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fiteclubAPPLICATION
Player Name: July
Plurk Handle: JulyFlame
Player Status: New Player!
Other characters: NA
Character Name: Anita Fite, Empress
Fandom: DC Comics, Preboot (Specifically, Young Justice)
Character Journal: fiteclub
If canon, canon point: Young Justice, after the events of #55, but before Graduation Day
PB: Comics icons.
Setting Background: OU.
History: DC Wikia on Anita, Wikipedia on Anita Between the two they're mostly accurate.
Personality:
The biggest thing about Anita Fite is told to us by both her name and her costumed identity of Empress: she's got a strong personality and isn't afraid of proving it. Her identity as Empress is outed by her father calling her that in plain clothes in front of the whole team. Her dad's excuse is to say it's because of her bossy personality, which is shown quickly in her attempt to play it off.
Through the run of Young Justice once she's introduced, Anita this in multiple scenarios, running from her relatively low-key rivalry with former heroine Cissie and refusing to back down despite the other girl being her original inspiration to demanding that warder and gateway guardian of death Secret spit her father's soul back up, and jumping in to try and retrieve him without hesitation when told no. She also shows in multiple cases that she isn't concerned or worried about challenging, refusing, or giving orders to adults, even when they're arguably in a better position of strength or authority.
That said, Anita isn't just a forceful personality, and shows a willingness to go with the flow that usually isn't expected of characters that are characterized as bossy. Once Anita joins the YJ team, she often rolls with whatever insane thing is happening with the team at the time, whether it's playing baseball against a race of advanced alien conquerors, accidentally jumping through time and space to deal with a world ending threat, or half the team arguing over a vote to be the next leader, with only checking if this sort of ridiculous thing is the norm when she first joins.
Her willingness to go with things even results in what's arguably one of the most unorthodox relationships in the series, initially saying yes to a date with Lil Lobo when the other members of the team encourage the aforementioned Top Teen into asking her on a date and that Anita was also interested in him.
Overall, she shows multiple times that she's made the conscious decision in the context of most of her time with Young Justice to be a team player and learn how to refine her skills, rather than try to take over or boss others around in the context of the team itself.
Anita's also self sufficient and independent at a young age, and not because she was forced to be or had to fight for it, but because it was encouraged and built up by her family. After her mother's death, she was sent to live with her grandmother in the bayou, to grow out of the angry behavior she directed at her father and to be able to stay safe. Here, she learned a variety of skills from her grandmother, first and foremost vodoun.
Anita's father is shown multiple times to trust in his daughter's judgment and ability to take care of herself, even before letting her know that he knew her secret identity as 'Empress'. Anita is allowed to work her way cross country with a minimal amount of supervision in order to tag along with the other girls to meet the cast of their favorite TV show (it's unclear whether Bonnie King-Jones, the chaperone, was aware of Anita's plan to join them, and only steps in when one of the adult actors is making advances on the teenager), join Young Justice without argument against ability or age (unlike many of the others with parents or guardians in the know), and allows her to have a role in the overall war effort against the Imperix threat against Earth.
Last but not least, she ends up taking care of her own parents (brought to life again as infants) with help from her godfather Ishido Maad.
In comparison to the early days of the YJ team and most of its members' first steps into the superhero life, when Anita first shows up, her overall sense of morality includes plenty of greys in it. Despite this, she doesn't doubt herself over the question of good and evil or where her actions fall into that spectrum all that much, something in direct contrast to plenty of heroes, especially the younger ones.
Anita sees the most on-page time in direct conversation or linked to other members of Young Justice who tend to fall into those shades of grey: Cissie, who left behind her superhero career because being afraid of going too far, Secret, who actively wrestles with her role as a warder and whether or not she is evil for it, and Lobo, who is Lobo.
This can also be seen in the background for her abilities: her patron loa, Oya, besides being the goddess of wind, fire, thunderbolt and female power, is also the guardian of gates of death. For teenagers, death is by default considered a bad thing, but for Anita, it is a plays a big role in her faith between her patron goddess and the use of sacrifices in vodoun rituals.
