App for
thenetwork
Jan. 3rd, 2013 05:32 am1. Player Information
Name:Punchy
Username: Punchthethings@plurk, itseggplant@aim.
Current characters in ToS: N/A
Reserve: Here!
2. Canon Character Information
Name: Lady Sif
PB: Sif as played by Jaimie Alexander in Thor
Journal: http://brosif.dreamwidth.org/
Age: Appears to be 28, actually over a thousand years old.
Appearance: Tall, with shoulder-length black hair and hazel eyes. Doesn't carry any notable scars, due to Asgard's advanced healing chambers and her own regenerative abilities. Carries herself with a soldier's bearing in public, always standing at attention or sitting up straight. Tends to wear some version of her armor at any point in the day, and given the lack of allies in Dagaz, that habit will most certainly continue.
History: Sif's comic backstory is here whereas her MCU history can be read here. Obviously MCU =/= comics, and I predominately take from movie canon, but I like the idea of Sif being Heimdall's half-sister and include that in my characterization of her. Additionally, Loki cut off Sif's blonde hair as a child, and the hair he gave her to replace it turned her hair black as night.
Powers/Talents: As an Asgardian, Sif posses speed, strength and endurance that is significantly higher than that of a human. She's not going to outrun the flash anytime soon, but her physiology means that she can exert herself for significantly prolonged periods of time. She actually weighs much more than she appears to, because her tissue is so dense. Though she isn't immortal and can be killed, she does age very slowly and her body heals itself quickly.
As a warrior, Sif is among the best trained in Asgard. Her weapon of choice is a glaive, which can be detached to serve as double bladed sword. But she is also competent with throwing knives, hand-to-hand combat, and jumping off of roofs at giant robots. In battle, she tends to pair observation and combat. Though just as hungry for a fight as the next Aesir, she prefers to learn all that she can about an enemy before an attack.
Another talent of Sif's that may or may not come up in the game: In the myths, Sif is associated with fields of wheat. I see her as having grown up on a farm, and knowledgeable where gardening and livestock are concerned.
Personality: For someone who is an oddity among the Aesir, Sif exemplifies many of the ideals that their race holds most important. She is brave, honorable, and loves Asgard above all else. Since childhood, her only goal has been to serve Asgard and Odin. This doesn't make her any different than most Aesir women. The difference is that while her mother and playmates reached for the hearth, Sif reached for the sword. This caused a tension between Sif and her family that lasts to this day. She trained in secret, at first. Crouching in the bushes during the prince's lessons, and mimicking their movements. Hiding swords and sweat-stained training clothes behind curtains, under floor boards.
Training in secret led Sif to two realizations: the first was that dualities are sometimes necessary. That breaking the rules is acceptable, if the rules themselves are not. It's okay to be a warrior, if your heart tells you that is the best way to serve your country. Years later: it's not treason to overthrow a king, if your gut tells you that his reign is ill earned. The most unforgivable crime that a warrior can commit is to ignore what they know in their heart to be the right and true course of action.
The second realization was that secrets do not sustain themselves. Once she was found out and, with Thor's support, allowed to train as a soldier, Sif never looked back at a life of deception. She is wholly, unapologetically herself. When she is in a jovial mood, she trains harder, fights brasher, drinks heavier, and laughs louder than anyone. When she is angry, there is no reasoning with her. When she is grieving, she does so openly.
It is not enough for Sif to be capable at what she does. To be noticed, to be respected, she has to be the best in Asgard. This leads Sif to see the world in a binary state: things that help her improve as a warrior are useful, things that do not are written off. For example, Loki's magic, while useful in battle, isn't something that she has an ability to learn, and so it's not a skill that she values nearly as much as his (pre bag-of-cat brain) ability to form a viable battle strategy at the last minute. She appreciates Thor's raw power in the midst of a fight, but finds it a hindrance when he gives himself over so easily to bloodlust when his comrades would be better served by regrouping and forming a new plan of attack.
This binary extends to Sif's view of other worlds. While she has traveled across the universe in search of adventure, it is always with the understanding that Asgard will call her home. She doesn't understand Thor's new found preoccupation with Midgard, outside of a diplomatic obligation to a race that the Aesir swore long ago to protect.
