Difference between revisions of "Shiori Hibiki"

Revision as of 08:00, 20 December 2009

Profile

Shiori would like nothing more than to live life at her own pace, slow and relaxed and with an absolute minimum of pressure. As a result, her grades as a first-year student at Gekkoukan High School range from indifferent to below average, and it is mostly due to a combination of luck and good cramming skills that she has not yet outright failed any subjects. She does have a love of knowledge and learning, although not necessarily what she actually needs to know. She will often amble up to eavesdrop on conversations that are really none of her business, and her nosey streak has gotten her into trouble more than once. Quite normal, quite generic, quite boring... but why does she seem to have a curious reluctance to talk about her past, and self-esteem low enough to elicit both pity and annoyance? Surely it's nothing serious... right?

Skills

Ask A Stupid Question, Picker-Up Of Unconsidered Trifles, Or So I Hear, Don't Say Lazy, Gossip Sponge, Undefeated Champion Of Rival Blazing Arcana Fighters IV, Curiouser And Curiouser, Perform: Piano, Why Am I So Useless, Epic Flail, Healz0r, Entirely Harmless, What's Your Name Again, Edna Mode, Reformed Rich Bitch

Appearance

Brown hair not quite at medium-length, tied off in twin low ponytails to either side, with the rest held in place with a simple clip. Sleepy brown eyes looking at the world with mild disinterest. A short, slight frame. Unfocused, distracted... quite harmless, surely.

During school days, will be wearing a Gekkoukan uniform. On non-school days, probably blouse-and-jeans or an unobtrusive dress, along with a cute small bunny-themed backpack. On combat missions, has a Daidara-made combat studded flail, which she otherwise keeps in a modified shinai duffel case.

Her preferred colours are white, light baby blue or pink, dark browns, and black.

Whatever the occasion, will always, always have a small expertly-handmade black waist pouch just big enough to securely hold a pistol-sized object.

In the warmer months, Shiori will be wearing loose, light clothes, and if it gets hot enough, a sun hat. In cooler temperatures, her attire will range from a simple jacket, to an overcoat just slightly too large for her, warm mittens or gloves, and a hand-knit scarf.

Background

Born to a well-to-do family, to corporate executive parents in a multinational corporation, Shiori has never wanted for anything. Her parents may have been more lax than they should have been regarding their daughter's studies, and appear to be content that at least Shiori is not failing class or falling into bad company... or at least so they tell her, with every sign of sincerity.

With her parents concentrating their hopes of a highly-successful offspring on her younger brother (although still assuring Shiori that they love her as she is), Shiori was more or less free to do as she pleased, and yet felt a nagging sense of discontent. Her relatively sheltered upbringing made her a poor judge of character, and one thing led to another, culminating in an incident near the end of middle school that Shiori still refuses to talk about. Strangely enough, few people remember or even know of Shiori's involvement in that incident, leaving her reputation more or less unscathed.

After that, Shiori moved to Iwatodai/Tatsumi Port Island to enrol in Gekkoukan High School. There, Shiori's grades have actually begun to improve, albeit slowly. (How she managed to qualify for Gekkoukan in the first place is a minor mystery.)

Shiori has a little brother in Junior High whom she is alternately fond of and irritated by, in the style of all big sisters everywhere. He is a great deal more industrious and responsible than his sister. After Shiori left to live in Port Island, they don't see each other very often, and calls are brief and deliberately nonchalant, but he worries about her in his own (teenage) way.

IC Developments

Arrival

A couple of days after Shiori first moved into Port Island (to one of the student dormitories near the high school), she found herself in the Dark Hour, alone and helpless. It was only through luck and the efforts of SEES personnel also in the Dark Hour that Shiori managed to escape it mostly unscathed, particularly after meeting Takehito Kirikawa and Katsuya Suou.

After that experience, Shiori sought out SEES, in part to allay her fears of the Shadows and the Dark Hour every midnight. She obtained information on SEES from Takehito and Lucas Xavier; during the latter meeting, she also befriended Mae Ikina, Yasogami High School Student Council Vice-President.

Shiori arranged a meeting with Mitsuru Kirijo, and volunteered to join SEES, in order to protect innocents from the Dark Hour. She was formally inducted into the group after a short interview. Shiori was only mildly surprised to learn the true nature of Aigis and Koromaru.

