OOC- Information
character name: Miki Sayaka
Fandom: Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Timeline: mid-episode seven, after her conversation with Kyouko but before her return to school
character's age: 13 or 14, she's a second-year in a Japanese middle school
powers, skills, pets and equipment:
Sayaka has contracted to become a puella magi (the term the show seems to want to use as its official way of saying magical girl). Normally, she wears a ring on her left hand (the finger she wears it on also has a small blue c-shaped mark on the fingernail), which changes into her soul gem. The soul gem may be a vessel for magical power, but its real purpose is literally containing a puella magi's soul. If the soul gem is taken more than about 100 metres away from her, the puella magi will fall down dead. This separation of self and body means that puella magi don't feel pain to the extent that they should when they are fighting, and can even shut it out entirely.
When she transforms into a puella magi, Sayaka gains some pretty blue armor, a white cloak, and her soul gem becomes a decorative blue c-shaped symbol around her belly button. She is primarily a sword fighter, best suited to melee action. She can, however, also produce a forest of swords to throw as ranged weapons. She has a supernatural healing rate, able to repair damage in minutes that should have disabled her for days. All the puella magi seem to have markedly increased strength and somewhat enhanced speed.
In canon, a puella magi's soul gem becomes dangerously corrupted the more she uses magic. The only way to reverse this process is to defeat a witch and use the grief seed it drops to "clean" the soul gem. In Anatole, I'd like the mist to halt the process of corruption, leaving Sayaka free to use magic without rapidly deteriorating.
People who have had close contact with Kyuubei seem to be able to speak with each other and Kyuubei telepathically, but this will be irrelevant in the absence of canonmates.
canon history:
Madoka Magica is pretty damn skimpy on the pasts of most of its characters.
What we know happened in Sayaka's life before canon: When she was younger (anywhere from 8 to 10, I think) she met and started developing a crush on a brilliant violinist who was about her age- Kamijou Kyousuke. Not too long ago, Kamijou was in a serious accident of some kind, which seriously injured the left side of his body. Sayaka regularly visits him in the hospital, and brings him music to listen to.
At some point, she also became friends with Kaname Madoka and Shizuki Hitomi (this happened at least in her first year of middle school, probably earlier).
And that's all we know. On to canon.
When Madoka hears and rescues Kyuubei from Homura's assault towards the end of the first episode, Sayaka comes and helps out. This throws her and Madoka into the surreal and frightening world of witches. They are menaced by familiars, but are rescued by a puella magi named Mami. Mami heals Kyuubei, and Kyuubei offers to form contracts with Madoka and Sayaka, promising to grant them any wish they want if they become puella magi (who are born from wishes) and fight witches (which are born from curses and can cause the destruction of human life). Neither girl agrees to this right away, but they do accompany Mami in hunting and fighting witches, to get a better idea of what the world of puella magi is like.
While visiting Kamijou in the hospital, Sayaka and Madoka discover a grief seed and a witch's barrier, which could threaten the people in the hospital. Sayaka stays and watches the barrier for any sign of it getting worse while Madoka gets Mami to help. Mami comes and tries to defeat the witch, but is eaten by it in front of Sayaka and Madoka's eyes. Homura, who had tried to warn Mami only to be held back from entering the barrier, comes and defeats the witch, leaving Sayaka and Madoka to grieve.
After this, Sayaka and Madoka both shy away from becoming puella magi. But when Sayaka visits Kamijou again with more music, he breaks down and yells at her for taunting him with something he'll never have again. It turns out that the doctors had decided there was no chance that he would ever regain use of his hand. Upset, Sayaka assures him that "miracles and magic exist." She makes a contract with Kyuubei, agreeing to become a puella magi in exchange for Kamijou being healed. She immediately begins to carry out her duties as a puella magi, saving Madoka and a group of other people, including their friend Hitomi, from a witch. Sayaka is determined to be a good puella magi who protects the innocent without seeking personal gain, just as she believes Mami was.
