shanghaiworld: (O....kay)
Alice Margatroid ([personal profile] shanghaiworld) wrote in [community profile] queenofwhat2012-02-05 07:36 pm
Entry tags:

Now it's time for my ROMANTIC dream!

this place really needs to be used more

So, we all play in a game based on the ideas of romance. So, I was thinking, why don't we all talk about that?

By that I mean why not tell us about your characters and romance. Do they have someone they fancy/are with? Do you have plans for them in this sense? How into ladies are they? Do they enjoy longs walks, dinners or something else entirely? What would they want from a relationship? Or do they just want nothing to do with it all?

So, come on, speak up and talk about romanticism and relationships!
variabledge: (♞to make room)

[personal profile] variabledge 2012-02-07 03:19 am (UTC)(link)
Prepare for tl;dr, Captain!

Okay, Raven has a long and torrid affair with romance, pun intended. When she was young, she was...well. Damura was pretty much what every noble couple didn't want their daughter to be. She flirted, she slept around, she dressed up like a commoner and went out and got drunk and slept around some more. Her family was pretty scandalized by this, and despaired they'd never be able to marry her off. She decided she wasn't having any of that anyway and ran off to become an Imperial Knight. (canonically, as a guy Raven was sent to the knights by his father so as not to disgrace his family anymore.)

She carried on with the same behaviour there, too, but it started to lose its appeal for her. There was a distinct separation between noble-born and common-born knights, as well as males and females, despite the fact that women were allowed in the ranks. She was never comfortable as a noble, and got treated disdainfully by both groups, not noble enough, but too noble to really fit in with the commoners. On top of that, female knights were usually relegated to healing and support roles, which didn't thrill her adrenaline-loving personality at all.

Then she met Casey. A female knight that specialized in both short-range and long-range combat with a bow, she basically beat respect and pride into Damura, before eventually accepting her as an equal. Damura fell pretty hard for her, which came as a surprise since she was mostly interested in men before that. However, Casey had a sweetheart who always sent her flowers, so Damura kept her feelings to herself.

Then war happened and Casey died protecting her, but it was a vain sacrifice, because Damura was killed anyway. Her body was salvaged from the battlefield and fitted with an artificial heart, but upon awakening, she couldn't accept what had happened. She was dead, and so was the woman she loved. Before she could drive herself to madness with her fixation on her own death, her commanding officer created a new identity for her to hide behind: Schwann. She latched onto it, burying her old self underneath a new, dignified, frosty demeanor.

Schwann was the "perfect" knight, all business, no nonsense, ultimate loyalty. She never questioned orders, never got drunk on her days off, was never seen doing anything unseemly. In fact, she wasn't seen often at all. She did her duty, and that was it. But when more questionable orders were given to her, something changed. She had to go undercover, and what could be better than reconstructing a dead woman the way she saw fit?

So "Raven" was more or less Damura reborn, flirty, fond of the drink, loud and brash and a little irritating. But with nothing to connect her to the nobility any more, this image was immediately accepted. The only flaw was that she wasn't young any longer, nor was she able to actually get physically close to anyone. While she may have been able to push her feelings away in order to use her own body to get information, she couldn't risk anyone seeing her artificial heart. Too many questions would be asked. So she's all talk, and the moment anyone shows genuine interest, she's out the door and long gone.

Ultimately, Raven is still extremely hung up on Casey, on top of her worries about physical intimacy. Not to mention she betrayed a group of people that she'd actually come to like before coming to the Gardens, so she hasn't really forgiven herself for that. At this point she'd have a hard time with anyone expressing feelings for her, being afraid and not entirely understanding them. She doesn't really see herself as someone that can be loved any more. She's a walking corpse, after all.

Let's just say Tales games are depressing.