want_take_have: (Up to no good)
Faith Lehane ([personal profile] want_take_have) wrote2009-05-16 04:17 pm
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Application and Permissions

Luceti Application | Kyra's Permissions | Permissions from Faith's CR

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Luceti App

Mun

Name: Kyra
Livejournal/Dreamwidth Username: [personal profile] kyronae
E-mail: kyronaed@gmail.com
AIM/MSN: goldeneyes1
Current Characters at Luceti:
Jilly Coppercorn | [personal profile] theoniongirl

Character

Name: Faith Lehane
Fandom: BtVS/AtS
Gender: Female
Age: 22
Time Period: AtS 2x1 “Judgment”
Wing Color: Red...like Buffy’s.
History:
Here
Personality:

When Faith first arrives in Sunnydale, she seems confident, fun, and full of a couldn’t-care-less attitude. It’s a mask she wears well, but can’t maintain. As she settles into life on the Hellmouth, the cracks in her careful facade quickly become clear.

Above all else, Faith is desperate to be wanted and accepted. Growing up, she never really had that from her own family. Her father was abusive and later imprisoned for murder, while her mother was an alcoholic. Faith quickly learned how to pretend like she didn’t care about her home life, but her lingering bitterness comes to the surface while talking to Buffy in Enemies, saying, “"When I was a kid, I used to beg my mom for a dog. Didn't matter what kind, I just wanted, you know, something to love. A dog's all I wanted. Well, that and toys. But Mom was so busy, you know, enjoying the drinking and passing out parts of life, that I never really got what I wanted."

When she comes to Sunnydale, she seems to settle in so well that Buffy is apprehensive at first. Faith gets along with her friends, with her mother, and with the boy she was potentially interested in, too. But even though Faith is charismatic enough to be liked for her own traits, she has no real confidence in her place there. That self doubt causes her to worry when Giles, Buffy, and Buffy’s friends hold a meeting without inviting her. It makes her brush off Buffy’s invitation to Christmas dinner, worried that she’s only doing it because her mom told her to, before loneliness drives her to joining them anyway. And it makes Faith compare herself to Buffy constantly.

The first real seeds of doubt are planted when Gwendolyn Post arrives, claiming to be Faith’s new watcher. Faith is slow to trust, and worried about becoming attached to another guardian (her last having been brutally murdered by a vampire), but Gwendolyn offers her two things... seeming confidence in her ability, and a kind of camaraderie as a fellow outsider. It is Gwendolyn that plants the idea that Giles and Buffy are purposefully excluding her and Faith from their meetings, adding to Faith’s already significant insecurity. When it turns out that Gwendolyn was actually dismissed from the Watcher’s council and had been using them all, especially Faith, the sense of betrayal hits hard. Rather than removing the worry that Gwendolyn had planted, Faith’s confidence in her ability to judge people is shattered even further.

In the end, the persistent feeling that she’ll never live up to Buffy makes her stop trying. During one of their patrols, she accidentally kills a man...and panics. She’s so terrified of getting in trouble that she tries to blame Buffy and, when it doesn’t work, turns traitor and offers herself as an ally to the Mayor.

Faith never really wanted to be “bad.” She thrives off of being physical and violent, and her trust issues and history of emotional and physical abuse (at the hands of both enemies and people she should have been able to trust), means that she’s likely to act first and think later. What really drove her towards being evil was the fact that, in the Mayor, she found everything she’d been wanting.

However evil the Mayor was, his feelings for Faith were genuine. Working for him, Faith felt loved, useful, and wanted. She didn’t have to doubt that the Mayor was comparing her to Buffy or using her, except as the employee she’d offered to be. In fact, he even protects her from some of the harder jobs, at first, allowing others to go after her former friends instead of trying to shatter all her ties at once. He truly tried to protect her, and Faith loved him back (though she might never have admitted as much), as the father she’d never had.

Later, when she tries to reform her life, the only person left who will give her a chance is Angel. Unlike any of the others in her life, he knows what it’s like to try to rewrite his life, moving from monster to protector. Faith is fragile, still, and her hold on the “right” path is tenuous, but the deciding factor in her reversal isn’t all that different from her relationship with the Mayor. The Mayor’s approval and acceptance had her working for the bad guys. Angel’s approval and acceptance of her allows her to believe she can turn back around.

Her relationship with her mentors is definitely a balance between love and hate. Faith’s natural distrust and her sense of isolation makes it very difficult for her to give control over to anyone else. She resists Gwendolyn Post’s appointment, completely ignores Wesley, and later develops a hatred for the Watcher’s Council that rival’s Buffy’s own dislike. Faith doesn’t like being told what to do, and she’s willful enough to make that very, very clear. This is only made worse by how many of her mentors have actually failed her or betrayed her. Gwendolyn, Wesley, and the Watcher’s council all betray her at various points, writing her off as foolish, stupid, or unsavable. To make matters even more complicated, the only two mentors she truly felt safe with were brutally murdered - her first watcher by Kakistos, and the Mayor by Buffy.

