Personality: Sapphire is a young protagonist in an action series. Being a girl, she doesn't follow the standard shounen-hero mold to the letter, but the basic elements are there - a hot-headed temperament, the power of raw determination, a heroic streak, and a tendency to do foolish or socially inappropriate things. She has a very loud and boisterous presence, and her vivacious energy is evident in her speech and body language - she doesn't just walk, she bounds and leaps and climbs, and her (horribly accented) voice is full of audible exclamation points. She's idealistic and generally a happy, enthusiastic person, willing to approach just about anyone with exuberant friendliness and always ready to help people who need her strength and combat skill.
Sapphire practically grew up in the forest, and isn't bothered by dirt and mild injury - she's a rough-and-tumble girl who grows her nails long, wears clothes made of leaves when she can, and brawls with her chicken-monster best friend for practice and fun. She also has the knowledge base appropriate of such a lifestyle - she's clever and intuitive, noticing things in her environment and using her situation to her advantage in battle, but is a horribly poor reader, doesn't have much patience for non-hands-on learning, and is entirely unfamiliar with city life and typical...decorum, I guess. She's acrobatic, strong as hell, and does a lot of moving around on four feet. Sapphire also has a good understanding of animals (Pokemon) - she doesn't talk to them or see them as equivalent to humans, but she understands their behavior as a function of their environment, and can deduce their motivations based on what she knows about the creatures she's familiar with, able to tell when they are sick or hungry and figure out their natural skills with clues from their anatomy and actions.
In addition to the exuberant, wild energy shown on the outside, Sapphire has a lot going on behind the scenes. Her passion for battle and in-your-face temperament aren't innate traits. Up until she was about six years old, Sapphire was, as she puts it, "girly" - still friendly and excitable, but a child who expressed herself with more gentle words, indulged in her fantasies of fairytale princesses by wearing dresses and cute clothes, and enjoyed playing with cute or sweet-hearted Pokemon rather than training them to fight. When she was six, a friend of her father's came from Johto region to take a Gym Leader qualification exam. He brought his son, Ruby, who was an avid novice Pokemon Trainer and nearly the same age as Sapphire. The two became good friends, and when Ruby's father had his exam, they went to explore and play in the woods. What happened next was the most influential event in Sapphire's life. The two children were attacked by a savage wild Salamence, and while Ruby tried to drive it off with his Pokemon, Sapphire could only stand aside helplessly. Ruby fought hard to defend them both, pushing Sapphire out of the way of the dragon's attacks, and finally managed to wound the Salamence and drive it away - but not before it had clawed at his face, opening two large wounds on his hairline. Sapphire vividly remembers lying terrified on the ground from the chaos of the battle, and bursting into horrified tears when Ruby turned to her to reassure her, his face covered in blood from his wounds.
In the aftermath of this incident, Sapphire changed almost completely. She felt guilt and shame over the incident - first for being able to do nothing and having someone else be injured while fighting for her, and secondly for being frightened by the aggression that Ruby showed. She began to train herself physically, accompanying her biologist father into the woods to assist with fieldwork and asking him for Pokemon that she could train and train herself beside. She began to change the way she interacted with people, becoming more assertive and aggressive. The new personality was not a facade - Sapphire genuinely grew to love being loud, strong, and tomboyish. Her "girly" appreciation for romance and cute things wasn't overwritten, and she will defend to blows her right to be a little feminine, but she does have a kneejerk reaction to things like frilly, impractical clothes, which revive a bit of her shame over having not been emotionally resilient during the Salamence incident. Her biggest lingering issue with the whole incident is her need to be able to take care of herself and others. Sapphire absolutely does not want people fighting on her behalf, especially in actual physical fights. She is terrified of someone getting hurt for her sake again, and does not like being "protected" or kept from a battle she wants to be involved in. Sapphire has nothing against being a team player, but defaults to fighting solo (as "solo" as a Pokemon Trainer can be), easily accepting help from allies but only asking for it in dire straits.
Sapphire is young, and it shows the most in how she reacts to other people. She has a habitual respect for her elders, speaking to them as messily as ever but toning down her energy and addressing them more formally than usual. That respect is multiplied in a student/teacher or junior/senior situation, regardless of the superior's age. Sapphire is open to learning from other people, either from their direct instruction or by imitating what they do, and easily defers to a more experienced party as a leader to take orders from. One thing she really doesn't have any experience with is children younger than herself, and she has played the role of a student and junior, but never that of a mentor. She sees herself as someone who has a lot to learn, but is proud of what she already has learned and of what she believes is a great potential to be stronger and more capable.
Sapphire has a very competitive nature. Like many others from her world, she sees competition as a way to gauge someone's worth - not just in whether they can meet the goal or not, but in how they go about meeting the goal, how much effort they put in, and how they treat their opponent. She expects others to pay the same attention to her, and throws herself into any kind of task, challenge, or contest as though she's being graded on her performance. She's not just showing her capabilities to onlookers when she does this, but proving to herself that she can meet all of her own expectations.
