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APPLICATION
Jul. 3rd, 2013 02:01 pmOOC Information:
Name: Red
Are you over 15? Yup.
Contact: PM or AIM: arsenic and rum
IC Information:
Name: Makoto Kenzaki (canon) | Justine Ambrose (reincarnation, and yes she's a distant relation to Morgan/C.C., and yes I asked, and more on that below)
Canon: Doki Doki! Pretty Cure
Age: 14 | 16
Preincarnation Appearance:
Any differences: She'll look pretty much the same except Justine's eyes will be green and her hair black. Nice and mundane.
Preincarnated History: Precanon, Makoto was a resident of the Trump Kingdom, serving Princess Marie Ange as Cure Sword.
And yes, her name really was Cure Sword, or at least was strongly implied to be Cure Sword with Makoto Kenzaki being a name she took upon arriving in Japan.
Anyway. For a while she lived one of those happy princess-and-knight routines that you can see in a ton of popular media. You know, she guarded the princess as they went to the park. She sang for the princess and made her happy. That sort of thing.
But then shit, as it has a tendency to do, happened.
The Selfish Kingdom attacked! They basically did a damned solid job razing the previously idyllic Trump Kingdom. With the last of her power, even as all her people were being turned into monsters of the week, Princess Marie Ange turned the Selfish King into stone. Cure Sword came to her aid, and, as the last survivors of the Trump Kingdom except not really, they made a desperate attempt to escape to another world via a magic mirror. It makes sense in context.
However! They were separated from each other when one of the Selfish King's minions attacked and Princess Marie Ange blocked their attacks in an attempt to make sure that Cure Sword, at least, escaped.
She arrived in Japan, alone, aside from her magical transformation object/fairy/partner Dabi.
There's not a lot of specifics on how she managed it, but going under the name Makoto Kenzai she proceeded to go from being a random street busker to a superstar idol. Her goal: pull a Starlights and use the power of her music to find her princess.
Enter episode one. Makoto is introduced as an enigmatic and understandably distant pop idol, someone who coincidentally happened to be at Clover Tower around the same time as the Monster of the Week attack. She transformed, fought evil, told the lead Mana/Cure Heart that she didn't need partners, and mysteriously and enigmatically departed back into the shadows from whence she came.
She spent the next few episodes doing her own thing while the protagonists assembled the team, reappearing in episode five when it came time for Cure Sword to join up.
Makoto was, of course, initially very resistant to the idea of becoming a main cast member given her status as the aloof ally who was stronger than the rest, unwilling to work with the rest, but unable to overcome the big bad without the power of friendship and teamwork on her side. But she caved quickly.
The timeline:
Episode 5, the lead, Mana, tried the direct approach by going inside of Makoto's dressing room and directly saying, “Hi, I'm Cure Heart, you're Cure Sword, this is super awesome and you should join us!” Makoto said no in an ambiguous fashion that didn't clarify whether or not she was Cure Sword, but by episode's end shook Mana's hand in civilian form.
Episode 6 had her going to Mana's family's restaurant although i-it isn't like she was interested in them, idiot! She just had a job to do. Don't get the wrong idea! But by episode's end she transformed in front of the other three Cures and was officially ready to join their team.
Episode 7 had the four of them get teleported to the ruined Trump Kingdom, Makoto's home, which was basically a post-apocalyptic wasteland at this point. She exposited about her life and the backstory necessary to understand the rest of the show, they had a thrilling bonding moment fight in which they desperately fought for a chance to return to Earth, and she essentially was part of the team from that point onward. Heck, she even eventually transferred to Mana and Rikka/Cure Diamond's school just to be closer to her friends. Basically, from the moment Mana decided that she needed to be part of the team Makoto defrosted really quickly.
They ended up getting another mascot in the form of some mysterious baby that...hatched from an egg and had wings who was named Ai. They learned that there was this creeper dude who had been hanging around them called Joe who was actually a knight of the Trump Kingdom and Marie Ange's fiancee and you know who wasn't happy about this? Makoto.
Actually, probably, the best way of putting it is this. The first seven episodes consisted of Mana assembling the team, ending with Makoto.
