Amat app for Chloe
Feb. 23rd, 2012 12:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
true_noir» Name: Chloe
» Fandom: Noir (Anime)
» Canon Point: Immediately after Episodes 25/26 (Following her death at the hands of Kirika Yuumura
» Gender: Female
» Age: 16 at the time of her death.
» Orientation:
Unknown. Throughout the course of the Noir series, very little clear indication is given as to Chloe's romantic or sexual interests. The only possible actual romantic interest that Chloe demonstrates is for Kirika Yuumura. Throughout the series, she displays an almost obsessive interest in Kirika, with whom she grew up and trained in the arts of an assassin. Flashbacks indicate that she experienced for Kirika what can be described as hero worship, the other girl being exceedingly talented in their arts, and proving more capable and confident in that period. Every time they would travel together in those days, she would watch Kirika closely and with fascinated eyes. Chloe refers to the two of them as “The true Noir,” though this is seen later in the series to be a reference to the fact that the “Noir” title is one that is given by the Soldats organization to two assassins who work in conjunction. Chloe's obsession culminates after Kirika's return to their former home, ultimately climaxing in a single kiss. While passionate, it is difficult to pin this down as sexual in nature, and however possessive she behaves towards her relationship with Kirika during the subsequent fight with Mireille Bouquet, it remains somewhat unclear if she is actually in love with Kirika or understands what love/sexual attraction is. No sufficiently clear evidence indicates whether she is capable of attraction for men, or even for that matter for other women besides Kirika. As such, a clear answer to the question of her sexual preference cannot be found easily.
» Personality:
Chloe is a curious, strong-willed young woman with a capacity for single-minded focus and determination towards any goal that she takes on. A trained assassin, she displays little to no concern over the act of taking another's life, and tends to almost be blasé towards her work when speaking with a target. She is undaunted in the face of even seemingly insurmountable opposition. Anyone attempting to interfere with her personally being the one to complete an assignment she is tasked with is removed without hesitation. She has, for example, taken on considerably larger groups of skilled German soldiers attempting to kill the same target simply to ensure that she is the one who will make the kill. Almost without exception, when faced with an obstacle of any kind, she looks for the simplest way around and acts without hesitation. Even facing seemingly impossible odds, like entire branches of the local mafia when she helped rescue Mireille and Kirika from death, she moves without concern for her own well-being, her confidence having an intimidating effect on those around her.
She is generally playful and calm in terms of her day-to-day demeanor. She shows a great love for flowers and plants in general, and is quite appreciative of beautiful colors, having an extraordinary eye for shades that is commented on by others. She is educated in some classical literature, and happy to share her familiarity with others when the occasion seems appropriate. She likes being outdoors and doing things of an athletic nature, testing her impressive agility frequently. Despite this, she does not display a traditionally “girly” aesthetic or behavioral pattern. Her closet often contains many traditionally “girly” articles, all of which she repeatedly ignores unless assigned to use them, favoring utilitarian clothes and the tools of her trade. She shows interest in such things only with a sort of academic distance.
She is very distant to anyone that she is interacting with unless she feels intensely close to them. Until her death, she only displayed an increased level of affection to her surrogate mother and handler, Altena, and to her childhood friend and fellow assassin Kirika Yuumura. To everyone else, she can be polite in her mode of speech if a touch blunt, friendly and even somewhat warm in tone. However, there is always a gulf between she and they that most who speak to her with any length seem to recognize. She does have a somewhat infuriating habit of speaking cryptically, and seems to enjoy confusing and manipulating others when it is appropriate through selectively leaving out important details on whatever she is talking about, unless asked very specific questions.
Chloe displays little concern for propriety, personal property or ethics and morality in general. She is capable of inviting herself into another person's home with barely a knock on the door, and will take a thing that interests her if she feels like doing so. On several occasions she manipulates others through fear and selective misinformation to cause them to arrive at conclusions beneficial to her original purpose, and enjoys using proxies to do her bidding. We see this when she manipulated a corrupt chief of police to bring he and all of his cronies to the same location, using a warning of an assassination attempt, ensuring their deaths. Murder does not so much as cause her to bat an eyelash, and she oftentimes smiles and seems to be playing in the midst of doing so. It does not appear that she lacks an understanding of the consequences of her actions, but rather that she doesn't care about the ethics of them. When barging into Kirika and Mireille's house, she seems unsurprised and unperturbed that the person might prepare to defend themselves by sneaking towards their gun, and even to expect it. She acts as she wishes without regard for those consequences.
Chloe, however, is not inherently violent or aggressive in behavior. When meeting those who have recently come to blows with her, she will sit down and accept their hospitality with seemingly little concern for whether or not she might be attacked. Only when a violent action is performed towards her does she react with unnerving speed to deal with a threat. The only concept of an ethical nature she displays regularly is loyalty, which she shows towards her handler Altena unswervingly on every occasion that she is asked to demonstrate that loyalty. She is capable of extending her loyalty towards others beyond her handler, but her first loyalty is to Altena and Altena alone. As an extension of this, if she makes a promise to someone-so long as it does not interfere with those she has made to Altena-she is loathe to break those promises. For example, she spared the life of a target's bodyguard because of a promise she made to him before he died, even when they threatened her life. Any promises she makes, she takes seriously, regardless of how flippant they might sound when she makes them.
Towards those who are close to her, Chloe opens up considerably. She smiles freely and almost joyously. Her speech takes on an almost effervescent tone as she relates whatever new experiences she has had. Her loyalty towards these people causes her to look for ways to please or help them, and she will actively go out of her way to do whatever they ask of her. Initially, this behavior was only seen towards Altena, whom she treated as a mother figure and would run home to embrace and tell of her journeys after each assignment. Towards the end of her life, however, this type of attitude began to develop towards Kirika when the girl returned with Noir to their family home and Chloe tried to display a warmth towards her that she never had in anything but flashbacks and memories.
