Post by Layla Amare on Jan 12, 2014 22:27:05 GMT -5
Name: Layla Amare
Age: 18
Date of Birth: October 19
Birthplace: Bangalore, India
Gender: Female
Sexual Orientation: Bisexual
Face Claim: Rachel Ransom - SD Gundam G-Generation
Appearance:
Height: 5'5"
Distinguishing Features: A couple scars on her back from a climbing accident. It is also probably worth noting that she is, and looks, a few years older than pictured.
Class: Persona-user
Arcana: XIX - The Sun
Occupation: Student
Weapons and Proficiencies (Optional): Layla has a small amount of training in Kalaripayattu, a very old hybrid martial art style from southern India. She didn't get too far in before moving away, but knows the basics of the style, both in hand to hand aspects and in weapon use. She still has a number of training weapons, including sword, shield, various stick weapons, and fist daggers. Because they are training weapons, none of them are sharp, and all of them deal strike damage.
Personality: On the surface, Layla is a very outgoing person. She is friendly and talkative with just about anybody, but tries to keep enough distance and politeness to avoid making people uncomfortable. She is comfortable in crowds of most sizes, although particularly large ones can get to be a bit daunting even for her. She tries to avoid being the center of attention, though, and is content in most situations to just be a part of the group and interact with people as they come. Though it doesn't affect her typical behavior when interacting with others, she tries to avoid becoming too close to people socially, just in case something were to happen. That said, she'll never actively try to push someone away or be a jerk just for that purpose. In fact, she may lean a little too far toward being good intentioned: she'll help just about anyone so long as she understands they need it and it's within her power. This includes situations that would put her life in danger, which she thinks very little of.
Believing that she could die any day, Layla has gone to great lengths to do as much living as she can in what time she has left. She stays active, she pursues as many interests as she can feasibly maintain, she tries to avoid upsetting or getting upset at anybody and, by extension tries to be friends with just about everybody. Where this falls apart is that she doesn't really know when to back down from things. She's developed something of a daredevil personality, believing that, while she would greatly prefer to keep on living, it's ultimately okay if she gets killed in the process because she's, in her mind, "already dead". She's not afraid of dying at all; rather, she fears most that her condition or some other external factor will leave her incapacitated. Similarly, now that she's started college she worries that her workload could eventually become so great that she doesn't have time for anything else, although that hasn't been anywhere near a problem thus far. More than either of these, though, her greatest worry is that some lingering regret will show itself right before the end and she won't be able to do anything about it.
For the most part, she tries to make the most of what she has, and to make what she has last as long as possible. To this end, the first and foremost of both short and long-term goals is to survive to the next day, and to be content with her life if she doesn't. Though these can seem to conflict at times, she thinks she's doing a good job meeting both so far. Should she survive that long, she also wants to put her exceptional linguistic skills (she is fluent in Kannada, Hindi, and English, and knows varying amounts of Malayalam, Sanskrit, Chinese, and Japanese) to use as a profession.
Her greatest vice, if one were to look toward the seven deadly sins, would be gluttony. Not in the sense of eating or drinking to excess, but rather in a broader tendency to overindulge. "Too much of a good thing" is something she has difficulty with. In contrast, her greatest virtue would be kindness, although understanding would probably be a better word. Layla maintains a standard of tolerance and understanding toward others regardless of beliefs, background, or current situation, and strives to be at her best when interacting with people from any of these groups. She can take this a little too far at times, to the point of seeming like a bit of a doormat to more cynical people.
She believes that the world and people are inherently good, although they have become complacent and content with only partially living. She doesn't think less of them for this, though. People are free to live as they see fit, after all. As for herself, she is overall satisfied. She sees herself as a kind-hearted person who strives to make the most of what time she has, and actively tries to maintain this if she feels that she's veering away from it. Most of what she wished she could change about herself, she has already done in the last few years. Although if she could get rid of her condition, she would jump on that chance.
