Character Analysis - Yoshimitsu

Yoshimitsu

Yoshimitsu's my longest running character, having used him for nearly ten years now. It goes without saying he has the biggest and most diverse history out of my entire cast, not to mention the most growth and development as a person. He's also had the biggest ups and downs regarding what people think of him (including myself!) so yeah, that's there too.

Origins.

I first made Yoshimitsu when I was about 10, and because he's secretly a shameless self-insert (except not), he was also 10. I was playing a lot of Soul Calibur as the character, Yoshimitsu, and liked the name so I slapped it on him. He did initially have a last name (which will never be said) but I ditched that a while back, just because it was so cheesey and overdone that I simply had to get rid of it. He actually started out as a Pokemon Trainer, which recently has caused a split and made two different varitations on him: PRP Yoshi and ORP Yoshi. The differences between the two are where they have common plots. PRP Yoshi has all of the plots for his adaptation of powers, but none that explain just why he's so proficient with them and, hence, his Powers in PRP are a lot less practiced and much weaker. He still has them (aside from Bahamut), but he tends to avoid using them. Because the plots that explain why he's so proficient with his Powers tend to be his angsty plots where he gets emotional stuff done, PRP is, by and large, a much happier and helpful character than ORP Yoshi.

Yoshimitsu has a bunch of aborted plots as well, including his very first one of having a soul stuck in his sword that came alive and took control of his body. Yeah. You can see why I ditched that one. Many of his aborted plots were ditched because I either didn't have the talents necessary to write them or they were there for rule of cool and did nothing for him. He was slated to get an ancient Egyptian artefact (an ankh) that could steal souls as a person dies, which would form some kind of energy sword when enough were gathered. Once again, you can see why I abandoned them. Not entirely sure why my teenage years were about souls and evil things happening to/around/involving them, but I'm personally very glad that I got out of it.

One thing I was sure on was that Yoshimitsu would have absolutely no memory from before he was six years old or so. When I first made him, I had no idea what sort of past he'd have to explain it, just that he did have one. The first time it was canonically mentioned was in a PRP involving the Mirage Kingdom from the anime. While an alternate Togepi dimension was collapsing around Yoshimitsu and another RPer's character (Linkachu from Pokecharms was the owner of said character), Yoshimitsu cheated a little and used his Bahamut form to fly them both out of the collapsing temple. Linkachu's character asked whether Yoshimitsu was an alien, to which he responded regarding his lack of memory in a very joking manner. He did, however, insist he was human (possible foreshadowing? You decide).

Another thing that I was certain about having was Bahamut, though I didn't want to just write Yoshi into existence with Bahamut, because that was cheap. It was talking to Lugiasian of the Exodus and her character, Hector Cruz, that had the Tiamat blade that really gave birth to the plot involved. At this point, Yoshimitsu had already started his rivalry with Vincent (which I later explained, since at the time Vincent was a rival purely so that Yoshimitsu had one. It took me a few years to finally explain exactly what the cause of the rivalry was and why it developed as it did), which turned into a race to see who could acquire their dragon first, with Yoshimitsu going for Bahamut and Vincent going for Tiamat. Me and Lugiasian finally came to a plot that while Vincent did get Tiamat, the dragon was destined to go to Hector Cruz. 

Personality.

Yoshimitsu is, unsurprisingly, one of my most amoral characters with his only real belief was that he could never take a life. Initially, this was a meaningless moral as he was taking lives left right and centre (the first major one being Vincent). This sort of worked out well, though, because as time went on, he grew more and more averse to killing and finally he stopped altogether unless it was the absolute last resort. Sometimes, he will bend this rule if he knows the thing to be killed is a construct with no real life, in self-defense or if it would be kinder to kill the target than to let it live.

Other than that, however, Yoshimitsu is highly amoral. He has absolutely no qualms with intimidation or threats in order to get what he wants or needs, justifying it because he's usually doing it to do the right thing. He has never been known to torture someone (outside of one canon one-shot, which is due to an abundance of hate and anger in his heart for someone who put him and his friends through so much suffering that a quick, clean death was too kind for the culprit). It even goes as far as his driving liscence, where the canon reason behind him acquiring a liscence with only one name on it being that he used his powers to frighten the employee issuing him the card.