The most significant event in Chloe's life prior to her arrival at Atia is unquestionably her death at the hands of Kirika Yuumura, her childhood friend. The betrayal came with a small sense of peace at the end, but was largely a shock for her. It was the only time that she hesitated in the performance of her duties at all, as she did not wish to fight Kirika and had even spoken hopefully of the possibility of becoming friends with Mireille in the past. Though betrayed and hurt by the event of Kirika's attack, she could not bring herself to use her full capacities against her friend, and ultimately died at her hands.
» Appearance: Base image of her clothes when she arrives and her general appearance (before being aged to 18) - http://www.animegalleries.net/album/2586/img/203
Chloe is an athletic, short and thin wisp of a woman. She barely fills the loose robes and toga that she wears, her appearance being tailored by her more for acrobatic performance than it ever was for physical beauty. She keeps her hair, a dark red bordering on a purple, short cropped so as to avoid it ever getting in her way. It tends to flare outwards in an unruly fashion, framing her lightly tanned face and accenting her sharply angular Asian features and cold, blue eyes. She rarely smiles, and when she does, it is with a small and sardonic grin that seems more bemused by a thing in front of it very distantly than any sort of real warmth. Her emotions almost never actually touch her eyes, which watch the world around them with lidded disinterest, observing every last detail analytically in a long-practiced fashion to avoid actually seeming to be attentive.
A one inch, jet-black satin choker with the symbol of Atia affixed over the throat in silver, Thanatos' symbol hanging just below by a single chain.
She dresses lightly, favoring loose cloth robes of whites, off-whites and occasionally light spring colors. On rare occasions, she frames her hair with small blossoms of red or green that she finds around the island, ones reminiscent of the alpine rose she personally favors. Her clothes are functional, rather than beautiful, and drape over her in a fashion that protects her modesty sufficiently without impeding her movement, though they do show a considerable bit of her long, thin legs. Modestly endowed, she exudes an air of a person who is unconcerned with how most people think of her appearance. While she may own more attractive or beautiful articles, she uses them only rarely, and when she feels that it is useful to do so. She is confident in herself and walks swith an almost playful and youthful gait through life, almost at times seeming to skip from place to place.
If one is permitted to get close to Chloe without her flitting away with that faintly ethereal look on her face, the faint floral scents of her favored flowers linger on her person. She prefers natural odors rather than elaborate or manufactured ones. Up close, as well, one might notice that hidden at her waist are a pair of small, but very functional knives. She conceals them well, considering the nature of her loose garments, but seems unwilling to be without them under any circumstances.
» Suitability:
Chloe, despite being 16-17 through the course of the series, displays an unnerving capacity to operate largely on her own. While her ability to develop meaningful, and more importantly healthy, relationships is debatable at best, she largely operates throughout the series on her own. She will receive orders directly from Altena, which may include details of locations, targets and tasks that require completion, but these may include travel to extremely distant locations. Chloe performs these tasks with no entourage under almost all circumstances, and demonstrates a capacity to operate with relative impunity in foreign lands despite being a legal minor in many cases. She navigates to remote hideouts in the alps alone, travels to Taiwan and navigates its streets solo with ease despite the threat of Triad presence and active pursuit of foreign agents. She travels, when she has the freedom to do so, to Sicily alone and under her own initiative for personal reasons. While it is safe to assume that she is afforded financial resources and contacts by the Soldats organization and Altena to complete her missions, Chloe is rarely seen operating in the company of general Soldats agents, and seems perfectly capable of covering expenses and maintaining a daily life when on an extended mission. Her principle skills are in assassination, but her self-reliance under almost all circumstances demonstrates that she can operate on her own, however much she may prefer to have the personal guidance of her master Altena.
Chloe's lack of aggressive tendencies towards those who she is not specifically ordered to attack is seen throughout the series, and is a good sign that even though she is capable of cold-blooded murder, she is not wanton or disruptive in her normal behavior. The most pronounced occasion of this is seen in the assignment she personally concludes in the German Alps and Germany proper. When faced with a man pointing a gun at her head, she eschews combat with a man she is not assigned to kill on a promise to the old general that man had been bodyguard for. So long as she does not have orders, and is not actually threatened, she will not use lethal force save in very rare occasions. Without a handler, furthermore, she will have no reason to resume her assassination activities and will seek to employ herself, check for available ways to escape the island, and maintain herself until such time as she has either acclimated or found a way to contact her handler Altena again. It will be no different than for her to have received an extended mission, save that she will remember having died before at Kirika's hands, and know that her status is as one at-large and under her own authority until she can re-establish contact with Altena.
At no point in the series do we see Chloe actually have sex, but there is no reason to believe that she is incapable or actively unwilling to do so. Given her loyalty towards Kirika and Altena, however, the thought of losing her memories of either of these two people will be ample motivation in due course to force her into compliance with the normal behavior of he islands. She carried a fork around for half of the series that she stole from Kirika as a reminder of their first reunion. The idea of losing the memories she was so desperate to protect even in life would be too much for a character that demonstrated this kind of nostalgia. With all of this in mind, Chloe may be uncomfortable with sex initially, but will have no problems doing what she must to survive.
SAMPLES
» "amatomnes" First-Person Network Entry:
[It had been almost three days since she had arrived. Wandering the city had answered one or two of her questions in the fashion she had desired, but overhearing talk of these communicating devices had hinted at their value for interacting with others. Looking down at the strange article, Chloe fiddled with the settings carefully for a long moment before she deciphered the text-only setting. She had little to no interest in allowing anyone to see her face just yet, at least not until she had seen a few of theirs first. All that would appear on the screens for the public post were her words.]
I have taken a day or two to acclimate myself to this lovely city. The more that I see of its beauty, however, the more that it feels as if I have been placed in a gilded cage and afforded the finest of cuttle bones and seed to see to my care. It is an unnerving sensation to feel as if you are surrounded by bars that you cannot see. I think that I have managed at the least to understand this communication network, and thought perhaps that one of my fellow canaries might sing me a song.
