skyler veracruz (sora) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
strikeraid) wrote2013-05-24 02:59 am
strikeraid) wrote2013-05-24 02:59 am
Entry tags:
APPLICATION
OOC Information:
Name: Mawi
Are you over 15? Yes
Contact: e-mail (taiya118@hotmail.com) is preferred.
IC Information:
Name: Sora; Skyler Veracruz in-game
Canon: Kingdom Hearts
Age: In current canon, he's 15, but in the game, I'd like him to be 16. (He is now 17 as of current STE canon! Just sayin)
Preincarnation Appearance:
this image is absolutely enormous i'm warning you now
(Please note that although his hands and feet are freakishly big in the game, I will be disregarding that as a stylistic choice, seeing as how only a select few characters in the game have proportional hands and feet. Also, he is 5'4 1/2" as of current canon.)
Any differences:
Skyler is at the three-fourths point of a considerable growth spurt; he's gone from the shrimpy fourteen year old he once was to a respectable 5'7", filling out relatively gracefully due to large amounts of food and near constant exercise (so, not gracefully, he's just made of a thousand rubber bands, not unlike Tigger). His hair is much shorter and manageable, and doesn't have the near magical spikiness his preincarnation has (that will be one of his first powers to return lol). He also has dark brown eyes because there is no way to rationalize crystalline gem-like blue eyes on him with his genetic background, sorry.
Preincarnated History:
please note that this part of the app was copy-pasted fromoathkept's app because i am also dw user oathkept. if i need to send you a message through oathkept's account for accountability let me know.
GOD. OK, SPARKNOTES VERSION.
When Sora was 4-5 years old, his heart (as a metaphysical representation of himself, his soul and feelings) reached out to the heart of a boy named Ventus, a keyblade wielder whose heart had been horribly broken. A man named Xehanort had tried to extract the darkness (a metaphysical representation of the bad shit that one feels, just kind of general evil stuff made physical) from Ventus to make him a being of only light. Ven's heart wasn't meant to take that kind of strain (no one can have a heart made only of light except for a Princess of Light), so it started to dissolve. However, Sora restored Ven's heart with a bit of his own, temporarily stopping the damage. A year later, Sora briefly met the keyblade master Aqua, but has since forgotten that meeting (understandable, since he was very young at the time). However, he did promise Aqua that he would always take care of Riku if he went too far astray, a promise he's kept throughout his life. After a long series of adventures, Ventus' heart was reunited with its dark half, but it had been weakened significantly by a fight between him and the physical embodiment of his dark half, Vanitas, who had grown sentient. Since their hearts were already connected, Ventus traveled back to Sora's heart and asked if he could stay until it was safe and he was strong enough to go back to his body. Sora agreed, and that's how two residents (Ventus, an incredibly gentle and sweet kid, best friends with Aqua and Terra; and Vanitas, complete asshole, kind of a sociopath) ended up in Sora's heart from a very young age. Sora draws some of Ven's mannerisms as a result: an easy smile, the habit of putting his hands behind his head while he's thinking.
About ten years later, Sora, his best friend Riku, and Kairi, a girl from another world, planned to leave their island together, but were interrupted by a darkness that ate their world and separated the three from each other. Riku, who had been thrown to a different world, had succumbed to the darkness that took their home, and mostly stood in Sora's way from then on as an antagonist. Kairi had disappeared in front of Sora's eyes when their world was being destroyed, but as Sora looked for her, he realized he was starting to hallucinate entire conversations with her when it was clear no one else but he and his friends and fellow travelers, Donald and Goofy, were in the room. He also started to recognize places he had never been to before. On top of that, he found that he could summon the Keyblade, a special weapon that chose its wielder. (Unbeknownst to him, Ven had been the one to introduce the weapon to his heart - one can't be a keyblade wielder if they haven't been in contact with a keyblade.) Using the Keyblade, he could destroy the Heartless, the dark creatures that had been eating the heart of the worlds, and prevent them from eating worlds that they hadn't fully devoured. Things started getting more complicated when Riku found Kairi's body - her heart was nowhere to be found, making her nothing but a lifeless shell. Sora spent most of his time chasing down Riku and Kairi's body, rescuing other planets and making friends, growing closer with Donald and Goofy in particular.
On the last world, Hollow Bastion, he finally caught up with Riku, who made a bold claim - the keyblade Sora had was supposed to be Riku's. The Keyblade, sensing Riku's strong heart, switched sides, and Donald and Goofy were obligated to follow him on their king's orders. However, Sora came to realize that his friends were literally his power - his weakness of heart would always be trumped by the collective power of his heart's connections to his friends. Using his belief in the power of his friendships, he was able to take the Keyblade back from Riku in their second confrontation. He proceeded deeper into Hollow Bastion and defeated Maleficent just in time for Riku to return... but with a passenger. Riku, possessed by the Heartless of a man who called himself Ansem, wielded a new Keyblade, one that could unlock all the contents of the heart. He stabbed Maleficent in the heart to demonstrate its power; using the unlocked darkness in her heart, she turned into a massive dragon. After defeating her, Sora chased Riku into the heart of Hollow Bastion, where he was keeping Kairi's body. There, Sora finally defeated Riku in a duel. Right before he disappeared, Ansem as Riku revealed that Kairi's heart had been inside Sora's all this time, which explained why he could see her when no one else could, and why he had recognized places he had never been to - he was actually remembering Kairi's recollections of the places she'd been before she came to their island. Ansem as Riku disappeared, leaving his keyblade behind. With Kairi's body still lifeless and her heart in his, Sora did the only thing he could: he stabbed his own heart with Riku's unlocking keyblade, releasing both his and Kairi's heart. Kairi's heart returned to her body, but Sora came back as a Heartless. The consequences of this one action ripples over the course of the next few games (... this is going to take a while.) He spent the next few minutes as a Heartless with a conscience, choosing not to attack his friends when he found them again, but Kairi brought him back by the power of love... or something. This part was never really well explained. I think he's pretty much a heartghost from this point on?? Whatever. He went on to defeat Ansem, who had separated from Riku (who had tried his best to protect his friends after realizing he had been manipulated), and restored the lost worlds back to their rightful places. He had to close the door to Kingdom Hearts, the place where all hearts go when they die in order to be reborn, sealing Riku in, along with Donald and Goofy's king, Mickey. He returned to his world in the primordial soup where Kairi was waiting, but decided to travel back into the spaces between worlds to find Riku and King Mickey. He told her this and promised to come back.
In between the worlds, he found a castle where he was promised by a mysterious man in black that he would find Riku and the King, but also something else he missed. However, the man in black warned him that as he searched the castle, he would slowly forget everything, starting from the outer memories and working into the memories he held most dear. Sora started climbing the castle's floors with Donald and Goofy's help. The floors manifested as the worlds Sora had already been to, featuring friends he slowly started to forget, and between floors, various black-coated villains who called themselves members of the Organization opposed him, mocking his efforts. However, in the middle of his climb and amidst all of the growing amnesia, he started to remember someone else - Naminé, a girl he had grown up with but had forgotten about for some reason. However, the memory of Naminé started to replace his memories of Kairi, the girl he loved the most in the world. The Organization, reminding him that he would find something he missed, claimed that they had captured her inside the castle. Soon, he had forgotten why he started searching the castle, assuming that he was there to rescue Naminé. On his way up the tower, he also traveled through a floor that represented a world on the other side of his heart called Twilight Town, a world he didn't fully understand nor remember. When he finally reunited with Naminé, she told him the truth - she was a witch with power over his memories, who had been stealing and modifying his memories the entire time. She explained that she only agreed to help the Organization because she was lonely. With her help (and the help of an artificial version of Riku - please don't ask), he defeated Marluxia, the original black-coated man. Naminé went to work setting Sora's memory right, but in exchange, she had to destroy the memories he had made of the castle, including his memories of Naminé. Donald and Goofy's memories were to be mended as well; she revealed that while she had power over Sora's memories, their forgetfulness was caused by their close connection to Sora's heart. Sora promised that she would always hold a special place in his heart, even if he wouldn't remember her. Reworking Sora's memory would take a year, and for that year, Sora would have to sleep. So sleep he did...