However, even with that said, Yoshimitsu is a good guy and he's fiercely loyal to his friends, like a good number of my characters. He has a good heart, and is always trying to do the right thing, even if he goes about it in the most dangerous possible way. A natural risk taker, even in a situation where lives could be lost, he'll take the course of action that's a fifty fifty chance of saving people. Typically, he manages it, however. He's not the kind of person to sit back when he knows people are in danger and will jump right into the action if he thinks he can save just one life. Sometimes, he overdoes it and can cause a lot of trouble for everyone involved, but his heart is in the right place.

He's also very carefree, generally, and has difficulty taking things seriously sometimes. As seen in Crystals Part Two, he has no issues with walking up to three very powerful characters and leaders of their respective races (Miko, Valon and Rick (even if Rick isn't technically the leader)) and striking up a casual conversation. This has been pretty true for his entire life.

Appearence

Yoshimitsu, like Illiana, has a fairly typical appearence. He looks like a twenty year old who spends a lot of time just having fun. His wardrobe, like Illiana's, is made up of a lot of fashionable clothes that he mixes and matches. The only thing he shies away from is orange, because it clashes horribly with his hair. He also has a selection of clothes for combat, but because he tends to get swept up into fights instead of having them planned out, it's pretty rare that he wears them. He has a number of belts for different uses, including one with a sheath attached and one with gun holdsters.

His hair is also a defining trait of his, being a very vivid blue and naturally spiky. In fact, I would go so far as to say it's his defining aesthetical trait. While it has been various different shades of blue, it typically reverts to a medium blue colour. It's also naturally blue, due to him being a genetic construct (his people typically dye their hair bright colours in order to stand out, so he was given bright blue hair naturally). The first thing a lot of people think of when they think of is his blue fetish.

As far as his physique goes, it's toned and lithe, much like a gymnast's. He's not particularly broad, and has very little fat on his body because he spends most of his time active and moving. He's also quite tall, standing at six foot. His body is littered with barely-visible scars, though he has some slightly more visible on his chest and a couple on his face.

History

Yoshimitsu was constructed in his home dimension from scratch, originally designed to be part of Lord Dran's Elite Guard. During his construction, his brain was given military information and advance combat strategies, to go with his abnormally strong body. However the Ryguas' similarity to humans means that, despite being deliberately built to be stronger, he shares many of the weaknesses of humans.

As soon as Yoshimitsu's body had finished construction, his mind went haywire and he broke out of the laboratory. During his rampage, he broke out of the castle, left the city and entered a portal to this dimension. Because he had not known his purpose, nor given any information on normal interaction between individuals, he lived the next few years as a feral child. He lived through scavenging and theft. Through observation, he started to learn about human interaction and learned how to talk and socialise. Because his brain was designed to be a learning machine, he learned easily and quickly. Additionally, because his brain was programmed to survive, he had no issues with living as the homeless child he was.

During construction, Yoshimitsu had been given certain abilities. He had the ability to manipulate elements to a minor degree and was created faster than any of the other Ryuga. However, because he never needed to use these talents, it was not until he was twelve that he realised he had these talents. The talents had stayed dormant, but grew as Yoshimitsu had.

At the same time Yoshimitsu took up Pokemon training and excelled, proving himself to be an adept trainer. He quickly assembled a strong team that he treated with care and affection, forming bonds with various Pokemon trainers.

Even at such a young age, his mind was more advanced and much more similar to that of a late-teenager. During his travels, he met a boy called Vincent. Instinctively, the two disliked each other. However while Yoshimitsu was content to ignore this boy, Vincent was not the type to let the dislike stay passive. He ended up murdering Yoshimitsu's Pikachu, the pokemon that Yoshimitsu had for the longest and was his closest friend at that point. Yoshimitsu vowed that if he ever met Vincent again, he would repay the favour.

At the age of twelve, Yoshimitsu decided to test his abilities and challenge a dragon named Bahamut, who was rumored to be the strongest dragon alive. During this attempt, he formed a strong friendship with Hector Cruz, and slightly weaker relationship with Al. Though he did not know, Vincent was aiming to challenge Tiamat and had enlisted the help of Miko. Along the way, they met and fought again. However, Hector and Al talked Yoshimitsu out of fighting Vincent by telling him that beating Bahamut would prove him stronger. Reluctantly, he agreed and they made their way to Dejurrin Island. While on the Island, Yoshimitsu acquired a summon monster called Golem, a giant rock golem (funnily enough). He then, accompanied by Hector and Al, descended into the island and found Bahamut's lair. At the same time, Vincent and Miko found Tiamat. After a pair of difficult fights, it transpired that Bahamut and Tiamat would lend their aid to the warriors strong enough to defeat them. It was then that Yoshimitsu acquired the Bahamut Blade. However, the Tiamat Blade had already been given to Hector, and hence Vincent did not acquire the sword.

