application for empatheias | spoilers for stormblood

[thanksapunch]

⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Debs
Contact: kyuupin
Age: 28
Current Characters: N/A


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Lyse Hext
Age: 25
Canon: Final Fantasy XIV
Canon Point: At the end of patch 4.0/Stormblood.

Background: A handy wiki link! However, since this doesn't cover Stormblood, I'll give a summary of the expansion and her role in it here.

SPOILERS FOR STORMBLOOD
After Lyse reveals that she wasn't Yda, and that Yda had been killed trying to help refugees out of Ala Mhigo, she assumes the role of a leader in trying to help free Ala Mhigo from the clutches of the Garleans. She's not actually entirely sure how to do this, but she spends the entire expansion learning by doing. At the very beginning, they try to make gains on the Ala Mhigan side of the world, but ultimately fail once the Garleans (accompanied by Zenos) attack Rhalgr's Reach. It's due to the Warrior of Light that they withdraw, and that several lives are saved, but it doesn't make it any less of a devastating blow to the resistance. It's then that they decide that divide and conquer is going to be the best way to handle the Garlean threat.

So with that, a group of people set off to Othard, in the far east, bouncing from Kugane to the Ruby Sea, where they gain the help of the Kojin (a beast tribe based on kappa) and the pirates. It's there that they learn to swim and breathe underwater so that they can accomplish what they need to do in the locale. They also realize that Yotsuyu is a bad person that does bad things and she needs to be taken care of. Susano may or may not have been accidentally summoned by the Warrior of Light at this time, but thankfully the Warrior of Light is a total badass and took him down before an accidental primal summoning could become an issue. Afterwards, they head into Yanxia, where they find Doma Castle and a bunch of people that have been beaten down by years of imperial rule.

During their (first) stay in Yanxia, they learn more of the awful things that Yotsuyu had done to the people that reside there, including the unspeakable atrocities that were ordered in order to squash the notion of rebellion. At one point, the Garleans come to gather up some people to throw into their army and walk away with them. It takes a lot of inspiring and showing the people that someone cares about them, and won't give up on them to give them their hope and life back. After an assassination attempt on Zenos' life (which ultimately failed), the gang heads into the Azim Steppe to try to do two things: search for Hien, and gain the help of the resident Xaela Au Ra. Upon their arrival in a merchant village, they find Hien and join up with the Mol Tribe. It's here that they learn about this competition known as the Nadaam, which helps decide who the ruling tribe will be for a time.

To prove themselves as Warriors of the Steppe, the group goes to prove their might in a trial known as Bardem's Mettle. When they succeed and leave, they meet up with the Oronir, and are brought in and told to swear themselves to the current leader before they're even allowed to participate in the Nadaam. Lyse and Hien are kept at the Dawn Throne while the Warrior of Light and Gosetsu do the tasks set before them by Magnai, and it's there that they have a heart-to-heart and Lyse starts to learn a little more about leadering and understanding people. Once they're free, they're allowed to go and participate in the Nadaam... which they do, and they win. With the Warrior of Light crowned the new Khagan of the area, they have gained the aid of the Au Ra present to help make sure that Doma is won back. They head back to Yanxia, and the help gained in the Azim Steppe proves to help, because after an elaborate and well-thought out plan, Doma is freed from the clutches of Garlean control and Yotsuyu has been knocked out of her position rather violently.

With this, they head back to Gyr Abania so that they can begin their attack in recovering Ala Mhigo. After a quick duel at dawn between Lyse and the Warrior of Light, along with Lyse agreeing to help lead Ala Mhigo, they begin their push through Gyr Abania to retake it. The fight is difficult, but once Zenos is defeated... Ala Mhigo belongs to the people again instead of to the Garleans. Afterwards, Lyse lets the Scions know that she needs to take her leave so that she can focus on helping to rebuild her homeland.

Personality:
The first majorly important thing that you need to know in order to understand most of Lyse's actions is that she's a girl that has only just begun to find her path in life. She was a child that, upon turning 18, immediately assumed the role of her dead sister and spent the next six years being her sister rather than herself. She's determined to find that path for herself too, especially since Papalymo's last words to her were encouraging her to find her own path in the world. This doesn't mean that she's an entirely different person now that she's pulled off her mask, because that was still genuinely her! She is, seemingly, very similar to her sister in personality. But it does mean that she needs to learn how to face the world for herself and think "how would Lyse do this?" instead of "how would Yda do this?" And with those thoughts, her actions become more subdued as she sorts through the five million emotions and thoughts flitting through her mind. And, I mean, the grief she feels over Papalymo certainly contributes as well.

When Papalymo was still alive, she was in a boke and tsukkomi sort of relationship with him, which is to say that she was the silly and upbeat one while he was serious and would often set things straight as her straight man. She was always energetic and often drifted through life without a care in the world past helping people that needed her, and he would often be the one to ground her so that she didn't drift off into the clouds, so to speak. Now that Papalymo is gone, however, she doesn't really have anyone to ground her! Which is actually fine, because his death was a huge turning point for her character in how she behaved. While she's still a little naive when it comes to the world, and while she's still prone to leaping before she thinks, she has been making an effort to change that. She wants to learn more about the world around her and the people she meets so that she can make educated choices.