When Sora woke up, Donald and Goofy were waiting for him. Not remembering how they got there or why they were asleep, with no clues except for a mysterious hint that told them to "Thank Naminé", they walked out to discover that they were in the basement of a mansion on the outskirts of a world called Twilight Town. Meeting several kids their age in town, they worked out that Sora had to leave and find guidance because a new kind of enemy had appeared. However, as Sora said goodbye to his new friends, he started to feel as though he'd never see them again, something that hadn't happened before, especially not with kids he had just met. To his surprise, he shed a few tears before coming back to earth and leaving on the next train. He met the keyblade master Yen Sid, who told him about a new kind of enemy: Nobodies, the shells left behind by people whose hearts had left their bodies and turned to Heartless. Unlike the Heartless, it was easier for a Nobody to become sentient; a whole group of sentient, human formed Nobodies had formed a group called Organization XIII to find their hearts by creating as many heartless as possible. Sora went on another quest to save the universe and find Riku and King Mickey, meeting more new friends and reuniting with old ones. At some point along the way, he found out that Kairi got really tired of waiting for him to go home and escaped, but got captured by Axel, a member of the Organization who had gone rogue. After chasing down Axel, he found him struggling to defend himself against a group of Nobodies sent after him by Saïx, a member of the Organization. Axel told Sora that Kairi had been taken from him by Saïx. Axel used the last of his strength to defeat the Nobodies surrounding them and after telling Sora that he reminded him of a Nobody, Roxas, who had made him feel like he had a heart, opened a path to the Organization's headquarters, the World that Never Was, and died. Arriving there, Sora was accosted by a boy in a black coat who fought him in the depths of his heart. After a very hard fight, the boy conceded, saying that Sora made a good Other. Arriving at the castle, he finally found Kairi, who had escaped her prison with the help of a mysterious girl called Naminé, and he finally, FINALLY caught up with Riku, who had taken on Ansem's form in order to use the powers of darkness. Riku told him about the existence of Roxas, the mysterious boy Sora had fought earlier and the nobody Axel had mentioned - Sora's nobody, created when he separated his heart from his body in Hollow Bastion a year before. Roxas had been reunited with Sora against his will in order to reunite Sora's heart and body, and had only made his peace with it during Sora's fight with him. Roxas had had his own life and friends (including the friends he had in Twilight Town; the sorrow that Sora had felt was Roxas'). The separation of Sora's heart from his body had also caused Naminé's creation - Naminé was Kairi's Nobody, an impossible creature since a Nobody is made from the shell of darkness left behind after the creation of a Heartless. Kairi, as a princess of heart, had no darkness to create a Heartless, which is why she became a shell of her own body in the first game. Naminé was instead made using Sora's body. Determined not to let Kairi and Riku out of his sight again, Sora defeated the rest of the Organization and traveled further into the castle, only to find King Mickey with a mysterious man... the real Ansem, Ansem the King. Ansem the Heartless who had taken Riku's body a year before was an impostor called Xehanort, whose Nobody, who called himself Xemnas, was trying to create an artificial Kingdom Hearts using the hearts Sora had released throughout his journey. However, King Ansem exploded the incomplete Kingdom Hearts, killing him and releasing light around the entire premises. The light caused Riku to return to his normal self, to everyone's surprise and relief. Together with Donald, Goofy, and Riku, Sora defeated Xemnas... 's first form. (GOD DAMN IT.) Before Sora and Riku could escape the castle, the portal leading out of the dimension closed. Together, they destroyed Xemnas once and for all, but they were trapped in Betwixt and Between, an area made of nothing. They eventually found a path that led to an beach inside the realm of darkness. After a very long time of waiting in which the two hashed out their feelings about each other, they got a message in a bottle from Kairi, which lit a path back to their island, where Kairi, Donald, Goofy, and King Mickey were waiting. A few days after Donald and Goofy had left, Sora and Riku were discussing their place in the universe when Kairi ran up with another message in a bottle from the king.
The message described the suffering of several people connected to his heart: Roxas, who had lost everything, including the living memory of his friend Xion, another Nobody, who also had to reunite with Sora at the cost of her existence and the knowledge of her existence; and Ventus, who had lost his two best friends, and still slept in Sora's heart. These hearts inside of Sora had helped him battle his foes and influence his choices throughout his life. In order to rescue these people and bring them peace, Sora and Riku would have to go through a Mark of Mastery exam, which would determine if they were of Master rank with the keyblade, and go on one last quest to reunite all of the people who were torn apart by the Heartless. Sora, aware that he owed the hearts inside him his life, strength, and current personality, accepted the quest.
The Mark of Mastery exam took Sora and Riku back in time; their bodies slept as their hearts, in their younger bodies, went back to the moment when their island was taken by the heartless in order to investigate and free the sleeping worlds, which were safe from the Heartless but still had yet to awaken. However, the two were separated early on and Sora's heart was plunged into sleep. He awoke in Traverse Town, the first sleeping world, and started his journey to figure out why the worlds were still asleep. Throughout the journey, Riku was stuck in a parallel set of worlds; although they could influence the events of the other parallel, they couldn't see or speak to each other. A unfamiliar young man in a black coat opposed Sora, mocking him as his heart guided him deeper into the dream. The last dreaming world was the World that Never Was. Despite echoing warnings (from Riku, who had found Sora's body and realized what was wrong), Sora continued to follow his heart, finding several mysterious people: Ven's recollections of Aqua and Terra (he briefly turned into a very confused Ven during this time), then Xion, who caused him immense emotional distress that he couldn't explain, and Roxas, with whom he had a brief conversation where he explained that he wanted to give him his life back. In return, Roxas allowed Sora to share some of his memories, which caused him even more distress. Sora finally got to the very core of the dream where the young man, who was actually a young version of Xehanort, revealed his ultimate plan: the eldest Xehanort had gone back in time and informed the young version of himself of his plans to create a Keyblade War. The various time-displaced versions of himself manipulated everyone over decades in order to first try to trap Riku in the darkness as Xehanort's newest vessel, then, as a back-up plan, trap Sora in his own dreams, defeat him there, and lock him within his own heart so Xehanort could use his body as a new vessel. His plan to find new vessels had begun with the Organization, his first attempt to create thirteen vessels for himself, but Sora had ruined that plan too. Xehanort also explained that the Nobodies did have hearts - Sora had killed extremely confused people with young hearts. Sora did his best to defeat Ansem, but unfortunately, since the youngest Xehanort had already seen his victory, Sora's defeat was time-locked. Sora fell asleep, trapped inside his heart to be devoured by the darkness within, when... Ven, who was still inside, gave his armor to protect Sora from the darkness. (GOOD BOY.) Riku, King Mickey, Lea (Axel with his heart), Donald, and Goofy rescued Sora's body from the Xehanorts and brought him back to Yen Sid's castle, where Riku performed one last dive into Sora's dream, rescued Sora, met all of his current heart inhabitants (excluding Vanitas), and discovered a data version of King Ansem that the real King Ansem had implanted inside Sora's heart during his year long sleep, who gave Riku information on the nature of Sora's heart and existence and informed him that Sora was already awake and well. Riku traveled back to his own body to find Sora in a pair of fucking funny glasses having a tea party with Donald and Goofy, with Lea sitting off to the side being a smug motherfucker. Seriously? Fucking seriously??? Oh my fucking god. Sora did NOT pass the exam, Riku did, Yen Sid apologized for sending them both into a trap, but now they know what Xehanort was up to, which is nice even though they can do shit all to stop it; Kairi was one of the seven chosen warriors of light who will help the other six light keyblade wielders against the thirteen chosen wielders of darkness in the next keyblade war, and suddenly Axel has a keyblade. This is the happiest ending to a Kingdom Hearts game ever. Sora goes off to do his own thing - he ends up going back to the dreaming Traverse Town in his normal body to look for his Dreameaters. And this is where I stop. PHEW
Reincarnated History
Skyler Veracruz is a Locke City native, born the middle child to a loving, if slightly preoccupied family of five. Dad Veracruz is a white-collar wage slave in middle upper management at a business firm and pulls terrifying amounts of overtime, but tends to be kindly and warm at home, if a little distant. Mama Veracruz, a part-time clerical worker in the local public hospital, is a much more active figure in his life, constantly shuttling his little sister Arielle between school, diving, and ballet lessons and making sure his older brother Milo eats in between studying and building 1:80 models of the Taj Mahal. Skyler is extroverted and sociable, so he tends to slip from his mostly introverted older immediate family's radar and out the door to hang with friends at parties. At home, he ends up spending more of his time with Arielle, a pink princess who rivals him in pep.
He had a normal education through elementary and middle school and fell in with a lot of different social groups, not really casting his allegiance with one or the other. Near the end of his freshman year, puberty hit, and instead of going the sleepy teenager route, he suddenly had way more energy than he knew what to do with. He joined various sports teams and fell in with way too many bad influences before settling on swimming and lacrosse (he has yet to shed a lot of his terrible friends though.) He's had a total of one girlfriend and they dated for a month when she realized he was, at the time, sort of a bum, and broke it off. He also volunteers at a summer camp for elementary and middle schoolers and recently heard back that he got a regular job there as a life guard in addition to quasi-counselor duties. (yes, that means he is cpr-certified. HOLLA)
There's not much to say about his personal or family life that I won't cover in the reincarnated personality section; he has plenty to do with his time and his downtime is spent finding more ways to fill his days. This has lead to some lightly illegal shit going down during his freshman and sophomore years along the lines of criminal mischief, drinking, and light drug use... but like I said, reincarnated personality section.