There was a few episodes which had Ai and basically established that she was both pretty cute and was a flying Deus ex Machina that powered up the Cures when shit got real.
Then after that was a series of episodes in which the Pretty Cures sought out the Royal Crystals, with each episode focusing on a different crystal, and, in turn, a different Cure and had them learn important life lessons and stuff like that. Makoto's episode basically focused on her starring in an adaptation of Snow White, and it focused on how her heart had been thawed by her friends and the power of friendship. Not only did she want to do a good job on the movie because she was looking for Marie Ange, she wanted to do a good job for her fans and the people counting on her.
Important life lessons. It also introduced Regina, the supposed daughter of the big bad (except not really, it's pretty clear she's some innocent corrupted by darkness and evil and she'll ultimately be redeemed somehow) and Makoto instantly hated her, especially since Regina was trying to be BFF with Mana.
The Royal Crystal arc ended with them assembling the crystals and them shooting off in the direction of Marie Ange. They found the princess! She was encased in ice. Crap. Also, the frozen Marie Angesicle and Regina (who had been sort of wavering back and forth and Makoto was starting to accept) were taken to the Trump Kingdom to seek out the big bad and there was a big climactic battle to be had!
And they rescued her! Sort of. (She's still encased in crystal.) Regina joined the team before being brainwashed, which kicked off the next arc of episodes, which appear to consist of a mysterious new Cure – Cure Ace – giving them lectures while each member of the core team struggles with worries and doubt before overcoming them and growing stronger. This is still going and no one knows who Cure Ace actually is beyond the prepubescent front.
Reincarnated History:
There's nothing terribly remarkable here. Justine was born to parents Robert and Elizabeth Ambrose. She's got a kid brother, Jordan. (Her parents like Js.) She grew up somewhere not-Locke City, San Francisco unless for some reason I missed something in the setting section that would prohibit it.
She lived in San Francisco for the first 13 years of her life. Unbeknownst to her, her parents didn't really enjoy the location and wanted to move closer to their family, so when circumstances started to line up (Robert lost his job, Elizabeth was offered a position in Locke City, Justine would have a fresh start in high school opposed to leaving in the tail end of middle school) they took advantage of it.
When Justine was 13 they visited Locke City for a few reasons: planning on the move, scouting out the area, and a family gathering that would (in theory) let them connect with their relatives. This family reunion would've been rather unremarkable for Justine if it hadn't been for a chance meeting with her older cousin, Morgan. Morgan left an impression for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the fact that she wore a wool hat in the middle of the summer that concealed...neon green hair, what?
But hair dye wasn't that strange as things went when everything was said and done.
She moved around the time she turned 14 and enrolled in a generic high school. Old habits died hard, though, so despite the fact that she was local Justine didn't really get wadded up in the katamari known as extended family. She wasn't a hermit, she just had other things that needed doing. Like choir. And taking care of her brother. Stuff like that.
And so the next two years passed in a pretty unremarkable fashion (not bad, per se, but just the sort of generic high school wackiness that would feature in average slice of life anime/movies/etc) until shit got real and things started to happen.
First Echo: Her first echo was caused by auditioning for her high school's choir. She stood up, sang in front of the teacher and then bam. She remembered singing the Song of Prayer for a princess in a kingdom. (Also remembered being really...purple, for some reason.) She didn't remember much about the princess, just that she was incredibly important to her and had pink hair.
Preincarnation Personality:
Makoto is, like most individuals, layered. In her case, her layers can be divided up into three parts: how she is professionally, how she is to close friends and people she cares about, and the cold front she puts up at times, especially in the beginning to the other Cures.
Professionally, she's...well, professional. She's earnest, hardworking, dedicated, and polite. Makoto does whatever she needs to do to get the job done. To her fans she's always the perfect idol, ready with a smile.
She is, basically, very dedicated.
Part of the reason she's so dedicated to her idol work has to do with her past. As Cure Sword, Makoto was dedicated to protecting the Trump Kingdom (also translated as Card Kingdom, but given what I associated it with I'll opt for Trump unless my canonmates have a strong opinion otherwise) and the Princess Ange Marie as a generic sort of archetypical knight. I mean, she was a magical girl, a Pretty Cure, but fulfilled a lot of the knight archetypes. Dedicated follower and confidant, liked to see her princess smile, really dedicated protector, and an incredibly strong implied crush on Princess Ange Marie she refused to do anything about for a number of reasons.
