A New Challenger Approaches!

Andeline is a particularly charismatic character, full of comedic humor, kindness, and stubborn determination.  While she is a trifle dimwitted at times, gullible, and easily manipulated with her emotions, she always knows which way she is going, and is headstrong in getting there. She is particularly outgoing, and easily makes connections with other people...connections she holds very close to her heart. Because of this, she often finds herself tangled in combat—but in spite of her peaceful stance and desire to keep things calm for the average joe, Andeline actually relishes fighting. Seeing every battle as an opportunity to test her extensive skills and strengthen herself, she will willingly pick or rush headfirst into fights before thinking. Though far from mentally dense, she tends to miss things that are, to others, obvious.

She is constantly determined to keep those she cares about, even if it means sacrificing herself for it. Andeline is always determined to defend those incapable of doing it themselves, and protect the rights of the people against evil and tyranny. Many people see her as weak because of the way she wears her heart on her sleeve--in many cases, they are right--it typically leads to her becoming emotionally compromised. However, the woman still believes that it is these friendships that make her stronger.
When the path she walks becomes foggy and deluded, or when she becomes particularly emotional, Andeline is susceptible to a great many thing. Her body may be stronger than iron, but it is her feelings and state of mind that cause her the greatest weakness of all. She also seems torn between the life she knows is real, and the figments that plague her at night. Though she isn't entirely sure, Andeline believes the dreams she has may belong to someone else...but as to how they came to her and why, nobody can say.

There are some nights where I wake up to the sounds of a baby screaming, and the most intense stabbing pain I have ever felt, right through my heart. I can hear someone's voice, shouting at me, but the words are so drowned out by crying that I can't make it out.
I can no longer hear the voice of my past lives. I'm not sure what that means or why I even think I have them to begin with. Whatever I'm listening for...I can't hear it.

I was born in Traverse Town. My childhood was just as all other children...with one exception: I somehow developed aquakenesis. I don't know how. I don't know why. But it remained the same—I could control water, and nearly anything it made up.  For the most part, I kept it hidden well enough. I was a very well-behaved kid. Quiet. Shy. I spoke only when I absolutely had to. I didn't want to stand out, for fear I might stand out too much.
If that weren't enough to make one anxious...I kept hearing voices. People I couldn't recognize, telling me things I didn't understand, sometimes speaking in a completely different language. It was alien to me and yet felt so familiar. As time went on, many of the voices faded away...But one kept speaking to me, clearer than all the others. It was a woman's voice. A voice full of power, of pride, of courage, and wisdom. Bravery beyond what I had. Skill past what I knew of myself. Potential that had long blossomed, that blinded and dazzled those around it.

I didn't know this voice...but it almost sounded like me—me, if I were braver. If I were more confident. If I weren't so worried.

And then one day, it happened.
It was an innocent enough game...we were playing in the summer heat, trying to cool down with soaker guns and buckets of water, splashing one another gleefully. My friends and I were simply having fun. It wasn't until one of the shadowkin came around that things became grim.
They'd appeared before, but something always called them away. Monsters that swallowed the hearts of the good and innocent...which somehow made them vanish. The more they ate, the more there were. Most people had already given them other names...many of them simply called them Heartless.

In any case, if one showed itself, there was no telling who would make it out...but one of us was destined to be taken this day. The voice in my heart told me to fight. It told me to protect my friends. It told me that I was stronger than any Heartless or monster that dared to cross my path. I had accomplished so many great things. I felt more powerful, so suddenly, that I felt as though I'd become invincible.
And so I took one of the guns we'd been playing with, and shot the creature in the head. It died....but not in the way I'd expected. There was no ordinary squirt that suddenly burst out of the toy I'd picked up—it was nearly equal to a cannon shot—and it hurled with such a great speed that I could barely comprehend it. The force was enough to send me flying back, and the toy had shattered into pieces of wet plastic.

