☣ Character
Character Name: Triela
Character Age: est. fifteen.
Canon + Format: Gunslinger Girl (manga)
Background: The most anyone knows about Triela’s early childhood is that she was born in Tunisia, the northernmost country of the African continent. The year isn’t known - nor is her birth name. Six years ago, however (placing her at an estimated nine years of age), she was kidnapped from her home and smuggled, by a mix of Italian and Dutch child traffickers, to Amsterdam.
A Europol detective, Victor Hartmann, was given a lead by a French doctor, Rachelle Belleut, regarding a warehouse where children had been taken to be tortured and killed. Against both their supervisor's orders, Victor and Rachelle located the warehouse and planned to take it down themselves. With the help of Mario Bossi, one of the criminals in the ring who'd suffered an attack of conscience, Victor and Rachelle proceeded into the warehouse.
It was inhabited after all, by sick men and one little girl. They fought back before running - Rachelle was shot in the stomach, but even then she convinced Victor to carry on with her. Further in, they found the girl. Lying on a makeshift operating table, and having sustained a great amount of physical torture, she wasn't going to last long, and Rachelle knew this. So, bleeding heavily herself, Rachelle poured every last bit of herself into getting this child's wounds into a state where she could begin to stabilize.
Rachelle died there, operating on the girl, but the girl was saved and taken away to a police hospital, and the child trafficking ring dispersed. Victor was left in turmoil.
When he finally demanded to see the girl, she was in a comatose-like state. Missing a leg and a lot of her functioning mind, she was often kept sedated; the doctors told Victor that she had a heavy amount of post-traumatic stress disorder, and their police hospital wasn't equipped to deal with that. She would likely lapse into a vegetative state. But, they needed her as evidence against the criminal ring.
Victor wouldn't stand for it. With Mario Bossi's help, he forged papers that would allow him to take the girl out of Holland and into Italy, where there was tell of a revolutionary treatment that might be able to help this child. They smuggled her away, and the girl was taken to the Social Welfare Agency. When Victor found out that this treatment consisted of implanting the girl with cybernetics and using her as a guinea pig assassin - again, he wouldn't stand for it. But the SWA doesn't take information leaks kindly, and he was sentenced to death because of his knowledge.
Jean Croce stepped in. One of the higher-ups in the operation, he told Victor that he'd be given a false identity and a job with the SWA. Victor, at first, refused, until Jean blackmailed him with the girl's well-being. He could die, or he could be the handler of this newborn killer, while ensuring that she continued to live.
The girl was given the name Triela, and the man was given the name Victor Hilshire. After a year of mental conditioning (both to give Triela her initial training and help wipe her of her PTSD), Triela and Hilshire were allowed to formally meet. Triela, from then on, was essentially Hilshire's property; she was his protection and his soldier. He trained her to be a murderer, and she did it well.
In the following years, Triela handled whatever job Hilshire required of her. Their relationship was somewhat strained; Hilshire didn't know whether to treat her as a tool (as did Jean Croce with his cyborg) or as a younger sister (like Jose Croce, Jean's brother, with his own girl). 'Sister' seemed somewhat appropriate, as each cyborg is assigned a handler who is called their 'fratello,' their brother. However, Hilshire's social awkwardness and Triela's selective defiance left their partnership somewhere inbetween the spectrum of the two Croce brothers. For years, Hilshire showered Triela with childish gifts while keeping very emotionally distant from her. At times, it was turbulent.
One of the relationship's turning points was the attempted arrest of Mario Bossi. Triela, having no knowledge of him as one of her saviors, was sent out with Hilshire to take him into protective government custody so that he might testify against certain mafia acts. Separated from Hilshire during a chase, Triela came across Mario herself. He didn't reveal to her his entire involvement in her life, but he did apologize; when she found out that he was hiding in this city in order to visit his daughter one last time for Christmas, Triela decided to let Mario go, simply out of good will.
Hilshire, unknown to Triela, saw the entire exchange. Instead of scolding her for letting a captive escape, he asked her what she wanted for a Christmas gift, rather than obliviously buying her the same thing as always. (She accepted his normal present of a teddy bear.)
The two seemed to work more closely, after that. Still, while Triela found herself admitting to another worker that the effects of her chemical conditioning had in fact caused her to fall in love with her handler, she kept him at a distance and simply continued to perform effeciently.
Pinocchio showed up, and that changed.
Trained by a former CIA agent since he was a small child, Pinocchio was an outstanding young assassin - unfortunately, he was on the side of the radical terrorist group that Triela's Agency work against. After a first face-off between the two, Triela was defeated. Pinocchio, elite as he was, left her alive, and continued his work.
Triela took it hard. She found that as trained a marksman as she might have been, her hand to hand combat relied on brute force rather than skill. The SWA, because of this, brought in soliders - American G.I. forces, as well - and had those groups specially train Triela in martial arts themselves. She worked diligently, fiercely - almost obsessively. And she learned well.
