Application for Empatheias

[wandersong]

⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Wighty
Contact: Holsety
Age: 29
Current Characters: None


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Bard / Kiwi
Age: For this game, I'm going to say 19.
Canon: Wandersong
Canon Point: After the End Credits.

Background:
Why is there no plot summary in the wiki for this game. OK, major spoilers incoming!

Alrighty, really quick: the Bard is the main protagonist of this game, and it begins with an odd dream in which a spirit by the name of Eyala tests the Bard to see if they are worthy to wield the sword of the hero. The Bard can barely pick up the sword and when faced with a monster, immediately drops it. Eyala sadly informs the Bard that they are not the chosen one. She also tells the Bard that the world is about to end. Ages and ages ago, the goddess Eya sang the world into creation, but it's beginning to run down. She is about to sing her song again and create a new world, resulting in the destruction of this one. She informs the Bard that there's not much they can do, upon which, the Bard immediately wakes up. It is later revealed that everyone across the world had this dream simultaneously, and that the hero Eyala discovered was a girl by the name of Audrey Redheart.

The Bard awakens in their own home in a little house in a town called Langtree. It's a bright beautiful sunny day - except ghosts have infested their village. The villagers are terrified, and the Bard is unable to communicate with them. They are able to banish the ghosts through their songs, however. The mayor of the village asks the Bard to figure out what's going on and tells them to visit the guardian of Langtree, the Overseer. To find the Overseer, the Bard has to learn a special song that allows them access into the spirit world.

Upon entering the Spirit World, the Bard runs into Eyala again, who reaffirms what she had said earlier. The Bard insists that they will help save the world even if they are not the hero, upon which Eyala informs them they need to learn the Earthsong from each of the Overseers. If the Bard can sing the Earthsong, the world will be saved. The complication, however, is that the Earthsong requires all living beings in the world to be in total harmony and to sing of one accord. This is an impossible feat.

The Overseer of this part of the spirit world, the Dream King, refuses to teach the Bard his part of the Earthsong. It's revealed later that passing on the Earthsong would result in the Dream King's death, and he just doesn't really think it's going to work, anyway. The Bard is angry, but the Dream King sends him back. The one thing the Dream King actually does is teach the Bard how to understand the language of spirits, which results in the Bard learning that the ghosts are actually just departed loved ones of the people of Langtree, here to spend the few days of the world's existence with their loved ones. Problem resolved!

Skulking in the background of all this, a young witch named Miriam realizes that the Bard might be able to help with the whole 'world destruction' thing, and the Bard joins forces with her to set off a journey to meet all the Overseers, learn the Earthsong, and help the chosen hero save the world.

Skipping a lot of details, the Bard visits each Overseer once by one and learns pieces of the Earthsong from each of them while helping out the various cities they enter with their problems. This goes perfectly smoothly until they meet the Queen of Order aaaaaaaaaaand... Audrey Redheart shows up with Eyala and murders her. Whoops. Turns out, the Hero's job is not to save the world! The Hero's job is to kill all of the Overseers and hasten the world's end because the slow dying of the world is actually a really bad thing. The Overseers will turn into terrible monsters if left unchecked and the creatures of the spirit world will spill over, go insane, and just overall cause really bad things to happen. Miriam and the Bard have already seen some evidence of this, but they're shocked and horrified and refuse to accept it. Eyala seems regretful, but she secretly informs the Bard that she still thinks they can do it and they should continue to pursue the Earthsong.

In the meantime, Audrey Redheart smacks Miriam and the Bard around a little before taking off. The Bard is able to recover a piece of the Earthsong from the remnants of the Overseer, but... if all the Overseers die, the world will immediately end.

We next pick up with the Bard back in their home city of Chismest, which is an extremely depressing factory town that tries to produce happiness but only produces capitalist-induced misery instead. The Bard sulks and wallows in their misery for some time, but... with the help of Miriam, their mom, and the people around them, they eventually regain their spirits. They'll just have to save the world without the help of the Hero.

And so they continue. Alongside Miriam, they slog through a few more Overseers and cities - Audrey beats them every time and murders the Overseer. The Bard is left to pick up the remnants of the Earthsong. The Dream King makes another appearance, running away from Audrey, and continues to refuse to pass down his piece. The Bard and Miriam are helping the people around them and listening to their wishes and improving their lives, but overall, they're definitely losing.

