ruby city application; GAMEWIDE SDR2 SPOILERS WITHIN.

[monarchical]

THIS APP CONTAINS MAJOR SDR2 SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE GAME. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

PLAYER
Name: Lucy.
Age: 25.
Personal Journal: fleeting
E-mail: ilovelucille89@gmail.com.
AIM/MSN/etc: lucylovespluto

CHARACTER
Name: Sonia Nevermind.
Canon: Super Dangan Ronpa 2.
Age: Real: 20(? unknown in canon); Apparent: 17.
Timeline: End of chapter 6.
If playing another character from the same canon, how will you deal with this?: n/a

Personality:

Friendly and almost excessively polite, Sonia was one of the more diplomatic and amicable students in her "class" (spoilers: they were not all from the same class year, and the class years are all sort of up in the air so no one knows them outside of a few). While she did occasionally tell people off, it was always in her habitually polite and formal mode of speech, and almost always had to do with disrespect to another of their classmates. As far as the others went, her generally forthright manner seemed to have gone over fairly well, and she didn't have any major problems with any of the others to speak of (the most antagonistic she gets with a classmate is with Souda, whom she refers to as her stalker and prefers to avoid; she even tries to get along with Komaeda to a degree, and literally no one likes Komaeda as the game gets going). She did disagree with others at times, but even so didn't work up to any real rivalries or anything of that nature, even with those she scolded from time to time. Of course, this could be because there were characters who had this "major problems with others" thing on lockdown (Komaeda, and Kuzuryuu for a while, and Saionji, and - look, her class just has a lots of very strong personalities in it!) but there you go.

Though she words things a little oddly due to her status as a foreigner, at least half of Sonia's word choice can be applied to "speaks in an overly formal manner with an occasional sprinkling of outdated terminology that she's pretty sure is very current because she grew up watching outdated dramas". Her formality is linked to her being polite - Sonia even calls Monokuma Monokuma-san, which is far, far more polite than anyone else ever bothers to be. She's not likely to interrupt the others when they're speaking - in fact, near the end of trial two this works against her as Sonia isn't able to get people to continue speaking about the facts of the case before the vote, as her interjections are politely worded and peppered with "please" and "excuse me" while everyone is very worked up about the trial at hand - and shows disapproval whenever anyone else starts arguing or being rude to one another. Most of her scolding has to do with others disrespecting one another, as stated above. It's worth noting that even in the midst of Murder Island: The Game (aka Super Dangan Ronpa 2) Sonia tends to greet people and even make pleasant remarks about the weather - she's very much a polite girl, and the times she's outright rude are far and few between and therefore worth paying attention to when they happen.

While Sonia is generally always polite, she does not always agree with others or simply go along with things by any means. Even given her respectful phrasing when referring to Monokuma, Sonia also responds to him with "In that case... please excuse us for not looking forward to it." after Monokuma prepares a game for them in the second chapter. While polite on the outside, this statement is a good example of how Sonia will manage to be polite while also basically saying how about not. This diplomacy is something others remark upon in the game from time to time. Sonia also refuses to just go along with Koizumi's insistence that she ought to be the leader in the first chapter, saying that her status had always been more of a figurehead at home, and that she believed Togami was a good choice. Sonia does go with the flow sometimes - for example, she allows Hinata and Souda to join the girl's beach outing when pressed, although she remarks that it had been planned to be girls-only - but she generally will not do anything she does not wish to do. This is perhaps best displayed by something she says to Hinata early on in a Free Time Event: "I do not plan on killing anyone... nor have I any interest in meekly being killed!" Sonia actually manages to stick to this, so...props to her.

It should be noted that Sonia is very caring and really does seem to feel for her classmates. She's among those actively trying to get along and get to know others at the start of the game, and goes so far as to organize a girl's meet-up after the first murder trial is finished, believing stronger bonds would help them to eschew the mutual killing (...it doesn't work out, but hey, she tried). She's also one of the first to Kuzuryuu's side when he's hurt at the end of the second execution, not caring about getting blood on her hands as she tries to assist Tsumiki in checking on him, and apparently got absolutely no sleep while they were waiting for word on how Kuzuryuu was doing. Sonia's one instance of snapping at someone unprompted came from a lack of sleep during this time, and she apologized immediately after. She's also the one who first wants to listen to what Tsumiki has to say when the other girl interrupts during the first trial, although it is Tanaka who carries through the motion of listening to the Super High School Level Nurse. Even more so, the fact that she would forget the others was almost more important to Sonia as a factor that scared her in the Forced Shutdown than becoming Super High School Level Despair did (as did the fact that Hinata wouldn't even be reset to a Super High School Level Despair Hinata, which was a sticking point for pretty much every survivor). And after she'd decided that the best way to care about the others was to not let their deaths go to waste, and to grab the future they'd built together, for good or ill...well, that was what swayed her more than anything else as well.

The fact that Sonia is a bit odd is indisputable, but it also seems to have a lot to do with her being a foreigner - in particular, it seems to have a lot to do with her being a foreigner from Novoselic (which is a the fictional European country that Sonia is princess of). Hinata wonders at one point if the people of Sonia's homeland are in fact sane, and the answer is...well, we don't know the answer, but they are apparently universally quirky. It's a place where there are odd rituals involving animals called "Makangos", which are relevant to couples. Apparently one has to raise them, and then show them off to one's lover in order for them to be a thing - or you have to fight them. It can be a little confusing because it sounds absolutely insane - also of note is that Sonia has to have a gold one. It's a place where quirky magical girl anime can get a 90% approval rating from the public, and apparently old Japanese dramas are trendy. Being thirteen minutes early for any appointment is apparently expected (...weirdly) and in elementary school students start training on how to use things like tanks. To put it simply? Novoselic is weird as hell and quite a few of Sonia's oddities seem to be linked to her homeland and upbringing.

