application ( cerealia )

[compliant]

Applicant Info

◎ Name: Jes
◎ Journal: lenity
◎ Contact: eldrant

Character Info

◎ Character's Name: Anri Sonohara
◎ Character's Canon: Durarara!!
◎ Character's Age: 16 in canon; 17 with previous game history.
◎ Canon Point: Post volume six of the light novels.
◎ Background/History: Wiki: Plot summary | Anri's history
◎ Is the character a hacker and/or do they have a sixth-sense? Due to the spirit possessing her body, Anri can tell if someone is a human being or some other type of creature. (I am unsure if that counts as a sixth sense, but am placing it here anyway just to be careful.) Other than that, no.

◎ Personality:

Anri appears to be a very shy, unassuming girl who goes out of her way not to react to things. Teacher with a soft spot for his younger, female students getting too cozy and making her uncomfortable? Stare at the floor until it’s over. A trio of “mean girls” kick her down in a public place, start calling her names, and then get stabbed repeatedly by an unseen assailant? Continue sitting in a heap, don’t even scream. A girl she doesn’t know shows up at her apartment late at night, speaking in a very otherworldly voice and not blinking once? Invite her in for tea, and cling to a chair when she becomes too frightening. For a very long time, this was Anri’s “norm”. As long as she kept her head down and didn’t make a sound, the bad thing would pass her by, right?

There’s a very good reason for that. From a young age, Anri was the victim of severe physical abuse from her father as his business failed and he became steadily more and more dependent on unnamed drugs that, presumably, brought out intense fits of rage. Being a small child and unable to defend herself, and without her mother taking a step to defend either of them during the duration of it, Anri “closed her heart”. She made herself incapable of love and very reluctant to react, just to survive. She didn’t need to aim high – all she wanted was survival, contentment (if not outright happiness), peace and someone to be dependent on. By setting the bar very low, Anri learned not to exhibit much emotion, not to expect too much, to avoid most social situations, and how to take advantage of a dubious situation. If it didn’t concern her, she ignored it outright. If it did concern her – well, she was very good at convincing herself that it didn’t. Such was the case of her teacher, Shuji Niekawa’s come-ons. As uncomfortable as she was with the situation and as much as she disliked him and did not encourage him, nor did she actively discourage him. She simply kept her head to the ground and waited for the moment to end.

It’s less that way now, with Anri making a clear choice in every situation. Minor bullying will end eventually. Sexual advances by teachers don’t last forever. She’s not impatient and these things don’t threaten her, not if she doesn’t let them. Someone threatening to disrupt her quiet, happy lifestyle with the company of the people she holds dear? Prepare to be messed up. That or, mildly mind-raped. Anri can do that.

Since the death of her parents, Anri has been possessed by the spirit Saika – outside of her body, it manifests as an ancient katana that Anri can summon at will from any part of her body. Although most will assume it possesses her, like all good cases of spirit/demonic possession, Anri would say it’s fifty-fifty. As much as Saika can’t do anything without her, she cannot live without Saika. Without it, she’d be truly stripped of any emotional coherency she does have and be bereft, completely unable to cope. As long as Anri insists she cannot love anyone – and it may well even be true – she will forever need Saika to love for her. For that reason alone, she chooses to withstand its whispers and demands. The fact that everyone else who has every carried it has hurt many people is far less significant, but it is a factor. That’s another thing about Anri – the need to be kind only exists when the situation is right in front of her face. Had Haruna Niekawa never approached her, Anri may never have done anything about the Slasher and its many victims because it didn’t directly involve her.

Or, perhaps she would have acted eventually, when things grew genuinely dire. We're not given to know what might have been.

Regardless, Anri can and will straddle the line between cruelty and kindness. She tells Mika Harima that she won't apologise for her actions because it would invalidate the life she's chosen to live, but also tells Harima the full truth in the (perhaps a touch naive) hope of erasing any bad blood between them. It does not work and ultimately, Harima still pursues Anri out of a longstanding grudge. Anri may not always make the right decision or know what she's doing but she's trying. She's still very much a teenager, a bit naive and inexperienced, and will make mistakes. When she feels she needs to be cruel, parasitic, or even monstrous to preserve the life she's come to cherish -- she will. She will find it somewhere within herself: reserves of strength and unapologetic firmness. That girl, with the bright red eyes, is miles away from the socially awkward class rep and while it might be difficult to reconcile the two, what person doesn't have demons?

Anri is not a bad person, nor is she the best person. It would be easy enough to sum it up there, but believe it or not, we're not done. Part of the dubious blessing of possessing Saika is the ability to “cut” people, to implant a fragmented part of Saika’s soul in them, making them powerless to obey the order of the “mother” – in this case, Anri. Anri has never taken it for anything less than what it is: a horribly invasive crime against a person. To her, it’s not a gift, or a privilege. It’s a grave power, a grave responsibility, and something she never wants to take lightly. Each time she does it will always be a conscious choice, not a reflexive response – and she will always try to square that debt or justify it to herself. (After all, Izaya was a pretty horrible person, right?)