Her time as Ruby's friend has removed most of her scorn for people who enjoy the "girly" things she edges away from, and Sapphire doesn't begrudge any civilian or trainer for not being strong. But she tends to get annoyed with people who don't try, whether their wasted potential is in physical strength or emotional strength or any variant on the idea, and Sapphire is personally offended and infuriated by people who have the abilities or resources to solve a problem and choose to ignore or run away from it. To her mind, that's just as bad as causing the problem yourself.
Sapphire Birch | Pokemon Special | Reserved
Sapphire practically grew up in the forest, and isn't bothered by dirt and mild injury - she's a rough-and-tumble girl who grows her nails long, wears clothes made of leaves when she can, and brawls with her chicken-monster best friend for practice and fun. She also has the knowledge base appropriate of such a lifestyle - she's clever and intuitive, noticing things in her environment and using her situation to her advantage in battle, but is a horribly poor reader, doesn't have much patience for non-hands-on learning, and is entirely unfamiliar with city life and typical...decorum, I guess. She's acrobatic, strong as hell, and does a lot of moving around on four feet. Sapphire also has a good understanding of animals (Pokemon) - she doesn't talk to them or see them as equivalent to humans, but she understands their behavior as a function of their environment, and can deduce their motivations based on what she knows about the creatures she's familiar with, able to tell when they are sick or hungry and figure out their natural skills with clues from their anatomy and actions.
In addition to the exuberant, wild energy shown on the outside, Sapphire has a lot going on behind the scenes. Her passion for battle and in-your-face temperament aren't innate traits. Up until she was about six years old, Sapphire was, as she puts it, "girly" - still friendly and excitable, but a child who expressed herself with more gentle words, indulged in her fantasies of fairytale princesses by wearing dresses and cute clothes, and enjoyed playing with cute or sweet-hearted Pokemon rather than training them to fight. When she was six, a friend of her father's came from Johto region to take a Gym Leader qualification exam. He brought his son, Ruby, who was an avid novice Pokemon Trainer and nearly the same age as Sapphire. The two became good friends, and when Ruby's father had his exam, they went to explore and play in the woods. What happened next was the most influential event in Sapphire's life. The two children were attacked by a savage wild Salamence, and while Ruby tried to drive it off with his Pokemon, Sapphire could only stand aside helplessly. Ruby fought hard to defend them both, pushing Sapphire out of the way of the dragon's attacks, and finally managed to wound the Salamence and drive it away - but not before it had clawed at his face, opening two large wounds on his hairline. Sapphire vividly remembers lying terrified on the ground from the chaos of the battle, and bursting into horrified tears when Ruby turned to her to reassure her, his face covered in blood from his wounds.
In the aftermath of this incident, Sapphire changed almost completely. She felt guilt and shame over the incident - first for being able to do nothing and having someone else be injured while fighting for her, and secondly for being frightened by the aggression that Ruby showed. She began to train herself physically, accompanying her biologist father into the woods to assist with fieldwork and asking him for Pokemon that she could train and train herself beside. She began to change the way she interacted with people, becoming more assertive and aggressive. The new personality was not a facade - Sapphire genuinely grew to love being loud, strong, and tomboyish. Her "girly" appreciation for romance and cute things wasn't overwritten, and she will defend to blows her right to be a little feminine, but she does have a kneejerk reaction to things like frilly, impractical clothes, which revive a bit of her shame over having not been emotionally resilient during the Salamence incident. Her biggest lingering issue with the whole incident is her need to be able to take care of herself and others. Sapphire absolutely does not want people fighting on her behalf, especially in actual physical fights. She is terrified of someone getting hurt for her sake again, and does not like being "protected" or kept from a battle she wants to be involved in. Sapphire has nothing against being a team player, but defaults to fighting solo (as "solo" as a Pokemon Trainer can be), easily accepting help from allies but only asking for it in dire straits.
Sapphire is young, and it shows the most in how she reacts to other people. She has a habitual respect for her elders, speaking to them as messily as ever but toning down her energy and addressing them more formally than usual. That respect is multiplied in a student/teacher or junior/senior situation, regardless of the superior's age. Sapphire is open to learning from other people, either from their direct instruction or by imitating what they do, and easily defers to a more experienced party as a leader to take orders from. One thing she really doesn't have any experience with is children younger than herself, and she has played the role of a student and junior, but never that of a mentor. She sees herself as someone who has a lot to learn, but is proud of what she already has learned and of what she believes is a great potential to be stronger and more capable.
Sapphire has a very competitive nature. Like many others from her world, she sees competition as a way to gauge someone's worth - not just in whether they can meet the goal or not, but in how they go about meeting the goal, how much effort they put in, and how they treat their opponent. She expects others to pay the same attention to her, and throws herself into any kind of task, challenge, or contest as though she's being graded on her performance. She's not just showing her capabilities to onlookers when she does this, but proving to herself that she can meet all of her own expectations.
Her time as Ruby's friend has removed most of her scorn for people who enjoy the "girly" things she edges away from, and Sapphire doesn't begrudge any civilian or trainer for not being strong. But she tends to get annoyed with people who don't try, whether their wasted potential is in physical strength or emotional strength or any variant on the idea, and Sapphire is personally offended and infuriated by people who have the abilities or resources to solve a problem and choose to ignore or run away from it. To her mind, that's just as bad as causing the problem yourself.