It's not that she thinks less of humans. It's that she has fought so long for her place in Asgard that she can't imagine that any other world could truly offer anything better. At the start of the Thor film, we see a young (by Aesir standards) woman who is wholly in her element. She is one of the most celebrated warriors in the realm, standing alongside the royal family at the coronation. She has formed a reliable fighting unit with Thor, Loki, and the Warriors Three. She is relaxed, sarcastic, and has a sense of ease around her friends. She's exactly where she wants to be.
And then it all goes to hell. Everything that she's ever believed in has been challenged. One thing that I love about Thor is that despite all of the special effects, the journeys that the characters go on are very much internal ones. Sif starts off the movie wholly entrenched in this idea of what it means to be a warrior. Warriors go off on adventures to other worlds, and come back home to tell those stories. Warriors aren't afraid to die – they want to go out in battle, to have their names remembered in song.
Except that Sif stands powerless before the Destroyer and realizes that she doesn't want to die. That a death in song is still a death, and she has fought for centuries to live. This realization shocks her more than anything Loki himself has done. Still, she isn't able to divorce herself from the notion of what a true warrior must do. In a drastic change from the start of the film, it's now Thor that is telling Sif to fight another day
I think Sif's body language at the end of the film shows a much more subdued young woman. Thor is tied to Midgard, and Loki is supposedly dead. Despite being hundreds of years old, Sif and her friends have had to grow up very suddenly over the course of a few days.
After the end of Avengers, I imagine that Sif is much more introspective than she used to be. She wonders if things could have turned out differently where Loki was concerned, particularly given that I am incorporating previous game history into her canon where she foretold and then warned him about the events in New York in a failed effort to stop them from coming to pass (see previous game history). She's going to come into Thurisaz outwardly amiable, but inwardly guarded. In her previous game, she made a genuine connection with a mortal ward, and it ultimately caused her pain. She will be cordial enough to those around her – perhaps even friendly. But back home, war is coming to Asgard's door, and the Aesir are closing ranks. If you aren't one of them, then she doesn't trust you.
Why would your character be chosen? She's loyal, honorable, and one of the best warriors among a nigh-immortal warrior race. Plus, Sif would actually entertain the idea of a politically motivated marriage if Odin asked it of her. If the Nysgods wanted to enter into an alliance with Asgard, she would be a good candidate to look towards.
Also Jaimie Alexander is crazy hot, so there's that.
How much does your character know about nonhumans? Possibly more than she knows about humans. The time that Sif spent in her previous game is likely the longest exposure that she had to humans, and she didn't walk away from it with the best understanding of what makes them tick. However, she knows more about races that she has reason to study and engage with – races that Asgard has either fought or forged alliances with. And she'll have spent her time post-Thor studying up on new potential threats to Asgard, particularly since its second son was found in an alliance with the Chitauri.
Why this character: I'm excited to play Sif in ToS because I think that it offers a nice balance between plot and action that will serve her well. She's a character that does well with a mission, and she will be able to find those here. Also, there are several players in the game that I have RPed with before and would be pumped to play with again.
Past Game History: I previously played Sif at
eswareinmal, a small game set in a fairy tale kingdom called Schwanheim. I played her for about 10 months OOCly, or a month and a half in-game. It was a very event filled month and a half, that will have pretty profound effects on how she relates to the characters in this game.
Sif arrives in Einmal three months after the events of Thor. Immediately, she is given the role of a fairy tale prince. This isn't a role that Sif is particularly comfortable with, given that she has just seen one prince gone mad in a bid for the throne and has no interest in throwing her hat into whatever lineage ring that is going on in Schwanheim. She sees her role in Einmal as a diplomatic one. She is a representative of Asgard, and is obliged to help a kingdom in need. Initially, she attempts to take a more active role in helping the kingdom, organizing missions to investigate threats and rounding up warriors to defend the capital from attack.
As the months go on, however, certain aspects of Schwanheim began to grate. The king is clearly a figurehead, with no real plans for his kingdom's well being. The people are willfully ignorant of that fact – even proud of it. The townspeople are horrendous gossips, taking the smallest grain of truth and speculating wildly about Sif's personal life in bulletins that are posted in public forums. Serving a kingdom whose leader she fundamentally disrespects goes against everything that Sif believes in as a warrior. She will not make the same mistake of pledging her service to anyone in Dagaz. She will learn from the experience, she will help as needed. But she will keep as far a distance between herself and any position of power as possible.