Having finally had enough of Vincent's antics, Yoshimitsu accepted a final battle challenge against Vincent, winner take all. It occured on Dejurrin Island, the fight moving around the island as it progressed. The final moments of the fight took place on a chunk of ice that had broken from the island, where Yoshimitsu finally killed Vincent. Much to his surprise, two ghostly things left Vincent's corpse. The first, it transpired, was Tiamat which went straight to Hector. The second entered Yoshimitsu, but then it seemed to vanish and Yoshimitsu did not think of it again.

A year later, after many adventures with his new friends, Yoshimitsu learned of a Wind Tiger named Kapora. An unexpected desire flared within him, and he set off in search of the tiger. Along the way, he noticed his personality change but found he was not sorry about this fact. A realization spread through him as he remembered the ghostly thing that had entered him a year previous. He was pursued by Miko and Hector, the former wishing to help him acquire the summon monster while the latter wanted to know why his best friend was snubbing him. During the fight against Kapora, Hector challenged Yoshimitsu and Miko joined the fray. Yoshimitsu revealed that another soul was occupying his body, Vincent's soul. It gave him new powers and a much stronger body, along with a new alignment and a dislike of Hector. At the end of the fight Hector left in disgust, Yoshimitsu had a third summon and he had joined Miko and the South Pole Summoners.

However this new personality was not Yoshimitsu, and his true self managed to overcome the old one. While he could not deny his new name nor the second soul in his body, his true personality overcame the false one. When he learned that Hector's brother had been held captive and his life threatened, Yoshimitsu rushed to his friend's aid. During the fight, Golem was stolen from him and together he and Hector were forced to destroy it. However, they won the fight. Hector's brother had still been killed, but the pair renewed their friendship and Hector took up his brother's sword.

During a training session, Yoshimitsu found himself on the wrong end of Hector's Kamiyami Blade. Hector used the sword to remove Vincent's soul from Yoshimitsu's body.

The years of adventuring had a second effect on Yoshimitsu. He could not find any direction for his life, and felt that he did more harm than good in many cases. Ultimately, he commited suicide. He left his possessions and summons to his friends, apart from Bahamut and the Bahamut Blade which he kept with him at all times.

This death was short lived, however, as the Blood Magician Dente revived the warrior and fused Vincent's soul with Yoshimitsu's in Yoshimitsu's body, once more creating Yisimentsu. This time, however, the two souls had been joined and combined into a single one, with appropriate effects on Yoshimitsu. Now he was a completely new person. Once again, he and Hector had a rift in their relationship. Yoshimitsu followed his new quest for power, quickly gaining more and more powers and strength. This new found Yoshimitsu was ruthless and indiscriminate.

However, a mage and an old friend of both Yoshimitsu and Vincent chose to intervene and created a seperate body. He seperated Yoshimitsu and Vincent's souls and placed Vincent's in this new shell. The body itself was a perfect human body, and resembled Vincent's original body remarkably well. Despite their conflicts before, Yoshimitsu and Vincent now understood each other and formed a close friendship.

During their friendship, they found an island that bended itself to their will. They chose to set this island in orbit in the skies, only going their when they needed peace and quiet. They called it Mist, named after the weather conditions they found it in.

Shortly after, Yoshimitsu learned that his home was not in this dimension. Together, they went to his home dimension and met Lord Dran. They left quickly, having no desire to serve this Lord. However, things were not so simple. Lord Dran was determined to have Yoshimitsu as his servant and destroyed the home he and Vincent had. The two ended up on an airship with a friendly crew, and enjoyed their life there.

During their stay on the airship, Yoshimitsu began to act oddly and took off without warning. Vincent pursued, but in the end he could not keep up with Yoshimitsu. Yoshimitsu created a new world out of the island called Mist. Vincent went to this island, and ended up fighting with Yoshimitsu. Ultimately, he had to kill his friend. It later transpired that Yoshimitsu was being controlled by Lord Dran.

