Welcome to Gaia! ::

Physical Description:

Eyes: Deep green, somewhere between grass and emerald; almond shaped.

Hair: So dark a brown it appears black. Long (falls down to about her tail bone) and very wavy.

Face: Oval shaped; Gold ring in nose. Several piercings along the cuff of both ears, small gold hoops.

Body: Hourglass shape, childbearing hips, junk in dat drunk, and lovely lady lumps. Oh, and about 5'6"

Fashion: Depends on whether her dad is around when she gets dressed. If he's not her outfit consists of an oversized shirt (usually with a witty phrase on it), baggy blue jeans, and sneakers or boots. If her dad is present she wears a form-fitting shirt or blouse, a skirt or girly looking pants, and heels (as he expects her to look the part of a girl and she would rather die than disappoint her father).

Why Cavalier:
Originally I felt drawn to Cavalier Anima because of the Anima part. All I could think of was playing with the Jungian autonomous complex anima, the inner feminine personality, but in a different sort of way. I wanted to have a stubborn, emotionally stunted FtM go through the stages of anima development (because it's my thought that they would do so). HOWEVER. That proved to be a bit too problematic so I reversed and thought "hey, why can't a female go through anima stages?". Or at least, something akin to it. Especially if said female was a misogynist at heart?

Anima development is about the male (in my case, female) "opening up to emotionality, and in that way a broader spirituality, by creating a new conscious paradigm that includes intuitive processes, creativity and imagination, and psychic sensitivity towards himself and others where it might not have existed previously". And as I chewed that wikipedia statement over I realized that such a form of development fits perfectly and beautifully with what the Cavaliers must do.

In order to fulfill their goal of finding the prince, princess, and defeating the Negaverse, they must plug into the senshi (especially the ones who don't know swordsmanship) and as they're plugged in they feel what the senshi feel, a psychic sensitivity if there ever was one. True this only applies to physical feelings, but that's still an intimate connection, and thus, something Avani would be initially freaked out about. And since they're working for a common cause it's natural for the Cavaliers to develop close relationships with the senshi, and given the charged nature of their cause it's inevitable that there would be an emotional and spiritual connection between them. For what I want to do with Avani, the task of being a Cavalier just fits too perfectly for me to not try.

Why Faultline:
I will admit, this did come secondary, but, thankfully, I feel like Avani's positive character traits fit nicely with the idea of a faultline. A fault is, most basically, a fracture in a rock (usually the earth's crust) where one side has moved with respect to the other. There are many fault lines branching across the earth, and many of them are relatively inactive, passive. Avani is the same way, she exists, but passively, preferring to take a stance outside of things, observing, remaining unbiased and emotionless rather than being emotionally charged. However, when the rock on one side of a fault shifts greatly, LOOK OUT, cause there's a quake coming your way. And Avani is the type that, when she does get involved, it is INTENSE. She puts her whole self into whatever the cause may be and everyone around her can feel it because her life exists for that cause.

Furthermore, Avani's negative character traits fit with the concept of a faultline as there exists a fracture within herself. There's a complex crack separating her emotional side and the rest of her, a crack made through years of being consistently reminded that she'd never be as good as a son would be. Normally both sides quietly co-exist, but ever so often, something in the outside world causes the neglected emotional side to butt up against the rest of her and she is not immune to the resulting force and it shakes her to the core. In terms of dealing with this, Avani is akin to a third world country: woefully inept at dealing with such a force. All of her careful walls come tumbling down and it leaves her self-esteem crushed and her mind a disaster zone. She can build herself back up, but it takes a lot of time and effort, as she goes about the process alone. As she matures, the effects of these "quakes" will diminish in severity and, like California, she'll learn to accept them as she accepts that emotions are not always crippling, terrible things to be resisted at every turn.

Hey, this won't be a crit of all of Avani at the moment, just one issue I've had!

I think that it is FANTASTIC that people are willing to play more trans characters -- but the difficulty in playing a trans character is, of course, where you want to go with it. I don't know why you're going for an exceptionally feminine Cavalier form when Avani is (and pronouns are right, yay!) a FTM.



And:



I don't think that an FTM not wanting to get in touch with their feminine side is a flaw. Describe this as Avani's misogyny (and honestly, a transperson is going to have a much more in-depth idea of gender than just solely rejecting femininity, considering Avani's already transitioned and is probably beyond the stage of self-loathing rejection, though of course self-loathing issues may remain? But he's already transitioned). And the idea of having a trans character to -- if I'm not mistaken -- going through the stages of female anima development and acceptance? Like, I know you're wanting him to accept his feminine side as a MAN, I just don't think this should be such a huge concern.

You may actually be trans yourself, in which case I'm a dolt! However: I think that the thing about many transsexuals is that understanding their feminine and masculne is something they have already had to do. Rejection of one's masculinity or femininity seems to me like something to explore with someone beginning to struggle with trans issues, not somebody who's transitioning (with drugs, etc -- and you don't make it clear if he's in the drugs process, unless I didn't read right?).

And I don't think an FTM would ever go femme for ANY reason, even archery, it'd be a little horrifying.

So: I think a little reevaluation of the issue is called for.

Only the Shitennou and Mortalitas are definitively male (though we want two girl Shitennou), the rest are all nongendered!

Absolutely agree with it undermining the entire process, but what I meant was that it is going to be absolutely difficult to roleplay that as his concern without it getting into the offensive territory.

There are still hormone options for teenagers transitioning after psych work (depending on where you are, of course!) The quote you've gotten (mind sourcing -- it looks like it was from Wikipedia?) isn't always the case, but it would suck for both of us to sit here trading statistics. Here's the thing with Avani in terms of roleplay: I think that making the trans the entire point of anima smacks of using transsexuality as a shiny OOH!. I don't think that trans acceptance has come into our society or media enough to make it mainstream enough to be able to play it like you have here entwined with schtick, especially with the fact that he gets so femme with his cavalier form, no matter how many trans friends you do have. I do not think this character will be successfully roleplayable, which is what I should have said before.

I do not think you should make a trans character whose trans issues are part of their cavalier schtick. I find it less inclusive than it just is problematic. I recommend you start over, or at least pick a different character whose sphere is not entangled with their transgender self.

It's absolutely okay! I totally give you mad props for having the idea in the first place, and I really was cool with the Jungian stuff -- I did you wrong by not critting the entire thing. Transgendered characters are just something I tend to watch like a hawk in terms of this, and I tend to be a douche in terms of wanting to snuff out problematic s**t rather than take a chance. I'm really happy that you have a GREAT idea of what faultline entails.

Other than what I said above: I really like him as a character, I think he's awesome and interesting (yes, I know this is crazy unhelpful). I am really interested to see what you come up with next.