Psitanium Application
player ►
Name: Jim
Journal: carnifex-atrox
IM/E-Mail:AIM: Celapaleis // Email: pray.for.the.mantis@gmail.com
Current Characters: None
character ►
Name: Lea
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts
History: Lea is a boy of fourteen from a world known as Radiant Garden.
The world itself is very nearly idyllic. Attractive houses line the pretty cobbled streets and it is home to many decorative and elegant fountains and waterfalls. Numerous flower beds filled with beautiful and well-tended plants can be found all around Radiant Garden, as can pretty, well-groomed fir trees and patches of grass, as the world's name implies, though slightly wilder but no less picturesque grassy hills are found just outside the housing districts. The residential areas are built around an enormous castle, a building which acts the centre-point of the city. From there Ansem the Wise, a scientist and researcher, rules with a fair hand. The streets are clean, the skies are permanently pinkish and all is usually well, with the exception of a few monsters appearing now and again to make things just a little bit more interesting, however briefly.
Such a world is safe but a little on the dull side, especially for teenagers like Lea and his partner in 'crime', Isa. As such, they made their own entertainment. This consisted of formulating daring plans and generally loitering around and making nuisances of themselves to while away the long summer days. They were known to many of their fellow residents as troublemakers, but certainly not of the aggressive kind.
Their most daring venture was an attempt at breaking into the castle. After planning it, the two headed out to try their luck. On the way, they met a keyblade bearer, a boy that caught Lea's attention. He sat alone against one of the inner city walls and it was his toy keyblade that prompted Lea to talk to him, much to Isa's dismay. He picked on him briefly before challenging him to a miniature battle, heedless of his best friend's reminder that they had somewhere to be. Ultimately, he lost, but after a short conversation he declared them to be new friends and then they parted ways, returning to the important business of breaking and entering.
It didn't go according to plan, however, and they were caught and bodily escorted from the castle by one of the guards soon after entry. Even so, the subsequent sulking that followed their effort was topped off with a bar of sea-salt ice cream each -- something that went a long way to softening the blow and soothing the grazed elbows.
From there, they intended to try again.
Starting Abilities: Lea will start out as a basic human. He can fight with dual frisbees, but it's strictly melee style combat. That said, he will likely excel in Pyrokinesis due to the elemental alignment of his later self.
Personality: Lea, in comparison to his future self, is considerably less calm and calculating, though he is still more than smart enough to form plots and plans for daring escapades, such as breaking into well-guarded castles. He doesn’t seem to care too much about the failures, being content to sulk and move on fairly quickly, usually with little more than the simple pleasure of an ice-cream to get him through it. His fiery personality and love of showing off is the same across the board. Keeping that in mind, he is in some ways quite the opposite to how he ended up, as Lea will openly object to authority instead of quietly working for it with narrow-eyed contempt and trying to bring it down from the inside. This is evident in how he chooses to struggle like an angry cat in the face of capture rather than going quietly and accepting defeat. Even so, once he’s beaten, he does tend to back off with good humour, whether or not he’s planning a (hopefully more successful) repeat in the future.
He is a little bit on the immature side in general, though this is to be expected given how old he is. That said, having it pointed out won't stop him goading others about acting babyish, making him seem almost humorously hypocritical in those circumstances. He will, for instance, laugh at somebody for playing with a toy sword (well, keyblade) and then turn around and pull out his two plastic frisbees as though they are the coolest things in the world, complete with an over-the-top routine to show them off and a gleeful ‘ta-dah!’ as he does it. He seems to be immune to embarrassment in that respect.
On that note, seeming 'cool' is kind of important to him, regardless of the fact that he probably appears woefully dorky to everybody else. It is visible not only in the way he meticulously spikes his hair (probably in order to look as badass as possible), but also in how he acts and carries himself. He's carefree, cocky and ever so slightly arrogant without real cause -- common behaviour for a boy of his age finding his feet. He likes to be seen and noticed and wants, above all, to be remembered, leading him to make frequent use of his catchphrase of 'Got it memorised?' to ensure that neither he nor any important information he's passing on is forgotten.
