application to deerington

IN CHARACTER

Character Name: Elena Gilbert
Canon: The Vampire Diaries
Canon Point: During 6x20 "I'd Leave My Happy Home For You" right before she takes the cure

In-Game Tattoo Placement: The center of the back of her neck
Current Health/Status:
Age: 20
Species: Vampire, Born Doppelganger

Content Warnings: Death, loss, vampirism, body hijacking, killing...

History: History

CRAU History and Impact: N/A
Personality:

Elena Gilbert is a strong-willed, often stubborn, and extremely loyal eighteen year old girl who lost her parents too young when she was just starting to find herself. This devastating freak accident shaped who she was from then on. When it comes to Elena, people always described her – she's the popular girl, she’s the girl that lost her parents, she’s the girl who’s dating Stefan, she’s the doppelganger - but in a lot of ways, she hadn’t had a chance to be Elena Gilbert. Yet, in truth, despite not being aware of it, she has always had a very strong sense of self.

Before her parents died, Elena was a popular, gregarious girl who was close to her family and the friends she'd made in grade school. She dated her childhood friend Matt Donovan and she had pride for the town she lived in, a small town in Virginia named Mystic Falls. There are pieces of this Elena that are constants. She still has an enthusiasm for life even if she has to fight through her own misgivings to get there and her friendship never waivers. But, things like her aspirations to write and her will to cheerlead dissipate completely. In short, losing her parents changes her.

There's not always a clear line drawn between Elena Gilbert the human and Elena Gilbert the vampire and a lot of the time, she's written in the context of her love for Damon - but there are consistent and steadfast parts to her personality that never waver.

A huge part of Elena Gilbert’s personality has to do with loss. Specifically, familial loss. Not only has she lost her parents, before learning she’s adopted, but she loses her parental figure, her Aunt Jenna and both of her biological parents: Jonathon Gilbert and Isobel Flemming. Not to mention for two years her father figure Alaric stays dead and for half a year or so, her brother Jeremy does. This actually illustrates how strong she is because she keeps moving. She doesn’t give up and spend all day in bed. Instead, she gets up, greets the morning as best she can and she lives her life. Even if she has to remind herself to breathe in and out, she perseveres. Even when Klaus has hybrids crawling all over Mystic Falls she refuses to live her life trapped in her house. She goes out running. She goes to the Grill. Elena Gilbert lives her life in the face of adversity and loss.

Elena is fiercely loyal when it comes to her friends and family. She loves Jeremy with all her heart even after she realizes she's been adopted. She brow-beats him for doing drugs and pushes him to be the best that he can be. She wakes him up in the morning when he’s late to work. She worries about his well-being to the point of sending him out of town (which I’ll address in the paragraph below.) Other than Jeremy, Jenna is and was the most important person in her life. She was her connection to her mom. She respected and loved her. She worried about her. Elena doesn’t leave her friends behind and she isn’t the friend who backs away when they have a fight. She reaches out, or, she waits until they're ready and they come to her. She also protects and cares about family members of her friends. She’s there for Caroline when her dad decides against transitioning and he dies. She’s there for Matt after Vicki goes missing, and she accompanies Bonnie to meet her biological mom. She will be your port in the storm. Later in canon, after Elena and Stefan aren't in a relationship anymore, they successfully carry out a friendship free of judgment. There's a comfortable air of nostalgia and the feeling of trust that never goes away between them.

Whether they're on the outs for petty, teenaged reasons or more life-altering ones, Elena, Caroline, and Bonnie always find their way back to one another. They are her best friends, her constants, her soul mates in friendship. Caroline turns off her humanity and Elena forgives. Bonnie falls under Silas' spell - and, when she's herself, Elena forgives. Of her group of friends, Elena's always the one who forces everyone to become friends again, sometimes when they're not ready to be.

Elena sees past the monster when it comes to vampires, werewolves, ghosts and everything in between. She sees people. She understands their story. She identifies with Rebekah, Klaus' sister and sympathizes with her when she says that Rebekah is just a girl who lost her parents too young and who loves blindly and recklessly. She is able to move past both the fact that Stefan and Damon (at different times) are vampires and the horrible things they've done to her and the ones she loves. Without listing the atrocities, she still sees the good in both brothers. She sees good in people and creatures. She trusts Elijah because of his idea of honor. She immediately sees past Caroline’s vampirism and sees her friend. She was not raised to hate vampires. They’re people who in most cases didn’t ask for the hand they were dealt in life: i.e. their deaths.