Socially, day-to-day, Anri is not very emotive. A simple smile could be her way of demonstrated unadulterated happiness, and a slight frown may be representative of complete and utter heartbreak. That dull, neutral expression? That’s Anri at her default, and isn’t meant to be indicative of anything in particular. It’s just how she is. At her lowest point, scared and huddled in the rain, terrified of being found by the Yellow Scarves and Saika feeding on that terror, Anri goes as far as to shed a single demonstrative tear. She’s not much of a crier either. One thing that she will demonstrate, however, is a certain amount of squeamishness – she’s really not a fan of blood.

She’s also very dependent on friendships and the few people she does allow herself to form close bonds with. With Mika Harima, that bond was not necessarily real – Harima adopted an “unpopular” girl to make herself look charitable, and Anri was just content to have a female friend (to the point where she willingly turned a blind eye to some of Harima’s more concerning activities, such as assaulting two gossiping girls in a washroom with a mop). But, Harima drifted from her and instead, Anri found real friendship in Mikado Ryuugamine and Masaomi Kida. For nearly a year, the three were inseparable and Anri was genuinely happy -- even if she didn’t quite understand what it meant or what it was. She simply clung to them until the day Kida wasn’t there anymore, having fled Ikebukuro for a few months. Despite his absence, and despite wondering if perhaps her feelings were stronger than even she thought, Anri was okay with things. She still had someone, and that’s enough.

It’s only when she’s completely alone and isolated do things get worrying. Anri uses intense human bonds to compensate for what she lacks and what Saika takes from her, hoping that friendship and knowing that she can still care for people will help keep her grounded. And, on a bad day, she really just needs to hear someone else’s voice.

At the end of it all, Anri has spent years clinging firmly to the notion that her father’s abuse left her unable to love. This is proving less and less true as time goes on, her heart opening more as she experiences true things like friendship, change, heartache. She doesn’t understand any of it and makes clumsy overtures to classify her pain and joy, wondering at one point if she had been in love with Kida simply because she was now sad that he had left the city... but even acknowledging she can have feelings puts her far from the girl she was two years ago: the girl who didn’t react, didn’t notice, didn’t care.

She just has a lot more growing to do, that’s all.

◎ Powers/Abilities:

Anri is possessed by a demonic entity known as Saika. Saika does not have a body of its own but inhabits a katana that remains in Anri's possession at all times. Not only does possession of Saika offer Anri highly increased strength, agility, and combat ability, but Saika is capable of "procreating". If a person given a shallow cut by Saika, they become one of its children. This comes from Saika being able to spread bits of its soul into other people through the act of cutting their flesh. When Anri invokes Saika, whoever has been cut refers to Anri as "mother" and automatically obeys any order she gives - even at times acting on her emotions, doing what they feel would make her happy. This is expressed in canon with one of Saika's children attacking a character named Horada without any orders, simply because Horada was about to kill one of Anri's closest friends.

To put it simply, think of a beehive: all the drone bees are children of, and instinctively follow, the Queen Bee. Saika - and Anri by extension, due to being Saika's vessel - is that Queen Bee.

People who are cut by Saika also receive highly enhanced strength, agility, and resilience. This is illustrated best in episodes 16 and 17 of the anime: an entire crowd of Saika's children were able to take constant beatings from Shizuo Heiwajima, Ikebukuro's strongest man, and still remain standing and combat-ready. (To offer some perspective, Shizuo Heiwajima can throw vending machines and other extremely large items as if they're toys.) However, this only lasts as long as Anri invokes Saika's presence a little more and can be turned on and off like a switch. Generally, her children don't have any memory of the time she had "switched them on" but will always act in accordance with her wishes when she does, without question.

note: I have no intention of having her utilise the godmode part of her abilities. Should that change in the future, it will be only after extensive plotting between me and an agreeable, excited other player (and mod permission, of course) - but right now, I have zero plans and no desire to do so. This is partly because I don't want to deal with Saika's canonly unexplained intricacies and partly because it would be very, very OOC for Anri. I will also put up a permission post, but it is unlikely that I will even need to use it. Just so we're all on the same page!