As a member of SEES, Shiori has mainly accompanied the group on a few large-scale missions, but she has not participated in many solo or small-group excursions. Her first combat mission was against Strega, after SEES was led to an ambush by Wataru Hoshimoto (whom Shiori had last seen in the company of Lucas). There, she was part of the group that fought Jin Shirato and Natsuko Choukawa, although Takaya Sakaki appeared near the end to call a retreat. Bystanders Shiori encountered in that battle were Teddie, Tohru Adachi, Enoha Koinose, and Thora Kobayashi.

Shiori tries to keep in contact with her fellow first-year classmates who are also in SEES: Miyuki Yoshida, Hinata Itoh, Yoshiro Yoshino, Kiyoko Wakahisa, and Tomonari Sandou, among others.

When Shiori was visiting Daidara Metalworks in Inaba looking for a weapon to help her against the Shadows, Yoshiro helped her find her current weapon, a combat flail with a studded (not spiked) head.

In order to gain more combat skills, Shiori sought Takehito, who is in charge of the kendo club, for instruction. Kirikawa drafted her into the kendo club, and paired her off with Naeka Asahara, who was also in SEES.

Lucas assigned Shiori to be Sayaka Takuma's guide, despite the latter being in second-year.

Cold Comfort

Shiori was not part of the SEES group that tried unsuccessfully to secure the Mask of Winter. Her confusion about the "mask" everyone was talking about was unhelpful.

During this time, due to the influence of the Snow Queen, a cold front moved into Japan. Shiori visited Inaba to investigate this, where she met Yosuke Hanamura and Chie Satonaka.

When Miyuki was kidnapped by Strega, Shiori and Naeka asked Sayaka to assist in the rescue attempt in Lunarvale. At that battle, where Shiori met Strega members Tomomi Fujimori and Nagisa Renge, Shiori saw SEES almost wiped out by a concerted assault by Strega. That, along with the appearance of Thanatos from Minato Arisato, shook her belief in her own worth as a member of SEES.

After angsting about it for some time, Shiori agreed to be trained by Naoya Toudou in Lunarvale, where she was taught that true courage was not in succeeding, but in trying even though one may not succeed.

The next SEES mission was led by Aigis, with a team of Shiori, Kiyoko, and Deidra Doyle, to investigate reports of a monster wandering the Dark Hour feeding on people. They found a Wendigo, and were ambushed by Strega, consisting of Takaya, Tomomi, and Masaru Ikedo. Kaede Ikeda, as Murava, observed the proceedings and made herself known to the others, but did not participate. Other bystanders were Kagura Enjou and Anzu Momonoki, who seemed familiar with the Dark Hour, but did not seem to be able to do much about it. Shiori's classmate Anzai Mizuno was also present, and awakened to his Persona then. SEES defeated the Wendigo and drove Strega off, or at least survived until Strega left of their own accord.

After the battle, Shiori visited Inaba to sight-see, and encountered Masaru, as well as Yasogami High Student Council Secretary Osamu Tsurugi. With Osamu's help, Shiori managed to befriend Masaru.

Shiori was worried about Mae, who seemed to be paranoid and stand-offish, and made another, later visit to Inaba, where she met Haruka Tanaka, who was meeting Yosuke at the time.

Shiori was not part of the final battle against the Snow Queen.

Friends And Foes

As part of repayment for Sayaka's assistance, Shiori accompanied her and Naeka to purchase summer yukata now that the mystical cold front was over. Along the way, they met Osamu, and Sayaka wished to test her strength against Osamu's. Shiori agreed to referee the sparring match.

Partway through the duel, Sayaka's Persona materialized unprovoked and uncontrolled, and Osamu and Naeka brought it down, with Shiori providing what support she could.

Directly after that battle, Takaya and Tomomi attacked. Osamu managed to escape with the unconscious Sayaka. Shiori barely resisted Tomomi's call for her to join Strega, but Naeka was turned. For Naeka to prove her new loyalty, she had to stab Shiori, who had been knocked unconscious by Takaya's attack. Naeka made sure that the stab wound was survivable.

While Shiori was in the hospital, she was visited by Shuji Ikutsuki, Lucas, and Sayaka. Through it all, Shiori maintained that she believed Naeka to be merely "temporarily confused", and did not blame her in the least.