When Sif arrived in Einmal, she did so with the belief that Loki perished in his fall from the Bifrost. Imagine her surprise to find him alive and well. Initially furious with Loki for a myriad of reasons, like when he tried to kill her and outright murdered his brother, Sif relented slightly when she learned of Loki's lineage. It didn't excuse his actions, but it did provide context for them. Loki and Sif were in a strange land, and she found herself turning to him for assistance in emergencies, which he surprised her by giving.
Thor showed up, and Loki started acting like a brat again. Then Thor disappeared, Sif was the victim of a curse that nearly killed her, and Loki wound up saving her life. The night that this happens, Sif and Loki hook up – Sif probably means for it to be a one-night thing, an affirmation that they're both alive, but there's a genuine emotional connection that starts to take seed, which later winds up blowing up in her face.
Shenanigans happen. Sif's a horse, and Loki helps her change back. Loki's a wolf and Sif talks him into changing back. Thor shows up and it's awesome, except he finds out that Loki and Sif are a facebook complicated, and then it's less awesome. Also not awesome is the fact that Sif can see that Thor is carrying around some sort of burden, but won't tell her what it is. She guesses that it's about their shared future, and the two best friends tacitly agree that she won't ask.
Cut to: Sif switches abilities with a seer and encounters Thor in the woods. She sees, clearly, the future that he is trying to prevent. After Thor disappears again, she tells Loki of what the future holds, in the hopes that his time in Schawnheim has changed him enough that he would choose a different path, should the opportunity arise.
While all of this is going on, Sif enters into a close friendship with Sansa Stark. Through a dream spell, she experiences the girl's horrific past, and comes to position herself as Sansa's protector in Schwanheim. She even begins to entertain the idea of seeing if Sansa would someday like to accompany Sif back to Asgard as a ward, rather than see the girl returned to Westeros. That place is terrible to ladies.
Then Loki, in an attempt to rally the heroes, assumes the mantle of villain and stages a fake kidnapping, which Sansa agrees to be bait in. In reaching Sansa, Cho Takehashi is very nearly killed. Sif feels deeply betrayed by both Loki and Sansa. Loki, because he used the one person in Einmal that he knew Sif loved best. Sansa, because she agreed to be used.
Sansa disappears, soon after. Loki is imprisoned, though the King soon pardons him, to Sif's fury. Sif's last interaction with Loki is in the throne room, where she suggests that as punishment for his crimes he be made Cho's servant. Shortly after that, Sif is returned to Asgard and the events of the Avengers movie proceed.
Her time in Einmal means that Sif will be more guarded in Dagaz than she otherwise might have been. She recognizes the relationships here as temporary ones, and will consciously avoid making an emotional connection to another mortal like she did to Sansa. She will also be doubly furious with Loki for the events of the movie, if she is able to confirm that he is the same man that she warned in Schwanheim.
4. Samples
First-Person: http://dear-mun.dreamwidth.org/5537421.html
Third-Person: After the grasp takes Sif, she stands in Thurisaz with a sense of resignation. This has happened before, and there was no reason to think that it would not happen again. The world around her has seemed less stable since Schwanheim. The ground beneath her feet is no longer guaranteed with each footstep, and time itself is suspect.
When she was first returned to Asgard, it felt as if she had awoken from a very long dream. For the first few days, she wondered if such was the case. But there were small scars, signs of less skilled healers then Eir. She walked in the skin of a different woman – one who had been a prince, who had threatened treason upon a monarch of softened herself towards a traitor. It would have been a kind of madness to cling to those days, and she so packed them away.
Thor returned to Midgard, and Loki tore New York asunder. Odin sat heavier upon the throne, and Frigga's heart broke once again. The enemies that Loki made crept closer and closer to Asgard's doorstep. And though Sif foresaw these things, she was powerless to stop them. Schwanheim's final gift.
She is more prepared, now. Her time here, however long, can be used to Asgard's benefit. The Nysgods are powerful, and she is no longer too proud to discard the resources that other races may be able to offer her homeworld. She will need to find a sword, and work. As a guard, perhaps. But first:
“For what reason am I meant to place this in my ear?”
