Terra (
wheretheresawill) wrote2018-04-07 12:40 am
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Entry tags:
Melodies of Eternity Application
Player
Name: Cygna
Age: 28
Personal Journal:
cygna_hime
Contact: Cygnahime @Plurk, Cygnahime @Discord
Other In-Game Characters: N/A
Character (Native OC)
Name: Terra
Age: 19
Gender: Male
Canon: Kingdom Hearts
Canon Point: Directly after his battle with Eraqus and the fall of the Land of Departure.
History: A brief history.
Personality:
What I do, I do for friendship.
Terra is, first and foremost, a person driven by the love he has for his friends. He enjoys spending time with them, whether training together or simply watching the stars, but more than that, he seeks to protect them, whether directly or indirectly, by fighting for them. His loyalty to his friends surpasses even his loyalty to his teacher and surrogate father, to such a degree that he's willing to fight Master Eraqus to protect Ven from harm. While Terra starts his journey believing his goal is to become stronger and more independent, he comes to realize that what he wants most in his heart is to be close to his friends again - a goal that, unfortunately, he is unable to realize due to Xehanort's machinations. However, even when everything else is stripped away from him, down to control of his own body, he refuses to be swayed from that one cause, saying, "Whatever's the cost, I'm ready to pay it."
While his most intense friendships are those with his fellow Keyblade wielders Ven and Aqua, Terra is a friendly person who easily reaches out to people he meets on his travels, from heroes to villains (though not people he knows are villains at the time). He readily offers to help the people he meets in any way he can - which mostly involves defeating monsters that plague them or their worlds, though it can involve escorting them on their travels, releasing them from dark influences, and the occasional prison break.
Unfortunately, some might say that Terra reaches out too easily. He's a polite, well-brought-up young man with a deep-seated respect for authority; villainous types seem to have an easy time reading this off of him, because even total strangers have been known to capitalize on this to obtain his help with their goals. He's just got one of those open, trusting faces, apparently. If someone doesn't ask him to literally murder someone for no reason, he tends to accept their statements as truth, even if they are overtly sinister or shifty in demeanor. Captain Hook isn't exactly a master of prevarication, but Terra is still willing to believe that he needs help protecting "the light". And as for Xehanort...the man's entire Terra-related portion of his Grand Plan involves capitalizing on Terra's trust for him as his Master's esteemed friend to manipulate him. At his canon point that particular betrayal has just been revealed with the death (? - it's Kingdom Hearts, death is hard to be sure of) of Eraqus and the destruction of the Land of Departure at Xehanort's hands, so Terra is slightly less trustful at the moment. However, it's against his nature to close off emotionally, so someone seeking to manipulate him shouldn't have too much trouble ingratiating themselves with him all the same.
I swear...I will not fail you again.
Despite the strong facade he tries to keep up, Terra is plagued by insecurity, much of it related to the darkness in his heart, which he has long been told he must suppress at all costs. Despite what Master Eraqus believes (or fears), however, it isn't lust for power that plagues him, but fear: fear of failure, and particularly of not being good enough in his father's eyes - a fear that, thanks to Xehanort's manipulations, proves to be well-founded: having cajoled Eraqus into holding a Mark of Mastery exam by playing on his fears of Terra's darkness, Xehanort ensures that Terra fails the exam, only to swoop in and insist that said darkness is nothing to fear. Needless to say, considering everything that Xehanort arranges to happen with Terra's Darkness and his own, Terra has only come to fear it more...which ironically is one of the emotions that feeds his Darkness.
The other, of course, is anger: Terra doesn't have a particularly short temper, but when he's pushed too far, such as when Braig "kidnaps" Xehanort, he's prone to lash out with uncontrolled power that can have unintended consequences. That's part of Xehanort's plan, pushing him to feel negative emotions in order to make him more vulnerable to a Darkness he doesn't know how to control. At Terra's current canonpoint, Xehanort has finally turned that anger toward himself, leaving Terra full of rage to both avenge his Master and home and protect his friends, whom Xehanort has threatened. It is worth noting, though, that Terra has never lashed out at someone who wasn't actively threatening someone he cared about. Threats to his own physical wellbeing don't evoke the same emotional response.