It would be lovely if this song might tell the tale of what this place is. It is not that I mind what I think I will call a vacation today, but I cannot help but feel I have walked into a surreal nightmare, beautiful and horrible at once. The faint, uncomfortable pressure at my neck certainly adds an ominous tone to it all, I must say.
» "amatomneslogs" Third-Person Prose Entry:
Chloe's eyes fluttered open as a gasp escaped her lips. She clutched her right hand to her stomach and curled up, eyes going wide and lips quivering. In that split second, her emotional state was overwhelmed by the combined memories of pain, betrayal and the almost incomprehensible sensation of satisfaction. It all mingled with the last memories she had of the day, causing her to wince and huddle up protectively.
“Kirika... why...,” she murmured almost piteously before raising her hand back towards her face. To her shock, there was no blood there. The phantom pain of her wounds were the first sensations to disappear, causing her to become increasingly confused. She turned over on her back and leaned up, looking down at her stomach. There was an ugly scar there, just below her sternum, where a fork had been thrust deep into her chest. The wound was healed, and the cold shivers of death felt like a distant memory somehow. It had only been seconds since her heart had stopped and the pain of oxygen deprivation had claimed her last conscious thoughts of Altena and Kirika, but now it felt like her death had been miles away.
“I...I'm alive,” she whispered to herself in shock, the next sight beside her naked form being that of a fork. The very article of her demise was still on the bed, covered in her own blood. Kirika had left it behind, next to her when she'd died. The whole thing left her feeling confused, disoriented and almost a little violated. She touched her stomach and shook her head, eyes fluttering at the last quakes of an aftershock between her loins. Her mind went back to Kirika, to their kiss, and she wondered if perhaps she had been mistaken. Perhaps her death had been nothing but a horrific nightmare and the fork was just one of Kirika's poor attempts at a joke, and they had... finally...
That thought, the imagining of claiming the closeness she'd desired with Kirika for so long, made her blush deeply, curling up again and letting out a small giggle. She was smiling to herself with the delusional fantasy for a second or two before she really looked around at the room she found herself in. Something was wrong.
It was hard to put her finger on what was so off. The marble columns and the beautiful, aged stone masonry felt like the very place that she had lived for so many years, the place where she had died. Altena had always maintained such a lovely home, but what felt odd was the condition of the stone. The aging and weathering were not right, the marble too clean and pure. These were not ruins, but rather an active and vibrant palace not unlike her old home, but far more palatial. Then, there was the scar, and the fact that she could not clearly remember her ethereal lover. It started to dawn on her more and more that, however many things seemed similar to her old life, she was not where she should have been. If she looked out of the window of the room, she realized with mounting horror, the vineyards of her youth would not be waiting there. Altena would not be waving from the streets below. She was not in her home.
Brushing her purple hair from her face and shaking her head, Chloe willed herself into a state of emotional control. She could tell that she was naked, not that she had been that thoroughly dressed when she'd … when she'd died. She was now certain, between the scar and her jumbled memories that she had indeed died. The only thing she was wearing was the beautiful golden collar that she had been wearing that day. It felt different, somehow, but was an image that at least seemed similar to what she knew. It was almost a comforting presence, considering her situation, and she felt disinclined to even try and remove it just yet. She lifted the fork from her bed and noticed her clothes next to the bed. They were neatly folded, the tear in the midriff repaired and the bloodstains cleaned off. Two of her thin-bladed knives rested on top of them, possibly the most comforting sight she could have beheld at that moment. She was not unarmed in a strange place.
She looked at the fork again, curiously. Looking at the instrument of her own death, the gift she had gotten from Kirika so long ago, was surprisingly surreal. It was like watching a movie with herself as the actress. She leaned out her tongue and licked a bit of her own blood, surprised at how much like others' blood it tasted. There was nothing special to it. Noir, or not, she was nevertheless as mortal as any of those she had killed over the years. She shook her head and slowly got to her feet, slipping down from the bed and still clutching the utensil possessively.
One glance at the mirror told her that she was definitely somewhere different. She was certain that she had gained at least two or three inches in height. The changes in the motions of her legs amounted to that sort of a shift, giving her reason to make note that she would want to practice again, get used to the small changes so that the timing of her motions was as perfect as ever. She could never allow herself to become less than perfect, in case Altena found her in this strange place and needed her. She looked herself over, cocking her head and putting her free hand on her hips. “I... I think I've gotten older... how long has it been?” she whispered in faint wonder. She didn't look that different. She was still almost flat as a board, which she'd never minded much. Yet, it was obvious that her features had reached maturity now. It made her smirk a little before shaking her head and walking towards the window of the room. It was time to verify what she knew she would not see.
Outside, indeed, the vineyard was not visible. There was a small city in the distance below, and endless gardens. The smell of the sea air in the distance was not quite right. However familiar this place might have seemed, it was not her home, and some strange and potentially malevolent force had ripped her from the arms of her death at the hands of her would be lover, and had planted her here in this strange place. “Curioser... and curioser...,” she murmured softly, the stilled and calm features she wore like an eternal mask setting themselves once more in place as she looked like Alice through the looking glass into a strange, new world.
» Fandom: Noir (Anime)
» Canon Point: Immediately after Episodes 25/26 (Following her death at the hands of Kirika Yuumura
» Gender: Female
» Age: 16 at the time of her death.