The time did come when again she faced Pinocchio. When the teams of cyborgs stormed the home of Pinocchio's surrogate father, the two rivals ran into each other. The fight was fierce, and Triela very nearly lost. After suffering several gunshot wounds, she found herself within inches of Pinocchio; he drove a key into her eye, but she took the opportunity to strike at him, as well, by puncturing his throat with her fingers.
She survived. He did not. Triela considered it her greatest triumph, and, heavily injured as she was, asked Hilshire to praise her for doing well. He instead embraced her, and faced the reality of how easily she could have died, despite her mechanical body. From then on, their relationship went much more smoothly.
After that, their assignments continued as usual. A second generation of cyborgs was produced; those girls were somewhat older than the first generation, as the technology had advanced far enough to let them use older bodies. Shortly thereafter, Triela was paired with one of those second generation girls, Petrushka, and given the task of protecting an important prosecutor. During that time, Petrushka helped disguise Triela as an older girl by padding out her chest and letting her hair down - things like that. Triela was made intensely uncomfortable by this, as was Hilshire; both knew that she wouldn't make it to the age she was dressing up as.
When Triela's job with Petrushka was over, things again continued as normal. Until, of course, Triela and Hilshire visited Naples, to meet once again with Mario Bossi.
Hilshire, affected strongly by the death of one of the cyborgs, had begun to stifle Triela in an attempt to keep her safe. When he left her on her own to take care of a job by himself, he was injured; Triela panicked and fled, feeling too much and not knowing what any of it meant, thanks to the conditioning. She ran into Mario herself, and he, finally, told her what he knew of her story.
Hilshire came to take her home. Triela was overcome. She treated his wounds and drugged him so that he'd sleep, and she resolved to leave him in order to keep him safe from the dangers of keeping her safe.
Both her love and the conditioning overrode that decision. As Hilshire slept, Triela kissed him, and promised instead to stay with him until she died. They returned to Rome, Hilshire none the wiser of Triela's decisions. Triela began to watch the other cyborgs around her deteriorate, starting with one of the youngest, Henrietta. It might not be so bad, Triela thought, to lie just a little in order to reassure Henrietta. So she said, 'We'll be all right.'
Then, she returned to her room to clean her rifle. It's that time she was pulled from her world into 'Canada.'
Canon Point: Chapter 58, 'Vendetta, Part 2'
[Optional] Previous RP History: Triela, at the time of her arrival here, had spent about four and a half months, nearly five, in
sirenspull, much of which was spent, well... bounty hunting and the like. She acquired a family there, or so she felt; taken in pretty early on by a soldier called Big Boss, Triela felt as though she could still be used for something, regardless of the fact that her handler Hilshire was nowhere to be found. Hilshire's absence, in fact, repeatedly dealt huge blows to her livelihood, thanks to the chemical conditioning which did not allow her to function properly without a cause. Even bending to someone else's orders was difficult enough, and Triela spent much of the time wary; she remembered how a comrade of hers back home had ended up pretty much useless, after the loss of her handler. The prospect was terrifying and Triela dedicated herself to Big Boss in a desperate effort to keep that from happening.
Liquid Snake was a person she came to highly respect, as well - Otacon, also, and a boy called Tsunayoshi Sawada, but more importantly (as she saw it), a boy called Ritsuka Aoyagi. Out of all of the friends, acquaintances, and good relations she had with people, Ritsuka was, aside from Big Boss, the most important person to her; she swore herself to him, and swore that she'd keep him safe.
She became the type to overwork herself, taking on an extraordinary amount of pointless side jobs and hobbies, keeping herself incredibly busy if only to make sure she didn't think too much and break her own conditioned mind. It worked, for the most part, although she was frequently exhausted. The comfort of the makeshift Outer Heaven helped see her through that. Once she failed a job with Big Boss, however, which resulted in heavy injury for the man (including the loss of his only other eye), it seemed to increase tenfold, and she, much with how she'd handled losing to Pinocchio, trained herself and pushed her limits constantly. Luckily, Big Boss did not fulfill her fear of abandonment; he kept her by his side, and she did all she could for him, constantly eager to please (though still occasionally no-nonsense toward things).
Big Boss ended up disappearing from the city they were all held in; Outer Heaven began to disband awkwardly, and Triela and Ritsuka moved to their own shared apartment. Ritsuka, hurt by the loss, grew a little more embittered; Triela found herself ordered around more often by him, but she took it upon herself completely. Their relationship became a little stranger, but she was no less dedicated. The time spent like that only exhausted her more, however, and the mental strain has made her more liable to snap when people close to her are threatened - as well as more liable to grow dangerously passive toward her own well-being. She tends to want to stick with children - people her age - but she'll default to a man in charge if she's got neither Ritsuka nor Big Boss. It could potentially make her skills easy to take advantage of.
Personality: Triela is a human child, and the kills she racks up do not hide or change that. Occasional social ineptitude comes from such limited interaction outside of doctors and other assassins, but her wit and compassion often work to surpass her inexperience. She gets along best with most of the rest of the child assassins - as the one among the still-living girls who's been a cyborg the longest, Triela acts, at times, as a sort of older sister figure, especially to her younger team members Rico and Henrietta. Her roommate, Claes, is often a target of intellectual conversation for Triela. (The both of them are very well read, and fluent in at least Italian, German, and French. They enjoy the opera, the Bible.)
