Post by Astrid Sherinian on Jun 17, 2014 6:23:08 GMT
Name: Astrid Sherinian
Age: 15
Date of Birth: July 18
Birthplace: Virbank City, Unova
Gender: Female
Sexual Orientation: Bisexual, with female preference
Face Claim: Noire - Hyperdimension Neptunia
Appearance:
Distinguishing Features: None of note
Height: 5'5"
Character Type: Student
Personality: When fitting into her persona as a teen superstar, Astrid is very cheerful and energetic. She has been accused of being entirely too bubbly, but so long as her manager didn't tell her to tone it back, she never paid it much mind. In recent years, she's gotten so energetic that 'boisterous' would almost be a better word. She's a small girl on a big stage, and tries to fill the rest with sheer personality. While on stage she doesn't show much else, though. Her vivacity takes over pretty much everything she does in performances, which combined with a meeker, more timid attitude she takes for off-stage public appearances, has led to a common image of an immature young girl.
By herself, away from the stage personality she had created for her, Astrid is a much more subdued person. Much of her cheer and energy is still present, in part from her stage persona rubbing off on her, but it's nowhere near as boundless. She gets tired easily, especially after a show, and when she reaches the last of her energy she seems to just shut off. One moment, she could be doing her best to keep up with the people who didn't just put on an hour and a half performance, then the next she's fast asleep. More than this, though, once she's not being forced to act more unpleasant sides of her personality start to creep in. She gets grumpy and irritable when tired, and especially when a lot of things (especially little things) are going wrong. She has quite a few of what her manager called "unwholesome" interests: she can't wait to be old enough to drink, she has a stronger (but not exclusive) interest in other girls than boys, she'd rather be on the internet or messing with electronics than practicing the songs given to her, and many of her (all rejected) attempts at writing her own songs revolved around tragic deaths, murder, ghosts, and similar dark subjects. The last of these especially has led her manager to wonder if there isn't something seriously wrong with the girl.
Lately, she's become completely averse to the superstar life she's lived for the past four years, and wants to "reinvent" herself. She still loves singing, as she always has, but won't do it for the benefit for the people who created her stage persona or the fans who only liked her for it. Instead, she wants to become more independent and earn her own success, as herself. Rather than running away from an unpleasant past, she uses it as support, and sometimes threatens people who get in her way with it. That said, she'll still frequently avoid questions about it, especially her four years as a celebrity, claiming that she she's not proud of any of it and that she wants to move on. And in doing so she's embraced old interests and attitudes that were previously discouraged. Combined with what's rubbed off on her from her stage life, she'll occasionally joke that she could sing the most upbeat song about someone tragically dying that you've ever heard.
Likes: Singing, dancing, computers, other electronics, high places, anime, video games, horror stories, paranormal romance stories, sci-fi stories, fairy tales (especially of the darker variety), women, controversy, dressing up, "artificial"-looking pokemon, aliens, robots, spicy food, being far from home
Dislikes: Following directions, acting, "fake" fame, trolls, the smell of her hometown, her family, sappy stories, smooth talkers, interviews, things going wrong, not being old enough to drink, people who insist an hour and a half long show is no big deal.
History: Once upon a time, there was a teenage superstar. Her tight schedule made most of her life a rush, but she could always count on the ability to sleep on a big pile of money when every day was over with to get her through it all. And of course, someone who entertains millions and sleeps on a big pile of money must have had really glamorous origins, right? ...Right? Nah, she started out dirt poor in a run-down neighborhood of Virbank City, born to parents who were certain throughout her entire childhood that she would never amount to anything. And, at one time, they just might have been right.
Astrid's grandfather was a classical musician. He played in an orchestra known across the world. He, himself, was never famous, but, just being a part of something that was, was satisfied with that. His son didn't see it that way, though. "No one cares about you," he would say. "What's the point of working so hard if nobody notices you?" He shunned any chance of following in his father's footsteps, instead trying to make a name for himself and himself alone. And he failed, spectacularly. By the time the boy who would become Astrid's father reached adulthood he had squandered his money chasing fame he could never achieve, and now struggled to earn a living working in the industrial complex of Virbank City. Now, one might say he learned a valuable lesson from this, and that he became a better person for it, but...he really didn't. And that would also assume that he is the main character of this story.
