Application - Draft.

[supernovical]

PLAYER

Name: Sora
Journal Username: cinnamonical
E-mail: alchymic.aria @ gmail
AIM/PLURK: cinnamonical
Current Characters at Luceti: Revy ➜ tickle_me


CHARACTER

Name: Zoniha, the Purifying Light.
Canon: Bomberman 64: The Second Attack.
Gender: Female.
Age: Unknown. With the way she acts, you could guesstimate her as being somewhere in her twenties, but considering the ambiguity and major information gaps with regards to the backstory of the Elemental/Astral Knights in the game, she could potentially be far older.
Wing Color: Lime green.

Canon Point: Right after Bulzeeb kills her on Epikyur.
Canon Point Explanation: Because of the traumatic nature of the canonpoint, it brings out a different side of Zoniha's personality, which is something I'd like to play with.
History: There's a page on her at the Bomberman Wikia, but I'll provide the overall game context below. (For more detailed reference purposes, have the dialogue script I did for the game because I have nothing better to do with my life.)

☽ ☼ ☾

Many, many millennia ago, the Angel of Light and Shadow (also known as the Angel of Creation and Judgment) created the current universe out of something called the Void. It was not the first universe she had created, nor was it the only universe out there.

Then, for an unknown reason, the Angel split into two halves. Her light half, which had initiated the split, was Mihaele, the Goddess of Justice. Her shadow half was Sthertoth, the Demon of the Dark. The two of them went to war against each other.

As part of her strategy to defeat Sthertoth, Mihaele created the seven Elemental Stones and the seven Elemental Knights to protect them. Zoniha was one of these knights, controlling the element of light. She and her fellow knights imprisoned Sthertoth inside the Celestial Stone. Afterwards, Mihaele scattered the stones across the universe to prevent them from coming together again and breaking the seal.

Closer to the present day, the space pirate Rukifellth ran across the Celestial Stone while treasure-hunting on the planet Kaos. When he touched the stone, his body and mind was taken over by Sthertoth's spirit, and the Sthertoth-possessed Rukifellth set to work trying to find the other Elemental Stones, so he could undo the seal on the Celestial Stone and release his real body into the mortal realm in order to take over the entire universe. At some point between then and the beginning of TSA, the Elemental Stones (sans the Fire Stone, which was being held by Bomberman) were discovered by Sthertoth/Rukifellth's BHB Army, and the Elemental Knights were brainwashed into the Astral Knights, the elite soldiers of the BHB Army. Each of them were initially tasked with guarding (or, in Baelfael's case, finding) their respective Elemental Stones. Zoniha was given domain over the planet Epikyur, where she took up headquarters in an area of the Happyland amusement park. Once Bomberman got trapped in the black hole and was shown to have the Fire Stone, however, the Astral Knights were given a secondary mission: kill Bomberman and retrieve the stone from him.

By the time Bomberman reached Epikyur, he had already defeated/killed five Astral Knights, thus proving himself a worthy amusement for Zoniha, who was bored with merely watching over the Light Stone. Unfortunately for her, it wasn't so amusing when she found herself defeated by him in battle. Enraged and humiliated, she summoned her strongest attack as a last-ditch effort to take him down, but it was neutralized by Bulzeeb, the knight of darkness and shadows -- and a longtime rival of Bomberman's. Unlike the rest of the Astral Knights, Bulzeeb (who Bomberman knew as Regulus) had not been under Rukifellth's mind control: he only pretended to be because Sthertoth promised him power in exchange for Bulzeeb's servitude. Bulzeeb intended to use that power to defeat Bomberman...which he couldn't very well do if Zoniha killed Bomberman right then and there. To ensure that Zoniha wouldn't go after Bomberman again, he killed her with one of his own elemental attacks.