Some time after Shiori's release from the hospital, she visited Inaba again to check up on Mae, and was surprised to learn that Mae and Yosuke were officially dating. She also met Kenji Kurosawa, and learned that Mae had experienced a lot of problems related to the Other World that she did not want Shiori to get involved in. Nevertheless, Shiori obtained a promise from Yosuke for him to continue taking care of Mae.

An impromptu battle with Strega during the Dark Hour resulted in SEES capturing Naeka. Shiori took this opportunity to patch things up with Naeka. In addition, she tried to befriend Nagisa, who had visited the SEES dorm (although perhaps not for the first time) to check up on her former teammate. Nagisa was receptive, but vague about reciprocating that friendship.

Truth And Trust

After hearing members of Strega invoke the name "Nyx", Shiori has been trying to find out who or what it was. She has thus far not met with a great deal of success.

Several chance meetings with Wataru Hoshimoto has made Shiori concerned for the boy, possibly because he reminded her of her own little brother. When Wataru allowed her into his personal space, Shiori sought out Lucas Xavier for advice on how to communicate better with Wataru. The conversation soon turned to their respective pasts, and Shiori ended up telling Lucas about That Incident in middle school; the only person in Port Island she had ever told it to. In return, Lucas told Shiori about his own past, and reasons for coming to Japan. Where before Shiori thought of Lucas only as an irritating and creepy person, now she understood him far better, and counted him as a trustworthy friend.

Shiori met Tom Magnusson working at Cafe Chagall, and later chatted with him at some length at Hagakure Ramen. She has some suspicions about why he is in the Okina City area, and has cautioned him against being too reckless, without giving away specifics. In that same conversation at Hagakure, Sayaka Takuma arrived with her maid in tow, and invited Shiori to her home. Shiori, despite being intimidated by the maid's cold glare, accepted the invitation. The visit itself was uneventful, but Shiori learned more about Sayaka's family life and traditions.

On the eve of her 16th birthday, Shiori happened to be on the scene when the Lucky 7 convenience store was attacked by Strega, led by Tomomi Fujimori (although Takaya Sakaki was also present). She failed to help prevent the Lucky 7 from being burned out, largely due to being cornered by Chiharu Satou for most of the fight. Shiori now feels guilty for not being of sufficient assistance to Ran Itoh, Hinata Itoh, and their half-sister Kanon Itoh.

The day after her 16th birthday, Shiori's younger brother Yuuki visited Port Island to give his sister her presents from home. After implying that Shiori might be better off at home rather than studying in Gekkoukan and getting hurt in all sorts of mad adventures, Yuuki had a verbal sparring session with Lucas Xavier while Shiori was out of earshot, and decided to let Shiori stay in Port Island for the immediate future.

Sound Advice

In trying to investigate Strega's motives, especially regarding the demolition of the Lucky 7, Shiori found herself in a bad part of town, and was accosted by a strangely drugged-up punk. Tom Magnusson rescued her, and Shiori caught a glimpse of (but did not manage to meet) Azusa Shimegi, who had been hiding nearby.

Shiori was part of the SEES team that stopped the mysterious girl in black named "Aki" from taking over one of the Kirijo Group's laboratories, along with Thora Kobayashi, Naeka Asahara, and Deidra Doyle. Mitsuru Kirijo was already present at the scene when the spatial distortion "Aki" created occured, and joined the other SEES members after entry was gained. Together, they fought against Aki's minions, including a giant robotic toy mouse tank named Tesso, a Shadow Gigas, and a mysterious masked girl. Aki's motives apparently involved making a Christmas present (six months early) for her father from the spare and discarded robot parts used to make anti-Shadow weapons like Aigis. An unexpected intervention by someone who seemed to be Maki Sonomura (whom Shiori had never met before) saved the SEES members from an untimely end. Nevertheless, the masked girl managed to knock Shiori out cold for the rest of the night.

The next day, while recuperating from the mild concussion inflicted by the mysterious masked girl, Shiori was resting in Lucas Xavier's office when Wataru Hoshimoto requested advice on dealing with having a crush on girls. Shiori was stunned and astonished to discover that along with Sayaka Takuma's maid and Maki Sonomura, she herself was one of the girls Wataru had a crush on. The revelation left her with a strange and intense mixture of emotions, including embarrassed, delighted, flattered, confused, apprehensive, fearful, and oddly enough a distinct amount of guilt.

