sylphauxiliatrix: (Default)
2029-01-01 01:38 pm

Main Menu

Carvaka Application Carvaka Permissions / Kinklist
OOC Contact Muselist
HMD General Rainbow Drinker Headcannons
Enter Name.

Your name is KANAYA MARYAM.

You used to indulge in your bright fascination with the grim through literature. Just before the sun goes down and you joined your flora in rest, you used to immerse yourself in tales of RAINBOW DRINKERS and SHADOW DROPPERS and FORBIDDEN PASSION. Then you died, and rose up as one of the undead, cursed with a POWERFUL THIRST that has thus far proven to be more of an annoyance than a TRAGIC MOTIVATION fitting your TRASHY VAMPIRE NOVELS.

You are one of the few of your kind with JADE GREEN BLOOD, and one of the few whose affection for the aesthetic strongly overpowers instinctive regard for the utilitarian. As such, you are one of the few of your kind who has developed a zeal for FASHION and DESIGN and LIVELY COLORFUL PATTERNS. You decorate your hive with FLORA and FABRIC, as delicately or aggressively as inspiration demands. You are a SEAMSTRESS or a RAGRIPPER or a TREETRIMMER or a LUMBERJACK, whichever you care to be.

Your trolltag is grimAuxiliatrix and you Tend To Enunciate Each Word You Speak Very Clearly And Carefully

What will you do?

Retired Links
Kanaya's Fashion Shop (Vat) Vat Permissions
Vat CR Charts Vatheon Application
Apprentice Wanted Application Apprentice Wanted Permissions
Vatheon In Character Contact Ruby City Application
sylphauxiliatrix: (Default)
2017-03-03 01:21 pm

VR app (Work in progress)

Player
Name: Rav-T
E-mail: hiddenkrypt@gmail.com
Preferred Contact: General purpose contact at plurk: [plurk.com profile] hiddenKrypt
Immediate / high priority contact on steam or discord: Steam Profile, Discord:Rav-T#0266

Timezone: PST[UTC-8]
Current Characters in Victory Road: None.

Character
Name: Kanaya Maryam
Series: Homestuck
Timeline: End of Homestuck Snapchat Epilogue

Canon Resource Links: MSPA Wiki

Personality: Give us at minimum 2-3 full paragraphs of how you understand your character's personality. Talk about basic characteristics, any major developments over the course of their canon, their motives, their social behavior, strengths and weaknesses, and anything else you can think of that shows off your knowledge of this character.

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: What career path will your character be taking? Breeder, Trainer? Or maybe even down the dark path of becoming a member of Team Rocket? Note: All Rocket members start as grunts. (For right now, only those three positions are available, whether your character chooses to follow their assigned path or not.)
Starter: What starter Pokémon do you want your character to have? Please use the list linked above to choose from. Certain Pokémon have an orange star next to their names; if you choose one of these starters (Deino, Zorua, Litwick, Pikachu, Scyther, Dratini, Bagon, Gible, Axew, Ralts, Riolu, Beldum, Larvitar, Eevee, or Beldum) you must provide reasoning. You do not need to explain your reasoning for Pokémon other than those listed above.
Password: This is where you'll put the passwords from the Rules and the F.A.Q. There are two words, to assure you've read both.

Samples
RP Sample: The sample must be a post, log, or thread you have made with this character in the last four months at the canon point you have chosen for said character. It does not have to be set in Victory Road's setting, but it does require at least ten comments in total from you if it is a post or a thread, and five comments in total from you if it is a log. What we are looking for here is grasp of your character's voice and a sense of how you operate as a role-player. This sample can be in any format (e.g. network post, prose log, actionspam, Dear Mun post, and so on). You can use a Victory Road test drive thread for this sample, but you cannot use the same thread for the second sample below.

Victory Road Sample: This sample must take place in Victory Road's setting. The minimum is 300 words for a prose sample, eight sentences for a network post/actionspam sample, or ten comments total (five from you) in an RP sample. What we are looking for here is how the character responds to the Pokéworld's setting. You can also use a Victory Road test drive thread for this sample, but you cannot use the same thread for the first sample above.
sylphauxiliatrix: (Default)
2016-05-29 02:35 pm

Carvaka Permissions

General Permissions

Hugging this character: Feel free! Kanaya's not exactly the hugging type unless it's with close friends, but she'll merely be confused if some stranger does it.
Kissing this character: Feel Free! Expect her to maybe freak out about it depending on circumstances.
Flirting with this character: Very yes. She'll almost certainly respond with snark, though in some cases she might just flirt back.
Fighting with this character: Yes, and good luck. See below regarding her weapon of choice.
Injuring this character: Some injury is okay. She's ridiculously tough. Anything major requires permission.
Killing this character: With Permission
Mind controlling this character: With Permission

Additional Mayhem

Kanaya is basically a vampire.
  • Kanaya may ask your character to allow her to feed on them.
  • Kanaya may feed on your character to the point where they are physically affected (dizziness, blackouts). This may be accidental, or in extreme cases it may be purposeful.
Kanaya doesn't resort to violence lightly, but she will if she deems it necessary. Her primary weapon is a chainsaw, something that doesn't exactly lend itself to deal out little scratches.
  • Kanaya may swing a chainsaw at opponents in a fight. Feel free to have your characters dodge her weapon perfectly. I'd rather we talk and discuss if there's going to be any major damage caused.
Kanaya is a troll. She has some peculiar physiology and psychology, and on request some of this can be averted.
  • When using text communication, Kanaya will Tend To Enunciate Each Word You Speak Very Clearly And Carefully without any punctuation. If this is annoying, I can scale back the typing quirk, eliminate it entirely, or switch to voice/video communication.
  • Troll genitalia is not defined in canon, so any specifics are headcanon. I prefer to use typical human female genitals for Kanaya. However, not all troll roleplayers will use the same. Several people prefer a "bulge and nook" combo, and example of which can be seen here(NSFW). While I prefer human junk, I'm perfectly fine with just about anything. Feel free to request that I use the alien junk for a thread. when it comes to a character encountering two trolls with two players using different genitals, I would prefer it if the whole thing was hand-waved as consistent.

Kinklist

Available here
Kanaya is canonically only interested in people presenting as females. While I welcome male characters in trying to hit on her, she will not. Androgynous characters may have more luck.
sylphauxiliatrix: (Default)
2016-05-23 02:56 pm

carvaka app

APPLICATION



▸PLAYER
Name: Rav-T
Means of Contact:
--Plurk: https://www.plurk.com/hiddenKrypt
--Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/id/ravt/
Age: 31
Other Characters Played: none



▸CHARACTER
Name: Kanaya Maryam
Journal: sylphauxiliatrix
Canon: Homestuck
Age: No specific canon age, must be between between 7 and 8 sweeps, a range of 16-18 years. I'm going to fiat say 18 years old.
Canon Point: Act 6 Act 6 Act 2 Gigapause http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=008752



Background Information:

Wiki Link -- http://mspaintadventures.wikia.com/wiki/Kanaya_Maryam
Kanaya's introduction page in the comic serves as a good guide to her background up to the moment she becomes a primary character in the story -- http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004223
A Quick Synopsis:
Kanaya and her eleven friends were all fairly typical alien teenagers on the planet Alternia, a brutal world that starts life with hunger games for babies (losers may literally end up as paint or catsup) and only gets worse from there. They decided as a group to play a new video game, SGRUB. The game seems to affect reality, starting with the destruction of their homeworld as they all escape into a place between universes, the Medium. They fought long and hard through their game, gaining all the levels, some of them realizing the full potential of their roles, and finally all coming together to beat the final boss and collect their prize. Before collecting though, some demon appeared out of nowhere, forcing them to flee to a lab hidden in a rock in the Medium. There, they learned of a group of humans who were playing the same game. These humans created the demon that screwed the trolls over. At first the trolls harass them over the internet (which works between worlds because of the game), but eventually they become friends. The humans screw up their game to an insane degree, and have to reset. In escaping the reset, two of the humans meet up with the surviving trolls, and travel on the rock for three years to reach the newly reset game session, which has been set up with four different humans playing. The canon point I've selected is at most a few hours after arriving in the new game session, where everything has gone south in a huge way.

A note on age: It's heavily implied that all of the trolls were six sweeps old at the start of their adventure. A sweep is equal to 26 months, or 2.1666 years (2 years, 2 months). Thus, a six sweep old troll could be, in human terms, 13, 14 or even 15 years old (in the later case, they would be within two human months of their seventh troll 'birthday'). The canon point I'm choosing is a little over three years after their adventure. I'm choosing to have Kanaya be a bit older, and going with the high end: currently 18 years old by human standards. Though the age of consent in my area is 16 and I have no qualms roleplaying just about anything, the age of 18 does make a lot of things easier for others in an out of character way.



Personality:

Kanaya is a passionate aesthete, spending much of her free time on fashion and interior design, as well as gardening when she has the opportunity. She loves horror and romance novels, with a particular weakness to trashy vampire erotica. Her no-nonsense attitude and calm demeanor make her seem somewhat humorless, but that's only because her humor specializes in the sarcastic and acerbic. She'd detail oriented, and speaks in a precise manner enhanced by her wide vocabulary. When she uses large or rare words, it's not in an attempt to seem smart, but because those words carry the precise meaning she wishes to convey. She's a worrier to a fault, and has made a bad habit out of butting into other people's business if she thinks she can help. Helping people is something of an obsession for her, really. Despite her kind nature, she's no stranger to violence, and is ready to inflict a staggering amount of it on any target she deems deserving.

That's a nice short synopsis of some of her personality traits, but far from a sufficient exploration of her character. Here I'm going to break this down to three major sections: The symbolism that occurs around her in her canon, the recurring themes attached to this character, and a section on her sexuality and relationships. Given the nature of this game, this will include a more detailed than usual look at her sexuality.

--Literary symbolism-- Andrew Hussie (creator of Homestuck) is a huge fan of using symbolic hints and Easter eggs throughout his work as a way of providing more information about the world and his characters. Some of this is evident in the themes explored later, such as the meaning behind Kanaya's name. Like most of the trolls, there are three good sources for this sort of indirect examination of her character: trollhandles, Ancestors, and Sgrub Roles.

Kanaya's chat handle is "grimAuxiliatrix". Auxiliatrix is Latin for a "helpful woman", a core component of Kanaya's personality. The grim aspect is reflected in her willingness to do whatever she needs to, and how little she flinches at necessary tasks. In this way she is almost a fairly typical troll, unfazed by violence. She killed Eridan Ampora pretty much entirely out of revenge and in a horrifically violent manner. She has shown little thought or remorse for this act. She may seem like a nice person but under the right circumstances she has no problems with killing, something that may be off putting to any members of other cultures should they find out about her history. Besides the normal violence inherent in Trolls and Alternian society in general, Kanaya's grim nature may be a result of her time spent gardening and landscaping around her hive. To have maintained such a lush and well grown area in the middle of what seems like arid desert would take quite a dedication the craft of agriculture. Such skills often lead to necessarily but unfortunate decisions, a form of triage being necessary to decide what plants will not be able to grow properly. In a way Kanaya has likely been culling the weak to protect what she can for a while and this attitude for plants matches in some ways her attitude in other unfortunate circumstances. Her willingness to kill is not a symptom of evil, but of utilitarianism. She does not have any problem doing whatever it takes to protect those she cares about. Another good example of this would be amputating a friend's paralyzed legs while he was asleep so he could receive a robotic replacement.

Troll ancestors are a legend in their culture. It suggests that every troll has an ancestor that is a replica of them, living ages in the past. The legends say that a troll's ancestor will live a life that mirrors their own, with the younger descendant being given the chance to face similar challenges to them with possibly different results. We get to see some of Kanaya's ancestor in Homestuck, and we learn that the ancestors are literally genetically identical to their descendants. Kanaya's Ancestor is the Dolorosa.