While he will play around and act like a troublemaker, he's a pretty nice kid and is always up for a laugh and a joke, often choosing to nearly flamboyantly overreact and jokingly blame his own shortcomings on Isa's reluctance to step in and stop him making a prat of himself. He doesn't seem to consider saving face to be his responsibility at all. He can also be a little bit of a bully, being happy to pick on people who don’t seem immediately interesting or look to be a little on the weak side. That said, his mean streak is as shallow as a puddle. Although it isn't always the case, it is often employed to cheer people up and bring them out of their shells by prompting some sort of reaction in shy or quiet individuals. That, in combination with his friendly personality means that as a result, he tends to make friends pretty quickly. On that note, he has a considerably easier time of it than his best friend, Isa. He is far more social in that regard -- something that has lead him to be quite talkative given the opportunity.
Keeping that in mind, Isa is very important to him and is most definitely his partner in crime, something that carried over to their lives as Nobodies, showing that their friendship can withstand the test of time and the loss of hearts if not the one of betrayal, as it turned out. As such, Lea values his friendship with him very highly, even if he does jokingly say that he should get a new, more loyal friend who will stick up for him when his mouth and impulsiveness inevitably get him into trouble.
Mental Realm: Lea’s mental realm is one of almost perpetual sunset. The sky above is bruised purple in some parts and stained a deep red in others, almost as though somebody has cut it open and left it to bleed out. Although the world itself is pleasantly warm, the cool breeze that frequently blows through it carries the scent of flowers, sweet and summery. It is temperate and comfortable and, initially, seems to be nearly identical to Radiant Garden. White and pale blue brick paths spread out in every direction, pines stand like sentinels in the square and, if you walk too close to the fountains, the spray will even get you wet if the wind blows just right.
Figments of ice cream carts, ice cream and things like frisbees and similar toys flit in and out of focus in the less residential areas - things that Lea fixates heavily on or has at some point in the past. There are also numerous scarily grinning but harmless creatures known as Bombs floating around. Their teeth are sharp and their rotund bodies are as red as flames, but it’s all a show - much like Lea’s own falsely and briefly projected mean side. They will bump into you and make a nuisance of themselves, but you'll receive no damage from them. He’s never seen any of them in real life, but they are pictured on his Frisbees and look almost exactly the same as those - cartoony and stylised. Going back to the city itself, some of the houses can be entered, his own in particular, and hiding in his room is a memory vault. It’s not too well hidden and isn’t all that flighty. If you manage to catch it, it’s full of only pleasant memories -- ones of his family. The other major one of these is found on a high point in the town, just out of the shadow of the castle. This one runs much faster and makes a very conscious effort to avoid being caught. It contains, if one actually manages to catch it, memories shared with Isa. Smaller ones are dotted about in hidden places (behind walls, in fountains and stuffed in trees), as well as tiny examples of emotional baggage, these usually representing his failure to accomplish plans, with the most prominent piece sitting and weeping squarely on the path up to the castle gate.
The castle itself can be entered, though it is not easy. If you manage to get past the booby traps that spring up around the entrance, it is full of similarly annoying puzzles. Given that Lea hasn't had any practical experience of the inside, it's entirely made up, but the difficultly he has had in getting in has certainly influenced the interior. It is made up of moving paths, cogs (like those that are visible on the outside) and irritating and hard to traverse walkways and traps. If you manage to make it through, you will gain precisely... nothing, not even a memory. Given that Lea has never actually made it inside and attempts to for little more than kicks, the castle in his mental realm is there for exactly the same reason: the challenge and that alone.
On face value, the Radiant Garden of Lea's mind is a rather pleasant place to be. However, if you head too far from the centre of the town, things start to darken.
Where the town of ‘Radiant Garden’ ends, the red sunset fades to night and its form alters to that of a Dark City, with everything becoming taller, sharper and more threatening. The windows of the black buildings and street lights glow with a stark light that isn’t at all warm and the castle, which back in his comfort zone didn't seem like a malevolent place, even if it was a challenge to access, looks significantly more imposing. No longer comfortable, the wind is more chilled and carries the scent of rain, some of which reflects the lights on the wet ground.