I say 'implied crush' and not 'crush' because I'm not going to rule out some episode 67 bullshit revelation that it's just some incredibly strong admiration, but it's pretty fucking obvious that something's there. When she discovers that her princess happens to have a supposed fiancee she gets very jealous and very defensive very quickly. It's an above average connection, at least, and I'll be playing it as a crush until it gets retconned otherwise.
To say that Makoto enjoyed serving the princess would be an understatement. She was very happy.
So when the Trump Kingdom fell it gutted her. It did so on a number of levels, the first being that she was unable to protect her kingdom or her people. Makoto Kenzaki, Cure Sword, was one of the strongest warriors in the kingdom and she was able to do absolutely nothing to stop the enemy.
More importantly, however, was her absolute failure to protect her princess. For a while it looked like Makoto would: a random soldier gave her a warning to rush to the princess' side, she burst onto the scene in the nick of time, dramatically saved Marie Ange from being turned into a monster, and escaped with her into the portal to another world. Then at the last second Marie Ange sacrificed herself to protect Makoto and Makoto arrived on Earth alone save for her fairy partner Dabi.
All of this devastated Makoto and is at the root of her cool loner personality, primarily shown when operating as Cure Sword at the beginning of the series. She has a lot of guilt about not being able to do more, not being able to save Marie Ange, and not being able to find her on Earth. That's why she poured so much time and energy into her idol career, and, not only that, kept a professional front while she worked. Frustration and angst would only hurt her career, and, in turn, her chances of finding Marie Ange.
...so, when she's Cure Sword, she can express her frustration, her bitterness, and her anger. Which isn't to say that Makoto's a walking font of bitter feelings waiting to spill forth and is a 90s comics antihero. Rather, it's more that she had a lot going on - she's the (supposed) last survivor of her kingdom, her princess is missing, she failed on a number of levels, and the only person who she can absolutely trust is Dabi. And she couldn't just express her feelings as the idol Makoto Kenzaki. If she's rude or frustrated or angry, she's harder to work with. If she's harder to work with, she might get less jobs. If she gets less jobs, her music goes to fewer places, she goes to fewer places, and it's that much less likely that she'll find Marie Ange. She has a mission.
But she still needed to express it, so when Mana Aida/Cure Heart initially tried to befriend her Makoto didn't hesitate to tell her no. She had greater freedom as Cure Sword to reject help, do things alone, to just...be herself and have a way to express the cooler, lady of war side of her personality. She has great pride and a strong sense of duty, only matched by her sense of justice, and it comes out the most as Cure Sword. She's the one who swore to defend the Trump Kingdom and she's the one who'll fix it.
That said, her cool loner angst didn't really last that long once Mana Aida/Cure Heart decided that Makoto needed to join the team. Once she accepted the friendship of the other three Pretty Cures she defrosted pretty quickly. Still some angst. She's still the cool lady of war and the professional idol with a smile for her fans. But she showed the bubbly teenager side of her.
Because, yes, Makoto is a teenager. She finds things cute, like Ai. She gets embarrassed, especially when Dabi feels the need to deliver commentary on how Makoto really feels and what she's really thinking. It's hard for her to express herself because she was never the most forthcoming of people with frank, sincere expression of her feelings to begin with, and the destruction of the Trump Kingdom gave her survivor's guilt.
They're all her. Idol Makoto isn't just a mask, Cure Sword the loner isn't a mask, and the way Makoto is around her close friends isn't a mask. It's just different layers. She's got two scales she basically measures stuff against: if it's professional or personal, and how much she likes or dislikes the subject in question. Professional dislike would be handled quite differently than someone badmouthing the princess.
Any differences:
Justine happens to have a warm, supportive family so she'll have none of the survivor's guilt and be less emotionally constipated in general. Basically, Justine would be more like Makoto is around friends and less the deeply emotionally traumatized lone wolf Cure Sword that caused the others to spend three episodes trying to win her over to the team. She's not going to be SUGOI BUBBILY and kind of reserved until she gets to know you, but the reservedness is taken from a 9 and dialed down to a 6 in general.