Near the end, Miriam is wounded and has to return home to recover. The Bard makes the final journey to the 'final' Overseer alone... and due to a series of unfortunate events, ends up trapped with Audrey in a cave. The last Overseer has entered the physical world and has turned into a full out monster, Audrey has lost her hero's sword, and they are both certain they are doomed. At this point, Audrey betrays some faint hesitation about her task and the Bard makes her promise that she will let them make an attempt to help this Overseer before she kills it. Having formerly made some animal friends, the Bard is able to escape with their help and ends up saving Audrey from the pit as well. They recover her sword in the process.

Not so surprisingly, as the Bard is on the verge of healing the Overseer and getting its song, Audrey grabs her sword and murders it, laughing at the Bard as she does. The Bard is horrified.

The last Overseer to remain is the Dream King, who has returned to his home in Langtree. Miriam regroups with the Bard, after admitting that she had left not because she was injured, but because she was afraid. And not because she was afraid of the end of the world, but because... she had never been close to any person before. Miriam and the Bard have a heart to heart about the future, their feelings and emotions, their friendship, and many other things. The Bard confesses that they aren't nearly as optimistic and joyful as they appear, too, but they have to push on, nonetheless. They have to save the world no matter what, because it is worth saving.

Back in Langtree, it is obvious that the world is on the verge of destruction. Things are rumbling and collapsing and overall, it's a bad time. Miriam and the Bard rush back towards the Dream King's castle, which is now in their world because the spirit world has completely collapsed. At the very end of all things, the Dream King still refuses to give them the Earthsong - he then loses control and transforms into a monster.

Then Audrey shows up.

The final battle sees the Bard, the Miriam, and the monstrous Dream King in an all-out battle against Audrey. Whether or not the Dream King can consciously control his actions at this point, he seems to recognize that Audrey is the one intent on killing him. The Bard uses his song to guide the Dream King's attacks, and Miriam attempts to stop Audrey with her magic and steal her sword. After a long battle, she finally succeeds and then stuns Audrey.

Together, Miriam and the Bard plead with Audrey to let them try it their way... And once again, she seems to be on the verge of agreement... But just as Miriam lets her guard down, Audrey rushes her, grabs her sword, and bisects the Dream King in one fluid motion. She refuses to let anybody else take her glory. She is the hero, and this is what the hero was meant to do. Everything that Miriam and the Bard want is utterly pointless, and she would rather the world be destroyed than to not be the hero.

The world ends.

Then, reverberating inside the Bard, come the six pieces of the Earthsong... except... they never learned the Dream King's portion... But -- from all around the world, from each of the cities they visited, from every individual they met and every person they helped, comes a new, different song. A song that speaks the will of all life on Earth that was made possibly solely because the Bard and Miriam met so many people and put their hearts at ease. This new song, which is not the Earthsong, sings out and as the new universe forms around them, their own world is seamlessly interwoven into Eya's new song. The goddess has created a new world, but the Bard was able to sing their own world's song in perfect harmony to incorporate it into her new creation.

At the end of it all, it is seen that each of the Overseers are replaced by the spirits who attended them, that everyone all around the world has been made into a better person due to Miriam and the Bard's influence, and that Eyala is very, very pleased.

The Bard goes home and goes to bed.

Personality:

The number one personality trait of the Bard is that they are ♪ extremely and obnoxiously cheerful ♪ and they refuse to stop singing everything. No matter what's happening, the Bard will sing in a (somewhat) appropriate tone. In situations where they are scared or alone, they will sing low, minor notes. In situations where they are bursting with excitement, they'll sing at the top of their lungs. In casual every day conversations, they will randomly sing out their responses instead of speaking them, and they prefer their most emphatic declarations to be in meter and verse. It is, as Miriam and many other characters remark, Extremely Annoying! However, although the Bard never actually addresses their complaints, it is quite clear that they couldn't care less. Singing is like breathing to them.

From the outside, then, the Bard is easily construed as an overwhelmingly optimistic and positive person. They are relentless about befriending everyone they come across, inquiring about their problems, and trying to help in whatever way they can. Even though they were told by Eyala that they were not the chosen hero, they are still emphatic about saving the world and in the process, saving as many people as they can. Not being the chosen hero doesn't mean that they are helpless - as long as they have the ability and the means, they will be absolutely focused on doing whatever they possibly can. Very frequently, Miriam has to drag the Bard away, telling them that there is no point in solving people's problems because the world is ending in like, two days! From this, it can also be gathered that the Bard is not very good at prioritizing and instead, focuses more on the immediate and the day-to-day.

