Welcome to Gaia! ::

This is the Quest thread for one of my first Dust concepts, the Star Sapphire. Sapphires are well known for their beauty and as being a birthstone, but the precious gem's fame goes far beyond that, to the point of sometimes being referred to as the 'Stone of Destiny'. In ancient times, multiple cultures held the sapphire in high regard as a good luck charm, a talisman of fortune. In Greece, it was said to wear one was to invite the favor of the gods or be the symbol of heaven; in India it was surmised that the stone brought health and wealth; the ancient Middle East and other cultures, it was said to protect virgins, repel spiders, and turn away envy. It's even said that King Solomon's ring had a sapphire in it.

Yet other abilities are attributed to the sapphire and all of its variants; such as being renowned by 11th and 12th century Western sorcerers for being able to repel and reflect spells, the Sinhalese also proclaimed that it was a strong ward against witchcraft. Kings would wear them around their necks to serve as a powerful defensive charm, and travelers would also possess them for luck and safety on travels. The Buddhists saw it as symbolic to loyalty and friendship, while others believed it represented prosperity. Most cultures over found it representative of the sky or heavens, a guardian of innocence and chastity, and a charm to clear and focus the mind, bringing inner peace. In reality, it's one of the most famous gems, and has a Moh's hardness of 9 - insanely hard and durable. In fact, the only thing that surpasses it that occurs in nature is diamond; ruby, it's 'sister gem' is the same durability, and the only difference is their color.

With that being the case, and the star sapphire itself being one of the most valued of its type, I've decided to base the following Dust off of it, using the concept of fortune, protection and healing for its abilities.

Dust Name: Ushika

Gender: Female

Appearance: Dark brown hair (somewhere between sienna and chocolate brown), coming down to her shoulders, small bangs in the front giving way to larger ones on the sides that cover her ears and frame her sand-colored skin and face. The most obvious appearance to associate her with the essence of what she would be her doe-y, stained-glass blue eyes, which do not have pupils of any kind. She is of average height and weight, but is laughably weak in terms of physical strength, and is immediately apparent upon looking at her.

Ushika does NOT like being hot, which her outfit would be designed to avoid, I imagine her either wearing a wrapped top and skirt (both likely either a light blue or a white and exposing her midriff and sleeves) or something more akin to a light, sheer dress like those worn by Egyptians. She also loves ribbons and trains, and I see her having small ones around her ankles (likely wearing sandals), and a large yellow one wrapped around her waist.

As another option, I would imagine something inspired by the traditional Mediterranean garments, possibly something like a cafran or something like a traditional Crete or Tilos inspired outfit. Generally very thin and airy (more so with the sleeves than the torso and waist), somewhere within the blue color spectrum, and very likely still with the above ribbons. Regardless, I leave all artistic decisions up to the artists.

Personality: Ushika is very introverted and shy around people, simply because being a new life into the world, she doesn't know how to interact and handle others, and she doesn't want to upset them either. Working on that, she'll usually try her hardest to please not just her owner and friends, but everyone she can. If given the chance, she'd try to make the entire world happy, and is blissfully ignorant of the simple impossibility of that. She feels that if she can make other people happy, she would be praised, which is a good thing. However, due to her own shyness and nervousness around strangers, she is also just as liable to mess things up and be scolded, making her self esteem drop even further.

Due to this, she resents arguments and violence (as no matter what happens, SOMEONE'S gonna wind up hurt or unhappy), and depending on who the people involved are and how difficult it is for her to flee, she would wish to try and step in and try to break up a fight - it would be more comfortable for her to step in than to see two people tear each other apart. Given her shyness though, she's liable to not being taken seriously and being pushed out of the way, making her even shyer. Thanks to that, she could become so afraid of rejection or fighting that she doesn't even bother with that, regardless of who's being hurt.

