JOURNAL: incardine
CHARACTER: Noel Vermilion
CANON: BlazBlue
POWERS: Limited Technopathy, Prime Sentinel form (Mu-12)

PLAYER INFORMATION
PLAYER: Incardine
ARE YOU AT LEAST 14 YEARS OLD?: Yes
IF UNDER 18 YEARS OLD, PLEASE STATE YOUR AGE: Over 18
CONTACT: NekoIncChan on AIM, NekoIncardine on Plurk
PERSONAL JOURNAL: incardine
CHARACTERS PLAYED: Pascal


CHARACTER INFORMATION
NAME: Noel Vermilion
CANON: BlazBlue
CANON REFERENCE: http://blazblue.wikia.com/wiki/Noel_Vermillion AND http://blazblue.wikia.com/wiki/Mu-12
AGE: 18
GENDER:
YEAR IN SCHOOL/FACULTY POSITION: In the middle of repeating High School 3...

APPEARANCE: One and Two.
PERSONALITY:
Noel, to put it plainly, would have issues even without the circumstances of her life. While having been turned into - and back from - a Prime Sentinel certainly has not helped Noel in the slightest, her own adequacy problems cripple her far more effectively. The smallest accident can leave her cripplingly depressed... And she's never short on these kinds of little mistakes, thanks to her clumsy nature. She is also exceptionally self-conscious, especially when it comes to her chest size (or rather, near-total lack thereof) - just hearing the word "washboard" can leave her hugging herself and repeating the mantra "It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter..."

In battle, however, Noel can put this aside exceptionally well - to the point where at least a few people think it is entirely an act (completely and utterly not true, by the way). A surprisingly graceful acrobat and a skilled marksman, Noel becomes very serious when entering - or getting pulled into - a combat situation, using flashy CQC-derived techniques specifically to throw more practical-minded opponents off their guard. Force her into a corner hard enough, however, and Noel pretty much breaks down entirely.

In reality, Noel's determined personality in battle is closer to her truest self - when things really start to get serious, Noel's fierce loyalty to her friends and allies is difficult to shake, and will inspire her to take significant action to help them. Of course, there's always the probability that this help will go very wrong, not always through her own fault. Canon(ish) examples (it's a long story - basically, they happen, just not in the final timeline) include her helping Ragna at a Japanese restaurant by replacing the injured chef... Which resulted in her terrifyingly bad cooking skills almost killing the entire cast (including at least one person who was already dead). Or her guiding fellow academy student Carl Clover through some of the weird mysteris of campus... Which pretty much all were fourth-wall-breaking weirdness involving characters who had never been at the academy.

Mu-12, Noel's "alter ego", is a difficult mirror personality at best - and at worst, a great hazard to those around her. That can mean almost anyone. Originally a pseudocoded personality basically hacked together to try and keep Noel's normal self suppressed, she wound up becoming something of a shadow to Noel, combining a Sentinel's hardcoded purpose with Noel's suppressed self-loathing, becoming expressed as a raw hatred of all things - especially the mutants she is purposed to fight. After being defeated and suppressed, Mu-12 came to become a semi-separate existence within Noel's mind, capable of awakening at Noel's will, or in situations where Noel is under extreme duress.

While Mu-12 is, ultimately, more or less on Noel's side (if only to preserve her own existence), her computer-like voice disguises a deep, seemingly endless anger - a dark reflection of Noel's eternal self-doubt. She does not care about anyone - or anything - that gets in the way of her objectives. She will use her capabilities - including Noel's mutant power - to their fullest, and is utterly merciless, to the point where trying to prevent her from crossing the line may involve forcibly fighting her down. Mu-12 will not, however, use abilities that put herself at risk, and in fact, when pushed, will flee to get in an environment where she has a deeper combat advantage.

Mu-12's anger is not helped by her view of both herself and Noel as, ultimately, a doll - a servant to a cause who should not question her orders. She views her existence as otherwise purposeless, carrying a more than slightly nihilistic belief to her existence - fully cognizant of what she was meant to be, and the inherent oxymoron of that purpose. This tends to result in her preferring a state of near-nonexistance whenever feasible, 'sleeping' within Noel's mind until needed.

