Sakuya Izayoi

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OOC Information: 
Name: Critiana
Are you over 15? Yes
Contact: PM, BloodCri (Plurk)
Current characters in the game: None

IC Information: 
Name: Sakuya Izayoi (Celine Blanchefleur for Reincarnation)
Canon and Medium: Touhou Project, Video Game 
Age: early-mid 20s (22 for Reincarnation)
Preincarnation Species: Human
Preincarnation Appearance:  Shes MAID of elegance!
Any Differences: She'll be mostly similar with the exception of her hair. Without time's pressure her hair never lost its color and remains black.
Starting Location: Fussen, Germany.

Preincarnated History:
IMPORTANT: As with all touhou characters there is very very little canon material to work with as Touhou is simply a series of events. Plots, characters, and personalities are left skeletal intentionally by the creator so that people can fill in the blanks themselves. Sakuya has nothing beyond some dialogue in most games and a blurb in the bio files which simply state her name, title, and exactly what she's doing within the context of that particular game.

Sakuya Izayoi prefers to keep her past to herself and very little is known about it, even to herself. She was picked up by the residents of the Scarlet Devil Mansion at a young age and was raised within the walls as both a maid and a protector of he household.

The mansion was later relocated to Gensokyo, Japan's refuge for supernatural monsters and gods that have no place in modern society. It contains mostly youkai and fairies of various types but it is also home to a variety of others. It is also a sort of hub world, connecting to several other major areas such as Makai, Heaven, and others.

Sakuya is the head maid of the mansion, a job and title she takes very seriously. She is the bound servant and thrall of Remilia Scarlet, a vampire with the power over fate. Likewise she serves Remilia's younger sister Flandre Scarlet, a vamprie with the power of destruction, as well as Remilia's friend Patchouli Knowledge, a youkai magician, who tends to the library. Her co-workers are Koakuma, a devil who acts as Patchouli's assistant and familiar, as well as Hong Meiling, a youkai employed as a gate guard. Sakuya also has a small army of fairy maids and hobgoblins working under her.

As the residents of the mansion are foreigners, they had to travel to Gensokyo from another place, the entire mansion appearing on the shores of the Misty Lake in 2001. It is unconfirmed if the mansion appeared there in 2001 or if it had been merely concealed, though it is confirmed that the mansion had contact with Gensokyo before this point. There are implications by the series creator that other pocket worlds similar to Gensokyo exist in other countries. This is supported by the lack of western creatures in Gensokyo despite knowing that they do exist. It is speculated that the mansion might have moved to Gensokyo from one of these other worlds.

Over the years Sakuya has been both helpful and hindering to Gensokyo's integrity by contributing to, and help solving multiple incidents. Upon arrival she assisted her mistress in the "Scarlet Mist" incident and defended the vampire while she attempted to block out the sun and was stopped by Hakurei Reimu and Kirisame Marisa.

For a long while after she participated in more helpful activities. She assisted in stopping the "Stolen Spring" incident upon her Ladys request by diving into the Netherworld and confronting the ghost responsible as she was attempting to break the seal on a youkai cherry tree called Saigyou Ayakashi. She was one of the participants in stopping an incident involving an oni named Suika Ibuki in the "Night Parade of One Hundred Oni Every Four Days" incident which was causing a never ending party and feast. She then accompanied Remilia when it was time to stop the "Eternal Night" incident where the moon was replaced with a fake one and restore the real moon. Shortly after attempted to discover why wandering spirits were causing so many flowers to appear in the "Sixty Year Cycle Great Barrier" incident.

Another incident was about due at this point and Yakumo Yukari appeared before Remilia and tricked her into building a rocket in an attempt to invade the moon. Naturally Sakuya went along to assist her lady. Ultimately they were defeated by the Moon's residents, the princesses Watatsuki no Yorihime and Watatsuki no Toyohime and had to return to earth empty handed. Yukari still won in the end as she also sent Saigyo Yuyuko to the moon who stole some of the purest and most valuable sake from the princesses.