But Justine'll still be responsible and duty driven to some extent (less I MUST SUCCEED FOR MY FALLEN KINGDOM NO MATTER THE PERSONAL TOIL and more I happen to be responsible in general why do you ask?), which means that she'll follow through with the echo about her princess and then have a ton of current family vs past life duty issues she'll have to work with.
Abilities: Precure wiki link.
It's the general magical girl fare. Makoto- Justine...well, person I'm apping transforms with the help of her partner Dabi, turns into Cure Sword. As Cure Sword she's faster, stronger, more durable, and able to kick ass and take names. (Not that she can't kick ass in her human form, it's just dialed up to superhuman abilities.) She can also attack with Holy Sword and Sparkling Sword, with more attacks likely pending.
Roleplay Sample – Third Person: Test run post.
Roleplay Sample - Network:
[The last seven months and fifteen echos (one of which was to her hair, four of which were related to supernatural abilities resulting in her cell phone being able to talk back to her, and the other ten generic memories of varying importance) had gone well, all things considered, except there was a...problem. It was tough to call, but she had a growing suspicion that one of her friends in her past life had been not-so-secretly controlling Japan through her wealth and power. Not only that, but it might explain the fragmented memories of a meteoric rise to fame for who better to orchestrate the rise of a star than Justine's friend, the girl whose company ruled over Japan?
Of course, it was tough to say. She didn't remember enough and that was part of the problem. And she wasn't sure if it mattered but...she needed to know.
So, the network. The handwriting is small, cramped.]
I'm still not certain how much of our pasts is necessary for us to know but there's certain questions I still want answered. I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling this way. Would anyone be interested in trying to trigger an echo this weekend? Regina? Winter? [Not that she's super close to either, but still.] I could ask and see if my cousin would drive us somewhere.
[She still doesn't have a car. Also, after ten minutes:]
If anyone has a copy of The Absent Man or knows where I can find one please let me know. Thank you.
[Guess who was assigned required reading?]
Any Questions? Nope.
Name: Red
Are you over 15? Yup.
Contact: PM or AIM: arsenic and rum
IC Information:
Name: Makoto Kenzaki (canon) | Justine Ambrose (reincarnation, and yes she's a distant relation to Morgan/C.C., and yes I asked, and more on that below)
Canon: Doki Doki! Pretty Cure
Age: 14 | 16
Preincarnation Appearance:
Any differences: She'll look pretty much the same except Justine's eyes will be green and her hair black. Nice and mundane.
Preincarnated History: Precanon, Makoto was a resident of the Trump Kingdom, serving Princess Marie Ange as Cure Sword.
And yes, her name really was Cure Sword, or at least was strongly implied to be Cure Sword with Makoto Kenzaki being a name she took upon arriving in Japan.
Anyway. For a while she lived one of those happy princess-and-knight routines that you can see in a ton of popular media. You know, she guarded the princess as they went to the park. She sang for the princess and made her happy. That sort of thing.
But then shit, as it has a tendency to do, happened.
The Selfish Kingdom attacked! They basically did a damned solid job razing the previously idyllic Trump Kingdom. With the last of her power, even as all her people were being turned into monsters of the week, Princess Marie Ange turned the Selfish King into stone. Cure Sword came to her aid, and, as the last survivors of the Trump Kingdom except not really, they made a desperate attempt to escape to another world via a magic mirror. It makes sense in context.
However! They were separated from each other when one of the Selfish King's minions attacked and Princess Marie Ange blocked their attacks in an attempt to make sure that Cure Sword, at least, escaped.
She arrived in Japan, alone, aside from her magical transformation object/fairy/partner Dabi.
There's not a lot of specifics on how she managed it, but going under the name Makoto Kenzai she proceeded to go from being a random street busker to a superstar idol. Her goal: pull a Starlights and use the power of her music to find her princess.
Enter episode one. Makoto is introduced as an enigmatic and understandably distant pop idol, someone who coincidentally happened to be at Clover Tower around the same time as the Monster of the Week attack. She transformed, fought evil, told the lead Mana/Cure Heart that she didn't need partners, and mysteriously and enigmatically departed back into the shadows from whence she came.