Likes: More often than not, just being alive makes Layla happy. A day she is allowed to live and to actually feel it is a good day. The more she feels like she's living, the more she tends to like it. High-energy activities with a fair amount of risk involved are her favorite. For instance, she claims that the best she ever felt was when she tried out rappelling and simply let go of the rope and allowed herself to fall several feet before catching it again. She's also rather fond of being in dangerous or unfamiliar situations...basically, anything that really gets her heart racing.
Dislikes: Denial and stagnation. Layla dislikes anything that makes her feel like she isn't really living. Bad things and misfortune in her life are fine to her, so long as they are things that are happening. What she can't stand is when every day feels the same as the last, and when she feels like she's being denied the opportunity to actually live. Dying (again, in her words) is preferable to living in true monotony. Although she will rarely get upset at anything else, she does disapprove of closed-mindedness and ignorance in others.
History: Layla was born in Bangalore, a city in southwest India, to Lalan and Shyla Amare. Other than being from different regions of the country and having to overcome differing languages and faiths before being married, they were mostly unremarkable. And so, too, was Layla. Her only notable trait early in her life was that she grew up learning many languages: English and Hindi from her parents, Kannada from the state they now lived in, and a few more just out of personal interest. She had very little trouble with school or with making friends, but didn't take much interest in either. By the time she reached high school, she had fallen into a pattern of just existing day to day. She felt unfulfilled, but lacked the motivation to do anything about it. Occasionally, she dreamed of some crazy, supernatural event happening to turn her life upside down and set her on adventure like some stories she had read, but nothing like that ever happened.
What happened instead was far less pleasant, but just as life-changing. A couple years before, she had been diagnosed with a cerebral arteriovenous malformation. At the time, she had been told that she would most likely have no problems with it whatsoever, nor any symptoms, until her old age, and for awhile that was the case. That changed when she was sixteen. It started innocently: she stayed home from school because she was feeling sick, but not severely so. Actually, she took what she thought was a harmless headache and exaggerated it to get a day off. By noon, however, her headache had gotten unbearable. She felt faint, and the pain soon began spreading to the rest of her body. It only continued to get worse until she collapsed and blacked out.
The next thing she knew she was in a world of gold that expanded as far as the eye could see. It had no landmarks or defining features, in fact it didn't have much form at all, and yet she felt like it was familiar. There was a lone figure in the golden world, who approached and greeted her. She would claim later that she only barely registered what the figure had actually said to her, only that it had something to do with moving forward or starting again. She felt like there was no choice but to accept it. Not in the sense of being forced, but rather as an undeniable reassurance that it was the best thing for her. So she accepted it, and the golden world faded back into blackness.
Then she woke up. She was in a hospital bed with a doctor and her parents standing at her side. They explained what had happened, but none of it registered in her mind. Only one thing managed to stick with her, and it came from her own thoughts: she had died, or come dangerously close to dying, but had managed to come back. And that, to her, was all she needed to know.
She was released from the hospital a week later and told she could return to a normal life, but never thought of it as normal since then. Rather, every day that she was still alive was special. From that day on, she strove to enjoy life as much as possible in whatever time she had left, whether it be several years or only a few days. Her entire lifestyle changed. She took up several high-risk and high-energy activities, such as rock climbing and the martial art Kalaripayattu. She tried new things whenever she could, for the thrill of discovering as much as she could in what time she had. Her lifetime goal became very simple: to have no regrets when the end came.
In time, she started college overseas, in the international crossroads of sorts known as Mosaic City. Up until that point, she had had a few minor episodes associated with her condition, usually nothing more than mild seizures, but otherwise had no trouble with it. Her mindset hasn't changed much, but having lasted two years already, she's started having hopes for a future again. Her studies so far mostly consist of foreign languages, adding Chinese and Japanese to her rather impressive repertoire (or at least, impressive to someone not from India), although she's undecided about where she'll go from there. At first, the blockade that came not too long after she started school didn't affect her much. Not until she started having dreams of the golden world again, at least.
