[OOC] The Spirits Within: Stigma

[Halcyon]

Hmmm ... does the link work when you post it into the browser? Assuming you're using Google, you could back track to the image you choose and click on the size/dimension. If there are multiple images, it'll show up there. You could try cycling through pictures until you find one that works? That's what I do anyway.

[JJ Doe]

Rui Liú

Rui Liú

29 February | 145cm

Personality

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who believe Rui is an angelic sweetheart and those who know Rui’s “other face.” If one were to ask about Rui, a majority of “her” acquaintances would say ---with great confidence--- that Rui is a sweet, adorable, innocent, and innocuous young woman. Being the social butterfly that she is, it does not take long for people to like Rui. She is, at the very least, popular amongst her peers and school faculty; revered as Oakridge’s teen idol. This can be attributed to the fact that Rui acts equally nice, polite, and friendly to everyone she meets. “Acts,” being the key word.

The unfortunate few who discovered Rui’s “other side”, know that “angelic Rui” is just a façade: zhe only acts that way to make sure zhe gets what zhe wants; to camouflage zher true self and zher less than noble intentions. “Dark Rui” is a foulmouthed, self-centered, manipulative, sadist. Mischievous by nature, Rui will cause various degrees of trouble for the sake of personal entertainment, but it is only when one get’s on her bad side that things can get extremely dangerous. Rui gets ruthless when zhe seeks revenge and will do everything in zher power to make zher target miserable. The more (mental) pain zhe knows zhe inflected on zher target, the more exhilarated Rui becomes. Once Rui is satisfied with the amount of damage zhe has done, then Rui quickly looses interest of the target and leave him/her to whatever fate awaits them. When the target continuously stands triumphant over every “unfortunate event” that occurred to them, Rui becomes increasingly enraged and obsessed over the target. Eventually, Rui would simply snap and resort to old-fashion assault, which usually does the trick. Interestingly, despite how angry Rui gets, zhe is always rational enough to cover zher track; making sure that nothing negative zhe does leads back to zhim. Most of zher victims don’t even know that Rui was the mastermind and no one believes the few that do know it was Rui and attempted to expose zhim. If people saw how brutally Rui fights the Mordrem, they would be more inclined to believing the claims.

Although great at pretending to be sympathetic towards others, in truth, Rui is extremely apathetic towards almost everything and everyone, especially if it does no directly affect Rui. If Rui witnessed a stranger being beaten to death and did absolutely nothing about (whether it be calling for help or some other form of intervention), Rui could still walk away with a clear conscious. While Rui can care about others, more often than not, zhe cares because of their usefulness. There are only a hand full of people Rui genuinely cares about and considers to be a friend; it is one of the few instances Rui seems… “human,” for a lack of a better word. As one can imagine, it is difficult to become friends with Rui and even harder to become more than that. Not just because of Rui’s darker side, but also because Rui does not trust others easily or willingly. One would not be wrong to assume that this distrust stems from fear of being betrayed and/or abandoned.

It is difficult to claim with absolute certainty that “angelic Rui” ---or even “dark Rui” for that matter--- is a completely “fake” or “real” personality trait of Rui’s for a number of reasons. First off, people who knew Rui when zhe was younger, mainly zher childhood friends, remember little Rui being a soft-spoken child who was well mannered, but was lonely and desperate for love and acceptance. Zhe just simply gave up, one day; as if zhe discovered that the only person who would ever truly care about Rui… was Rui. It has also been confirmed that Rui is capable of being a decent person even when zhe is not in full “deceptive angelic” mode. This is a rare occurrence for strangers and mere acquaintances, but can be seen more frequently based on how close Rui considers the other person to be to zhim. Lastly, it is possible that Rui’s aggressiveness was induced by and/or accentuated by spirits and the experimental drugs administered as part of a study that Rui is a participant of.

Appearance

At first, second, third, and even fourth glance or more, Rui appears to look like a lady in her adolescence (preadolescence, depending on the person), but zher appearance is just as deceptive as zher personality. Despite Rui’s baby face, petite body, and doe-eyes, zhe is a full-grown 22 year old. Rui’s sex is more of a mystery: many assume that zhe is female, but the truth is that no one actually knows if that is true. The only people who know the answer are bound to doctor-patient confidentiality and every official document or ID simply states that Rui is neither and, at times, both. The fact that Rui has an androgynous body type and no noticeable secondary sex characteristics does not make guessing any easier. It is even more confusing when one sees Rui entering and existing both the men’s and women’s room.

Rui’s natural hair and eye color is black, but zhe likes to change their colors. Currently Rui dyed zher long hair one-quarter brown and the rest blond. Zhe refrained from putting on color contacts since they would be purely troublesome during missions. Normally Rui’s nails would be covered in nail art, but, again, for the sake of the mission, has left them naked.

As a very social individual, Rui takes great care of zher appearance. Every morning, Rui makes sure that every inch of zher body is clean and will spend a significant amount of time to do hair and makeup to be sure they fit the theme of zher attire that day. Rui tends to wear the most recent fashion trend that does not expose little, if any, skin of the torso. A lot of zher clothes are very girly, but zhe does wear boyish clothes when there is no school or no social event zhe plans to participate in. Zhe wears glasses as a part of fashion, but does not necessarily need them to see things.