First Echo:
HE WATCHED MULAN FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HIS LIFE AND HAD WAR FLASHBACKS
No... what actually happened was that he was taking a break from mowing the backyard last summer (around his birthday, actually - August 14th) by taking a nap in the middle of the lawn. He did have a strange, disorienting, nonsensical nightmare, but nothing that related to his past life. The actual relevant part happened when he opened his eyes - his little sister Ari popped her head into his view right above him, startling him into sitting up. After chewing her out, he realized that he had a weird sense of deja vu about the event... But that was silly! Ari didn't have red hair or blue eyes.Or... Blue hair? And blue eyes? How old was this other person supposed to be, anyway? (This event echoes the first view we get of Kairi in the first game, and chronologically echoes another first view we get of Aqua from Ven's point of view. Both are memories that Sora has, although the second is subconscious.)
Preincarnation Personality:
again, please note that this part of the app was copy-pasted fromoathkept's app because i am also dw user oathkept. if i need to send you a message through oathkept's account for accountability let me know.
Sora is a pretty happy guy. Anyone would get a little more than down in the dumps if they lost everything they had to an all consuming cosmic darkness, but when that fate befell his world, he shrugged off most of his own personal troubles to focus on the job at hand. His "job" fluctuates given whatever needs to get rescued at any given moment in time, but tends to revolve around his two best friends, Riku and Kairi, and various movements thereof. In fact, they are the only people that can derail Sora from a job. Although he's better known for saving the multiverse, he considers that more of a side thing (a big side thing, but still) in comparison to making sure his friends are absolutely safe. Sora always puts his friends first, so much so that when it comes to prioritizing, Sora can get a little dodgy. Yeah, so what if he's a keyblade hero? Find him his friends; then he'll talk. It's impossible to overstate his devotion to his friends! He'll put a great deal aside for the sake of a friend - his possessions, an important mission or goal, any pride he has left over, and then whatever he has left after that. This compulsion stems more from an unconventional inferiority complex than anything highminded like loyalty or respect; he knows he's not much as a person, knows that he's kind of disposable, and uses that thought to justify running headfirst into fights he may not be able to win. He does love his friends dearly, and strangely enough, he doesn't feel terrible about feeling like he's somehow less than the next guy. He does feels as though he's lacking in... something. The cause might be something as simple as with being stuck in second place after Riku all his life, or it might be some strange emptiness that Sora was born with that he can't control, which is what his enemies usually imply (and does exist - a great deal of his personality and mannerisms are not his own.) But the knowledge never makes him feel inadequate, depressed, or discouraged for more than a second or two.
Regardless, if someone else needs his help and nothing but the keyblade can save the day, Sora is always ready to step up to the plate, given maybe a nudge or two. Because he is a nice guy: a little slow on the uptake, maybe, sometimes selfish, aggressive, and optimistic to a fault, sure, but he can get behind a good cause and push with the best of them. Once he sees someone who clearly can't defend themselves left on their own, he's incapable of turning a blind eye, even if that means going beyond spending time and energy to make things right. Outspoken, curious, and competitive, he clashes and bickers with the people he meets sometimes, but they tend to come out the other end as friends, even if they were the worst of enemies before. Not that that always happens! Sora doesn't like to hate people at all, but if you can't agree with him on a few key things - friends, peace, the common good - it'll be hard for him to find a way to get you on his side. (Not that that's necessary - fluid priorities, remember? The right words and he'll see things your way). Still, Sora's everyone's friend, or he tries to be - he defines himself with his friendships, especially through his friendships with Riku and Kairi, who help ground his casual spirit and give him something to fight for and treasure. He's a loose cannon firing blanks without their influence and he knows it. Without his friends, he's kind of frail and useless (literally - he has a weak heart, which in the world of Kingdom Hearts means that he has a fragile will and little personality, and was frankly doomed to be kind of uninteresting.) However, the sheer variety and quantity of friends he has, his dogged devotion to them, and his ability to augment and channel their abilities gives him enough strength of heart to take on the most powerful of dark forces, making him both an anomaly and a dangerous wildcard as a Keyblade wielder. Therefore, when it comes to making a friend, he'll put everything he has into making things work out for them. It's 60% lifestyle choice, 40% survival (and 100% him just enjoying himself - he love love loves his friends!)
Putting all of that aside, Sora is a typical teen jock - blunt, outgoing, not at all enthusiastic about school, able to sleep at the drop of a hat, computer illiterate, and maybe a little more excitable than his peers (his reaction to meeting Santa Claus was.... enthusiastic!) He loves fun and he loves being silly. However, his boisterous attitude is balanced by a very humble view of himself, his friends, and what he wants out of his life, making him oddly lucid and calm when he's faced with a harsh reality. He's built to face a lot of sadness and hardship with positivity, and that might be his best trait of all - being able to bear the weight of very heavy emotions, and having an empathic ability strong enough to take on the emotional baggage of others, if only for a little while. This ability seems to be deteriorating somewhat, or at least use of it to battle the constant negativity thrust upon him seems to be taking its toll; his ability to trust people, even his closest, most trusted friends, is fraying as of the most current canon. Still, his simplehearted magnanimity and willingness to empathize no matter what is still there, and while it's unremarkable on its own, in the world of Kingdom Hearts this ability makes him a superhero that will save many, many lives and friendships. And he's determined to! It's kind of a big task, but for an unremarkable kid, he's remarkably single-mindedly determined to see it to the end. It's what he'd do for any friend, and a stranger is just a friend he hasn't made yet. That's just how he rolls.
Any differences:
Skyler is way easier on the friendship freak thing that Sora lives and breathes. He understood that his parents had to shift their attention evenly between all of the siblings after Arielle was born, and he does compensate for the lack of attention a bit by having a wide circle of friends, but it's not a strong compulsion, especially when he doesn't have as much of an open, empty heart that is Sora's blessing and curse.
Skyler's never had to go through anything as harsh as Sora had (i.e. apocalypse, death of the heart, lots of general misery and betrayal), and he's certainly never had to question his simple personality or weakness of character. This leads to a much less spunky and peppy incarnation of the cosmic hero, someone with less of a drive to do much of anything with his life. He's more mellow and staid, a true homebody secure in his surroundings. Moving him out of his comfort zone might be a little more difficult. Skyler's also arguably less mature about matters of the heart than Sora is; Sora has had the opportunity to meet hundreds of people and get to know their struggles, strengths, and weaknesses, and his simple view on the world changed and matured with them. Skyler, on the other hand, didn't get to have a magical Disney journey to give him a kid's outlook on life, and didn't have Riku or Kairi (or Ventus) to guide his decisions to boot - his brashness and tendency to stick his foot in his mouth ran unchecked, making him more rebellious and argumentative, not to mention more than a little immature. His strong sense of justice is definitely a little lacking, although it does give him a good kick in the conscience when necessary.
He does have a craving for attention, but a combination of his inability to shoulder inhuman amounts of sorrow due to not being born with Sora's weird as hell heart, Ven's absence, and his lack of character development means that he's gone through a lot of exhausting, emotionally draining friendships with people without having an emotional buffer between their feelings and his own to be effective, patient, and kind with them. This led to him being a sort of a yes man for a couple of years for the attention, and seeing as how he had friends and acquaintances from across the social spectrum, he ended up doing some lightly illegal shit just to fit in. At the worst of times, he's been complicit with bullying and meanspirited pranks with the jocky alpha-male types - he's given some undeserving kids black eyes before. The drugs and alcohol kind of went with the territory of quasi-popularity and the wilder end of high school parties, but he's never gotten caught and has only lit up like four or five times, he swears. (six? seven? a lot...) He's not particularly sorry about it, but he does realize that this behavior will get him in trouble and is working through getting extricated from the scene for various reasons, if not the right ones.
Although he hasn't consciously cut ties with all of the most detrimental of his friends (he's still on lacrosse with some of them he can't just AVOID them (not for lack of trying though)), he's slowly withdrawn from their personal lives and now finds himself in the lonely position of having no close friends outside his family. He's been compensating for this by slipping back into an old class clown niche he had in middle school, when he first started trying to feed his need for attention. However, being emotionally available to everyone still has him slowly tripping down the slippery slope of cynicism in self-defense, even though he's a huge romantic at heart. His need for attention and his inability to form tight relationships with those outside of his family might have led to some nasty self-worth issues if his Echo hadn't clued him in that there was something weird about him... And it still might in the future! These are all things he is coming to terms with as the game begins for him.
As a last note... Skyler isn't as strongly connected with people as Sora is, but he does get along with children particularly well and has recently been trying to stay on the lighter side of mischief so he had a better chance at getting the camp counseling job this summer (not a great reason but reason number one he's stopped being a shit). He's a favorite among the children since he hasn't quite grown up yet and genuinely enjoys playing pretend. They begged him with puppy eyes to stay out of trouble! How could he resist?
So, uh, to sum it all up:
- Less friendshippy and adventurous, much less perky and sweet
- Doesn't sleep as much not lazy oh boy he has ENERGY and some times not in the good way
- More dudebro douchery, less mature about feelings and shit (and less childlike??)
