Entry tags:

app: 2008/12/12 revision, applications

APPLICATIONS: Tales of Symphonia - Colette Brunel

This application has been ACCEPTED.


PLAYER INFO
NAME: Pi
LOCATION/TIME ZONE: EST
CURRENT CHARACTERS, if any: N/A

CHARACTER INFO
CHARACTER NAME: Colette Brunel
SERIES: Tales of Symphonia
RESERVED: Yes
WISHLIST: Yes
PERSONALITY:
Colette is the Chosen; she was raised to be delicate and obedient. And she is, on the surface. Colette is almost constantly preoccupied with the feelings and reactions of others. She apologizes excessively, even when it's not remotely needed, and she goes to extreme lengths to keep people from worrying about her. She will lie and lie often if it means keeping her own discomfort and suffering under wraps. She wants nothing more than to just be normal -- she is insecure and afraid of anything that might make her "different" and turn her friends away from her, whether it's being the Chosen, being an angel, or having a disease that could kill her in a matter of months. She copes with that by hiding it all beneath a smile and a bubbly exterior.

On the flipside of that, the bubbly exterior and warm smile are very much a natural part of Colette's personality. She is a Chosen who embraced her duty; instead of making her bitter, it gave her a deep and sincere love of the world and everything in it. She believes that people are inherently good and that everyone should live their lives peacefully and happily; if she had to sacrifice herself to give everyone that, then so be it. Her mindset about sacrifice has since changed, but that same selfless love remains.

Unfortunately, that altruistic idealism, combined with her fairly sheltered childhood, has made her incredibly naive and innocent to a fault. She is quick to trust, even people she logically should have no business trusting (like an assassin after her head), and she can be easily confused by figures of speech and sarcasm. She's also very prone to guilt; if she can find a way to blame even another person's actions on herself, she will.

Colette is strong-willed and passionate about what she believes in, and when she does speak up she can be surprisingly forceful, while still retaining that same sweetness that makes her Colette. When she decides something, she will follow through with it to the best of her ability and try, try again until she gets it right. She has trouble believing in herself at times, but if she can be motivated out of concern for another person, her determination is endless.

She's endowed with a miraculous sort of clumsiness. Every stumble, every trip, and every faceplant has come with some sort of beneficial coincidence (she created a tourist attraction by smashing through a wall, she's released traps and fixed computers by falling on them, and she's even stolen items from enemies -- all completely by accident).

She's also very much a dog lover.

TIMELINE: About a month after the end of the first game.

BACKGROUND:
There is a story in the backwater village of Iselia that Colette Brunel was born with a red crystal clutched in her palm.

That crystal -- a Cruxis Crystal -- was the symbol of the Chosen of Mana; the child selected by the angels of heaven to awaken the Goddess Martel, restore life-giving mana to the land, and save the world from destruction. Colette therefore became the Seventh Chosen of Sylvarant, and was raised with the knowledge that on her sixteenth birthday, she would receive an oracle that would begin her journey; she would break seals across the land, ascend to heaven as an angel, and save the world.

Of course, things never play out quite that neatly in real life.

Chosen had been trying and failing to complete the same journey for nearly 800 years before Colette's birth. Therefore, it became necessary to handle her with the utmost care, to prevent anything from happening to her before she could begin her Journey of Regeneration. She was watched nearly every hour of every day, by her father, her grandmother, her teacher, or just one of the priests from the temple. She learned the Angelic language in addition to the common language as a child, so that she could study scripture and learn prayers. She was not allowed to go swimming with her friends, for her own safety. Her birthdays were religious ceremonies that only her father, her grandmother, and the priests were allowed to attend.

Her closest friends -- two boys named Lloyd Irving and Genis Sage -- did everything they could to undermine all of this, of course. They were all "oddballs" of the village in their own ways, and the three became as tight-knit as friends could be. They, along with their teacher, Raine Sage, became the people that Colette truly felt like Colette around, instead of Colette the Chosen.

