet The Brave'. This was not as simple a request as it sounded though, the one in question was a legendary hero who had saved the world 30 years prior. The Count told Marona the story of how Scarlet had saved the world from a horrific monster known as Sulphur which had attacked the world multiple times in the past, but vanished right after the battle finished. Sadly, the lead was false, but the Count, unlike many others in the past, was good to his word. He had asked to see if the rumor of Scarlet's location was true, and though it was not, he still paid up in full.
At this point she had grown used to her work, so receiving yet another request was not a surprise at all. What DID come as a surprise was that the request came from a large and influential pharmaceutical company known as Bamboo Co. She was offered what seemed like a run-of-the-mill job with a large cash reward in store once she finished. She was to clear the monsters off of an island where the company wanted to build a new facility. However, she came to discover that the 'monsters' on the island were actually of the same sort that she had tried to rescue from the circus. The island was the home of the Putties, and she couldn't bring herself to drive them from their own home. For the first time in her life, she lied, saying the island was overrun by dragons and not putties. She lied to a famed businessman, and in doing so gave up what to her would have been a small fortune. The normally honest girl wasn't too fond of lying, but knowing that doing so would save so many innocent little lives made it bearable. In the end she was still rewarded, but it was by the putties instead of a businessman. They gathered all sorts of valuables from their island, and shipped them to Marona's. In this situation, she got to have her cake and eat it, too.
With all her successes, along with selling the putty's gifts, she had managed to amass a good amount of money, so decided to go speak with her landlady Sienna about purchasing the island instead of continuing to rent it. Things went sour almost right after she expressed her desire to purchase Phantom Isle. A notorious 'Island Collector' called Cauldron interrupted saying that HE wanted to buy it instead. However she refused to sell to either of them, claiming the island was too special to sell. Instead, she agreed to give the island to the one that fulfilled a dangerous request: To go the the Island of Evil and recover a creature called the Rainbow Bird. This was the very same island that had claimed the lives of so many people in Marona's life and now she was being asked to go there personally. This would end up being even more dangerous then it could have been, as Cauldron was so determined to win the challenge that he hired numerous powerful mercenary groups to claim the animal for him. As if that wasn't enough, Walnut, the man who had attacked her in the past, had infiltrated one of those groups intent on claiming the reward for himself. He continually harassed the mercenary groups, and always found a way to make it look like Marona was at fault. She had to fight each of them one by one, eventually running across Raphael, the REAL one, who had already captured the bird. However unlike the fake, this was a man of honor, and he offered Marona a simple challenge. Defeat him in battle, and he would give up the bird. But even after winning the difficult battle against the legendary swordsman, she was still not safe. Walnut, his plot at its end, appeared to challenge her. In the end she won again. But as he collapsed, muttering about how much he needed money, she couldn't be angry. All she felt was pity. With a gesture she cast curative magic over his unconscious body, and tried to leave the bird behind for him to find when he woke up. But with a sudden flash, it broke free of its cage and flew away. She returned to Sienna empty-handed, but to her surprise the woman suddenly decided to give her the deed to her island without asking anything in return. She was shocked to say the least, but Sienna assured her and Ash that it was an act of kindness and nothing more. Returning to the island that could now call her home, she allowed herself to truly relax for once.
But after all she'd done, a different sort of rumor had begun to spread about her, positive ones. Work offers became less infrequent and, though she no longer needed as much money, the nice person in her could not bring herself to turn them away. First she was summoned again by Count Malt, who sent her to his homeland because he feared a monster that Scarlet had sealed in the past had broken free. He was right, and quite shocked when he learned Marona had actually defeated it. His doubt was quelled when Ash showed him one of the creature's fangs. She barely made it back home before she received another request, this time in person. The creature she'd looked for before had managed to escape a second time, and after verifying that Marona wasn't hiding the creature in her house, the circus ringmaster asked for her help in finding him, though what he really wanted was a photograph that the creature had taken when it had escaped. She never actually agreed to the job, so when it turned out the Putty WAS hiding at her house after all, she decided to keep that info to herself.
Her next job sent her to deal with a familiar threat, someone claiming to be Raphael and terrorizing an island. This time, however, things were different. The fake seemed to be afflicted by a strange darkness of a sort she'd never seen. She didn't have to wonder what it was for long, though. The true Raphael, hearing of 'his' misdeeds, came to investigate, and revealed the source of the energy: Sulphur, the same monster Count Malt had told her of. Just when the fake seemed to be unbeatable, another familiar face showed itself. It was the same elderly man she'd met in the past, and she absorbed the energy from the fake, causing him to collapse. Raphael revealed him to be 'Sprout', the most powerful and renowned swordsman in the entire world. After a brief argument, he stomped away. He was a scary man, but Marona couldn't help but have a heart filled with pity when she looked at him. Despite being imposing, he was clearly a man filled with sorrow.
