application

[aiming_device]

PLAYER INFORMATION
PLAYER: Joh
ARE YOU AT LEAST 14 YEARS OLD?: Yes.
CONTACT: love.a.riddle@gmail.com
PERSONAL JOURNAL: volition
CHARACTERS PLAYED: None.


CHARACTER INFORMATION
NAME: Maria Traydor
CANON: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
CANON REFERENCE: Star Ocean 3, Maria Traydor
AGE: 27
GENDER: Female
FACULTY POSITION: I'm going to say Technical/Field Skills division, Computer Science. I'm open to fill any available slots you may need, though.

APPEARANCE:
Link.
Maria stands at 5'3" and weighs 124 lbs. with a rather ordinary build. Her blue hair is rather long, reaching her waist on the back, but she has messily cut bangs parted on her left. I'm going to say that usually it's black unless she's practicing her mutant abilities, in which case it turns blue. Her eyes are slightly slanted, and are blue-green. She has no markings, scars, or tattoos on her body.

Typically she dresses in a pantsuit with black and grays, which covers her from neck to toe. It's rare when she dresses casually, but when she does, she has some fashion sense and changes things around; it will be rare to see her in the exact same casual outfit twice.

PERSONALITY:
When one first sees Maria, they see a driven, serious individual who puts achievement above all else, and every interaction she initiates has a predetermined purpose. She tends to do things herself rather than delegate, and information tends to be king - her mutant abilities do not come to shine when she is in combat, but when she is gathering intelligence.

Outwardly, Maria puts on a very serious appearance and doesn't tolerate nonsense. This doesn't mean that she's heartless, necessarily, but she comes off as very serious is about 85% of all interactions she partakes in. She tends to be rather stern and follows the rules; while she was coerced into a leadership position in her past, she more than upholds her position by her own merits with her strong will and without fear to say exactly what's on her mind with her leadership skills.

However, doing research on herself makes Maria feel very alone, which is why she keeps people at a distance. She knows she has powers, but her research tells her nothing about why she has her powers, and while she knows there were other experiments like herself, she doesn't know if any of them are still alive. This is a bit of a sore point for her, because she's different and all she really wants is to be normal.

Other than that, Maria does have a degree of compassion which she shows to others who are in need. While rules are there and she follows them, she also tries to care for others, though still in a stern manner. She also has little to no interest in a romantic relationship at this point in her life, since she feels alone, and that nobody will be able to understand that. Even if she were in a romantic relationship, she'd be a rather jealous individual who'd want a person all for herself. She realizes this somewhat, even in friendships, which is also why she keeps herself at a distance; she can't help but know she's being selfish.

All in all, Maria is an honest, straightforward individual who tends to showcase introverted tendencies, but is definitely someone who can be relied upon. Because she holds some serious abandonment issues, she makes it a point to never abandon anybody who she comes to share a mutual trust with.

POWERS/ABILITIES:
Her mutant powers focus on the concept of "Alteration". Most everything in the world is full of sequences and formulas, and Maria has the unique ability to alter them temporarily. Her powers aren't Omega-level as she has very limited control over them, and as for the aspects of her powers she doesn't have control over she won't try, because she doesn't want to risk anybody's life.

In canon, Maria has access to Battle Skills (basically her martial arts as well as gun attacks) as well as Symbology. I'll only list her Symbology here as the battle-ready mutant abilities she'll have available. These all also depend on the target - Maria is able to use these on most inanimate objects and people, but there will always be exceptions (such as if someone's mutant power is naturally resistant to her Alteration or if there is some anti-mutant material out there).

For "proficiency", I'm going to say that when it comes to people, the length of the ability also depends on how much of a bond Maria has with the other person. If they have trust in each other, the effects could last as long as ten minutes or more. I'm also going to say that Maria's "magic" is always only temporarily effective on humans, so she won't be transmogrifying anybody into a pool of blood. She can only strengthen, not weaken. Unless the strengthening in question is sealing someone's boots to the floor so they're immobile for several seconds.

Protection - Boosts the target's defense by 50% for 60 seconds. Amount of time is increased alongside proficiency. Maria uses her powers of Alteration to temporarily modify a person's weapons or fists temporarily.
Power Up - Boosts the target's attack by 50% for 60 seconds. Length of time is increased alongside proficiency.
Reflection - Raises target's magic resistance by 50% for 60 seconds. Amount of time is increased alongside proficiency.
Angel Feather - Raises target's battle proficiency by 20% for 60 seconds. Again, longer given proficiency.

In battle, Maria is a mid-range fighter. Her main weapon is a gun, and her backup techniques are martial arts.

Maria's weapon is named Dragoon Laser, and is an elegant gun with the design of a dragon etched onto it. The gun is also hefty enough for pistol-whipping as well. Her powers of Alteration allow her to "hide" her weapon when she doesn't want to be frisked - basically, when it's not in use, her gun appears for all intents and purposes as a metal belt around her waist, and no scanner would assume otherwise. When she goes into battle, she whips her belt out, it glows as it morphs into her weapon, and she's ready to go. The reason it isn't subject to the "60 seconds" rule is because it's one of the skills she's most familiar and proficient at, and the fact that when she converts her weapon into her belt they are between two stable, static forms rather than forms that are constantly changing.

The power of Alteration is made to sound nigh godlike in canon, but is never used for anything other than plot devices. The biggest example that we see in canon is a cut-scene where Maria Alters missiles to be able to penetrate a barrier, but this is never actually available for the party to use or anything else, and it only manifests itself as her support skills.

