Erika Alright (WIP)

[Erika_Alright]

________________________________


Name: Erika Alright
Age: 19
Sex: Female
Sexuality: Homosexual
Rank: Novice
Group: Alchemist

Face Claim: Kisara. Yu-gi-oh: Millennium World (Dawn of the Duel) 

Height: 5'7
Weight: 160lbs +automail weight
Hair: White
Eyes: Blue
General Appearance:
Erika Alright is a tall young woman with a very fair complexion. She is most often seen wearing black military style boots, black pants, and a white jacket that stops at her waist and has a slightly raised collar over a simple black tank top. The jacket has a basic transmutation circle printed on the back in dark blue ink.  She often walks with her hands stuffed into her jacket pockets.  Erika walks with a very slight tip of her shoulders towards her right side, a habit commonly seen in people with automail limbs. Rightly so, her right arm is basic automail. Those who catch a rare glimpse of her uncovered mechanical arm will see that there are three different transmutation circles etched at the shoulder, upper arm, and the top of the forearm plates, as well as one etched into the palm of her metallic hand. There is a corresponding circle tattooed on the palm of her left hand.

Personality:
Erika is, if nothing else, a dedicated student of alchemy. She spends much of her free time either researching in libraries, or physical training. She is meticulous by nature, especially when it comes to the care of her automail arm. She also has a great respect for hierarchy, having grown up in a military family. She is mostly friendly, aside from a few buttons that when pushed, will make her very angry, such as disrespect for the military or alchemists. She is stubborn, when a task is set in front of her by herself or others she will continue to work at it until it is done, often foregoing eating or sleeping in the process. She has a marked hatred of formal events, having been made to go to military balls most of her life, and will always attempt to duck out of them as fast as possible. Finally, hospitals make her extremely nervous.


Likes:
Libraries:  Erika has been known to spend days at a time in the various libraries throughout central, and can sometimes be found asleep at one of the tables inside, next to a pile of books.
 
Foreign Alchemy: Erika is a staunch believer in the saying that ‘knowledge is power’ and fully recognizes that there are flaws to Amestrian alchemy, such as a lack of medical applications or limited use in ranged combat. As such, she jumps at the chance to study alchemy from other countries when it is presented (usually Xingese alchemy)
 
Combat training: It is said among alchemists that a strong body leads to a sharp mind. As such, Erika dedicated study of alchemy often involves hours of training in things like endurance, strength and hand to hand combat.
 
Mechanical Engineering:  While she does not understand mechanics all that well, beyond what she can deduce where the principals of engineering cross over with those of alchemy (such as the creation of alloys, or the functions of simple parts), having a mechanical arm has lead Erika to be at least interested in mechanics, especially those involving the creation of lighter and stronger automail.
 
Meat: Erika does not have the world’s most balanced diet. She absolutely loves meat in almost any form. Steak, fish, sausage, bacon, poultry or otherwise, if it used to be walking around she will most likely eat it.



Dislikes:  
Formal Events: Formal events, and all the protocols, pleasantries and stiff clothes that come with them, make Erika uncomfortable, despite her military upbringing.

Hospitals: Erika received the injury that lead to her automail arm at a young-ish age, and spent a great amount of time in hospitals when she was younger. As such, they make her nervous and uncomfortable.

Passive Aggressiveness: Erika is from a school of thought that if something bothers you, you should just come out and say it, rather than beating around the bush with implications and metaphors.

Spicy Food: Even the slightest bit of spice is likely to cause Erika to give a look of distaste. Anything Exceeding common pepper is more than likely to make her turn red, and with prolonged exposure, begin to tear up.

Stray Animals: Erika used to love animals of all sorts before she lost her arm in her father’s lab accident. However, now most animals that come up to her will sniff at her metal arm first, often highlighting it in public when she is making every effort to hide her automail.


Motivations:
Her Father: Erika’s father is a State Alchemist specializing in combat alchemy. While it was an accident during an experiment of his on fast acting transmutation that has left Erika with an Automail arm, she does not at all resent her father or fear the practice of alchemy. Quite the opposite in fact, she seeks to surpass her father as a combat alchemist, and follow in his footsteps, gaining entry into the military as a state alchemist.

Overcoming her Injury:  With the time Erika had to devote to rehabilitation when she was injured, she is behind most students her age in her alchemical studies. While she is shy about her automail arm and does not like to highlight it normally, she seeks to not only overcome the gap between herself and other alchemists, but also to turn her mechanical arm into a strength. This can be seen in the set up she has created on her body for fast acting transmutation.

Fears:
Failure: While Erika has an amazing drive to attain her goals it has also left her with a crippling sense of perfectionism. There are aspects of Alchemy that come easily to her, such as simple and quick transmutations that are often used in her fighting style (for example the creation of simple weapons or obstacles), but larger and more complicated, time consuming, transmutations can give her a great amount of trouble. As such, she tends to avoid them in her studies, and has been known to lock up in public when asked to perform one. She dreads the practical section of the State Alchemy exam for this reason.

Having he Automail removed and reattached: Erika is meticulous with the upkeep of her automail ,not only because it functioning well allows her to spend more time training, it is also that she is terrified of needing the automail reattached after repair, as the process is excruciatingly painful.

History:
Erika Alright was born in Central City to the State Alchemist Damien Alright, and his wife Melissa. Erika has always had a very close relationship with her father, despite his dedication to his work. Studying alchemy was how they spent most of their time together when Erika was young.

By contrast, Erika’s relationship with her Mother was far less developed. Melissa Alright was a military house wife in every sense of the word, without much appreciation for the technique of alchemy, or inquisitiveness into its inner workings. Mother and Daughter have never had that much common ground.

When Erika was thirteen she began to assist her father in his lab. Usually she had minor roles, like recording data from a safe distance, but one day, when she was fifteen, her father decided to let her observe one of his experiments more closely.

Damien Alright was researching matter distribution after a transmutation specifically in order to develop fast acting breaching tactics that could be used by the army. Essentially ways for field state alchemists to breach highly reinforced walls with the most ideal ratio between time spent transmitting, and the number of soldiers that could efficiently move through the created breach. His experiments involved moving a large amount of matter very quickly. Too quickly one day.

The high density of energy caused an explosion, the brunt of which Erika caught on her right arm. While the explosion did not sever Erika’s arm, it did mangle flesh and shatter bone to the point of the limb needing to be amputated.

The stress over their daughter’s suffering and Melissa’s anger towards her husband over the injury ended their marriage. However, due to his status and salary as a State Alchemist, Damien was seen as the better provider for their daughter. He may have also pulled a few strings.

Erika did not hesitate to jump at the opportunity for automail when the topic was broached, even with the pain of the required surgery. In her mind, she had always wanted to be a combat alchemist like her father and was going to let absolutely nothing stand in her way.

Having received the injury at age fifteen, and spending the next two years focusing only on rehabilitation, Erika is two years behind on her study and has been working feverishly since age seventeen to catch up to others like her.

RP Sample: (At least 100 words)