To thank Tom Magnusson for saving her, Shiori treated him to a meal at Johnny Roger's in Sumaru. There, they encountered Azusa Shimegi once again, although Shiori left the questioning and answering to Tom.

A couple of days later, on an idle sightseeing visit to Lunarvale, Shiori met and befriended Midori Nakashima, just before encountering (yet again) Azusa Shimegi. The parting was amicable and without incident, but Shiori was starting to get suspicious about the reporter never actually interviewing her straight-out, but instead skulking around in the shadows.

Shiori managed to meet Mae Ikina for a short while. Shiori apologized for digging so deeply into Mae's affairs, and promised to ask Mae directly for information next time.

Azusa Shimegi contacted Shiori urgently one day, asking to meet her. It turned out that Azusa had had a run-in with Midori Nakashima, who was a Shadow-possessed, and Azusa manifested her own Persona during that incident. Shiori attempted to answer Azusa's questions with limited success, and directed her to Lucas Xavier for further inquiries. Shiori also took heed of Azusa's warning about Midori, while privately deciding not to let it affect their friendship.

That night, Shiori helped Sayaka Takuma hunt down the "superboss" Shadow Sayaka had claimed was the very first Shadow the older girl had faced. The Shadow toyed with them before departing, but not before knocking Shiori out cold with overwhelming force.

This did not dampen Shiori's spirits the next day, when she met Wataru Hoshimoto busking in Paulownia Mall. She still had no answer for his confession, but she did admit that she was touched by how much he cared for her. After meeting and chatting with Kouji Kannazuki, Wataru presented Shiori with a cactus. Shiori accepted the present, and resolved to properly answer Wataru as soon as she could.

Personality

A comfortable home life and overall lack of ambition has left Shiori unmotivated, in the strangely unsatisfied way of someone looking for a purpose in life they can really get behind, and running on autopilot until then. She certainly doesn't care enough to actively seek out that purpose; she's content to wait for it to come to her.

Something she does take an active interest in is gathering information, and she might even have a promising future as an investigative journalist if she put her mind to it. As it is, she is interested mostly in gathering information for the sake of curiosity, of which she has an abundant amount. She doesn't really do anything with that information, preferring to keep it to herself. Simply knowing things and learning about things, especially things few other people know, is enough to give her a thrill. She's only slightly better than most in keeping secrets, as she might not blurt it out unless directly asked (or threatened), but her body language is distinctly untrained, and often painfully obvious.

Shiori is not very brave and not very athletic, but she has surprisingly good reflexes. She is also quite speedy, mostly in a direction away from danger. She believes that there are a great many unexplainable things in the world, and so seeing something bizarre may alarm and surprise her, but usually not to the point of panic. She will, however, try to find out as best as she can what that strange thing was, and why it happened.

Shiori tries to act indifferent about it, but she does maintain her appearance as much as any other teenage girl. She has felt feelings that may or may not have been the faintest beginnings of a crush before, but nothing has yet made her heart skip that proverbial beat.

The incident in middle school had changed Shiori's personality drastically, if anyone around her even knew of or remembered her old self. Now, Shiori tries her best to be nice and kind to everyone she meets, and to make as many friends as she can. In fact, her desire for friendship and the acknowledgement thereof often gets to the point of being needy.

Shiori also has the sort of low self-esteem that can get irritating very easily. She doubts herself, and believes herself to be unworthy of anything and everything. Everyone else is better than her in every way; everything she does is useless and pathetic. If one is not careful, the conversation will soon turn into a full-blown whine.

Despite all of this, during times of stress, when Shiori accidentally lets her guard down, some glimpse of her old personality may show. Shiori is never proud of these moments, and tries to hide her old self as much as she can.

For as long as she can remember, Shiori has had the same sort of hidden second thoughts that everyone has; the sort of tiny voice that tells you to touch that wet paint, or to call in sick to sleep in, or that your finished masterpiece is not as perfect as it could be... Ever since the incident in middle school, though, that tiny inner voice had turned nasty. And ever since Shiori moved to Port Island and experienced the Dark Hour for the first time, the inner voice has grown louder, more persistent, and oddly more coherent...