By the way, while Mu-12 is ultimately protective of Noel, she does not, in the slightest, like her as an individual, viewing her as weak in almost every imaginable way; she tolerates Noel because it allows Mu to minimize her own time awake, and because she has to due to the nature of her existence.

Both personalities seem to have significant vulnerability to cute things (Mu-12's is meme-based and not shown in canon); pandas and panda-related merchandise, in particular, seem to shut off some of their higher brain functions in many situations, to the point of Noel ignoring her usual comfort zones and body issues while around another character's pet, while Mu-12's cold, angry nature seems to fade to a state of distraction and curiosity.

POWERS/ABILITIES:
Noel's actual mutant power is a limited form of technopathy; she can communicate with certain specific devices, gaining limited remote control over them and being able to use their natural abilities to a heightened extent. The exact cause of any one device 'resonating' with her is unknown. Were it not for one specific circumstance of her life, it is likely that Noel never would have actually discovered her power.

At some point, an anti-mutant crusader (presumably Bolivar Trask) infected Noel with a special nanotech implant, designed to turn her into a Prime Sentinel upon the activation of a special code. Fortunately for Noel, her technopathic resonance was capable of resonating with any Prime Sentinel implant, including her own; the Brotherhood were able to exploit this to suppress the device. While essentially powerless for any real point and purpose, Noel was welcomed into the Brotherhood's ranks anyways, and quickly learned to fight using more ordinary tools; her signature devices are reinforced handguns and stunguns, tough enough to be used as clubs. Combined with a natural acrobatic talent, Noel is capable of holding her own against many mutants, even (seemingly) without any powers.

At some point, however, Noel was successfully activated by Trask in spite of the device's suppression; the interaction of her power with the Prime Sentinel nanotech caused her to transform into Mu-12. The Brotherhood successfully stopped her and restored her original personality, ensuring she could not be controlled by him again... But allowing her to trigger the implant to shift into Mu-12's form (and back) at will. The transformation causes a nontrivial amount of the nanotech to transform into a large sword, which can split into twelve remote-guidable blades. In addition, Mu-12 can float and fly, is exceptionally strong, can fire forceblasts, and has a combat computer that allows her to rapidly react to shifts in the field of combat. (The mutant power dampener seen in most Prime Sentinels is disabled, as disabling Noel's own powers while the Prime Sentinel tech is active suppresses her natural personality, turning her into a mindless berserker until the dampener powers down after several minutes.) Most disturbing of all, Mu-12 carries enough "spare" Prime Sentinel nanomachines as to allow her to potentially inject others, transforming them into Prime Sentinels. (Whether her resonance would allow her to control them, or they'd maintain their original personality, or they'd become servants of Operation Zero Tolerance, is unclear - she knows she's capable of doing this but has never done so.)

AU HISTORY:
Noel Vermilion was born to an ordinary family in New York... And then separated from that family, and adopted into another. She never has found out why, a source of deep consternation for her when brought up.

Her new family, rich and noble, were a well-off, rich family, capable of sending Noel to top-tier schools, vacations, and other environs. Noel, however, was persistently unspoiled in spite of their best efforts, thanks to a naturally shy outlook and constant issue with self-worth, in spite of her solid gymnastics skills and reasonably decent grades in school.

Then, at age 16, something went wrong in her life, when she happened to pass the trail of Bolivar Trask, a mutant researcher who had been driven to the conclusion that mutants would, if not controlled, inevitably control humanity. Cooly selling her a can of what appeared to be a normal energy drink, Trask drugged her, and implanted a special device in Noel's back, which went to work producing nanomachines within her body.

Trask never realized that his victim was a mutant (primarily because her powers simply hadn't manifested yet, and he was working quick enough that he only checked for active X-Genes), and Noel didn't remember the incident. A year after that, however, she had the fortune of running into Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch - who noticed her nature before Noel noticed hers (which could have triggered the device's activation and turned her irreperably into a Prime Sentinel). Using one of her hexes to knock the girl out, Wanda took pity on the girl, contacting other agents of the Brotherhood and finding out two interesting things: That Noel was a mutant, and that her power might be the key to stopping the Prime Sentinels. She brought Noel to the Brotherhood's headquarters.

