Difference between revisions of "Jasmine"

Revision as of 16:08, 11 November 2012

Jasmine
Age	15-16
Species	Human
Sex	Female
Height	5'1"
Weight	Unknown
Background
Series	Aladdin
Combat Styles	Princess of Agrabah, Princess of Heart
Hometown	Agrabah
Group	Unaffiliated
Occupation/Job	Princess on the Lam
Force:	Forces of Restoration
Theme Song	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVxUUotm1P4
Quote
I am /NOT/ a prize to be won!
Recent Events
After spending a few months training with SeeD, Jasmine ran away to draw the heat of Jafar and his army of Heartless. She has very little time to master her newfound powers of Light, and she'd trade such mastery in an instant for an understanding of what they represent... what she truly is. Her burning question: What is a Princess of Heart?

Summary:

The quintessential headstrong, rebellious princess, Jasmine's royal birthright gave her everything... except for the freedom to make her own choices. Spirited and intelligent, but also deeply intuitive and kind, she saw nothing in the endless parade of suitors seeking her hand except for ambition, arrogance, and greed. Fifteen and facing the rest of her life in isolation behind high palace walls, with only her tiger Rajah for company, she ran away. Innocent and naive, she quickly discovered exactly how sheltered she'd really been. Fortunately, she's a very fast learner, and with the help of the first man to ever impress her, managed to survive the experience; then, the news that he paid in blood for her irresponsibility shattered her world completely. That very night, she sensed the danger of the Heartless and fled the clutches of Jafar and Maleficent, who will stop at nothing to steal the Heart of one of the Seven Purest Lights. Alone in the vast, warring realms, pursued by endless agents of Ruin, Jasmine is getting more adventure than she ever dreamed of. She'll do anything to save Agrabah and the universe; a true princess, she knows that the needs of the people outweigh her own.

History:

"Oh, father. Rajah was just playing with him. Weren't you, Rajah? You were just playing with that over-dressed, self-absorbed Prince Achmed, weren't you?"

Princess Jasmine is the daughter of the Sultan of Agrabah and a beautiful, brilliant, brave woman who died when she was very young. She's quickly growing up to be very like her mother, much to her father's mixed pride and chagrin. Her childhood was a lonely one, dominated by instruction in the manifold duties of rulership, or at least those deemed suitable for a woman. She studied dance and storytelling alongside laws and history, music as well as mathematics, embroidery and politics alike.

Mastering them all, she found great meaning in the lessons of justice and compassion, and deeply yearned for real responsibility and a way to serve her people, but resented that the whole wide world she'd studied was forever barred to her; fearing for her safety as the sole heir of the Sultanate, she was not allowed to leave the palace. The Sultan, the extremely creepy vizier Jafar, her lady-in-waiting and former nurse Aneesa, and the guards and servants forbidden from approaching her with familiarity -- that was her whole world, and it was largely an empty one. Not to be deterred from finding companionship, Jasmine befriended the animals of the menagerie, especially a tiger whom she called Rajah, as well as her mother's high-spirited horse, Sahara, who no one else had ever been able to approach, much less tame, since she died.

When she was but ten, six years before she was required by law to marry a Prince and secure a male heir to the throne of Agrabah, the first suitors began to arrive. At first she had no objection to serving her people in the expected manner, but as suitor after suitor revealed themselves to be nothing but arrogance and ambition, she grew disgusted, then extremely stubborn. She would marry for love as well as for duty; surely there was /someone/ out there who would allow for both criteria. A man truly worthy to serve Agrabah as its ruler would have to pass a litmus test of 'being a decent human being.'

Three days before her sixteenth birthday, no such prince had arrived, and her father would not be swayed on the topic of changing the law to allow her more time to find a suitable husband -- it had become a forbidden subject at dinner. She was as trapped as her beloved songbirds... only moreso, since they could fly freely into the blue sky when she released them, but she could not. Or could she? Distressed and desperate, she ran away from home, disguised as a peasant.

The big wide wondrous world was not quite as friendly as she'd expected; at first she wandered around happily enough, but a certain failure to understand the concept of 'money' to pay for the apple she'd kindly given to a starving child quickly had her in real danger. The intervention of a street urchin, Aladdin, rescued her hand, and she quickly discovered a kindred spirit in both cleverness and dissatisfaction with their lives. However, they were quickly interrupted by her father's guards, who had come to capture Aladdin for his many petty thefts; she tried to save his life in turn, by revealing her true identity and returning to the palace.