The most significant precaution, though, was an arrangement between the mayor of Iselia and the Desians of the Human Ranch situated in the forest on the outskirts of the village. Part of the Chosen's duty was to seal away the Desians, so naturally there would be conflict with a Chosen born so close to a ranch. So the village managed to get the Desians to agree to a sort of armistice; the Desians would not attack the village as long as the villagers did not interfere with the (often inhumane) processes at the ranch. This treaty was intended to protect Colette more than it was to protect the villagers, and it worked... for a time.

On Colette's sixteenth birthday, she received an oracle from the organization of angels known as Cruxis. She was required to undergo a trial in the temple, but the priests that were assigned to escort her were all slaughtered in a sudden and unprovoked attack by so-called "Desians". Colette's grandmother appointed a traveling mercenary named Kratos Aurion to take their place, and Lloyd and Genis tagged along for the ride.

The second story told in Iselia was that Colette's father, Frank Brunel, was not actually her father at all. That Colette was, in fact, the child of one of the angels of Cruxis.

The Oracle -- Remiel -- seemed to support this interpretation, calling her his daughter after granting her the Cruxis Crystal and outlining her journey. Colette clung to that, and added "making her father proud of her" to the list of reasons pushing her to go through with the Journey of Regeneration.

The group returned to the village, and despite Lloyd and Genis' help in the initial trial, the mayor, Phaidra, and Kratos all forbid them from tagging along on the journey itself. But Lloyd, being the stubborn little ball of fire he is, insisted to Colette later that he have a chance to see her save the world. In a last-ditch attempt to protect him, Colette lied, and told him they were leaving much later than they actually were; she left a letter for Lloyd with her father explaining her reasoning, treating it as the last form of communication she'd ever have with him.

Things didn't go nearly that smoothly, either. After a long series of events involving Iselia and the Human Ranch, Colette's group ended up having to rescue Lloyd from what was then considered a Desian facility in the Triet Desert. Banished from Iselia and with nowhere else to go, Lloyd and Genis ended up tagging along on the journey anyway.

One by one they broke the seals across Sylvarant, and one by one Colette began to lose aspects of her humanity. At the first seal, she gained a pair of translucent pink wings, and lost her appetite and sense of taste. At the second seal, she lost the ability to sleep. At the third seal, she lost all sense of feeling -- hot, cold, pain, everything. At the fourth, she lost the ability to speak.

And the whole time, Colette lied. She smiled and did her best to hide the changes from everyone in the group. To her, this was a trial -- this was what it meant to become an angel, and it was her duty as the Chosen to accept it. It wasn't until Lloyd was able to pry the truth from her that the group's attitude towards the Chosen's Journey of Regeneration began to change.

But the dangers of the journey weren't limited to just what was inflicted on Colette by Cruxis. The group infiltrated and destroyed two human ranches along the way, and encountered a mysterious assassin who, while not seeming to have any connections to the Desians, was determined to take Colette's life. But after working together with the group to take down one of the human ranches, the assassin -- Sheena -- decided she wasn't so sure about killing the Chosen.

According to her, there was another world parallel to Sylvarant: Tethe'alla. It fed off of the same small supply of mana as Sylvarant, thus creating a sort of hourglass effect between them. One world would always be flourishing, and one world would always be waning. The Journey of Regeneration begun by the Chosen was meant to reverse those roles. That is, if Colette was successful, Sylvarant would begin to flourish, and Sheena's native Tethe'alla would begin to decline. This perspective pushed Lloyd to become more vocal against the journey, insisting that there had to be another way to save Sylvarant without hurting Colette and without sacrificing Tethe'alla in the process.

But Colette had accepted her duty, and she wouldn't be stopped -- no matter how much Lloyd disapproved of the method, she was determined to see the journey through to the end. She promised Sheena that she would ask Remiel if there was a way to protect Tethe'alla at the final seal, but that she would not stop until she became an angel. That idea was accepted by the group, all the way through to the fifth and final seal, where what Colette, Raine, and Kratos already knew was revealed: Colette's final sacrifice would be her heart and memories, leaving her an empty, silent, dangerous shell. Essentially, she would give up her life, and offer her body as a vessel for the Goddess Martel.