Third Sample Because it's relevant to her head space now, here's where Sif sees the fuuuuture
Name:Punchy
Username: Punchthethings@plurk, itseggplant@aim.
Current characters in ToS: N/A
Reserve: Here!
2. Canon Character Information
Name: Lady Sif
PB: Sif as played by Jaimie Alexander in Thor
Journal: http://brosif.dreamwidth.org/
Age: Appears to be 28, actually over a thousand years old.
Appearance: Tall, with shoulder-length black hair and hazel eyes. Doesn't carry any notable scars, due to Asgard's advanced healing chambers and her own regenerative abilities. Carries herself with a soldier's bearing in public, always standing at attention or sitting up straight. Tends to wear some version of her armor at any point in the day, and given the lack of allies in Dagaz, that habit will most certainly continue.
History: Sif's comic backstory is here whereas her MCU history can be read here. Obviously MCU =/= comics, and I predominately take from movie canon, but I like the idea of Sif being Heimdall's half-sister and include that in my characterization of her. Additionally, Loki cut off Sif's blonde hair as a child, and the hair he gave her to replace it turned her hair black as night.
Powers/Talents: As an Asgardian, Sif posses speed, strength and endurance that is significantly higher than that of a human. She's not going to outrun the flash anytime soon, but her physiology means that she can exert herself for significantly prolonged periods of time. She actually weighs much more than she appears to, because her tissue is so dense. Though she isn't immortal and can be killed, she does age very slowly and her body heals itself quickly.
As a warrior, Sif is among the best trained in Asgard. Her weapon of choice is a glaive, which can be detached to serve as double bladed sword. But she is also competent with throwing knives, hand-to-hand combat, and jumping off of roofs at giant robots. In battle, she tends to pair observation and combat. Though just as hungry for a fight as the next Aesir, she prefers to learn all that she can about an enemy before an attack.
Another talent of Sif's that may or may not come up in the game: In the myths, Sif is associated with fields of wheat. I see her as having grown up on a farm, and knowledgeable where gardening and livestock are concerned.
Personality: For someone who is an oddity among the Aesir, Sif exemplifies many of the ideals that their race holds most important. She is brave, honorable, and loves Asgard above all else. Since childhood, her only goal has been to serve Asgard and Odin. This doesn't make her any different than most Aesir women. The difference is that while her mother and playmates reached for the hearth, Sif reached for the sword. This caused a tension between Sif and her family that lasts to this day. She trained in secret, at first. Crouching in the bushes during the prince's lessons, and mimicking their movements. Hiding swords and sweat-stained training clothes behind curtains, under floor boards.
Training in secret led Sif to two realizations: the first was that dualities are sometimes necessary. That breaking the rules is acceptable, if the rules themselves are not. It's okay to be a warrior, if your heart tells you that is the best way to serve your country. Years later: it's not treason to overthrow a king, if your gut tells you that his reign is ill earned. The most unforgivable crime that a warrior can commit is to ignore what they know in their heart to be the right and true course of action.
The second realization was that secrets do not sustain themselves. Once she was found out and, with Thor's support, allowed to train as a soldier, Sif never looked back at a life of deception. She is wholly, unapologetically herself. When she is in a jovial mood, she trains harder, fights brasher, drinks heavier, and laughs louder than anyone. When she is angry, there is no reasoning with her. When she is grieving, she does so openly.
It is not enough for Sif to be capable at what she does. To be noticed, to be respected, she has to be the best in Asgard. This leads Sif to see the world in a binary state: things that help her improve as a warrior are useful, things that do not are written off. For example, Loki's magic, while useful in battle, isn't something that she has an ability to learn, and so it's not a skill that she values nearly as much as his (pre bag-of-cat brain) ability to form a viable battle strategy at the last minute. She appreciates Thor's raw power in the midst of a fight, but finds it a hindrance when he gives himself over so easily to bloodlust when his comrades would be better served by regrouping and forming a new plan of attack.
This binary extends to Sif's view of other worlds. While she has traveled across the universe in search of adventure, it is always with the understanding that Asgard will call her home. She doesn't understand Thor's new found preoccupation with Midgard, outside of a diplomatic obligation to a race that the Aesir swore long ago to protect.