But he doesn't think of it that way. To him, every moment of imperfection is a personal failing, a perspective which Xehanort has played upon to increase his emotional vulnerability. When Maleficent magically compels him to steal Aurora's heart (or at least he believes she does; according to Xehanort, Terra does not have such an ability) Terra is as shocked and horrified by his weakness as if he had done so deliberately, and he vows to make it right, though he never has the opportunity to do so. Terra wants to make up for the wrongs he feels he has done in being manipulated and controlled by others. Indeed, even as he is reduced to a manifestation of pure willpower, he swears to his friends, "One day I will set this right." Naturally, Xehanort plays on this as well, presenting himself to Terra as a regretful man who has made a bad mistake in the creation of Vanitas to gain his sympathy.
I'm a peacekeeper, not a tyrant.
Just how baleful Terra's Darkness is is subject to some debate. According to Eraqus, darkness is to be rejected, and it would be better if it could be destroyed entirely; on the other hand, at the last Eraqus says that Terra's actions in fighting him to protect Ven, although they used the power of Darkness, were right, and his own were wrong. According to Xehanort, darkness can and must be channeled and controlled rather than obliterated; on the other hand, Xehanort is the villain and is trying to encourage Terra to become more vulnerable to darkness. The exact nature of Darkness (and, for that matter, Light) is unclear. It is certainly true that Darkness, though powerful, is dangerous to its wielders and comes about through negative emotion, while Light is its inverse. Terra possesses both a strong Darkness and Light, though which one is dominant varies throughout his story as his emotions shift. When he is miserable, his Light is less perceptible, much as when he first meets Cinderella, he can barely tell she's the same person as when she's happy. At his canonpoint, his Darkness is strongly dominant, due to the emotional turmoil he's experienced recently.
You have to be strong. Strength of heart will carry you through the hardest of trials.
Despite everything that happens to him, Terra powers through. His force of will is impressive to say the least: when Xehanort takes over his body, Terra animates his suit of armor into the Lingering Will in order to fight him. Said manifestation of will is strong enough that over ten years later, it's still there. (Meanwhile, the rest of Terra is insisting on clinging to his identity, even while buried inside his heart.) He may not be great at evading attacks, but in life as in combat, he takes the damage and keeps going.
While strength of will is one of Terra's talents, its other face, stubbornness, can get in his way. Once he's decided to do something, he's slow to change his mind, and he's only just been driven to a point when he admits he needs help - or rather, has needed it all along. When he first learns that Aqua has been sent to watch him, he sees it as an attack and responds by lashing out verbally and stomping off, even though he has already encountered problems.
Rather than explain those problems, however, he reacts emotionally. Among Terra's skills is decidedly not communication. He seldom tells people what he's feeling directly, especially if it's something he sees as weak. In their meeting in Radiant Garden, he fails to tell Aqua and Ven about his encounter with Maleficent and its consequences - and, more importantly, any of the things he's found out about or from Xehanort that affected his goals or understanding of what's going on. These things are important, and yet he's more interested in stomping off in a huff than in explaining himself (or asking them to do so, either).
In general, when Terra encounters a situation that he can't solve by hitting something, he seeks information from someone he views as better-informed and authoritative, as when he goes to Yen Sid for help (which he ultimately does not receive for reasons this parenthesis is too small to contain) or returns again and again to Xehanort. When he feels strong negative emotion, he tends to go off on his own to think it through (or just brood about it); sometimes, as when he fails the Mark of Mastery exam, he's able to say he needs time alone politely, while others, as in Radiant Garden, he leaves with curt, angry words. How much good that does him is unclear, since in the course of his adventure Xehanort never leaves him alone to do so. So it would probably help.
Being a Keyblade Master's all I've dreamed about.
Overall, Terra's course through his story is one of having his entire life systematically dismantled by Xehanort and forces aligned with him. He loses his chance at achieving the goal of being a Master that he's been working toward all his life, his sense of his own strength, his confidence, his trust, his father, and his home. Still, despite it all, he manages to hang on to his capacity for love and his drive to protect the things and people who are important to him.
Also, he's an official Disney Town Exemplary Citizen. That has to count for something.
Samples: One and Two.
Vaikuntha
Moogle Name: Mogila
Moogle Gender: Female
First Job: Paladin.