Unfortunately, on Jafar's orders, he was arrested anyway, and Jafar, noticing her interest in the boy, casually broke her heart by claiming he was executed 'for kidnapping the princess.' Jasmine was devastated; her irresponsible actions had serious consequences, costing the life of a nice young man whose name she had never even learned.

That night, her grieving reverie was broken by a terrible sense of danger, a feeling that burned behind her eyes and ran down to the base of her spine. She crept out of her room, only to overhear Jafar and Maleficent ordering strange creatures, the Heartless, to seize the city and its occupants and especially its princess. There was no way to reach her father in time; quickly disguising herself again, she fled for the second time in twenty-four hours, with monsters hot on her heels.

Though she was loath to leave the people of Agrabah in Jafar's clutches, Jasmine knew she could never free them alone. So it is that she's struck out to find aid -- an army, a Genie, maybe even a Prince -- whatever it takes to save her people. The wartorn state of all the worlds has not been lost on her, and she's beginning to wonder if she isn't caught up in greater events than even her world's.

Personality:

"How dare you? All of you! Standing around deciding my future."

Jasmine is a surprisingly complex character for an early '90s animated feature, a bundle of contradictions. She's extremely clever, which tends to get her both into and out of a lot of trouble; she's highly educated academically, but completely innocent about certain aspects of the real world. She has a profound courage to her, a willingness to sacrifice herself to protect others, but can also be selfish, such as in her continuous refusal to marry to secure her father's throne for the next generation. (It's certainly laudable as well, an empowered young woman demanding better treatment, but from the perspective of dynastic responsibility, irresponsible.)

She is fundamentally compassionate at her core, quickly reacting when she sees anyone in need, though she doesn't always have the power to help them. This basic kindness, a love of people, is in part because she understands them so well -- deeply intuitive, she's extraordinarily skilled at reading people from a lifetime of suitor evaluation; she's excellent at relating to animals as well, and there are few wild beasts she couldn't tame with time and patience. She can be deceived, of course; she's not a living lie detector, just intelligent and perceptive (and also somewhat suspicious, especially of royal motivations).

Having been exposed to a great deal of royal arrogance and greed, Jasmine places a high value on selflessness, humility, and integrity. She tends to form very strong first impressions, but is also willing to grant second chances. Appearance is not the metric by which she judges another; in fact, she tends to reflexively distrust the beautiful, having met one too many Prince Charmings far darker on the inside than they were on the outside. That said, she values her own loveliness a bit more than she should, and takes a great deal of simple pleasure in taking care of her thigh-length hair. It's soothing. When she fled Agrabah, she packed a hairbrush for therapy reasons alone.

Never afraid to speak her mind or stand up for what she believes in, Jasmine makes a poor Princess (in the obedience sense), but would be a wonderful Queen. Her strong will cannot be thwarted by many obstacles; on the other hand, sometimes she clings to ideas out of pride and sheer stubbornness. Her standard response to opposition is royal arrogance, that particular stripe of intimidation; it's largely for show. She's quite friendly, even funny, by default, always interested in connecting with strangers and finding laughter and fun to combat the oppressive despair of the times.

Jasmine has always yearned for adventure, to see the world outside the Palace walls, and on some level she's actually enjoying the calamity she's caught up in, the grand journey she's been forced to take. She does and doesn't feel guilty about this; it's terrible to profit from her peoples' suffering, but there's no point in being continuously unhappy either, is there? She's doing everything she can to help them, and her misery would do nothing to ease theirs. Her heart is filled with light, and she can't help but find the silver lining in any situation.

Serving her people is Jasmine's highest calling, and right now Agrabah is in considerable distress. So are all the worlds, and Jasmine's a big picture sort of girl -- if pressed, she wouldn't place Agrabah's salvation above the multiverse's.

Abilities

"I was raised a princess, Aladdin, and a princess knows the needs of the people outweigh her own."