Quite a few, but not all. One of Sonia's other little quirks is an intense appreciation of serial killers and the occult, which is all her own - her appreciation of Japanese dramas, for example, is more Novoselic weirdness, not Sonia weirdness. Throughout the game this "hobby" of hers gets remarked upon by others (usually in the "...okay, that's a bit weird for a princess, but if you say so, Sonia" sense, since no one appears to have the heart to call her out on it completely save for one or two occasions) and Sonia herself frequently reminds people of it by things she does or says. Her friendship with Tanaka Gundam seems to be founded on her appreciation of his dark arts (as well as his cute hamsters) and she's openly admiring of him, for example, and when the topic of serial killers comes up in trial two she's very surprisingly knowledgeable. There's also the curious statement that precedes her assertion to Hinata that she had interest in killing or being killed - Sonia remarks that "It might have been different were this my own country, but for me, this is a foreign land" in terms of eschewing the mutual killing, which seems to indicate that she might have been a more active participant if they had been in Novoselic. This is never really expanded on, but it's definitely enough to make Hinata do a double-take at it.

Sonia also tends to miss references to things on occasion, or misunderstands colloquialisms - her first on-screen conversation of any length has to do with Sonia completely missing Hanamura's innuendos (Komaeda and Hinata put a stop to him for her, though, or at least play interference) despite the fact that she later admits she isn't a virgin. The things that go over her head have a lot to do with that sort of thing, or with cultural things she just doesn't get. See: fire doors, which was a plot point for a case. And for a silly example, Nidai once uses the phrase "Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle!" to express surprise. Sonia seems shocked, and then...turns around and copies it five minutes later, because she added it to her repertoire. Sonia is admittedly fairly willing to go along with silliness - she at least never puts up too much protest to some of the weirder topics of conversation, and can occasionally get embroiled in derailments. That said, Sonia is actually a very intelligent young lady. She can read and write in thirty languages, and is frequently complimented throughout the game on her fluency with Japanese. Even aside from that, she often notices things and brings up things that are relevant in trials (and she isn't doing so randomly, as Sonia is one of the characters who at the very least pays attention and contributes actively to trials, although she's more active in some than others). It's clear that she has a good head on her shoulders, even if she's occasionally silly.

While Sonia doesn't remember anything from the missing memories (...somewhat obviously, since they are missing) she is aware of her fall to Despair at her canon point, and it is certainly worth noting that Sonia Nevermind did become a member of Super High School Level Despair in the ordinary course of things. This is an irrefutable fact, as were the things she did while in that group. While the details are vague or hard to attribute to specific students, every member of Super High School Level Despair had a hand in murder and mayhem, and it is likely that all of their families were sacrificed to this in one way or another. For Sonia, it is likely her country did not survive her fall.

I bring this up solely to discuss this: "She used that overwhelming irrationality to gather "Super High School Level Despair" around her...she used love, hate, revenge, whatever she could to turn them to despair." That quote is from Monokuma, discussing Enoshima Junko. While Sonia has determined to move forward to the future that she and her friends fought for and grabbed with their own hands and while she is overall a charming and friendly person, it is worth noting that in the past she was capable of being broken to the degree of becoming a member of Super High School Level Despair. While the specific downfalls of each student are unknown (save for a few, like Hinata and so on) it is likely that Sonia's personal despair had something to do with her status as a princess and what that meant for her in her personal life. In one of her Free Time Events with Hinata she tells him that her life was was the property of her country and its citizens, and multiple times over the course of the game she states she'd never had a chance to do many mundane things, including having friends her own age. She admits she was looking forward to her time as an exchange student in Japan for that reason: a chance to be something other than a princess, as "In my country, before I am a human being or a woman, I am, firstly, the princess." The feelings of loneliness she had without friends and the belief that her life always belongs to her country before herself are things that still exist within Sonia to this day, although hopefully she would recognize an attempt to turn them against her.

While Sonia appeared to have come to terms with returning to the Sonia Nevermind who was in Super High School Level Despair without any memories of her time on the island ("The future we'll create from this point on, it’s also the future that the others helped us create, isn't it?") it is likely to be something that will come up and very much be a part of her. She understands what she became, and she can look out for it so it doesn't occur again, but...the fact that it did occur is unquestionable and that matters in terms of who Sonia is.

Background: Wiki page.

Abilities:

In terms of powers, Sonia has nothing supernatural to her name. In Dangan Ronpa (and Super Dangan Ronpa 2) students of Hope's Peak Academy are accepted based upon their talents, and receive Super High School Level titles in accordance with said talents. Sonia's talent is that of the Super High School Level Princess, which (as I've gone over in the previous section) is due to the fact that she is a Princess. As far as this talent goes in practice, she seems to be capable of speaking in an unintentionally authoritative tone (typically accompanied by this pose) which tends to make her classmates snap to attention and occasionally go along with her against their initial wills. At one point Hinata even finds himself nearly kneeling down before her when she dismisses him curtly due to a lack of sleep. This isn't a supernatural ability or anything - it's just Sonia's princess side showing through, the authority of someone of royal lineage used to behaving as such.

Outside of that, Sonia is apparently capable of reading and writing in at least thirty languages (and presumably speaking in them) and has a truly ridiculous knowledge of outdated Japanese dramas. Truly useful skills when everyone mysteriously speaks the same language. And, well, when is the Japanese drama thing ever going to benefit her? More (?) usefully (maybe) is her ability to drive a tank (why) and a knowledge of how to use bombs (why, Novoselic), as well as a weird amount of knowledge on esoteric weapons, apparently (so yeah her country is weird).

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