Sayaka attracts the attention of another puella magi, Kyouko, who had intended to take over Mami's territory. While Sayaka is fighting a familiar, Kyouko appears to challenge her. The two of them begin a fight that could well have ended with one of them dead, but Homura intervenes. The next day, while stopping by Kamijou's house, Sayaka is again confronted by Kyouko. The two of them go to a more remote area to fight, but Madoka, informed of events by Kyuubei, appears and grabs Sayaka's soul gem, throwing it far away (it lands on a truck). This, as Madoka intended, prevents Sayaka from using magic to fight. However, it has the unintended side effect of making Sayaka fall down dead. Homura also appears, and chases after Sayaka's soul gem. It's at this point that Kyuubei explains that a puella magi's soul is literally inside the soul gem, and that without it nearby they are nothing but dead flesh. But Homura retrieves Sayaka's soul gem quickly, and Sayaka is revived.
When Sayaka confronts Kyuubei about this afterwards, he explains the benefits, and demonstrates by using the soul gem to show her how much her fight with Kyouko would really have hurt.
Sayaka skips school the next day, and is called out again by Kyouko, but this time to talk, not fight. Kyouko explains her own history and why Sayaka shouldn't be so idealistic. Sayaka walks away from the conversation with more sympathy for Kyouko, but still determined to carry out her ideals.
And that's where I'm taking her from.
personality:
In episode 5, Madoka describes Sayaka in this way: "she's hotheaded, stubborn, she gets in a lot of arguments, but she's really a good girl! She's kind, she's brave, she tries to solve everyone's problems." In the same conversation, Homura points out that kindness leads to naivete, bravery leads to foolhardiness, and there is no reward for solving everyone's problems. Both girls speak accurately.
Sayaka is a social creature. She's an active person- friendly, energetic, and helpful. She cheerfully chatters with friends on the way to school, and comes across as expressive, earnest, and playful. She willingly expresses her opinions in daily life, whether she's admiring or annoyed. The hospital staff who know her from her visits to Kyousuke like her for her positive attitude and constant efforts. She may tease a lot (though...much less at this point in canon), but it's all in good fun and she's generally very reliable. She is seriously loyal to her friends or those she admires. She acts easily on her concern for others, though often not without thought. She gives all she can to other people, frequently sacrificing herself. Sayaka's the kind of person who tries very hard to be the best person possible, and beats herself up internally for failing at it. She sets high standards for herself- she has to be helpful, she has to be kind, she has to be as "good" as she possibly can be. If she even thinks selfishly, she berates herself for being a bad person. She's aware of the unfairness of the world, of the fact that she's relatively very fortunate, and she wants to fix as much of that as she can by herself.
At the same time, she doesn't like to have to rely on anything outside of herself. She is proud, and will strongly refuse charity or pity, even taking this refusal to self-destructive lengths. She also has a reluctance to admit she might be wrong, and will stick with an idea even when it starts to become clear that might not be the wisest decision. She can be overly defensive in her loyalty, hostile and suspicious of people she doesn't know coming close to her friends. She's also deceptive, frequently putting on a cheerful front or downright lying about her state in order to stop others from worrying or going out of their way for her sake. She doesn't like to appear vulnerable, and will cover up feelings of sadness or insecurity with optimism or, sometimes, anger. She is willing to go to extreme lengths for others, but isn't really willing to share herself (and yet, part of her thinks people should understand and support her in spite of that). While she's open about day-to-day things, she tends to keep the things that are important to her to herself, or only mention them obliquely. Even when a despairing Kamijou says extremely hurtful things to her and injures himself in episode 4, she smiles and reassures him, both sacrificing and hiding herself.
Deep down, Sayaka wants most of all to be paid attention to, to be appreciated. She gives a disproportionate amount to others, because it's the "right" thing to do. But she wants to be seen, to be thanked, to be given to. She's a little aware of this, and she hates it about herself.
She has a tendency to view things in absolute terms. This is seen in her ideology (you have to save as many people as possible, there is no middle ground) and in her view of herself (if she's not actively being good, that means she's bad). It also manifests in her views of others. She initially dismisses Kyouko as a bad person who she should fight largely because she sees Kyouko as someone who doesn't care about others, only fighting witches to gain the power of the grief seeds. Even when Sayaka gains an understanding of Kyouko, she makes it clear that she still disapproves of Kyouko's actions. In other direction, Sayaka basically makes Mami into a saint after her death, holding Mami up as a model of everything good.