But no, years after his dreams of fame died, the man got married and had a daughter: a lovely little girl that they named Astrid. Except that she wasn't all that lovely. As it turns out, being born into a poor household and growing up still being poor does not do wonders for a person's appearance. For most of her childhood, Astrid was a ratty-looking girl who inherited her father's learned cynicism and ill temper, lived in a bad neighborhood in a city that was already less than ideal, and eventually came to believe her parents when they insisted that, just like themselves, she would never amount to anything. She could sing, loved to sing, and sang beautifully, but her father warned her early on about his own experiences trying to live the life of a performer, and just where that had gotten him. So, while she continued to sing for her own enjoyment, and occasionally for the enjoyment of others who would listen, she never dreamed of pursuing that life herself. Instead, she pursued other interests, the most prominent of which was working with electronics. It was a far cry from the dreams of her father, but at least it was something that would keep her from ending up where he had.
As she got older, she got a computer made from old, discarded components working and began spending on time on the internet when she wasn't singing, playing games, or working. She quickly found that she could claim to be whoever she wanted online, and that people would (within reason) believe her. So, while online, she left her destitute life in Virbank behind and claimed to be a young tinker from Driftveil City. It was through the internet that she learned that superstar musicians really did exist, when one of her online friends told her that one would be passing through her hometown and suggested she go see them. But sadly, since she didn't actually live in Driftveil, Astrid never got a chance to go. Fortune did find a way to favor her, as the same idol soon passed through Virbank City. Why they would come to a smelly, out of the way place like Virbank, Astrid didn't know, although it seemed that the local gym leader had something to do with it. So one might be thinking that this was the part where Astrid met this young celebrity and her life changed...again, no. Instead, she had no idea that they were in town and was singing alone on a street corner at the time. It was their agent who found her like this, and offered to refer her to a talent agency. Without really thinking it through all the way, she accepted.
She was given a stage name, "Luna", and a created personality to adhere to, courtesy of her new manager. And thus began her life as a superstar.
It wasn't easy. That's not to say becoming famous wasn't easy: all she had to do was follow her new manager's instructions, sing what songs he gave her, act out the personality that was created for her, and she soon found herself with legions of fans ranging from young children to teenagers. No, it was the life itself that she was forced into that was difficult. Her schedule was completely packed every day, leaving only carefully planned and entirely too short rest times, and the fame she had fallen into was overwhelming, especially early on. When she was still only twelve and had only been performing for a few months she had her first truly sold out show, a prospect she nearly fainted at when she got up on stage and realized that she coldn't see the back of the audience. (Admittedly, the entire auditorium except for the stage being dark did not help there.) But she put on a brave face and pushed through, then immediately fell asleep on the ride back to the hotel.
But despite that, at first she loved her new life. From her perspective, she was now entertaining the world and living the dream her father never could and asserted that she never could either, all while only just becoming a teenager. But there was another side to it that she discovered after about a year and a half, thanks to still frequently being on the internet during her down time. Anyone who suddenly becomes popular ends up with an equally large backlash, and Astrid was no exception. For as wildly popular as she had become among her designated target audience, among older teenagers and college-age adults, especially those who loudly proclaimed their opinions on the internet, she was wildly unpopular. For awhile, she tried to defend herself, posing as a casual fan to avoid the irrational hate of anonymous people on the internet being directed straight at her. But she soon gave up, and instead decided to try an experiment with them.
During a break from touring, she began sneaking into the studio with her keyboardist and putting together a song of her own. The lyrics, she took from something she had offered to her manager but were rejected, toned back a bit because she regretfully admitted that he was right about them being entirely too dark. The instrumentals, rather than the usual easily danceable but plain and not very good background of her usual songs, were a still danceable but heavier and darker electronic beat. When she was done, she posted it online: a song about a girl who fell in love with a man, who turned out to be an android who could never return her feelings. Not as herself, of course. Her manager would kill her if he found out. Instead, she assumed the identity of a white-haired, provocatively-dressed girl known only by an online handle, whose looks, personality, and style were a complete rebellion against the manufactured identity she had been given as a star. The song, amazingly, was very popular among those who heard it. It didn't spread very far, but that was expected. She was just playing around for the moment, after all.