Personality: Probably the defining aspect of Zoniha's personality is her haughty playfulness and bluntness, seen quite frequently throughout the game and sometimes even accompanied by a "call me queen" laugh. When Bomberman and Pommy meet her on Epikyur, she coos over how cute Pommy is and invites him to become her pet, then turns around and threatens to make Bomberman into a stuffed trophy to put on her wall. This combination of innocence and condescension can make conversation with Zoniha quite the trip. And if you happen to be possessing a broken X chromosome (read: if you are male), it'll probably be more like an epic quest than a mere trip. Her disdain for the male gender is out front right from the get-go: in the very first scene we see her in, where Rukifellth is giving the Astral Knights their new orders, she taunts Molok about his interest in fighting Bomberman, saying "Don't get too overconfident, old man! You never know when someone might pull the rug out from under your feet!" Oftentimes she'll team up with Zhael, the only other female knight, for a double dose of derision:

ZHAEL: Men all talk big, but when push comes to shove...right, Zoniha?
ZONIHA: Ha ha! You tell them, Zhael! The bigger they are, the louder they cry! Isn't that right, dear old Molok?

Zoniha didn't think much of Bomberman when she heard he'd defeated three Astral Knights, either:

ZONIHA: Three big men, and not one of them is strong enough to defeat that little boy! I've told you before -- you're wasting your time if you rely on men!

Despite this, she's shown to have a soft spot for Bulzeeb/Regulus. He certainly doesn't escape her teasing, but there's a softer, flirtier edge towards the barbs she directs at him:

ZHAEL: ...you're really not yourself today, are you? What is it about this Bomberman that makes you like this? Could it be...you know something about him? Hm?
MOLOK: Is that true, Bulzeeb?
BULZEEB: Humph! I am interested in anyone who may prove to be a worthy opponent! That's all!
ZONIHA: Ha ha! You need to get a life -- there's more to it than fighting, you know! Although, I suppose I shouldn't complain, not if it helps you defeat our enemies!

She also claims that she likes him because of "[his] inflated sense of [his] own power" and because he's "much more forgiving than [she] is" (which she follows up with "Do you know a woman likes that in a man?"), but there may be something more to her fondness for him, considering her reaction to his betrayal after her fight with Bomberman:

ZONIHA: You...you're the only man I ever respected! And you go and betray me!

It's not entirely clear what her thoughts on him are post-game (and honestly, it's not all that clear why she even liked him in the first place aside from apparently being amused by his arrogance), but it can probably be inferred from her quest to "find some decent men" that she's still smarting from that incident (not surprisingly), and may never forgive him for it. At least she's upgraded her opinion of Bomberman by this point, saying that if he managed to defeat both Sthertoth and the Angel, "maybe there are some real men left!" Her haughtiness and chauvinism may simply be a front for other insecurities, and/or something she does to amuse herself via riling up everyone else around her.

Zoniha's interests skew towards the stereotypically feminine: shopping, sewing, socializing, romance, and so forth. But she also loves the thrill of combat, so she can be seen honing her skills on a regular basis.


Strengths

Physical: As the Elemental Knight of light, Zoniha could potentially be considered a deity in TSAverse, so you can expect her to be fairly formidable even with Luceti's power cap. Gameplay-wise, she's shown to be strong enough to lift Bomberman (who's about her height) and slam him into the ground, dealing two hearts' worth of damage (when the majority of other Elemental Knight attacks deal only one, even attacks from an apparent powerhouse like Molok; the wonders of gameplay mechanics). The move, called Prismatic Punch (...even...though...it's not a punch), can be seen in action in this video at 2:19. Her Rainbow Wave attack can sweep across distances to deal damage, and her Seekers (glowing spheres of light) can persist on the battlefield to distract and wound opponents (though these can be destroyed). Her Instant KO attack is called Supernova (seen at 0:53 in this video), where she pretty much obliterates Bomberman in a blast of light energy. Judging from the effects of Light Bombs (which Bomberman can equip once he acquires her Light Stone), Zoniha may also have some sort of time-stopping/time-manipulating ability, not that she herself ever displays it in the game. My headcanon is that it takes up a lot of energy and concentration, and thus is only used as a last resort and/or when Zoniha has someone to cover for her.