The life story of an ancestor seems to mirror the story of the descendant through some sort of literary resonance. The Dolorosa was a jade blood troll who became rather unique in her own right, abandoning the duties of her caste to instead raise a young mutated troll named the Signless. The Dolorosa raised Signless as his mother, while Kanaya had quite a close friendship with Signless's descendant, Karkat. The Dolorosa was romantically involved with a woman named Mindfang, though it's implied that the Dolorosa had no choice in the matter. This reflects into Kanaya's unrequited crush for Mindfang's Descendant, Vriska. The situation is similar, but reversed. So too is the fate of the Dolorosa. She was murdered either directly by, or on the orders of Dualscar Ampora. Kanaya was murdered by his descendant, Eridan. But when Kanaya died, she rose back up as a rainbow drinker. She then hunted for Ampora, and killed him in return. In that moment, it's as if Kanaya was getting revenge for herself as well as her ancestor who didn't have the same second chance Kanaya got.

Kanaya's title in the game of Sgrub is the "sylph of space". For the most part she never really explored her role, and it's not exactly clear in the comic what a sylph of space is or does. We know that Sylphs are a sort of healer class, and we've seen space players affect the physical properties of things, but Kanaya never gains any powers related to this. However, as a space player she was responsible for the 'breeding duties' of the game, breeding frogs together to solve the puzzle at the heart of the whole game. This has an interesting duality with the traditional role of her caste, a role she never got to fulfill in her time, the same role her ancestor cast aside.

--Themes-- Most Homestuck characters have several major themes that come up time and time again in various ways when examining them as characters, and Kanaya is no exception. The ones I've identified here are Uniqueness, Purity, Motherhood, and Vampires.

Uniqueness : The phrase "you are one of the few" is used six times in Kanaya's second person introduction. Constantly Kanaya is marked as being a bit different from other trolls, either by actions, by accident, or by personality. Obviously it's this last point we should focus on for a personality section. Unlike most trolls, Kanaya:
- Cares about appearances instead of just function ("an affection for the aesthetic"). Few trolls care at all for form, but Kanaya loves fashion. She designs her own clothing, and likes to make clothes for others.
- Has an expressed interest in one gender over the other. Most trolls are epansexual by nature, but Kanaya is not. Further discussion below.
- Enjoys the feel of the harsh Alternian sun. Most trolls are injured by it, but Kanaya enjoys the warmth. Also, she's not nocturnal like most of her race.
- Has little to no interest in politics, personal power, or killing for fun. Such things are almost required of her species, but Kanaya has no interest in it. This may be typical for her blood caste though, since they are supposed to spend their time helping and protecting mother grubs.
- Was granted the unprecedented honor of having a mother grub for a lusus. While this isn't an aspect of her personality, it's very likely that this is where she gets her mothering instincts.

Further, Kanaya is made of strange and unique juxtapositions. She's a lumberjack, and a seamstress. A Chainsaw Surgeon, and a caretaker.

Purity: Kanaya's first name is a Sanskrit word for the constellation Virgo, and her personal symbol is the zodiac sign for that constellation, the virgin. This isn't just a crack about her love life, but rather a recurring part of her character. While she never shies away from necessary bloodshed, she is far less violent than many trolls. Her motives in killing Eridan, hunting Gamzee, and even taking Vriska as a moirail have always been based in protecting others, and providing a calming effect to her friends. The homestuck Tarot card collection even has Kanaya on the Strength [VIII] card (http://i.imgur.com/U2cbXwo.jpg). The card's design shows Kanaya holding down an enraged Gamzee. This is based on the classic Rider tarot design of a woman holding a lion, an image of the strength of purity and serenity. While most of the trolls aren't very well connected to the zodiac symbols they represent, this description of the Virgo star sign is almost a perfect description of Kanaya, to the point where I would be tempted to just use that as a personality section some time, just to see if it would work: http://www.astrology.com/article/zodiac-signs-virgo-sun-sign.html

Motherhood: Motherhood is a strange theme for a troll, as they don't really have the concept. Her connection to her Ancestor shows a lot of this theme. Their reproductive cycle means that Trolls never care for their young, and cannot usually trace their lineage. Your average troll is violent and self-centered. The fact that Kanaya cares about her friends and wants to protect them is strange to begin with. On top of that, she's literally connected with the concept of motherhood. Her lusus gave her the task of restarting the troll race after it's destruction. She was literally raised by a mother grub, one of the creatures responsible for the birthing of all trolls. The Jade blood caste traditionally served the Mother grubs, providing a part of the process at the core of troll reproduction. For a while Kanaya avoided her duties, but she had promised her lusus she would try. After Eridan destroyed the matriorb, Kanaya wasn't sure she'd be able to fulfill that promise, but recently she's actually been somewhat hopeful.

Vampires: What a wonderful theme to go with Purity and Motherhood. Kanaya's character has been defined, from her very first appearance, by stereotypical vampire stories. Her hair in her first appearance has an intentional similarity to a high collared cape stereotypically worn by vampires, and a visible pair of vampire-style fangs. Later, when Kanaya is properly introduced, we learn that she's a huge fan of well, basically trashy vampire erotica. Uh, I mean, "sensuous tales of rainbow drinkers and secret passion". through this we learn that 'Rainbow Drinkers' are trolls own version of vampires, and exist in pretty much the same way as they do for humans. They're fictional beings, long regarded as monsters, though recent media has been reinventing them as tragic romantic figures. Unlike typical vampire myths, rainbow drinkers are called 'daywalkers', who hunt in the sun. This inversion is partially because trolls are typically nocturnal and hurt by the sun, and partially as a reference to Twilight's particular reimagining of the vampire myth.
After dying, she arises as a rainbow drinker herself, revealing them as a very real thing. Her skin glows white, further cementing the reference to Twilight's sparkling vampires. Kanaya comes to find that the condition is not quite like it's depicted in her books. The need to feed on blood has proven to be more of an annoyance than a tragic motivation. In later discussions, she theorizes that the condition is actually an occasional adaptation by members of the Jade blood caste. The speed, strength, and fortitude of the condition all would help a jade blood deal with threats to the mother grubs, and the glowing helps navigate in dark caves.

--Sexuality-- Let's start with the elephant in the room. Trolls are inherently bisexual. They have no concept of homosexuality or heterosexuality. Kanaya, however, has only ever shown attraction to women. The fan-arguments here were legendary. Finally, someone got the creator to answer a question about it. His response was long and somewhat vague, but it ended with the line "From a human perspective, she's an unmistakably gay character." This solved the problem for a lot of people, but a few took this as evidence that she's not gay. Because Hussie included some detail about the troll's cultural view on sexuality, the argument is that the phrase "from a human perspective" changes the result. This line of argument usually claims that Kanaya is bi like most trolls, but she has a "gay kink" or "female kink". these arguments have mostly settled down, but every now and then they flare back up.

As such, I try not to claim that my opinion is the "right" answer. I play Kanaya as a lesbian, only interested in Women. As a troll, she has no concept of homosexuality, so if someone identifies her as such she would just get confused. If someone pointed out that she's only ever interested in females, her response would be something like "Oh. That's true, isn't it? I never really thought about it." If hit on by males, she'd most likely turn them down with some variant of "not interested". This only applies to presented gender, since the genitalia for trolls is a complete mystery as is, and if it is anything different than human, her relationship with an alien (human) named Rose proves that she doesn't focus on what's in someone's pants.

Kanaya's symbol of virgo, the virgin, rather obviously has some sort of impact on her sexuality as well. In canon she had an unrequited crush that lasted for years without ever really doing anything about it. When trapped on a meteor with another crush for three years, they didn't even really hook up for two years of the trip, and even then it was Rose who drunkenly made the first move. By all available evidence, Kanaya has not done anything more than kiss with anybody (though a year of her relationship with Rose occurred almost entirely off camera). At the same time, it's hard to imagine her as a total prude! The themes of motherhood, of pragmatic control... in general, I think she'd be comfortable discussing sexual topics at length, as long as the conversation isn't about her. Kanaya is the type of person that would have done exhaustive studies of sexual topics, out of curiosity if nothing else, but always in a dispassionate, intellectual way. She'd be perfectly happy to help others with their problems, and could take all the weird shit this game's setting could throw at her without reacting. She's only really easily embarrassed when it comes to her own sexuality. Naturally, for the format of this game, she wouldn't be a total prude, instead having an attitude more in line with Ivan the Apprentice. Given a few initial encounters to get used to the idea, she'd be quite interested in sex, but very cautious.

In general, Kanaya is horribly attracted to dangerous women. This isn't because she's a submissive sort, drawn to dominating types, but that the danger adds a certain thrill... not to mention her natural inclination to try and curb the more hazardous traits of others. Her initial attraction to Vriska was built around Vriska's propensity for violence. Kanaya can't really help but try and protect others by getting close to these hazards and trying to convince them to be less dangerous. As such, she'd probably sign up to be an apprentice initially, but let’s be honest she's not going to make any headway if she tries to pacify the Mistress. Hopefully she figures that out quickly.



Appearance:

Kanaya is tall and slender. Roughly 178cm/5'10", 61kg/135lbs. Her skin may either be grey or glowing white (described in Abilities). Her hair is black, medium-short length, and usually in an eccentric style, a combination of spikes and curls somewhat reminiscent of a stereotypical vampire's cape. She has two candy-corn colored horns, one of which sports a sharp barb. Her teeth include a set of long sharp fangs, also in a vampire style. Kanaya almost always wears makeup, most noticeably black or jade green lipstick. A galley of a few of her canon appearances is available on the Wiki address in the Background Information section.



Abilities:

Unlike most members of her race, Kanaya is not particularly nocturnal nor does she abhor sunlight. The average troll appears to be physically somewhat stronger and more resilient than the average human. Her preferred weapon in combat is a chainsaw, an ungainly weapon which she nevertheless wields with speed and grace. Many aspects of being a rainbow Drinker (troll vampire) are left ambiguous.

Here is what is solidly canon: As a Rainbow Drinker, Kanaya has become even more physically formidable. She survived and continued to run and fight with a large gaping hole where her spine should be. She can move with superhuman speed in a sort of vampiric celerity which one character dubs "Drinker Fastness". Kanaya's skin can glow with a soft white light, bright enough to illuminate up a large hallway. This glowing feature can be turned on and off at will. Like a vampire, she must ingest blood to survive.The bite has no lasting effects beyond a small pair of puncture wounds that are treatable with a bandaid, suggesting that either the bite is small (and thus only a small amount of blood is drawn) or the feeding process includes some sort of healing agent to reduce the harm. The rainbow drinker condition is not passed by the bite, or by any other process, and is theorized in canon to be an adaptation to help some jade blood trolls fulfill the tasks of their caste. She can and does drink blood from dead bodies without issue, including blood that has been bottled and kept in someone's inventory for several years.

The following is extrapolated from canon: Apparently only small quantities of blood are required as she survived for three years with a handful of friends, none of whom seemed to suffer from any ill effects. A human can give about a pint of blood every week with no symptoms, and about two pints of blood in a sitting without requiring medical attention. Assuming that she takes about a pint per feeding, the most she could feed without it being apparent would be less than once per day, and that would require careful balancing of which of her friends she fed off of. So we have an upper bound of 5-6 times per week, and a lower bound of 'just enough to be considered a bit of an annoyance'. I like to put it at about twice per week. When Kanaya died and changed into a rainbow drinker, she seemed to go on a bit of a rampage. Granted, this mostly seemed to be due to anger at the person that killed her, but it did include drinking from two of her friends that were unconscious. She still seemed to be 'in control', as she took the time to bandage the wounds she caused by feeding before going on to saw her killer in half. I postulate that going without for some time does build up a hunger in a rainbow drinker, but hunger isn't likely to cause them to flip out the way some vampire stories have it. The worst that can happen is a typical sort of desperation anybody would have from being starved.

There's nothing else really hinted at by canon to work with, aside from the condition obviously being influenced by vampire myths. I am fine suggesting that this is the extent of the situation. Kanaya died and was reborn as a rainbow drinker. She's alive again, not a walking corpse. She still requires food and drink, she still needs to breathe, she's still affected the same as any of her race by drugs, poisons, radiation, etc. The canon has not suggested any special weaknesses to garlic, crosses, running water, wooden stakes, or any other typical vampire things.