Generally it doesn’t rain often, but when it does it’s usually when something has upset Lea and as such, the weather seems to be tied to that. The showers vary from miserable little drizzles that appear in the face of defeat to thunderous storms that flare up to the tune of his temper. Given his affinity for fire, for it to rain it means that he must be feeling pretty bad and even when it does, the showers don't last long. Usually the air is pretty clear and only the last traces of rain left on the ground from whatever upset him however long ago linger, adding a bit of glitter to the place.
Emotional baggage becomes less rare the further you get in to the Dark City and the cobwebs that hang on the buildings get thicker as you press forward. It’s a place that Lea hasn’t visited all that often, but it’s a lonely one, as if all of his friends and all of the happiness he felt during his childhood has been taken away. The bombs that float in this place are more twisted looking and decidedly less cartoon like, with vicious snapping teeth and a definite heat radiating from them. You’re more than welcome to hit them if you come across one, but be warned that they will tolerate this for only so long and then explode in retaliation, much like the temper that Lea hides deep within his mind. They represent his ability to fly off the handle and self-detonate when pressed enough, something that he won’t put into practice until much later on, when he becomes Axel.
Numerous alleyways branch off from the main street, with personal demons lurking in many of the dead ends, often sharing space with the aforementioned bombs, though these also brazenly wander around wherever they please.
The deeper into the city you go, the fewer windows are illuminated. The branching alleyways get shorter and shorter until they stop appearing altogether. Although it should get darker, a red glow not unlike that of a sunset casts a dull light on the buildings. Right at the end, after the now-single path narrows to a road-sized bottle-neck, the source of the glowing becomes apparent: a wall of fire behind which is a Nightmare. It is possible to douse the flame if you really feel the urge, but it is certainly ill-advised to do so.
writing samples ►
First Person: I know being dumped and trapped in a place you can't get out of is supposed to be bad, but I don't know why anybody would complain about being stuck here. Sure, so summer camps are kind of dorky and lame, but this one teaches you stuff like how to move things with your mind! How cool is that? U-uh. Kinda cool, I guess.
Even if we can't get out, there's no point whining about it, right? We should make the most of a bad situation and look around a bit -- see what we can find and get into. We can also learn some cool stuff like how to read minds and use fire like those creepy animals I've been hearing about. And hey, it's waaaay more interesting than trying to break into that crappy old castle right, Isa?
I guess I'd better go and look for some of those arrowhead things or I won't get anywhere here. So, uh, can anyone point me in the right direction?
Third Person: Lea made absolutely no effort to hide the scowl on his face as he walked in the direction of home. He dragged his feet and dawdled the whole way, trudging only fast enough to perhaps match the speed of a prisoner in hobbles being lead to the gallows. His hands were shoved in his pockets and his shoulders sagged, everything about him matching that sullen expression. He shot a glare over his shoulder at the castle looming above the town and rolled his eyes, clicking his tongue against his teeth as though it had been the building itself that had mortally offended him.
Another failure. Furthermore, to his disappointment, the ice cream stand had already closed for the day, offering absolutely nothing for him to cheer himself up with.
"My mom's gonna kill me," he muttered, sighing deeply and deflating further as he gave voice to that grave exaggeration.
Ahead of him, Isa walked at a much quicker pace. Lea didn't see the point. They'd already missed the curfews that their mothers had imposed, so he didn't get why he was rushing when trouble was already awaiting their (late) arrivals. He folded his arms behind his head and stared up at the darkening sky. He wondered whether he'd even be allowed out at all tomorrow. I should be, he thought to himself, Mom's always been pretty easy going. About to weigh up his options, his growling stomach effectively put an end to that train of thought.
Dinner.
He'd managed to miss it. That was a huge downer. Even more so than the ice cream. He hoped that his mom had saved him some even though he'd broken the rules. Well, with that in mind, hurrying a little more couldn't hurt, could it? He jogged to get into step with his friend and clapped him on the back of the shoulder, skipping forward a few steps and walking backwards as he spoke.
"Hey, I'm gonna run on ahead," he told him, his frown having turned into a grin at the mere thought of food and the small chance that he wouldn't be too late to get it. "Meet me tomorrow! Usual time, usual place. Got it memorised?"
He tapped the side of his head to punctuate that worn-out question and waved before turning and running, his hunger getting the better of him.