Colette had known all her life that she would have to eventually sacrifice herself to protect the world. If she didn't, the final seal would not be broken, and mana would not be restored to Sylvarant. The world would continue to decline and eventually be destroyed, and the Desians would be free to torture the people of Sylvarant until that occurred.

For her, it was not a choice. It was her duty as the Chosen of Mana, and she loved the world too much to relinquish that, no matter how much she would have liked to.

Remiel assured her that, should she become an angel, her wishes would be manifested by Cruxis; if she wanted to protect Tethe'alla as much as Sylvarant, the answer was still to become an angel. So she smiled, and accepted it. Even though she knew Remiel had been lying to them about her parentage, even though she knew it would break the hearts of the people she loved the most, even though she was just starting to really want to live, Colette accepted the final sacrifice, and her consciousness was absorbed.

From then on, she had absolutely no control over her actions. She had an innate drive to protect herself, and nothing more. She only floated idly by as the two sides grappled for custody of her body. Lloyd lashed out, attempting to take her back by force, and fought Remiel, Kratos, and Cruxis' leader, Yggdrasill, to do so. The battles did not go well, and the group had to be evacuated by the Renegades (the so-called "Desians" from the Martel Temple and Triet whose primary goal was to prevent the resurrection of Martel).

With Sheena's help, the group stole machines called Rheiards that could pass the dimensional fissure between the two worlds of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla. They fled, intending to find some way to reverse the effects of Colette's Cruxis Crystal. From there they contacted the King of Tethe'alla for assistance, and they were granted it under the condition that the Chosen of Tethe'alla, Zelos Wilder, would accompany them and observe their actions.

They learned that the so-called "angel transformation" was actually a parasitic infection by the Cruxis Crystal, and could be reversed with the application of a Key Crest. Lloyd found one, repaired it, and gave it to Colette as a very belated birthday present. With time, her soul became unsealed and her senses returned to her (though the physical srength and enhanced sight and hearing remained).

With Colette back to normal, the group's objectives changed once more. Lloyd proclaimed that lives shouldn't have to be sacrificed to change the world, and swore to change the system that created Chosens like Colette. They were looking for a way to reform the way mana was distributed between the worlds, and to abolish Cruxis.

An innocent attempt to provide the Rheiards with the lightning mana they needed as fuel resulted in Sheena forming a pact with Volt, the Summon Spirit of Lightning. That pact conflicted with a pact she had made previously -- with Undine in Sylvarant, the Summon Spirit of Water. The Spirits told them that by awakening Summon Spirits in both worlds, they were eliminating a flow of mana that linked them; essentially, one of the four threads that kept Sylvarant and Tethe'alla feeding off the same source of mana. Thus came the idea of separating the worlds by forming pacts with all of the Summon Spirits.

Encouraged by Yuan and the Renegades, Lloyd's group traveled across both worlds forming pacts. They were told to stop multiple times by Kratos, with warnings of dire, nonspecific consequences. They ignored him, and continued.

When the final mana link was broken, those nonspecific consequences became a reality. The Great Seed -- the seed of the Giant Kharlan Tree that had provided everflowing mana in the past -- was dangerously unstable, and part of the purpose of the mana links was to keep it in a "cage" that could contain it, while still allowing it to leak mana to Sylvarant and Tethe'alla. By releasing the cage and providing it with mana (which was intended to revive the Kharlan Tree itself), the seed had gone out of control. The Tree did indeed sprout, but it grew in a dark and twisted form that ravaged Sylvarant and threatened to destroy both worlds.

A last-minute plan to stop it was organized, and the combined efforts of Lloyd's group, the Renegades, and Kratos made it possible to stop the Tree before it caused too much damage. That plan, however, involved infiltrating and shutting down the Iselia Human Ranch. Its leader, Forcystus, was not one to go down easily; he appeared again at the last second to take a parting shot at one of the prisoners escaping from the ranch. Colette threw herself in front of the blast and it caught her in the shoulder, shredding her clothes and knocking her to the ground.

It was then that the group found out that she had, again, been lying.