▸SAMPLES:

(One sample may be a link to a post/log thread of decent length that's occurred in the last six months from another game, or from a meme/musebox if the setting is the same as what the character will be apped from and the thread provides a good example of characterization — i.e. no AU settings or overly cracky memes. The other sample must be written to take place in Carvaka's setting.

For the Carvaka-specific sample, we're looking for a good example of character voice and how the character will adapt to the setting. We suggest avoiding "where am I?" or "where are my friends?" type samples, as these tend to be generic and often not fully representative of a character's normal behavior. You can still send in these kinds of samples if you wish to, but we advise applicants to consider whether or not they fulfill the requirements that we're looking for.)

First Person:
[Video]
Hello. I don't know if anybody has noticed yet, but there seems to be some newly accessible areas now that the floodwaters have receded. This happens to include what was apparently once a cultivated agricultural exhibit. I was wondering if anybody would like to join me in a restoration effort. While I don't possess any seeds at the moment I think we can obtain some through the belief powers of this place. Also, in the exhibit area is a solar growhut. I am claiming 'dibs' at this moment, though I am willing to share. After all, that structure will likely be vital to the restoration effort.

I know this sort of project may not be the most important or beneficial to us in terms of survival. It will provide psychological benefits, however, both as a finished project, and as a task to focus on. If anybody has any particular flora from their homeworld that they would like to be represented, please contact me. With enough requests, perhaps we could set up different ecological sectors.

Third Person:
Third person prose on the TDM http://metakosmia.dreamwidth.org/11826.html?thread=3489842#cmt3489842
sylphauxiliatrix: (Default)
2016-05-14 02:05 am

what what what

OUT OF CHARACTER:
Name/Handle: Rav-T / HiddenKrypt
Contact:
--Plurk: [plurk.com profile] hiddenKrypt
--Steam: hiddenkrypt
Reference: AJ
Other characters: None

IN-CHARACTER:
Character name: Kanaya Maryam
Character journal: sylphauxiliatrix
Series name: Homestuck
Canon notes: Canon Point of immediately post Cascade[S] pre-Retjohn

Species: Troll, Rainbow Drinker.
Troll (wiki link)
Trolls are humanoid life forms that, despite their mammalian appearance, actually are technically insectoid in nature. Their larval form are called grubs. after pupating, their imago form appears similar to a human. Trolls have grey skin, candy corn colored horns, sharp teeth, yellow sclera, and black lips. Trolls, barring occasional mutations, have one of twelve blood types, each of a specific color and each dictating various biological features of the individual, including average body temperature and life span. Socially, these blood types are stratified into castes. Kanaya's Jade Green blood places her in the middle of this caste system. Jade bloods are typically expected to act as caretakers for creatures involved in their species rather elaborate reproductive cycle. Trolls, especially those higher on the caste system, seem to be more physically capable than the average human. Kanaya has displayed great grace, endurance, and strength, all at levels that would be impressive for a typical human. Some members of the upper castes have displayed physical properties beyond even the greatest earthling in terms of strength and endurance. Trolls are naturally nocturnal, and quite susceptible to harm from the radiation of their system's star. This seems to be because their planet receives more energy from its star than earth does, as troll are seen in canon on earth in sunlight. Kanaya, possibly as something typical for her blood caste, enjoys the sun and tends to live a diurnal lifestyle.
Trolls have a reproductive cycle (I swear this is all relevant) that includes a creature known as a "mother grub". While mother grubs serve a role similar to the queen in an ant or bee colony, they do not seem to be the same species as the one whose eggs they lay. Troll genetic fluids are collected by drones and delivered to the Mother Grub, which combines these fluids and gestates the eggs, laying them like typical social insects. Eggs hatch into larvae known as grubs or 'wigglers'. Grubs have a very high attrition rate, and are likely hatched in large numbers to compensate. Those that survive long enough will find a nice stalactite somewhere, spin a chrysalis, and eventually pupate into the imago form, looking something like a human child. These children must survive extremely dangerous caves possibly filled with traps. Those that prove themselves in these trials will be adopted by huge monsters known as lusae, singular lusus. Trolls with a lusus then build themselves a house, and grow in a manner similar to humans. Biologically speaking they reach their adult form when they pupate, but socially it may be several years before they become adults. Adult trolls are banned from living on their planet of origin, and in all cases must serve their empire in some capacity as they expand through and conquer the galaxy.

Rainbow Drinker
Kanaya is not a normal Troll (a phrase comes up so often when discussing her as to be thematically core to her character). She is a Rainbow Drinker, which is basically a form of vampire. Details on this condition are sketchy at best, and have to be inferred from hints in the canon, a well as typical vampire lore from other stories. Rainbow Drinkers are a combination of vampire tropes, some played straight, some inverted. For instance, as Trolls are nocturnal, Rainbow Drinkers are sometimes called 'daywalkers'. In troll culture they're almost the same as vampire are in human culture: Mythological creatures that have several stories about them, with a more recent trend to romanticized idealism. Kanaya, before her own transformation at least, was a fan of trashy vampire Rainbow Drinker romance novels. The trope of a vampire/RD coming in to some poor girl's bedroom in the middle of the night/day to 'ravish' her seems to be a commonality in human and troll cultures.
Rainbow Drinker facts are scattered in the canon, but here's what we know for certain. Drinkers can and do drink the blood of other living things, including dead bodies (if there's enough blood left). This is suggested in canon to be mandatory, or at least a burden. Living trolls have been fed on with no obvious ill effect, so it is not a condition that can be passed by "infection" as in some vampire myths. in fact, her 'victims' were already unconscious at the time, and woke up later with nothing to show for the experience besides a pair of bandages over their bite marks. A Rainbow Drinker is capable of surviving, moving, and even fighting with a giant hole where their spine used to be. the Daywalker's skin glows white, bright enough to illuminate a lightless hallway and cast shadows. This illumination can be toggled at will, once a Rainbow Drinker learns the trick to it. They are capable of extreme supernatural speed.
These few facts leave a lot of unanswered questions, and unfortunately, this is all we have. The rest is left to headcanon and conjecture. I will go into specifics as I see them applying to Kanaya in the 'Abilities' section of this App.

History:(wiki link)
Once again, Kanaya is not an average troll, and the differences start right away with her birth. She, and her friends, were created through paradox cloning, a timey-wimey process in which a thing manages to be responsible for its own existence. They were cloned as fresh grubs, which were then loaded into meteors that were launched back in time to strike their home planet. Kanaya's deviation from the norm continued, as after arriving on Alternia she was adopted not by some lusus creature, but by a Virgin Mother Grub, a situation said to be completely unprecedented.

Personality:

Abilities:
Augment Skillset:
Sample:



for: http://spaceshipit.dreamwidth.org/3609.html#cutid3
sylphauxiliatrix: (Default)
2014-01-20 12:08 pm

Muselist

Kanaya Maryam [personal profile] sylphauxiliatrix
HOMESTUCK
GA: It Must Be A Certain Madness Im Afflicted By
GA: To Orbit Those More Reckless And Dangerous Than I And More Daring For It
GA: I Guess I Want To Help Them But They Never Can Be Helped It Seems
The lesbian alien vampire fashionista chainsaw murderer with a heart of gold. Kanaya acts friendly at first, but don't give her a reason to dislike you, and certainly don't threaten her friends. She might be more reasonable than most members of her species, but she's still a troll and she has no problem using her chainsaw to deal with problems.

Currently in: None
Previously seen in: Carvaka, Ruby City, Apprentice Wanted, Vatheon, Memes

Curly Brace [personal profile] lexicalscope
CAVE STORY
I've been with these little ones since before I can remember.
I don't recall anything before that... Amnesia, you might say.
I was... probably a Mimiga-butcher, just like the other robots....
Curly is a special forces recon robot, armed with a heavy machine gun too big for most people to carry let alone wield and force field that can stop missile impacts cold; sent out on a secret mission to destroy an artifact that litterally turns it's owner into a god. She's also quite a happy-go-lucky optimist with a fierce mothering streak. Go figure.

Currently in: None
Previously seen in: Alpha Complex

Spider Jerusalem [personal profile] trust_the_fuckhead
TRANSMETROPOLITAN
Journalism is just a gun. It's only got one bullet in it, but if you aim right, that's all you need. Aim it right, and you can blow a kneecap off the world.
The Journalist Asshole. Spider is a cyberpunk dystopic blend of H.L. Menkin and Hunter S. Thompson, with even greater addictions to drugs and guns. He's also fanatically dedicated to the ideal of Truth, and won't hesitate to assault the president of the united states in a bathroom if it gets him closer to the story. To quote an associate of his: "Ah, Spider's a dirty bastard and a moral vacuum, but you couldn't have a better friend."

Currently in: None
Previously seen in: Vatheon, Memes

Skwisgaar Skwigelf [personal profile] skwisklok
METALOCALYPSE
I am, hows you say? Way more gooders, than you.
Skiwsgaar Skwigelf is the lead guitarist for the worlds most successful musical act, Dethklok. He's known for his incredible sexual appetites and his lightning fast guitar riffs, and he's considered the worlds greatest master of the instrument. He has a particular fondness for GMILFs.

Currently in: None
Previously seen in: Vatheon, Memes

Sam Vimes [personal profile] wheres_my_cow
DISCWORLD
Commander Vimes didn't like the phrase "The innocent have nothing to fear", believing the innocent had everything to fear, mostly from the guilty but in the longer term even more from those who say things like "The innocent have nothing to fear".
His Grace, His Excellency, The Duke of Ankh; Commander Sir Samuel Vimes, grew up as a poor kid in the worse side of the worst town on the disc. He's managed to do quite well for a kid from the shades, and has progressed from a drunk beat cop to commander of the worlds finest police force, singlehandedly inventing modern criminal investigation technique in his world. While his alcoholism has been a problem in the past, he now possesses the strongest will of just about any fictional character I can think of.

Currently in: None
Previously seen in: Memes

The Computer [personal profile] friendcomputer
PARANOIA
Please report for Summary Execution, citizen. Failure to report for Summary Execution is punishable by Summary Execution.
The Computer is the tyrannical despot benevolent administrator in charge of the future dystopia utopia of Alpha Complex. An insaneperfect rulerhelper, controllingguiding humanity after some disaster forced everybody to live in the massive underground city.

Currently in: none
Previously seen in: Memes, occasional test drives

KRIEG [personal profile] close_enough
BORDERLANDS
I'M THE CONDUCTOR OF THE POOP TRAIN!
Krieg is a barely functioning psychopath. He kills for fun, and screams about faeces and bicycles made of meat. He has absolutely no impulse control... except... deep down inside, is the "little man". The Voice of reason. A little nugget of whatever Krieg was before he was... Krieg. He can't directly control the murderous psycho, but sometimes, he can get close enough.

Currently in: None
Previously seen in: Memes

sylphauxiliatrix: (Default)
2013-12-15 12:19 am

RC permissions

Normally I would do this sort of a thing as a big list of "is it okay if I do thing". I've decided that, as I'm not really interested in ever doing these things unless another player wanted to, instead of an 'opt out', this is more of an 'opt in'.
I will not bring up the scenarios here (bold) in threads unless you post here and opt in, or if I contact you ooc and get permission specifically.