Whichever side she’s on, one thing doesn’t change: Faith truly doesn’t like herself. When Willow tells her that she’s screwed up everything and doesn’t deserve forgiveness, Faith can’t just shrug it off. She attacks Willow, saying “You hurt me, I hurt you. I’m just more efficient.” Later, when she receives a post-mortem gift from the Mayor, she has the opportunity to escape her life entirely. She steals Buffy’s body, leaving Buffy to take the other slayer’s penalty, while Faith makes plans to run.

While she’s still in Buffy’s body, she decides to take advantage of Buffy’s boyfriend, Riley. The results are disastrous. Riley sleeps with her, not realizing that someone else is in his girlfriend’s body, but the genuine care and affection Riley has for Buffy is too much for Faith to handle. She nearly breaks down, pulling away from him and very nearly fleeing in panic. And when she finally faces off with Buffy again, she violently attacks her former body. She takes out her dislike of herself, shouting at her old body as she does, calling herself “disgusting,” “nothing,” and a “murderous bitch.”

Faith’s low self-esteem makes relationships...complicated. She’s well aware that she’s attractive and, more often than not, she uses that to her advantage. She dresses in tight, form-fitting clothes, she flirts shamelessly, and she’s incredibly casual with sex. She writes men off as useless (except for one thing), calling them all dogs. But Faith’s sexuality isn’t as casual as it appears. Linked in with betrayal she’s suffered from other sources, she doesn’t expect that men really could want anything else from her. Rather than looking for more and getting burned, she shortens what she sees as an inevitable process, using men and then ignoring them once she’s done with them. When someone does try to get close, as with Riley or (later) Robin, the intimacy panics her.

Whether Faith is good or evil, there’s no question that she’s not exactly the most stable Slayer ever. The circumstances she grew up with never really prepared her with coping skills for difficult situations, and the added pressure of super strength and an unavoidable destiny was enough to make her crack. Faith has a bit of a victim mentality...which has dangerous repercussions now that she’s strong enough to dominate most people around her. It allowed her to justify a lot of the horrible things she did, blaming it on people using her or not living up to the people they should have been. When Xander tries to come and talk sense into her, she very nearly kills him before Angel stops her. And, in season one of AtS, she tortures Wes mercilessly while waiting for Angel to find her, hoping that showing how evil she is will get Angel to put her out of her misery. While doing so, she lays the blame at Wesley’s feet, wondering out loud if this would still be happening if he’d been a better Watcher.

Angel’s refusal to kill her and his insistence that she could be a better person allows her to try to start over, but it’s a struggle. She still deals with insecurity and violent impulses, but she really doesn’t want to let him down. She eventually turns herself in, handing herself over to the police to keep Angel from getting into trouble, and she stays in prison, even though she’s more than capable of breaking out.


Strengths:

  • Physical:
  • Slayer strength and speed. Slayer healing.
  • Mental:
  • Faith isn’t really the schooling type, but she’s very street smart. While she can be manipulated (as with Gwendolyn Post), she’s actually pretty decent at judging people...at least as far as determining whether or not they’re a physical threat. While she’s not the best of the best, she does know how to think fast and judge the situation around her. It’s how she’s stayed alive as long as she has.
  • Emotional
  • While it’s possible to crack, Faith really does do well at maintaining the devil-may-care attitude. Especially now that she’s trying to do the right thing with her life, she’s got a better handle on her emotions and is a tiny bit better about not letting people immediately under her skin.


Weaknesses:

  • Physical:
  • Magic and weapons will hurt her as much as most humans. She just heals faster than most. If a wound would normally be instantly fatal, it’ll kill her too.
  • Mental:
  • Academically, Faith dropped out of high school. She’s not dumb, but she is likely to miss references that might be more obvious to someone who had finished their education. She’s also prone to being manipulated. Because she’s so desperate for acceptance, she’s more likely to miss waring signs when dealing with someone who is both dangerous and charming. She can identify smarmy people, but people like Gwendolyn or the Mayor (who are either genuine or very good at faking), can fool her.
  • Emotional:
  • Faith has a horrible temper...and she’s not always the best at handling stressful situations. She has a complete breakdown when Kakistos shows up in her apartment and is only saved by Buffy. She steal’s Buffy’s body from panic and jealousy, and later brutally tortures Wes to try and get Angel to kill her. While she’s doing better, she’s still not 100% in the coping department. She can also be goaded into things. While not necessarily the worst suggestion, she allows Robin to goad her into giving him another shot when he insults her sexual prowess.


Samples

First Person: [Faith plucks at the sterile white sundress, giving it a bit of a distasteful look as she addresses the journal] You know, I was getting pretty sick of the jumper and all, but if this is the price of freedom, I think I’d rather go back behind bars. What’s a girl gotta do to get some decent clothes around here?