Getting her to manifest her powers, a few of the Brotherhood's number - including Magneto himself (since his power was the power best suited to taking down a Prime Sentinel fast if things went wrong) - successfully manipulated and deactivated the device, in the process proving that Noel was a mutant. Grateful for their actions, Noel agreed to join them, quickly mastering a few forms of CQC, so that she could best help them. Quietly living her 'normal' life most of the time, Noel became a useful ally in a few Brotherhood operations - especially ones that featured the rare case of her powers manifesting on a key device.

Then Trask showed up at her door, having identified the twelfth 'abberration' to come out of the Prime Sentinel project. Easily taking her down and kidnapping her, he reactivated the device, which interacted with her powers such as to shift her into Mu-12 - which promptly moved to attack the Brotherhood's closest base. Fortunately, the Brotherhood were able to fight her down, thanks in no small part to Magneto getting the drop on her, preventing her from suppressing his powers or demonstrating just what she was capable of.

Convinced that he'd have to kill her, Magneto was surprised when Noel 'woke up' - her mutant powers and will catalyzed by Mu-12's defeat, Noel suppressed, then took control of the code-based 'personality' of the Prime Sentinel, seemingly once and for all. Now able to shift into her semirobotic form and back, Noel planned to rejoin the Brotherhood... Only for Magneto to suggest she take another route. Personally getting in touch with her parents (through a disguise), Magneto claimed that her robotic form, itself, was a mutation, and suggested they send their adopted daughter to Xavier's Institute, an idea they easily accepted. From there, Noel's orders were simple: Bring a cellphone with an encryptable signal, and wait for further instructions.

While Charles Xavier quickly discovered parts of the truth - what Noel's actual power was, and that it had suppressed the Prime Sentinel transformation enough to give Noel control - he hasn't yet caught on to Noel's actual allegiance... Or he has, but allowed her to join the academy anyways. Noel certainly doesn't know which (nor would she have an idea why he'd do that if it were the second). She's been at the school for just over a semester now... During which her parents (completely unaware of the Brotherhood) have donated over a million dollars to the school, along with continued efforts to spoil their daughter.

SAMPLE
1ST PERSON SAMPLE:
Ever wonder what it's like to have two voices in your head? Two minds that are aligned, but distinct? Here's a big hint: You don't want that. I've learned it all three times I've tried this form out so far.

My name is Noel Vermilion. Alternatively, my designation is Abnormal Prime Sentinel Unit Mu-12. Which seriously scares me because that implies there's at least eleven more people like me. People who lived ordinary lives, until suddenly they became robots designed to destroy mutantkind, their original self suppressed... And then were identified as off, somehow, in the eyes of one scientist with a vendetta.

I was the lucky one - my mutant power is almost assuredly what saved me from killing some of the only people I've learned to think of as friends anymore. Saved me from betraying a cause I now understand is right. It's what allowed me to take control of this... This thing inside me, so that it can't erase me ever again.

How many people did Trask get to, anyways? I know at least three ordinary people were turned at the same time I was. I... I don't even know if it would have been possible to save them. I might be the only one out of who knows how many who can be saved.

... The extreme that those who view mutants with hatred will go to, the number of innocent lives they will end in their pursuit of persecution. That's what I will fight. By any means necessary, I won't allow people like him to do things like this ever again.

Because someone has to... And because sometimes, nothing less than fighting will work.

THIRD PERSON SAMPLE:
Noel Vermilion's thoughts, at any one moment, tended to run between several things, dependent upon the situation she was faced with.

Right now, however, her thoughts were split between confusion, joy, and awe in equal parts. Her parents had... Interesting ideas as to what comprised a care package sometimes, it seemed.

And on this sunny day, that meant a twenty foot tall, obviously custom-ordered, panda-styled teddy bear. With no wrappings or anything - it had just been pulled out of the truck, allowed to expand to full size, then the truck company had left.

Attached around the toy's neck was a more sensible package of the more usual care package goods - where theoretically only Noel would be able to reach them. Sometimes, Noel couldn't help but wonder if her parents had never read any of the reports about the X-Men - she could probably count those presently among them who could not easily get up there on one hand.

... The real problem would be finding a way to get this into her room before she got in some sort of trouble for something. Xavier probably had a specific rule for twenty foot tall teddy bears on campus and outside of a student's room somewhere in the rules.

But then again, the teddy bear was probably bigger than her room. A fact that, as soon as it dawned on Noel, caused her to suddenly break into tears.