Violet Blanchard (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
wildflowertea) wrote2012-11-01 12:57 am
wildflowertea) wrote2012-11-01 12:57 am
General Profile
History: Violet comes from a world that is about one step to the diagonal of our own. The geography doesn't quite match, the pop culture references are a bit off, and "the Empowered" have made a re-emergence after several hundred years of dormancy. Things that once only happened in myths and stories are now showing up on the 6 o'clock news. The world is changing, and changing fast. It's either the beginning of a grand new age of development and wonder, or the first stage of a metahuman-lead apocalypse. Violet hails from the earliest stages of this period in history.
Violet was born in the years before the First Emergence. Her father Anton was always a wanderer and scrapper, one of the few "empowered" sorts that existed at that time. He had trained under old masters, meditated under waterfalls, chopped wood, carried water, etc etc and so forth. And his prize for all of this effort in purifying his body and soul? He could manifest the energy of his soul, "ki", in physical ways. He could enhance his speed and strength, fling bursts of energy, and heal wounds. Even with those accomplishments under his belt, however, he liked to wander the world and wilderness. But a wandering mysterious martial artist like him could be made to put down some roots with proper motivation. His motivation was Claire, a lovely young woman he met while hiking through the Eastern Mountains. He was restocking supplies in a small town when he bumped into Claire, and fell head over heels in love with her at once. Whirlwind romance followed, then a shotgun wedding when Claire wound up pregnant.
Violet was born, and father hung up his backpack and took off his hiking boots. The family had four happy years together before Claire died from a sudden illness. Anton... was never quite the same afterwards. He left town, and hermited himself away in the eastern woods, taking his young daughter with him. To hell with civilization. He'd raise Violet to be capable and strong and away from the poison of people and the numbness of city life. He was well-meaning. He did what he could. He relented to the occasional visits with grandma and grandpa, but for the most part kept Violet isolated. Who needed other people? She could read, she could write, she could do math, she could hunt, trap, dress and butcher game, forage, tend a garden, cook meals, and she could fight. She was an athletic kid that idolized her father, and was more than happy to learn martial arts from him. Even if the work was hard, she'd do it. And he promised her that if she worked hard enough, someday she'd be able to use her own ki to just the same things he did.
Anton never expected Violet to attain any kind of mastery of her ki before she was a teenager, at best. Such things were the product of a disciplined mind and a body in perfect balance, or so he had been taught. Violet simply took her father's admonishments as a challenge. She wanted this, and wanted it now, and if it meant she had to be the best possible Violet that a Violet could be, she'd be that. She trained at the crack of dawn, meditated in the evenings, hung on her father's every word, and was sure that she was growing closer to a breakthrough. That breakthrough came when she was 11, and what started as a sunny summer hike became a wet summer hike, then flooding, a landslide, and Violet going missing for several days. Anton was sick with worry and just about tore the countryside apart... but when he finally found his daughter she was sitting placidly in a small shelter she had made for herself, dirty, battered, and in front of a fire that glowed with a pinkish-red light. Ki was warm, and couldn't be extinguished by rain. Necessity, stress, and determination had unlocked something within her. And her father couldn't have been prouder.
Shortly after Violet turned 12, the First Emergence began in earnest. An ancient and terrifying creature, Atomos, was unearthed by parties unknown, and it proceeded to storm across the continent, laying waste to whatever it wanted. It spawned copies of itself, it infected wildlife, and it eventually migrated to other land masses with the intent of unsealing others like itself. The world was plunged into chaos. Conventional weaponry did little against Atomos and its spawn. The few "Empowered" that existed in the world at that time could put up a good fight against them, but their numbers were far too small to snuff out the problem. Anton and Violet fought back in their little corner of the world, rooting out monsterspawn as it rampaged through the woods and valleys. They had a year and a half of success. Their efforts even occasionally brought them into contact with other empowered people. For the first time in her life, Violet was making friends and learning about the bigger world beyond her forest home. It could be scary, it could even be terrifying... but the more she saw, the more she wanted to know.
Anton was pleased, and Anton was hopeful. Together, he and his new allies surely had the power to retake one of the nearby cities from one of Atomos's stronger spawn. They formed a battle plan, executed it... and failed spectacularly. It was a massacre. Anton died before Violet's eyes, and it took the intervention of Shao Lung, another one of the fighters, to haul her away from her father's body and begin the retreat. They survived, but just barely. Weaker monsterspawn trailed them most of the way. The pair were very badly injured by the time they reached safe territory. Even with Violet's ability to heal wounds, it took them both some time to mend themselves, resting up in Anton's cabin in the woods. Or, Violet's cabin, rather. Everything that was his was now hers, after all.