Once arriving home, she instantly looked for her small, leafy guest, finding the Putty upstairs. Just as it had done in the past, it caused an item to vanish into thin air, but this time it was the necklace Castile had given her. While not angry, she was sad about it, and went to apologize personally. Her friend, of course, was more then willing to forgive her, and she ended up leaving the creature in Castile's care as she moved on to her next job. It was a job from a client with familiar name, the same one who had tried to buy her island out from under her. Cauldron seemed overly friendly to her now though, perhaps impressed by the results of her trip to the Island of Evil. Someone had been causing trouble on one of the islands he owned, and as coincidence would have it, it was the same man who had asked her to rescue Putty so long ago. He got himself in over his head, and Marona was forced to fight to save him. After calming the monsters down, she knew she had to do something. She pleaded with the infamous island collector to let the monsters of the island live in peace. Surprisingly, he readily agreed. Despite his past actions, he really seemed won over by her kind nature. Marona was so grateful she declared the towering merman 'Papa Cauldron'. The selfish man had his heart softened by first being humbled on the island of evil, and then finding it impossible to deny her request. Thus was the offficial Maronakins Fan Club born!
She rarely had time to rest, and before she could do so, she received an unexpected visit from one of the putties she's saved early. Her lie had been discovered, and plans to move forward with the construction of the facility on their island was set to go through. Mercenaries had been hired to clear out the putties. She knew she couldn't just let it happen, so stood against them. In the end, she managed to defeat them, ending the plan once and for all to turn the island into a medical facility, but in doing so put herself in negative light to one of the world's most influential people. Still, she didn't feel any doubt that her choice was the right one. She had little time to worry about the possible negative impacts of her choice, though. She was summoned to by Castile's father, and to her horror discovered that monsters had reappeared, and this time her friend had actually been taken away by them. She wasted no time in rushing to her friend's aid, but things seemed to take a turn for the worse when the man who had twice attacked her, Walnut, appeared in her path. Amazingly, he said he wasn't there to interfere, and even begrudgingly worked alongside of her. He was weakened by the battle however, leaving Marona and Ash to move on without him. They managed to find Castile unhurt, but they also found something else. The same massive monster they thought they had vanquished before. They were forced to fight it a second time, and it seemed to be defeated, just like before. With it out of the way, Castile was taken back to her home. Marona, in checking on her to make sure she was okay, found out that she had discovered a way to talk to the Putty, and had even given it a name. She convinced it to return both the lost necklace and the ringmaster's photograph, which was returned to him much to his relief.
Sadly, her life rarely was calm for long, and from her island she was able to see a terrible darkness covering the island where she had first battled the small spirit monsters. No one asked for her help, but she went anyway, finding portals like the one she'd seen Sprout seal in the past. It was no coincidence she met the warrior there again as well. The pity and sorrow she felt toward him finally overwhelmed her, and she threw caution to the wind in a desperate attempt to get him to change his ways, latching onto him as if she could literally hug the darkness out of him. He scoffed at it, however, claiming revenge on Sulphur was the only thing that could ever give him peace. Despite claiming he had no mercy to give, he left her unharmed as he stomped away. This was the start of Ivoire's situation getting worse. The monsters appeared next on a desert island, Marona fighting them off to save the lives of some of the mercenaries she'd fought in the past. Next they appeared in Count Malt's homeland, and she rushed to his aid at the request of Sienna who, oddly, asked to not let the Count know she had been the one to hire Marona. It wasn't long before they surfaced yet again, this time in the middle of the main headquarters of Bamboo Co., the company she had fought against for the putties. She assisted the company at the request of the circus ringmaster and, in doing so, discovered the two to be estranged brothers who both clearly still cared about each other.