Name: Jim
Journal: carnifex-atrox
IM/E-Mail:AIM: Celapaleis // Email: pray.for.the.mantis@gmail.com
Current Characters: None
character ►
Name: Lea
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts
History: Lea is a boy of fourteen from a world known as Radiant Garden.
The world itself is very nearly idyllic. Attractive houses line the pretty cobbled streets and it is home to many decorative and elegant fountains and waterfalls. Numerous flower beds filled with beautiful and well-tended plants can be found all around Radiant Garden, as can pretty, well-groomed fir trees and patches of grass, as the world's name implies, though slightly wilder but no less picturesque grassy hills are found just outside the housing districts. The residential areas are built around an enormous castle, a building which acts the centre-point of the city. From there Ansem the Wise, a scientist and researcher, rules with a fair hand. The streets are clean, the skies are permanently pinkish and all is usually well, with the exception of a few monsters appearing now and again to make things just a little bit more interesting, however briefly.
Such a world is safe but a little on the dull side, especially for teenagers like Lea and his partner in 'crime', Isa. As such, they made their own entertainment. This consisted of formulating daring plans and generally loitering around and making nuisances of themselves to while away the long summer days. They were known to many of their fellow residents as troublemakers, but certainly not of the aggressive kind.
Their most daring venture was an attempt at breaking into the castle. After planning it, the two headed out to try their luck. On the way, they met a keyblade bearer, a boy that caught Lea's attention. He sat alone against one of the inner city walls and it was his toy keyblade that prompted Lea to talk to him, much to Isa's dismay. He picked on him briefly before challenging him to a miniature battle, heedless of his best friend's reminder that they had somewhere to be. Ultimately, he lost, but after a short conversation he declared them to be new friends and then they parted ways, returning to the important business of breaking and entering.
It didn't go according to plan, however, and they were caught and bodily escorted from the castle by one of the guards soon after entry. Even so, the subsequent sulking that followed their effort was topped off with a bar of sea-salt ice cream each -- something that went a long way to softening the blow and soothing the grazed elbows.
From there, they intended to try again.
Starting Abilities: Lea will start out as a basic human. He can fight with dual frisbees, but it's strictly melee style combat. That said, he will likely excel in Pyrokinesis due to the elemental alignment of his later self.
Personality: Lea, in comparison to his future self, is considerably less calm and calculating, though he is still more than smart enough to form plots and plans for daring escapades, such as breaking into well-guarded castles. He doesn’t seem to care too much about the failures, being content to sulk and move on fairly quickly, usually with little more than the simple pleasure of an ice-cream to get him through it. His fiery personality and love of showing off is the same across the board. Keeping that in mind, he is in some ways quite the opposite to how he ended up, as Lea will openly object to authority instead of quietly working for it with narrow-eyed contempt and trying to bring it down from the inside. This is evident in how he chooses to struggle like an angry cat in the face of capture rather than going quietly and accepting defeat. Even so, once he’s beaten, he does tend to back off with good humour, whether or not he’s planning a (hopefully more successful) repeat in the future.
He is a little bit on the immature side in general, though this is to be expected given how old he is. That said, having it pointed out won't stop him goading others about acting babyish, making him seem almost humorously hypocritical in those circumstances. He will, for instance, laugh at somebody for playing with a toy sword (well, keyblade) and then turn around and pull out his two plastic frisbees as though they are the coolest things in the world, complete with an over-the-top routine to show them off and a gleeful ‘ta-dah!’ as he does it. He seems to be immune to embarrassment in that respect.
On that note, seeming 'cool' is kind of important to him, regardless of the fact that he probably appears woefully dorky to everybody else. It is visible not only in the way he meticulously spikes his hair (probably in order to look as badass as possible), but also in how he acts and carries himself. He's carefree, cocky and ever so slightly arrogant without real cause -- common behaviour for a boy of his age finding his feet. He likes to be seen and noticed and wants, above all, to be remembered, leading him to make frequent use of his catchphrase of 'Got it memorised?' to ensure that neither he nor any important information he's passing on is forgotten.