I knew I hadn't done that on my own. Something greater than I had allowed me to do that...willed the water to become that powerful projectile. It was so potent of a force, that feeling that I was not alone, that I was great and incredible, that I trembled with it.

With that, my normal life concluded. I knew there was nowhere I could stay where I would be treated as a person.
But where did I think I could go? I had no munny of my own, and no way to leave Traverse Town. So I stayed...I took up residence in the waterways below the streets. I have been there ever since, scavenging meager meals from anywhere I could and taking shelter in shallow parts where the water didn't flow. There, I could practice my curse in peace. What else was there left for me but to tame this? Training, meditation, all to keep myself steady in my mind...something keeps telling me that I have so much unlocked potential, waiting within me.

The voice, the loudest voice of all, eventually went away. It—she—stopped talking to me. I felt I had done something right. I felt as though I were on the proper path. The images, the nightmares, never went away. I could see them as time passed, clearer and clearer still...but none of them gave me answers.
Fantastic worlds of fire, of skies, of forests, and tall mountains. Lands filled with faint and fuzzy pictures of people I felt I knew, and yet couldn't place where I'd ever known them. I could feel the sweat and pain of battle, the sensation of my blood pulsing, the air around me as I moved, dodging things I could barely make out. I carried a heavy shield on my back as I roamed, that sensation of being strong radiating through me. These people I knew as my friends. We were a team. We were saviors. Of what, I couldn't say. Vana Hearth. Austin McCoy. Jade Winters. Kioko Marikama. Vector. KI. Yotep M'karr. Names, but what could I do with them? They all were familiar, and yet so alien. The ones I always heard the most were always the same: Anne Ross. Pinky.
And what made my heart yearn the most was the ghostly visage of a warm, tropical beach. There was a feeling of home in it, and I pained to feel that calm.

They weren't always wonderful. I could see other things. A towering living fortress. The people I'd considered my allies betraying me with madness rife in their eyes. A woman with dark hair and sultry eyes, smirking down at me as though I were some lower life form...a terrible beast that kept knocking me to the cold ground and licking at my neck as though I were more than dinner...

But now there are more of them. I've been seeing more images beyond the ones I've known. There were always faces, and no names.
I know the quiet peace of an underwater cave...The comfort of a chair, behind a desk in a lovely mansion, the sunset lingering over the tops of an evergreen forest...Sometimes I even saw Traverse Town, though perhaps that was simply me thinking back to the life I'd known.
There were always more people. The man with the lion emblem. A young man with blonde hair and a cheerful face. A woman with dark hair and darker eyes, crossing her arms at me, glaring. A queen in an undersea palace. An enigmatic man kissing me under the moonlight on a balcony. I could practically taste his lips. The tall, dark-skinned man with eyes of bright gold...
And the man in the red jacket with the silver hair. He smiles at me every time I see him. I feel warmer, somehow. Sometimes he'll be holding me, looking down...dying...but still, he always smiles. It's always a feeling of fondness.

All of these places and people I could tell were things I'd known. But I couldn't understand how, or why. I had been born and raised here. This was my home.

There were always nightmares, too. The worst two were always the same—the blue-skinned, pointy-eared samurai hurling katana into my flesh...and the silver-haired man in my bedroom stabbing me in the heart.
The first was always numb to me. I couldn't feel the pain, but I could feel the swords. I could feel the blood leaving me. It didn't hurt...but it still frightened me.
The second was always pain. It was always accompanied by the sound of a man shouting and the wailing of a baby somewhere further away. The room was always dark. I am always killed...and I always come back to reality right after, as though the rest were too painful to see.
The silver-haired man had the same golden eyes. Maybe the two were brothers. I couldn't be bothered to tell. It didn't matter...it utterly terrified me.


I don't know what fate wants with me now, but I can't continue to dwell here in the darkness of these waterways. Though I'm little more than an animal living here...I have to find some answer to what ails me. The first step...will be to walk back into the light.