During an invasion from the Ryuga Race, a select group of Ryuga went to Yoshimitsu's grave. Using a complicated ritual, they brought the body back to life but locked Yoshimitsu's memories away. Yoshimitsu, not knowing who he was nor why he was being ordered around by people he didn't know, left his race in search of answers. Only afew days after revival, he found himself in a city being attacked by giant white phoenix. He felt an irrational urge to fight the phoenix in order to save the innocent bystanders. Assisted by a powerful stranger, they brought down the phoenix and the stranger took it as a summon monster. Yoshimitsu departed.

The next day, a second supernatural entity found him. He was assisted, once again, by the dark haired stranger. Once again, the stranger took the winged unicorn as a summon. However, this stranger also claimed to know him. He went with the stranger to Mist. The stranger then summoned a blue dragon, and Yoshimitsu felt a wealth of memories return to him. He recognised the stranger as Vincent, his best friend, and the dragon as Bahamut.

However, something was amiss. The island once again began to bend itself to Yoshimitsu's will, but a castle had appeared on the island. Yoshimitsu could not will it away, so together he and Vincent entered the castle. Presented with a choice of up or down, Yoshimitsu went down while Vincent ascended the stairs. The castle, it transpired, was of Ryuga origin and forced both boys to relive their memories of each other. While Yoshimitsu learned the truth of his existence, Vincent's darker side had been unlocked and the dark haired boy left the castle without a word to Yoshimitsu.

Yoshimitsu now is hunting Vincent down in an attempt to end things. In the year between Vincent's departure and the present day, Yoshimitsu learned what happened to Vincent and why he reacted as he did. Now Yoshimitsu has realised that there is no way to save Vincent and he knows how it must end. He will stop at nothing to save Vincent, but if he has to kill his former friend, he will.

He finally stopped Vincent by forcing a stolen element of his past, part of Yisimentsu's split soul that had been allowed to grow, from Vincent's body and killing Yisimentsu. The two parted ways, with Yoshimitsu respecting Vincent's decision to leave.

Personal Impact

Yoshimitsu is my first ever character, and he's had a very long history that has really allowed me to focus on various aspects of writing. He started out as, essentially, a character that I could just shove whatever cool powers on him that I wanted to with little room for emotional development. While not the best basis for a character, it was a good starting point for me to develop as a writer. He was solid to begin with, having an interesting personality and some sharp choreography to help keep him at least slightly interesting.

For a while, Yoshimitsu's power bag was a cripple - he had no reason to get creative with his powers, causing them to stagnate, and also leaving no room for character development because there was nothing threatening him. This finally left Yoshimitsu in a rut, which I wasn't certain I had the talents to write him out of. It took some careful planning and a number of traumatic incidents for Yoshimitsu in order to finally get him moving again and back to being more than a super powered swiss army knife.

While focusing on Yoshimitsu's emotional growth, I feel like I've really grown as a writer and been able to concentrate on how a character would act and respond in a situation that they feel strongly about. It's given me the ability to convincingly write and portray a character's thoughts and feelings, and helped me redefine how to write in a character's voice. It was also immensely satisfying to write a longer plot for him that put him through his paces, both as a fighter and as a person.

I do feel, however, that Yoshimitsu has run his course. This is partially because I've had him for so long and done so much, but also because I tend to use him as a crutch when joining RPs. If something looks to be getting a bit too much for any of my other characters, Yoshimitsu appears and suddenly has all the answers. In some cases, it works! In Obscured Truth, it's useful for him to be like that because he'll disappear soon enough and has given Illiana all the info she needs. In some cases, it goes horribly. He takes the plot away from whatever it should be and focuses it on him instead, which really limits just what my other characters can do.

Character Analysis

Illiana's an interesting character. Illiana Silna, a South Pole summoner (exactly what it says on the tin). I know people are curious about her, so time to go into detail about it. She actually only got her last name recently, so yeah.

Origins.

Funnily enough, when I made Illiana, I was trying to make a villain character (hence why most of the letters match up). I was trying to base someone on Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty, and just directly ripping Maleficent is just not on, so I started trying to formulate a character who could be on a villainous level that matches her's. At her time of conception, I was talking to another member of Archipelago Exodus and he brought up the idea of her being a South Pole Summoner. Because no one really uses another person's races, I thought I'd break the paradigm and make one. At the time of conception, SPS were considered as villains due to their amoral attitude on establishing themselves and due to Miko's past actions.