While he will play around and act like a troublemaker, he's a pretty nice kid and is always up for a laugh and a joke, often choosing to nearly flamboyantly overreact and jokingly blame his own shortcomings on Isa's reluctance to step in and stop him making a prat of himself. He doesn't seem to consider saving face to be his responsibility at all. He can also be a little bit of a bully, being happy to pick on people who don’t seem immediately interesting or look to be a little on the weak side. That said, his mean streak is as shallow as a puddle. Although it isn't always the case, it is often employed to cheer people up and bring them out of their shells by prompting some sort of reaction in shy or quiet individuals. That, in combination with his friendly personality means that as a result, he tends to make friends pretty quickly. On that note, he has a considerably easier time of it than his best friend, Isa. He is far more social in that regard -- something that has lead him to be quite talkative given the opportunity.
Keeping that in mind, Isa is very important to him and is most definitely his partner in crime, something that carried over to their lives as Nobodies, showing that their friendship can withstand the test of time and the loss of hearts if not the one of betrayal, as it turned out. As such, Lea values his friendship with him very highly, even if he does jokingly say that he should get a new, more loyal friend who will stick up for him when his mouth and impulsiveness inevitably get him into trouble.
Mental Realm: Lea’s mental realm is one of almost perpetual sunset. The sky above is bruised purple in some parts and stained a deep red in others, almost as though somebody has cut it open and left it to bleed out. Although the world itself is pleasantly warm, the cool breeze that frequently blows through it carries the scent of flowers, sweet and summery. It is temperate and comfortable and, initially, seems to be nearly identical to Radiant Garden. White and pale blue brick paths spread out in every direction, pines stand like sentinels in the square and, if you walk too close to the fountains, the spray will even get you wet if the wind blows just right.
Figments of ice cream carts, ice cream and things like frisbees and similar toys flit in and out of focus in the less residential areas - things that Lea fixates heavily on or has at some point in the past. There are also numerous scarily grinning but harmless creatures known as Bombs floating around. Their teeth are sharp and their rotund bodies are as red as flames, but it’s all a show - much like Lea’s own falsely and briefly projected mean side. They will bump into you and make a nuisance of themselves, but you'll receive no damage from them. He’s never seen any of them in real life, but they are pictured on his Frisbees and look almost exactly the same as those - cartoony and stylised. Going back to the city itself, some of the houses can be entered, his own in particular, and hiding in his room is a memory vault. It’s not too well hidden and isn’t all that flighty. If you manage to catch it, it’s full of only pleasant memories -- ones of his family. The other major one of these is found on a high point in the town, just out of the shadow of the castle. This one runs much faster and makes a very conscious effort to avoid being caught. It contains, if one actually manages to catch it, memories shared with Isa. Smaller ones are dotted about in hidden places (behind walls, in fountains and stuffed in trees), as well as tiny examples of emotional baggage, these usually representing his failure to accomplish plans, with the most prominent piece sitting and weeping squarely on the path up to the castle gate.
The castle itself can be entered, though it is not easy. If you manage to get past the booby traps that spring up around the entrance, it is full of similarly annoying puzzles. Given that Lea hasn't had any practical experience of the inside, it's entirely made up, but the difficultly he has had in getting in has certainly influenced the interior. It is made up of moving paths, cogs (like those that are visible on the outside) and irritating and hard to traverse walkways and traps. If you manage to make it through, you will gain precisely... nothing, not even a memory. Given that Lea has never actually made it inside and attempts to for little more than kicks, the castle in his mental realm is there for exactly the same reason: the challenge and that alone.
On face value, the Radiant Garden of Lea's mind is a rather pleasant place to be. However, if you head too far from the centre of the town, things start to darken.
Where the town of ‘Radiant Garden’ ends, the red sunset fades to night and its form alters to that of a Dark City, with everything becoming taller, sharper and more threatening. The windows of the black buildings and street lights glow with a stark light that isn’t at all warm and the castle, which back in his comfort zone didn't seem like a malevolent place, even if it was a challenge to access, looks significantly more imposing. No longer comfortable, the wind is more chilled and carries the scent of rain, some of which reflects the lights on the wet ground.