» Orientation:
Unknown. Throughout the course of the Noir series, very little clear indication is given as to Chloe's romantic or sexual interests. The only possible actual romantic interest that Chloe demonstrates is for Kirika Yuumura. Throughout the series, she displays an almost obsessive interest in Kirika, with whom she grew up and trained in the arts of an assassin. Flashbacks indicate that she experienced for Kirika what can be described as hero worship, the other girl being exceedingly talented in their arts, and proving more capable and confident in that period. Every time they would travel together in those days, she would watch Kirika closely and with fascinated eyes. Chloe refers to the two of them as “The true Noir,” though this is seen later in the series to be a reference to the fact that the “Noir” title is one that is given by the Soldats organization to two assassins who work in conjunction. Chloe's obsession culminates after Kirika's return to their former home, ultimately climaxing in a single kiss. While passionate, it is difficult to pin this down as sexual in nature, and however possessive she behaves towards her relationship with Kirika during the subsequent fight with Mireille Bouquet, it remains somewhat unclear if she is actually in love with Kirika or understands what love/sexual attraction is. No sufficiently clear evidence indicates whether she is capable of attraction for men, or even for that matter for other women besides Kirika. As such, a clear answer to the question of her sexual preference cannot be found easily.
» Personality:
Chloe is a curious, strong-willed young woman with a capacity for single-minded focus and determination towards any goal that she takes on. A trained assassin, she displays little to no concern over the act of taking another's life, and tends to almost be blasé towards her work when speaking with a target. She is undaunted in the face of even seemingly insurmountable opposition. Anyone attempting to interfere with her personally being the one to complete an assignment she is tasked with is removed without hesitation. She has, for example, taken on considerably larger groups of skilled German soldiers attempting to kill the same target simply to ensure that she is the one who will make the kill. Almost without exception, when faced with an obstacle of any kind, she looks for the simplest way around and acts without hesitation. Even facing seemingly impossible odds, like entire branches of the local mafia when she helped rescue Mireille and Kirika from death, she moves without concern for her own well-being, her confidence having an intimidating effect on those around her.
She is generally playful and calm in terms of her day-to-day demeanor. She shows a great love for flowers and plants in general, and is quite appreciative of beautiful colors, having an extraordinary eye for shades that is commented on by others. She is educated in some classical literature, and happy to share her familiarity with others when the occasion seems appropriate. She likes being outdoors and doing things of an athletic nature, testing her impressive agility frequently. Despite this, she does not display a traditionally “girly” aesthetic or behavioral pattern. Her closet often contains many traditionally “girly” articles, all of which she repeatedly ignores unless assigned to use them, favoring utilitarian clothes and the tools of her trade. She shows interest in such things only with a sort of academic distance.
She is very distant to anyone that she is interacting with unless she feels intensely close to them. Until her death, she only displayed an increased level of affection to her surrogate mother and handler, Altena, and to her childhood friend and fellow assassin Kirika Yuumura. To everyone else, she can be polite in her mode of speech if a touch blunt, friendly and even somewhat warm in tone. However, there is always a gulf between she and they that most who speak to her with any length seem to recognize. She does have a somewhat infuriating habit of speaking cryptically, and seems to enjoy confusing and manipulating others when it is appropriate through selectively leaving out important details on whatever she is talking about, unless asked very specific questions.
Chloe displays little concern for propriety, personal property or ethics and morality in general. She is capable of inviting herself into another person's home with barely a knock on the door, and will take a thing that interests her if she feels like doing so. On several occasions she manipulates others through fear and selective misinformation to cause them to arrive at conclusions beneficial to her original purpose, and enjoys using proxies to do her bidding. We see this when she manipulated a corrupt chief of police to bring he and all of his cronies to the same location, using a warning of an assassination attempt, ensuring their deaths. Murder does not so much as cause her to bat an eyelash, and she oftentimes smiles and seems to be playing in the midst of doing so. It does not appear that she lacks an understanding of the consequences of her actions, but rather that she doesn't care about the ethics of them. When barging into Kirika and Mireille's house, she seems unsurprised and unperturbed that the person might prepare to defend themselves by sneaking towards their gun, and even to expect it. She acts as she wishes without regard for those consequences.
Chloe, however, is not inherently violent or aggressive in behavior. When meeting those who have recently come to blows with her, she will sit down and accept their hospitality with seemingly little concern for whether or not she might be attacked. Only when a violent action is performed towards her does she react with unnerving speed to deal with a threat. The only concept of an ethical nature she displays regularly is loyalty, which she shows towards her handler Altena unswervingly on every occasion that she is asked to demonstrate that loyalty. She is capable of extending her loyalty towards others beyond her handler, but her first loyalty is to Altena and Altena alone. As an extension of this, if she makes a promise to someone-so long as it does not interfere with those she has made to Altena-she is loathe to break those promises. For example, she spared the life of a target's bodyguard because of a promise she made to him before he died, even when they threatened her life. Any promises she makes, she takes seriously, regardless of how flippant they might sound when she makes them.
Towards those who are close to her, Chloe opens up considerably. She smiles freely and almost joyously. Her speech takes on an almost effervescent tone as she relates whatever new experiences she has had. Her loyalty towards these people causes her to look for ways to please or help them, and she will actively go out of her way to do whatever they ask of her. Initially, this behavior was only seen towards Altena, whom she treated as a mother figure and would run home to embrace and tell of her journeys after each assignment. Towards the end of her life, however, this type of attitude began to develop towards Kirika when the girl returned with Noir to their family home and Chloe tried to display a warmth towards her that she never had in anything but flashbacks and memories.
The most significant event in Chloe's life prior to her arrival at Atia is unquestionably her death at the hands of Kirika Yuumura, her childhood friend. The betrayal came with a small sense of peace at the end, but was largely a shock for her. It was the only time that she hesitated in the performance of her duties at all, as she did not wish to fight Kirika and had even spoken hopefully of the possibility of becoming friends with Mireille in the past. Though betrayed and hurt by the event of Kirika's attack, she could not bring herself to use her full capacities against her friend, and ultimately died at her hands.