She kept doing it when she had the chance, though, with her online persona gaining a bit of a following on the internet with her manager none the wiser. Which wasn't to say he didn't notice anything. She began displaying a number of what he considered "unwholesome" traits which, combined with the ideas she tried to run by him only to be rejected flat out, led him to wonder if there wasn't something secretly wrong with her. Whenever questioned, Astrid simply brushed it off. She was fine, she insisted, and just wanted to try her hand at creating something of her own. Obviously, she just wasn't very good at it. Her manager accepted that answer, but remained suspicious of her for a time. As time passed, however, he became more and more restrictive, attempting to exercise control over her interests and "unwholesome" traits the more they threatened to leak into her public life. He used the threat of dropping her for a new rising star to keep her in check, a tactic usually reserved for more eastern regions' idol industry. On the surface, Astrid stayed in line, but she began to resent her manager, and eventually despise him. Her celebrity life, she realized, was a gilded cage that she no longer enjoyed. Rather than playing around, she now used her secret, online life as an escape from it.
Shortly after she turned fifteen, things came to a head. It started with now routine complaints from her manager, this time emphasizing the amount of time she spent online and her obvious preferences for other girls over boys. Finally, Astrid decided that she had had enough. She brought up her own complaints, citing how unpopular her public image actually was and complaining that she was being made to look like an idiot, and she only had fans because most of them were too young to notice. The exchange devolved into an argument that very nearly ended with Astrid getting dropped, and very well might have if she didn't have a few more sold out shows coming up. But as far as Astrid cared, she was done. She spent what litle free time she had in that span preparing for her final send-off: recording one final song to play as her alternate self, dropping a few hints to get people who wouldn't ordinarily give her a second glance to pay attention to what she had already planned to be her last show, and finally looking into what she might do next. She decided that, since she would effectively have to re-build her career from the ground up again in the future, she would try to build some other skills in the meantime. Going back to working on electronics seemed like a good idea, but she also wanted to do something she'd only briefly considered before, usually when passing through towns with plenty of pokemon trainers: becoming a trainer in her own right. Lacking any traveling skills, though, she started looking into trainer schools and soon found Gray Garden Academy, a school that, at a glance, completely exceeded her expectations.
Then the night came. Before a sellout crowd at Nimbasa City's Big Stadium, Astrid played the last show of her current tour. It started off normally, and the main set ended normally, but when called out for an encore she went completely off-script, announcing that it would be her last show for a long time, and that when she did come back it would be as a completely different musician. "Luna", as she was known to all of her fans, was officially done. She then performed a song she called Lunatic, a driving song over an electronic accompaniment that told the story of a scorned lover being driven insane by rejection and eventually, as the end of the song implied, to murder. To a mix of stunned and amazed reactions from the audience, she walked off the stage.
That night, she was officially fired, and used the opportunity to openly come out as the darkwave musician she'd been making a name for herself as online. Within another couple weeks, she was officially enrolled at and preparing to leave for Gray Garden Academy. Before leaving, she visited home one last time. Her father gave her what was probably meant to be words of encouragement, but instead came off as an "I told you so." She said her goodbyes on a rather unpleasant note the next day. As she left, she caught sight of a small pokemon with flowing green hair and a headpiece like a microphone floating over the gate to Pokestar Studios. As soon as it realized that Astrid had seen it, however, it vanished on the spot. One day, Astrid swore to herself, she would find it again. And when that time came, she would catch it.
It would still give her something to shoot for, if her plans for re-inventing herself as a singer didn't work out.
