bottlecap bay

[hasapoint]

PLAYER
NAME: Joysweeper
CONTACT: joysweeper @ plurk is good
OVER 18? yes
CURRENT CHARACTERS: n/a

CHARACTER
NAME: Need
CANON: Heralds of Valdemar
CANON POINT: Between By the Sword and Winds of Fate, after Kero meets Elspeth and before she gives Need to her.
BACKGROUND: https://valdemar.fandom.com/wiki/Need_(sword) CW: suicide
There's a wiki page but it's not good. Let me just give you the quick lowdown.

Lashan was a warrior-mage, then a swordsmith-mage, then retired to make magic swords for a religious enclave which was then raided and razed by a warlord. Only Lashan and her apprentice, Vena, escaped. Lashan was too old to follow, while Vena was strong but untrained. Seeing no other option to stop the warlord and rescue their remaining Sisters, Lashan killed herself to bind her spirit to her best sword. As "Need" she could work through Vena, using her body and magic with an expert's skill, but primarily gave advice and lent strength to her. When it was over, Need remained. The gods she had served in life had a use for her. Her task was to act as an instrument of justice and answer the need of (mostly) women, responding to the same kind of desperation that had driven her to her death.

To facilitate this Need chose bearers who she advised, taught, and directed, sometimes possessing them briefly in the process. She picked people who could be or with her guidance became smart, moral, level-headed, capable, and independent of her, and could spend years healing them. Whenever a bearer reached their middle years, Need supported them retiring to a more stable life and chose someone new. She became very powerful over time, but whenever she was lost or drained (such as after overextending herself) she fell "asleep". In that state she was near-mindless, driven by purpose and righteous fury, and chose bearers to bind to herself and send to... well, mostly to kill people who're getting away with abusing their power. It could take decades or centuries for her to "wake" again.

Velgarth's civilization became more advanced until magic nukes were created and caused the Cataclysm, which warped the world, killed uncounted millions, and set society back immensely. Need survived and continued to fill her purpose. Her last bearers (the only ones shown) were Kethry, Kerowyn, Elspeth, Nyara, and Firesong. Two thousand years after the first Cataclysm she helped those last three kill a revenant spirit lingering since that time while sparing his innocent host body. When a second Cataclysm threatened Need and Firesong helped stop it, but in the process her sword dissolved into molten droplets, and she moved on in the afterlife.

SUITABILITY:

Need has no physical presence in canon. She's used to just using living peoples' senses and listening to their thoughts undetected, has no real needs herself, and even when awake is normally only known to be a sapient being to a handful of people at a time. Existing in the world in a body and actually having to be seen and deal with things like housing, sleep, and food (do ghost types need it??) will be harder than dealing with the transformation or being around technicolor animal people. But, since she's so level-headed and hard to shake, and keeps herself to herself so much, she'll feel like adapting well is a matter of professional pride and will only willingly let on that she's had any trouble in the form of joking about it.

She is an idealist with a powerful sympathy for those abused by the powerful. Need cares easily about people, especially those who are struggling but still want to do the right thing, and anyone she relates to. This is something she'd deny if asked and covers with cynical detachment and irritation, which are still real parts of herself, as well as a difficulty in being very gentle or sincere. She's also pragmatic, believes a degree of hardship is good for someone, feels that it's very important people make their own decisions rather than dictating them herself, and can take such a long view of events that she can wrap right back around to being callous. Combined with her caution and paranoia she can end up watching events impassively.

There's a tremendous rage to her that's almost never evident when she's 'awake' (and I don't intend to play her 'asleep') thanks to that self-control. Need is confident in herself to the point of arrogance and you would not guess that she's incredibly lonely and unused to recieving even the smallest trust or courtesy. If you asked her, she'd say she doesn't need that kind of thing.

QUESTIONNAIRE:

⟡ Your character is on an exploration quest when they find an injured Pokemon in need of help. This Pokemon appears to be in distress and is quite dangerous, posing a risk to your character even if they mean well, and putting your quest mission at risk. What do they do? What are some possibilities of how they work with teammates to address this, or do they go at it alone?