When it came to actually forming the character, though, she stopped being a villain. I don't much like writing characters out of my age range (Illiana is my oldest, at 21) and I don't think I've ever seriously written a female character before Illiana. There were some automatic characteristics that came with being a South Poles Summoner, such as her green hair. Another issue, that really shaped her personality, was that SPS are persecuted just because of Miko's actions when destroying Slateport. Because of the prejudice, it rapidly evolved into Illiana trying to do the right thing. Instead of a villainous character, I ended up with this kind of misunderstood hero, but I have no regrets!

Her having a dragon as her initial summon creature was because of the typical default summons of SPS, as dictated by Lee. However, since spiders are gross and I don't remember the third option, I went with the wyvern choice. The wyvern's name is Gi (pronounced 'Guy'), and has ice-breath. As for her weapon of choice, her spear, I was fed up of having sword-wielding characters.

Personality.

Illiana, through and through, has a very positive and helpful personality just because she's always interested in doing the right thing. She doesn't care about what happens afterwards or how she might be treated, but she will always strive to help or heal people when she can, just because of the persecution she suffers on a daily basis. In her opinion, it's unfair for her entire race to be judged based on one man's actions, even if it wasn't entire his fault (Illiana views Miko's destruction of Slateport as a mixture of a necessary evil and being forced into it to defend himself).

She is fiercely loyal to her friends, even when they drive her insane sometimes, and she goes to extraordinary lengths to prove this. This ranges from fighting to save the world (see LaDC) or representing them in court despite having no knowledge of how the court system works (Obscured Truth). She's also very intuitive, recognising when someone is right or wrong, and will strive to do whatever she knows is the best course of action for her and her friends, even if it's not the smartest, safest or wisest.

Her personality even shines through with people she doesn't know. She walked up to a mafia boss (not knowing who he was) and healed his foot from a stab wound (and a broken nose), purely because he had been injured. As far as she was concerned, which was enforced by his story afterwards, he had been unjustly assaulted and needed medical attention because of it. She has no qualms with using her healing powers when she thinks they should be used.

She also has little respect for certain rules and regulations, because she had always been a middle-class child who wanted more from life. Instead of being drafted into the military, she ended up flying away with Gi to the Archipelago and beyond, just because she longed to see the world outside of the South Pole tunnels. However, if she knows the rules are in place for a very good reason, she does her utmost best to follow them.

Appearence

Illiana, by and large, has the appearence that any twenty one girl would have. A lot of her wardrobe is made out of skinny-jeans, some looser ones, and a lot of fashionable t-shirts in varying colours. She also has a variety of bandanas in case she wants to hide her hair, for those rare times when it'd be a huge giveaway for her origins. Mostly, though, her attire is very trendy.

Her biggest defining feature is her hair, however. A forest-green shade, and just longer than her shoulders. Her hair is fairly thick and slightly wavy, with no roots visible (understandably). Naturally, her hair is actually a medium-dark shade of brown but due to being a summoner, and the algae that is beneficial for her hair, she had green hair. She rarely hides it, being proud of her heritage, but she recognises that there are some situations where it wouldn't be appropriate.

She also likes jewellery. Mostly, she wears looser bracelets made of silver, nothing overly showy or eye-catching. Mostly she wears small studs or rings in her ears, and has no other piercings. However, she has a selection of summon-attracting-jewellery, as she likes to call it. Made entirely out of enchanted gemstones, she has sapphire earrings, an emerald necklace and ruby bracelets. While her selection is bigger than that, those are the ones that she would choose to wear, preferring the colours over things like pearl or opal.

History

Her history is within The Exploration, but here it is for those who haven't read it:

Illiana was only the half-typical South Pole Summoner.

In many aspects, she was perfectly normal. She came from a middle-status family within the tunnels of the Antarctic. Somewhere around the middle tunnels, not too close to the surface but not too close to the bottom tunnels. She had the basic expectations of a female summoner placed upon her. Learn to summon, start combat training, learn to heal and craft weapons, earn a summon and perfectly execute missions. In that respect, she kind of succeeded and proved herself.