Kanaya is a sorta vampire. She needs to drink blood to survive, and she gets a bit weird if she doesn't drink often. There's a whole thing over here about it if you want more specifics.
Kanaya may ask your character to allow her to feed on them.
Kanaya may, in the unlikely case she doesn't feed enough, attempt to feed on your character without asking for consent.
Kanaya may feed on your character to the point where they are physically affected (woozyness, blackouts)


Kanaya doesn't resort to violence lightly, but she will if she deems it necessary. Her primary weapon is a chainsaw, something that doesn't exactly lend itself to deal out little scratches.
Kanaya may swing a chainsaw at opponents in a fight. Feel free to have your characters dodge her weapon perfectly. I'd rather we talk and discuss if there's going to be any major damage caused.
sylphauxiliatrix: (Default)
2013-12-05 03:11 pm

Ruby City Application

Ruby City App

PLAYER
Name: Rav-T
Age: 28
Personal Journal: N/A
E-mail: hiddenkrypt@gmail.com
AIM/MSN/etc: AIM: hiddenkrypt, STEAM: hiddenkrypt, PLURK: [plurk.com profile] hiddenKrypt


CHARACTER
Name: Kanaya Maryam
Canon: Homestuck
Age: ~7 1/2 sweeps, 16-17 years.
Timeline: GigaPause aka as up-to-date as possible.
If playing another character from the same canon, how will you deal with this?: n/a


PERSONALITY
Kanaya is a passionate aesthete, spending much of her free time on fashion and interior design, as well as gardening when she has the opportunity. She loves horror and romance novels, with a particular weakness to trashy vampire erotica. Her no-nonsense attitude and calm demeanor make her seem somewhat humorless, but that's only because her humor specializes in the sarcastic and acerbic. She'd detail oriented, and speaks in a precise manner enhanced by her wide vocabulary. When she uses large or rare words, it's not in an attempt to seem smart, but because those words carry the precise meaning she wishes to convey. She's a worrier to a fault, and has made a bad habit out of butting into other people's business if she thinks she can help. Helping people is something of an obsession for her, really.

That's a nice short synopsis of some of her personality traits, but far from a sufficient exploration of her character. Here I'm going to break this down to three major sections: The reoccurring themes attached to this character, the symbolism that occurs around her in her canon, and a section on her sexuality and relationships. For most characters I wouldn't think that I'd need to go into much detail regarding those last traits, but they do add a interesting dimension to Kanaya's character, and the potential for flame wars (and what I do to prevent them) is something that I think and game mods would like to know.

------Themes------

Uniqueness : The phrase 'you are one of the few' is mentioned six times in Kanaya's second person introduction. Constantly, Kanaya is marked as being a bit different from other trolls, either by actions, by accident, or by personality. Obviously it's this last point we should focus on for this personality section. Unlike most trolls, Kanaya:
- Cares about appearances instead of just function ("an affection for the aesthetic")
- Has an expressed interest in one gender over the other
- Enjoys the feel of the harsh Alternian sun
- Has little to no interest in politics, personal power, or killing for fun
- Was granted the unprecedented honor of having a mother grub for a lusus

Purity: Kanaya's personal symbol is the zodiac sign for Virgo, the virgin. This isn't just a crack about her love life, but rather a reoccurring part of her character. While she never shies away from necessary bloodshed, she is far less violent than many trolls. Her motives in killing Eridan, hunting Gamzee, and even taking Vriska as a moirail have always been based in protecting others, and providing a calming effect to her friends. The homestuck Tarot card collection even has Kanaya on the Strength [VIII] card. The card's design shows Kanaya holding down an enraged Gamzee. This is based on the classic Rider tarot design of a woman holding a lion. It's an image of the strength of purity and serenity. Kanaya's name is even a Sanskrit word for the constellation Virgo. While most of the trolls aren't very well connected to the zodiac symbols they represent, this descriptiuon of the Virgo star sign is almost a perfect description of Kanaya, to the point where I would be tempted to just use that as a personality section some time, just to see if it would work.

Motherhood: This theme is brought in from her connections to her Ancestor, the literally matronly Dolorosa. Kanaya's last name, Maryam, is one that she shares with the Dolorosa and Porrim, and it's a Arabic form of the name 'Mary', as in the virgin Mary. Fitting of course, as the Signless is a pretty blatant Jesus analogue. Motherhood is a strange theme for a troll, as they don't really have the concept. Their reproductive cycle means that Trolls never care for their young, and cannot usually trace their lineage. Your average troll is violent and self-centered. The fact that Kanaya cares about her friends and wants to protect them is strange to begin with. On top of that, she's literally connected with the concept of motherhood. Her lusus gave her the task of restarting the troll race after it's destruction. She was literally raised by a mother grub, one of the creatures responsible for the birthing of all trolls. The Jade blood caste traditionally served the Mother grubs, providing a part of the process at the core of troll reproduction. For a while Kanaya avoided her duties, but she had promised her lusus she would try. After Eridan destroyed the matriorb, Kanaya wasn't sure she'd be able to fulfill that promise, but recently she's actually been somewhat hopeful. We've seen that the Batterwitch has her own plan to acquire a new matriorb, so it may be possible for Kanaya to finally do what she promised.

------Literary symbolism------

Hussie is a huge fan of using symbolic hints and Easter eggs throughout his work as a way of providing more information about the world and his characters. Some of this is evident in the themes explored above, such as the meaning behind Kanaya's name. Like most of the trolls, there are two good sources for this sort of indirect examination of the character: Their trollhandles, and their Ancestors.

Kanaya's chat handle is "grimAuxiliatrix". Auxiliatrix is Latin for a "helpful woman", something we've discussed quite a bit already. The grim aspect is reflected in her willingness to do whatever she needs to, and how little she flinches at necessary tasks. In this way she is a fairly typical troll, unfazed by violence. She killed Eridan pretty much entirely out of revenge and in a horrifically violent manner. She has shown little thought or remorse for this act. She may seem like a nice person but under the right circumstances she has no problems with killing, something that may be off putting to any members of other cultures should they find out about her history. Besides the normal violence inherent in Trolls and Alternian society in general, Kanaya's grim nature may be a result of her time spent gardening and landscaping around her hive. To have maintained such a lush and well grown area in the middle of what seems like arid desert would take quite a dedication the craft of agriculture. Such skills often lead to necessarily but unfortunate decisions, a form of triage being necessary to decide what plants will not be able to grow properly. In a way Kanaya has likely been culling the weak to protect what she can for a while and this attitude for plants matches in some ways her attitude in other unfortunate circumstances. Her willingness to kill is not a symptom of evil, but of utilitarianism. She does not have any problem doing whatever it takes to protect those she cares about.

The life of Kanaya's ancestor provides some interesting insight as well, reflecting in a way what Kanaya had to go through herself. The Dolorosa raised Signless as his mother, while Kanaya had quite a close friendship with Signless's descendant, Karkat. The Dancestors Porrim and Kankri seem to be somewhere between these two: Porrim mothers on Kankri a bit, but they are similar in age and do not have a relationship as analogous to the Dolorosa and Signless. The Dolorosa was romantically involved with Mindfang, though it's implied that the Dolorosa had no choice in the matter. This reflects into Kanaya's unrequited flush for Mindfang's Descendant, Vriska. The situation is similar, but reversed. So too is the fate of the Dolorosa. She was murdered either directly by, or on the orders of Dualscar. Kanaya was murdered by his descendant, Eridan. But when Kanaya died, she rose back up as a rainbow drinker. She then hunted for Ampora, and killed him in return. In that moment, it's as if Kanaya was getting revenge for herself as well as her ancestor who didn't have the same second chance Kanaya got.

Kanaya's title in the game of Sgrub is the "sylph of space". For the most part she never really explored her role, and it's quite unclear in the comic what a sylph of space is or does. However, as a space player she was responsible for the 'breeding duties' of the game, breeding frogs together to solve the puzzle at the heart of the whole game. This has an interesting duality with the traditional role of her caste, a role she never got to fulfill in her time, the same role her ancestor cast aside.

------Sexuality and Relationships------

Let's start with the elephant in the room. Trolls are inherently bisexual. They have no concept of homosexuality or heterosexuality. Kanaya, however, has only ever shown attraction to women. The fan-arguments here have been legendary. Finally, someone got the creator to answer a question about it. His response was long and somewhat vague, but it ended with the line "From a human perspective, she's an unmistakably gay character." This... really didn't solve any of the flamewars, and for a while they actually got worse. Because Hussie included some detail about the troll's cultural view on sexuality, the argument is that the phrase "from a human perspective" changes the result. This line of argument usually claims that Kanaya is bi like most trolls, but she has a "gay kink" or "female kink", and that such things happen sometimes with trolls. These arguments have mostly settled down, but every now and then they flare back up. As such, I try not to claim that my opinion is the "right" answer. I play Kanaya as a lesbian, only interested in women. As a troll, she has no concept of homosexuality, so if someone identifies her as such she would just get confused. If someone pointed out that she's only ever interested in females, her response would be something like "Oh. That's true, isn't it? I never really thought about it." If hit on by males, she'd most likely turn them down with some variant of "not interested". Because I state this as it being my choice to play her this way, rather than saying that this is what is canon, I've been able to avoid any sort of arguments that I've seen crop up when this topic is broached. I've been playing Kanaya for over two years without once being the cause of a fight over her sexuality, and I'd love to keep that record going.

In general, Kanaya is horribly attracted to dangerous women. This isn't because she's a submissive sort, drawn to dominating types, but that the danger adds a certain thrill... not to mention her natural inclination to try and curb the more hazardous traits of others. Her initial attraction to Vriska was built around Vriska's propensity for violence, and she notes to Jade that she seems to be falling into the same pattern again when she started to develop her crush on Rose. Kanaya can't really help but try and protect others by getting close to these hazards and trying to convince them to be less dangerous.

At the canon point I'm taking her from, Kanaya is in a Matespritship (a romantic relationship fairly analogous to human romance) with Rose Lalonde. This relationship has been a bit rocky, as her girlfriend has been suffering from alcoholism. Kanaya really didn't know what to do about that. As a non-human, she wasn't sure it was her place to comment on the addiction. Rose continued to tell her that it was fine, so she trusted her. Shortly before arriving in the alpha session Kanaya started to suspect that Rose wasn't being truthful, and while she did confront Rose about her problem, arrival in the new session meant that things were suddenly too chaotic for there to be any resolution.


BACKGROUND
Fan Wiki link


ABILITIES
Kanaya is a skilled landscaper, growing an oasis in the desert. Granted, she was assisted by advanced technology, but gardening, agriculture, and topiary are all hobbies she enjoys a decent level of skill in. She's also a talented seamstress, making a majority of her own clothing. She often offers to make clothes for friends as well. She can work almost any creation out of cloth, needle, and thread. Tailoring, repair, and custom creations are all within her purview.

Kanaya is a rainbow drinker, a sort of alien vampire. In canon we know this gives her super speed, described at one point as "drinker fastness". There is evidence that she also has increased physical resilience and strength. The extent of rainbow drinker powers is not really explored in canon. I have a list of my own headcanons and theories that I like to use in games, including facts from canon to back them up wherever appropriate. Some of the claims I make are a bit sketchy, but that's to be expected when the canon provides so very little explicit information to go on, and a good deal of hints. If anybody else is playing a rainbow drinker in the game (Porrim, the Dolorosa), I'm perfectly willing to discuss and adjust my headcanons here in whatever way pleases people.

Rainbow Drinker TL:DR; Vampire. Super speed, strength, stamina. Needs to drink blood; otherwise things get weird, then dangerous. Enjoys sunlight. Can't make other people into vampires. Doesn't need normal food/drink, but can enjoy it.

Kanaya is a "Sylph of Space", but not god tier. While some Homestuck characters have displayed elements of their power from their title before going god-tier, Kanaya has never done anything to indicate that her title has given her any sort of special abilities. We're not even really sure what those powers might be like, beyond the vague concept that it has something to do with 'healing space'.

Psychologically Kanaya is a very resilient and stable person. She is not easily frightened or startled, and she doesn't have any problem with sudden scenes of gore or violence. It's very unlikely that she would ever scream in fear or surprise. This may make her seem a little cold and detached, but really it's her compassion for others that drives this. If disaster strikes, she needs to help, and that means not losing her head. It would make sense for her to possess rudimentary first aid skills, if not for the fact that she comes from a planet where such skills are unlikely. It's something that I think she would be interested in picking up, given a chance to do so.


FIRST PERSON SAMPLE
Here's a sample of action/bracketspam/firstperson from your December test drive meme.


THIRD PERSON SAMPLE
The sight of an imperial battleship was bad enough without knowing who that was standing on its bow. As always, just when Kanaya was certain things couldn't get much worse reality had to step in an remind her how pitifully insignificant her imagination is compared to the nigh infinite ways that reality could conspire to further fuck her and her friends over. It’s not fair really. When you’re trapped between a pit of lava and a forest fire powered by three gods, watching a psychotic murderclown you've unsuccessfully been able to hunt for the last three years as he beats the ever-loving shit out of one of your friends, and your alien girlfriend is stuck on the far side of the lava pit, and who knows what happened to your good friend-turned-evil-god-dog, things aren't supposed to be able to get any worse.