Much of the left side of her upper body had crystallized in such a way that her skin more closely resembled an Exsphere than anything else. Disgusted by herself, Colette had tried to hide the disease from her friends, likely for months. Colette's Cruxis Crystal had reacted badly to the Key Crest Lloyd had given her, inciting an advanced form of what Raine had called "Angel Toxicosis", an incredibly rare disease called Chronic Angelus Crystallus Inofficium.

With instructions from a dwarf in Tethe'alla named Altessa and information from the Tethe'alla Royal Family's library, the group set out to collect the items necessary to control Colette's Cruxis Crystal and cure her illness. Zircon, from a shipment of the Lezareno Company; Mana Leaf Herb, from the elves; and a mana fragment, from Cruxis' base, Welgaia. It's during these journeys that the group became aware of the truth behind the legend of Mithos the Hero, and the real relationship between Yggdrasill, Yuan, and Kratos. Heroes of the Kharlan War, all of them, and all of them at least 4000 years old.

Upon finally escaping from Welgaia and the Tower of Salvation, Colette collapsed, and the situation escalated from urgent to flat-out emergency. The group brought the materials back to Altessa and begged him to create the Rune Crest necessary to save Colette's life. He agreed, and was able to perform the treatment with Raine's help.

That same night, the Renegades ambushed the house. Zelos (at the time a sort of triple-agent) had drugged the group's dinner, and Yuan used the opportunity to take Lloyd hostage and threaten Kratos. Thus began a series of stark revelations: Kratos, the man who had betrayed them and tried to kill them, was actually Lloyd's father; the seal on Origin (and by extension, the seal on the Eternal Sword that had the power to reunite the worlds) hinged on Kratos' life; even if the seal was lifted, the Eternal Sword could not be used by anyone except a half-elf; and Mithos, the half-elf that the group had befriended, was in actuality Mithos the Hero -- Mithos Yggdrasill, leader of Cruxis.

Mithos lashed out, attacking Yuan, the soldiers he had brought with him, as well as the doll, Tabatha, and Presea. The blast meant for her was intercepted by Altessa, leaving him with severe wounds; fatal, if they weren't attended to quickly.

Sheena guided the group to a doctor in Flanoir, who agreed to help for a sizable sum. A small group escorted him back to Altessa's home, while the rest stayed the night in Flanoir. It was there that they decided to make one final stand against Cruxis; to strike before Yggdrasill had a chance to. They regrouped, and headed for the Tower of Salvation.

It was there that Zelos finally revealed all three of his double-crosses; he had been traveling with Lloyd and the others, reporting back to Cruxis, and reporting back to the Renegades, all to scope out which would be the winning side. Ostensibly choosing Cruxis, he handed over Colette and set the remaining six against a troop of angels.

The group fought their way to the innermost chamber where Colette was being held. One by one, they were picked off by traps, all of them letting themselves take the fall in order to give Lloyd one more boost to get to the end. By the time he reached Yggdrasill and the Chamber of the Great Seed, he was alone.

But Zelos, true to form, couldn't help but sneak in one last double-cross before he made his final decision. Using the temporary leverage his "choice" had given him, he infiltrated Cruxis' ranks and obtained an ore called Aionis. The purpose? To let a human wield the Eternal Sword. On his way back to the innermost chamber, he released each of the traps about to kill his teammates. All five were there waiting to back Lloyd in the final fight against Yggdrasill.

In the background, however, the ritual was still underway. Cruxis had been ignoring Colette for majority of the group's exploits for one reason: her disease made it impossible, if not extremely dangerous, for her to accept Martel's soul. Now that she had been cured, the process could continue. And it did. By the time the group arrived, it was nearly complete, and they weren't able to stop the final transformation. Martel's soul entered Colette's body, and for a few minutes Colette was truly dead.

Martel finally had a chance to voice what she had been feeling for the past 4000 years, trapped within the Great Seed. She berated her brother, told him that what he was doing was against everything they had ever believed in. She begged him to stop and to go back to the way he was before.

It was then that Zelos made his appearance, with both the Aionis and Colette's Key Crest in hand. By placing it back on her, the soul transferal was interrupted, and Martel was able to leave Colette's body voluntarily. She left a new final wish with Mithos; to return the world back to its original form.