Rest was not in store for her, however. A letter summoned her to the Island of Evil, claiming that something terrible was happening. It was a trap, however. Walnut, who felt her very existence was a blight on his life, called her there with the intent to murder her. He failed, but in doing unleashing his power in that place, broke the final barrier preventing Sulphur from reentering the world. As it began to happen, they were forced to flee, only to find their boat missing. The situation seemed grim, but it was only moments before a ship, with Sienna and her assistant aboard, arrived to carry them away. It seemed the woman had already began making plans. In revealing them to Marona, she revealed another fact, that being that she herself was the legendary Scarlet the Brave that Count Malt had been looking for,. She' kept her identity secret after an injury removed her ability to fight, becoming 'Sienna' instead. She had not been idle in the 30 years since her disappearance though, and with Marona's help, began to set forth a plan to combat Sulphur. Sienna, or rather Scarlet, had a plan to fight but had no plan to truly solve the problem. That is where Marona, with her knowledge of the putties ability to send things to different dimensions, came in. The plan was to use this ability to seal the gate Sulphur entered the world through. There was only one catch though, only Castile knew how to talk to the putties, Marona hadn't had time to learn. That is how the plan came to be lead by a little ''possessed' girl and a pair of cripples. Marona provided the combat ability, Scarlet provided the name recognition to bring people to their side, and Castile acted as an intermediary with the putties.
All the people who's lives she touched to reach this point came together to see their world saved. All the mercenaries she'd been forced to fight once before were now there to help her see her task complete. Bamboo Co. sent trained medics to tend to anyone hurt in the battle. And no one had anything negative to say to her. People came together not just to defend the world, but because they trusted the young girl who was trying to do her best to do so. After all she'd been through, she had finally proven to the world what sort of person she was. She was no possessed monster, and everyone knew it. But the Island of Evil still had a few cruel surprises in store for her.
She was forced to battle against the mercenaries lead by Raphael, and then against the great swordsman himself, as they'd been afflicted by Sulphur's curse. After subduing them, she came face to face with both Sulphur and Sprout, the later of which seemingly overwhelming the forum. It seemed the world would be saved without her help after all, but naturally it was not that easy. The creature, having lost its body, fed off the decades of hatred in Sprout's heart, possessing him and driving him to battle against Marona and Ash. He was not able to kill them, and in the end took his own life as an act of atonement. This left just her and Ash to do battle with the legendary monster, and once the battle concluded, it was still not enough. The plan was failing, and it seemed like the demon would roam free. In the end, it was not Marona at all that defeated the beast. Her self-proclaimed 'rival' Walnut had never left the Island, and was there for the whole thing. His final act on Ivoire was (seemingly) sacrificing his life to drive Sulphur back through the gate he entered the world through, so the putties could finish what they'd started. It was a bittersweet victory, but in the end, it worked.
Personality: While her life may have had a difficult beginning, it is difficult to imagine a girl more open and friendly then Marona. She is vibrant, cheerful, the sort of girl who's innocent smile can make even a
This makes her easy to get along with, but it also makes her easy to take advantage of. She is an innocent minded girl, never thinking that someone might be trying to trick her. She tends to automatically think the best of everyone, and is likely to try to justify their bad behavior for them. If she isn't paid in full for a job, she'll tell herself its just because they can't afford it. Of course even that innocence has its limits. Little things are brushed aside, but more serious crimes are too much even for her to ignore. She is a compassionate enough person to understand WHY a person might turn to theft, but that doesn't mean that she is just going to ignore a crime being committed.
She can be surprisingly serious-minded for a girl her age. Perhaps it was so many years living without another live person to talk to, but she is not the type to put things off for later, and no one could ever describe her as lazy. She is a hard worker, particularly when working for someone else. Having spent so long alone, and then finding out the world hated her for something outside of her control, whenever she is actually praised for a job well done, its like injecting her with pure happiness. This is part of why she puts her all into everything she does. That feeling of gratitude reminds her that people no longer hate her. It also puts her into a chipper mood, though to be fair that is generally her default anyway.
It takes something serious to really put a damper on her normally good-natured personality. Little things are brushed aside and ignored, she is not the sort of person who tends to hold a grudge. But when something is really bothering her, its very difficult for her to hide it. She does a poor job of concealing when something is truly bothering her. She will attempt to not bother people with her worries, as she doesn't want to be a bother to them. But she is no good at hiding when she is not in a good mood. She is the type who wears her heart on her sleeve, possessing a book of emotions that is easily read. If she seems happy, it is genuine. If she seems sad, it'll be obvious to everyone around her. And if she seems angry, it is because something really pushed her.