In KH cosmology terms, Jasmine has a Heart of pure Light, making her one of the Seven Purest Lights, the Princesses of Heart upon which the fate of all worlds rests. She thus holds the power to open the Final Keyhole to Kingdom Hearts, can sense and hold back darkness through force of will, and can use the power of light to empower others. Her own heart is 'completely untouchable by darkness', incorruptible; among other things, this allows her to travel through the Corridors of Darkness without any negative effects.

(The distinctive downside of all that is having all the Heartless after her, forever, as well as anyone else who wants some cosmological leverage.)

Taking a nod from the animated series, she's also rapidly acquired some martial arts skills on her travels. (She's a ludicrously fast learner, arguably with photographic body memory, and keeps her body graceful and strong, as indicated by the pole vaulting in the first movie and various other acrobatics in the TV series, even before she was kidnapped to be formally trained. By amazons. Simply being around better fighters is teaching her at an alarming rate, while being in the hands of SeeD for several months advanced her ability to defend herself by an order of magnitude. They also taught her tactics and strategy, survival skills, introduced her to reasonably modern technology, showed how to drive...) Besides unarmed fighting, her preferred weapon is the scimitar; she used to secretly watch the guards train with them. She's also amazing with a whip (at least when she's evil, haha), though she dislikes the weapon's oppressive connotations. She's much faster than she is tough (especially given her lack of armor).

Her most valuable asset, however, will always be her brain. Jasmine is very quick-witted, well able to analyze a situation and come up with a course of action, for others as well as herself. She keeps a cool head, and makes an excellent leader in a fight, able to both coordinate a plan and inspire her allies.

Relationships:

The Sultan: "Please, try to understand. I've never done a thing on my own. I've never had any real friends..." Jasmine loves her bumbling father, but yearns for him to understand why she's so unhappy trapped in the Palace. /He/ has all manner of war stories from his youth, after all, of which he's justifiably proud. On some level she knows that his overprotectiveness is his way of showing how he cares. With the fall of Agrabah to Jafar and his Heartless, she fears greatly for his life.

Rajah: "...except you, Rajah." Raised from cubhood by Jasmine, Palace life hasn't done much to slow this enormous tiger's ferocious instincts, with anyone but her. Rajah was Jasmine's bodyguard and confidant, and they had an understanding that didn't require a common language. She loves him with all her heart. They escaped the Heartless together, but were separated in a sandstorm -- he could be anywhere among the scattered stars, now. Jasmine is searching for him; she knows he must be out there, somewhere.

Sahara: "I know you're scared, and I know what you've been through. Look in my eyes... can't you see I'm frightened too?" Infamously temperamental, the favorite horse of Jasmine's late mother has never been tamed by anyone but her and her daughter. Jasmine escaped Agrabah on Sahara's back, but they were also separated in the sandstorm; surely they will be reunited someday.

Jafar: "At least some good will come of my being forced to marry. When I am Queen, I will have the power to get rid of *you*." Jasmine has never liked Jafar, able to see past his thin veneer of obsequiousness to the ambition and darkness beneath. Even so, she never expected him to overthrow Agrabah with a host of monsters; some people are just full of surprises. She is smart enough to fear him, but personally is more angry than afraid -- it's what he might do to her loved ones, to her people, that keeps her awake at night. She will bring justice to him, and peace to her kingdom, or die in the attempt.

Aladdin: "You're not free to make your own choices. You're just... trapped." Jasmine is haunted by the ghost of the boy in the marketplace who saved her hand from imminent removal by an overzealous, violent merchant. He was clever, funny, brave, and despite their extraordinarily different circumstances, she felt a powerful connection for about five minutes, before he was arrested, then executed for 'kidnapping the Princess'. She never even learned his name. Feeling responsible for his death, she's determined to see no more blood spilled on account of her irresponsibility, and her innocent, abstract compassion for the impoverished of her kingdom (and any others) has crystallized into an iron determination to truly help those less fortunate than herself.