Finally, compared to nearly all of the other members of the team (excepting Lobo), Anita is far more willing to resort to more permanent types of violence, such as stabbing both of her blades through a werewolf's chest when overhearing his plan to ruin Cissie's life for revenge, and threaten to kill said werewolf without compunction if he carries his plan out anyways, or refuse to say that he will not. She even goes so far as to try and kill Baron Agua Sin Gaaz, her grandfather, in revenge for his killing of her parents, though she doesn't succeed (partially due to being overpowered, but mostly because Cissie's mom shot him through the heart).
Canon Powers:
Magic, specifically, vodoun: Anita's primary source of powers comes from the Haitain vodoun she learned from her mother and then grandmother. Anita's biggest jump in magical ability came at the death of her grandmother and the passing on of her sword baton. In the context of Young Justice, through the performance of spells and rituals (usually with accompanying sacrifices and gifts to the loa) Anita can request specific blessings, receive answers, and even perform curses with aid from the spirits.
*Teleportation: Anita's most commonly used and performed magic through the series, she developed the ability to use magic to teleport with her grandmother's death and passing on of the Emperor's Baton, a family heirloom. While she can use it frequently in combat, it is shown that longer distances or even bringing someone alongside with her temporarily weakens her and requires a short recovery time before she can do anything else.
Anti-Life Equation Fragment: The fragment of the anti-life equation in Anita's head gives her the ability to telepathically command other sapient beings with simple voiced orders for a very short period of time. While she can stop someone in their tracks or tell them to sit, it lasts for roughly a minute, if not less, and cannot force people to do something against their best interest for surviving. The stronger a being's personal will power, the quicker it wears off, and if their mind is not developed enough and lacks in enough self awareness, the commands will not succeed. If Anita is distracted in the time that the command is in effect, it will immediately wear off.
Freebie Powers: Blessed Athleticism: Blessed before birth by Oya, Anita's naturally athletic and physically talented, which makes picking up physical skills much easier for her, as well as putting her at near peak human condition.
Power Selection: Native Superpowers
Game Powers:
Voduon Magic: In the context of Wilderlands, and its magic system, I'd like to retain Anita's sacrifice/ritual setup, wherein for specific requests, questions, curses, or blessings she is asking the spirits (in this case largely the local ones, assuming the loa are not available), she performs a sacrifice in turn. Most of Anita's magical skills do not offer immediate, tangible 'big' benefits, and would need to be done when camped for the night or during an extended stay, compared to on the go.
The rough 'exchange' rate we see is the following-
One question with an easily and directly defined (who/what/where/when/why) answer = one chickenor similarly sized bird or small animal that was alive until it was used for the ritual. (Any questions asked through ritual involving game or player plots will be okayed first prior to use.) Anita and company will have to become very good at capturing wild fowl and such in order to do this one outside of areas one can obtain easily purchased live birds.
One blessing (lifelong, and performed on an unborn child, would probably be much higher in 'cost' for someone older for something similar) = At least one large pan of blood, so presumably a goat or similarly sized creature.
Anything much more 'stronger' than that would be either too expensive and/or morally prohibitive. Playing with life in a negative manner that is against the natural order of life and death displeases the loa (and probably every other spirit concerned about life and/or death) and requires a higher and higher cost- up to and including human lives- in order to undertake. This does not imply any level of success is guaranteed.
Magical teleportation: Keeping it in line with the power nerfing rules, Anita's ability to teleport will be brought down to 'line of sight' and with a short cooldown, and if she attempts to bring someone along with her, doing so will temporarily exhaust her and prevent her from immediately acting again, and longer to teleport once more. This is still magic based,
Command: Due to the fragment of the Anti-Life Equation in her head, Anita can give very short commands that temporarily override the recipient's willpower for a minute's time or less. This doesn't work on the extremely strongwilled or people who have trained their minds against being able to be taken over, or on babies or the nonsapient. Additionally, it can only work on living beings. She cannot get fully distracted, or it will break. If there are any Big Bads out there in the game looking for the Anti-Life Equation or similar, and have methods of discovering it, the fragment will also effectively act as a homing beacon.
Non-Powered Abilities:
Athleticism: Anita's athleticism was blessed to her by birth, and it's something that has developed and grown since she was old enough to move under her own power, further trained under her grandmother, and since continuously developed and honed by Anita, especially since she joined Young Justice. As a result, Anita's at roughly peak human abilities, with high hand eye coordination and dexterity.
