Ruby City Application.

[sunsetsitter]

PLAYER
Name: Otis.
Age: 21.
Personal Journal: dolphinsaredicks
E-mail: keyword [dot] brainicide [at] gmail [dot] com
AIM/MSN/etc: humbugger, humbugger.otis (AIM).

CHARACTER
Name: Izabel.
Canon: Saga.
Age: Died somewhere between 16-19, 17 unless stated otherwise by canon.
Timeline: End of Chapter 23, leaving Gardenia.
Items with character at canon point: n/a, too hard when you've got no ghost pockets.
If playing another character from the same canon, how will you deal with this?: --.

Personality:
In the world of Saga, there doesn’t seem to be a single person left unaffected by the war between Landfall and Wreath, and naturally Izabel is no different. For all she tries to act like a normal teen, the price she had to pay is even more apparent than for most. She’s half the person she used to be -- literally. Girl has no legs. Still, she tries to not let the fact that she’s a dead girl babysitting a child known as an abomination get to her, hiding inside of jokes and making light whenever she can to ease the stress of those around her. Izabel was never big on violence, and even now that she doesn’t have much of a life to live she just wants to get away from the war. As she’s found, it isn’t so easy, getting caught up by its effects even when she’s hanging out with those more focused on family instead of fighting. Surrounded by reminders as she is, her ability to keep cool even under pressured situations is pretty impressive, preferring insults to (empty, given her situation) threats and using her illusions to try and scare off those that would oppose them on instinct, even in times when she knows it won’t work. She’ll take advantage of a situation with her words, and it can be assumed that that was something carried over from when she was alive and could have done more if she chose.

Despite her general calm and cheerful demeanor, Izabel isn’t afraid to get serious when the need arises, though she does prefer to focus on the problems of others rather than her own, especially since she’s dead and there isn’t much that can be gained by looking back on her issues except as an example at times. While she jokes about being nothing more than an indentured servant and her companions aren’t afraid of shrugging her off as useless, Alana’s offhand sarcasm in “welcome to the family” when they met is something she’s taken to heart. She cares about Hazel as more than just a means to see the rest of the world, not just protecting her but taking care of her needs as much as she can (given that she can’t actually affect things physically.) She educates the girl with entertainment, putting her own spin on broadening her horizons with silly stories and mirages to keep things fun to focus on, and makes sure to inform Marko and Alana of little bits of personality so that when she isn’t around, the care is continued. She doesn’t limit herself to getting along with her charge, however, and appears to have a good relationship with Klara, Hazel’s grandmother that once banished her off a spaceship with magic.

It’s possible her default “casual teenager” attitude when the world has gone to shit is a result of not figuring out just what she wanted in life until it was too late for her. She didn’t share a fervor for the cause that her freedom fighter parents did (and so may have had an awkward relationship with them), she ended things with her girlfriend on bad terms, and she never got off what she referred to as a mudball of a planet. Izabel died with a lot of regrets, but now she can explore the galaxy with a family that would do anything for each other, gathering up life experiences even after she’s passed. Her way of forgiving easily isn’t always her first choice, judging by bitter expressions she makes at times, but it helps her move forward to what she hopes is the peaceful life she dreams of.

Background:
Izabel on the Image Comics wiki.

Abilities:
Worldly Without Travel - Even before going off on a space adventure with Marko, Alana, and Hazel, Izabel was pretty knowledgeable about other parts of the galaxy. She's particularly good at identifying other races and their abilities for the group, and it gives her an extra edge both during preparations and for stories. Now that she's actually done a bit of travel, her experience adds to her knowledge.

Sister-Mother - As the oldest of seven and with parents deeply entrenched in resistance efforts, Izabel's the ideal babysitter for the new parents barely scraping by with what they know. While never directly stated, it can be deduced that she did a fair amount of raising for the youngest of her siblings at least and is pretty set in that area of life.

"Walk" Through Walls - As much as one can without legs, anyway. Izabel's body is incorporeal, so matters like, well, matter are trivial! She is shown to be affected by some magic, such as a banishment spell that sends her to a nearby planetoid.

Illusions (For Fear and Fun) - The ghosts of Cleave are known as Horrors because their way of protecting the planet is by using illusions to ward off invaders, predators, etc. This can be turning into a ferocious-looking animal, creating a false wall of fire, or setting up a gruesome scene of soldiers being torn apart in a bloody mess. This ability isn't limited to scares, however, and Izabel actually uses them to entertain Hazel while she's babysitting. The illusions don't work on robots and can't actually affect things on a physical level, no matter now convincing it appears.

Soulbonder - When a native of Cleave dies, their spirit sticks around to try and protect the planet, and are only able to leave if they've been bonded to a living native. Izabel was bonded to Hazel shortly after the girl was born on Cleave (making her qualify) and so Izabel was able to explore the galaxy. It isn't specified how far apart the pair can be or for how long, and it doesn't appear to have any benefits other than creating a near-constant travel companion.

Don't Let the Sun Go Down Up On Me - When the sun's out, Izabel's not. The Horrors only appear after sundown (relative to wherever the individual is at the time). Since Izabel has been bonded to Hazel, under normal circumstances, her spirit retreats into the kid's soul when the sun rises, causing her to "sleep" and miss out on any of the day's events.

*** In Ruby City, I propose her spirit retreats into her pocketwatch since she is without Hazel.

Network/Actionspam Sample:
Route's July-August test drive meme thread.

Prose Log Sample:
She found it difficult to get things done, at first, not having anything she could give or even do, most of the time. As convincing as her illusions could be, they weren't any more tangible than she was. They couldn't make her "real" enough to complete the tasks most people exchanged in their weird trading system, couldn't build or even clean. Even as a security system, Izabel failed if the intruder figured out that she was all bark and no bite. She was lucky, she supposed, that there wasn't much she actually needed in the first place, as it softened just how useless she felt. There weren't kids to watch or grandmas to keep company here, so... What even was there for her to do?

Izabel got used to telling stories for a while, even if she had to keep the circumstances vague. Her friends may not be there, but she owed a lot to them -- and any harm that could come to Hazel wouldn't do any good. Sure, there wasn’t any sign of the war she was used to, but with how frequently new people showed up, Izabel feared it wouldn’t be long before some soldier or TV-faced robot crashed the peace and somehow, somehow found a way to hurt Alana, Marko, Klara, Hazel. Her soul’s safekeeper. She hated thinking that way, hated that the continuation of her un-life was even a concern when it came to that precious little girl, but deep down... Well, everyone was awful in there own way, huh? That kind of thinking, as rare as it was, got her to stop her stories sooner than she'd have liked, though it wasn't too long before she found another way to fill her time and get favors.

"Coast's clear!" she called over her shoulder, floating a little further up the mountain to scout out the area ahead of the group climbing below. The threats here on the mountain were different than most of the other planets and such that she'd been to, looming creatures eager to attack in the name of defense. Dangerous if one actually had a body to harm. That's where Izabel came in, even if her services did come at what could be considered...inconvenient times, and it felt good to be helping again in the small ways she could. It was better for a Yeti to uselessly slash at her than it was to hear about a team getting seriously injured because they wanted to do some exploring or material gathering.

Still, as she drifted along and kept her eyes out, she couldn’t help but feel that it would be nice to be doing this with people that thought of her as more than a lookout that kept them from being shredded up. For all the trouble they had been, she missed the hell out of that weird family she’d left behind.