Something inside Mithos snapped. Refusing to believe that the sister he had spent millennia trying to revive would reject him and his methods, he instead translated her words as wanting to leave the world, and go back to Derris-Kharlan. So he attempted to do just that -- take the Great Seed she was bound to, and leave the world behind.

Colette, recovering from the sudden influx of Martel's soul and memories, could hear the last shreds of Martel's crying pleas to stop her brother from hurting anyone anymore. She begged Mithos to stop, and when he refused, she begged her friends to help her stop him.

The party attacked, and won. Mithos Yggdrasill died, and Genis salvaged his Cruxis Crystal, intending to show him the new world as they saw it.

The next step was the Eternal Sword. Even with Mithos gone and with a means to allow Lloyd a chance to wield the sword, it meant nothing if Origin was still sealed. The group traveled to Heimdall, where Kratos would be waiting, deep in the Torent Forest. It was a final test for Lloyd -- a fight to settle everything with his father and his teacher. He'd grown extensively over the past few months; Lloyd won the duel, but, true to Lloyd-form, refused to take Kratos' life.

So Kratos did it himself.

Technically speaking, the seal was reliant on Kratos' mana. Releasing all the mana from one's body is something that typically leads to death, but not immediately. Therefore, Kratos was able to release his mana and lift the seal, but thanks to a quick intervention courtesy of Yuan, was able to receive enough mana to keep him alive.

From there it was just a matter of forging the ring of the pact and reuniting the worlds. But, as usual, things didn't play out quite that well.

The nature of Exspheres and Cruxis Crystals is that the souls of their hosts remained trapped inside the stone until it is shattered. For recently killed hosts, that soul has some limited control of itself, able to speak and communicate even after their death.

Keeping Mithos' Cruxis Crystal, therefore, turned out to be a very grave mistake.

After the pact with Origin was formed, the crystal tore itself from Genis and onto Lloyd, essentially trying to possess him. Before the process could be completed, however, Colette grabbed the crystal, shoved Lloyd away, and let Mithos' soul enter her body instead.

It was a disappointment for Mithos, but all he really needed was a usable body. He took Colette, teleporting to Derris-Kharlan and destroyed the Tower of Salvation behind him, intending to, again, take the Great Seed and leave Sylvarant and Tethe'alla behind to rot.

From then on, it was a race against time. Kratos had collected all the materials necessary for crafting the ring of the pact, and Lloyd was able to enlist Dirk's help in making it. That gave him complete control of the Eternal Sword and the powers over time and space inherent with it.

The group traveled again to Derris-Kharlan, took back Colette, and stood against Mithos. This time the battle was finished -- Mithos demanded that his Cruxis Crystal be destroyed before it absorbed him entirely, and Lloyd complied.

But the Great Seed was dying, and time was running out. It took one final blast of mana from Derris-Kharlan to revive it and finally allow it to sprout as it was meant to. The tree, Yggdrasill, blossomed, and the world, Aselia, was finally reunited.

Lloyd went on to travel the world, collecting Exspheres and destroying them so that no one else would have to suffer because of them. Colette went along with him, insisting to everyone that with Cruxis gone and the world reunited, she wasn't a Chosen anymore, by any definition of the word.

She was just Colette.

ABILITIES:
Colette fights with a pair of chakrams, but a large amount of her power in battle comes from the angelic magic afforded to her by the Cruxis Crystal.

STANDARD ABILITIES:
Ray Thrust: Colette hurls one of her chakrams at the enemy. Long range.
Pow Hammer: ... she throws a squeaky toy hammer at the enemy. Yeah, I don't know either.
Para Ball: Colette throws a pair of red balls that call down lightning on a target.
Ring Whirlwhind: Colette spins in place with her chakrams outstretched to catch any enemies around her.
Item Thief: Colette's miraculous clumsiness at work. She trips, causing damage and potentially stealing something from an enemy.
Hammer Rain: A lot of squeaky toy hammers falling from the sky. idk, dude.
Grand Chariot: Colette throws her chakrams in a cross, causing lightning to strike.
Stardust Cross: Colette hits the enemy with a blast of stars. I HAVE NO IDEA.
Damage Guard: A defensive technique taught to her by Kratos during the early stages of the Regeneration Journey. It's creates a green bubble sort of shield that drastically reduces damage, especially from spells.