Martial arts- Anita is trained in the use of not only unarmed combat with practice, but in the use of her Emperor's Baton, which is a short stick until she pulls it apart into two separate long hilted short swords. She is very skilled at slicing, dicing, and even stabbing with them.
Wilderness survival: From roughly age five until some time after she turned thirteen, Anita lived in a bayou with limited electricity and running water, and a lot of alligators and venomous snakes slithering around and a grandmother very invested in her survival. As a result, Anita knows to take care of herself and others in places crawling with dangerous wildlife.
First Aid Skills: In Anita's very first appearance as Empress, she comes across a confused and unwell Wonder Girl, with a venomous bite on her leg. Anita cords the leg off to restrict blood flow, cuts an 'x' on the bitten area, and successfully sucks the venom out before leaving Wonder Girl in a safe place to be found and rescued. (This is not actually good or safe medical advice, but in the context of popular culture it is shown to work and be effective). Between her grandmother and father, it's likely they made sure she had a good handle on this for her own self preservation.
Music: Anita's skilled enough at playing the piano and singing to be able to swing working from one side of the country to the other and back in an airliner's in-flight piano bar. Even with some connections on her dad's end, she still would need the skills to back it up.
Setting/Suitability: While magic is very present in the DC Universe, at the same time it's a bizarre sidestep for mystical characters on a planet that regularly experiences alien invasions and science running amok. As a result, the magical community on Earth often ends up doing weird mishmash team-ups whenever a magical crisis ensues because they're so fewer in number compared to any other source of abilities. As a result, mystical heroes (and villains) tend to end up learning more outside of their usual mode of magic, and Anita will adapt and learn- the mystical side of the world and invoking spirits runs in her blood, and she spent most of her childhood surrounded by nature.
With the loss of Slobo, beginning to wear thin from doing the superhero thing and raise her parents, and the final climax of everything to do with Greta, Anita is beginning to wonder if she's actually able to do the superheroing as a full thing, or if she even wants to. She's seen a lot more of mortality and weakness in the last few months than she'd have liked to, but she's not quite at the cusp of hanging up the uniform (at least at this canon point). At this point, she's suffering from emotional burnout and mental fatigue.
An epic quest with a mostly straightforward goal outside of her experience and normal comfort zone will give her something to focus on and heal with, especially with a group to do this with.
SAMPLES
Prose Sample:
Anita at the Test Drive
Network Sample:
[Very funny, this. At fifteen, she feels like she probably shouldn't have an inner child yet, but if watching from afar during the whole Sins of Youth taught her anything, it was that even if you didn't have an inner child young enough for what they're aiming they could still make one from scratch.
And well, if a spirit wants her to talk to her younger self and pass on what she's learned, who is she to say no or try to fight it in this case?
The little girl on the mirror's surface is watching her with a silent intensity that Anita can remember directing at her dad, except with an added anger only a bit older than the unaware child she's looking at.]
Mon...
[Anita inhales, and starts again.]
Don't let anything get in the way of family. Not just Daddy, or Mama, or Grandmere, but Uncle Ish, too. The people you're gonna meet. Blood might be blood, but it isn't the only thing when it comes to family. There's somebody out there who's gonn' try an' claim blood, but it doesn't mean we gotta accept it.
Actions matter, not just what loa we are guided by and ask for help from. Intent too.
Friends can be so much more than just friends, little Empress.
[And, thinking back to her time at her grandmother's, what helped the most, she smiles.]
Dancing helps, too.
Additional info:
I'd like to bring Anita into the game carrying her dual sword baton, the emperor's baton.
Additionally, while in univese she is said to be practicing Haitian vodoun, in reality the core components used to flesh out Anita's mystical background are sourced from Santeria, another religion with African roots that is very similar but still distinct from vodoun. I'll be doing my best to be respectful of both religions and source canon by utilizing the basic aspects of what is in the comics (and general treatment of the mystical in the DC universe in general) without turning it into just African flavored magic or delving too much into the deeper ritualistic parts and practice of either religion as a non-practioner.