- Less mature about other shit (he actually might make a conscious choice to do the wrong thing like whoa man)
- More overtly needy for attention
- KIND OF STARTING TO GET CYNICAL?? He's at the very start of the idea but he hasn't followed the thought to its conclusion
+ Still good with kids and other people in general, tries to see the best in them
+ Makes a conscious attempt to stay positive (but it's harder for him than it is for Sora); still pretty romantic, he's got soft spot for people in love a mile wide.
+ Still extroverted and sociable; loves having FUN and seeing people smile.
+ Still very devoted to the people he sees as his priorities in life to the point where he can become rather morally gray.
+ Still kind of stupid in an endearing way.
+ Still feels like an underdog but not as strongly as Sora does (he's still aggressive and obsessed with his machismo too bad he's cute haha)
+ Tries to be nice? Likes to be helpful. Not as obsessive about it as Sora is though. Still blunt.
Abilities:
caveat from the personality and history section goes here except it's edited to fit StE's circumstances.
Sora has a very, very wide skillset throughout the games that fluctuates within various contexts. Therefore, I've omitted a comprehensive list of abilities and equipment for brevity's sake; the abilities he will use the most is under the other abilities list and his equipment shouldn't have a bearing on everyday gameplay. I have also included a set of links to the unofficial KH wiki that details all of his abilities, equipment, magic, and other various paraphernalia; if he regains them all, it will be slowly and one at a time and responsibly, I promise. Priority will be given to non-combat items of a sentimental nature.
The keyblade acts as both a sword and a blunt, bludgeony object. Sora keeps it stored in his heart and summons it whenever he needs it, so he doesn't need a sheath or a holster. It's sharp and durable enough to slice through skyscrapers. Other abilities include:
- Universal key - Can unlock most conventional locks. Might be able to unlock doors locked with advanced technology (I'm pretty sure that the locks on space ships lock via keycode or something, and Terra broke out of one, so... If that's excessive, let me know.)
- Empathic weapon - the keyblade is connected to Sora's heart and cannot be taken from him. If Sora is separated from it, he can summon it back to his hand, even if it's locked up somewhere else - it disappears and reappears in Sora's possession.
- Can turn into other versions of itself - As of right now, Sora has the keychains he gained from the worlds from KHII and the dreaming worlds from DDD. Each keychain turns his keyblade into another form with different stats and abilities.
Magical abilities:
- Curaga: A cure spell. Can heal a good amount of damage of physical damage, but cannot repair completely broken bones (he can do fractures at most), unconsciousness/incapacitation, sickness/poison, or death.
- Esuna: Can cure sickness, poison, and non-physical forms of incapacitation (confusion, sleep, temporary blindness, etc), but not genetic diseases/disabilities, unconsciousness, or death.
- Element spells: Fire, ice, thunder, and light (Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, and Sparkga/Faith). He's very proficient with these spells and can hit wide areas with any one of them. On the downside, the bigger the spell is, that harder it is for him to aim...
- Poison: Temporary poison. Flushes out from the system quickly.
- Mini: Temporarily makes opponent small. Their attack capabilities goes down significantly.
- Magnet: Draws in opponents. Sora can localize this spell to hit only his opponents.
- Zero Gravity: Sora creates a weak event horizon that causes things/opponents in the area to float. Sora can localize this spell.
- Stop/Slow/Haste: Stops, slows, and speeds up the flow of time. Sora can localize these spells.
- Balloonga: Balloons that hit like homing missiles, then multiply and hit again...
- Sleepga: Puts people to sleep.
- Time Bomb: Turns opponents into time bombs. They walk off, and then... boom!
- Tornado: Wind attack, Sora summons and controls a small tornado.
other abilities:
- Can jump pretty damn high! Think... his own height. Five feet.
- He can jump again in midair in what is called a double jump.
- HE CAN GLIDE! He can't fly, but he can kick off from a high point and glide until he hits ground again.
- Can fall from extremely tall heights and survive.
- Slide-dash! It's this... really long slide, I have no idea how it works. Handy for dodging things!
- Dodge Roll! It's... a roll. He uses it to dodge things. He can roll...forever. HE'S GOT SOME REALLY GOOD INNER EQUILIBRIUM.
A note on some powers that are addressed in the game but have no value from a gameplay perspective:
Sora has the power to see hearts into those without hearts. Say you have an inanimate object, a robot with AI but effectively no feelings, a puppet missing its heart but with a working conscience, etc. If Sora has the impression that that individual has a heart, or if Sora wants to believe that they have a heart, then a heart will eventually start to manifest in them, effectively giving whatever it is a heart, a soul, and the ability to empathize and truly feel.
Sora also has an empty heart, which allows him to carry several other hearts with him, whether in spirit or through actually physically carrying another heart inside his own. The hearts that are with him in spirit simply give him enough strength to wield his keyblade; he would otherwise be unable to carry one, since an empty heart is also representative of a lack of personality and willpower, key traits of a keyblade wielder. Hearts that are actually inside his own heart influence his personality greatly, to the point where his personality overlaps with the other hearts' personalities, making it hard to tell where his personality ends and another personality begins. One could argue that without the other hearts, Sora would be no one at all.
appendices:
other weapons
keyblade write-up
magic spell details
combat abilities
drive forms
accessories
armor
Roleplay Sample – Third Person:
"Happy birthday, Arielle!" Skyler pops a cracker upward, scattering streamers and confetti over the little plastic table and into their hair.
Arielle giggles, twirling her own cracker between her fingers, but does not follow suit. Instead, she resolves her face into a thoughtful pout. "Why did you do it early, Sky? Mommy and Daddy aren't here yet, and Milo's still upstairs."
"Mom's getting a surprise for you, and Dad's gonna be late. And between you and me, Milo's kind of a butt." Skyler's grin cracks his face in two as Arielle dissolves into more helpless giggles at the b-word. It took about twenty minutes to drag all of her play set outside, plastic tea-cups and all, but the look on her face made him feel like he'd also gotten her a pony and a party clown. Yeah... definitely worth it. But something about this all still bothered him... And now he thinks he can pinpoint why.
"Hey, Ari?"
She fiddles with her party hat, waving the sparkly gold pom pom at the end. "Yeah?"
"Didn't you want more of your friends here today?" Sora shifts in his undersized chair and plops his chin in his hand. "You gave them all invitations, right?"
"Uh-huh. Michaela and Telly said they'd come, but then they said no. They didn't want to come." She studies her cracker, analyzing the crease on the paper tube.
That statement sparked some annoyance in him, making him frown deeply. Kids her age not coming to a birthday party? When Ari was basically pretty cool when she wasn't being kind of a brat? That was fucking dumb. "That's dumb. Why didn't they want to come?"
Her eyes slid up to look at him, then quickly returned to her cracker. The silence stretched uncomfortably. Uh. Uh-oh. Ari told him everything. They took after their Mom. They could talk paint off a wall. And... Her lower lip starts to tremble. Oooohohoho. No. That was his little sister, and if that tear glossing her eyes over was going to fall, faces would definitely get punched.
He leans over the table. "Hey, Ari? What happened?"
This statement causes an avalanche of emotion; her face screws up and she slams the cracker on the table. "It's your fault!"
... Wow. Skyler sits back, a little stunned, but instantly defensive. "Me? What'd I do?"
"It's 'c-cause," she says, starting to hiccup, "'Cause Nick told me that Sarah said her mommy was talking to Telly's mommy and she said that you were a bad kid and she didn't want Telly to come and that's why Telly didn't come and then Telly told Michaela the same thing and then Michaela said she didn't care but then she told her daddy about it and then her daddy told her not to talk to me anymore and that's what Ann-Marie said and now no one's here and it's because you did something bad." The middle of the last set of "and thens" turned watery and burst into tears at the end.
Skyler knew he was kind of developing a reputation for delinquency, but he hadn't realized it'd gotten at all notorious... He knew Telly's older brother for less than savory reasons, but he was trying to get away from him and that crew now! He didn't mean for that bullshit to boil over into Ari's life. Aw... shit.
His mouth, unfortunately, goes a little faster than his penitent thought process. "So... Why didn't Ann-Marie come?"
Ari screeches at that. Skyler winces, but thinks he can hear the garbled reply of "'CAUSE SHE HATES ME" under the despair. Ari quits the table and runs back inside, scooting past - oh, fuck, fuck, Mom with a cake under her arm - and dodges into their house, her wailing muting as she ascends the stairs.
Skyler continues to cringe as his mom slowly turns to stare at him. Uh... oh. How to explain this one...
Roleplay Sample - Network:
[ Wow. Sorry. Gratuitous Facebook photo with his shirt off and flexing. What a douchebag. ]
ok so. that was me literally last week. ok not last week more like last year after camp. MY EYES ARE BROWN. [ He's got t-shirt tanlines on his arms. Attraaaactive. But yes indeed, his very wide eyes are brown]
ok and this is me now
[ Second picture, thankfully with a shirt on and less of a dramatic tan. Close-up on his face this time. He looks mildly worried, and he's got a finger on his lower eyelid to keep it open. Yes. That is not brown. ]
blue. bright white guy blue. wtf.
i dont usually lose my shit but im losing my shit here how am i supposed to hide this. i cant do sunglasses at school im trying not to look like an obvious asshole here. i cant do contacts i cant afford them and id probably poke my eyes out anyway. waterproof self-spiking hair was cool. this isnt. holy shit. help.