But Her Imperious Condescension has arrived, and time seems to stand still. Time seems to have stood still for quite a while actually. Wow. I mean ages are passing, and nothing is happening. The lull in action caused by her arrival is insane, perhaps even reaching kilo… nay, mega proportions.

This is getting rather silly. I’ll stop now.

Kanaya, along with everybody else aside from the gods running around with Dave in hot pursuit, stops and stares at the new arrival to the scene, waiting for something to happen. She's not really sure what she expects, some sort of attack, or a psychic assault. It certainly wasn't blacking out and appearing alone in some sort of moving vehicle quite unlike any she’s ever seen.
Immediately Kanaya starts to take in the situation. Obviously the Condesce has transported her somewhere. This vehicle seems to be ground bound, and moving at a pace a bit fast to consider jumping as a means of escape. She seems to be alone, though she can’t shake the feeling that she's being watched…

"Is there anybody else here?" she asks aloud, as a prelude to actually searching the cabin. Kanaya checks each seat to make sure she’s alone before taking in the view from the windows. A strange, alien landscape. Great. There seems to be some sort of light up ahead, but it's hard to see where this vehicle is taking her without opening a window and sticking her head out. First she gives the doors at the rear and front a try, finding them locked with no surprise. She does attempt to open the windows as well, fully expecting to find her efforts equally wasted, when the vista before her changes suddenly. The train has entered the city, and is slowing down noticeably.

It’s obviously a population center of some sort. The architecture is not completely unfamiliar, matching depictions of some human cities from Rose’s fictional media. As the brakes of the train begin to squeal, Kanaya figures this must be her destination. She exits cautiously once the doors open, and begins to read the posters. Perhaps this isn't the work of Her Imperious Condescension after all, but something else entirely. She checks her inventory and sure enough, finds the watch mentioned. Well, if she’s going to find a way out of here, she might as well start by getting ahold of any of her fellow captives.
sylphauxiliatrix: (viria)
2013-10-27 10:26 pm

Apprentice Wanted: Permissions

[OOC]
Backtagging: Yes, always. I will continue threads forever, too.
Threadhopping: Yes
Fourthwalling: I love it in narration and ooc. In character is... well, I guess that's okay too.
Offensive subjects: Not particularly applicable.

[IC]
Hugging this character: Anybody is welcome.
Kissing this character: Yes, though boys and unknown girls will not be warmly received.
Flirting with this character: Yes, though boys will be rejected, and all who dare will risk snarky barbs.
Fighting with this character: Yes
Injuring this character: Yes, OOC communication of intent is nice.
Killing this character: Yes, under the right circumstances, with prior permission.
Using telepathy/mind reading abilities on this character: Yes
Kink list:Soon Now
sylphauxiliatrix: (5x showdown combo with chainsaw)
2013-10-22 12:42 pm

Apprentice Wanted App

I understand that you've reached your canon limit for Homestuck characters in reserves. If all those reserves apply I will gladly recuse myself and my app. I have no problem being passed up for all those that reserved, and would of course understand that you're going to ignore this app until the end of the app round, just in case those reserves come in. I just hope that you'll accept me in the case that enough reserves fall through that you still have a Homestuck slot open.

PLAYER INFORMATION
Name: Rav-T
Timezone: GMT-5 (EST)
Personal Journal: [personal profile] krypt
Player Contact: [plurk.com profile] hiddenKrypt
Characters in Game (previously too): N/A

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Kanaya Maryam
Canon: Homestuck
Gender: Female
Age: 16 1/2 -ish
Suitability: Kanaya is at least 16 in canon. She was 13 to 14 when introduced and a little over three years have past in canon.
Species: Troll (Alternia)
Canon Point: From the most recent update at time of writing. [megahiatus]
World/Setting: n/a

History: Fan Wiki link

Personality


Kanaya is a passionate aesthete, spending much of her free time on fashion and interior design, as well as gardening when she has the opportunity. She loves horror and romance novels, with a particular weakness to trashy vampire erotica. Her no-nonsense attitude and calm demeanor make her seem somewhat humorless, but that's only because her humor specializes in the sarcastic and acerbic. She'd detail oriented, and speaks in a precise manner enhanced by her wide vocabulary. When she uses large or rare words, it's not in an attempt to seem smart, but because those words carry the precise meaning she wishes to convey. She's a worrier to a fault, and has made a bad habit out of butting into other people's business if she thinks she can help.

I'm going to break the rest of this personality segment into three subcategories. First, the overarching themes that are repeatedly shown throughout her character. Second, the literary hints and references that indicate elements of her personality indirectly. Finally, given the nature of this game, a more detailed than usual look at her sexuality.


------Themes------

Uniqueness : The phrase 'you are one of the few' is mentioned six times in Kanaya's second person introduction. Constantly, Kanaya is marked as being a bit different from other trolls, either by actions, by accident, or by personality. Obviously it's this last point we should focus on for this personality section. Unlike most trolls, Kanaya:
- Cares about appearances instead of just function ("an affection for the aesthetic")
- Has an expressed interest in one gender over the other
- Enjoys the feel of the harsh Alternian sun
- Has little to no interest in politics, personal power, or killing for fun
- Was granted the unprecedented honor of having a mother grub for a lusus

Purity: Kanaya's personal symbol is the zodiac sign for Virgo, the virgin. This isn't just a crack about her love life, but rather a reoccurring part of her character. While she never shies away from necessary bloodshed, she is far less violent than many trolls. Her motives in killing Eridan, hunting Gamzee, and even taking Vriska as a moirail have always been based in protecting others, and providing a calming effect to her friends. The homestuck Tarot card collection even has Kanaya on the Strength [VIII] card. The card's design shows Kanaya holding down an enraged Gamzee. This is based on the classic Rider tarot design of a woman holding a lion. It's an image of the strength of purity and serenity. Kanaya's name is even a Sanskrit word for the constellation Virgo. While most of the trolls aren't very well connected to the zodiac symbols they represent, this descriptiuon of the Virgo star sign is almost a perfect description of Kanaya, to the point where I would be tempted to just use that as a personality section some time, just to see if it would work.

Motherhood: This theme is brought in from her connections to her Ancestor, the literally matronly Dolorosa. Kanaya's last name, Maryam, is one that she shares with the Dolorosa and Porrim, and it's a Arabic form of the name 'Mary', as in the virgin Mary. Fitting of course, as the Signless is a pretty blatant Jesus analogue. Motherhood is a strange theme for a troll, as they don't really have the concept. Their reproductive cycle means that Trolls never care for their young, and cannot usually trace their lineage. Your average troll is violent and self-centered. The fact that Kanaya cares about her friends and wants to protect them is strange to begin with. On top of that, she's literally connected with the concept of motherhood. Her lusus gave her the task of restarting the troll race after it's destruction. She was literally raised by a mother grub, one of the creatures responsible for the birthing of all trolls. The Jade blood caste traditionally served the Mother grubs, providing a part of the process at the core of troll reproduction. For a while Kanaya avoided her duties, but she had promised her lusus she would try. After Eridan destroyed the matriorb, Kanaya wasn't sure she'd be able to fulfill that promise, but recently she's actually been somewhat hopeful. We've seen that the Batterwitch has her own plan to acquire a new matriorb, so it may be possible for Kanaya to finally do what she promised.

------Literary symbolism------

Hussie is a huge fan of using symbolic hints and Easter eggs throughout his work as a way of providing more information about the world and his characters. Some of this is evident in the themes explored above, such as the meaning behind Kanaya's name. Like most of the trolls, there are two good sources for this sort of indirect examination of the character: Their trollhandles, and their Ancestors.

Kanaya's chat handle is "grimAuxiliatrix". Auxiliatrix is Latin for a "helpful woman", something we've discussed quite a bit already. The grim aspect is reflected in her willingness to do whatever she needs to, and how little she flinches at necessary tasks. In this way she is a fairly typical troll, unfazed by violence. She killed Eridan pretty much entirely out of revenge and in a horrifically violent manner. She has shown little thought or remorse for this act. She may seem like a nice person but under the right circumstances she has no problems with killing, something that may be off putting to any members of other cultures should they find out about her history. Besides the normal violence inherent in Trolls and Alternian society in general, Kanaya's grim nature may be a result of her time spent gardening and landscaping around her hive. To have maintained such a lush and well grown area in the middle of what seems like arid desert would take quite a dedication the craft of agriculture. Such skills often lead to necessarily but unfortunate decisions, a form of triage being necessary to decide what plants will not be able to grow properly. In a way Kanaya has likely been culling the weak to protect what she can for a while and this attitude for plants matches in some ways her attitude in other unfortunate circumstances. Her willingness to kill is not a symptom of evil, but of utilitarianism. She does not have any problem doing whatever it takes to protect those she cares about.

The life of Kanaya's ancestor provides some interesting insight as well, reflecting in a way what Kanaya had to go through herself. The Dolorosa raised Signless as his mother, while Kanaya had quite a close friendship with Signless's descendant, Karkat. The Dancestors Porrim and Kankri seem to be somewhere between these two: Porrim mothers on Kankri a bit, but they are similar in age and do not have a relationship as analogous to the Dolorosa and Signless. The Dolorosa was romantically involved with Mindfang, though it's implied that the Dolorosa had no choice in the matter. This reflects into Kanaya's unrequited flush for Mindfang's Descendant, Vriska. The situation is similar, but reversed. So too is the fate of the Dolorosa. She was murdered either directly by, or on the orders of Dualscar. Kanaya was murdered by his descendant, Eridan. But when Kanaya died, she rose back up as a rainbow drinker. She then hunted for Ampora, and killed him in return. In that moment, it's as if Kanaya was getting revenge for herself as well as her ancestor who didn't have the same second chance Kanaya got.

Kanaya's title in the game of Sgrub is the "sylph of space". For the most part she never really explored her role, and it's quite unclear in the comic what a sylph of space is or does. However, as a space player she was responsible for the 'breeding duties' of the game, breeding frogs together to solve the puzzle at the heart of the whole game. This has an interesting duality with the traditional role of her caste, a role she never got to fulfill in her time, the same role her ancestor cast aside.

------Sexuality------

Let's start with the elephant in the room. Trolls are inherently bisexual. They have no concept of homosexuality or heterosexuality. Kanaya, however, has only ever shown attraction to women. The fan-arguments here were legendary. Finally, someone got the creator to answer a question about it. His response was long and somewhat vague, but it ended with the line "From a human perspective, she's an unmistakably gay character." This solved the problem for a lot of people, but a few took this as evidence that she's not gay. Because Hussie included some detail about the troll's cultural view on sexuality, the argument is that the phrase "from a human perspective" changes the result. This line of argument usually claims that Kanaya is bi like most trolls, but she has a "gay kink" or "female kink". these arguments have mostly settled down, but every now and then they flare back up. As such, I try not to claim that my opinion is the "right" answer. I play Kanaya as a lesbian, only interested in Women. As a troll, she has no concept of homosexuality, so if someone identifies her as such she would just get confused. If someone pointed out that she's only ever interested in females, her response would be something like "Oh. That's true, isn't it? I never really thought about it." If hit on by males, she'd most likely turn them down with some variant of "not interested".

Kanaya's personal symbol is the zodiac symbol for Virgo, the virgin. In canon she's had an unrequited crush that lasted for years without ever really doing anything about it. When trapped on a meteor with her new crush for three years, they didn't even really hook up for two years of the trip, and even then it was Rose who drunkenly made the first move. By all available evidence, Kanaya has not done anything more than kiss with anybody. At the same time, it's hard to imagine her as a total prude! The themes of motherhood, of pragmatic control... in general, I think she'd be comfortable discussing sexual topics at length, as long as the conversation isn't about her. Kanaya is the type of person that would have done exhaustive studies of sexual topics, out of curiosity if nothing else, but always in a dispassionate, intellectual way. She'd be perfectly happy to help others with their problems, and could take all the weird shit this game's setting could throw at her without reacting. She's only really easily embarrassed when it comes to her own sexuality. Naturally, for the format of this game, she wouldn't be a total prude, instead having an attitude more in line with Ivan the Apprentice. Given a few initial encounters to get used to the idea, she'd be quite interested in sex, but very cautious.