She's no longer sure whether it was her own daredevil nature that eventually caused her to try escaping the safe circle, or if something unseen had guided her out there. Looking back, she vaguely remembers occasionally hearing a voice calling her, beckoning her, always coming after she woke up from a dream about the golden world. Whatever the case, she eventually found a way out of the circle through an old subway terminal and found herself in the ruins of the outer city. She was alarmed by how different it was than it was supposed to be: she could breathe fine, but the outer city which had looked just fine from inside was in a state of disrepair and gave off a constant feeling that she was being watched. And she soon found out why when she encountered a formless mass that crawled across the ground, creeping toward her. It managed to corner her, even as she tried to climb up a wall to escape, when everything went back.
She was back in the formless world of gold. A man with red skin and an elaborate crown sat at a desk in front of her, listing off things she recognized as failings from her early life. Apathy. Stagnation. Being content with mediocrity. All things she couldn't deny as being true, but even so, something about it felt wrong. She recognized the figure in front of her from her mother's faith: Yama, the Buddhist king of hell and judge of the dead. She knew that she'd had more, but different faults ever since "dying", before, so why weren't they being thrown back in her face. Was Yama implying that she hadn't changed at all? No...that couldn't be right. That was wrong. Everything was wrong. And she, who was already dead, would not be dragged away to hell just yet. She felt a strange power welling up within her, building up to the point of being unbearable. Then it released, and a figure with a lion's mask and golden skin and finery materialized in front of her. At least a dozen unattached arms floated to either side of the figure, spread out in all directions. The figure lunged at Yama, and both were enveloped in a brilliant golden light. The next thing Layla knew, she was back in the real world, in the ruined outer city. But the golden-clad figure remained, while the formless mass that had attacked her was dissolving into nothing beneath it. And in that moment, she knew that she had escaped death yet again, this time thanks to a power she had somehow brought out herself: the 'Persona' Yamantaka. It was the crazy, supernatural event that she dreamed of in her childhood finally come true, just a couple years late.
OOC Name: Satori
Persona: Vajrabhairava
Appearance: A humanoid figure with deep blue skin and dressed in Indian finery. Its head is that of a bull with long, black horns and a third eye in the center of the forehead. To its sides, seven more faces can be visible, although they appear to be detached from the main head and partially transparent, like projections. It has 34 arms, with most of them detached from its body and floating to its sides. Each of its arms holds a weapon or other symbolic artifact, including various magical knives, a skull-patterned cup filled with Amrita, a golden shield adorned with the face of a Makara, a vajra, a ritual bell, and the broken crown of Yama.
Lore: Another name for Yamantaka, meaning 'Frightful Thunderbolt', and the highest emanation of Manjusri. In Vajrayana Buddhism, Vajrabhairava is synonymous with overcoming Yama, the ruler of the dead, through enduring wisdom.
Skills: Mazionga, Mahamaon, Amrita, Media
Strengths and Weaknesses: Null: Light, Resist: Dark, Weak: Ice
Age: 18
Date of Birth: October 19
Birthplace: Bangalore, India
Gender: Female
Sexual Orientation: Bisexual
Face Claim: Rachel Ransom - SD Gundam G-Generation
Appearance:
Height: 5'5"
Distinguishing Features: A couple scars on her back from a climbing accident. It is also probably worth noting that she is, and looks, a few years older than pictured.
Class: Persona-user
Arcana: XIX - The Sun
Occupation: Student
Weapons and Proficiencies (Optional): Layla has a small amount of training in Kalaripayattu, a very old hybrid martial art style from southern India. She didn't get too far in before moving away, but knows the basics of the style, both in hand to hand aspects and in weapon use. She still has a number of training weapons, including sword, shield, various stick weapons, and fist daggers. Because they are training weapons, none of them are sharp, and all of them deal strike damage.