It's not that she thinks less of humans. It's that she has fought so long for her place in Asgard that she can't imagine that any other world could truly offer anything better. At the start of the Thor film, we see a young (by Aesir standards) woman who is wholly in her element. She is one of the most celebrated warriors in the realm, standing alongside the royal family at the coronation. She has formed a reliable fighting unit with Thor, Loki, and the Warriors Three. She is relaxed, sarcastic, and has a sense of ease around her friends. She's exactly where she wants to be.
And then it all goes to hell. Everything that she's ever believed in has been challenged. One thing that I love about Thor is that despite all of the special effects, the journeys that the characters go on are very much internal ones. Sif starts off the movie wholly entrenched in this idea of what it means to be a warrior. Warriors go off on adventures to other worlds, and come back home to tell those stories. Warriors aren't afraid to die – they want to go out in battle, to have their names remembered in song.
Except that Sif stands powerless before the Destroyer and realizes that she doesn't want to die. That a death in song is still a death, and she has fought for centuries to live. This realization shocks her more than anything Loki himself has done. Still, she isn't able to divorce herself from the notion of what a true warrior must do. In a drastic change from the start of the film, it's now Thor that is telling Sif to fight another day
I think Sif's body language at the end of the film shows a much more subdued young woman. Thor is tied to Midgard, and Loki is supposedly dead. Despite being hundreds of years old, Sif and her friends have had to grow up very suddenly over the course of a few days.
After the end of Avengers, I imagine that Sif is much more introspective than she used to be. She wonders if things could have turned out differently where Loki was concerned, particularly given that I am incorporating previous game history into her canon where she foretold and then warned him about the events in New York in a failed effort to stop them from coming to pass (see previous game history). She's going to come into Thurisaz outwardly amiable, but inwardly guarded. In her previous game, she made a genuine connection with a mortal ward, and it ultimately caused her pain. She will be cordial enough to those around her – perhaps even friendly. But back home, war is coming to Asgard's door, and the Aesir are closing ranks. If you aren't one of them, then she doesn't trust you.
Why would your character be chosen? She's loyal, honorable, and one of the best warriors among a nigh-immortal warrior race. Plus, Sif would actually entertain the idea of a politically motivated marriage if Odin asked it of her. If the Nysgods wanted to enter into an alliance with Asgard, she would be a good candidate to look towards.
Also Jaimie Alexander is crazy hot, so there's that.
How much does your character know about nonhumans? Possibly more than she knows about humans. The time that Sif spent in her previous game is likely the longest exposure that she had to humans, and she didn't walk away from it with the best understanding of what makes them tick. However, she knows more about races that she has reason to study and engage with – races that Asgard has either fought or forged alliances with. And she'll have spent her time post-Thor studying up on new potential threats to Asgard, particularly since its second son was found in an alliance with the Chitauri.
Why this character: I'm excited to play Sif in ToS because I think that it offers a nice balance between plot and action that will serve her well. She's a character that does well with a mission, and she will be able to find those here. Also, there are several players in the game that I have RPed with before and would be pumped to play with again.
Past Game History: I previously played Sif at
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
Sif arrives in Einmal three months after the events of Thor. Immediately, she is given the role of a fairy tale prince. This isn't a role that Sif is particularly comfortable with, given that she has just seen one prince gone mad in a bid for the throne and has no interest in throwing her hat into whatever lineage ring that is going on in Schwanheim. She sees her role in Einmal as a diplomatic one. She is a representative of Asgard, and is obliged to help a kingdom in need. Initially, she attempts to take a more active role in helping the kingdom, organizing missions to investigate threats and rounding up warriors to defend the capital from attack.
As the months go on, however, certain aspects of Schwanheim began to grate. The king is clearly a figurehead, with no real plans for his kingdom's well being. The people are willfully ignorant of that fact – even proud of it. The townspeople are horrendous gossips, taking the smallest grain of truth and speculating wildly about Sif's personal life in bulletins that are posted in public forums. Serving a kingdom whose leader she fundamentally disrespects goes against everything that Sif believes in as a warrior. She will not make the same mistake of pledging her service to anyone in Dagaz. She will learn from the experience, she will help as needed. But she will keep as far a distance between herself and any position of power as possible.