While seeming like the brash type who is too impatient for school, Sayaka is actually fairly intelligent. She has gained an impressive knowledge of classical music thanks to her friendship with Kamijou, and will casually joke about being "petit bourgeois." She absorbs information well, and had a great deal of practical intelligence that manifests in things like grabbing what's available to use as a non-lethal weapon to break up a fight or thinking through the likely consequences of Mami's death. She tries to think ahead when she can, or when her emotions don't get the better of her (the latter happens less often than people who meet her casually would probably guess, since while she is almost always emotionally motivated she tends to think through what to do with that before she acts). She can be very perceptive when she's in an open state of mind. That being said, she tends to go with her gut feelings a lot of the time, especially in regards to people (this is actually the main reason she doesn't trust Homura). This leads to some impulsive and argumentative behavior.
At this point in canon, Sayaka is developing some serious detachment and abandonment issues. For someone who tries so hard to control herself and her appearance, the revelation that she has been transformed into a witch-fighting tool and doesn't even necessarily have control of her own body or soul was especially painful. In compensation for loosing so much, she has started to devote herself to the concept of being the best puella magi possible, who saves the most people without resorting to selfishness. This is...honestly a very bad plan, but Sayaka will stick with it. She also feels that she has been left entirely alone to fight. Mami is dead, she doesn't agree with Kyouko or Homura and thus won't work with them, Madoka hasn't contracted, and no one else is aware of witches and puella magi. At the point I'd be taking her from, she's more left feeling lost by that, but in canon it does develop into her feeling betrayed and bitter.
why do you feel this character would be appropriate to the setting?
Sayaka displays independence throughout the series- she travels all around the city unsupervised, and is as likely to do so alone as with a friend. As shown in episode 8, her parents apparently don't think it's that big a deal if she's gone for an entire night and day. She's able to think on her feet in order to take care of both herself and others, as shown in the first episode when she breaks up a potential magical fight with a fire extinguisher. With her puella magi abilities, she'll have no trouble joining the patrol. She may even do extra patrols on her own, similar to the ones she does in canon to find witches or their familiars. Given the dark tone of the series, the tone of the game won't really be much of a switch. She's seen a girl she idolized somewhat killed in front of her, she's been made aware of the debilitating costs and unintended consequences of "miracles." Given what happens to her in the rest of canon, Anatole might actually be a healthier place for her (or not).
Fandom: Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Timeline: mid-episode seven, after her conversation with Kyouko but before her return to school
character's age: 13 or 14, she's a second-year in a Japanese middle school
powers, skills, pets and equipment:
Sayaka has contracted to become a puella magi (the term the show seems to want to use as its official way of saying magical girl). Normally, she wears a ring on her left hand (the finger she wears it on also has a small blue c-shaped mark on the fingernail), which changes into her soul gem. The soul gem may be a vessel for magical power, but its real purpose is literally containing a puella magi's soul. If the soul gem is taken more than about 100 metres away from her, the puella magi will fall down dead. This separation of self and body means that puella magi don't feel pain to the extent that they should when they are fighting, and can even shut it out entirely.
When she transforms into a puella magi, Sayaka gains some pretty blue armor, a white cloak, and her soul gem becomes a decorative blue c-shaped symbol around her belly button. She is primarily a sword fighter, best suited to melee action. She can, however, also produce a forest of swords to throw as ranged weapons. She has a supernatural healing rate, able to repair damage in minutes that should have disabled her for days. All the puella magi seem to have markedly increased strength and somewhat enhanced speed.
In canon, a puella magi's soul gem becomes dangerously corrupted the more she uses magic. The only way to reverse this process is to defeat a witch and use the grief seed it drops to "clean" the soul gem. In Anatole, I'd like the mist to halt the process of corruption, leaving Sayaka free to use magic without rapidly deteriorating.
People who have had close contact with Kyuubei seem to be able to speak with each other and Kyuubei telepathically, but this will be irrelevant in the absence of canonmates.
canon history:
Madoka Magica is pretty damn skimpy on the pasts of most of its characters.
What we know happened in Sayaka's life before canon: When she was younger (anywhere from 8 to 10, I think) she met and started developing a crush on a brilliant violinist who was about her age- Kamijou Kyousuke. Not too long ago, Kamijou was in a serious accident of some kind, which seriously injured the left side of his body. Sayaka regularly visits him in the hospital, and brings him music to listen to.
At some point, she also became friends with Kaname Madoka and Shizuki Hitomi (this happened at least in her first year of middle school, probably earlier).