Second Job: Dark Knight if I can persuade him IC to do so.
Name: Cygna
Age: 28
Personal Journal:
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Contact: Cygnahime @Plurk, Cygnahime @Discord
Other In-Game Characters: N/A
Character (Native OC)
Name: Terra
Age: 19
Gender: Male
Canon: Kingdom Hearts
Canon Point: Directly after his battle with Eraqus and the fall of the Land of Departure.
History: A brief history.
Personality:
What I do, I do for friendship.
Terra is, first and foremost, a person driven by the love he has for his friends. He enjoys spending time with them, whether training together or simply watching the stars, but more than that, he seeks to protect them, whether directly or indirectly, by fighting for them. His loyalty to his friends surpasses even his loyalty to his teacher and surrogate father, to such a degree that he's willing to fight Master Eraqus to protect Ven from harm. While Terra starts his journey believing his goal is to become stronger and more independent, he comes to realize that what he wants most in his heart is to be close to his friends again - a goal that, unfortunately, he is unable to realize due to Xehanort's machinations. However, even when everything else is stripped away from him, down to control of his own body, he refuses to be swayed from that one cause, saying, "Whatever's the cost, I'm ready to pay it."
While his most intense friendships are those with his fellow Keyblade wielders Ven and Aqua, Terra is a friendly person who easily reaches out to people he meets on his travels, from heroes to villains (though not people he knows are villains at the time). He readily offers to help the people he meets in any way he can - which mostly involves defeating monsters that plague them or their worlds, though it can involve escorting them on their travels, releasing them from dark influences, and the occasional prison break.
Unfortunately, some might say that Terra reaches out too easily. He's a polite, well-brought-up young man with a deep-seated respect for authority; villainous types seem to have an easy time reading this off of him, because even total strangers have been known to capitalize on this to obtain his help with their goals. He's just got one of those open, trusting faces, apparently. If someone doesn't ask him to literally murder someone for no reason, he tends to accept their statements as truth, even if they are overtly sinister or shifty in demeanor. Captain Hook isn't exactly a master of prevarication, but Terra is still willing to believe that he needs help protecting "the light". And as for Xehanort...the man's entire Terra-related portion of his Grand Plan involves capitalizing on Terra's trust for him as his Master's esteemed friend to manipulate him. At his canon point that particular betrayal has just been revealed with the death (? - it's Kingdom Hearts, death is hard to be sure of) of Eraqus and the destruction of the Land of Departure at Xehanort's hands, so Terra is slightly less trustful at the moment. However, it's against his nature to close off emotionally, so someone seeking to manipulate him shouldn't have too much trouble ingratiating themselves with him all the same.
I swear...I will not fail you again.
Despite the strong facade he tries to keep up, Terra is plagued by insecurity, much of it related to the darkness in his heart, which he has long been told he must suppress at all costs. Despite what Master Eraqus believes (or fears), however, it isn't lust for power that plagues him, but fear: fear of failure, and particularly of not being good enough in his father's eyes - a fear that, thanks to Xehanort's manipulations, proves to be well-founded: having cajoled Eraqus into holding a Mark of Mastery exam by playing on his fears of Terra's darkness, Xehanort ensures that Terra fails the exam, only to swoop in and insist that said darkness is nothing to fear. Needless to say, considering everything that Xehanort arranges to happen with Terra's Darkness and his own, Terra has only come to fear it more...which ironically is one of the emotions that feeds his Darkness.
The other, of course, is anger: Terra doesn't have a particularly short temper, but when he's pushed too far, such as when Braig "kidnaps" Xehanort, he's prone to lash out with uncontrolled power that can have unintended consequences. That's part of Xehanort's plan, pushing him to feel negative emotions in order to make him more vulnerable to a Darkness he doesn't know how to control. At Terra's current canonpoint, Xehanort has finally turned that anger toward himself, leaving Terra full of rage to both avenge his Master and home and protect his friends, whom Xehanort has threatened. It is worth noting, though, that Terra has never lashed out at someone who wasn't actively threatening someone he cared about. Threats to his own physical wellbeing don't evoke the same emotional response.