When Sif arrived in Einmal, she did so with the belief that Loki perished in his fall from the Bifrost. Imagine her surprise to find him alive and well. Initially furious with Loki for a myriad of reasons, like when he tried to kill her and outright murdered his brother, Sif relented slightly when she learned of Loki's lineage. It didn't excuse his actions, but it did provide context for them. Loki and Sif were in a strange land, and she found herself turning to him for assistance in emergencies, which he surprised her by giving.
Thor showed up, and Loki started acting like a brat again. Then Thor disappeared, Sif was the victim of a curse that nearly killed her, and Loki wound up saving her life. The night that this happens, Sif and Loki hook up – Sif probably means for it to be a one-night thing, an affirmation that they're both alive, but there's a genuine emotional connection that starts to take seed, which later winds up blowing up in her face.
Shenanigans happen. Sif's a horse, and Loki helps her change back. Loki's a wolf and Sif talks him into changing back. Thor shows up and it's awesome, except he finds out that Loki and Sif are a facebook complicated, and then it's less awesome. Also not awesome is the fact that Sif can see that Thor is carrying around some sort of burden, but won't tell her what it is. She guesses that it's about their shared future, and the two best friends tacitly agree that she won't ask.
Cut to: Sif switches abilities with a seer and encounters Thor in the woods. She sees, clearly, the future that he is trying to prevent. After Thor disappears again, she tells Loki of what the future holds, in the hopes that his time in Schawnheim has changed him enough that he would choose a different path, should the opportunity arise.
While all of this is going on, Sif enters into a close friendship with Sansa Stark. Through a dream spell, she experiences the girl's horrific past, and comes to position herself as Sansa's protector in Schwanheim. She even begins to entertain the idea of seeing if Sansa would someday like to accompany Sif back to Asgard as a ward, rather than see the girl returned to Westeros. That place is terrible to ladies.
Then Loki, in an attempt to rally the heroes, assumes the mantle of villain and stages a fake kidnapping, which Sansa agrees to be bait in. In reaching Sansa, Cho Takehashi is very nearly killed. Sif feels deeply betrayed by both Loki and Sansa. Loki, because he used the one person in Einmal that he knew Sif loved best. Sansa, because she agreed to be used.
Sansa disappears, soon after. Loki is imprisoned, though the King soon pardons him, to Sif's fury. Sif's last interaction with Loki is in the throne room, where she suggests that as punishment for his crimes he be made Cho's servant. Shortly after that, Sif is returned to Asgard and the events of the Avengers movie proceed.
Her time in Einmal means that Sif will be more guarded in Dagaz than she otherwise might have been. She recognizes the relationships here as temporary ones, and will consciously avoid making an emotional connection to another mortal like she did to Sansa. She will also be doubly furious with Loki for the events of the movie, if she is able to confirm that he is the same man that she warned in Schwanheim.
4. Samples
First-Person: http://dear-mun.dreamwidth.org/5537421.html
Third-Person: After the grasp takes Sif, she stands in Thurisaz with a sense of resignation. This has happened before, and there was no reason to think that it would not happen again. The world around her has seemed less stable since Schwanheim. The ground beneath her feet is no longer guaranteed with each footstep, and time itself is suspect.
When she was first returned to Asgard, it felt as if she had awoken from a very long dream. For the first few days, she wondered if such was the case. But there were small scars, signs of less skilled healers then Eir. She walked in the skin of a different woman – one who had been a prince, who had threatened treason upon a monarch of softened herself towards a traitor. It would have been a kind of madness to cling to those days, and she so packed them away.
Thor returned to Midgard, and Loki tore New York asunder. Odin sat heavier upon the throne, and Frigga's heart broke once again. The enemies that Loki made crept closer and closer to Asgard's doorstep. And though Sif foresaw these things, she was powerless to stop them. Schwanheim's final gift.
She is more prepared, now. Her time here, however long, can be used to Asgard's benefit. The Nysgods are powerful, and she is no longer too proud to discard the resources that other races may be able to offer her homeworld. She will need to find a sword, and work. As a guard, perhaps. But first:
“For what reason am I meant to place this in my ear?”
Third Sample Because it's relevant to her head space now, here's where Sif sees the fuuuuture