Shao eventually departed. He hadn't known the Blanchards very well. He felt a debt of gratitude towards the girl for healing his wounds, but not enough of one to stray off his own path and remain with her. Violet made no effort to follow. Violet made no effort, period. No more exploring far afield. No more seeking new allies. They had all been too weak, she had been too weak. The world wasn't wonderful anymore. It was terrifying. She holed herself up in her cabin, hunted, foraged, trained at sunrise, meditated at night... and lead a quiet, fearful, solitary life for a little over 5 years.
Violet might have stayed there forever if not for some very noisy and boisterous intruders on her property. There she was, one lovely spring day, minding her own business and making a cup of tea when some scruffy guy came crashing through her roof. As he sat up sheepishly and picked splinters and shingles out of his hair, Violet stared. When his friend popped a head through the hole in the ceiling and offered an astonished apology, she continued to stare. And then a third intruder, a young man that looked half-human and half monsterspawn peered in and offered his two cents. That got a reaction from her. She attacked, a very confusing free-for-all began, and only the intervention of the fourth member of the invading adventuring crew calmed matters down. A discussion was had. So were introductions. More tea was made, and promises to repair the roof were extracted from the visitors. And as the conversation continued, it turned out that Violet could possibly help them. They were in search of an old and legendary kung fu master, one that could surely help train the ragtag new recruits up in Last Outpost in the art of empowered combat. And the description of him matched old Shao Lung. She had a vague idea of where he dwelled... or at least where he had been going. That was more than they had, so they quickly declared that Violet was now an official member of the Last Outpost Exploratory Recruitment Mission Force. Whether she wanted to be one or not.
Her cabin was locked up and left behind, and Violet was forcibly hauled along for adventure. Sylon and Zach were childhood best friends, constantly play fighting and roughhousing. Neither one thought much before they talked, and both tended to come up with crazy plans that actually worked. Jade was a rich party girl turned fighter, having yoinked a bunch of high-tech cybernetic gear from her family's secret stockpile. She was a tease and a flirt and the brains of the operation, able to nitpick and refine the ideas that Sylon and Zach came up with. Drake had once been an awkward and bookish young man, but when his hometown was overrun by monsterspawn and one attempted to possess and mutate him, his willpower was strong enough that he remained in control of himself. He was the brawn of the operation, astonishingly powerful and astonishingly uncertain in equal measure. Violet's place in this ragtag band of misfits eventually came to be the voice of reason and the healer of wounds. They came to find Shao Lung, to root out many nests of monsterspawn, to get in all kinds of trouble and danger... and little by little, they and many others helped pave the path towards defeating Atomos.
Personality: Violet is a polite, serious, and cautious girl. Her caution is the product of fear and trauma, as she was once firmly convinced that the world was doomed, deadly, and that there was nothing she could do about it. Her new friends are helping her grow past this, little by little, but she still errs on the side of safety. She continuously underestimates her own capacities and has very little self-confidence. Her wilderness knowledge and her ability to fight seem utterly natural to her. Compared to her late father, she feels she hardly knows anything at all. It bewilders her when someone is genuinely impressed with what she can do, as to her it's rarely anything special.
She's fairly intelligent, but ignorant about many things. Her father taught her to read and write, and left books for her to study, but her level of education is barely past the 6th grade. Her world still holds some towns and cities and larger settlements, and she finds them absolutely boggling. Her friend Jade is determined to get her up to speed on civilization as fast as possible, despite any objections on the younger girl's part. It's all loud and noisy and big and scary... and her father had always impressed upon her the wickedness and evils of the Big City. But Violet will reluctantly admit that it's kind of fun to listen to music on little disks, or go dancing, or cook on an electric stove. She wonders if she'll ever be truly comfortable outside of the woods.... but she's coming to feel that she can tolerate the city in small doses.
Having started back down the path of making friends and opening herself up to others, Violet is quick to try to and befriend those that she has judged as "safe". If she considers you to be a friend she'll fuss over you in ways both big and small. If it's cold, she'll make sure you're dressed warmly enough. If you're hungry, she'll be quick to offer something to eat. And if you're in trouble, she'll do her damnedest to break through her uncertainty and fight on your behalf. Her friends on the Last Outpost Exploratory Recruitment Mission Force consider her to be the "Team Mom", despite her being the second-youngest one there. She's the best cook out of all of them, and can manage to make nearly anything edible and palatable. She's quick to offer kindness and sympathy for the problems of others, and if anything is often too sensitive to sad and stressful things. Her friend's problems are her problems, too.