Any Questions?
SOBS DEEPLY
Name: Mawi
Are you over 15? Yes
Contact: e-mail (taiya118@hotmail.com) is preferred.
IC Information:
Name: Sora; Skyler Veracruz in-game
Canon: Kingdom Hearts
Age: In current canon, he's 15, but in the game, I'd like him to be 16. (He is now 17 as of current STE canon! Just sayin)
Preincarnation Appearance:
this image is absolutely enormous i'm warning you now
(Please note that although his hands and feet are freakishly big in the game, I will be disregarding that as a stylistic choice, seeing as how only a select few characters in the game have proportional hands and feet. Also, he is 5'4 1/2" as of current canon.)
Any differences:
Skyler is at the three-fourths point of a considerable growth spurt; he's gone from the shrimpy fourteen year old he once was to a respectable 5'7", filling out relatively gracefully due to large amounts of food and near constant exercise (so, not gracefully, he's just made of a thousand rubber bands, not unlike Tigger). His hair is much shorter and manageable, and doesn't have the near magical spikiness his preincarnation has (that will be one of his first powers to return lol). He also has dark brown eyes because there is no way to rationalize crystalline gem-like blue eyes on him with his genetic background, sorry.
Preincarnated History:
please note that this part of the app was copy-pasted from
oathkept's app because i am also dw user oathkept. if i need to send you a message through oathkept's account for accountability let me know.GOD. OK, SPARKNOTES VERSION.
When Sora was 4-5 years old, his heart (as a metaphysical representation of himself, his soul and feelings) reached out to the heart of a boy named Ventus, a keyblade wielder whose heart had been horribly broken. A man named Xehanort had tried to extract the darkness (a metaphysical representation of the bad shit that one feels, just kind of general evil stuff made physical) from Ventus to make him a being of only light. Ven's heart wasn't meant to take that kind of strain (no one can have a heart made only of light except for a Princess of Light), so it started to dissolve. However, Sora restored Ven's heart with a bit of his own, temporarily stopping the damage. A year later, Sora briefly met the keyblade master Aqua, but has since forgotten that meeting (understandable, since he was very young at the time). However, he did promise Aqua that he would always take care of Riku if he went too far astray, a promise he's kept throughout his life. After a long series of adventures, Ventus' heart was reunited with its dark half, but it had been weakened significantly by a fight between him and the physical embodiment of his dark half, Vanitas, who had grown sentient. Since their hearts were already connected, Ventus traveled back to Sora's heart and asked if he could stay until it was safe and he was strong enough to go back to his body. Sora agreed, and that's how two residents (Ventus, an incredibly gentle and sweet kid, best friends with Aqua and Terra; and Vanitas, complete asshole, kind of a sociopath) ended up in Sora's heart from a very young age. Sora draws some of Ven's mannerisms as a result: an easy smile, the habit of putting his hands behind his head while he's thinking.
About ten years later, Sora, his best friend Riku, and Kairi, a girl from another world, planned to leave their island together, but were interrupted by a darkness that ate their world and separated the three from each other. Riku, who had been thrown to a different world, had succumbed to the darkness that took their home, and mostly stood in Sora's way from then on as an antagonist. Kairi had disappeared in front of Sora's eyes when their world was being destroyed, but as Sora looked for her, he realized he was starting to hallucinate entire conversations with her when it was clear no one else but he and his friends and fellow travelers, Donald and Goofy, were in the room. He also started to recognize places he had never been to before. On top of that, he found that he could summon the Keyblade, a special weapon that chose its wielder. (Unbeknownst to him, Ven had been the one to introduce the weapon to his heart - one can't be a keyblade wielder if they haven't been in contact with a keyblade.) Using the Keyblade, he could destroy the Heartless, the dark creatures that had been eating the heart of the worlds, and prevent them from eating worlds that they hadn't fully devoured. Things started getting more complicated when Riku found Kairi's body - her heart was nowhere to be found, making her nothing but a lifeless shell. Sora spent most of his time chasing down Riku and Kairi's body, rescuing other planets and making friends, growing closer with Donald and Goofy in particular.
On the last world, Hollow Bastion, he finally caught up with Riku, who made a bold claim - the keyblade Sora had was supposed to be Riku's. The Keyblade, sensing Riku's strong heart, switched sides, and Donald and Goofy were obligated to follow him on their king's orders. However, Sora came to realize that his friends were literally his power - his weakness of heart would always be trumped by the collective power of his heart's connections to his friends. Using his belief in the power of his friendships, he was able to take the Keyblade back from Riku in their second confrontation. He proceeded deeper into Hollow Bastion and defeated Maleficent just in time for Riku to return... but with a passenger. Riku, possessed by the Heartless of a man who called himself Ansem, wielded a new Keyblade, one that could unlock all the contents of the heart. He stabbed Maleficent in the heart to demonstrate its power; using the unlocked darkness in her heart, she turned into a massive dragon. After defeating her, Sora chased Riku into the heart of Hollow Bastion, where he was keeping Kairi's body. There, Sora finally defeated Riku in a duel. Right before he disappeared, Ansem as Riku revealed that Kairi's heart had been inside Sora's all this time, which explained why he could see her when no one else could, and why he had recognized places he had never been to - he was actually remembering Kairi's recollections of the places she'd been before she came to their island. Ansem as Riku disappeared, leaving his keyblade behind. With Kairi's body still lifeless and her heart in his, Sora did the only thing he could: he stabbed his own heart with Riku's unlocking keyblade, releasing both his and Kairi's heart. Kairi's heart returned to her body, but Sora came back as a Heartless. The consequences of this one action ripples over the course of the next few games (... this is going to take a while.) He spent the next few minutes as a Heartless with a conscience, choosing not to attack his friends when he found them again, but Kairi brought him back by the power of love... or something. This part was never really well explained. I think he's pretty much a heartghost from this point on?? Whatever. He went on to defeat Ansem, who had separated from Riku (who had tried his best to protect his friends after realizing he had been manipulated), and restored the lost worlds back to their rightful places. He had to close the door to Kingdom Hearts, the place where all hearts go when they die in order to be reborn, sealing Riku in, along with Donald and Goofy's king, Mickey. He returned to his world in the primordial soup where Kairi was waiting, but decided to travel back into the spaces between worlds to find Riku and King Mickey. He told her this and promised to come back.
In between the worlds, he found a castle where he was promised by a mysterious man in black that he would find Riku and the King, but also something else he missed. However, the man in black warned him that as he searched the castle, he would slowly forget everything, starting from the outer memories and working into the memories he held most dear. Sora started climbing the castle's floors with Donald and Goofy's help. The floors manifested as the worlds Sora had already been to, featuring friends he slowly started to forget, and between floors, various black-coated villains who called themselves members of the Organization opposed him, mocking his efforts. However, in the middle of his climb and amidst all of the growing amnesia, he started to remember someone else - Naminé, a girl he had grown up with but had forgotten about for some reason. However, the memory of Naminé started to replace his memories of Kairi, the girl he loved the most in the world. The Organization, reminding him that he would find something he missed, claimed that they had captured her inside the castle. Soon, he had forgotten why he started searching the castle, assuming that he was there to rescue Naminé. On his way up the tower, he also traveled through a floor that represented a world on the other side of his heart called Twilight Town, a world he didn't fully understand nor remember. When he finally reunited with Naminé, she told him the truth - she was a witch with power over his memories, who had been stealing and modifying his memories the entire time. She explained that she only agreed to help the Organization because she was lonely. With her help (and the help of an artificial version of Riku - please don't ask), he defeated Marluxia, the original black-coated man. Naminé went to work setting Sora's memory right, but in exchange, she had to destroy the memories he had made of the castle, including his memories of Naminé. Donald and Goofy's memories were to be mended as well; she revealed that while she had power over Sora's memories, their forgetfulness was caused by their close connection to Sora's heart. Sora promised that she would always hold a special place in his heart, even if he wouldn't remember her. Reworking Sora's memory would take a year, and for that year, Sora would have to sleep. So sleep he did...