But he doesn't think of it that way. To him, every moment of imperfection is a personal failing, a perspective which Xehanort has played upon to increase his emotional vulnerability. When Maleficent magically compels him to steal Aurora's heart (or at least he believes she does; according to Xehanort, Terra does not have such an ability) Terra is as shocked and horrified by his weakness as if he had done so deliberately, and he vows to make it right, though he never has the opportunity to do so. Terra wants to make up for the wrongs he feels he has done in being manipulated and controlled by others. Indeed, even as he is reduced to a manifestation of pure willpower, he swears to his friends, "One day I will set this right." Naturally, Xehanort plays on this as well, presenting himself to Terra as a regretful man who has made a bad mistake in the creation of Vanitas to gain his sympathy.
I'm a peacekeeper, not a tyrant.
Just how baleful Terra's Darkness is is subject to some debate. According to Eraqus, darkness is to be rejected, and it would be better if it could be destroyed entirely; on the other hand, at the last Eraqus says that Terra's actions in fighting him to protect Ven, although they used the power of Darkness, were right, and his own were wrong. According to Xehanort, darkness can and must be channeled and controlled rather than obliterated; on the other hand, Xehanort is the villain and is trying to encourage Terra to become more vulnerable to darkness. The exact nature of Darkness (and, for that matter, Light) is unclear. It is certainly true that Darkness, though powerful, is dangerous to its wielders and comes about through negative emotion, while Light is its inverse. Terra possesses both a strong Darkness and Light, though which one is dominant varies throughout his story as his emotions shift. When he is miserable, his Light is less perceptible, much as when he first meets Cinderella, he can barely tell she's the same person as when she's happy. At his canonpoint, his Darkness is strongly dominant, due to the emotional turmoil he's experienced recently.
You have to be strong. Strength of heart will carry you through the hardest of trials.
Despite everything that happens to him, Terra powers through. His force of will is impressive to say the least: when Xehanort takes over his body, Terra animates his suit of armor into the Lingering Will in order to fight him. Said manifestation of will is strong enough that over ten years later, it's still there. (Meanwhile, the rest of Terra is insisting on clinging to his identity, even while buried inside his heart.) He may not be great at evading attacks, but in life as in combat, he takes the damage and keeps going.
While strength of will is one of Terra's talents, its other face, stubbornness, can get in his way. Once he's decided to do something, he's slow to change his mind, and he's only just been driven to a point when he admits he needs help - or rather, has needed it all along. When he first learns that Aqua has been sent to watch him, he sees it as an attack and responds by lashing out verbally and stomping off, even though he has already encountered problems.
Rather than explain those problems, however, he reacts emotionally. Among Terra's skills is decidedly not communication. He seldom tells people what he's feeling directly, especially if it's something he sees as weak. In their meeting in Radiant Garden, he fails to tell Aqua and Ven about his encounter with Maleficent and its consequences - and, more importantly, any of the things he's found out about or from Xehanort that affected his goals or understanding of what's going on. These things are important, and yet he's more interested in stomping off in a huff than in explaining himself (or asking them to do so, either).
In general, when Terra encounters a situation that he can't solve by hitting something, he seeks information from someone he views as better-informed and authoritative, as when he goes to Yen Sid for help (which he ultimately does not receive for reasons this parenthesis is too small to contain) or returns again and again to Xehanort. When he feels strong negative emotion, he tends to go off on his own to think it through (or just brood about it); sometimes, as when he fails the Mark of Mastery exam, he's able to say he needs time alone politely, while others, as in Radiant Garden, he leaves with curt, angry words. How much good that does him is unclear, since in the course of his adventure Xehanort never leaves him alone to do so. So it would probably help.
Being a Keyblade Master's all I've dreamed about.
Overall, Terra's course through his story is one of having his entire life systematically dismantled by Xehanort and forces aligned with him. He loses his chance at achieving the goal of being a Master that he's been working toward all his life, his sense of his own strength, his confidence, his trust, his father, and his home. Still, despite it all, he manages to hang on to his capacity for love and his drive to protect the things and people who are important to him.
Also, he's an official Disney Town Exemplary Citizen. That has to count for something.
Samples: One and Two.
Vaikuntha
Moogle Name: Mogila
Moogle Gender: Female
First Job: Paladin.
Second Job: Dark Knight if I can persuade him IC to do so.