» Appearance: Base image of her clothes when she arrives and her general appearance (before being aged to 18) - http://www.animegalleries.net/album/2586/img/203
Chloe is an athletic, short and thin wisp of a woman. She barely fills the loose robes and toga that she wears, her appearance being tailored by her more for acrobatic performance than it ever was for physical beauty. She keeps her hair, a dark red bordering on a purple, short cropped so as to avoid it ever getting in her way. It tends to flare outwards in an unruly fashion, framing her lightly tanned face and accenting her sharply angular Asian features and cold, blue eyes. She rarely smiles, and when she does, it is with a small and sardonic grin that seems more bemused by a thing in front of it very distantly than any sort of real warmth. Her emotions almost never actually touch her eyes, which watch the world around them with lidded disinterest, observing every last detail analytically in a long-practiced fashion to avoid actually seeming to be attentive.
A one inch, jet-black satin choker with the symbol of Atia affixed over the throat in silver, Thanatos' symbol hanging just below by a single chain.
She dresses lightly, favoring loose cloth robes of whites, off-whites and occasionally light spring colors. On rare occasions, she frames her hair with small blossoms of red or green that she finds around the island, ones reminiscent of the alpine rose she personally favors. Her clothes are functional, rather than beautiful, and drape over her in a fashion that protects her modesty sufficiently without impeding her movement, though they do show a considerable bit of her long, thin legs. Modestly endowed, she exudes an air of a person who is unconcerned with how most people think of her appearance. While she may own more attractive or beautiful articles, she uses them only rarely, and when she feels that it is useful to do so. She is confident in herself and walks swith an almost playful and youthful gait through life, almost at times seeming to skip from place to place.
If one is permitted to get close to Chloe without her flitting away with that faintly ethereal look on her face, the faint floral scents of her favored flowers linger on her person. She prefers natural odors rather than elaborate or manufactured ones. Up close, as well, one might notice that hidden at her waist are a pair of small, but very functional knives. She conceals them well, considering the nature of her loose garments, but seems unwilling to be without them under any circumstances.
» Suitability:
Chloe, despite being 16-17 through the course of the series, displays an unnerving capacity to operate largely on her own. While her ability to develop meaningful, and more importantly healthy, relationships is debatable at best, she largely operates throughout the series on her own. She will receive orders directly from Altena, which may include details of locations, targets and tasks that require completion, but these may include travel to extremely distant locations. Chloe performs these tasks with no entourage under almost all circumstances, and demonstrates a capacity to operate with relative impunity in foreign lands despite being a legal minor in many cases. She navigates to remote hideouts in the alps alone, travels to Taiwan and navigates its streets solo with ease despite the threat of Triad presence and active pursuit of foreign agents. She travels, when she has the freedom to do so, to Sicily alone and under her own initiative for personal reasons. While it is safe to assume that she is afforded financial resources and contacts by the Soldats organization and Altena to complete her missions, Chloe is rarely seen operating in the company of general Soldats agents, and seems perfectly capable of covering expenses and maintaining a daily life when on an extended mission. Her principle skills are in assassination, but her self-reliance under almost all circumstances demonstrates that she can operate on her own, however much she may prefer to have the personal guidance of her master Altena.
Chloe's lack of aggressive tendencies towards those who she is not specifically ordered to attack is seen throughout the series, and is a good sign that even though she is capable of cold-blooded murder, she is not wanton or disruptive in her normal behavior. The most pronounced occasion of this is seen in the assignment she personally concludes in the German Alps and Germany proper. When faced with a man pointing a gun at her head, she eschews combat with a man she is not assigned to kill on a promise to the old general that man had been bodyguard for. So long as she does not have orders, and is not actually threatened, she will not use lethal force save in very rare occasions. Without a handler, furthermore, she will have no reason to resume her assassination activities and will seek to employ herself, check for available ways to escape the island, and maintain herself until such time as she has either acclimated or found a way to contact her handler Altena again. It will be no different than for her to have received an extended mission, save that she will remember having died before at Kirika's hands, and know that her status is as one at-large and under her own authority until she can re-establish contact with Altena.
At no point in the series do we see Chloe actually have sex, but there is no reason to believe that she is incapable or actively unwilling to do so. Given her loyalty towards Kirika and Altena, however, the thought of losing her memories of either of these two people will be ample motivation in due course to force her into compliance with the normal behavior of he islands. She carried a fork around for half of the series that she stole from Kirika as a reminder of their first reunion. The idea of losing the memories she was so desperate to protect even in life would be too much for a character that demonstrated this kind of nostalgia. With all of this in mind, Chloe may be uncomfortable with sex initially, but will have no problems doing what she must to survive.
SAMPLES
» "amatomnes" First-Person Network Entry:
[It had been almost three days since she had arrived. Wandering the city had answered one or two of her questions in the fashion she had desired, but overhearing talk of these communicating devices had hinted at their value for interacting with others. Looking down at the strange article, Chloe fiddled with the settings carefully for a long moment before she deciphered the text-only setting. She had little to no interest in allowing anyone to see her face just yet, at least not until she had seen a few of theirs first. All that would appear on the screens for the public post were her words.]
I have taken a day or two to acclimate myself to this lovely city. The more that I see of its beauty, however, the more that it feels as if I have been placed in a gilded cage and afforded the finest of cuttle bones and seed to see to my care. It is an unnerving sensation to feel as if you are surrounded by bars that you cannot see. I think that I have managed at the least to understand this communication network, and thought perhaps that one of my fellow canaries might sing me a song.
It would be lovely if this song might tell the tale of what this place is. It is not that I mind what I think I will call a vacation today, but I cannot help but feel I have walked into a surreal nightmare, beautiful and horrible at once. The faint, uncomfortable pressure at my neck certainly adds an ominous tone to it all, I must say.
» "amatomneslogs" Third-Person Prose Entry:
Chloe's eyes fluttered open as a gasp escaped her lips. She clutched her right hand to her stomach and curled up, eyes going wide and lips quivering. In that split second, her emotional state was overwhelmed by the combined memories of pain, betrayal and the almost incomprehensible sensation of satisfaction. It all mingled with the last memories she had of the day, causing her to wince and huddle up protectively.