When Sora woke up, Donald and Goofy were waiting for him. Not remembering how they got there or why they were asleep, with no clues except for a mysterious hint that told them to "Thank Naminé", they walked out to discover that they were in the basement of a mansion on the outskirts of a world called Twilight Town. Meeting several kids their age in town, they worked out that Sora had to leave and find guidance because a new kind of enemy had appeared. However, as Sora said goodbye to his new friends, he started to feel as though he'd never see them again, something that hadn't happened before, especially not with kids he had just met. To his surprise, he shed a few tears before coming back to earth and leaving on the next train. He met the keyblade master Yen Sid, who told him about a new kind of enemy: Nobodies, the shells left behind by people whose hearts had left their bodies and turned to Heartless. Unlike the Heartless, it was easier for a Nobody to become sentient; a whole group of sentient, human formed Nobodies had formed a group called Organization XIII to find their hearts by creating as many heartless as possible. Sora went on another quest to save the universe and find Riku and King Mickey, meeting more new friends and reuniting with old ones. At some point along the way, he found out that Kairi got really tired of waiting for him to go home and escaped, but got captured by Axel, a member of the Organization who had gone rogue. After chasing down Axel, he found him struggling to defend himself against a group of Nobodies sent after him by Saïx, a member of the Organization. Axel told Sora that Kairi had been taken from him by Saïx. Axel used the last of his strength to defeat the Nobodies surrounding them and after telling Sora that he reminded him of a Nobody, Roxas, who had made him feel like he had a heart, opened a path to the Organization's headquarters, the World that Never Was, and died. Arriving there, Sora was accosted by a boy in a black coat who fought him in the depths of his heart. After a very hard fight, the boy conceded, saying that Sora made a good Other. Arriving at the castle, he finally found Kairi, who had escaped her prison with the help of a mysterious girl called Naminé, and he finally, FINALLY caught up with Riku, who had taken on Ansem's form in order to use the powers of darkness. Riku told him about the existence of Roxas, the mysterious boy Sora had fought earlier and the nobody Axel had mentioned - Sora's nobody, created when he separated his heart from his body in Hollow Bastion a year before. Roxas had been reunited with Sora against his will in order to reunite Sora's heart and body, and had only made his peace with it during Sora's fight with him. Roxas had had his own life and friends (including the friends he had in Twilight Town; the sorrow that Sora had felt was Roxas'). The separation of Sora's heart from his body had also caused Naminé's creation - Naminé was Kairi's Nobody, an impossible creature since a Nobody is made from the shell of darkness left behind after the creation of a Heartless. Kairi, as a princess of heart, had no darkness to create a Heartless, which is why she became a shell of her own body in the first game. Naminé was instead made using Sora's body. Determined not to let Kairi and Riku out of his sight again, Sora defeated the rest of the Organization and traveled further into the castle, only to find King Mickey with a mysterious man... the real Ansem, Ansem the King. Ansem the Heartless who had taken Riku's body a year before was an impostor called Xehanort, whose Nobody, who called himself Xemnas, was trying to create an artificial Kingdom Hearts using the hearts Sora had released throughout his journey. However, King Ansem exploded the incomplete Kingdom Hearts, killing him and releasing light around the entire premises. The light caused Riku to return to his normal self, to everyone's surprise and relief. Together with Donald, Goofy, and Riku, Sora defeated Xemnas... 's first form. (GOD DAMN IT.) Before Sora and Riku could escape the castle, the portal leading out of the dimension closed. Together, they destroyed Xemnas once and for all, but they were trapped in Betwixt and Between, an area made of nothing. They eventually found a path that led to an beach inside the realm of darkness. After a very long time of waiting in which the two hashed out their feelings about each other, they got a message in a bottle from Kairi, which lit a path back to their island, where Kairi, Donald, Goofy, and King Mickey were waiting. A few days after Donald and Goofy had left, Sora and Riku were discussing their place in the universe when Kairi ran up with another message in a bottle from the king.
The message described the suffering of several people connected to his heart: Roxas, who had lost everything, including the living memory of his friend Xion, another Nobody, who also had to reunite with Sora at the cost of her existence and the knowledge of her existence; and Ventus, who had lost his two best friends, and still slept in Sora's heart. These hearts inside of Sora had helped him battle his foes and influence his choices throughout his life. In order to rescue these people and bring them peace, Sora and Riku would have to go through a Mark of Mastery exam, which would determine if they were of Master rank with the keyblade, and go on one last quest to reunite all of the people who were torn apart by the Heartless. Sora, aware that he owed the hearts inside him his life, strength, and current personality, accepted the quest.
The Mark of Mastery exam took Sora and Riku back in time; their bodies slept as their hearts, in their younger bodies, went back to the moment when their island was taken by the heartless in order to investigate and free the sleeping worlds, which were safe from the Heartless but still had yet to awaken. However, the two were separated early on and Sora's heart was plunged into sleep. He awoke in Traverse Town, the first sleeping world, and started his journey to figure out why the worlds were still asleep. Throughout the journey, Riku was stuck in a parallel set of worlds; although they could influence the events of the other parallel, they couldn't see or speak to each other. A unfamiliar young man in a black coat opposed Sora, mocking him as his heart guided him deeper into the dream. The last dreaming world was the World that Never Was. Despite echoing warnings (from Riku, who had found Sora's body and realized what was wrong), Sora continued to follow his heart, finding several mysterious people: Ven's recollections of Aqua and Terra (he briefly turned into a very confused Ven during this time), then Xion, who caused him immense emotional distress that he couldn't explain, and Roxas, with whom he had a brief conversation where he explained that he wanted to give him his life back. In return, Roxas allowed Sora to share some of his memories, which caused him even more distress. Sora finally got to the very core of the dream where the young man, who was actually a young version of Xehanort, revealed his ultimate plan: the eldest Xehanort had gone back in time and informed the young version of himself of his plans to create a Keyblade War. The various time-displaced versions of himself manipulated everyone over decades in order to first try to trap Riku in the darkness as Xehanort's newest vessel, then, as a back-up plan, trap Sora in his own dreams, defeat him there, and lock him within his own heart so Xehanort could use his body as a new vessel. His plan to find new vessels had begun with the Organization, his first attempt to create thirteen vessels for himself, but Sora had ruined that plan too. Xehanort also explained that the Nobodies did have hearts - Sora had killed extremely confused people with young hearts. Sora did his best to defeat Ansem, but unfortunately, since the youngest Xehanort had already seen his victory, Sora's defeat was time-locked. Sora fell asleep, trapped inside his heart to be devoured by the darkness within, when... Ven, who was still inside, gave his armor to protect Sora from the darkness. (GOOD BOY.) Riku, King Mickey, Lea (Axel with his heart), Donald, and Goofy rescued Sora's body from the Xehanorts and brought him back to Yen Sid's castle, where Riku performed one last dive into Sora's dream, rescued Sora, met all of his current heart inhabitants (excluding Vanitas), and discovered a data version of King Ansem that the real King Ansem had implanted inside Sora's heart during his year long sleep, who gave Riku information on the nature of Sora's heart and existence and informed him that Sora was already awake and well. Riku traveled back to his own body to find Sora in a pair of fucking funny glasses having a tea party with Donald and Goofy, with Lea sitting off to the side being a smug motherfucker. Seriously? Fucking seriously??? Oh my fucking god. Sora did NOT pass the exam, Riku did, Yen Sid apologized for sending them both into a trap, but now they know what Xehanort was up to, which is nice even though they can do shit all to stop it; Kairi was one of the seven chosen warriors of light who will help the other six light keyblade wielders against the thirteen chosen wielders of darkness in the next keyblade war, and suddenly Axel has a keyblade. This is the happiest ending to a Kingdom Hearts game ever. Sora goes off to do his own thing - he ends up going back to the dreaming Traverse Town in his normal body to look for his Dreameaters. And this is where I stop. PHEW
Reincarnated History
Skyler Veracruz is a Locke City native, born the middle child to a loving, if slightly preoccupied family of five. Dad Veracruz is a white-collar wage slave in middle upper management at a business firm and pulls terrifying amounts of overtime, but tends to be kindly and warm at home, if a little distant. Mama Veracruz, a part-time clerical worker in the local public hospital, is a much more active figure in his life, constantly shuttling his little sister Arielle between school, diving, and ballet lessons and making sure his older brother Milo eats in between studying and building 1:80 models of the Taj Mahal. Skyler is extroverted and sociable, so he tends to slip from his mostly introverted older immediate family's radar and out the door to hang with friends at parties. At home, he ends up spending more of his time with Arielle, a pink princess who rivals him in pep.
He had a normal education through elementary and middle school and fell in with a lot of different social groups, not really casting his allegiance with one or the other. Near the end of his freshman year, puberty hit, and instead of going the sleepy teenager route, he suddenly had way more energy than he knew what to do with. He joined various sports teams and fell in with way too many bad influences before settling on swimming and lacrosse (he has yet to shed a lot of his terrible friends though.) He's had a total of one girlfriend and they dated for a month when she realized he was, at the time, sort of a bum, and broke it off. He also volunteers at a summer camp for elementary and middle schoolers and recently heard back that he got a regular job there as a life guard in addition to quasi-counselor duties. (yes, that means he is cpr-certified. HOLLA)
There's not much to say about his personal or family life that I won't cover in the reincarnated personality section; he has plenty to do with his time and his downtime is spent finding more ways to fill his days. This has lead to some lightly illegal shit going down during his freshman and sophomore years along the lines of criminal mischief, drinking, and light drug use... but like I said, reincarnated personality section.