Dorm: Bolt Dorm
Uniform Color: Navy Blue
Starter Pokemon:
Magnemite, "Magnate"
Ability: Sturdy
Moveset: Thunder Wave, Magnet Bomb, Discharge, Magnet Rise
Clefairy, "Lunatic"
Ability: Magic Guard
Moveset: Cosmic Power, Moonlight, Moonblast, Meteor Mash
Played By: Satori
Age: 15
Date of Birth: July 18
Birthplace: Virbank City, Unova
Gender: Female
Sexual Orientation: Bisexual, with female preference
Face Claim: Noire - Hyperdimension Neptunia
Appearance:
Distinguishing Features: None of note
Height: 5'5"
Character Type: Student
Personality: When fitting into her persona as a teen superstar, Astrid is very cheerful and energetic. She has been accused of being entirely too bubbly, but so long as her manager didn't tell her to tone it back, she never paid it much mind. In recent years, she's gotten so energetic that 'boisterous' would almost be a better word. She's a small girl on a big stage, and tries to fill the rest with sheer personality. While on stage she doesn't show much else, though. Her vivacity takes over pretty much everything she does in performances, which combined with a meeker, more timid attitude she takes for off-stage public appearances, has led to a common image of an immature young girl.
By herself, away from the stage personality she had created for her, Astrid is a much more subdued person. Much of her cheer and energy is still present, in part from her stage persona rubbing off on her, but it's nowhere near as boundless. She gets tired easily, especially after a show, and when she reaches the last of her energy she seems to just shut off. One moment, she could be doing her best to keep up with the people who didn't just put on an hour and a half performance, then the next she's fast asleep. More than this, though, once she's not being forced to act more unpleasant sides of her personality start to creep in. She gets grumpy and irritable when tired, and especially when a lot of things (especially little things) are going wrong. She has quite a few of what her manager called "unwholesome" interests: she can't wait to be old enough to drink, she has a stronger (but not exclusive) interest in other girls than boys, she'd rather be on the internet or messing with electronics than practicing the songs given to her, and many of her (all rejected) attempts at writing her own songs revolved around tragic deaths, murder, ghosts, and similar dark subjects. The last of these especially has led her manager to wonder if there isn't something seriously wrong with the girl.
Lately, she's become completely averse to the superstar life she's lived for the past four years, and wants to "reinvent" herself. She still loves singing, as she always has, but won't do it for the benefit for the people who created her stage persona or the fans who only liked her for it. Instead, she wants to become more independent and earn her own success, as herself. Rather than running away from an unpleasant past, she uses it as support, and sometimes threatens people who get in her way with it. That said, she'll still frequently avoid questions about it, especially her four years as a celebrity, claiming that she she's not proud of any of it and that she wants to move on. And in doing so she's embraced old interests and attitudes that were previously discouraged. Combined with what's rubbed off on her from her stage life, she'll occasionally joke that she could sing the most upbeat song about someone tragically dying that you've ever heard.
Likes: Singing, dancing, computers, other electronics, high places, anime, video games, horror stories, paranormal romance stories, sci-fi stories, fairy tales (especially of the darker variety), women, controversy, dressing up, "artificial"-looking pokemon, aliens, robots, spicy food, being far from home
Dislikes: Following directions, acting, "fake" fame, trolls, the smell of her hometown, her family, sappy stories, smooth talkers, interviews, things going wrong, not being old enough to drink, people who insist an hour and a half long show is no big deal.
History: Once upon a time, there was a teenage superstar. Her tight schedule made most of her life a rush, but she could always count on the ability to sleep on a big pile of money when every day was over with to get her through it all. And of course, someone who entertains millions and sleeps on a big pile of money must have had really glamorous origins, right? ...Right? Nah, she started out dirt poor in a run-down neighborhood of Virbank City, born to parents who were certain throughout her entire childhood that she would never amount to anything. And, at one time, they just might have been right.
Astrid's grandfather was a classical musician. He played in an orchestra known across the world. He, himself, was never famous, but, just being a part of something that was, was satisfied with that. His son didn't see it that way, though. "No one cares about you," he would say. "What's the point of working so hard if nobody notices you?" He shunned any chance of following in his father's footsteps, instead trying to make a name for himself and himself alone. And he failed, spectacularly. By the time the boy who would become Astrid's father reached adulthood he had squandered his money chasing fame he could never achieve, and now struggled to earn a living working in the industrial complex of Virbank City. Now, one might say he learned a valuable lesson from this, and that he became a better person for it, but...he really didn't. And that would also assume that he is the main character of this story.