Elena is sought out for two seasons, kidnapped, and bargained for… It takes away her agency and it’s another example of people trying to take Elena’s choices away. She gives herself up for Klaus’ ritual and dies. (Her birth father, Jonathan Gilbert links his life force with hers and instead of waking up a vampire (again, thanks to Damon), she wakes up human.) Klaus then seeks her out and learns that her blood is the key to creating hybrids. In truth, Elena and Katherine aren't the first doppelgängers. That honor goes to Tatia, but there are multiple women throughout history who are identical to Elena. Suffice it to say, Elena being a doppelgänger has opened her world up to immense danger.

As a vampire, Elena's agency is continuously called into question thanks to the discovery of her sire bond with Damon, her humanity being stripped away and then later, Katherine stealing her body. But, for the most part, Elena the vampire makes most of her own decisions. She kills Connor. She fights to stay with Damon and to prove to him she loves him. She focuses her hatred on Katherine for killing Jeremy. She chooses Damon for better or worse. She returns to school, she tries to move on. She travels to the prison world. Elena the vampire makes decisions.

The Salvatore's are the two men in her life that "define her" for most of the series, but I say that very lightly. It can be argued either way, how much Stefan and Damon mean to her at any given point in time.

It's confirmed in later canon that she has deeper feelings for Damon than she ever lets on, but guilt from meeting Stefan first and having never "unfell" for him causes her to choose Stefan ultimately. Despite kidnapping her, feeding her his vampire blood and trying to drive her off of Wickery Bridge (the same bridge her parents died driving off), she chooses Stefan only a month or two later. Her relationship with Stefan moved very quickly, but as she said, he brought her back to life. She saw in him a kinship, a darkness she recognized. He wasn’t asking how she was. He didn’t know the Elena that was. He just knew this Elena. After working through this, their relationship deepens over the course of two seasons (a year.) Unlike Damon, Stefan lets her choose what she wants to do when it comes to threats against her. He talks to her. He hearsher. She loves him deeply. But, after losing him to Klaus – thanks to compulsion – she fears she may never get him back. She will never give up when it comes to Stefan Salvatore. Elena admits to Matt Donovan, her ex, that part of the appeal that came from Stefan was that he wasn’t going to die. Stefan also admitted in Season 1 that he is the one who saved Elena from the accident with her parents. Stefan will always hold a place in her heart. At this time, Elena sees Stefan Salvatore as a close friend, and one she'll have forever.

Sometimes, Elena Gilbert chooses to see the good in people but never loses sight of how dangerous they can be - and taken a step further, believes they're capable of more. This can be seen in how she deals with Damon Salvatore. Elena’s feelings for the elder Salvatore brother are complicated to say the least - though in canon at this point, she's worked through them and chosen Damon indefinitely. After season 5 they become more or less "endgame." Over time she has grown to truly trust him. But, she never loses sight of how reckless he can be – especially when he loses something. Time and again, throughout canon, Damon lashes out impulsively, often to hurt her or someone else. Damon has done horrible things. Damon is just – a connection she can’t seem to shake. There’s a chemistry there she can’t deny, even when she temporarily breaks up with him. One thing she knows is that he would never let anything happen to her, because of his love – and sometimes, this is a problem.

That said, because Alaric compelled the best memories away, everything she feels for Damon is based on his actions in the past few months. All she remembers are the harder, more violent parts. Specifically, acting out and killing Jeremy. But, she was determined enough to get her memories back to try and run across the town line. She's only got glimmers so far. But, after taking the cure, she remembers it all.

Elena is sweet and very generous when she can be, especially with her time when it comes to school and town events. She volunteers without blinking an eye, often helping the mayor and his wife, or her friends. She was raised doing that. She's polite, well spoken, and unlike Katherine she loves with all her heart. When she’s in, she is all in. Later in canon she's seen volunteering in a clinic and following in her father's footsteps.

Because of her great losses, Elena has developed a bit of a guilt complex. Her parents died in the car crash but she didn't. Had she not been in this town, had she not existed, her family and friends would be safe. She’s the reason Klaus targeted Mystic Falls, targeted Stefan. (Technically, Katherine is, but she was still born.) She’s the reason Katherine has Jenna stab herself and why Caroline is a vampire. She blames herself for how dangerous the town of Mystic Fallsbecomes for Jeremy. She even feels indirect guilt for Bonnie’s grandmother’s death because she dies after a spell cast for the Salvatore’s benefit. Despite feeling this guilt, she doesn’t dwell on her own problems. She never lets this guilt consume her. She may spend a night wallowing, or even a few minutes, but then she moves on. She isn’t all about her.

Despite the blood, the death, and the losses, Elena is able to let loose when she wants. She goes dancing, she goes to the Mystic Grill. She's still a girl. She has sleepovers, she parties, she has to find the good. She tries to be normal when she can. She drinks underage (thanks, Salvatores). She knows how to have fun.