One of the other uses of Alteration is that with it, Maria is a polyglot - she is able to speak, listen, and write in almost any language that has rules after hearing and seeing enough of it to establish patterns. If her powers were ever sealed off, she would no longer be able to do anything but in English and Italian.

This also makes her proficient in computer science. Unlike other computer-nerd-trope characters, Maria doesn't prefer computers/machinery to humans and simply uses them as a tool, not thinking much about how to use them. Her ability allows her to manipulate them with ease, so she forms little to not actual attachment to the things she works on.

Maria is also decent at compounding and alchemy, not only because she studied it, but because she has the power of Alteration, which makes alchemy a bit easier (given it's usually impossible? Yeah, she makes it happen). Because of this, she's able to make medicines and various items which help others in combat or some other purpose, depending on what you want her to make. She also does well at cooking, writing, and operating machinery.

She is not proficient at black-smithing, and isn't very creative when it comes to crafts. Also, as said before, she's rather serious; it's almost very easy to piss her off to get a reaction by acting unprofessional. It depends on the person, but typically Maria is very defensive and will not open up to just anybody. Not to say she can't make friends, but she's simply not inclined to other than to forge social links to have connections.

AU HISTORY:
Maria was born in Europe, but she was officially listed as an American orphan. Despite this, for all her life she's known Richard and Jessie Traydor as her parents. Truth was, the Traydor family were research scientists with close ties to the Italian government, investigating ways to use the rare-then mutant gene. Possibly also to see if the Shroud of Turin had mutant DNA also, but I digress. The Traydors were involved in less-than-ethical experiments on human beings to see how they differed from those with the mutant gene activated, and they weren't good enough at keeping it secret. Or, rather, the government decided to jump the gun and hired a group known as the Aldians to pose as a terrorist group and destroy the facility that the Traydors worked in and eliminate all of their research as well.

The laboratory was located in Venice, and Jessie Traydor barely managed to help the ten-year-old Maria escape. Not before scarring her for life, though - Jessie let loose the bomb that Maria was adopted, before sending her off on her way before dying in the laboratory explosion herself. Maria drifted out to sea in the escape pod where she was found by the anti-government organization, Quark. With nowhere else to go, Quark recruited her. It became her new family, in a sense, and she was indebted to them.

When Maria was around sixteen, while aboard the Diplo, Quark's secret ship/base in the Mediterranean, they were under attack and that's when her mutant powers first manifested. The Italian government finally found Quark and planned to eliminate them, a thorn in their side. Maria had a near-psychotic breakdown during this episode, and just as everyone was about to give up hope, Maria recalled her mother's last words to never give up. Taking control, Maria ordered the Diplo to fire missiles at the government ship, and her mutant powers allowed the missiles to completely eradicate it, saving Quark. After this, Maria became the unofficial leader of Quark.

Shortly after this episode, Maria did some digging into some old files, and her powers of Alteration allowed her to easily hack into the government's databases and find out the truth: The Aldians were hired by the government to destroy the facility her parents worked at. She found no data on her true parents, but this new data made it all apparent that she had to do something.

Long story short, Maria tracks down the Prime Minister of Italy who was directly responsible for the decision (at least, in Maria's mind) and prepares to assassinate him while he's visiting America. As she's about to deliver the final blow, a mutant from The Xavier Institute found her and convinced her that revenge wasn't all it was cracked up to be, especially after giving her a chance. Just as she was about to be caught by security, they gave her a second chance by helping her evade out of certain imprisonment. As thanks, Maria then enlisted in The Xavier Institute for college, and after graduation continued to board there as an instructor. Quark was disbanded shortly after her failed assassination attempt on the Italian Prime Minster.

SAMPLE
1ST PERSON SAMPLE:
I'll be on my way, now. Be sure to give me a page if there are any emergencies, all right?

[Maria nodded to the doorman, and made her way outside of the Institute. It wasn't often when she was able to go out by herself, so when she did she had to make it count. Having her feet on dry land after being out at sea for so many years was an interesting sensation, in any case.]

Let's see. I need to get some snacks, some more supplies, perhaps a vase...

[Sure, she could very well order through the Institute's mail-order delivery program, but Maria liked having her own touch on things. Putting her touch-screen phone away in her pocket, Maria patted down her belt to make certain her gun would be available if she never needed to use it.]

I suppose I could figure it out once I get there.

[On a rare day out, Maria has on her casual clothes and a bag. Time to go shopping! Heading out to the entrance, Maria looks around to see if anybody's following her - old habits die hard, after all. After making certain, she gives a sigh of relief as she begin making her way towards town.]

Let's make this day count, shall we?

THIRD PERSON SAMPLE:
Another day, another dollar, another class, another... something. Maria wasn't entirely certain where she was going with that line of thought. She never thought she'd get this close to what could be considered an ordinary apple-pie life. Growing up in the organization of Quark, the only exposure she got to any semblance of an ordinary life were the snippets of American television that some of the other members downloaded. And this was nothing like that, as far as she could tell.

Sitting at her desk, Maria never thought that she'd be used to the idea of grading papers. However, she did adapt to survive in crazy situations, but what happened when confronted with such a seemingly ordinary setting? It was safe here, safer than she had ever felt, and nobody judged her. Well, harshly - her abilities weren't exactly the big showy ones that the others were known for. It was an odd sensation, and one that she was thankful for. Finishing up the first batch, Maria took a sip of her tea as her eyes glanced at the door. Focusing, her ears pricked up at the sound of footsteps and the swinging hinges of the doors. She could have sworn that someone had just entered her office. "I know you're there."

[ooc: Additional third person sample may be found here.]