Powers: Martial arts training of the crazy shonen anime sort. Able to manipulate her "ki" to enhance herself physically (jump high, float, move very quickly), as well as fire blasts of energy and heal minor to moderate wounds.
Violet was born in the years before the First Emergence. Her father Anton was always a wanderer and scrapper, one of the few "empowered" sorts that existed at that time. He had trained under old masters, meditated under waterfalls, chopped wood, carried water, etc etc and so forth. And his prize for all of this effort in purifying his body and soul? He could manifest the energy of his soul, "ki", in physical ways. He could enhance his speed and strength, fling bursts of energy, and heal wounds. Even with those accomplishments under his belt, however, he liked to wander the world and wilderness. But a wandering mysterious martial artist like him could be made to put down some roots with proper motivation. His motivation was Claire, a lovely young woman he met while hiking through the Eastern Mountains. He was restocking supplies in a small town when he bumped into Claire, and fell head over heels in love with her at once. Whirlwind romance followed, then a shotgun wedding when Claire wound up pregnant.
Violet was born, and father hung up his backpack and took off his hiking boots. The family had four happy years together before Claire died from a sudden illness. Anton... was never quite the same afterwards. He left town, and hermited himself away in the eastern woods, taking his young daughter with him. To hell with civilization. He'd raise Violet to be capable and strong and away from the poison of people and the numbness of city life. He was well-meaning. He did what he could. He relented to the occasional visits with grandma and grandpa, but for the most part kept Violet isolated. Who needed other people? She could read, she could write, she could do math, she could hunt, trap, dress and butcher game, forage, tend a garden, cook meals, and she could fight. She was an athletic kid that idolized her father, and was more than happy to learn martial arts from him. Even if the work was hard, she'd do it. And he promised her that if she worked hard enough, someday she'd be able to use her own ki to just the same things he did.
Anton never expected Violet to attain any kind of mastery of her ki before she was a teenager, at best. Such things were the product of a disciplined mind and a body in perfect balance, or so he had been taught. Violet simply took her father's admonishments as a challenge. She wanted this, and wanted it now, and if it meant she had to be the best possible Violet that a Violet could be, she'd be that. She trained at the crack of dawn, meditated in the evenings, hung on her father's every word, and was sure that she was growing closer to a breakthrough. That breakthrough came when she was 11, and what started as a sunny summer hike became a wet summer hike, then flooding, a landslide, and Violet going missing for several days. Anton was sick with worry and just about tore the countryside apart... but when he finally found his daughter she was sitting placidly in a small shelter she had made for herself, dirty, battered, and in front of a fire that glowed with a pinkish-red light. Ki was warm, and couldn't be extinguished by rain. Necessity, stress, and determination had unlocked something within her. And her father couldn't have been prouder.
Shortly after Violet turned 12, the First Emergence began in earnest. An ancient and terrifying creature, Atomos, was unearthed by parties unknown, and it proceeded to storm across the continent, laying waste to whatever it wanted. It spawned copies of itself, it infected wildlife, and it eventually migrated to other land masses with the intent of unsealing others like itself. The world was plunged into chaos. Conventional weaponry did little against Atomos and its spawn. The few "Empowered" that existed in the world at that time could put up a good fight against them, but their numbers were far too small to snuff out the problem. Anton and Violet fought back in their little corner of the world, rooting out monsterspawn as it rampaged through the woods and valleys. They had a year and a half of success. Their efforts even occasionally brought them into contact with other empowered people. For the first time in her life, Violet was making friends and learning about the bigger world beyond her forest home. It could be scary, it could even be terrifying... but the more she saw, the more she wanted to know.
Anton was pleased, and Anton was hopeful. Together, he and his new allies surely had the power to retake one of the nearby cities from one of Atomos's stronger spawn. They formed a battle plan, executed it... and failed spectacularly. It was a massacre. Anton died before Violet's eyes, and it took the intervention of Shao Lung, another one of the fighters, to haul her away from her father's body and begin the retreat. They survived, but just barely. Weaker monsterspawn trailed them most of the way. The pair were very badly injured by the time they reached safe territory. Even with Violet's ability to heal wounds, it took them both some time to mend themselves, resting up in Anton's cabin in the woods. Or, Violet's cabin, rather. Everything that was his was now hers, after all.