◎ Weapons & Other Special Inventory:

⑴ As mentioned above, Anri has a spirit-infected katana in her possession at all times. It is ancient, but still looks brand new and is just as sharp and fluid as a weapon that was crafted yesterday. She stores it in her body. Like you do.
⑵ From her time in Haven, Anri will have retained her communication device - a blackberry-esque phone that holds contact information and pictures, but no names or words. In Cerealia, it will be unable to charge and eventually lose power and die.
⑶ The clothes on her back: a knee-length skirt, a sweater that's tight around the bust and loose everywhere else, and a pair of dirty trainers that don't quite fit. All these clothes are severely secondhand, having been scavenged in Haven. Also, you know, undergarments and stuff. :D

CEREALIA-Specific

◎ Element: Earth.
◎ Sense: Touch. Most of Anri's formative experiences have revolved around physical contact in such way. As well, being the strong and silent type, it's how her most intimate or telling moments are revealed.
◎ Seven Character Traits:
( + Resourceful, enduring/stalwart, intelligent. )
( - Withdrawn, awkward, emotionally stagnant. )
( +/- Unable to express herself. )

Samples

◎ First-Person Sample: Thread from previous game.

◎ Third-Person Sample:

Although not a fan of shopping as a hobby, Anri loves the shopping district. It’s dark and bright all at once, neon lights and electric windows contrasting the clouded, ink-black sky. She’s reminded so fluidly of home that a long forgotten sickness lines her stomach, as if the ground had lurched under her feet - Ikebukuro. She had lost reason to think of it in Haven, rather firmly convinced that her life would end while still boxed in that city’s invisible walls. The colony offers her hope, in startling degrees, but Anri only explores it with all the tentativeness of a child prodding the empty space in their mouth where a first lost tooth used to be - wary, excited, doubtful. If it turns out to be a dream, either a natural one or a fever hallucination put into her by Haven’s architects, well. She’s half-prepared for such a possibility, closing her eyes each time while knowing full well the world might be changed (or changed back) when she opens them anew. Preparation, for all its necessity, is not the same as desire. For now, though, she focuses on one moment at a time. Liking the shopping district, deciding it is real, hoping it will still be real tomorrow. For Anri, for the moment of time she occupies, it’s enough.

There is something about the district that separates it from home, however.

Custodial robots.

The first time Anri had seen one, she had attempted to say hello. It had gone as well as one might expect. Although a robot’s sensors can’t respectfully be considered bewildered, when it had turned toward her, lights blinking much the way eyes might, that was the feeling she had gotten from it. A long moment had passed between the two, tender and dreamy, before the robot flew off to empty the next trash bin. After that, Anri had kept her hellos to herself.

Still, there are other things familiar to her, things Anri had never thought to see again; storefronts and bustling people, the clink of currency and the rustle of shopping bags, the small of street-cooked food wafting in and out of the street.

Tentatively, with fear to chill it, Anri is - maybe, just possibly - happy. It’s a happiness built out of novelty, with things like three square meals a day and a regular hot shower to lay the foundation, but she grips it tightly nonetheless. She’s somewhere between hell and home and it’s enough.

Although sometimes, when her thoughts are quieted and her surroundings stilled to match, she finds herself thinking of that little robot, her unacknowledged “hello”, and what could have been.

◎ Is your character retaining any previous game memories?

Yes. Anri was present in Haven (havenrpg) for a cumulative time period of one year and six months. During that time, she had interactions with four castmates: Masaomi Kida, Mikado Ryuugamine, Shizuo Heiwajima, and Izaya Orihara. More information will be given on those interactions below - but first, a brief overview of her life in Haven. There is a significant amount to cover, and much of it is formative, so I am going to be as concise as possible and focus mainly on her relationships with other characters. If further elaboration is needed, feel free to ask.

— Arrived in Haven and immediately rescued her castmate/good friend Masaomi Kida from scissor wielding balloon type creatures, idk. It was the first time they had ever fought side by side. It set the tone for the rest of their interactions in Haven.
— Met her first roommates, Johnny Storm and Peter Parker from Ultimate Marvel 1610. They became friends, with Anri nursing the smallest of crushes on Johnny, until Peter was eaten by one of the game’s NPCs and Johnny blamed Anri for his friend’s temporary demise. Shortly after this, both Johnny and Peter disappeared.
— Became friends with Ange Ushiromiya from Umineko, something that lasted up until Anri’s ultimate departure from the setting. Ange was very protective of Anri and even invited her to move in when she found out Anri was all alone in her apartment. Although unbeknownst and unintelligible to her, Ange was one of the people Anri began to develop slight romantic feelings for in Haven, blurring the line between herself and the spirit that possesses her. Toward the last few weeks, being in Ange’s presence had meant Anri was more vulnerable to Saika’s influence.
— Was coerced into signing a contract by one of the game’s Evil NPCs™ under the umbrella of the Yao Corporation. It was in Chinese, which Anri was unable to read, but she was explicitly told that if she failed in the tasks given to her, her friends would be turned over to malicious bodily experimentation by another one of the Evil NPCs™. This led to Anri being one of the coordinators of an attack, where the endgame revolved around the fate of a third NPC, Beth Yao. Anri’s job was, at the time, to keep Beth alive and hinder attempts made by other game characters to kill her. At the end of that particular event, she was stabbed through the heart by Ciel from Tsukihime/Melty Blood and remained dead for a full month.
— Eventually, and despite attempting to kill one another (and one-half succeeding), Anri and Ciel formed a very professional camaraderie, with no hard feelings on either side. In fact, it could be argued that no one in Haven knew Anri better than Ciel, despite them being on opposite sides and not necessarily ever being friends. Ciel attempted to recruit Anri into an underground faction intending to kill Beth Yao (mentioned above), but Anri’s previous allegiance with Yao Corporation made the other group members reluctant to trust her.
— One of Anri’s other significant relationships with was with Kiyomasa Senji from Deadman Wonderland, who was singlehandedly responsible for Anri finally defecting from the Yao Corporation. He was the only one she genuinely trusted with the truth of her allegiance (unlike Ciel, who knew by circumstance and not a confession). Shortly after Anri opening up to him, Senji disappeared, making her suspicious and downright frightened of the game’s already skewed power structure. To this day, she believes his disappearance is her fault.