Lyse is an incredibly upbeat and laidback person, for the most part, and she absolutely wears her heart on her sleeve. If she thinks or feels something, chances are that she's already just said it to you. Even after the whole ordeal with Papalymo, she's not really one to bottle things up. If she doesn't understand, she says something. If she wants to try to encourage someone, she does. If she's worried about something? Yeah, she's likely said something about that too. And now that she's no longer wearing a mask to cover her face, she's become much more expressive in this specific sense. Also, the fact that she's become a bit more subdued lately has changed nothing about this aspect of her personality. It's one of those things that will never change, no matter her situation. She tries to find the joy in life, though, no matter what changes, and wants to fight for that. She knows how to have fun, for sure.

Her idealism is what keeps her afloat, honestly. One of the first things she decided upon resuming her own personal identity was that she'd continue to fight for Ala Mhigo's freedom, like her father and her sister before her. While she never spent much time in Ala Mhigo herself, due to having to leave at such a young age, she knows it's her country and she can't leave her countrymen to suffer just because she managed to end up somewhere better. And it's because of this idealism, this anger that she holds for what the Garleans have done to her fellow Ala Mhigans, that she agrees to lead the resistance when it's brought up to her, and why she ultimately decides to leave the Scions. She wants Ala Mhigo to be the best that it can be, and she needs and wants to focus her energy on making life better and picking the country back up after winning it back from the Garleans.

It's important to note that Lyse also has a pretty quick temper, especially when she sees bad things happening to other people. While she doesn't really fight needlessly, she will absolutely jump in to defend people that need it, regardless of her own personal safety or the consequences of her actions. This specific kind of recklessness is mostly only reserved for dire, awful situations, and it's one of the rare situations where she does need to be talked down, lest she make it worst for everyone. Usually she's a little better about jumping in, but not very. It'd be a lie to say that she doesn't like being able to actively do something, though, because waiting around is incredibly difficult for her even if she knows there might not be something for her to do at the time.

So, ultimately, in the end she's learned a lot about how to function as Lyse, rather than as Yda. Her journey through Stormblood taught her a lot about people, why they fight, and what it takes to fight and stand against an overwhelming force, and in turn it's taught her how to communicate and help people. It's reaffirmed what she wants to do with her life, and she's made decisions that she never would've made back when she had first assumed Yda's identity. And she hopes that she's made Papalymo proud every single day.

Abilities:
Lyse is a trained pugilist! This means that she really likes punching things. And kicking things. The pugilist toolkit is very much about dealing extremely high amounts of damage very quickly, and the longer she goes the deadlier she gets (until she does, eventually, run out of steam or lose her groove when she's in the zone). She's also very light on her feet and capable of moving quickly along with knowing various ways to stun other people. She's also quite strong in general, a requirement of the job. Also she's capable of executing Final Heaven, a limit break, but she won't ever do that without a lot of buildup and a dire situation.

While Lyse isn't one to think before she leaps, she's not dumb. She's not traditionally intellectual! But she is very good at thinking on her feet and good at making the correct decisions in the moment, usually. Very street smart for the most part, even if she couldn't recite a bunch of textbook information back to you. She's very good at communicating with people and learning to understand others, which leads to her being a natural leader when she needs to be.

As of Stormblood, she is also capable of breathing underwater thanks to her adventures with the Kojin.

Alignment: Daimonia. Typically, she's a very bubbly person with a good outlook on life. She is, however, at the same time prone to having survivor's guilt and is still finding her feet after losing people that were very important to her at her canon point.

Other:
She'll be arriving in the game with a provisions bag that she'd been carrying with her while traveling, containing:
- Her weapon, a set of cesti-like knuckles known as the Gut Wrenchers. Yes, she named them.
- An outfit made for her by Tataru, designed to be easy to move in.
- A linkpearl, that obviously won't work in the game.
- A leatherbound journal.


⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉
Remember that we ask for samples that show 1) core character portrayal and 2) some use of emotions, such as environmental effect. You can also use the same sample source for both, just make sure to directly link or quote the emotion portion. We highly encourage using the Test Drive, and you can use prompts from the Test Drives, Intro Logs, and the Task board if you need them. Refer to the main application page for links and more suggestions.

General Sample: TDM thread!

Emotion Sample:
[It's never taken much to fire Lyse up, honestly. In this specific case, it was a tournament. This kind of thing was just something she enjoyed because she always felt like she was in her element, and she was more than ready to take part. There was a bounce in her step as she took off from her apartment for the tournament venue, and the trip itself was a relatively minor affair.

Except it was a little hot, wasn't it?

She had to be imagining it. It was just a warm day, that's all, nothing to worry about.]

I'm here.

[When Lyse decides to sign into the tournament, it feels a little warmer. She stops to fan herself a little, and there's a faint scent of burning rubber. That's not normal, for sure, but she's not going to let that stop her either. She can't stop imagining the sorts of fights she'll run into, or the new and interesting fighting styles that were sure to show up.

It's only when she finally arrives at the staging area that she really reacts. Because her feet are burning. She jumps with a yelp at the burning feeling, falling to her knees a little sheepishly when she realizes what happened, exactly.]

Ow, hey! I was just excited for the tournament!

Questions: None, but I hope y'all are doing well!