First Echo:
No... what actually happened was that he was taking a break from mowing the backyard last summer (around his birthday, actually - August 14th) by taking a nap in the middle of the lawn. He did have a strange, disorienting, nonsensical nightmare, but nothing that related to his past life. The actual relevant part happened when he opened his eyes - his little sister Ari popped her head into his view right above him, startling him into sitting up. After chewing her out, he realized that he had a weird sense of deja vu about the event... But that was silly! Ari didn't have red hair or blue eyes.
Preincarnation Personality:
again, please note that this part of the app was copy-pasted from
oathkept's app because i am also dw user oathkept. if i need to send you a message through oathkept's account for accountability let me know.Sora is a pretty happy guy. Anyone would get a little more than down in the dumps if they lost everything they had to an all consuming cosmic darkness, but when that fate befell his world, he shrugged off most of his own personal troubles to focus on the job at hand. His "job" fluctuates given whatever needs to get rescued at any given moment in time, but tends to revolve around his two best friends, Riku and Kairi, and various movements thereof. In fact, they are the only people that can derail Sora from a job. Although he's better known for saving the multiverse, he considers that more of a side thing (a big side thing, but still) in comparison to making sure his friends are absolutely safe. Sora always puts his friends first, so much so that when it comes to prioritizing, Sora can get a little dodgy. Yeah, so what if he's a keyblade hero? Find him his friends; then he'll talk. It's impossible to overstate his devotion to his friends! He'll put a great deal aside for the sake of a friend - his possessions, an important mission or goal, any pride he has left over, and then whatever he has left after that. This compulsion stems more from an unconventional inferiority complex than anything highminded like loyalty or respect; he knows he's not much as a person, knows that he's kind of disposable, and uses that thought to justify running headfirst into fights he may not be able to win. He does love his friends dearly, and strangely enough, he doesn't feel terrible about feeling like he's somehow less than the next guy. He does feels as though he's lacking in... something. The cause might be something as simple as with being stuck in second place after Riku all his life, or it might be some strange emptiness that Sora was born with that he can't control, which is what his enemies usually imply (and does exist - a great deal of his personality and mannerisms are not his own.) But the knowledge never makes him feel inadequate, depressed, or discouraged for more than a second or two.
Regardless, if someone else needs his help and nothing but the keyblade can save the day, Sora is always ready to step up to the plate, given maybe a nudge or two. Because he is a nice guy: a little slow on the uptake, maybe, sometimes selfish, aggressive, and optimistic to a fault, sure, but he can get behind a good cause and push with the best of them. Once he sees someone who clearly can't defend themselves left on their own, he's incapable of turning a blind eye, even if that means going beyond spending time and energy to make things right. Outspoken, curious, and competitive, he clashes and bickers with the people he meets sometimes, but they tend to come out the other end as friends, even if they were the worst of enemies before. Not that that always happens! Sora doesn't like to hate people at all, but if you can't agree with him on a few key things - friends, peace, the common good - it'll be hard for him to find a way to get you on his side. (Not that that's necessary - fluid priorities, remember? The right words and he'll see things your way). Still, Sora's everyone's friend, or he tries to be - he defines himself with his friendships, especially through his friendships with Riku and Kairi, who help ground his casual spirit and give him something to fight for and treasure. He's a loose cannon firing blanks without their influence and he knows it. Without his friends, he's kind of frail and useless (literally - he has a weak heart, which in the world of Kingdom Hearts means that he has a fragile will and little personality, and was frankly doomed to be kind of uninteresting.) However, the sheer variety and quantity of friends he has, his dogged devotion to them, and his ability to augment and channel their abilities gives him enough strength of heart to take on the most powerful of dark forces, making him both an anomaly and a dangerous wildcard as a Keyblade wielder. Therefore, when it comes to making a friend, he'll put everything he has into making things work out for them. It's 60% lifestyle choice, 40% survival (and 100% him just enjoying himself - he love love loves his friends!)
Putting all of that aside, Sora is a typical teen jock - blunt, outgoing, not at all enthusiastic about school, able to sleep at the drop of a hat, computer illiterate, and maybe a little more excitable than his peers (his reaction to meeting Santa Claus was.... enthusiastic!) He loves fun and he loves being silly. However, his boisterous attitude is balanced by a very humble view of himself, his friends, and what he wants out of his life, making him oddly lucid and calm when he's faced with a harsh reality. He's built to face a lot of sadness and hardship with positivity, and that might be his best trait of all - being able to bear the weight of very heavy emotions, and having an empathic ability strong enough to take on the emotional baggage of others, if only for a little while. This ability seems to be deteriorating somewhat, or at least use of it to battle the constant negativity thrust upon him seems to be taking its toll; his ability to trust people, even his closest, most trusted friends, is fraying as of the most current canon. Still, his simplehearted magnanimity and willingness to empathize no matter what is still there, and while it's unremarkable on its own, in the world of Kingdom Hearts this ability makes him a superhero that will save many, many lives and friendships. And he's determined to! It's kind of a big task, but for an unremarkable kid, he's remarkably single-mindedly determined to see it to the end. It's what he'd do for any friend, and a stranger is just a friend he hasn't made yet. That's just how he rolls.
Any differences:
Skyler is way easier on the friendship freak thing that Sora lives and breathes. He understood that his parents had to shift their attention evenly between all of the siblings after Arielle was born, and he does compensate for the lack of attention a bit by having a wide circle of friends, but it's not a strong compulsion, especially when he doesn't have as much of an open, empty heart that is Sora's blessing and curse.
Skyler's never had to go through anything as harsh as Sora had (i.e. apocalypse, death of the heart, lots of general misery and betrayal), and he's certainly never had to question his simple personality or weakness of character. This leads to a much less spunky and peppy incarnation of the cosmic hero, someone with less of a drive to do much of anything with his life. He's more mellow and staid, a true homebody secure in his surroundings. Moving him out of his comfort zone might be a little more difficult. Skyler's also arguably less mature about matters of the heart than Sora is; Sora has had the opportunity to meet hundreds of people and get to know their struggles, strengths, and weaknesses, and his simple view on the world changed and matured with them. Skyler, on the other hand, didn't get to have a magical Disney journey to give him a kid's outlook on life, and didn't have Riku or Kairi (or Ventus) to guide his decisions to boot - his brashness and tendency to stick his foot in his mouth ran unchecked, making him more rebellious and argumentative, not to mention more than a little immature. His strong sense of justice is definitely a little lacking, although it does give him a good kick in the conscience when necessary.
He does have a craving for attention, but a combination of his inability to shoulder inhuman amounts of sorrow due to not being born with Sora's weird as hell heart, Ven's absence, and his lack of character development means that he's gone through a lot of exhausting, emotionally draining friendships with people without having an emotional buffer between their feelings and his own to be effective, patient, and kind with them. This led to him being a sort of a yes man for a couple of years for the attention, and seeing as how he had friends and acquaintances from across the social spectrum, he ended up doing some lightly illegal shit just to fit in. At the worst of times, he's been complicit with bullying and meanspirited pranks with the jocky alpha-male types - he's given some undeserving kids black eyes before. The drugs and alcohol kind of went with the territory of quasi-popularity and the wilder end of high school parties, but he's never gotten caught and has only lit up like four or five times, he swears. (six? seven? a lot...) He's not particularly sorry about it, but he does realize that this behavior will get him in trouble and is working through getting extricated from the scene for various reasons, if not the right ones.
Although he hasn't consciously cut ties with all of the most detrimental of his friends (he's still on lacrosse with some of them he can't just AVOID them (not for lack of trying though)), he's slowly withdrawn from their personal lives and now finds himself in the lonely position of having no close friends outside his family. He's been compensating for this by slipping back into an old class clown niche he had in middle school, when he first started trying to feed his need for attention. However, being emotionally available to everyone still has him slowly tripping down the slippery slope of cynicism in self-defense, even though he's a huge romantic at heart. His need for attention and his inability to form tight relationships with those outside of his family might have led to some nasty self-worth issues if his Echo hadn't clued him in that there was something weird about him... And it still might in the future! These are all things he is coming to terms with as the game begins for him.
As a last note... Skyler isn't as strongly connected with people as Sora is, but he does get along with children particularly well and has recently been trying to stay on the lighter side of mischief so he had a better chance at getting the camp counseling job this summer (not a great reason but reason number one he's stopped being a shit). He's a favorite among the children since he hasn't quite grown up yet and genuinely enjoys playing pretend. They begged him with puppy eyes to stay out of trouble! How could he resist?
So, uh, to sum it all up:
- Less friendshippy and adventurous, much less perky and sweet
- Doesn't sleep as much not lazy oh boy he has ENERGY and some times not in the good way
- More dudebro douchery, less mature about feelings and shit (and less childlike??)
- Less mature about other shit (he actually might make a conscious choice to do the wrong thing like whoa man)
- More overtly needy for attention
- KIND OF STARTING TO GET CYNICAL?? He's at the very start of the idea but he hasn't followed the thought to its conclusion
+ Still good with kids and other people in general, tries to see the best in them
+ Makes a conscious attempt to stay positive (but it's harder for him than it is for Sora); still pretty romantic, he's got soft spot for people in love a mile wide.