“Kirika... why...,” she murmured almost piteously before raising her hand back towards her face. To her shock, there was no blood there. The phantom pain of her wounds were the first sensations to disappear, causing her to become increasingly confused. She turned over on her back and leaned up, looking down at her stomach. There was an ugly scar there, just below her sternum, where a fork had been thrust deep into her chest. The wound was healed, and the cold shivers of death felt like a distant memory somehow. It had only been seconds since her heart had stopped and the pain of oxygen deprivation had claimed her last conscious thoughts of Altena and Kirika, but now it felt like her death had been miles away.
“I...I'm alive,” she whispered to herself in shock, the next sight beside her naked form being that of a fork. The very article of her demise was still on the bed, covered in her own blood. Kirika had left it behind, next to her when she'd died. The whole thing left her feeling confused, disoriented and almost a little violated. She touched her stomach and shook her head, eyes fluttering at the last quakes of an aftershock between her loins. Her mind went back to Kirika, to their kiss, and she wondered if perhaps she had been mistaken. Perhaps her death had been nothing but a horrific nightmare and the fork was just one of Kirika's poor attempts at a joke, and they had... finally...
That thought, the imagining of claiming the closeness she'd desired with Kirika for so long, made her blush deeply, curling up again and letting out a small giggle. She was smiling to herself with the delusional fantasy for a second or two before she really looked around at the room she found herself in. Something was wrong.
It was hard to put her finger on what was so off. The marble columns and the beautiful, aged stone masonry felt like the very place that she had lived for so many years, the place where she had died. Altena had always maintained such a lovely home, but what felt odd was the condition of the stone. The aging and weathering were not right, the marble too clean and pure. These were not ruins, but rather an active and vibrant palace not unlike her old home, but far more palatial. Then, there was the scar, and the fact that she could not clearly remember her ethereal lover. It started to dawn on her more and more that, however many things seemed similar to her old life, she was not where she should have been. If she looked out of the window of the room, she realized with mounting horror, the vineyards of her youth would not be waiting there. Altena would not be waving from the streets below. She was not in her home.
Brushing her purple hair from her face and shaking her head, Chloe willed herself into a state of emotional control. She could tell that she was naked, not that she had been that thoroughly dressed when she'd … when she'd died. She was now certain, between the scar and her jumbled memories that she had indeed died. The only thing she was wearing was the beautiful golden collar that she had been wearing that day. It felt different, somehow, but was an image that at least seemed similar to what she knew. It was almost a comforting presence, considering her situation, and she felt disinclined to even try and remove it just yet. She lifted the fork from her bed and noticed her clothes next to the bed. They were neatly folded, the tear in the midriff repaired and the bloodstains cleaned off. Two of her thin-bladed knives rested on top of them, possibly the most comforting sight she could have beheld at that moment. She was not unarmed in a strange place.
She looked at the fork again, curiously. Looking at the instrument of her own death, the gift she had gotten from Kirika so long ago, was surprisingly surreal. It was like watching a movie with herself as the actress. She leaned out her tongue and licked a bit of her own blood, surprised at how much like others' blood it tasted. There was nothing special to it. Noir, or not, she was nevertheless as mortal as any of those she had killed over the years. She shook her head and slowly got to her feet, slipping down from the bed and still clutching the utensil possessively.
One glance at the mirror told her that she was definitely somewhere different. She was certain that she had gained at least two or three inches in height. The changes in the motions of her legs amounted to that sort of a shift, giving her reason to make note that she would want to practice again, get used to the small changes so that the timing of her motions was as perfect as ever. She could never allow herself to become less than perfect, in case Altena found her in this strange place and needed her. She looked herself over, cocking her head and putting her free hand on her hips. “I... I think I've gotten older... how long has it been?” she whispered in faint wonder. She didn't look that different. She was still almost flat as a board, which she'd never minded much. Yet, it was obvious that her features had reached maturity now. It made her smirk a little before shaking her head and walking towards the window of the room. It was time to verify what she knew she would not see.
Outside, indeed, the vineyard was not visible. There was a small city in the distance below, and endless gardens. The smell of the sea air in the distance was not quite right. However familiar this place might have seemed, it was not her home, and some strange and potentially malevolent force had ripped her from the arms of her death at the hands of her would be lover, and had planted her here in this strange place. “Curioser... and curioser...,” she murmured softly, the stilled and calm features she wore like an eternal mask setting themselves once more in place as she looked like Alice through the looking glass into a strange, new world.
Amat Update - Goddess Favor April 2012
Date: 2012-05-13 12:24 pm (UTC)As a result of Atia's agreement to this, Chloe now worships the god of death, but is on a one week collar timer (instead of two). This means she is giving Atia more sex, as the goddess requests, and is more dependent upon others (something that apparently the goddess finds amusing).
A Note Regarding Chloe's Skill Level and Education
Date: 2012-05-14 12:56 pm (UTC)1) She is debatably one of the three best assassins in the world in her era. This is, admittedly, always a matter up for debate, but she is shown throwing knives with pin-point accuracy while she and her target are both in motion at ranges in the viscinity of thirty feet. This means that she is possesses an Olympian's agility, precision and dexterity (If you don't believe me, look up knife throwing mechanics. She barely falls within tolerances of believability in the series without some level of augmentation.). She, furthermore, must be physically very strong and enduring to throw as unerringly and repeatedly as she does, though likely not of Olympic caliber. She is depicted as personally assassinating trained killers of considerably greater pedigree, in full view of the target, who are older and more experienced than her.
She is, at the end of the day, only human and so is limited by the physical limits of an olympic gymnast, meaning that non-humans will possibly have an easier time (even depowered) overwhelming her depending on their physique. However, if she is being tested in terms of her assassination skills, she is cruelly, brutally efficient. She may be surrounded by equally trained and deadly people, but within her canon, she should be assumed to be one of the most deadly killers alive.