Player Name: July
Plurk Handle: JulyFlame
Player Status: New Player!
Other characters: NA
Character Name: Anita Fite, Empress
Fandom: DC Comics, Preboot (Specifically, Young Justice)
Character Journal: fiteclub
If canon, canon point: Young Justice, after the events of #55, but before Graduation Day
PB: Comics icons.
Setting Background: OU.
History: DC Wikia on Anita, Wikipedia on Anita Between the two they're mostly accurate.
Personality:
The biggest thing about Anita Fite is told to us by both her name and her costumed identity of Empress: she's got a strong personality and isn't afraid of proving it. Her identity as Empress is outed by her father calling her that in plain clothes in front of the whole team. Her dad's excuse is to say it's because of her bossy personality, which is shown quickly in her attempt to play it off.
Through the run of Young Justice once she's introduced, Anita this in multiple scenarios, running from her relatively low-key rivalry with former heroine Cissie and refusing to back down despite the other girl being her original inspiration to demanding that warder and gateway guardian of death Secret spit her father's soul back up, and jumping in to try and retrieve him without hesitation when told no. She also shows in multiple cases that she isn't concerned or worried about challenging, refusing, or giving orders to adults, even when they're arguably in a better position of strength or authority.
That said, Anita isn't just a forceful personality, and shows a willingness to go with the flow that usually isn't expected of characters that are characterized as bossy. Once Anita joins the YJ team, she often rolls with whatever insane thing is happening with the team at the time, whether it's playing baseball against a race of advanced alien conquerors, accidentally jumping through time and space to deal with a world ending threat, or half the team arguing over a vote to be the next leader, with only checking if this sort of ridiculous thing is the norm when she first joins.
Her willingness to go with things even results in what's arguably one of the most unorthodox relationships in the series, initially saying yes to a date with Lil Lobo when the other members of the team encourage the aforementioned Top Teen into asking her on a date and that Anita was also interested in him.
Overall, she shows multiple times that she's made the conscious decision in the context of most of her time with Young Justice to be a team player and learn how to refine her skills, rather than try to take over or boss others around in the context of the team itself.
Anita's also self sufficient and independent at a young age, and not because she was forced to be or had to fight for it, but because it was encouraged and built up by her family. After her mother's death, she was sent to live with her grandmother in the bayou, to grow out of the angry behavior she directed at her father and to be able to stay safe. Here, she learned a variety of skills from her grandmother, first and foremost vodoun.
Anita's father is shown multiple times to trust in his daughter's judgment and ability to take care of herself, even before letting her know that he knew her secret identity as 'Empress'. Anita is allowed to work her way cross country with a minimal amount of supervision in order to tag along with the other girls to meet the cast of their favorite TV show (it's unclear whether Bonnie King-Jones, the chaperone, was aware of Anita's plan to join them, and only steps in when one of the adult actors is making advances on the teenager), join Young Justice without argument against ability or age (unlike many of the others with parents or guardians in the know), and allows her to have a role in the overall war effort against the Imperix threat against Earth.
Last but not least, she ends up taking care of her own parents (brought to life again as infants) with help from her godfather Ishido Maad.
In comparison to the early days of the YJ team and most of its members' first steps into the superhero life, when Anita first shows up, her overall sense of morality includes plenty of greys in it. Despite this, she doesn't doubt herself over the question of good and evil or where her actions fall into that spectrum all that much, something in direct contrast to plenty of heroes, especially the younger ones.
Anita sees the most on-page time in direct conversation or linked to other members of Young Justice who tend to fall into those shades of grey: Cissie, who left behind her superhero career because being afraid of going too far, Secret, who actively wrestles with her role as a warder and whether or not she is evil for it, and Lobo, who is Lobo.
This can also be seen in the background for her abilities: her patron loa, Oya, besides being the goddess of wind, fire, thunderbolt and female power, is also the guardian of gates of death. For teenagers, death is by default considered a bad thing, but for Anita, it is a plays a big role in her faith between her patron goddess and the use of sacrifices in vodoun rituals.