Speaking of headcanon! Based on her affiliation with the light element, as well as the Sorting Algorithm of Evil (out of seven Astral Knights, she's the sixth one Bomberman faces), I've expanded her arsenal a bit to include some other tricks, including Mirage (manipulating the light around herself or elsewhere to confuse an opponent), Mirror Cloak (deflecting energy-based attacks), and of course some sort of flashbang move where she can temporarily blind opponents. Despite being called the Purifying Light, though, she doesn't have any sort of healing ability, unless you count the fact that she requires more hits to defeat than most of the other Astral Knights.

Going back to game canon -- she (and the other Astral Knights) can disable Bomberman's remote control to prevent him from manually detonating his bombs in their fights, so it's possible that she has some sort of ability to muck with electrically-based technology. However, it might only work on smaller devices.

Mental / emotional: She thinks she's awesome, and almost no one can convince her otherwise. (Almost.) Mock her if you want: she'll mock you right back and give no fucks about it. She's proud and independent, and if she really wants something she has no compunctions about going after it.

Weaknesses

Physical: Judging from how Bulzeeb was able to cancel out her light-based Supernova attack with one of his black holes, she might have some sort of weakness to anything darkness- or shadow-based. Then again, it's a black hole -- that shit eats up nearly anything sort of...GDIT game physics. In Luceti, she'll also be at a height/reach disadvantage, since she's around four feet tall. (I'll explain this in more detail in the "Anything else?" section.)

Mental / emotional: It takes a lot for her to crack, but once she does, everything comes pouring out. She loses control of herself, expressing things she'd otherwise never say and generally not acting anywhere near as composed and sophisticated as she usually does. The main example of this (the only example, really) in the game is in her post-fight scene, after Bulzeeb cuts short her attempt to defeat Bomberman. Her subsequent dialogue with him lacks her usual taunts; she's too much in shock to say much of anything. (Admittedly, Bulzeeb didn't give her much time to talk before killing her, but pfft, details.)

Anything else?: Because of the chibi/cartoony nature of the canon, I've headcanoned Zoniha to be around four feet tall (not counting her crescent moon thingy on her head) in the realistic 'verse of Luceti. However, she's definitely quite heavy for someone of her size, due to wearing what looks like cybernetic armor. Or being some sort of humanoid android herself. IDK, it's all very unclear in Bomberverse what most characters are made of.

SAMPLES

First Person: At Training Wings!

Third Person: The Purifying Light is in an unusually dark mood at the moment. But that's only to be expected after waking up from a nightmare in which she relived her death at the hands of someone she'd respected, someone she might have even lo --

Sitting in bed with the memories resurrected like a revenant, she can't help but fear (or is it hope?) that Regulus is in Luceti. She scans the village, searching for any trace of his distinctive elemental aura. There's nothing. Relief washes over her like an ocean wave...but the anger and hurt still burn.

Over a year since that incident, and she still hasn't gotten over it. Pathetic.

It occurs to her in some rational part of her mind that it's only natural that she's hurting from that betrayal, especially since she hasn't talked to Regulus since then. There hadn't been anything remotely like resolution once the Angel had brought back the Elemental Knights. She couldn't be blamed for still dwelling on things now.

But that thought isn't as self-pitying, nor does it feed the fiery anger that's flared up inside, so Zoniha banishes it from her mind as she flings off the blanket to get herself ready to meet the day. She'd been planning on sleeping in for once, but that's out of the question with memories of death and pain haunting her. Looks like it's time for a breakfast date with the Battle Dome instead.

--

Zoniha emerges from one of the simulation chambers an hour later only because her hunger demands it. She isn't anywhere near satisfied by her virtual carnage, but then again she'd just been taking down BHB foot soldiers and Sthertoth's monstrous lackeys. Plowing through an army of those guys had been about as satisfying as stomping ants, they were so weak. But she couldn't bring herself to face even a virtual ghost of Regulus. Not yet.

As she sits down next to one of the vending machines on the second floor, she thinks that spending all day at the bakery eating cakes and cookies might be in order, and to hell with her healthy diet.