Need would quietly assess the situation and any teammates, and let them in on the situation if she doesn't think she can handle it alone. If she doesn't think the mission is important enough (lives at risk) she's willing to abandon it for the sake of a stranger in need, even if it means getting hurt. In that case if the team is more set on the mission, fine, whatever, they can split off and she'll stay here; she doesn't really care about her own advancement in the guild system. Ultimately if this Pokemon has the energy and ability to be dangerous it's probably not on the brink of death, so if lives are at stake, or if it doesn't submit to being helped and she thinks it would badly hurt anyone trying, it can wait.

⟡ Your character's worst enemy has recently appeared in game, and has joined the guild your character is part of. They both want to tackle the same quest, and your character's enemy suggests that they work together as a team to accomplish this goal. How does your character respond to this?

Need's worst enemy... absent a personification of the patriarchy, I'm going to say that's the revenant spirit who in his first life was known as Ma'ar. He has no idea who she is and has never heard her voice, and quite likely hasn't heard of her, period, so he wouldn't know her. Need would try and approach him herself rather than let him "work with" someone else. Those who knew her would find her to seem extra neutral and guarded.

This would be a pretext to looking for a good opportunity to murder him on the quest, ideally in such a way that others wouldn't find out or be involved, but if she thought she couldn't pull it off alone... Need would understand that most people don't jump right to 'assassination' and trying to convince someone might end very badly. At this canon point he has a hard time concealing his nature as a turbosadist who'd need a long list of content warnings to play, and he would hurt someone. If watched and intercepted, maybe that can be minimized until she can find a way to get him got. Even if it's just by the pokemon police, though she doesn't have much faith in law enforcement and he's been known to turn the tables when captured.

⟡ The leader of your character's guild has just approached your character with an offer: they will provide your character with extra supplies, reputation points, and help them with any of their current struggles. In exchange, they ask for your character to do a favor for them that may harm the other guilds, and will not specify what the favor is in advance. It sounds shady, but it's the deal of a lifetime in your character's path to get back home, and refusing it may cause strife for your character within their current guild. What do they think of this offer? What do they ultimately decide to do?

Need wouldn't care for the guilds system but can see that the different philosophies are each both useful and must be checked. Disruption is one thing, the potential for sabotage and highly skewing the balance is another. It would be bad for the city. She does want to get home and is entirely willing to do shady things but doesn't feel any time pressure and is inclined to put herself last. Also it sounds like agreeing would put her in a bad position - she would inherently be expected to be on her benefactor's side, they might feel that one favor isn't enough, and if the favor is something she would refuse to do there'd be further negative consequences. After some time to consider she'd refuse and if people don't like that, fine.

⟡ Due to shortages on supplies, the city is facing issues deciding where to cut corners during this rough time. Somehow, the responsibility has fallen on your character's shoulders, and they have to make a decision. If they send out an extra team of Pokemon, they will be able to gather more food, and through that, save the lives of dozens of starving Pokemon that were in dire need of nutrition. However, the only Pokemon available to scout for food are those working at the pokeclinic, and sending them out would mean certain death for at least two ill patients. What does your character decide to do? How do they feel about this choice, and how would they deal with the pushback that comes from either side?

Need thinks that the situation getting to this point has required a lot of major failings or some spectacularly poor luck, but you deal with the situation you have, not the one you want.

If the food situation is that desperate, some of the other city functions can be suspended and non-guild members can be brought in. Pride isn't worth lives. Foraging parties can take on new temporary members etc and tell them the risks. Yes, this might result in some of them getting killed out there. There are also always people who've hoarded food. Find them and take it to distribute - whether that's above board or through theft, it doesn't matter. She'll understand if people are upset later and will stand quietly to let them express this, but knows she did the best she could with what she had at the time and won't second guess herself.

POKEMON: Doublade. I can't not have the ghost sword be a ghost sword, and Doublade being multi-bodied gestures at Need's ability to multitask and use many sets of eyes.
GUILD OPT-OUT: nah
SAMPLES:
Sample 1, the TDM
Sample 2, in The Crossing