Most of Anri’s downtime in Haven (read: time off-screen) was spent scavenging or eradicating monsters. Despite her forced allegiance to the Yao Corporation, she very rarely got involved unless directly pressed and wasn’t apt to engage on the network that often. All her posts were voice only, too shy to use video, and quite rare besides. Character-led missions, such as attempts to breach the convenience store or group-run subway tunnel raids never had Anri join in.

However, the single biggest influence on her life in Haven were her castmates.
— Izaya Orihara, a malicious information broker who declared Anri his enemy in canon, was quite happy to keep that antagonism up in Haven. He orchestrated her first in-game death by providing her with false information and later used his game-given ability to write permanent messages to leave a charming note on her wall: DIE ANRI. (He’s very mature.) Tensions were high between the two and when Izaya disappeared, Anri didn’t miss him.
— Mikado Ryuugamine arrived in Haven no less than three times, and each following time, he lacked memory of his previous stay. It frustrated Anri and, although she was more than willing to drop everything to protect her close friend should it come to that, his memory gaps made her distance herself emotionally.
— It was Anri’s interactions with Masaomi Kida that resulted in her most development, however. Initially, Anri was happy to see him, as he had eloped with his estranged girlfriend in canon. They quickly did their best to settle back into a companionable friendship, both singularly identifying the other as their sole ally in this strange city. Things became tense after Izaya Orihara orchestrated her first death; upon her return, Kida felt largely guilty and attempted to alleviate this by asking Anri out on a first official date. She agreed but later stood him up, frightened by the strength of his words and feeling unable to measure up to his expectations of her. It was nearly two months before they spoke again, but their next encounter carried a heavy price. In an emotional moment, Saika manifested without Anri’s permission and cut Kida, turning him into one of the children. In Anri’s eyes, this took away Kida’s ability to choose her for himself and she struggled heavily with this fact, pushing him away as a consequence. Eventually, he was able to assuage her concerns - as well as forgiving her for the violation - and they entered into a vague relationship. This lasted until Anri’s final disappearance from Haven.
— Although her interaction with Shizuo Heiwajima was minimal, he did get turned into a monster at one point and attacked her. It was awesome. Mostly, though, I’m just sick of writing this section.

Emotionally, the toll all this had on Anri was evident. Although she had been shy and awkward for most of her life, her time in Haven made her substantially more blunt and outgoing. Although still rather introverted and quiet, she became a bit more used to being in sensitive positions. As well, she became marginally better at entertaining and holding her own in a conversation. After a year of trauma, malnourishment, battles and murder, she is rather less concerned about trivial details of social interaction. Her relationships with Ciel and Senji, in particular, inspired Anri to become more proactive in her own life, speak her mind, and take chances trusting people. Her friendship with Ange was probably the least self-serving of her entire life, with Ange being probably the only person Anri never used (however tinily) for her own emotional satisfaction. Through Ange, she became a bit more willing to engage in physical gestures such as hugs and handholding.

However, Anri’s interactions with Haven’s NPCs - as well as the game’s plotlines and mechanics - also made her considerably more ruthless and narrow minded in her goals. She’s never been one to care about the greater good or the fate of everyone around her. Her viewpoint is far narrower, focusing on the protection and wellbeing of those she cares about. Although not necessarily on purpose, but as a consequence, people she doesn’t care about are often left at the wayside. In Haven, she took on some very ugly tasks in the name of earning a better life for her friends, to the point of being expected to kill others. Anri has always been prepared to dismiss the many for the sake of a few, but Haven expected her to act on that viewpoint - and she did so, with less and less hesitation each time.

tl;dr her interpersonal relationships became more significant, causing her control over her personal body demon to weaken, and - unrelatedly - she tried to kill some people because some assbutt with a contract told her to. Also, first boyfriend ever. It was rad.