+ Still extroverted and sociable; loves having FUN and seeing people smile.
+ Still very devoted to the people he sees as his priorities in life to the point where he can become rather morally gray.
+ Still kind of stupid in an endearing way.
+ Still feels like an underdog but not as strongly as Sora does (he's still aggressive and obsessed with his machismo too bad he's cute haha)
+ Tries to be nice? Likes to be helpful. Not as obsessive about it as Sora is though. Still blunt.
Abilities:
caveat from the personality and history section goes here except it's edited to fit StE's circumstances.
Sora has a very, very wide skillset throughout the games that fluctuates within various contexts. Therefore, I've omitted a comprehensive list of abilities and equipment for brevity's sake; the abilities he will use the most is under the other abilities list and his equipment shouldn't have a bearing on everyday gameplay. I have also included a set of links to the unofficial KH wiki that details all of his abilities, equipment, magic, and other various paraphernalia; if he regains them all, it will be slowly and one at a time and responsibly, I promise. Priority will be given to non-combat items of a sentimental nature.
The keyblade acts as both a sword and a blunt, bludgeony object. Sora keeps it stored in his heart and summons it whenever he needs it, so he doesn't need a sheath or a holster. It's sharp and durable enough to slice through skyscrapers. Other abilities include:
- Universal key - Can unlock most conventional locks. Might be able to unlock doors locked with advanced technology (I'm pretty sure that the locks on space ships lock via keycode or something, and Terra broke out of one, so... If that's excessive, let me know.)
- Empathic weapon - the keyblade is connected to Sora's heart and cannot be taken from him. If Sora is separated from it, he can summon it back to his hand, even if it's locked up somewhere else - it disappears and reappears in Sora's possession.
- Can turn into other versions of itself - As of right now, Sora has the keychains he gained from the worlds from KHII and the dreaming worlds from DDD. Each keychain turns his keyblade into another form with different stats and abilities.
Magical abilities:
- Curaga: A cure spell. Can heal a good amount of damage of physical damage, but cannot repair completely broken bones (he can do fractures at most), unconsciousness/incapacitation, sickness/poison, or death.
- Esuna: Can cure sickness, poison, and non-physical forms of incapacitation (confusion, sleep, temporary blindness, etc), but not genetic diseases/disabilities, unconsciousness, or death.
- Element spells: Fire, ice, thunder, and light (Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, and Sparkga/Faith). He's very proficient with these spells and can hit wide areas with any one of them. On the downside, the bigger the spell is, that harder it is for him to aim...
- Poison: Temporary poison. Flushes out from the system quickly.
- Mini: Temporarily makes opponent small. Their attack capabilities goes down significantly.
- Magnet: Draws in opponents. Sora can localize this spell to hit only his opponents.
- Zero Gravity: Sora creates a weak event horizon that causes things/opponents in the area to float. Sora can localize this spell.
- Stop/Slow/Haste: Stops, slows, and speeds up the flow of time. Sora can localize these spells.
- Balloonga: Balloons that hit like homing missiles, then multiply and hit again...
- Sleepga: Puts people to sleep.
- Time Bomb: Turns opponents into time bombs. They walk off, and then... boom!
- Tornado: Wind attack, Sora summons and controls a small tornado.
other abilities:
- Can jump pretty damn high! Think... his own height. Five feet.
- He can jump again in midair in what is called a double jump.
- HE CAN GLIDE! He can't fly, but he can kick off from a high point and glide until he hits ground again.
- Can fall from extremely tall heights and survive.
- Slide-dash! It's this... really long slide, I have no idea how it works. Handy for dodging things!
- Dodge Roll! It's... a roll. He uses it to dodge things. He can roll...forever. HE'S GOT SOME REALLY GOOD INNER EQUILIBRIUM.
A note on some powers that are addressed in the game but have no value from a gameplay perspective:
Sora has the power to see hearts into those without hearts. Say you have an inanimate object, a robot with AI but effectively no feelings, a puppet missing its heart but with a working conscience, etc. If Sora has the impression that that individual has a heart, or if Sora wants to believe that they have a heart, then a heart will eventually start to manifest in them, effectively giving whatever it is a heart, a soul, and the ability to empathize and truly feel.
Sora also has an empty heart, which allows him to carry several other hearts with him, whether in spirit or through actually physically carrying another heart inside his own. The hearts that are with him in spirit simply give him enough strength to wield his keyblade; he would otherwise be unable to carry one, since an empty heart is also representative of a lack of personality and willpower, key traits of a keyblade wielder. Hearts that are actually inside his own heart influence his personality greatly, to the point where his personality overlaps with the other hearts' personalities, making it hard to tell where his personality ends and another personality begins. One could argue that without the other hearts, Sora would be no one at all.
appendices:
other weapons
keyblade write-up
magic spell details
combat abilities
drive forms
accessories
armor
Roleplay Sample – Third Person:
"Happy birthday, Arielle!" Skyler pops a cracker upward, scattering streamers and confetti over the little plastic table and into their hair.
Arielle giggles, twirling her own cracker between her fingers, but does not follow suit. Instead, she resolves her face into a thoughtful pout. "Why did you do it early, Sky? Mommy and Daddy aren't here yet, and Milo's still upstairs."
"Mom's getting a surprise for you, and Dad's gonna be late. And between you and me, Milo's kind of a butt." Skyler's grin cracks his face in two as Arielle dissolves into more helpless giggles at the b-word. It took about twenty minutes to drag all of her play set outside, plastic tea-cups and all, but the look on her face made him feel like he'd also gotten her a pony and a party clown. Yeah... definitely worth it. But something about this all still bothered him... And now he thinks he can pinpoint why.
"Hey, Ari?"
She fiddles with her party hat, waving the sparkly gold pom pom at the end. "Yeah?"
"Didn't you want more of your friends here today?" Sora shifts in his undersized chair and plops his chin in his hand. "You gave them all invitations, right?"
"Uh-huh. Michaela and Telly said they'd come, but then they said no. They didn't want to come." She studies her cracker, analyzing the crease on the paper tube.
That statement sparked some annoyance in him, making him frown deeply. Kids her age not coming to a birthday party? When Ari was basically pretty cool when she wasn't being kind of a brat? That was fucking dumb. "That's dumb. Why didn't they want to come?"
Her eyes slid up to look at him, then quickly returned to her cracker. The silence stretched uncomfortably. Uh. Uh-oh. Ari told him everything. They took after their Mom. They could talk paint off a wall. And... Her lower lip starts to tremble. Oooohohoho. No. That was his little sister, and if that tear glossing her eyes over was going to fall, faces would definitely get punched.
He leans over the table. "Hey, Ari? What happened?"
This statement causes an avalanche of emotion; her face screws up and she slams the cracker on the table. "It's your fault!"
... Wow. Skyler sits back, a little stunned, but instantly defensive. "Me? What'd I do?"
"It's 'c-cause," she says, starting to hiccup, "'Cause Nick told me that Sarah said her mommy was talking to Telly's mommy and she said that you were a bad kid and she didn't want Telly to come and that's why Telly didn't come and then Telly told Michaela the same thing and then Michaela said she didn't care but then she told her daddy about it and then her daddy told her not to talk to me anymore and that's what Ann-Marie said and now no one's here and it's because you did something bad." The middle of the last set of "and thens" turned watery and burst into tears at the end.
Skyler knew he was kind of developing a reputation for delinquency, but he hadn't realized it'd gotten at all notorious... He knew Telly's older brother for less than savory reasons, but he was trying to get away from him and that crew now! He didn't mean for that bullshit to boil over into Ari's life. Aw... shit.
His mouth, unfortunately, goes a little faster than his penitent thought process. "So... Why didn't Ann-Marie come?"
Ari screeches at that. Skyler winces, but thinks he can hear the garbled reply of "'CAUSE SHE HATES ME" under the despair. Ari quits the table and runs back inside, scooting past - oh, fuck, fuck, Mom with a cake under her arm - and dodges into their house, her wailing muting as she ascends the stairs.
Skyler continues to cringe as his mom slowly turns to stare at him. Uh... oh. How to explain this one...
Roleplay Sample - Network:
[ Wow. Sorry. Gratuitous Facebook photo with his shirt off and flexing. What a douchebag. ]
ok so. that was me literally last week. ok not last week more like last year after camp. MY EYES ARE BROWN. [ He's got t-shirt tanlines on his arms. Attraaaactive. But yes indeed, his very wide eyes are brown]
ok and this is me now
[ Second picture, thankfully with a shirt on and less of a dramatic tan. Close-up on his face this time. He looks mildly worried, and he's got a finger on his lower eyelid to keep it open. Yes. That is not brown. ]
blue. bright white guy blue. wtf.
i dont usually lose my shit but im losing my shit here how am i supposed to hide this. i cant do sunglasses at school im trying not to look like an obvious asshole here. i cant do contacts i cant afford them and id probably poke my eyes out anyway. waterproof self-spiking hair was cool. this isnt. holy shit. help.
Any Questions?
SOBS DEEPLY