Given what a genuinely good person they are, the Bard frequently assumes the best of all people. At one point, the Bard says, '[she's] not evil, just misunderstood!' and Miriam dryly responds 'from you, that means the same thing.' In a conflict between two warring nations, they are certain that the monarchs will listen to reason as soon as they are able to have a chance to speak with them. This does not turn out to be the case, even when the Bard channels the spirit of a dead princess and sings her desires to her mother. Both monarchs refuse absolutely, and one has the Bard thrown in jail. Even so, the Bard continues to believe that they will eventually come around, and well... that relentless force just can't be denied. Eventually, when the Bard sings with the will of all people in their two kingdoms, they put away their pride and concede that they have been acting foolishly. This doesn't always work out! Over and over, the Bard believes that Audrey will be capable of change and will help them in their efforts to genuinely save the world. And over and over, Audrey demonstrates that she has no interest whatsoever but in being the hero and carrying out the duties of the hero. Even at the very last, they are betrayed. The Bard just can't help but give second, third, infinite chances to everyone they meet, no matter what bad things they've done.

Despite all this, the Bard carries within themselves a bit of an inferiority complex and a deep melancholy. When they realize what the true role of the hero is, they become genuinely severely depressed - their songs reflect their mood, transitioning into a barely audible minor key. For a time, they believe there is nothing they can do whatsoever, and everything is hopeless. It takes a great deal of effort on Miriam's part before they come around again and recommit themselves to the fight. Throughout their journey, the Bard is questioned several times as to how they can possibly accomplish anything. The only thing they can do is sing. The Bard themself has no answer to this, and admits once or twice that really, in truth, they aren't a hero at all... They can't fight, they can't use magic, they can't do anything cool. All they do is sing.

In the last few heart-to-heart talks with Miriam, the Bard concedes that their outward show of emotions doesn't always reflect what's going on underneath. They like to share good feelings. It makes people feel good. It makes people happy. It makes them feel like they're being helped. But... they don't share the bad ones. They're in turmoil, they do have doubt, they do sometimes have low self-esteem... it doesn't come easily to them. But they don't share those things because they don't want anyone to think that they have problems, too. In response, Miriam tells them it makes her feel bad that the Bard doesn't share the bad things! It's really hard to be with someone who's pretending to be perfect! This is probably the first time that the Bard considers... that maybe, sometimes, it's worth sharing some of the bad things, too. They concede that they should work on it. Given that this is close to the end of the world, though, there isn't much time to expand on this. It remains to be seen whether or not the Bard will be willing to open up about their negative thoughts.

In the end, the Bard is just a person like any other, with a variety of complex emotions, feelings, and depth. They simply choose to portray only the positive things - which makes them come across as overly sappy and naive, but that's the image they want others to see. There's just no reason for anyone to see their negative side.

Abilities:

The Bard can sing!

The singing can accomplish a large number of things. Although it's not explicitly magical in the game, it is explained that music was the precursor to magic, so it seems as if some of the abilities of the Bard are due to the general powers of music rather than their individual efforts. It's not entirely clear. The Bard is certainly a special conduit for music, too, as nobody else in the world is able to channel the will of others through singing.

*Miscellaneous random effects on the background, like temporary color changes
*Ability to befriend all animals
*Ability to make plants grow
*Ability to make things levitate
*Ability to create a shield against magical attacks and spirits
*Ability to communicate with spirits
*Ability to channel the words and thoughts of spirits
*Ability to channel the words and thoughts of whole populations of people, as long as they desire the same thing.
*When in conjunction with magic, ability to make surfaces bouncy, sticky or translucent.

Alignment: Daimonia. Joy, cheer, and overwhelming optimism are the general emotions associated with the Bard.

Other: The Bard, if it wasn't clear, is nonbinary but will respond to all pronouns. They will also respond to all names, will give their name as Bard or the Bard, but if people press, they will say their birth name was Kiwi.


⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉

General Sample: Here is a sample of the Bard in normal interactions.

Emotion Sample: Here is a sample of an emotional effect the Bard produces.


Questions: None, thanks!