Several earthquakes followed and Sakuya was asked to bring several potential culprits to Remilia so she could interrogate them before finding out herself that the culprit was above the clouds. She rose to meet the issue head on and put a stop to the shenanigans of a celestial named Hinanawi Tenshi. After she managed to remain out of the spotlight for some time, taking it a bit easier with her mistress until she found a strange silver knife. It seemed to have a will of its own having become a tsukumogami brought to life by the miracle mallet carried by the inchling Sukuna Shinmyoumaru. Shinmyoumaru was tricked into doing so by Kijin Seija for her own purposes. The knife exerted an influence over Sakuya as she left the mansion to test out its effectiveness, finding the source of the knife (as well as the source of several other now living weapons) and uncovering a plot to re-draw the political borders of Gensokyo. Already belonging to a party and not wanting her Lady's territory changed she put a stop to it.

Reincarnated History: 
Celine Blanchefleur was born December 10th 1992 in France. At the age of five her family moved to Germany. They settled in Fussen looking to get away from the bustle of larger crowds. Unfortunately it was not to last as a housefire claimed both of their lives a year later.

With no known relatives Celine was placed in a foster home with Patrick and Abigail Eckstein along with their existing son Gerald. Understandably, the sudden change was extremely difficult for her to adapt and she remained withdrawn and quiet for about a year and a half. After that she began to function more normally and socialize again, but her re-introduction was very gradual. In the end it left her extremely protective of people she cares about and she remains as such to this day.

Her brother was her closest friend growing up. They had some healthy rivalry but, for the most part, they've been supportive of each other. Him especially of her, their friendship being the primary thing that helped draw her back out into a sense of normalcy again as well as adjust to her new family.

Schooling wasn't the easiest thing for her. She was mostly an above average student though she leveled out the higher her education went. It was the test taking that killed her grade as she had a good memory and was extremely good about getting her homework in. This translated into an excellent work ethic once she reached High School, allowing her to make some extra money doing various odd jobs and eventually getting part time work busing tables at a restaurant. She was about average by the end of high school and decided not to pursue a higher education in favor of full time work.

She moved out into an apartment at 18 after taking on a waitress position. She works six days a week with a fairly chaotic schedule and kept it up for a few years. More recently she has been given a very small raise and was recognized for her exceptional performance. She is usually the one called upon to show any new employees the ins and outs of the restaurant and answer questions as well as help keep track of, not just her section, but the entire restaurant.

She remains in contact with her family, and visits on a bi-weekly basis at minimum. Regular visits generally involve simply talking and spending time together but when her brother is able to join them it will become a slightly larger event, the whole family going out for ice cream or seeing a movie.

First Echo:
During a fair one of the performers was juggling knives. The spinning blades triggered something in her making her want to do the same. Her body's muscle memory and development that allowed her to throw blades had returned, though she lacked the mental understanding and hand eye coordination that had made her a master of the weapon.

The new muscle memory brought with it several physical needs. As a result she invested in a small set of weights, a small, cheap set of throwing knives, a dartboard, and a moderately heavy metal pen to use as a fidget in public in place of a knife. She also began carrying her phone on her left side.

Preincarnation Personality:
Sakuya is a ruthless and loyal servant. Having been bound to Remilia from a young age her devotion is unshakable, even by most magical means. As such Remilia's desire to have her act as the servant of an aristocrat was fulfilled perfectly, Sakuya demonstrating skill and refinement in her demeanor as well as near-perfect manners. Beneath that is a somewhat high strung workaholic having to clean and care for an entire mansion on her own. She has very little free time and has very little patience for anyone who is not already a resident of the mansion. Her mistress's ability to manipulate fate no doubt had a hand in her success at achieving her self perceived "perfection" as well.

Sakuya's most valuable trait is her loyalty. Though her canon incarnation has never demonstrated anything groundbreaking in terms of loyalty the way the characters interact with each other clearly demonstrate this, Remilia able to order Sakuya around almost passively and the maid understanding exactly what Remilia wants. This was especially apparent in Silent Sinner in Blue where she assisted in the building of a rocket to the moon without objection or question and fought against an opponent she knew was much stronger than her so Remilia would have a chance to see her method of combat before fighting her. (Ultimately they both lost the fight.) Another great example is in her first appearance in Touhou in the 6th game, Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. Even after being demolished in stage 5, Sakuya returns as the midboss of stage 6 in a final attempt to defend her mistress, her art still showing her very beat up. Even though the duels are supposed to be non-lethal, if the player chose to play the game as Reimu, the ensuing dialogue with the final boss implies that Reimu thinks she might have killed Sakuya since she kept getting in the way.