[there’s an uncomfortable pause, before she sighs. Right. Might as well get it over with] Not that I ain’t grateful for the jailbreak and all, but... I wasn’t really looking for a ‘get out of jail free’ card. Part of the whole road to redemption, goody-two-shoes spiel. Pretty sure the day pass wasn’t really part of the deal.

But, hey. If this is gonna stick, I guess I can’t complain too much. I’m not lookin’ for trouble. Just point me in the direction of some decent music and a stiff drink. Someone does that, I think this place and me will get along just fine.

Third Person:

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

The blunted sounds of contact were soothing, fitting perfectly with the familiar jolt through her arm as her fist connected with the punching bag. She didn’t bother with gloves. The skin of her knuckles had turned red, the first signs of scrapes appearing, but she didn’t stop. The pain was soothing, too. It helped ground her.

You don’t know what evil is

Thud.

Thud.

The bag swung crazily from the impact of her blows, the chain protesting the movement.

This place wasn’t so bad. It wasn’t LA. Hell, it wasn’t even Sunnydale, as far as city life went. And maybe it was just another prison, but she could wear what she wanted and the food actually had flavor most of the time (if she didn’t make it for herself), so really, she couldn’t complain. Except this was Buffy’s town. Same as Sunnydale had been. Maybe even more so, because here she wasn’t hiding. Here, Buffy was one of the champions, ready to ride in and save the day and everyone knew it.

And Faith was...

Something else entirely.

I’m evil! I’m bad! I’m evil! Do you hear me? I’m bad! Angel, I’m bad!

Buffy seemed to know more about her attempts to reform than even Faith did...but it still felt wrong. Off. Like she was invading Buffy’s territory just one more time, and she was out of place. A loose canon. Undecided.

It was what she deserved, probably. Karma, or turnabout being fair play, or some other line of bull shit that they fed to you during group sessions about facing consequences. So maybe it was just part of the process.

Didn’t mean she had to like it.

Thud.

Thud.

Crash

One particularly fierce punch, and the protesting chain gave way. The bag wobbled in mid air, almost like it was surprised to suddenly be freed from its support, before crashing to the ground. Bits of ceiling and drywall dust sprinkled down, making Faith grimace as she stepped back, holding her bruised hand. She considered the damage, face impassive, and then... “Damn.”

She left the bag where it had fallen, and headed out to the village proper. She needed a drink.

Luceti Application | Kyra's Permissions | Permissions from Faith's CR

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Permissions

Threadhopping with this character?: The more the merrier. Unless it's marked as private, threads and posts can generally be considered open. :)

Backtagging with this character?: Yes please! I'm a perpetual backtagger, so this is lovely.

Hugging this character?: You can try. She'll probably shrug you off, though. Or punch you, if you surprise her.

Giving this character a kiss?: Sure. Reactions will very on the circumstance...but it's worth a shot.

Something more intimate?: If you're female, probably not. If you're male...probably. So long as it's all about sex and not something with feelings attached...because then she'll run.

Relationships?: If you want something permanent, probably not? But I am all for one night stands, messy misunderstandings, and lots and lots of flirting.

Punching this character (provided they can fight back): Go right ahead. But expect to have a very pissed off slayer on your hands.

Injury?: Sure. Please talk to me before doing anything that would be permanent, though.

Death?: Again, I'm not against it in theory, but get permission first. As things stand, it's not really something I'm looking for.

Is there anything you do not want mentioned near this character?: Not really. She's a big girl. And if something upsets her? Well, what's RP without a little conflict? :)

Is there anything you need us to know about interacting with this character?: Faith isn't 100% stable. She's not quite as crazy as she seems in earlier episodes of her canon, but she hasn't reached the confidence and with-it-ness of BtVS Season 7, either.

Luceti Application | Kyra's Permissions | Permissions from Faith's CR

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Permission from CR"

Faith has a lot of rough edges and not-quite-socially-acceptable behaviors. I've included warnings, below, for things you might want to watch out for. If you have concerns about any of these issues (or just details you'd like me to know), please reply with the form for your characters.



Swearing: She'll try to tame her mouth around kids...but that's about it. She can be highly inappropriate, so if swearing makes you uncomfortable (particularly words stronger than "damn" or "shit,") please let me know.

Sex: Faith is a very physical person. This includes violence...and sex. Possibly both together. This warning is more for male chars than women, but if you want to make sure Faith doesn't do more than flirt with your char, please let me know. If sexual tags or details make you uncomfortable, please let me know. I would never do a sexual scene without permissions from all players, and I don't generally play out smut, but I also don't usually play characters who are as likely to engage in sex. I never want to play out something that makes the other player uncomfortable, so please tell me right away if there are lines you don't want crossed.

Violence: Faith is trying to be good, now, but that doesn't mean she can't slip up. Kids are automatically exempt from this (she will never attack a child), but if you do not want her to attack your character in any way, please let me know. This especially goes for morally ambiguous/annoying/antagonistic characters who would be likely to spark a negative reaction.

Luceti Application | Kyra's Permissions | Permissions from Faith's CR

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