Ringtone

No idea. I’ve never been particularly good at this. Maybe I’ll just have you guys pick… You know, that’s not a bad idea... So… what do you think Rui’s “theme song” should be? If nothing comes to mind I might use Katy Perry’s “Unconditionally” or perhaps Marina and The Diamonds’ “Oh No!”

Background

Rui was the result of a crime lord wanting the perfect baby; one who would grow up to be the heir of his mighty dynasty. However, when genetic modification produced Rui, the family threw the baby away like a defective merchandise. With nowhere to go, Rui has been in foster care; changing caretakers as frequently as one would change clothes. Years of enduring neglect and abuse; playing the “good kid”; waiting for that one day that perhaps someone would actually want Rui as their child. But that day never came. Instead, Rui was sold to the military. Unlike the majority of children who enroll into military schools, Rui is legally the military’s property: zhe is both protected and confined by the military. Thus, anything the military does to Rui and zher fellow “siblings” ---however inhumane it maybe to do on “non-military property”--- is permitted by law under the belief that “it is for the betterment of mankind.” More specifically, Rui was placed in a study that aims to find the cure for Stigma, or at the very least method of preventing it from spreading to and between humans. Now, in addition to being forced to be the guinea pig for an experimental treatment for Stigma, the military wants Rui to fight for mankind as a Guardian and Rui doesn’t have the right to say “no” to any of it ---although the latter could be said for any Guardian.

Considering Rui’s past with foster and military care and how zhe is the one to be sacrificed for the many, it is no wonder that is empathetic towards most of humanity: they don’t care about Rui, so why should zhe? If they intend to use zhim for their own benefit, then zhe will use them for zher own benefit. Perhaps it is unjustified resentment, but Rui is not selfless enough to think other wise. Rui tries to enjoy zher life to the fullest, because zhe knows zhe most likely would not live long as the others.

Tropes

• The Fake Cutie
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon
• More Deadly Than The Male
• Bitch in Sheep’s Clothing
• Beneath the Mask
• Becoming the Mask

Memories

Talk to me when you’re ready to discuss character relations and what not :)

Weapon

Rui’s preferred weapon of choice is the whip; more specifically, an energy whip that runs on crystals. Depending on the element of the crystal being used, the type of elemental damage the whip does on a target will vary. Rui is also proficient with a blade, so when the situation calls for it zhe will use the pair of single-edged long knives that zhe keeps on zher person. Due to their resemblance to a pair of scissors, Rui’s knives are known as “scissor blades.” Since the two knives can be used like scissors when combined, it is likely that it’s appearance was intentional.

Spirits

“Misery”
Effects: Dispel; Blind; Silence; DeProtect; DeShell; Imperil; Slow; Zombie; Meltdown; Pain
Description: Misery is a lonely spirit and loves any company it can get. But when the company is not as equally or more miserable than Misery, Misery only feels lonelier, so it tries to spread misery by inflicting it on others. It does this by manifesting into various torture devices and forcing all enemies to undergo gruesome tortures. If the enemy manages to survive the assault, all positive effects would be removed and replaced with negative ones.

“Knight”
Effects: Protect; Shell
Description: Knight is very protective of Rui and will materialize as some form of armor or shield to protect Rui.

“Vigor”
Effects: Might and/or Faith
Description: When Vigor bestows Rui with Might or Faith, Rui’s hair and eye starts to glow red or blue, respectively. When Vigor blesses Rui with both, Rui’s hair and eye color turns purple.

“Tough Love”
Effects: Revive
Description: When Rui gives a good slap across the face of a fallen ally the power of Love helps the alley regain consciousness. Love knows you want to rest, but rest can come later. Now you must fight. If you don’t stand up now, you’ll never be able to get back up later. It’s tough love, but love nonetheless. If Rui didn’t care at all, zhe’d leave you to rot.

“Malice”
Effects: Darkness
Description: Unlike the other spirits, it is hard to know when Malice actually surfaces. The best indication for others to know when Malice is used is when Rui suddenly bursts into a maniacal laugh and starts ravaging an enemy without much thought to zher current situation.

Trivia

Trivia

• Rui is fond of animals, especially small fluffy ones.
• Despite zher claim that zhe detests children, Rui is good at taking care of babies.
• Rui may play dumb, but zhe is a straight A student even without manipulating teachers or other students.
• Rui loves playing video games.

P.S. WIP obviously, but will love to hear any suggestions anyone may be willing to offer :)

[DJAtomika]

Oh my God all the old players of the previous Spirits Within are coming back it's like a reunion :D

Honestly JJ your character sounds like a total douche to be around. How does she cope?! Or, like, adapt to life around others?

Cause if all these young men and women we're making are life long friends with each other, I kinda need a reason to write in why Eric would be friends with her and not, like, on the other side of the school to avoid her.