And that's all we know. On to canon.
When Madoka hears and rescues Kyuubei from Homura's assault towards the end of the first episode, Sayaka comes and helps out. This throws her and Madoka into the surreal and frightening world of witches. They are menaced by familiars, but are rescued by a puella magi named Mami. Mami heals Kyuubei, and Kyuubei offers to form contracts with Madoka and Sayaka, promising to grant them any wish they want if they become puella magi (who are born from wishes) and fight witches (which are born from curses and can cause the destruction of human life). Neither girl agrees to this right away, but they do accompany Mami in hunting and fighting witches, to get a better idea of what the world of puella magi is like.
While visiting Kamijou in the hospital, Sayaka and Madoka discover a grief seed and a witch's barrier, which could threaten the people in the hospital. Sayaka stays and watches the barrier for any sign of it getting worse while Madoka gets Mami to help. Mami comes and tries to defeat the witch, but is eaten by it in front of Sayaka and Madoka's eyes. Homura, who had tried to warn Mami only to be held back from entering the barrier, comes and defeats the witch, leaving Sayaka and Madoka to grieve.
After this, Sayaka and Madoka both shy away from becoming puella magi. But when Sayaka visits Kamijou again with more music, he breaks down and yells at her for taunting him with something he'll never have again. It turns out that the doctors had decided there was no chance that he would ever regain use of his hand. Upset, Sayaka assures him that "miracles and magic exist." She makes a contract with Kyuubei, agreeing to become a puella magi in exchange for Kamijou being healed. She immediately begins to carry out her duties as a puella magi, saving Madoka and a group of other people, including their friend Hitomi, from a witch. Sayaka is determined to be a good puella magi who protects the innocent without seeking personal gain, just as she believes Mami was.
Sayaka attracts the attention of another puella magi, Kyouko, who had intended to take over Mami's territory. While Sayaka is fighting a familiar, Kyouko appears to challenge her. The two of them begin a fight that could well have ended with one of them dead, but Homura intervenes. The next day, while stopping by Kamijou's house, Sayaka is again confronted by Kyouko. The two of them go to a more remote area to fight, but Madoka, informed of events by Kyuubei, appears and grabs Sayaka's soul gem, throwing it far away (it lands on a truck). This, as Madoka intended, prevents Sayaka from using magic to fight. However, it has the unintended side effect of making Sayaka fall down dead. Homura also appears, and chases after Sayaka's soul gem. It's at this point that Kyuubei explains that a puella magi's soul is literally inside the soul gem, and that without it nearby they are nothing but dead flesh. But Homura retrieves Sayaka's soul gem quickly, and Sayaka is revived.
When Sayaka confronts Kyuubei about this afterwards, he explains the benefits, and demonstrates by using the soul gem to show her how much her fight with Kyouko would really have hurt.
Sayaka skips school the next day, and is called out again by Kyouko, but this time to talk, not fight. Kyouko explains her own history and why Sayaka shouldn't be so idealistic. Sayaka walks away from the conversation with more sympathy for Kyouko, but still determined to carry out her ideals.
And that's where I'm taking her from.
personality:
In episode 5, Madoka describes Sayaka in this way: "she's hotheaded, stubborn, she gets in a lot of arguments, but she's really a good girl! She's kind, she's brave, she tries to solve everyone's problems." In the same conversation, Homura points out that kindness leads to naivete, bravery leads to foolhardiness, and there is no reward for solving everyone's problems. Both girls speak accurately.
Sayaka is a social creature. She's an active person- friendly, energetic, and helpful. She cheerfully chatters with friends on the way to school, and comes across as expressive, earnest, and playful. She willingly expresses her opinions in daily life, whether she's admiring or annoyed. The hospital staff who know her from her visits to Kyousuke like her for her positive attitude and constant efforts. She may tease a lot (though...much less at this point in canon), but it's all in good fun and she's generally very reliable. She is seriously loyal to her friends or those she admires. She acts easily on her concern for others, though often not without thought. She gives all she can to other people, frequently sacrificing herself. Sayaka's the kind of person who tries very hard to be the best person possible, and beats herself up internally for failing at it. She sets high standards for herself- she has to be helpful, she has to be kind, she has to be as "good" as she possibly can be. If she even thinks selfishly, she berates herself for being a bad person. She's aware of the unfairness of the world, of the fact that she's relatively very fortunate, and she wants to fix as much of that as she can by herself.