But no, years after his dreams of fame died, the man got married and had a daughter: a lovely little girl that they named Astrid. Except that she wasn't all that lovely. As it turns out, being born into a poor household and growing up still being poor does not do wonders for a person's appearance. For most of her childhood, Astrid was a ratty-looking girl who inherited her father's learned cynicism and ill temper, lived in a bad neighborhood in a city that was already less than ideal, and eventually came to believe her parents when they insisted that, just like themselves, she would never amount to anything. She could sing, loved to sing, and sang beautifully, but her father warned her early on about his own experiences trying to live the life of a performer, and just where that had gotten him. So, while she continued to sing for her own enjoyment, and occasionally for the enjoyment of others who would listen, she never dreamed of pursuing that life herself. Instead, she pursued other interests, the most prominent of which was working with electronics. It was a far cry from the dreams of her father, but at least it was something that would keep her from ending up where he had.
As she got older, she got a computer made from old, discarded components working and began spending on time on the internet when she wasn't singing, playing games, or working. She quickly found that she could claim to be whoever she wanted online, and that people would (within reason) believe her. So, while online, she left her destitute life in Virbank behind and claimed to be a young tinker from Driftveil City. It was through the internet that she learned that superstar musicians really did exist, when one of her online friends told her that one would be passing through her hometown and suggested she go see them. But sadly, since she didn't actually live in Driftveil, Astrid never got a chance to go. Fortune did find a way to favor her, as the same idol soon passed through Virbank City. Why they would come to a smelly, out of the way place like Virbank, Astrid didn't know, although it seemed that the local gym leader had something to do with it. So one might be thinking that this was the part where Astrid met this young celebrity and her life changed...again, no. Instead, she had no idea that they were in town and was singing alone on a street corner at the time. It was their agent who found her like this, and offered to refer her to a talent agency. Without really thinking it through all the way, she accepted.
She was given a stage name, "Luna", and a created personality to adhere to, courtesy of her new manager. And thus began her life as a superstar.
It wasn't easy. That's not to say becoming famous wasn't easy: all she had to do was follow her new manager's instructions, sing what songs he gave her, act out the personality that was created for her, and she soon found herself with legions of fans ranging from young children to teenagers. No, it was the life itself that she was forced into that was difficult. Her schedule was completely packed every day, leaving only carefully planned and entirely too short rest times, and the fame she had fallen into was overwhelming, especially early on. When she was still only twelve and had only been performing for a few months she had her first truly sold out show, a prospect she nearly fainted at when she got up on stage and realized that she coldn't see the back of the audience. (Admittedly, the entire auditorium except for the stage being dark did not help there.) But she put on a brave face and pushed through, then immediately fell asleep on the ride back to the hotel.
But despite that, at first she loved her new life. From her perspective, she was now entertaining the world and living the dream her father never could and asserted that she never could either, all while only just becoming a teenager. But there was another side to it that she discovered after about a year and a half, thanks to still frequently being on the internet during her down time. Anyone who suddenly becomes popular ends up with an equally large backlash, and Astrid was no exception. For as wildly popular as she had become among her designated target audience, among older teenagers and college-age adults, especially those who loudly proclaimed their opinions on the internet, she was wildly unpopular. For awhile, she tried to defend herself, posing as a casual fan to avoid the irrational hate of anonymous people on the internet being directed straight at her. But she soon gave up, and instead decided to try an experiment with them.
During a break from touring, she began sneaking into the studio with her keyboardist and putting together a song of her own. The lyrics, she took from something she had offered to her manager but were rejected, toned back a bit because she regretfully admitted that he was right about them being entirely too dark. The instrumentals, rather than the usual easily danceable but plain and not very good background of her usual songs, were a still danceable but heavier and darker electronic beat. When she was done, she posted it online: a song about a girl who fell in love with a man, who turned out to be an android who could never return her feelings. Not as herself, of course. Her manager would kill her if he found out. Instead, she assumed the identity of a white-haired, provocatively-dressed girl known only by an online handle, whose looks, personality, and style were a complete rebellion against the manufactured identity she had been given as a star. The song, amazingly, was very popular among those who heard it. It didn't spread very far, but that was expected. She was just playing around for the moment, after all.