Abu: "Oh wise Sultan, how may I serve you?" Jasmine took an immediate liking to Aladdin's monkey, but got the sense that the feeling wasn't mutual. :(

Balamb Garden: "You want me so badly, Jafar, that you'd slaughter all these people? Come after /me/, then, and leave them /alone/." After Jean Faraven brought Jasmine to Balamb Garden, she was struck with a dilemna. He, and others there, promised that it was the safest place for her... but her very presence was making it unsafe for everyone else. She knew she shouldn't stay for long, but Garden was intoxicating on so many levels, filling voids in her soul she never knew she had. Such as the simple, ordinary companionship of other teenagers, first and foremost, never mind the confidence that came from serious lessons in warfare, or the sense of security from having a fortress with wall-mounted cannon emplacements all around her, filled to the brim with the most capable fighters she'd ever seen. It was terribly selfish of her to remain, to endanger all her new friends, but she wanted so desperately to believe their promises that she'd be safe here, safe from the monsters that had chased her from her home, across more worlds than she'd ever imagined. She wasn't, and when Jafar and an army of Heartless came calling, many SeeDs and refugees paid the ultimate price for taking her in. She departed in an extremely dramatic fashion, deliberately crafted to draw the forces of Darkness away from her hosts. This gambit was successful, and Garden was spared, but Jasmine learned a (possibly wrong) lesson from this: she mustn't stay anywhere for long, not ever. Only by remaining in constant motion can she protect those wherever she goes, by simply not giving her enemies long enough to mobilize fully.

Kaydin: "Please surrender yourself to me. I don't want to fight an unarmed woman." "You have no idea how much you don't want to fight me." Jasmine caught Garden student 'David' sabotaging Balamb's defenses against an impending attack; they fought, she won, and in so doing discovered an entirely unexpected font of inner strength, tapping directly into her primal connection to the Light for the first time. Notably, he recognized her as a 'Princess of Heart'. She'd /love/ to know what that term means, having never heard it before. Unfortunately, he escaped his imprisonment before she had time to ask.

Terra Bradford: "I encourage you to see for yourself. But please, don't condemn them before you've even made it inside." Jasmine felt instinctively protective of Terra, a rather novel feeling for someone constantly subject to those same instincts from others. From Celes' comments across various conversations, she knows the other girl has had a difficult past. Admiring Terra's passionate care for children even as she gently insisted the other girl see Garden before condemning it as an abusive orphan-child soldier factory, Jasmine earnestly hopes the two of them can be friends.

Riku: "Stop putting yourself down all the time -- it doesn't help anyone, least of all you. Aren't you looking for your friends? They must think the world of you. The least you can do for them is trust their feelings." This young man dropped out of the sky nearly on top of Jasmine and startled her rather badly. He seemed well-mannered, suspicious of others' motives, and kind, making him quite a bit nicer than most princes she's ever met. Over the course of various encounters from an innocent picnic lunch to shared time at Balamb Garden to 'saving' each other from Heartless, they've discovered that they have quite a bit in common: bad choices in their past that led to tragedy, and a search for redemption, a need to set things right. There's something fascinating about Riku, something that both attracts and repels, entices her and sets her on her guard. She wants nothing more than to see him find his path, and believes, with her whole heart, that he can do so. He, in turn, has taken advantage of her faith to secretly mark her with a Recusant's Sigil; what he will do with continuous, perfect knowledge of her location and condition is an open question, for now...

Rapunzel: "I would be glad to help you [braid 70 feet of hair out of the gutters of Manhattan]..." Jasmine literally ran into Rapunzel while fleeing the Heartless, and the two girls became fast friends, as some of the first girls' close to their age either of them had ever met. Braiding Rapunzel's hair was badly needed therapy in a stressful time. Jasmine promised to let Rapunzel braid her hair in return, but apologetically had to take off before the Heartless caught up to her; she didn't want to put her new friend at risk.

David Xanatos: "Contact me when you learn something. When I am needed, I will come to you." Handsome, wealthy Xanatos immediately put Jasmine on her guard: her prince radar went DING DING DING!! She can't help but sense the ambition behind the smile, and the fact that he used technology to track her down more quickly than anyone else is both wondrous and terrifying. However, his apparent passion to help build a coalition to oppose the darkness led her to reluctantly accept his promise of help... and a telephone. He can obviously find her whenever he wants, anyway; she finds it unlikely that sustained contact with him is putting her at any greater risk (though the reverse may not be true). She worries that he'll eventually force her to stay in Manhattan, ostensibly for her own safety, his stated desire. But, for the time being, he seems to be convinced that what she's doing out in the world is the best course of action, or at least not something to be challenged lightly. Taking him up on his assertion that his resources are infinite, she's asked him to investigate the question of why the Heartless and Shadow Lords in general, and Jafar in particular, are hunting her so relentlessly. If anyone can find out, he can... and she can't afford not to put some measure of trust in such a powerful ally. If he tells her that she must go somewhere to advance their shared goal of protecting the billions of innocents from the darkness... she'll keep her promise.