ANGELIC MAGIC:
Angel Feathers: Rings of light that Colette can summon for medium damage.
Holy Song: A song that increases the offense and defense of the entire party.
Judgment: A powerful attack that calls down bolts of light that strike all across the battlefield.
Holy Judgment: Colette's Hi-Ougi. When casting either Holy Song or Judgment, she screws up the incantation and ends up casting a combination of both spells, with a power boost to boot. Yeah, really.

Note: Colette's Cruxis Crystal greatly enhances her physical strength, as well as her natural senses (notably sight and hearing). It also gives her a nice shiny pair of pink angel wings.


GAME INFO
EDENSPHERE NAME: Angel
BIRTHDAY LOG: ... Yes.
DREAM:
The grass here was soft, she thought.

It was too dark to know for sure. But it felt like grass, and it smelled like grass, and she couldn't think of anything else that felt and smelled like that. There was no light, no breeze, no nothing; just the darkness and what she had decided was the grass. She wasn't afraid of the darkness -- it was warm here, it felt safe.

Then, pinpricks began to appear across the darkness -- across the sky? -- specks of light, like stars. Slowly at first, then faster and faster until they were like little, bright bugs swarming above her. There were thousands of them, millions of them, all winking down at her, all of them watching her. She reached out a hand like she could grab them; it was amazing that they could be so small and so far, but still bright enough to make her want to touch them. She smiled. She felt safe.

Someone caught her hand. She didn't know if he had always been there or if he had just appeared, but he was there now, cradling her hand between both of his like it was precious. Before she could say anything, he was pulling her to her feet. His hair was blond, and his eyes were shadowed. He was smiling.

"Hurry."

She wanted to respond, wanted to ask him who he was and what he wanted, but suddenly the grass was gone. It was darkness beneath her and stars above her, and he was the only thing keeping her from tumbling away. His grip was strong, but it still felt like she was falling. She tried to beg him to pull her up a little higher so she wouldn't be so scared, but it was like there were rocks pressing down on her heart and lungs. She couldn't breathe, couldn't speak, and the man kept smiling.

"Hurry and become an angel. Do not disappoint me...."

In the next moment, he was gone. He had not just dropped her, he had disappeared, and she was falling backwards into the darkness below her. She tried to scream, but her throat and her lungs hurt so much that nothing would come out. She fell and she fell, and one by one the stars above her began to disappear. It was the same as it had been at first -- it began slowly, until it was like a sea of candles being extinguished by a gust of wind. Watching them vanish tore at her heart. She wanted to cry, but the tears wouldn't come, either.

She shut her eyes tight before the last star could disappear and the darkness could engulf her, and then, suddenly, she stopped. There had been no wind, but she knew she wasn't falling anymore. It was warm, she could breathe again, she felt... safe.

She opened her eyes; one, and then the other. There was a circle of people around her, each one with an arm beneath her or around her, holding her up. Their faces were obscured, but they were all smiling -- had they caught her?

She tipped her head back to look at the one behind her, the one holding up her head and shoulders. He was closer than the others, she could almost see him through the darkness, dark brown eyes and a wide smile--....

JOURNAL SAMPLE:
Hello, everyone!

This place is so beautiful and peaceful.... I'm glad I get to be here, even if I don't remember very much. Thank you to everyone who took the time to explain things to me, I think I understand most of it now! I'm sorry if I bothered anyone too much, I probably asked a lot of questions.

Oh! I'm sorry, I should have introduced myself to everyone first.... My name is Angel, but I don't [scribbled out hastily.]

It's nice to meet everyone! I hope I get to see you all soon.

ASPIRATIONS: Colette is a very sweet and social character, and I'd just like to see her make connections and develop with other characters. I think it'd be fun to see her branch out as time goes on and get more involved with the marketplace and exploring and things like that, but that's a ways off.