Finally, compared to nearly all of the other members of the team (excepting Lobo), Anita is far more willing to resort to more permanent types of violence, such as stabbing both of her blades through a werewolf's chest when overhearing his plan to ruin Cissie's life for revenge, and threaten to kill said werewolf without compunction if he carries his plan out anyways, or refuse to say that he will not. She even goes so far as to try and kill Baron Agua Sin Gaaz, her grandfather, in revenge for his killing of her parents, though she doesn't succeed (partially due to being overpowered, but mostly because Cissie's mom shot him through the heart).
Canon Powers:
Magic, specifically, vodoun: Anita's primary source of powers comes from the Haitain vodoun she learned from her mother and then grandmother. Anita's biggest jump in magical ability came at the death of her grandmother and the passing on of her sword baton. In the context of Young Justice, through the performance of spells and rituals (usually with accompanying sacrifices and gifts to the loa) Anita can request specific blessings, receive answers, and even perform curses with aid from the spirits.
*Teleportation: Anita's most commonly used and performed magic through the series, she developed the ability to use magic to teleport with her grandmother's death and passing on of the Emperor's Baton, a family heirloom. While she can use it frequently in combat, it is shown that longer distances or even bringing someone alongside with her temporarily weakens her and requires a short recovery time before she can do anything else.
Anti-Life Equation Fragment: The fragment of the anti-life equation in Anita's head gives her the ability to telepathically command other sapient beings with simple voiced orders for a very short period of time. While she can stop someone in their tracks or tell them to sit, it lasts for roughly a minute, if not less, and cannot force people to do something against their best interest for surviving. The stronger a being's personal will power, the quicker it wears off, and if their mind is not developed enough and lacks in enough self awareness, the commands will not succeed. If Anita is distracted in the time that the command is in effect, it will immediately wear off.
Freebie Powers: Blessed Athleticism: Blessed before birth by Oya, Anita's naturally athletic and physically talented, which makes picking up physical skills much easier for her, as well as putting her at near peak human condition.
Power Selection: Native Superpowers
Game Powers:
Voduon Magic: In the context of Wilderlands, and its magic system, I'd like to retain Anita's sacrifice/ritual setup, wherein for specific requests, questions, curses, or blessings she is asking the spirits (in this case largely the local ones, assuming the loa are not available), she performs a sacrifice in turn. Most of Anita's magical skills do not offer immediate, tangible 'big' benefits, and would need to be done when camped for the night or during an extended stay, compared to on the go.
The rough 'exchange' rate we see is the following-
One question with an easily and directly defined (who/what/where/when/why) answer = one chickenor similarly sized bird or small animal that was alive until it was used for the ritual. (Any questions asked through ritual involving game or player plots will be okayed first prior to use.) Anita and company will have to become very good at capturing wild fowl and such in order to do this one outside of areas one can obtain easily purchased live birds.
One blessing (lifelong, and performed on an unborn child, would probably be much higher in 'cost' for someone older for something similar) = At least one large pan of blood, so presumably a goat or similarly sized creature.
Anything much more 'stronger' than that would be either too expensive and/or morally prohibitive. Playing with life in a negative manner that is against the natural order of life and death displeases the loa (and probably every other spirit concerned about life and/or death) and requires a higher and higher cost- up to and including human lives- in order to undertake. This does not imply any level of success is guaranteed.
Magical teleportation: Keeping it in line with the power nerfing rules, Anita's ability to teleport will be brought down to 'line of sight' and with a short cooldown, and if she attempts to bring someone along with her, doing so will temporarily exhaust her and prevent her from immediately acting again, and longer to teleport once more. This is still magic based,
Command: Due to the fragment of the Anti-Life Equation in her head, Anita can give very short commands that temporarily override the recipient's willpower for a minute's time or less. This doesn't work on the extremely strongwilled or people who have trained their minds against being able to be taken over, or on babies or the nonsapient. Additionally, it can only work on living beings. She cannot get fully distracted, or it will break. If there are any Big Bads out there in the game looking for the Anti-Life Equation or similar, and have methods of discovering it, the fragment will also effectively act as a homing beacon.
Non-Powered Abilities:
Athleticism: Anita's athleticism was blessed to her by birth, and it's something that has developed and grown since she was old enough to move under her own power, further trained under her grandmother, and since continuously developed and honed by Anita, especially since she joined Young Justice. As a result, Anita's at roughly peak human abilities, with high hand eye coordination and dexterity.