She spent the next few episodes doing her own thing while the protagonists assembled the team, reappearing in episode five when it came time for Cure Sword to join up.
Makoto was, of course, initially very resistant to the idea of becoming a main cast member given her status as the aloof ally who was stronger than the rest, unwilling to work with the rest, but unable to overcome the big bad without the power of friendship and teamwork on her side. But she caved quickly.
The timeline:
Episode 5, the lead, Mana, tried the direct approach by going inside of Makoto's dressing room and directly saying, “Hi, I'm Cure Heart, you're Cure Sword, this is super awesome and you should join us!” Makoto said no in an ambiguous fashion that didn't clarify whether or not she was Cure Sword, but by episode's end shook Mana's hand in civilian form.
Episode 6 had her going to Mana's family's restaurant although i-it isn't like she was interested in them, idiot! She just had a job to do. Don't get the wrong idea! But by episode's end she transformed in front of the other three Cures and was officially ready to join their team.
Episode 7 had the four of them get teleported to the ruined Trump Kingdom, Makoto's home, which was basically a post-apocalyptic wasteland at this point. She exposited about her life and the backstory necessary to understand the rest of the show, they had a thrilling bonding moment fight in which they desperately fought for a chance to return to Earth, and she essentially was part of the team from that point onward. Heck, she even eventually transferred to Mana and Rikka/Cure Diamond's school just to be closer to her friends. Basically, from the moment Mana decided that she needed to be part of the team Makoto defrosted really quickly.
They ended up getting another mascot in the form of some mysterious baby that...hatched from an egg and had wings who was named Ai. They learned that there was this creeper dude who had been hanging around them called Joe who was actually a knight of the Trump Kingdom and Marie Ange's fiancee and you know who wasn't happy about this? Makoto.
Actually, probably, the best way of putting it is this. The first seven episodes consisted of Mana assembling the team, ending with Makoto.
There was a few episodes which had Ai and basically established that she was both pretty cute and was a flying Deus ex Machina that powered up the Cures when shit got real.
Then after that was a series of episodes in which the Pretty Cures sought out the Royal Crystals, with each episode focusing on a different crystal, and, in turn, a different Cure and had them learn important life lessons and stuff like that. Makoto's episode basically focused on her starring in an adaptation of Snow White, and it focused on how her heart had been thawed by her friends and the power of friendship. Not only did she want to do a good job on the movie because she was looking for Marie Ange, she wanted to do a good job for her fans and the people counting on her.
Important life lessons. It also introduced Regina, the supposed daughter of the big bad (except not really, it's pretty clear she's some innocent corrupted by darkness and evil and she'll ultimately be redeemed somehow) and Makoto instantly hated her, especially since Regina was trying to be BFF with Mana.
The Royal Crystal arc ended with them assembling the crystals and them shooting off in the direction of Marie Ange. They found the princess! She was encased in ice. Crap. Also, the frozen Marie Angesicle and Regina (who had been sort of wavering back and forth and Makoto was starting to accept) were taken to the Trump Kingdom to seek out the big bad and there was a big climactic battle to be had!
And they rescued her! Sort of. (She's still encased in crystal.) Regina joined the team before being brainwashed, which kicked off the next arc of episodes, which appear to consist of a mysterious new Cure – Cure Ace – giving them lectures while each member of the core team struggles with worries and doubt before overcoming them and growing stronger. This is still going and no one knows who Cure Ace actually is beyond the prepubescent front.
Reincarnated History:
There's nothing terribly remarkable here. Justine was born to parents Robert and Elizabeth Ambrose. She's got a kid brother, Jordan. (Her parents like Js.) She grew up somewhere not-Locke City, San Francisco unless for some reason I missed something in the setting section that would prohibit it.
She lived in San Francisco for the first 13 years of her life. Unbeknownst to her, her parents didn't really enjoy the location and wanted to move closer to their family, so when circumstances started to line up (Robert lost his job, Elizabeth was offered a position in Locke City, Justine would have a fresh start in high school opposed to leaving in the tail end of middle school) they took advantage of it.