Except, a few things were off. She didn't really follow the rules like she should have done. She skipped important things to see the surface. The sun and the sky, or the darkness. The endless expanse of ice. She wasn't meant to stay underground, she preferred the fresh air and the freedom. So maybe she wasn't all that typical, as far as summoners go.

She stuck to the normal routine of the summoners. She ate the same fungus foods, sometimes fish when it was available. She underwent her combat training, but immediately found that she was more of a natural with combat magic. Healing was not beyond her, so she was special. Kind of. Basics of both style. She could heal, she could fight. She was more versatile than many of the other summoners when it came to field work. Useful. And not at all expected.

The summoning ritual was simple enough to pick up, though unnerving the first time she had to acquire her first summon. Like all the other summoners, she went deep into the tunnels. Deeper than she'd ever been before, but maybe that was because she usually went up instead. Much to her surprise, there were worms. Minhocaos. Giant worms. Massive, wriggling, slimy worms.

Gross.

And kind of absolutely terrifying. The sight of a thirty foot tall worm was not something she had ever expected to see. The fear of it falling on her was also strong. She staggered back a few steps, not like that would save her from being crushed and slimed. Nonetheless, she crafted the spell and performed the ritual, ensnaring the worm and containing it within the summoning bead. Breathing a sigh of relief, Illiana ascended the tunnels and back to what she considered normality.

Only a few years older, she acquired her first real weapon and her first real summon. Her spear, she helped crafting like other young summoners. It was designed more towards practicality than grandeur, but the sapphires inlaid along the blade were appealling enough. Magically protected and virtually indestructable. She was an expert with the weapon. The feel of the spear in her hands was natural as she twirled and struck her targets. Shortly after having the weapon crafted, Illiana was sent on her first assigment.

"Acquire her first summon."

Absolutely terrifying. There was no kind of about it this time. She'd found her first summon, not far from the tunnels. A sapphire wyvern, that had been picking at scraps of food on the surface. A wolf or a penguin, anything unlucky enough to cross its path. Illiana discovered that she was not an easily frightened person, but an angry blue wyvern looking for food was enough to send a shiver down her spine.

The fight was short, which was some small comfort. The wyvern was weakened by its hunger, which gave Illiana enough of an advantage. She danced with her spear, twirling the weapon like a baton but stiking like a snake. She was agile and quick on her feet, moving around the strikes and blasts of ice from the dragon's mouth. One misstep had caused the wyvern to get in one heavy blow, swatting Illiana with the force of a wrecking ball. She rolled away, focuing on healing spells and fixing the bruise that was already forming.

That was when the wyvern stopped attacking, instead watching the green haired girl warily. She used the opportunity to catch the dragon, sealing it within a summoning bead. The bead flashed and turned a sapphire colour, matching the dragon's scales. She'd done it. She'd got her first real summon.

Right in time for the Slateport incident.

News spread fast. Some of the stories were warped, but the gist of it was the same. Miko had destroyed Slateport. His summon, Bagan, was the strongest summon of any South Pole dweller. The reception was mixed. Some thought Miko was brilliant, finally giving the rest of the world what was coming to them. Some thought he was an idiot, declaring war then not following through.

Illiana didn't have an opinion. She understood, sort of. She hadn't been there, so she hadn't seen what had happened and why Miko had summoned Bagan. There could be any number of reasons for it, any number of reasons why he might have been forced to summon Bagan. She didn't know, so why should she have to pass judgement? None of her business, not really.

She thought Miko was respectable. Maybe not the best leader ever, but he kept on trying and that was what mattered. That's why she kept on trying. Why she'd always keep on trying. That was why she was never really typical in the first place.

At eighteen, she was on the surface again. She wasn't meant to be. She was never really meant to be, but that had never stopped her before. Illiana, the problem child. The one who followed orders but never followed rules, the one who loved to breathe the fresh air of the surface instead of the stale air of the tunnels, the one who loved more than anything to be out under the real sky and just be herself.

The summoner got most of her training done on the surface. There couldn't be many more people in the world who could wield a spear with as much grace as her, spinning it round her hands and her body lightly and efficiently, striking blows that could shatter ice and ruin bodies. Her magic was still not on the same level as those specifically trained, but she didn't mind it that way. She was who she was, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

A fireball was the simplest offensive magic she had learned and the one that came most naturally to her. With a sweeping movement, she conjured the flame and threw it forward like a baseball. In the same movement, another flame erupted in her other hand and she spun elegantly, throwing the second fireball ahead. As she gathered up the energy for a third, she noticed it.