At the same time, she doesn't like to have to rely on anything outside of herself. She is proud, and will strongly refuse charity or pity, even taking this refusal to self-destructive lengths. She also has a reluctance to admit she might be wrong, and will stick with an idea even when it starts to become clear that might not be the wisest decision. She can be overly defensive in her loyalty, hostile and suspicious of people she doesn't know coming close to her friends. She's also deceptive, frequently putting on a cheerful front or downright lying about her state in order to stop others from worrying or going out of their way for her sake. She doesn't like to appear vulnerable, and will cover up feelings of sadness or insecurity with optimism or, sometimes, anger. She is willing to go to extreme lengths for others, but isn't really willing to share herself (and yet, part of her thinks people should understand and support her in spite of that). While she's open about day-to-day things, she tends to keep the things that are important to her to herself, or only mention them obliquely. Even when a despairing Kamijou says extremely hurtful things to her and injures himself in episode 4, she smiles and reassures him, both sacrificing and hiding herself.
Deep down, Sayaka wants most of all to be paid attention to, to be appreciated. She gives a disproportionate amount to others, because it's the "right" thing to do. But she wants to be seen, to be thanked, to be given to. She's a little aware of this, and she hates it about herself.
She has a tendency to view things in absolute terms. This is seen in her ideology (you have to save as many people as possible, there is no middle ground) and in her view of herself (if she's not actively being good, that means she's bad). It also manifests in her views of others. She initially dismisses Kyouko as a bad person who she should fight largely because she sees Kyouko as someone who doesn't care about others, only fighting witches to gain the power of the grief seeds. Even when Sayaka gains an understanding of Kyouko, she makes it clear that she still disapproves of Kyouko's actions. In other direction, Sayaka basically makes Mami into a saint after her death, holding Mami up as a model of everything good.
While seeming like the brash type who is too impatient for school, Sayaka is actually fairly intelligent. She has gained an impressive knowledge of classical music thanks to her friendship with Kamijou, and will casually joke about being "petit bourgeois." She absorbs information well, and had a great deal of practical intelligence that manifests in things like grabbing what's available to use as a non-lethal weapon to break up a fight or thinking through the likely consequences of Mami's death. She tries to think ahead when she can, or when her emotions don't get the better of her (the latter happens less often than people who meet her casually would probably guess, since while she is almost always emotionally motivated she tends to think through what to do with that before she acts). She can be very perceptive when she's in an open state of mind. That being said, she tends to go with her gut feelings a lot of the time, especially in regards to people (this is actually the main reason she doesn't trust Homura). This leads to some impulsive and argumentative behavior.
At this point in canon, Sayaka is developing some serious detachment and abandonment issues. For someone who tries so hard to control herself and her appearance, the revelation that she has been transformed into a witch-fighting tool and doesn't even necessarily have control of her own body or soul was especially painful. In compensation for loosing so much, she has started to devote herself to the concept of being the best puella magi possible, who saves the most people without resorting to selfishness. This is...honestly a very bad plan, but Sayaka will stick with it. She also feels that she has been left entirely alone to fight. Mami is dead, she doesn't agree with Kyouko or Homura and thus won't work with them, Madoka hasn't contracted, and no one else is aware of witches and puella magi. At the point I'd be taking her from, she's more left feeling lost by that, but in canon it does develop into her feeling betrayed and bitter.
why do you feel this character would be appropriate to the setting?
Sayaka displays independence throughout the series- she travels all around the city unsupervised, and is as likely to do so alone as with a friend. As shown in episode 8, her parents apparently don't think it's that big a deal if she's gone for an entire night and day. She's able to think on her feet in order to take care of both herself and others, as shown in the first episode when she breaks up a potential magical fight with a fire extinguisher. With her puella magi abilities, she'll have no trouble joining the patrol. She may even do extra patrols on her own, similar to the ones she does in canon to find witches or their familiars. Given the dark tone of the series, the tone of the game won't really be much of a switch. She's seen a girl she idolized somewhat killed in front of her, she's been made aware of the debilitating costs and unintended consequences of "miracles." Given what happens to her in the rest of canon, Anatole might actually be a healthier place for her (or not).