As devoted as Sakuya is, she's always had a will of her own. She has never feared Remilia, despite the latter being a vampire, nor has she ever feared voicing her objeections should the vampire come up with a particularly hair brained scheme. She knows when Remilia isn't thinking clearly and will go against things the vampire "suggests" for her to do in favor of doing what she thinks is actually most to Remilia's benefit. Such as in Imperishable Night when Remilia decided to go out and investigate what happened to the moon. Sakuya tags along and Remilia makes a huffy comment about how Sakuya does not need to come, perhaps feeling a bit like she is being babysat. Sakuya accompanied her anyway, wanting to help keep her Lady safe. However, this aside, Sakuya will not disobey a direct order. There are no canon examples of this and it is a reasonable assumption that can be drawn from her previous examples of loyalty. When an order is given, it is followed until the order changes. No exceptions. Even at the cost of her own life.

Sakuya does have a small temper which she is very careful to keep under her control as best she can. Some of her dialogue throughout the games and body language in Silent Sinner in Blue has lightly implied restraint in this regard, though her training as a stoic maid keeps her from showing much of it. There are implications of mental damage surrounding her psyche as she has no issue with carving up and bleeding human corpses in order to prepare meals for her mistress. While its never explicitly stated she's crazy, the fact she takes no issue with such a grotesque action is more than enough proof. Fans had their suspicions further affirmed during the 14th game Double Dealing Character where Sakuya obtains some sentient knives and decides to test them out... By attacking the sentient (and she uses the word sentient) creatures that live near the mansion. At one point she fights a spirit that can remove its head and is disappointed that this creature "has no throat to cut." Inspiration and creation wise, it has been heavily implied if not outright stated that the inspirations for the character are the serial killer Jack the Ripper and Dio Brando.

She does not tolerate a lack of effort on the part of her subordinates, however, and will punish bad behavior without mercy. Unfortunately, fairies are clumsy, childish, and somewhat stupid creatures, as compared to other sentient life forms, and they don't do that much to help. It is stated she has at least 28 of them on the wiki though, due to the mansion's massive size, its likely she has a lot more. It's likely that, despite their incompetence, fairies were employed due to their immortality. As the younger sister Flandre Scarlet is literally the walking aspect of destruction, immortal, regenerating workers are a must. As head maid her job is to keep them in line and working, even if they aren't very good at it. Due to their childish nature this is likely a punishment and reward system, the bad maids being punished and the skilled/well-behaved ones being given treats and a compliment. It's likely she separates jobs within the mansion based upon this principal.

Sakuya, mentally, is as much of a monster as her Mistress, the people in the human village often not realizing she's human* and instead mistaking her for a devil. In line with later statements about her powers, she is also somewhat unstable. Her powers carry with them an eldritch quality and her lack of magical ability meant she was unable to shield her mind from time's void. She had to weather the storm, her mind slowly wearing down and decaying until she was simply able to accept or ignore the otherworldly nature without further damage. Her self-discipline keeps much of this damage from manifesting into actual behavior problems despite how much her mentality was affected though it has left her somewhat paranoid and jumpy. In addition she suffers from constant nightmares, often going for long periods without sleep because of it. As a result she will often take frequent naps rather than settle down for an extended sleep in an attempt to avoid having dreams. The horror of time's pressure and nightmares have rendered her nearly fearless in the face of extreme adversity and helps her keep her composure when faced with highly disturbing things.

She spends what little time off she has participating in small, finite pleasures such as practicing hobbies (that pertain to better serving Remilia,) her favorites being cooking and attempting to craft new tea recipes. Remilia also expects her to know how to fence and play a musical instrument, in this case, the violin. Both of these things she also enjoys quite a bit. She also has a soft spot for decorating the mansion for events and holidays though she will deny it with surprising conviction.

*We only have Sakuya's word that she is human. There are fan theories and evidence to suggest she may be a Lunarian instead. I play her as a human, however.