In general, Kanaya is horribly attracted to dangerous women. This isn't because she's a submissive sort, drawn to dominating types, but that the danger adds a certain thrill... not to mention her natural inclination to try and curb the more hazardous traits of others. Her initial attraction to Vriska was built around Vriska's propensity for violence. Kanaya can't really help but try and protect others by getting close to these hazards and trying to convince them to be less dangerous. As such, she'd probably sign up to be an apprentice initially, but let’s be honest she's not going to make any headway if she tries to pacify the Mistress. Hopefully she figures that out quickly.





Abilities/Weaknesses: Kanaya is a weird troll-vampire thing known as a "Rainbow Drinker". She has a few decent advantages from this: Increased speed, strength, and resilience. All three of these are implicit in canon, though only the speed has been specifically addressed. She also can make her skin glow. This is... not really useful? I dunno. In canon, the traits that define a rainbow drinker are infuriatingly vague. For a previous game I prepared my own headcanon on the topic.

The alien vampire thing comes with the weakness of requiring blood to live. Again, this isn't well explored or specified in canon, and my headcanon link above addresses the facts known compared to how I play it out. TL:DR; She needs blood to live, can go a week without feeding regularly, a little longer if she gets plenty of sunlight (one way that rainbow drinkers are different from the standard vampire myths), and even longer (up to a month) if she drinks plenty of blood from non-living sources (bottles, transfusion packs, etc.)

Kanaya is a "Sylph of Space", but not god tier. While some Homestuck characters have displayed elements of their power from their title before going god-tier, Kanaya has never done anything to indicate that her title has given her any sort of special abilities. We're not even really sure what those powers might be like.

RP Samples:
A thread in your Taste Test Meme starting here, with my response over here, if you don't feel like searching through the other replies.

Something from a previous game.
sylphauxiliatrix: (Default)
2013-04-03 09:00 am

OOC contact

For roleplaying matters, plurk is preferable... except at the moment it seems to hide a lot of private plurks or plurks that I'm pinged in, unless those plurks get comment replies. Still though, I'm good at catching such things when they happen. Steam is usually better for time sensitive matters. I occasionally use Discord, but not consistently yet. I don't really use any other text messaging software right now. Email works too, though I really don't check it often enough, maybe once a week. A PM to this account will work great.

Plurk: [plurk.com profile] hiddenKrypt

Steam: hiddenkrypt

Discord: Rav-T#0266

Email, google hangouts: hiddenkrypt@gmail.com


Quickcode:

[plurk.com profile] hiddenKrypt, hiddenkrypt, Rav-T#0266, hiddenkrypt@gmail.com
sylphauxiliatrix: (Default)
2013-04-01 03:19 pm

(no subject)

*Coming soon*

I'll get around to describing her hive soon enough. I think. We'll see.
sylphauxiliatrix: (Default)
2013-04-01 03:17 pm

Character Relationships

Jade HarleyRoxy LalondeZelda Hylia
DolorosaKarkat VantasEridan Ampora
Maka AlbarnNepeta LeijonDisciple
DarkleerMindfangDualscar
MarcelineShiro FujimotoVriska Serket
Fai D. Flourite


Don't ask me about why I set the "FLIGHTY BROADS AND THEIR SNARKY HORSESHITOMETER" where I did. Chances are I don't have any more clue than you do, and just set it where it "felt right".

Jade HarleyHomestuck
spacecase

---Good Dog. Best Spacesister.---

Jade is one of Kanaya's closest friends, even though Kanaya talked to her three friends first. If anything, that just made Jade look better. After dealing with Rose and Dave's sarcastic jokes, it was really nice to talk with someone who actually says what they mean. As a fellow space player, Jade had many of the same duties in the game that Kanaya had, and their similarities go further than just a shared heroic aspect. They both were Prospit dreamers, and were both awake on their moons far before the start of their games. But while their similarities and conversations started them on the path to becoming friends, it's their time in Vatheon that really drew them together. Trolls don't have family, but the time spent here in Vatheon has started to rub off on them. Many of the other trolls here have developed social connections that map to typical human family connections, but Kanaya avoided that for a while. Jade was the first person to give Kanaya a taste of the human disease called Family.




Roxy Lalondehomestuck
oceanbreasts

---Fashion Bombshell---

Roxy is Kanaya's current girlfriend. Kan has been reluctant to push this relationship very far or very fast, and yet it has been marching steadily onward. After her matesprit, Kanaya wasn't sure she would want to get involved with anybody again... much less the ecto-child/parent of her one time crush. She had every reason to avoid getting involved with Roxy, and at first things seemed fine. They bonded over fashion, and started out as friends. Kanaya held back though, because she knew she was attracted to Roxy. A confessions curse even made her claim to be in love with the fashionable rogue, though at the time it wasn't true. After a few months of agonizing over the loss of Vriska though, Kanaya started to wonder if she was doing the right thing. One particular event gave her the final push. In a discussion with Eridan she came to realize that she might be better off taking her chances. Yes, if she let herself love again she might just lose them... but Roxy was already her friend and already at risk of being lost. She had no way of knowing how much time they might have left, and if it was possible to spend that time as something more than friends, it would be worth it. So, with a new found attitude, she blatantly asked Roxy out, receiving exactly the response she hoped for. The date went well, and was followed by more.

They've gotten closer, but things are still casual between them. Kanaya doesn't know entirely what to think about the relationship. She doesn't pity Roxy really... but she does care about her. They certainly enjoy each other's presence, and they've enjoyed their dates. Perhaps things will move along further quite soon. Kanaya recently fell into a coma for a few weeks. Who knows just how that will change her mind. (Protip: Roxy took care of her the whole time she was asleep. That's a pity goldmine, and they haven't even gotten into Roxy's history yet.)




Zelda HyliaLoZ: Ocarina of Time
zelda-hylia

---The Seventh Sage---

For any foreigner brought to Vatheon it is only a matter of time before they meet Princess Zelda. Kanaya and the Hylian Monarch became fast friends, matched in their qualities of kindness and elegance. Zelda is one of the few people from a different world that she truly trusts. She made a few outfits for Zelda, providing herself with her greatest challenge as a designer in the form of formal wear fit for someone of Zelda's station. She also took the opportunity to push Zelda's limits, making a few items of a more contemporary cut... as well as one mystery outfit that Kanaya quickly hit after discovering that Zelda was a bit hesitant about how revealing a basic sundress was.

Kanaya's existence as a Rainbow Drinker was a minor point of contention with the Princess, but good deeds soon placated Zelda's doubts. The fact that Kanaya wasn't bothered by a spell of holy light probably helped. In fact, Zelda ended up helping Kanaya quite a bit with her condition. After the Medic left the city the two of them began to work together to test the limits of her abilities, and to explore just how it changed things for her. The end result of this experimentation was a greater understanding of her hunger mechanisms... as well as a voluntary source of sustenance.

for a long while there's been a bit of romantic tension between them, though neither was able to bring themselves to acknowledge this fact. Kanaya's views of her have shifted a bit. She respects Zelda a lot, for her attitude, her bravery, and her actions.




the dolorosahomestuck
wavesofjade

---Jade Mother---

Kanaya had been in Vatheon for several months when the Dolorosa arrived. She knew by then a few things about her ancestor, mostly because she was quite curious about her, and would badger anybody who knew her for details. She got to hear tales about how loving and kind the Dolorosa was, and that just made her more interested. When her ancestor finally arrived, Kanaya was almost to intimidated to meet her. She eventually gave in, and sent a perhaps way-to-formal request to meet he Dolorosa over tea.

the two got along quite well, and bonded nearly instantly. In the space of a single afternoon conversation Kanaya could suddenly understand the relationship that some of her friends have with their ancestors. It's hard for a troll to trust another troll, especially when one is an adult, but Kanaya feels that she can trust the Dolorosa. She's almost a complete stranger, and yet, almost closer to her than anybody. They shared their stories of their respective pasts, they've discussed their respective romantic prospects and worries, and they've revealed things to each other that they would hesitate to reveal to anybody else.

Kanaya loves the Dolorosa as a mother, though she's having a hard time putting that into words. Now that she's gotten out of her coma, she might find herself being a bit more open about the idea though.




Karkat VantasHomestuck
bethehugejerk

---Angry Best FriendLeader---

Karkat is just about Kanaya's oldest friend, and she trusts him more than almost anybody. He's her go to source for just about any sort of advice, though she's certainly willing to reciprocate. Karkat became the leader of their Sgrub session, and though they've been transported to Vatheon Kanaya doesn't see any reason why that should stop. She continues to keep her leader up to date on any relevant developments she notices while here.




Eridan Amporahomestuck
unconchonable

---A friendship in two parts---

Once upon a time Kanaya had a friend in a certain seadweller. It was a strange situation, as the Seadweller had plans to kill all landdwellers, though he promised that Kanaya wouldn't be included. Their shared interest in a certain Cerulean blood gave them both things to connect over and things to argue over, but they were always pretty friendly. Kanaya was instrumental in helping Eridan achieve his dreams of science wizardry... and he agreed to help her with her goal of hatching the matriorb and saving their race.

And then, moments after agreeing to help her, he revealed his intention to abandon and betray all of the trolls remaining. He assaulted Sollux, killed their friend Feferi, and then turned on Kanaya. He destroyed the matriorb, and when she attacked him in a rage he killed her too.

It didn't stick. Kanaya rose up as a Rainbow Drinker, and took her revenge. She debunk'd his science wand and cut him in half with her chainsaw. That would have been all, too, until she was brought to Vatheon. There she found Eridan alive and well.

Karkat tried to tell her that he had changed, that he was contrite... and while Kanaya wasn't about to forgive him she did hold from attacking him. And then she learned that he and Karkat were matesprits, something Karkat had conveniently neglected to mention. This fact cast doubt on what Karkat had told her, but ultimately she came to accept her friendleader's claims. She mostly avoided Eridan after that... but she could avoid seeing him on the network. He really had changed. A series of encounters between them began.

Kanaya now considers Eridan a friend. She hasn't forgotten what happened, and she can't quite forgive him... but the pain is in the past. Things have gotten just a little more awkward recently though. Eridan is Roxy's moirail. Kanaya's not quite sure what to think about that. Their friendship had been repaired enough to the point where she actually asked his permission to begin perusing a relationship with Roxy, but if he had refused, she's not entirely sure she would have backed down. They still have a ways to go, and it looks like the snarky horseshitometer might be permanently set in her favor. There is one certainty though. Should anybody dare to harm Roxy they would be facing an incredibly terrifying response of jade and purple combined.




Maka AlbarnSoul eater
badasscutie

---Two Star Meister---

Early on in her time in Vatheon Kanaya saw a network post by someone claiming that they could see a person's soul. As from her perspective she had only been a Rainbow Drinker for a few weeks Kanaya had been plagued by the metaphysical implications of her existence. Here, she though, she could find some sort of answer. While the answer only led to more questions, it came with a freebie: a new friend. Maka is a kind girl, and while they don't have too many overlapping interests they get along quite well.




Nepeta LeijonHomestuck
bestestfurrend

---Felid Minor---

Kanaya's estimation of Nepeta was always been a little uneven. She's sweet and kind, but Kanaya knows that those claws have seen more blood than her own chainsaw. Still, she's never felt threatened by the cat-troll. Between the events of their game and her time spent in Vatheon, Kanaya has started to feel quite comfortable with her. She knows all about Nepeta's shipping wall, so rather than try and keep her own romances a secret Kanaya has taken into the habit of revealing her love life to Nepeta whenever the situation changes. While she doesn't quite understand the feline obsession Kanaya certainly doesn't mind it, and she always enjoys spending time with her. After what happened on the meteor Kanaya feels a need to protect Nepeta to a degree only tempered by her knowledge that the olive blood is quite capable in her own right. After meeting the Disciple she's became less worried for Nepeta and more worried for who would have to clean up the mess should anybody attack her.