She kept doing it when she had the chance, though, with her online persona gaining a bit of a following on the internet with her manager none the wiser. Which wasn't to say he didn't notice anything. She began displaying a number of what he considered "unwholesome" traits which, combined with the ideas she tried to run by him only to be rejected flat out, led him to wonder if there wasn't something secretly wrong with her. Whenever questioned, Astrid simply brushed it off. She was fine, she insisted, and just wanted to try her hand at creating something of her own. Obviously, she just wasn't very good at it. Her manager accepted that answer, but remained suspicious of her for a time. As time passed, however, he became more and more restrictive, attempting to exercise control over her interests and "unwholesome" traits the more they threatened to leak into her public life. He used the threat of dropping her for a new rising star to keep her in check, a tactic usually reserved for more eastern regions' idol industry. On the surface, Astrid stayed in line, but she began to resent her manager, and eventually despise him. Her celebrity life, she realized, was a gilded cage that she no longer enjoyed. Rather than playing around, she now used her secret, online life as an escape from it.
Shortly after she turned fifteen, things came to a head. It started with now routine complaints from her manager, this time emphasizing the amount of time she spent online and her obvious preferences for other girls over boys. Finally, Astrid decided that she had had enough. She brought up her own complaints, citing how unpopular her public image actually was and complaining that she was being made to look like an idiot, and she only had fans because most of them were too young to notice. The exchange devolved into an argument that very nearly ended with Astrid getting dropped, and very well might have if she didn't have a few more sold out shows coming up. But as far as Astrid cared, she was done. She spent what litle free time she had in that span preparing for her final send-off: recording one final song to play as her alternate self, dropping a few hints to get people who wouldn't ordinarily give her a second glance to pay attention to what she had already planned to be her last show, and finally looking into what she might do next. She decided that, since she would effectively have to re-build her career from the ground up again in the future, she would try to build some other skills in the meantime. Going back to working on electronics seemed like a good idea, but she also wanted to do something she'd only briefly considered before, usually when passing through towns with plenty of pokemon trainers: becoming a trainer in her own right. Lacking any traveling skills, though, she started looking into trainer schools and soon found Gray Garden Academy, a school that, at a glance, completely exceeded her expectations.
Then the night came. Before a sellout crowd at Nimbasa City's Big Stadium, Astrid played the last show of her current tour. It started off normally, and the main set ended normally, but when called out for an encore she went completely off-script, announcing that it would be her last show for a long time, and that when she did come back it would be as a completely different musician. "Luna", as she was known to all of her fans, was officially done. She then performed a song she called Lunatic, a driving song over an electronic accompaniment that told the story of a scorned lover being driven insane by rejection and eventually, as the end of the song implied, to murder. To a mix of stunned and amazed reactions from the audience, she walked off the stage.
That night, she was officially fired, and used the opportunity to openly come out as the darkwave musician she'd been making a name for herself as online. Within another couple weeks, she was officially enrolled at and preparing to leave for Gray Garden Academy. Before leaving, she visited home one last time. Her father gave her what was probably meant to be words of encouragement, but instead came off as an "I told you so." She said her goodbyes on a rather unpleasant note the next day. As she left, she caught sight of a small pokemon with flowing green hair and a headpiece like a microphone floating over the gate to Pokestar Studios. As soon as it realized that Astrid had seen it, however, it vanished on the spot. One day, Astrid swore to herself, she would find it again. And when that time came, she would catch it.
It would still give her something to shoot for, if her plans for re-inventing herself as a singer didn't work out.
Dorm: Bolt Dorm
Uniform Color: Navy Blue
Starter Pokemon:
Magnemite, "Magnate"
Ability: Sturdy
Moveset: Thunder Wave, Magnet Bomb, Discharge, Magnet Rise
Clefairy, "Lunatic"
Ability: Magic Guard
Moveset: Cosmic Power, Moonlight, Moonblast, Meteor Mash
Played By: Satori