Martial arts- Anita is trained in the use of not only unarmed combat with practice, but in the use of her Emperor's Baton, which is a short stick until she pulls it apart into two separate long hilted short swords. She is very skilled at slicing, dicing, and even stabbing with them.
Wilderness survival: From roughly age five until some time after she turned thirteen, Anita lived in a bayou with limited electricity and running water, and a lot of alligators and venomous snakes slithering around and a grandmother very invested in her survival. As a result, Anita knows to take care of herself and others in places crawling with dangerous wildlife.
First Aid Skills: In Anita's very first appearance as Empress, she comes across a confused and unwell Wonder Girl, with a venomous bite on her leg. Anita cords the leg off to restrict blood flow, cuts an 'x' on the bitten area, and successfully sucks the venom out before leaving Wonder Girl in a safe place to be found and rescued. (This is not actually good or safe medical advice, but in the context of popular culture it is shown to work and be effective). Between her grandmother and father, it's likely they made sure she had a good handle on this for her own self preservation.
Music: Anita's skilled enough at playing the piano and singing to be able to swing working from one side of the country to the other and back in an airliner's in-flight piano bar. Even with some connections on her dad's end, she still would need the skills to back it up.
Setting/Suitability: While magic is very present in the DC Universe, at the same time it's a bizarre sidestep for mystical characters on a planet that regularly experiences alien invasions and science running amok. As a result, the magical community on Earth often ends up doing weird mishmash team-ups whenever a magical crisis ensues because they're so fewer in number compared to any other source of abilities. As a result, mystical heroes (and villains) tend to end up learning more outside of their usual mode of magic, and Anita will adapt and learn- the mystical side of the world and invoking spirits runs in her blood, and she spent most of her childhood surrounded by nature.
With the loss of Slobo, beginning to wear thin from doing the superhero thing and raise her parents, and the final climax of everything to do with Greta, Anita is beginning to wonder if she's actually able to do the superheroing as a full thing, or if she even wants to. She's seen a lot more of mortality and weakness in the last few months than she'd have liked to, but she's not quite at the cusp of hanging up the uniform (at least at this canon point). At this point, she's suffering from emotional burnout and mental fatigue.
An epic quest with a mostly straightforward goal outside of her experience and normal comfort zone will give her something to focus on and heal with, especially with a group to do this with.
SAMPLES
Prose Sample:
Anita at the Test Drive
Network Sample:
[Very funny, this. At fifteen, she feels like she probably shouldn't have an inner child yet, but if watching from afar during the whole Sins of Youth taught her anything, it was that even if you didn't have an inner child young enough for what they're aiming they could still make one from scratch.
And well, if a spirit wants her to talk to her younger self and pass on what she's learned, who is she to say no or try to fight it in this case?
The little girl on the mirror's surface is watching her with a silent intensity that Anita can remember directing at her dad, except with an added anger only a bit older than the unaware child she's looking at.]
Mon...
[Anita inhales, and starts again.]
Don't let anything get in the way of family. Not just Daddy, or Mama, or Grandmere, but Uncle Ish, too. The people you're gonna meet. Blood might be blood, but it isn't the only thing when it comes to family. There's somebody out there who's gonn' try an' claim blood, but it doesn't mean we gotta accept it.
Actions matter, not just what loa we are guided by and ask for help from. Intent too.
Friends can be so much more than just friends, little Empress.
[And, thinking back to her time at her grandmother's, what helped the most, she smiles.]
Dancing helps, too.
Additional info:
I'd like to bring Anita into the game carrying her dual sword baton, the emperor's baton.
Additionally, while in univese she is said to be practicing Haitian vodoun, in reality the core components used to flesh out Anita's mystical background are sourced from Santeria, another religion with African roots that is very similar but still distinct from vodoun. I'll be doing my best to be respectful of both religions and source canon by utilizing the basic aspects of what is in the comics (and general treatment of the mystical in the DC universe in general) without turning it into just African flavored magic or delving too much into the deeper ritualistic parts and practice of either religion as a non-practioner.