2) She is educated, sufficiently to recognize quotes from classical literature without flinching or pausing. She travels to numerous nations without assistance, blends into multiple levels of society with little incident, and operates largely on her own. To operate as easily as she does, without any apparent or obvious direct handling (such as Kirika receives from Mireille, or Mireille receives through a bevvy of contacts), Chloe requires a fairly high level of classical education, along with a collection of practical skills needed for operating in life mostly independently. Because she shows no sign of formal schooling, my choice has been to treat her training as that of private tutelage. Some of her emotionally stunted elements match someone pedigreed, trained constantly throughout their youth and groomed for a specific position. This means, degree in hand or no, Chloe will behave at times like a person with roughly the equivalent of an Associates Degree or Bachelors of Letters. She has a vivid, well-developed memory demonstrated in the series, strong enough to recall exceptional detail from her younger years, meaning that recalling the wide assortment of facts she has studied is well within her limits. Having known people so trained in life, I can verify that a person with this level of educational background at her age is definitively possible, especially with the emotionally stunted raising she appears to have had at Altena's hands.
Her areas of expertise, matching the little we see of her, should generally fall into "Letters." Law, Philosophy, Politics, Geography, History, Classical Literature, minimal Psychology and basic training in day to day life will be the sorts of topics people will see her speak with confidence in. (They are also skill sets that assist in some of the highly political targets she is sent to kill.)
She is no brain surgeon, but she is also not an uneducated child that deserves a pat on the head whenever she speaks. Admittedly, many characters have little reason to realize this, and her obvious youth in both voice, emotional maturity, personality and looks may cause characters to think she is just a kid. The reality, however, is that while she is no child genius, one is better to assume that she is an educated and pro-active member of society, and one more than capable of making philosophically-sound (if demented) choices of her own.
3) "Supernatural Powers" - The description of the "Noir," particularly towards the end of the series, implies heavily that the post is a near mystical one, whose capacities make the maidens sharing the title nearly unassailable weapons of vengeance for the lowest of classes, agents of a semi-divine wrath condemned for their nature but an ameliorated evil.
What this actually means is never described, but rather implied. "Better than the best" is one way of thinking of it. I have always taken the attitude towards the "Noir" title that it is likely mostly superstition and reputation that supply the 'power' of the title, and that no inherent supernatural powers exist. The three girls defy the edges of what is normally considered suspension of disbelief for an assassin's skills, but mostly in the Hollywood "I'm better than you" sort of way. There is no reason to believe that Chloe could or would possess powers beyond that of a top-tier human assassin. There is even reason to suspect that she is aware that no 'real' power lies behind the title and that she cares little, serving only out of loyalty to Altena and in fascination with her intended partner Kirika.
AMAT UPDATE - October 2012
Date: 2012-10-18 11:34 pm (UTC)-As of the mini-event Festival of Thanatos, Chloe is publicly known as the Priestess of Thanatos. Those members of the cult of Atia who participate in Thanatos' worship as acolytes defer to her, and she is frequently seen serving as a priestess formally at the temple. She does still hold a side job as a florist in Amaranth for the time being, especially as the needs for a priestess are not always constant in the city.
Collar Update
As of Oct 15, when returning from the dead, her collar has changed to a one inch, jet-black satin choker with the symbol of Atia affixed over the throat in silver, Thanatos' symbol hanging just below by a single chain.
Sexual Addiction and Chloe - TW Psych issues
Date: 2012-12-13 07:08 pm (UTC)Chloe's behavior began to show signs of significant change during the April goddess favor she received from Atia. In attempting to cope with her existence, and out of desire to feel 'important' again, she sought out Thanatos' council and began to worship him in May. As part of this, however, she found herself under a 1 week timer for her collar, increasing her sexual 'needs' two-fold. Chloe managed to maintain relative stability in terms of her collar behavior up until the May event. Demeter's battle with Atia caused frequent, random tightenings of the collar, creating a second situation where Chloe was forced to have sex with near complete strangers in the viscinity of ten or eleven times in a week.
By some arguments, Chloe snapped. It was never something she openly discussed with anyone, but the already debatably mentally stable girl cracked a little under the pressure. Up until this point, she had fulfilled her bargain with Atia and openly promised to try and subsist as a loyal denizen of the island in return for her continued life, and a 'place' on the island. Atia demanded more, and during almost every cursed period, she continued to demand more and more and more. Chloe's collar periodically would tighten during cursed periods to three days, and while she might not have suffered an outright penalty for dying because of her worship of Thanatos, she increasingly found herself the target of ever more aggressive manipulations and sexual depredations by Atia. By May, it was more strain than she could handle mentally, and so she cracked and began to increasingly display tendencies that fall in line with what is currently termed "Sexual Addiction."
Chloe's subsequent months, particularly those in the mid to late Summer along with the 'god involvement' in September and her rape by Demeter, saw this behavioral pattern increase drastically and alarmingly. While Chloe always displayed predatory leanings, particularly with the TARDIS after their dream curse in March, most of her behavior was kept 'relatively' controlled and only emerged during mentally-altering curses or Parsee's empowered hex. During, the summer however, she began to display an almost desperate need for sex on a regular, constant basis. Characters such as Larxene and Erika Karisawa contributed to the behavior (The former by 'pacifying her' almost daily starting in the mid-summer to keep her from acting out 'too much,' and the latter because of her own goddess favor needs), but perhaps the most marked contributor was Chloe's simple and occasionally exorbitant need to have sex in order to keep breathing. At four days, she would become uncomfortable and so developed a habit of minimally having sex every three days. After a while, and particularly after feeling her collar tighten almost exhaustingly, it became so much easier just to have sex daily, even multiple times in the day.