She's dedicated to Hilshire beyond healthy bounds, and she's definitely in love with him, partially thanks to the conditioning, but she has enough of her own sense of self to be a little disobedient, now and them, and even to insult Hilshire occasionally, though it seems to be in an attempt to distance herself from him. Her will is incredibly strong, and she's been known to display a bit of a competitive streak, as well. She was created to be one of the best, and so she wants to meet that expectation.
Despite her status as a tool of the government, and the brainwashing they put her through, and the fact that she murders people on a fairly regular basis, she does understand the value of human life, and she knows a worthy opponent when she meets one, as evidenced by her matches with Pinocchio. Directly after his death, she seemed to mourn for him, and made sure to honor his memory; this sentiment still lingers. However, even with her respect for him, she held a hatred, as well - he'd stolen the gun that Hilshire had given her and shot her with it. That someone would take a gift from Hilshire away from her was considered unforgivable.
She's very intelligent, but more than that, she's wise. She knows what chemicals may cause a headache, yes, but she also knows that there's a bit of magic to be had in a tea party that will clear that headache right up. Her wit is sharp, and she's a fan of dry humor, or mockery so childish that it's obvious she's only teasing. The adult members of the SWA refer to her as The Princess - both out of lightheartedness and genuine respect. Triela, in return, claims to dislike selfish grownups.
Emotionally stunted as she may be, Triela boasts a strong heart and a huge amount of drive. She knows little of what injustice really means, and only so much of right and wrong, but her devotion is unfailing and her opinions are strong.
Underneath the ammunition and the gunpowder, she's an adolescent girl who likes tea and teddy bears, and is in love with a man who's not fit for it at all.
Appearance: Triela's
small, but it's normal for a girl her age; despite the professional air, her height and the girlish pigtails she commonly wears can make it hard to mistake her for anything but a child, unless she's specifically disguised. Her hair is blonde, and she's blue-eyed, but in contrast to those attributes, she's
dark-skinned, just enough that it can't be written off as a tan. Generally she prefers suits, but lately she's been slipping into skirts with blouses as well.
Abilities: She’s a cyborg; at least her left leg from the knee down is completely artificial, and many of her bones (including her skull) are coated in or made of reinforced carbon fiber. Several of her muscles are artificial, and thus replaceable, as well. Thanks to these (as well as chemical) enhancements, Triela’s gifted with superhuman speed, strength, and stamina. She has excellent eyesight, hearing, and an incredible sense of smell, as well.
She’s a very good shot and by this point in canon, she’s been formally trained in hand to hand combat. In short, she’s just an excellent and well-made assassin.
Furthermore, she knows enough medically to extract a bullet from a wound.
Items/Weapons:
- M1897 Trench shotgun w/ bayonet attachment
- Heckler & Koch P7 pistol
- ...An adorable eyepatched teddy bear named Antoninus Pius.
☣ Samples
First Person Sample: [Her voice sounds in; she's young and she's stressed. Imagine a furious mother, but sounding like a fifteen-year-old. That's Triela, right now.]
So they're telling me-- Look, I don't have time for this. Whatever crap they said about...
It's ridiculous, that's what I'm saying! This is Triela checking in, and if you know me, you've really got to speak up, all right? I mean it-
...Come on. I can't... I mean, you can't seriously expect me to hang around on my own like this...
Sir?
Third Person Sample: It's not been a good day and Triela's afraid that this cockroach is going to have to pay for it.
She's not always the type to lash out so violently - sure, she'll snap at an adult who's giving her a hard time, but violence is generally reserved for threats. This thing is a threat, but she - and she tries to keep her mind away from this area - really went seeking it, all truth be told. It could have been avoided. It's probably a waste of ammo. But it feels nice, when she grits her teeth till her jaw hurts. It feels nice, the weight of the shotgun against her shoulder, and the kickback feels good. When her boots hit the ground, it's good - there are twinges in her ankles. When her hands grasp and when her finger tenses and when the trigger's pulled, it feels good.
She wonders fleetingly if that's sadism; she hits the thing with a shotgun shell and decides it really doesn't matter even if it is. Thing's not human anyway, right?
Yeah, well, neither are you.
That one doesn't feel so good as cocking a gun.
She's gunned people down a thousand times, though, so: what does it matter? Wrong way to think, Triela. It matters. Remember what Big Boss taught you. Remember what Ritsuka would say.
And she does, and she grimaces, and the oh-gross-is-that-really-a-roach is already dead but she thinks she might've left it alone, had she thought of that sooner. Ritsuka wouldn't approve.
Now she understands why photographs were so important to him.
She packs her shotgun away and she goes home. Tea, right? Tea. You don't have to shoot something's brains out to calm your nerve, and she should have remembered that sooner. That night, Triela takes a shower and decides to boost her training.