[JJ Doe]

Haha! Yeah, I’d hate be on zher bad side XD But amazingly, Rui does just fine largely thanks to zher "angelic" side.

Well to clarify, the group are “childhood friends”, Olivia may do her best to keep everyone close, but it doesn’t mean everyone is life long friends. In fact, I was kind of hoping some of the group’s characters would hate Rui (yeah, let's make Olivia's job harder!) ;) But as briefly mentioned Rui can act more decent around people zhe actually cares about. If anyone had a good relationship with Rui during their childhood (before the dramatic change), then it's more likely zhe would act more decent to that person.

[DJAtomika]

Why are all your Ss Zs? D:

[JJ Doe]

One of many gender neutral pronouns, but you can call Rui whatever you want.

I'm actually trying to get used to it myself.

[Archangel89]

I tried fixing my Aaron image but my phone won't show the image...any luck for those on computers

[JJ Doe]

Uh... *Checks* Nope! I wonder why it's doing that...

[Archangel89]

Awww sad clown...I don't know how to fix it now

[JJ Doe]

Do you have the link to the image?

[Archangel89]

Yeah and I've done the formatting right...I may have to redo my post and start from scratch

[Mirandae]

@Frettzo
Take your time! There's absolutely no rush.

@Archangel89
If you describe which picture of David Bautisa you want, then I can Google search it and put the url-code here for you to put in your sheet! I did the same for your tropes:

[url=tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Cu.. Badass[/url]
[url=tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Bi.. Fun[/url]
[url=tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Th.. Sailor[/url]
[url=tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Fo.. for Love[/url]
[url=tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Br.. With a Soft Center[/url]

Not sure if this works, though.

@JJ Doe
Welcome, welcome!

That's a lovely lady... eh, person you've found there! I could make one of them gallery/collage thingies for her like I did for my character, if you want. Also, I'll hold off comments until the background section is complete. Hopefully, Helston and Sam will fit in there somewhere.

Also, I liked Marina and The Diamonds!

@DJAtomika
Like JJ said, this group of people have a common foundation through Helston and Samuel as children, but everyone changes with time. Olivia took Samuel's job of keeping everyone together, so they're more of a 'family' than friends, really. So, think of the ones that you don't like as siblings — they can fight, argue, hate each other, but in the end they will do whatever it takes to keep the other safe.

[JJ Doe]

@Archangel89Actually I wanted to see if I could see the image with the link you have. It's possible the link itself is broken. Also I thought we might try something really quick.



So I did a quick google search for David Bautisa's images and picked some random ones. I'm not sure if any of them are the image you picked, but the idea was that perhaps you can quote this post and copy the line that has "[img*]whatever the url is[/img*] and paste it on your post to see if it would show up.

Edit: But Prisk's idea might be better XD

[Renny]

@JJ Doe I was hoping Al could on better terms with Rui. Hopefully one that provides advice to him when he needs it.

EDIT: Just read this, seeing that Rui is androg, I'm feeling like I just confused myself and a bunch of others. Let's see ... Rui will provided Al with advice. Yea, that's better ^^

Also, how should these memories be formatted? IC or like the rest of the CS. Just to provide information.

[Mirandae]

@Renny
You can write Memories in any way you want, really. They could be your character's thoughts, answers to questions asked by someone about the others, out of character voice like the rest of the sheet, or something else.

[Renny]

@Prisk Epic. I like you, Prisk. All this freedom is constrained and allowed in very subtle way. It makes me feel creative.

Not sure if that made sense but it did to me. HAH! Freedommmm!

[JJ Doe]

@PriskOh, yes! If it's not too much trouble, I would love a gallery/collage thingy!

Yeah~... I'm working on the background, but it's so short...! The best I can think of is that to Rui, foster care at Helston was the best thing that ever happened to zhim, because zhe met Sam who was the first person in Rui's life who actually said Rui could be zhimself.

One point for Marina and The Diamonds it is then!

@Renny*Gasps* Y-...you want to be friends with Rui? A,are you sure? Have you seen that she(?)-devil?
Well, if you're sure about it, sure thing :D So based on Al's personality, I'm thinking that Rui sees zhimself in Al (how he was always been alone and eventually embraced solitude) and thus always had a soft spot for him.

Hmm... what kind of advise do you think Rui would be able to give to Al? Social stuff? ... Video games?

[Mirandae]

@Renny


Awww, shucks~! Thank you!

The memories are just to get us started, though. The real freedom to explore relations and past events will come in the in-character through flashbacks.

@JJ Doe
One thingy of pictures coming up!

[Renny]

@JJ Doe Simple things, complex things, mundane things ... anything to be honest. Its really a reason for Al to enjoy and justify liking Rui for who he/she is. Rui is epic, I think the asshole aspect hidden by the loveable angel thing is essential and interesting to explore when Relationships are being formed. Also, (s)he is really cute. So it compliment his modelesque appearance.

On a serious note, I can see him going to Rui for advice, information, and just hanging out. Seeing that she's found a way to cope with being alone, It will be a learning experience for him.

[Halcyon]

Oh look at all this activity!