Belle: "I will be your friend until the end of time." Jasmine and Belle discovered their oddly similar circumstances -- two young women yearning to live free, having left their homes to draw away the endless Heartless pursuing them -- in Traverse Town. They felt an immediate, fundamental connection, light calling to light, and decided to be fugitives together, rather than alone. The world is much less scary that way. Jasmine is terribly impressed by Belle's worldliness and maturity, and hopes to learn a lot from her, while doing everything she can to solve their mutual mystery and keep them safe. Ultimately this meant leaving her, by luring Jafar and the Heartless as far from Belle as possible; as long as no one realized there had been TWO of them at Garden, Jasmine hopes Belle can remain anonymously safe long enough to discover some sort of meaning behind their constant pursuit. Being on the run alone again, after traveling with her first true friend, is a thousand times harder, but Belle's worth it.

Jean Faraven: "I haven't been /caught/ before!!" SeeD Faraven gave Jasmine and Belle a ride, and thus a nice lead on their Heartless pursuers. She's staying at this Garden of theirs, exchanging intel on the Heartless, but she's reluctant to stay too long and endanger the stronghold with her Heartless-attracting presence. At one point she went with Jean to Traverse Town, and he (and others) saved her from being kidnapped by some sort of animate Heartless armor. She's grateful.

Celes Chere: "I don't think anything that's loved can ever truly be gone. It's out there. If we never give up, we can find a way to set things right, to bring what has been lost back into the light." Celes and Jasmine met at Balamb, and swore to mutually aid each other's cause. The first ally on a long road to save what has been lost. More personally, she was very impressed with the knight's attitude, but somewhat worried about the seeming lack of care for some of her Returner comrades.

Quistis Trepe: "I thank you, and I will do all in my power to aid your lost world, and all the others..." SeeD Trepe was the first to hear Jasmine's story at Garden; she opened Balamb's resources to the Princess' disposal, in the sense that a) she told Jasmine to equip herself properly before she left and b) that she ought to bring along an escort, provided by SeeD. Both good pieces of advice; Jasmine will take it, though she hopes the revelation of her royal status doesn't put Quistis at too much of a distance. This is the first time in her life she's enjoyed interacting with people anything like normally, and she's loath to give it up. Still, it's a small sacrifice, and there's so much at stake...

Merilan Yursalin: "Would you mind if I gave the Yarhi the lollipop?" Jasmine's first impression of the lovely aegyl and her adorable yarhi was awe. Her second impression, as they put themselves on the line to rescue her from Darkness, was gratitude. She'll repay Merilan for her kindness someday, and would like to get to know her better. Perhaps she could get cooking lessons...

Ivo Galvan: "Thank you for your concern, but perhaps you'd best look out for yourself!" Jasmine and Ivo were almost accidental partners in the arena, when the former was haplessly knocked into the fray, but they were interrupted by the Heartless crashing the party and trying to spirit her away. Ivo was one of many who fought fiercely to defend her, without asking a single question. During these events, she felt a brief connection to the young warrior, and a sense of tireless, swift strength, rather like the wind. She hopes they can meet again someday.

Skills:

Badass Princess, Beware the Nice Ones, Also Beware The Tiger, And The Horse, Tamer of Beasts, But Not Poaching Belle's, Part-Time Deadpan Snarker, Multiverse Record For 'Most Rejected Suitors', Unimpressed By Prince Charming, Impressed By Compassion, Friend to All Children, And Living Things, Sometimes Fatally Friendly, Scourge of the Desert?!, Royals Who Actually Do Something, Flawless Cloak Disguise, Photographic Muscle Memory, Will Of Adamant, Or Stubborn As A Mule Depending On Perspective, If You Want Your Kingdom Saved Right, Do It Yourself, Heart of Purest Light, Pillar of the Universe, Serves Greater Needs Than Her Own, Darkness Detector, Ruin Magnet, Eternally On The Run