Personality: On the surface, Layla is a very outgoing person. She is friendly and talkative with just about anybody, but tries to keep enough distance and politeness to avoid making people uncomfortable. She is comfortable in crowds of most sizes, although particularly large ones can get to be a bit daunting even for her. She tries to avoid being the center of attention, though, and is content in most situations to just be a part of the group and interact with people as they come. Though it doesn't affect her typical behavior when interacting with others, she tries to avoid becoming too close to people socially, just in case something were to happen. That said, she'll never actively try to push someone away or be a jerk just for that purpose. In fact, she may lean a little too far toward being good intentioned: she'll help just about anyone so long as she understands they need it and it's within her power. This includes situations that would put her life in danger, which she thinks very little of.
Believing that she could die any day, Layla has gone to great lengths to do as much living as she can in what time she has left. She stays active, she pursues as many interests as she can feasibly maintain, she tries to avoid upsetting or getting upset at anybody and, by extension tries to be friends with just about everybody. Where this falls apart is that she doesn't really know when to back down from things. She's developed something of a daredevil personality, believing that, while she would greatly prefer to keep on living, it's ultimately okay if she gets killed in the process because she's, in her mind, "already dead". She's not afraid of dying at all; rather, she fears most that her condition or some other external factor will leave her incapacitated. Similarly, now that she's started college she worries that her workload could eventually become so great that she doesn't have time for anything else, although that hasn't been anywhere near a problem thus far. More than either of these, though, her greatest worry is that some lingering regret will show itself right before the end and she won't be able to do anything about it.
For the most part, she tries to make the most of what she has, and to make what she has last as long as possible. To this end, the first and foremost of both short and long-term goals is to survive to the next day, and to be content with her life if she doesn't. Though these can seem to conflict at times, she thinks she's doing a good job meeting both so far. Should she survive that long, she also wants to put her exceptional linguistic skills (she is fluent in Kannada, Hindi, and English, and knows varying amounts of Malayalam, Sanskrit, Chinese, and Japanese) to use as a profession.
Her greatest vice, if one were to look toward the seven deadly sins, would be gluttony. Not in the sense of eating or drinking to excess, but rather in a broader tendency to overindulge. "Too much of a good thing" is something she has difficulty with. In contrast, her greatest virtue would be kindness, although understanding would probably be a better word. Layla maintains a standard of tolerance and understanding toward others regardless of beliefs, background, or current situation, and strives to be at her best when interacting with people from any of these groups. She can take this a little too far at times, to the point of seeming like a bit of a doormat to more cynical people.
She believes that the world and people are inherently good, although they have become complacent and content with only partially living. She doesn't think less of them for this, though. People are free to live as they see fit, after all. As for herself, she is overall satisfied. She sees herself as a kind-hearted person who strives to make the most of what time she has, and actively tries to maintain this if she feels that she's veering away from it. Most of what she wished she could change about herself, she has already done in the last few years. Although if she could get rid of her condition, she would jump on that chance.
Likes: More often than not, just being alive makes Layla happy. A day she is allowed to live and to actually feel it is a good day. The more she feels like she's living, the more she tends to like it. High-energy activities with a fair amount of risk involved are her favorite. For instance, she claims that the best she ever felt was when she tried out rappelling and simply let go of the rope and allowed herself to fall several feet before catching it again. She's also rather fond of being in dangerous or unfamiliar situations...basically, anything that really gets her heart racing.
Dislikes: Denial and stagnation. Layla dislikes anything that makes her feel like she isn't really living. Bad things and misfortune in her life are fine to her, so long as they are things that are happening. What she can't stand is when every day feels the same as the last, and when she feels like she's being denied the opportunity to actually live. Dying (again, in her words) is preferable to living in true monotony. Although she will rarely get upset at anything else, she does disapprove of closed-mindedness and ignorance in others.