As far as general, day-to-day life goes, Ushika is a very orderly person. She wakes up early and does what she's told or assigned to do after she's gotten dressed and looking right (she can't stand going out in public looking anything less than perfect; heaven forbid she give onlookers ammunition to tease) and is normally rather responsible. She opens up a bit more to people while she's doing something, especially if the people in question are friends or her Guardian. She's the type of person that dislikes adapting to sudden, unexpected change, but can settle into a new routine quickly after the shock. The exception to this is when she's hot; she feels as if her head is being crushed and as a result can barely concentrate.

On her own time, Ushika would like to see everything that the whole wide world has to offer and see everything she could, however helping others takes precedence over herself in her mind. This could develop into more of a 'mother hen' scenario where she becomes overly concerned and worried for the people she cares about, while being unaware of these people not wanting to deal with that or finding the behavior annoying.

Personality: Shy, orderly, helpful, introverted, pacifistic

Likes: Helping/pleasing people, walking, adventuring, breezy or windy days, cold to moderate temperatures, soft, silky things.

Dislikes: Heat, making people upset, being put on the spot, violence, dirty icky things (spiders included), messing things up

Hobbies: Strolling, cooking, cleaning, keeping a journal (to reflect and learn from, as well as to record events)

Powers (Concept - these are just suggestions): Ushika, being about a shade shy of being a complete pacifist, has no offensive abilities, or to be more precise, doesn't use her abilities for offensive purposes. And with the exception of possibly one or two of them, all of them only have passive or defensive applications.

Asterium: With Asterium, Ushika can 'feel' the fortunes of different people, if they're going through a lucky, unlucky, or neutral streak and she can 'feel' the type of presence they have, either a ticklish (luck), nothing (normal) or sharp (unlucky). Those with extreme amounts of either can either make her giggle uncontrollably or cry out in pain while this is active. The only visible difference that can be told about her while this ability is active is that her eyes gain the 'asterium' effect, the signature six-spoke 'star' pattern on star sapphires.

Rainbow Armor: With this ability, Ushika can forcefully grow and sprout out crystal formations of sapphires out of and covering parts (and ultimately all) of her body. These sapphires vary in all the different colors sapphires come in, but they all share the quality of being the second-hardest natural substance known to man (only diamond's harder), proving for an excellent defense, from both physical and supernatural attacks. Theoretically, she would also be able to use this as a weapon. However, doing this is obviously painful, and she can easily pass out before the armor covers her entirely, at which point it deactivates and falls off her.

Crystal Balm: Similar to how Rainbow Armor works, Ushika can force out sapphire growth from her hands, but this ability goes and covers part of the target's body (usually injured, diseased, or aching areas) to promote speedy recovery from disease, poisons, mental afflictions, or small wounds, and ensure good health. As the ability wears off and the target heals, the sapphire cast will slowly crumble and fall off. These sapphires are blue, and it should be noted that though this DOES hurt Ushika to an extent, it's nowhere near to the levels of what Rainbow Armor does to her.

Thanks to Sarano_Krem for critiquing me on Ushika's powers - he's the reason for update 1.11 (and this part of the thread as well!)!

Thanks to Ravina_Loki for giving a nice long critique on everything - thanks to her, version 2.0 of this thread is now underway!

Thanks to Hibi-tea for giving her input and helping with defining Ushika's personality more - she's the cause behind version 2.1!

hey GP, here's a crit for ya...

i think personally, that giving good luck only is kinda overdoing it. even though it starts small then builds.
maybe change it to a random type and amount of luck, only happening to a person maybe once a day or week, that way, even though she can't turn it off, it can't be "spammed" in a sense.

hope that helpped some

This looks really good so far, and Loki already hit some of the major inconsistencies or issues within the profile itself.

In regards to her stepping in an breaking up fights: If she's this very pacifistic and shy creature who doesn't seem to have much confidence in herself, would she even bother? You mention that the rejection of her intervening would only serve to reinforce her shy demeanor and when someone has their confidence broken like that it's generally hard for them to make the same choice again as they don't want to go through the same outcome.