A rip in the sky. Like some inter-dimensional monster had torn open a breach.

Illiana stared for a moment, frowning as she tried to understand what was happening. It was like the barrier breach from not that long ago. The crack between dimensions that Vincent had opened, the one that had threatened to destroy the world. The only difference was that this seemed much less hostile. No black tendrils, no black thunder. Just swirling colours.

She had two options.

The first was obviously to enter the tear. Reckless, foolish, but oh so tempting. The second was to inform someone. This was a serious issue. Anything could come through the breach. It was a serious issue that should be taken seriously.

Yeah. That'd happen. Illiana snorted, and felt a little silly for thinking something like that.

Like the other female summoners, her art of summoning involved directing the summon into existence. She gestured in a sweeping motion over her head, then brought her palm into a thrust forward. As she did this, a ghostly figure melted into view and followed the motion of her arm until she thrust her palm. The sapphire wyvern exploded forward, fully corporeal. Illiana ran towards the edge of the ice and threw herself off the edge. The wyvern swerved in the air and caught her smoothly on its back. With a beat of its wings, the dragon shot upwards, into the unknown.

Personal Impact

Illiana has been the first female character I've properly written, and she's also the first character I've had who isn't interested in just themselves. As much as I portray characters like Yoshimitsu as "for their friends", all of them do have some personal and not-altruistic reasons for what they do. Illiana will always be the first entirely good-natured and willful character I've written, and it's been a real eye opener for my other characters.

She's probably the most human of my entire cast, including the few of them that ARE human! She has realistic reasons for what she does and even if her goals themselves aren't acheivable, she's still fight for them because she knows it's right. She also has the most believable reactions to other characters out of all of my characters, and it's nice to be able to write something like that for once. She's not interested in saving the world, just helping her friends survive and stopping someone who she knows is wrong (especially in LaDC).

It's also nice to write a low-power character. While she HAS powers, and they ARE offensive (and overdone), neither of them are ludicrously powerful or topic-breaking. Because of the nature of her powers, I have to be creative in how she uses them (such as shoving the flame down a dragon's throat to burn it from the inside). With her spear and her planned upgrade, she has some very sharp and unusual choreography which is very refreshing to write and it's really helping me change the way I would normally RP a battle.

The most interesting thing to write is someone who's from a hated minority. It's not something I ever have done nor ever though I would. However, it's a very very interesting subject to write and to figure out for myself how she would react to such things! In OT, she realises that Williams is prejudiced against her for being a summoner, so she tried to make herself seem reasonable. The thing is, I would never have considered a character taking that move before I wrote it in that RP!

Illiana is definitely a character who is helping me redefine for myself what a character is and what they should do, and she's really helping me create a much more sophisticated and engaging style of writing, one that I hope readers are drawn in by.

So, I guess...

Figured I'd give this blog thing a go, since tumblr is all about images and I got fed up of LJ. Dunno what I'll post here, maybe nothing! Maybe everything. Who can say!

I guess a bit about myself would be a good start though.

I'm Elliot (screen name Yoshimitsu, or some variation of). I'm 20 years old, gay, male, and an absolute whore for fashion. I spend most of my time in my room on whatever console I have set up, and I do a lot of writing and a bit of drawing. I'm easy-going and friendly when you first meet me, and usually stay that way unless I hate you. People who get to know me a bit better realise I'm not easy-going at all and I spend a lot of time bitching about people. I like books, games, and friends.

My favourite drink is cherry coke, but my favourite alcoholic drink is cosmopolitan. My favourite food is pizza. My favourite colour is blue, but I'm a sucker for nice effects in any colour. My favourite TV show is probably Doctor Who or Torchwood, because those are all that I watch. My favourite artist is Lady Gaga. My favourite band is The Offspring. I don't have a favourite film. My favourite Disney Princess is Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. My favourite Disney Prince is Aladdin.

I'm not nearly as camp as I make myself out to be, but I have my moments. I don't like football or rubgy or any sports really. I spend a lot of time on my hair and my clothes. If I had more money, I'd buy out River Island and All Saints. I dye my hair more so often even I'm not sure what colour it is at any given moment. I hate my face, my body and my height. I don't wear contacts. 

That's enough for now. See if you can figure me out more in the future.