Generally it doesn’t rain often, but when it does it’s usually when something has upset Lea and as such, the weather seems to be tied to that. The showers vary from miserable little drizzles that appear in the face of defeat to thunderous storms that flare up to the tune of his temper. Given his affinity for fire, for it to rain it means that he must be feeling pretty bad and even when it does, the showers don't last long. Usually the air is pretty clear and only the last traces of rain left on the ground from whatever upset him however long ago linger, adding a bit of glitter to the place.
Emotional baggage becomes less rare the further you get in to the Dark City and the cobwebs that hang on the buildings get thicker as you press forward. It’s a place that Lea hasn’t visited all that often, but it’s a lonely one, as if all of his friends and all of the happiness he felt during his childhood has been taken away. The bombs that float in this place are more twisted looking and decidedly less cartoon like, with vicious snapping teeth and a definite heat radiating from them. You’re more than welcome to hit them if you come across one, but be warned that they will tolerate this for only so long and then explode in retaliation, much like the temper that Lea hides deep within his mind. They represent his ability to fly off the handle and self-detonate when pressed enough, something that he won’t put into practice until much later on, when he becomes Axel.
Numerous alleyways branch off from the main street, with personal demons lurking in many of the dead ends, often sharing space with the aforementioned bombs, though these also brazenly wander around wherever they please.
The deeper into the city you go, the fewer windows are illuminated. The branching alleyways get shorter and shorter until they stop appearing altogether. Although it should get darker, a red glow not unlike that of a sunset casts a dull light on the buildings. Right at the end, after the now-single path narrows to a road-sized bottle-neck, the source of the glowing becomes apparent: a wall of fire behind which is a Nightmare. It is possible to douse the flame if you really feel the urge, but it is certainly ill-advised to do so.
writing samples ►
First Person: I know being dumped and trapped in a place you can't get out of is supposed to be bad, but I don't know why anybody would complain about being stuck here. Sure, so summer camps are kind of dorky and lame, but this one teaches you stuff like how to move things with your mind! How cool is that? U-uh. Kinda cool, I guess.
Even if we can't get out, there's no point whining about it, right? We should make the most of a bad situation and look around a bit -- see what we can find and get into. We can also learn some cool stuff like how to read minds and use fire like those creepy animals I've been hearing about. And hey, it's waaaay more interesting than trying to break into that crappy old castle right, Isa?
I guess I'd better go and look for some of those arrowhead things or I won't get anywhere here. So, uh, can anyone point me in the right direction?
Third Person: Lea made absolutely no effort to hide the scowl on his face as he walked in the direction of home. He dragged his feet and dawdled the whole way, trudging only fast enough to perhaps match the speed of a prisoner in hobbles being lead to the gallows. His hands were shoved in his pockets and his shoulders sagged, everything about him matching that sullen expression. He shot a glare over his shoulder at the castle looming above the town and rolled his eyes, clicking his tongue against his teeth as though it had been the building itself that had mortally offended him.
Another failure. Furthermore, to his disappointment, the ice cream stand had already closed for the day, offering absolutely nothing for him to cheer himself up with.
"My mom's gonna kill me," he muttered, sighing deeply and deflating further as he gave voice to that grave exaggeration.
Ahead of him, Isa walked at a much quicker pace. Lea didn't see the point. They'd already missed the curfews that their mothers had imposed, so he didn't get why he was rushing when trouble was already awaiting their (late) arrivals. He folded his arms behind his head and stared up at the darkening sky. He wondered whether he'd even be allowed out at all tomorrow. I should be, he thought to himself, Mom's always been pretty easy going. About to weigh up his options, his growling stomach effectively put an end to that train of thought.
Dinner.
He'd managed to miss it. That was a huge downer. Even more so than the ice cream. He hoped that his mom had saved him some even though he'd broken the rules. Well, with that in mind, hurrying a little more couldn't hurt, could it? He jogged to get into step with his friend and clapped him on the back of the shoulder, skipping forward a few steps and walking backwards as he spoke.
"Hey, I'm gonna run on ahead," he told him, his frown having turned into a grin at the mere thought of food and the small chance that he wouldn't be too late to get it. "Meet me tomorrow! Usual time, usual place. Got it memorised?"
He tapped the side of his head to punctuate that worn-out question and waved before turning and running, his hunger getting the better of him.