History: Layla was born in Bangalore, a city in southwest India, to Lalan and Shyla Amare. Other than being from different regions of the country and having to overcome differing languages and faiths before being married, they were mostly unremarkable. And so, too, was Layla. Her only notable trait early in her life was that she grew up learning many languages: English and Hindi from her parents, Kannada from the state they now lived in, and a few more just out of personal interest. She had very little trouble with school or with making friends, but didn't take much interest in either. By the time she reached high school, she had fallen into a pattern of just existing day to day. She felt unfulfilled, but lacked the motivation to do anything about it. Occasionally, she dreamed of some crazy, supernatural event happening to turn her life upside down and set her on adventure like some stories she had read, but nothing like that ever happened.
What happened instead was far less pleasant, but just as life-changing. A couple years before, she had been diagnosed with a cerebral arteriovenous malformation. At the time, she had been told that she would most likely have no problems with it whatsoever, nor any symptoms, until her old age, and for awhile that was the case. That changed when she was sixteen. It started innocently: she stayed home from school because she was feeling sick, but not severely so. Actually, she took what she thought was a harmless headache and exaggerated it to get a day off. By noon, however, her headache had gotten unbearable. She felt faint, and the pain soon began spreading to the rest of her body. It only continued to get worse until she collapsed and blacked out.
The next thing she knew she was in a world of gold that expanded as far as the eye could see. It had no landmarks or defining features, in fact it didn't have much form at all, and yet she felt like it was familiar. There was a lone figure in the golden world, who approached and greeted her. She would claim later that she only barely registered what the figure had actually said to her, only that it had something to do with moving forward or starting again. She felt like there was no choice but to accept it. Not in the sense of being forced, but rather as an undeniable reassurance that it was the best thing for her. So she accepted it, and the golden world faded back into blackness.
Then she woke up. She was in a hospital bed with a doctor and her parents standing at her side. They explained what had happened, but none of it registered in her mind. Only one thing managed to stick with her, and it came from her own thoughts: she had died, or come dangerously close to dying, but had managed to come back. And that, to her, was all she needed to know.
She was released from the hospital a week later and told she could return to a normal life, but never thought of it as normal since then. Rather, every day that she was still alive was special. From that day on, she strove to enjoy life as much as possible in whatever time she had left, whether it be several years or only a few days. Her entire lifestyle changed. She took up several high-risk and high-energy activities, such as rock climbing and the martial art Kalaripayattu. She tried new things whenever she could, for the thrill of discovering as much as she could in what time she had. Her lifetime goal became very simple: to have no regrets when the end came.
In time, she started college overseas, in the international crossroads of sorts known as Mosaic City. Up until that point, she had had a few minor episodes associated with her condition, usually nothing more than mild seizures, but otherwise had no trouble with it. Her mindset hasn't changed much, but having lasted two years already, she's started having hopes for a future again. Her studies so far mostly consist of foreign languages, adding Chinese and Japanese to her rather impressive repertoire (or at least, impressive to someone not from India), although she's undecided about where she'll go from there. At first, the blockade that came not too long after she started school didn't affect her much. Not until she started having dreams of the golden world again, at least.
She's no longer sure whether it was her own daredevil nature that eventually caused her to try escaping the safe circle, or if something unseen had guided her out there. Looking back, she vaguely remembers occasionally hearing a voice calling her, beckoning her, always coming after she woke up from a dream about the golden world. Whatever the case, she eventually found a way out of the circle through an old subway terminal and found herself in the ruins of the outer city. She was alarmed by how different it was than it was supposed to be: she could breathe fine, but the outer city which had looked just fine from inside was in a state of disrepair and gave off a constant feeling that she was being watched. And she soon found out why when she encountered a formless mass that crawled across the ground, creeping toward her. It managed to corner her, even as she tried to climb up a wall to escape, when everything went back.