When Justine was 13 they visited Locke City for a few reasons: planning on the move, scouting out the area, and a family gathering that would (in theory) let them connect with their relatives. This family reunion would've been rather unremarkable for Justine if it hadn't been for a chance meeting with her older cousin, Morgan. Morgan left an impression for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the fact that she wore a wool hat in the middle of the summer that concealed...neon green hair, what?
But hair dye wasn't that strange as things went when everything was said and done.
She moved around the time she turned 14 and enrolled in a generic high school. Old habits died hard, though, so despite the fact that she was local Justine didn't really get wadded up in the katamari known as extended family. She wasn't a hermit, she just had other things that needed doing. Like choir. And taking care of her brother. Stuff like that.
And so the next two years passed in a pretty unremarkable fashion (not bad, per se, but just the sort of generic high school wackiness that would feature in average slice of life anime/movies/etc) until shit got real and things started to happen.
First Echo: Her first echo was caused by auditioning for her high school's choir. She stood up, sang in front of the teacher and then bam. She remembered singing the Song of Prayer for a princess in a kingdom. (Also remembered being really...purple, for some reason.) She didn't remember much about the princess, just that she was incredibly important to her and had pink hair.
Preincarnation Personality:
Makoto is, like most individuals, layered. In her case, her layers can be divided up into three parts: how she is professionally, how she is to close friends and people she cares about, and the cold front she puts up at times, especially in the beginning to the other Cures.
Professionally, she's...well, professional. She's earnest, hardworking, dedicated, and polite. Makoto does whatever she needs to do to get the job done. To her fans she's always the perfect idol, ready with a smile.
She is, basically, very dedicated.
Part of the reason she's so dedicated to her idol work has to do with her past. As Cure Sword, Makoto was dedicated to protecting the Trump Kingdom (also translated as Card Kingdom, but given what I associated it with I'll opt for Trump unless my canonmates have a strong opinion otherwise) and the Princess Ange Marie as a generic sort of archetypical knight. I mean, she was a magical girl, a Pretty Cure, but fulfilled a lot of the knight archetypes. Dedicated follower and confidant, liked to see her princess smile, really dedicated protector, and an incredibly strong implied crush on Princess Ange Marie she refused to do anything about for a number of reasons.
I say 'implied crush' and not 'crush' because I'm not going to rule out some episode 67 bullshit revelation that it's just some incredibly strong admiration, but it's pretty fucking obvious that something's there. When she discovers that her princess happens to have a supposed fiancee she gets very jealous and very defensive very quickly. It's an above average connection, at least, and I'll be playing it as a crush until it gets retconned otherwise.
To say that Makoto enjoyed serving the princess would be an understatement. She was very happy.
So when the Trump Kingdom fell it gutted her. It did so on a number of levels, the first being that she was unable to protect her kingdom or her people. Makoto Kenzaki, Cure Sword, was one of the strongest warriors in the kingdom and she was able to do absolutely nothing to stop the enemy.
More importantly, however, was her absolute failure to protect her princess. For a while it looked like Makoto would: a random soldier gave her a warning to rush to the princess' side, she burst onto the scene in the nick of time, dramatically saved Marie Ange from being turned into a monster, and escaped with her into the portal to another world. Then at the last second Marie Ange sacrificed herself to protect Makoto and Makoto arrived on Earth alone save for her fairy partner Dabi.
All of this devastated Makoto and is at the root of her cool loner personality, primarily shown when operating as Cure Sword at the beginning of the series. She has a lot of guilt about not being able to do more, not being able to save Marie Ange, and not being able to find her on Earth. That's why she poured so much time and energy into her idol career, and, not only that, kept a professional front while she worked. Frustration and angst would only hurt her career, and, in turn, her chances of finding Marie Ange.
...so, when she's Cure Sword, she can express her frustration, her bitterness, and her anger. Which isn't to say that Makoto's a walking font of bitter feelings waiting to spill forth and is a 90s comics antihero. Rather, it's more that she had a lot going on - she's the (supposed) last survivor of her kingdom, her princess is missing, she failed on a number of levels, and the only person who she can absolutely trust is Dabi. And she couldn't just express her feelings as the idol Makoto Kenzaki. If she's rude or frustrated or angry, she's harder to work with. If she's harder to work with, she might get less jobs. If she gets less jobs, her music goes to fewer places, she goes to fewer places, and it's that much less likely that she'll find Marie Ange. She has a mission.