Persona

Pheme

A winged woman, her own eyes shrouded with a veil, but hundreds of ghostly eyes on every rustling peacock-like feather. Surrounded by an aura of whispers and rumours in every tongue, informing and gossiping and babbling. She holds a long trumpet, into which she sounds a clarion note, inspiring all who hear it with promises of glory, of renown, of fame.

Pheme is mostly oriented towards support and debuffs.

Background Assets And Miscellany

Shiori can probably get quite a lot of pocket money from her parents if she has to, but she hasn't done so yet beyond her current very generous allowance (which allows her to live without worrying about most basic expenses, and indeed quite a few luxuries). If she does ask her parents for more money, they will expect an explanation.

Shiori is not particularly skilled with computers. She can use them to do homework, and she half-heartedly maintains the usual social networking stuff that is the latest fad, but that's about it. She owns a consumer-level laptop.

Shiori is very, very good at arcade fighting games. She is not so good at quiz games. She is downright pathetic at UFO catchers.

Apart from arcade games, Shiori's other hobby is needlework, ranging from sewing to knitting to embroidery to quilting. She is surprisingly skilled at this, largely because this is her default method of procrastination.

Shiori's brother is named Yuuki (響悠希, Hibiki Yuuki). He is two years younger than his sister.

Shiori melts in the presence of cute pets.

Relationships

TBA

Trivia

• Height: 152 cm, or about five feet.
• Blood Type: O positive
• Hometown: Fukaya, Saitama
• Star Sign: Gemini, (Yin Water) Rooster

• Good At: Fighting games, sewing/embroidery/crafts, piano, calligraphy
• Okay At: Rhythm games, quiz games, ballet/general dancing, singing, first aid, swimming
• Bad At: Cooking, cleaning, UFO catchers, acting

• Favourite Food: Cake
• Least Favourite Food: Green peppers

• Best Subject: Japanese Literature
• Worst Subject: Physics
• Best Sport: Lacrosse (not that she ever tried it)

Further OOC Information

• Player: Shiori
• Alternate Characters: Chidori Yoshino
• Time zone: GMT+8 (Singapore)

Permissions

Blanket permission to +observe whenever Shiori is in a scene. In fact, blanket permission for OOC commentary.

If you want to kill off Shiori, even if the situation demands it, I'd appreciate a warning OOC. Otherwise, please don't kill Shiori permanently.

Shiori may be considered Easy Pickings for an ambush. Feel free to do so (probably by prior arrangement, RP etiquette being what it is), but be warned that Shiori will pick flight over fight every single time, unless cornered with no other option, upon which she will probably surrender.

In combat, once people on her side start getting hurt, Shiori will spam her heals until OOC-ly told to stop. A good IC way to prod her into not healing is to imply that she is not as loyal to her friends as she seems, upon which she will lash out for one round, almost certainly with a Ghastly Wail or Storm Nightmare.

Character Soundtrack

• Ace Combat Zero - ZERO -- Boss battle
• AIR OST - Natsukage -- Tranquil scene 2
• Camille Saint-Saens - Les Carnaval des Animaux VII: Aquarium -- Premonition
• Cardcaptor Sakura OST2 - RELEASE -- First summoning
• Cardcaptor Sakura OST4 - Ashidori Karuku -- Menu options
• Hidamari Sketch x365 OST - Waku Waku Hidamari Sou -- Happy ride
• Lucky Star OST - Ran ran ran dayo Lucky Star -- Normal day
• Mahoromatic OST - Take a Break -- Classroom
• Mai-HiME OST1 - Tokiiro no Mai -- Chase scene
• Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya OST - Higeki no Heroine -- Comic tragedy
• Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya OST - Itsumo no Fuukei -- Lazy day
• Moon Phase OST - Lemonade & Rice -- Classroom 2
• Moon Phase OST - Midnight Games -- Dark Hour
• Mother OST - Pollyanna -- Image song
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker I: Overture -- Early morning
• Read or Die OST - Unequalled Wild Dance -- Preparation
• Seiken Densetsu 3 OST - Powell -- Dungeon crawl
• Shakugan no Shana OST - Danse des fee -- Serious explanations
• Sora no Manimani ED - CooRie - Hoshizuku no Surround -- Ending theme
• Wild ARMs 3 OST - A Person's Warmth -- Tranquil scene
• Zettai Karen Children OST1 - Gaki tte iu na -- Exams