She was back in the formless world of gold. A man with red skin and an elaborate crown sat at a desk in front of her, listing off things she recognized as failings from her early life. Apathy. Stagnation. Being content with mediocrity. All things she couldn't deny as being true, but even so, something about it felt wrong. She recognized the figure in front of her from her mother's faith: Yama, the Buddhist king of hell and judge of the dead. She knew that she'd had more, but different faults ever since "dying", before, so why weren't they being thrown back in her face. Was Yama implying that she hadn't changed at all? No...that couldn't be right. That was wrong. Everything was wrong. And she, who was already dead, would not be dragged away to hell just yet. She felt a strange power welling up within her, building up to the point of being unbearable. Then it released, and a figure with a lion's mask and golden skin and finery materialized in front of her. At least a dozen unattached arms floated to either side of the figure, spread out in all directions. The figure lunged at Yama, and both were enveloped in a brilliant golden light. The next thing Layla knew, she was back in the real world, in the ruined outer city. But the golden-clad figure remained, while the formless mass that had attacked her was dissolving into nothing beneath it. And in that moment, she knew that she had escaped death yet again, this time thanks to a power she had somehow brought out herself: the 'Persona' Yamantaka. It was the crazy, supernatural event that she dreamed of in her childhood finally come true, just a couple years late.
OOC Name: Satori
Persona: Vajrabhairava
Appearance: A humanoid figure with deep blue skin and dressed in Indian finery. Its head is that of a bull with long, black horns and a third eye in the center of the forehead. To its sides, seven more faces can be visible, although they appear to be detached from the main head and partially transparent, like projections. It has 34 arms, with most of them detached from its body and floating to its sides. Each of its arms holds a weapon or other symbolic artifact, including various magical knives, a skull-patterned cup filled with Amrita, a golden shield adorned with the face of a Makara, a vajra, a ritual bell, and the broken crown of Yama.
Lore: Another name for Yamantaka, meaning 'Frightful Thunderbolt', and the highest emanation of Manjusri. In Vajrayana Buddhism, Vajrabhairava is synonymous with overcoming Yama, the ruler of the dead, through enduring wisdom.
Skills: Mazionga, Mahamaon, Amrita, Media
Strengths and Weaknesses: Null: Light, Resist: Dark, Weak: Ice
{Old Persona Info}Persona: Yamantaka
Appearance: Yamantaka takes the form of a humanoid being with shining golden skin, dressed in modern-looking Indian finery. Although his body, or at least the most human aspects of it are solid, several more extra pairs of arms float to his sides, detached from his body and partially transparent. The Terminator of Death wears a mask depicting the face and mane of a lion, with the addition of golden horns. In one of his "main" hands he carries a closed Vajra, while in the other he carries the crown of the Yama, split down the center as a symbol of victory over death.
Persona Lore: A figure in Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, known as the Terminator of Death. He represents the goal of the practitioner's journey: reaching enlightenment and escaping Samsara. In the Shingon sect, Yamantaka is also one of the Five Wisdom Kings, and a guardian of the West.
Skills: Zio, Hama, Posumudi
Strengths and Weaknesses: Strong: Light. Weak: Ice
Appearance: Yamantaka takes the form of a humanoid being with shining golden skin, dressed in modern-looking Indian finery. Although his body, or at least the most human aspects of it are solid, several more extra pairs of arms float to his sides, detached from his body and partially transparent. The Terminator of Death wears a mask depicting the face and mane of a lion, with the addition of golden horns. In one of his "main" hands he carries a closed Vajra, while in the other he carries the crown of the Yama, split down the center as a symbol of victory over death.
Persona Lore: A figure in Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, known as the Terminator of Death. He represents the goal of the practitioner's journey: reaching enlightenment and escaping Samsara. In the Shingon sect, Yamantaka is also one of the Five Wisdom Kings, and a guardian of the West.
Skills: Zio, Hama, Posumudi
Strengths and Weaknesses: Strong: Light. Weak: Ice