But she still needed to express it, so when Mana Aida/Cure Heart initially tried to befriend her Makoto didn't hesitate to tell her no. She had greater freedom as Cure Sword to reject help, do things alone, to just...be herself and have a way to express the cooler, lady of war side of her personality. She has great pride and a strong sense of duty, only matched by her sense of justice, and it comes out the most as Cure Sword. She's the one who swore to defend the Trump Kingdom and she's the one who'll fix it.
That said, her cool loner angst didn't really last that long once Mana Aida/Cure Heart decided that Makoto needed to join the team. Once she accepted the friendship of the other three Pretty Cures she defrosted pretty quickly. Still some angst. She's still the cool lady of war and the professional idol with a smile for her fans. But she showed the bubbly teenager side of her.
Because, yes, Makoto is a teenager. She finds things cute, like Ai. She gets embarrassed, especially when Dabi feels the need to deliver commentary on how Makoto really feels and what she's really thinking. It's hard for her to express herself because she was never the most forthcoming of people with frank, sincere expression of her feelings to begin with, and the destruction of the Trump Kingdom gave her survivor's guilt.
They're all her. Idol Makoto isn't just a mask, Cure Sword the loner isn't a mask, and the way Makoto is around her close friends isn't a mask. It's just different layers. She's got two scales she basically measures stuff against: if it's professional or personal, and how much she likes or dislikes the subject in question. Professional dislike would be handled quite differently than someone badmouthing the princess.
Any differences:
Justine happens to have a warm, supportive family so she'll have none of the survivor's guilt and be less emotionally constipated in general. Basically, Justine would be more like Makoto is around friends and less the deeply emotionally traumatized lone wolf Cure Sword that caused the others to spend three episodes trying to win her over to the team. She's not going to be SUGOI BUBBILY and kind of reserved until she gets to know you, but the reservedness is taken from a 9 and dialed down to a 6 in general.
But Justine'll still be responsible and duty driven to some extent (less I MUST SUCCEED FOR MY FALLEN KINGDOM NO MATTER THE PERSONAL TOIL and more I happen to be responsible in general why do you ask?), which means that she'll follow through with the echo about her princess and then have a ton of current family vs past life duty issues she'll have to work with.
Abilities: Precure wiki link.
It's the general magical girl fare. Makoto- Justine...well, person I'm apping transforms with the help of her partner Dabi, turns into Cure Sword. As Cure Sword she's faster, stronger, more durable, and able to kick ass and take names. (Not that she can't kick ass in her human form, it's just dialed up to superhuman abilities.) She can also attack with Holy Sword and Sparkling Sword, with more attacks likely pending.
Roleplay Sample – Third Person: Test run post.
Roleplay Sample - Network:
[The last seven months and fifteen echos (one of which was to her hair, four of which were related to supernatural abilities resulting in her cell phone being able to talk back to her, and the other ten generic memories of varying importance) had gone well, all things considered, except there was a...problem. It was tough to call, but she had a growing suspicion that one of her friends in her past life had been not-so-secretly controlling Japan through her wealth and power. Not only that, but it might explain the fragmented memories of a meteoric rise to fame for who better to orchestrate the rise of a star than Justine's friend, the girl whose company ruled over Japan?
Of course, it was tough to say. She didn't remember enough and that was part of the problem. And she wasn't sure if it mattered but...she needed to know.
So, the network. The handwriting is small, cramped.]
I'm still not certain how much of our pasts is necessary for us to know but there's certain questions I still want answered. I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling this way. Would anyone be interested in trying to trigger an echo this weekend? Regina? Winter? [Not that she's super close to either, but still.] I could ask and see if my cousin would drive us somewhere.
[She still doesn't have a car. Also, after ten minutes:]
If anyone has a copy of The Absent Man or knows where I can find one please let me know. Thank you.
[Guess who was assigned required reading?]
Any Questions? Nope.