Disciplehomestuck
feralfanatic

---Felid Major---

Until the Dolorosa arrived, the Disciple was Kanaya's closest friend among the ancestor trolls. It has not always been an easy friendship, but it has been rewarding all the same. The Disciple's early days in Vatheon were quite strange, as her mind struggled to come out from the feral haze inflicted on it. Kanaya was happy to help as best she could. Kanaya found out by accident that the Disciple could be calmed to a point of incapacity by drinking her blood. It was unfortunate that at the time the blood had been filled with sopor from a spiked cupcake, but it still served as a good lesson. She had an opportunity to put it to use a few months later, when the Disciple started to have trouble with Orphaner Dualscar. the seadweller had been purposefully antagonizing the olive blood, and as she felt herself slipping back into her feral instincts she sent a network message to Kanaya begging for help. Kanaya arrived to late to stop the Disciple from entering a blind animalistic rage, but she managed to bite and drink from her. This calmed the Disciple's anger, but did nothing to make her feel better about what had happened. They entered into a pact then, that should the Disciple fall from grace again, Kanaya would do her best to help her, and should Kanaya ever do the same from her hunger, then Disciple would return the favor.

As far as Kanaya is concerned, the deal is still in place. She knows though, that she won't have much opportunity to assist the Disciple again, unless her moirail Darkleer is unavailable the next time a crisis hits. Kanaya is fine with that, after all it's good that Disciple has someone close who's willing to help, and the more support she has the better she'll be. Kanaya happily gets to see the Disciple more often these days, now that the Dolorosa and the Disciple are living together.




Darkleerhomestuck
aim-exorable

---That one creepy uncle who seems pretty cool when you're a kid but in retrospect...---

Lorem Ipsum Douchebag Sit Amet







DualscarHomestuck
devvocean

---That other creepy unlce that even as a kid you know you probably shouldn't be alone in a room with---

Lorem Ipsum Douchebag Sit Amet






Mindfanghomestuck
shesapir8

---Oh no she's hot---

Lorem Ipsum Douchebag Sit Amet






Shiro Fujimotoao no exorcist
paladaddy

---the awesome uncle who's just nice---



Lorem Ipsum Douchebag Sit Amet










MarcelineAdventure Time
redboots

---The Vampire Queen---
Lorem Ipsum Douchebag Sit Amet







Fai D. FlouriteTSUBASA
behind-my-smile

---fellow bloodsucker---

Lorem Ipsum Douchebag Sit Amet


















---TITLE---

Lorem Ipsum Douchebag Sit Amet




sylphauxiliatrix: (adoration)
2013-04-01 03:14 pm

How's my driving?

Any questions, complaints, or concerns over my characterization of Kanaya? Tell me here! I'm always willing to try and improve. Be detailed, and thanks for your concern.

Comment screening is on for privacy.
sylphauxiliatrix: (Default)
2013-03-26 10:21 am

Vampire Bullshit

Kanaya Maryam is a Rainbow Drinker. This is basically some twisted Troll version of the human mythological Vampire, but they prefer to walk in the daylight. Canon facts for Rainbow Drinkers are rather sparse, so This is here to collect the headcanon I've been using to play out the condition.

Canon facts for Rainbow Drinkers:


- They can drink blood. It's suggested that this is mandatory, or at least somewhat of a burden.
- They can move and survive with a hole where their spine used to be.
- Their skin glows with sufficient light to illuminate a passageway.
- The luminescence can be turned on and off at will once the Rainbow Drinker understands the trick.
- Rainbow Drinkers are capable of supernatural speed.
- Kanaya fed on Terezi and Sollux in canon without any ill effects. The bite of a Rainbow Drinker is insufficient to spread the "curse". As theorized in the Walkaround, The effects of being a Rainbow Drinker may be an adaptation to allow Jade Bloods to better care for and protect the mother grubs. It's not likely that Rainbow Drinkers can 'infect', 'embrace' or otherwise change anybody into a Rainbow Drinker.

My headcanon for rainbow drinkers was first developed as I started to play Kanaya, and was refined quite a bit while playing in Vatheon. At first I used the rules for vampires in White Wolf's "Vampire: The Masquerade" as a basis, but over time I've ditched parts of that when they never came up or proved to be unusable in RP, or when canon started to show some signs of contradiction, or when I decided I didn't like the way it would work. Many things were added when I encountered situations I hadn't yet considered (such as feeding from someone who is intoxicated). Here's what I'm working with now.


--Headcannon--




Romance Novels:


In canon, there are several romantic books featuring Rainbow Drinkers. For the purposes of my headcanon, These works of fiction are somewhat based on truth. While the creatures are supposed to be myths, obviously they actually exist. Different books set up different circumstances for Rainbow Drinkers, just as real life Vampire novels have differences in things like the effectiveness of garlic/crosses/running water/etc. The commonalities of the books (blood drinking, resilience to damage, enjoying sunlight) are all based on truth, but Kanaya has had to explore the other facts presented in her books to see if they hold. She has included human vampiric literature in this search, and has not yet found any pungent vegetables particularly offensive, nor has she had any difficulty bathing.

Sustenance:


Rainbow drinkers need blood. Different bloods have a unique flavor, but only between species and blood castes, not that the flavor could be used to identify an individual or anything.
Food and drink do nothing. There is no problem with digestion, but a drinker could go without forever and be just fine.

A rainbow drinker needs to feed around once a week. Sufficient sources of 'full spectrum' light can delay the hunger, but ultimately one will need to drink eventually. "Bottled" blood takes a little bit of the edge off of the hunger, but like sunlight it's a delaying measure, not a replacement. Only fresh live blood will really do.

When the time period of feeding is reached (a week on average, up to three with the delaying measures above) hunger starts to set in. The initial effects of hunger are not immediately noticeable. It starts with a subtle change in behavior driving the Drinker to find food. The exact change is subject to environment. A Rainbow Drinker that has isolated themselves from society might find themselves going out in public more often. In Kanaya's case, due to a combination of trashy undead romance novels and the fact that the first several times she got hungry in canon she was around a certain individual that she was rather attracted to... she gets a little flirty. My headcanon for this is that she managed to keep control during the meteor trip to the alpha session mostly by maintaining strict feeding schedules. In a game this may not be so easy.

If the hunger is ignored, it may grow to the point where the Drinker can lose control. This would start as more aggressive feeding behaviors, but could lead to a full blown crazed vampire blood rampage. Kanaya's pretty careful about this. She has come close enough to it though that she's afraid of what might happen if she waits too long.

At their hungriest, a rainbow drinker may require more blood than a victim can safely give. Normally though, if they feed as soon as they start to feel the hunger, their victim or donor will just feel a bit lightheaded. Feeding often, combined with the delaying effects of sun, can greatly reduce the amount needed.

If a victim is under the effects of some sort of drug, one that would be present in the bloodstream (most narcotics, alcohol, Sopor), then drinking that blood causes the drinker to be affected to more or less the same degree as the victim.

The feeding is a pleasurable experience for both parties. Not the orgasmic effect of some vampire canons, but there is a bit of a euphoric effect after the initial pain of broken skin, along with a lasting mood boost that may be as much from bloodloss as it is from whatever causes the pleasure. Bite wounds are minor, and Rainbow Drinkers probably have some sort of healing effect on their bites, as band-aids are sufficient to take care of the wounds.


Physicality:


Obviously, a rainbow drinker has incredible stamina and resistance to wounds. They may lose some blood from an injury, but don't have to worry about bleeding out. Kanaya still operated with a hole where her spine should be, after all. Outright decapitation or incineration would kill one just fine. They react to brain damage the same as anyone else would. Overall they can take a lot of punishment, at least to the body.

Rainbow drinkers are immune or at least very resistant to most poisons, radiations, and other interesting hazards where the effect is more or less biological.

Edit: "Drinker Fastness" is now confirmed canon. Headcanon description of it's relative speed is still headcanon.
In addition, though these parts are sometimes argued by fans, I headcanon rainbow drinkers as having additional speed and strength. These are boons to help protect the mother grub. Kanaya kicked Gamzee several feet in the air, and approached fast enough to catch the flashstepper off guard. However, I usually don't feel like arguing that she's *faster* than Gamzee / bro's flashstepping, just fast enough that it's obvious to most trolls that they're supernaturally enhanced. Same goes for the strength. She couldn't outdo Equius, but she's surprisingly strong from her size. In Vatheon she used both of these to wrestle the Disciple (don't ask, there were gamzee-made cupcakes involved), and may have even outmatched her in strength... but there's only so much force a 45~kilo girl can lever onto someone, and with a greater level of experience Disciple managed to pin her.

A rainbow drinker may or may not have some form of immortality. They probably do continue to age (Kanaya will appear to get older over time), though they might stop at mid-adulthood. I dunno. Maybe their aging is slower, maybe super old Rainbow Drinkers are like old school vampires that look like mummies or something, or maybe they have the eternal youth thing going. I doubt it will ever come up, other than as a slight existential horror for Kanaya at the idea that she might live forever. It's just my preference that she won't stay a pre-teen troll forever.

The characteristic glow of a rainbow drinker can be suppressed or 'turned off'. When it it off, a sudden shock can cause it to return as a sort of defense mechanism. Most of the time, it will remain in it's current state of on or off without any effort. She only needs to concentrate to "flip the switch" as it were, and the aforementioned defense reaction might flip it on without any control.
sylphauxiliatrix: (Default)
2012-04-14 02:15 am

General description of Kanaya's shop

This store has a large sign over it, written in a specific shade of green that may be quite familiar to those that know the store's owner.

Kanaya Maryams Storefront For
Commissioned Ragripping And Seamstressing 
With Display Space For Artistic Clothing Creations


Boy, this place keeps odd hours! A small sign on the glass door says this business opens an hour after sundown on the surface, and closes an hour before dawn. Beneath that another sign reads "Sorry But The Proprietor Of This Establishment Is Not Currently Present" during the day, but when she opens up the sign is flipped over to it's much simpler "Welcome" side. Sometimes the store is open outside of it's normal hours, especially on days where the weather up on the island is not so nice, or whenever Kanaya feels like getting some extra work done.

The front face of the building includes a large picture window which holds a few dress forms, backed by a thick curtain of velvet. Hanging off this window is a planter box filled with a variety of colorful flowers. Inside, more dress forms and mannequins stand, clothed in many different styles from the ultra-modern to historical period wear, to casual clothing and traditional outfits of many different cultures, fleshed out with a little of everything in between. The specific outfits on display change frequently, sometimes as often as every day, and the styles shift as their creator experiments and discovers different ideas. Men's and women's fashions are available, though usually there are more dresses than anything else.

None of these outfits have a price tag, as the clothing here is either made on commission or actually a part of the proprietor's own wardrobe. A small sign on the back wall indicates that this business is for clothing repairs, tailoring, and custom commission work, though you are welcome to make an offer on something if you like it.

A small counter stands next to a door leading to the back of the shop. The counter has a few fashion magazines and portfolios, material chosen to provide prospective clients with inspiration. A pair of stools are available as well, should one like to sit while perusing the books, or discussing designs with the owner.


A colorful curtain covers the doorway into the work room in back. This area used to be a chaotic mess of materials, but after the flooding damage things are decidedly under control. A few sparsely populated racks are available for half finished projects. Nearby are several closets and bins. Kanaya learned from her earlier mistake of leaving a lot of her materials around, and has invested heavily in organization.

In the far corner from the entryway is where most of the real work gets done. There's a collection of different sewing machines there, though some are sadly out of action. These devices can be finicky machines when they haven't been doused with salt water. Luckily Kanaya had a spare machine on the island in her hive, though she sorely feels the loss of her serger.

The final corner has a three angle mirror and a stepping block, perfect for test fittings. A nearby partition is available for changing, should a client prefer a bit of privacy.




A single bell chimes when the front door is opened, summoning the proud owner of this workshop and boutique from her work.
sylphauxiliatrix: (bloodied post fight)
2012-02-29 10:15 pm
Entry tags:

Vat Permissions Post

Permissions:

Kanaya Maryam is a Rainbow Drinker (pretty much a vampire) and may have a desire to drink blood at times. In most instances she will ask permission before doing so. There may be some extreme circumstances where she might not ask permission.