Anger is easily the rarest emotion for her to display. She is beyond slow to anger, always wanting to find a peaceful solution to any issue that might come up. If she actually displays that particular emotion it is for something serious. Someone has done something unforgivable. This is not to say she might not occasionally get a little annoyed at something. She does her absolute best to always keep a positive and friendly outlook towards like. So she won't get angry if you steal the last cupcake. Burn down the bakery it came from? That is a much different matter! Even when angry, she still tends to attempt to be polite. Anger is such a foreign concept to her that she really doesn't know what to do with it.
Overall, she is a cute little bunny of a girl who wants nothing more then to be friends with as many people as she can. She has no grand schemes in life. She doesn't want to become rich, she has little use for fame. She appreciates the little things in life much more then the big. Time spent with genuine friends is much more valuable to her then a bar of solid gold.
Abilities: As a Chroma, Marona was born with an ability most people in her world don't have. Each chroma's ability is named after the color of energy it produces (thus the chroma, from chromatic). In Marona's case it was green, so is named Chartreuse Gale. It is this ability that allows her to see and interact with the spirits of the dead. A spirit that is hidden from most people is as plain as day to her, they would need to be particularly powerful to even hide from her. She can touch a spirit as if it was a living person without any problem. She can hear its voice when others might not be able to.
However, her interactions go far beyond this. The other half of her ability actually allows her to summon spirits, temporarily, back into the world of the living by anchoring their spirit to an inanimate object to form them a new body. The host object will change shape to resemble an exact duplicate of what the spirit looked like in life. This is not permanent and is actually rather short termed. How long it can be maintained varies from spirit to spirit, and puts a strain on Marona the more spirits she does this to at once, but is a matter of minutes rather then days. She isn't going to plant a whole army into a field of stumps, only a small handful of phantoms can be maintained at the same time. Once a spirit is released, either by Marona cutting the bond, no longer being able to maintain it, or the host body being destroyed the item that was used to form the body will drop wherever the ghost was standing at the time. Barring abilities she just doesn't know about, there is no danger to the actual ghost, all that happens to them if their body is destroyed is they no longer have a physical body.
In addition to this, she has a selection of more traditional spells, both offensive and defensive in nature. While she is a great deal more skilled at spells that cure wounds then cause them, she does know both kinds. Her personality lends her to be better at the healing type, however. She is also stronger then she appears. Far from superhuman, she is still able to hold items that look too heavy for her skinny little arms without much trouble. Not that this is particularly rare for anime-style characters!
Alignment: I am aligning her with Peromei, as it was her hope for a better future that kept her going in the more difficult parts of her life. At the same time, she also wanted to escape from the despair of her loneliness. More then anything else, those two emotions have had the biggest influence on her life so making this choice was pretty easy.
Other: Anything else you'd like to mention.
We have two sample requirements.
General Sample: We should see examples of the character's dialogue as well as some introspection or additional narrative to further show how you intend to write the character. This is the most important part of the sample and where most of the weight will be.
Emotion Sample: This is our "game setting" requirement. Essentially we want to ensure that you have a basic grasp of the game's premise, especially with the use of emotions. It can be a small scene, even incidental to the main sample. A reminder that apathetic characters will also create effects, such as loss of color, surface distortion, holes forming. This section doesn't have to be lengthy, but the effect must be clear for us to see.
The emotion sample can be part of the general character sample. If so, please link directly or directly quote that portion so that it's easier for us to quickly find it.
The samples can be "written" in three different ways and you can choose which one will work best for you:
- Test Drive. You can utilize our test drive to cover both requirements of the sample. So long as there is enough character portrayal and a scene with an emotional reaction, be it within the prompt or done during the thread, then it can be used for both.
- Link out + Written. You can link to threads/entries from other games, memes, or museboxes to show character portrayal, and then write an additional short scene for the emotion portion of the sample.
- Original Sample. You can write a complete sample that shows both character portrayal and a scene involving emotion use. This can be one sample or two separate samples. If you opt to write an original sample, you are welcome to use any prompts from any of our Test Drives, Intro Logs, Task Board, and even past events. You are also free to change things up and are not restricted to any of these prompts. They are just here to help offer ideas.
Format wise, you can use either [ brackets ] OR narrative prose. We do require that the writing at least be coherent, have proper sentence structure, and is mostly grammatically correct (we realize that writing styles can be loose/creative in [ bracket ] form so we're giving a bit more leeway). One last suggestion we have is try to have the character interacting with the environment and try thinking of the sample less of a narrative piece but more like a post or thread prompt you might make in the game. That will help the sample show not only how you will write the character, but also how you will play them in practice.