Any Differences:
Celine remains much as she was in her previous life though taken to less of an extreme. She is calm generally though still has a bit of a temper and her workaholic nature has been toned down quite a bit without her mistress there to push her beyond her human limits. She has not lost any of her loyal qualities and her friends might describe her as being a little pushy or overbearing at times if she is worried about them. She's also somewhat stubborn in her convictions and can prove to be annoying but she means well enough.

She retains her temper but she does know how to control it somewhat, her irritation often manifesting as a coldness until she is passed a certain point. After that she has trouble reigning herself in and will see fights through to the end, both verbal and physical. Despite this she is still far more approachable than her precarnation.

Most importantly, and probably the biggest change, is that she is not a perpetual ball of stress. She's not nervous and twitchy and has learned to be far more patient without her time powers to aid her.

Abilities: 
Sakuya's powers are explained in game as "the manipulation of time" or "the manipulation of time and space" and she has never demonstrated any concrete limit to these abilities. She has, in canon, demonstrated the ability to stop, accelerate, or decelerate time, expand space so things are "bigger on the inside," store an obscene number of throwing knives on her person, summon extra versions/paradoxes of herself from parallel timelines, and displace objects within time to change their behavior. She is also a master of her throwing knives, can fly, and has displayed the ability to create magic/danmaku shots beyond her simple throwing knives.

In regards to her abilities and powers everything in italics is a purely headcanon attempt by me to create at least some small semblance of balance within her powers as well as extend some reasonable assumptions that were not directly referenced in canon while staying as true to the character as possible.

Sakuya was born with almost no magical ability but, also with an intimate connection to the fabric of spacetime. This affinity is so near-perfect that it acts almost like an extra sense, allowing her to reach out and manipulate it without the need of complex spells and incantations. She can even piggyback on other time magic. Her ability is further augmented by her watch. Given to her by Remilia and enchanted by Patchouli, this soul-bound artefact was designed as a general enhancement to her already potent ability, giving her leverage so that her paltry magic could have a greater effect with less effort.

She is able to manipulate space time in two ways. Locally and dimensionally. Local manipulation includes space and was used to make the mansion larger on the inside. She can also use it to accelerate or decelerate objects within time. This form, however, can take a large amount of energy on Sakuya's part. Especially if she is working without her watch.

Her famed time stop is accomplished by displacing herself from a single moment in time rather than attempting to stop all of time itself. She is theoretically capable of maintaining this indefinitely as the only power she needs is what she uses to initially step into or out of time. As she is human and therefore a creature of time, the realm outside the time is not something that is meant to be experienced or understood by mortal minds. Her lack of magic renders her unable to protect herself from its effects and gradually eats away at her sanity, becoming exponentially more severe the longer time is stopped. Her precarnation had damaged her mind enough to tolerate her time stop for quite awhile without it affecting her further.

The magic of time itself is, as established, very otherworldly and disturbing to anyone unshielded or unaccustomed to it. The energy manifested when she uses her powers is chilling and uncomfortable, as is the red glow her eyes take on when she uses any significant amount of power.

She theorizes she may be able to rip open the fabric of time if called to, but she worries it may destabilize the fabric of space time in a set area or even attract the attention of creatures she would rather have continue to ignore her.

She cannot time travel as her lack of mental protection disallows her to move from her single stopped point within the timestream.

She lacks any real weaknesses outside of simply being human and the fragility that comes with it. The exception to this is if her connection to her watch is ever severed improperly it causes a lot of mental and physical stress, leaving her disoriented and physically ill which can last for days. In addition due to having her soul bound to the watch, it is exposed leaving her vulnerable to soul-affecting magics and extremely vulnerable to some types of curses. The watch is, at least, hidden under a few layers of enchantment to help hide this fact from many forms of detection. At least when its not in use.

Like all touhou characters she has the power of flight. As her magic is very weak her flight is not as quick or as easily sustained for long periods as other characters.

What kind of involvement would you like your character to have in Save the Earth?
Nothing really specific. Even if the game is "ending" soon I was told so much about the place and it sounded so interesting I wanted to give it a shot. So I suppose I simply want to enjoy the ride and interact with the characters as well as have a fresh opportunity to explore a character I've played for so long. In addition, there is never a situation that cannot be made better with the addition of more maids.

Roleplay Sample - Third Person: One of my favorites and one more if you prefer a DW example

Roleplay Sample - Network:  A slightly complex non STE example and A simple, in-universe network example.