- Is it alright if my character asks to be allowed to drink from yours?

- Is it alright if my character attempts to drink from yours forcfully (not enough to injure/debilitate)?

- Is it alright if my character attempts to drink from yours forcfully (causing injury or unconsciousness)?

I don't really think I'd ever want her to drain someone to death, but if you for some reason think that's the way you want your character to go I could be up for that too. But really I'm not going to do so otherwise, ever. Likewise, Kanaya wields a chainsaw but I would not be looking to ever cause character death with it. I'm fine if you all want to just dodge it entirely, characters that can take a 'glancing blow' from a chainsaw would be rather rare.

- If your character ever has a reason to fight mine, she uses a chainsaw. Is this ok with you? like I said, I'm fine with people dodging the weapon constantly.

A quick note regarding all this, and her personality / character advancement after several months in game: Kanaya can be petty, she can be mean, but she's not the type to attack without severe provocation. If you area threat to her or the people she cares about, she won't hesitate to deal with you, but most of the time she is friendly and easygoing. She's also gotten control of the vampire hunger thing for the most part, with a system of consenting donors on a strict schedule. I've been playing in Vatheon since march of 2012, and she has never totally lost control from hunger, and has never lifted her chainsaw in anger against a player character. (NPC zombie fish monsters, on the other hand...) So... yeah. most of this stuff isn't a worry. If she wants to drink from you, she's most likely going to ask, or it'll be under some rather desperate and unlikely conditions.

Please reply here with your responses and any questions about Kanaya's abilities, as a Rainbow Drinker or otherwise. Thanks.
sylphauxiliatrix: (rage wield chaisaw)
2012-02-28 02:38 pm

Vatheon Application

[ Player Name ] : HiddenKrypt
[ Personal DW ] : I don't have one. If I made one just for you to get ahold of me, I wouldn't log into it as often as I do this one. This is my primary and pretty much only DW account. I have a Plurk under the name hiddenKrypt, if that helps.
[ Age ] : I am 26.
[ Timezone ] : PST (GMT-8)
[ Other Characters ] : None

[ Character's Name ] : Kanaya Maryam
[ Character's Age ] : 6 Sweeps / 13 years
[ Series ] : HOMESTUCK
[ Canon Point ] : Up to date, having just left the green sun.
[ History ] : Wiki link


[ Personality ] :
As Great-Grandpa Alphonse always used to say: "When You don't know where to start, go back to da beginnin'"

To look at the aspects of Kanaya's personality I think it's helpful to examine the largest contributors and indicators of those aspects.

First of all, the ancestor thing. Troll society claims that the lives of your ancestors will be reflected in your own life. There seems to be some indications that this is true, even for the Trolls who have not discovered anything about their ancestors. Kanaya's ancestor had something resembling a mothering instinct, a pattern of behavior complely foreign to Trolls. Kanaya may have some of this instinct, but if so it mostly shows from her desire to help others. Not enough is known about the Dolorosa though to make much of any sort of inference from here. She may have had some form of a matespriteship with Mindfang, which might have been reflected in Kanaya's pining for Vriska pre-sgrub.

Kanaya was raised by a unique lusus, a Virign Mother Grub. This creature acted as her guardian and parent, and it is likely that from here Kanaya gained some social mores unique amongst her race. A Mother Grub accepting a young troll and becoming a lusus is an event so rare as to be without recorded precedent in a society where every good movie title has been taken so modern movies have horrifically long names. This is the first of several events that marked Kanaya as different from other Trolls. She was raised by a creature that is shown to fit the "caring mother" archetype. This is most likely the origin of Kanaya's friendly and helpful nature. In the end, Kanaya just wants to help people. sometimes this results in her getting accused of Meddling, but she does what she can to help anyway. She is accused of being "the vvillage twwo wwheel devvice wwhen it comes to auspisticing". Auspisticing is a troll quadrant position of mediating between two rivals to help them avoid their rivalry getting out of hand. The village two wheel device is a troll way of saying the village bicycle. It is readily apparent that Kanaya often is put in this position of mediator for her friends, helping wherever she can. Her Lusus may not have given her a true mothering instinct like her ancestor had (Trolls don't seem to be mammals, they don't care for their young at all), but the protective nature of a mother does seem to be a permanent part of Kanaya's personality.

Her chat handle is "grimAuxiliatrix". This, like many handles in Homestuck is a window in to her personality as well. Auxiliatrix is Latin for a "helpful woman", something we've discussed quite a bit already. The grim aspect is reflected in her willingness to do whatever she needs to, and how little she flinches at necessary tasks. In this way she is a fairly typical troll, unfazed by violence. She killed Eridan pretty much entirely out of revenge and in a horrifically violent manner. She has shown little thought or remorse for this act. She may seem like a nice person but under the right circumstances she has no problems with killing, something that may be off putting to any members of other cultures should they find out about her history. Besides the normal violence inherent in Trolls and Alternian society in general, Kanaya's grim nature may be a result of her time spent gardening and landscaping around her hive. To have maintained such a lush and well grown area in the middle of what seems like arid desert would take quite a dedication the the craft of agriculture. Such skills often lead to necessarily but unfortunate decisions, a form of triage being necessary to decide what plants will not be able to grow properly. In a way Kanaya has likely been culling the weak to protect what she can for a while, and this attitude for plants matches in some ways her attitude in other unfortunate circumstances. Her willingness to kill is not a symptom of evil, but of utilitarianism. She does not have any problem doing whatever it takes to protect those she cares about.

At an early age The First Guardian of Alternia, Doc Scratch, took an interest in Kanaya. What exactly he did there is not known, but Scratch's monologue suggests he may have been responsible for some aspects of Kanaya's oddness in her society, possibly including her eventual change into a Rainbow Drinker. This may have influenced her greatly. She shows a love of novels involving rainbow drinkers and she enjoys the sun, something which is said to be actively harmful to other trolls.

Romantically she is constantly attracted to women who live dangerous lives. This resulted in her infatuation with Vriska for a while, which was mostly ignored by the other Troll. She tried to curb Vriska's more violent tendencies, but could not keep an eye on her constantly, a fact that may bring her some remorse. She was hurt by Vriska, and has become more hesitant in her romantic inclinations. She is aware of her tendency to fall for dangerous women, and isn't sure if it is worth the risks anymore. She recognizes the same patterns with Rose, thus her infatuations are tainted with the fears caused by the wounds she has fairly recently gotten. Her primarily same-sex attraction is another aspect that separates her from most trolls whom Humans would identify as being normally Bisexual.

Finally, fashion and design. Kanaya is a consummate aesthete, taking time to landscape the area around her hive, to decorate her home, and to make unique clothing. It seems she is unique amongst trolls for a dedication to style as well as or instead of function. She enjoys making the world around her look better, and has on occasion made clothes for others, even though her friends have no care for frippery.

[ Strengths/Weaknesses ] :
Strenghts: Psychologically, she is quite resilient; barely fazed by scenes of violence or unpleasant necessities (sawing off Tavros's legs to prepare him for the robot prosthetics, cutting a disarmed Troll in half out of revenge.) Physically she seems to have gained much from becoming a Rainbow Drinker. She obviously can survive injuries, as we have no indication that the hole in her torso has been magically healed and yet it doesn't even seem to be an inconvenience. She also shows greater strength and speed, having punted Gamzee into the air and having sent Vriska flying with a punch. Seems like your typical undead vampiric damage resistance, strength, and speed, but not as over the top as often shown in films. For example, I doubt she's as strong as Equius even with her new state.

Weaknesses: In canon we haven't seen anything to indicate any special weaknesses really. There seem to be hints that Rainbow Drinkers receive energy from the sun though, and Kanaya misses sunlight quite a bit (it's why she wanted to stay with Sollux and Aradia a the sun.) Because there's some obvious advantages to being a rainbow Drinker, I think this would be turned into a weakness as well. Vatheon lies beneath the waves, so she will not get the sun she needs. I think she will lose energy a bit quicker than other characters, needing to spend more time touching Coral to get a "full charge", and needing to do so more often than others might.
There's also the matter of Blood. The canon has not indicated if Blood is a requirement of rainbow drinkers or something they just enjoy. It doesn't look like it will matter too much either way though, as this question in the FAQ seems to indicate that Kanaya will not be without options when it comes to drinking. Should I end up in a situation where blood is not available, I'll roleplay out the hunger anyway and probably try to petition other player characters for a drink. Either way, if she can't get to the locals for blood I doubt she can get to the coral, so she'll probably be pretty bad off from the energy thing already. If you think this is something that should be figured out anyway let me know what you think, I could play it nearly any way.

[ Other Important Facts ] :
She is armed with a chainsaw that doubles are black or green lipstick. She's alchemicalized a more powerful chainsaw, but really, it's a chainsaw. We're all pretty familiar with the sort of damage it can cause. IT seems to change from it's innocuous double to a weapon at Kanaya's will, so there's no chance of her accidentally chopping her head off while touching up her makeup. This also makes such a bulky weapon surprisingly portable.
Kanaya is a Rainbow Drinker, which is sort of a Troll reverse vampire. They "charge up" in the sunlight, and glow in the dark. They drink blood with the attitude of a connoisseur, and seem to have heightened physical prowess. They differ greatly from and in opposition to many vampire myths of human culture. The canon has not suggested any special weaknesses to garlic, crosses, running water, wooden stakes, or any other typical vampire things. The weaknesses I suggested above are pretty much headcanon, added because a character with this sort of a buff and no drawbacks isn't much fun!

[ Sample ] :
My primary example is this thread in a friend's musebox. That friend is the one that convinced me to apply to Vatheon, I don't know what name she uses here though.

For completeness and humor I will respond to the prompts you have as well:

- A new curse has settled upon the city of Vatheon: Suddenly you character realizes they are unable to lie for the duration of a week. How do they react?
I Don't See What The Problem Is. There Is Some Inconvenience Here But Is Honesty Really That Bad? I Don't Know What You're All Complaining About.

- What is this? Is that rain? How nice-- wait a minute, is it raining rubber duckies? Seriously?
...No comment. Goes about her day, ignoring the rubber quackbeasts.

- Suddenly, by the force of Vatheon, an over zealous npc, or even your character's friends playing a joke, your character suddenly finds themselves wearing clothes they otherwise would never wear. What do?
This Do.
But seriously, she would not be pleased. The first goal is to get OUT of this horrible outfit or at least modify it into something less appalling. Then, find out who or what is responsible for this travesty. Make them Pay. Preferably in a manner that with either serve as a lesson to others, or in such way as to give the perpetrators a lesson in proper fashion.

- The city of Vatheon is under attack (again). Giant sea-creatures are wrecking the city (again). Time to prepare for battle.
Prepare my Chainsaw/lipstick, touch the coral again just to be sure, and head to battle. I must protect this place, not for myself but for the friends I have here.

- A new plot development has happened and your character has decided to get some more information from one of the NPCs. How do they proceed?
Perhaps If I Simply Ask Nicely I Can Get The Information I Require With A Minimal Fuss. It Depends On How Much I Need The Information Though; I Just Want To Make Sure We Are All Safe. I Will Resort To Threats Or Even Violence If I Must.


[ Questions? Comments? Concerns? ] :
I don't know how other Homestucks handle the quirks thing. If I am accepted I'll just mimic their ways of doing the Quirks, or I'll do it the way I have above for the prompts.

With Kanaya it isn't so bad, but I use punctuation just because it makes dialog so much easier to understand when I'm not using newlines to indicate sentence ends. If I am communicating via some sort of chat client I will follow the quirk faithfully (No punctuation at all, each word starts with a capital letter, text will be styles ala pesterchum / trollian)
i.e.
GA: Hello
GA: Is Anybody Receiving This
GA: I May Require Assistance
sylphauxiliatrix: (frog hunting cool)
1985-01-01 12:01 am
Entry tags:

Vatheon Voicemail

Hello

You Have Reached The Communication Device Of Kanaya Maryam

Please Leave A Message Detailing Your Name Your Contact Information And The Reason You Are Looking To Hear From Me

Thank You

-BEEP-