Question! With Ushika's willingness to help others, would you peg it as a mother-hen scenario? You mention quite well Ushika's pacifism and shyness, but her description of helping others feels a little forced and unfinished. I don't see the connection with how her want to help others turns into a negative where she no longer holds value in herself. If anything, her negative self image would stem primarily from her shyness and inability to get people to take her seriously like with your example of her breaking up a fight.

It's my opinion that helping people is something that promotes confidence. You don't generally get yelled at or rejected when you help another person. You get reward and recognition for it.

As a bit of an add-on, I'd suggest doing a "Personality Keywords" section underneath the actual personality. It'd help for an "at a glance" view of Ushika's personality.

Hey Gundam! Sorry this took so long~

Appearances
I don't really see the Star Sapphire in her appearances here; is that intentional? I'm just curious. I do like that her garments are themed and seem congruent with the heritage/more popular culture of where star sapphires are found.

Personality
I don't see shy in her personality from how you describe her -- honestly I see her more as meek, or perhaps just introverted, due to the fact you tie in her 'shyness' with her nervousness and fear of rejection. Someone who is afraid of rejection isn't necessarily shy; I just think there's other keywords or personality quirks that would fit this more comfortably. Also, as a pacifist, I'm not sure why she'd step into fights, I imagine she'd use her words more than actions. Putting others over her own well-being also doesn't quite add into her shy/introverted nature. If you could iron that out to maybe have a clause for when she's had enough or play down the shyness so it isn't her most extreme personality trait, I think that would fix some of the discrepancies I see that others have pointed out. Ravina and hibi both pointed out fantastic points!

Keywords, Likes, Dislikes, Hobbies
Again, I'd suggest swapping 'shy' for something else -- perhaps maternal or matronly. Also, just out of curiosity, do you have any of these tying into her essence, or is this just a personality you added an essence to? The rest seems fine, her hobbies are charming and homely.

Powers
Asterium :: I appreciate the name but I don't quite see how it ties to the power itself save for how it physically manifests. I'd have to say no to this power, mostly because 'luck' is sort of a vague notion and though the star sapphire may be aligned with luck, I'd reserve this strong of an affinity for something like rabbit's foot or four-leaf clover.

Rainbow Armor :: Interesting, but I would suggest perhaps that her skin becomes like the gem itself? The pro is that it's very strong; the con is that it's restrictive in movement and hurts her a lot (if you wanted to keep that). To me, the idea of hundreds, if not thousands of stones covering her body isn't so much protection as it could be easily knocked off -- which I imagine would hurt her a lot more!

Crystal Balm :: Again, tying into the notion of healing is interesting, but I'm having a hard time finding information about the gem as you've included it here. That's not a problem! I'm just pointing it out. XD To the power itself, a gem forming in her hands does sound painful, but I'm not sure that I see it having power once its left her, if that makes sense. It could be she can crush them with her hands (thus stronger than she appears, perhaps?) to coat the wound, or maybe she just has a white light that forms from her hands - like the asterium shape - and physically drains her. Pain shouldn't be the only consequence, because people can adapt and overcome pain. I'd like to see her powers tie into her personality, and as such, her willingness to put others before herself could play out in this power especially.

---

Ilriac

Appearance
This is just nit-picking, but be careful with descriptions. Saying he's 'dashing' or that 'something puts people off' is a bit assumptuous of others and how they might perceive him. Just describe him as a basic and let us decide if we find him dashing or off-putting. ;3

Personality
I think his vice is interesting and I applaud you for having him trying to turn over a new leaf, that will be especially trying on someone so young! C:

Hobbies
If he's reformed, he probably shouldn't enjoy Gambling. Just a thought. XD

Bio
Do you think he's ready to take on the part of Guardian? I'm not doubting him or making you question him, I'm just asking as a general curiosity. I know not everyone can be ready to handle this incredible burden of being a Guardian and I'm just curious how you think he's going to handle it. ovo