By October and November, this behavior was largely compulsive. Chloe was capable of avoiding outright predatory behavior most of the time, but her already murderous impulses as an amoral assassin were being 'sated' through that predatory habit when it was invoked. Predatory leanings, as a result, had become increasingly difficult for her to avoid. The slightest offer and the possibility that she could 'get away with it' would lead to her acting out. The best example of her doing so pro-actively was found in situations such as Rose Hathaway, Cersei Lannister or the Rain Curse of November, all situations where someone else had a 'need' or a curse that she could feel she was fulfilling on their behalf, and generally which might be legally excused if not morally condoned.
While Chloe "Picked her targets well" as a rule, this was becoming an increasingly dicey facet of her in terms of her behavior. Regular satiation by Larxene only went so far, and some of the extremes she was forced to experience were having an increasing impact on her mental state. She was growing jaded and acting out, even by Atian standards, quite regularly.
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As of November, it is fairly safe to say that Chloe exhibits most of what are considered to be symptoms of Sexual Addiction, Hypersexuality or Nymphomania:
1. Recurrent failure (pattern) to resist impulses to engage in acts of sex.
2. Frequently engaging in those behaviors to a greater extent or over a longer period of time than intended.
3. Persistent desire or unsuccessful efforts to stop, reduce, or control those behaviors.
4. Inordinate amount of time spent in obtaining sex, being sexual, or recovering from sexual experience.
5. Preoccupation with the behavior or preparatory activities.
6. Frequently engaging in sexual behavior when expected to fulfill occupational, academic, domestic, or social obligations.
7. Continuation of the behavior despite knowledge of having a persistent or recurrent social, academic, financial, psychological, or physical problem that is caused or exacerbated by the behavior.
8. Need to increase the intensity, frequency, number, or risk of behaviors to achieve the desired effect, or diminished effect with continued behaviors at the same level of intensity, frequency, number, or risk.
9. Giving up or limiting social, occupational, or recreational activities because of the behavior.
10. Resorting to distress, anxiety, restlessness, or violence if unable to engage in the behavior at times relating to SRD (Sexual Rage Disorder).
Arguably, many collared residents of Atia display some of these tendencies. By some tokens, #10 is considered by some to be something of a survival technique by many who are forced to dwell on Atia. Chloe, however, displays tendencies that are seen in a smaller subset of characters on the island who have become over-sexualized to a point where their ability to function in regular society is partially impeded. Chloe still can hold a job and has the professionalism needed to avoid its collapse. She is also capable of choosing her targets well enough that, as of mid-December 2012 she has not been incarcerated. However, her behavior has already reached criminal levels on several occasions.
Whether or not Chloe can resolve these psychological issues remains to be seen, and it is also worth noting that her personality disorder does not stem as much from childhood issues as it does in the classic cases in the real world. However, it is almost certainly something that will have to be dealt with at some point. The partial mental-destabilization of having acquired some of Hermione Granger's memories temporarily has only partially calmed her. It allows her to recognize something is wrong.
She does not, however, know how to stop or if she even wants to.
Tattoo - February 2014
Date: 2014-01-31 09:18 pm (UTC)Update Due to Character Deaths/Memory Loss
Date: 2014-07-16 04:09 am (UTC)Mentally, she can cope with these changes if they happen, as to her a lot of the rest of her world wasn't important, but increasingly her memories of the Soldats are bereft of the context in the world outside of them that they operated in. She knows 'what' she was, but not 'why' she was, other than Altena's teachings. Increasingly, her awareness has caused her to value her remaining life on the island intensely, as she cannot determine anything that she could give up rather than lose all of her memories of her former life.
Deaths 9 & 10 will be crossed when they come up, and much more likely to have lasting effects on her psyche.
Death 8 - April 5, 2015. Due to access to an item of barely sufficient value, Chloe has staved off the last possible memory loss/major detriment she can defend against.
Update - April 2015
Date: 2015-04-10 04:28 pm (UTC)As of the Powered Event in April 2015, Chloe now considers herself in direct opposition to any god on the island that is not Thanatos. She remains loyal to him, as much because she has taken an oath as because she still views herself to be the "Servant of Death." It is a loyalty to an ideal that is encompassed her, by him. The others, however, she considers herself an active enemy towards and is willing to plot with others against them. She remains protective of the natives and considers herself to identify more with them than most collared, however.
The causes precipitating this have been a slow build and have included a variety of issues:
-The Loss of several key relationships over the years: Parsee Mizuhashi, Hermione Granger, Erika Karisawa, Mokou no Fujiwara, Lightning Farron, The TARDIS, Tsubaki Kasugano, Esther Blanchette and Yuugi Hoshigama being probably the most significant.
-The Rape and murder of both herself and Hermione at the hands of Charybdis, one of Poseidon's daughters during and after the war, and his callous reactions to the matter both before and after their vengeance.
--The deeply held belief associated with the above that Hermione is being held prisoner by Poseidon (true or not)
-A social structure on the island which she believes leads people to view rape as occasionally a positive alternative to letting a loved one die. While she does not exonerate herself from raping Mokou to save her life, she views the island's twisted morals to be as much Atia's fault as the fault of those on the island.
-Psychological therapy after the departure of Larxene and both public and private recognition that she had allowed herself to 'serve' Atia in ways that were morally bankrupt, and ways which Atia appeared to support.
-Observing the persistent psychological harm caused by the island's conditions to people she cares about and a large collection of conversations.
-Countless actions by the various gods (sans Harmonia and Thanatos) that she deemed to be petty, childish and endangering not only to the collared, but also to the natives they claimed to love.
--Demeter's feud with Atia.
--Ares' goading of Poseidon and Demeter to war.
--Poseidon's poisoning of the waters with plague.
--Atia's repeated permitting of free power usage to the harm of the citizens.
--Reneging on contracts with the collared by Atia and forcing her siblings to reneg as well.
-With Parsee's departure, Chloe no longer feels the obligation to avoid rocking the boat for the sake of her mate. The Youkai's preference to avoid conflict gone now, Chloe joins the ranks of those who actively oppose Atia, though she does not do so in public address too strongly, as she doubts many would trust her.
Not that she really blames them.