Shao eventually departed. He hadn't known the Blanchards very well. He felt a debt of gratitude towards the girl for healing his wounds, but not enough of one to stray off his own path and remain with her. Violet made no effort to follow. Violet made no effort, period. No more exploring far afield. No more seeking new allies. They had all been too weak, she had been too weak. The world wasn't wonderful anymore. It was terrifying. She holed herself up in her cabin, hunted, foraged, trained at sunrise, meditated at night... and lead a quiet, fearful, solitary life for a little over 5 years.
Violet might have stayed there forever if not for some very noisy and boisterous intruders on her property. There she was, one lovely spring day, minding her own business and making a cup of tea when some scruffy guy came crashing through her roof. As he sat up sheepishly and picked splinters and shingles out of his hair, Violet stared. When his friend popped a head through the hole in the ceiling and offered an astonished apology, she continued to stare. And then a third intruder, a young man that looked half-human and half monsterspawn peered in and offered his two cents. That got a reaction from her. She attacked, a very confusing free-for-all began, and only the intervention of the fourth member of the invading adventuring crew calmed matters down. A discussion was had. So were introductions. More tea was made, and promises to repair the roof were extracted from the visitors. And as the conversation continued, it turned out that Violet could possibly help them. They were in search of an old and legendary kung fu master, one that could surely help train the ragtag new recruits up in Last Outpost in the art of empowered combat. And the description of him matched old Shao Lung. She had a vague idea of where he dwelled... or at least where he had been going. That was more than they had, so they quickly declared that Violet was now an official member of the Last Outpost Exploratory Recruitment Mission Force. Whether she wanted to be one or not.
Her cabin was locked up and left behind, and Violet was forcibly hauled along for adventure. Sylon and Zach were childhood best friends, constantly play fighting and roughhousing. Neither one thought much before they talked, and both tended to come up with crazy plans that actually worked. Jade was a rich party girl turned fighter, having yoinked a bunch of high-tech cybernetic gear from her family's secret stockpile. She was a tease and a flirt and the brains of the operation, able to nitpick and refine the ideas that Sylon and Zach came up with. Drake had once been an awkward and bookish young man, but when his hometown was overrun by monsterspawn and one attempted to possess and mutate him, his willpower was strong enough that he remained in control of himself. He was the brawn of the operation, astonishingly powerful and astonishingly uncertain in equal measure. Violet's place in this ragtag band of misfits eventually came to be the voice of reason and the healer of wounds. They came to find Shao Lung, to root out many nests of monsterspawn, to get in all kinds of trouble and danger... and little by little, they and many others helped pave the path towards defeating Atomos.
Personality: Violet is a polite, serious, and cautious girl. Her caution is the product of fear and trauma, as she was once firmly convinced that the world was doomed, deadly, and that there was nothing she could do about it. Her new friends are helping her grow past this, little by little, but she still errs on the side of safety. She continuously underestimates her own capacities and has very little self-confidence. Her wilderness knowledge and her ability to fight seem utterly natural to her. Compared to her late father, she feels she hardly knows anything at all. It bewilders her when someone is genuinely impressed with what she can do, as to her it's rarely anything special.
She's fairly intelligent, but ignorant about many things. Her father taught her to read and write, and left books for her to study, but her level of education is barely past the 6th grade. Her world still holds some towns and cities and larger settlements, and she finds them absolutely boggling. Her friend Jade is determined to get her up to speed on civilization as fast as possible, despite any objections on the younger girl's part. It's all loud and noisy and big and scary... and her father had always impressed upon her the wickedness and evils of the Big City. But Violet will reluctantly admit that it's kind of fun to listen to music on little disks, or go dancing, or cook on an electric stove. She wonders if she'll ever be truly comfortable outside of the woods.... but she's coming to feel that she can tolerate the city in small doses.
Having started back down the path of making friends and opening herself up to others, Violet is quick to try to and befriend those that she has judged as "safe". If she considers you to be a friend she'll fuss over you in ways both big and small. If it's cold, she'll make sure you're dressed warmly enough. If you're hungry, she'll be quick to offer something to eat. And if you're in trouble, she'll do her damnedest to break through her uncertainty and fight on your behalf. Her friends on the Last Outpost Exploratory Recruitment Mission Force consider her to be the "Team Mom", despite her being the second-youngest one there. She's the best cook out of all of them, and can manage to make nearly anything edible and palatable. She's quick to offer kindness and sympathy for the problems of others, and if anything is often too sensitive to sad and stressful things. Her friend's problems are her problems, too.
Powers: Martial arts training of the crazy shonen anime sort. Able to manipulate her "ki" to enhance herself physically (jump high, float, move very quickly), as well as fire blasts of energy and heal minor to moderate wounds.