After a horrible first half a year as a vampire, Elena doubles down on her best qualities and becomes a much more confident person. While she longs for that friendship with Stefan and she misses him, she doesn't doubt her connection to Damon. She still deeply feels for her friends, and mourns her friend Bonnie and then Damon once. But, as a vampire, loss tends to hit her harder because of amplified feelings. After losing Jeremy, Damon turns her humanity off. After losing Bonnie and Damon in one fell swoop, Elena spends a summer ingesting a dangerous magical drug to see him and then makes the reckless decision to erase his memory from her mind completely - to save herself from this deeper heartbreak.

One thing to always remember about Elena the vampire is that she never wanted to be one, and became one because of a freak accident. Despite this, she eventually embraces it and gets better at it, despite setbacks and losses. At this point in canon, she has the cure for vampirism in hand and she is not only planning on taking it, but Damon has offered to take it with her. Post this episode, she does indeed decide to. But, not wanting to be a vampire is a huge plot point that is massaged as Elena grows into who she is and learns to embrace her darker, more sultry and more mature sides to her personality. She does admit once and for all that a part of her may never be okay being a vampire, but that being with Damon for eternity would "make it okay."

People throughout the series, especially in the first season, joke about what Elena Gilbert won't let happen, because she's too nice, but she's perfectly capable of making wrong decisions, hurting the ones she loves, and betraying people when it's a matter of life and death and she sees no other choice.

Thanks to the Salvatore's, Elena Gilbert spends years keeping a lot of secrets. She lies about the Salvatore brothers being vampires. She keeps Caroline’s vampirism a secret. She lies to her aunt Jenna for nearly a year. She lies to Matt in order to save him from the pain of losing his sister. She lies to other people that she has feelings for Damon. And most of all, she lies to herself. All this lying is fueled by her need to protect everyone. She believes (sometimes foolishly) that they’ll be safer if they’re kept in the dark. This is illustrated all through the series. Though, this weighs on her, she believes it to be the best choice of action at the time. It's proven a few times that this isn't always the best course of action. While not proven, it's possible keeping Jenna in the dark left her vulnerable to being turned and that led to her death.

Elena tends to make huge, sometimes dangerous (and always reckless) decisions without thinking or asking, usually because she believes it's for someone's own good. And, most of the time, they don’t pay off in the long run. She undaggers Elijah, an Original and Klaus' brother, on a whim because she believes he’ll be the best ally against Klaus. Elijah ends up saving his brother. She daggers Rebekah to keep her out of the plan to kill Mikael because she doesn't trust Rebekah to be an impartial sibling, as Elijah hadn't been. his factors into her betrayals, as well, because she attacks her after a very sweet moment the two share. She fights Damon to ram their car into the Grill to kill the Travelers, even though she knows she may not make it back. She asks Damon to erase her brother, Jeremy’s, mind twice and the second time she sends him off to Denver to stay with distant relatives. She asks Alaric to erase Damon.

Some of the time, these decisions she makes are strategic but every time they are impulsive. She does a 180 and returns Rebekah to Klaus undaggered before dropping the bomb that Rebekah was aware that Klaus is the one who killed the Originals’ mother and knows that Klaus will simply dagger his sister again, preferring not to deal with her drama. (But mostly, not to face what he's done.) She makes a deal with Elijah regarding the sacrifice to keep her family and friends safe and so that Stefan will be freed from the tomb. She does this without consulting anyone. She won't hesitate to leave anyone out of a plan if it means they’re safe. And if she's left out, she sticks her nose in.

Elena has her petty moments as well. In full view of Damon who believes he kissed her only days before, she kisses Stefan goodbye before embarking on a road trip. She's make the wrong comment that cuts someone to the core (usually Damon). As mentioned before, she stabs Stefan when his humanity is off, just get one good one in. When the doppelgängers come together, Elena holds her hand out proudly as she bleeds for a spell because she's a vampire, and she can. She relishes Katherine's death when everyone gathers, but she still chooses to forgive her.

As far as she knows, there have been three doppelgangers before her, three women who look exactly like her. Tatia, Amara, and Katerina Petrova/Katherine Pierce. Elena Gilbert is not Katherine Pierce. Sometimes, Elena can’t even tell where she ends and where not wanting to be Katherine Pierce begins. A lot of what she does stems from not wanting to be compared to a selfish, entitled vampire that wears her face. How much of what she does is Elena and how much is it not wanting to be Katherine? This is a large reason why she doesn't pursue something real with Damon, because Katherine loved them both, and as she's said multiple times, she's not Katherine. She works at not being Katherine. She tries not to play the Salvatore brothers against each other. Elena isn’t purposefully manipulative, but she does manipulate both brothers and even agrees that she strings them along. She also draws a parallel to stringing Matt along junior year, something she did when she couldn't make up her mind with what she wanted. She plays on Damon’s feelings for her, especially when they go to Duke. She’s never been blameless in Damon’s connection to her.

Despite it all, Elena is not a pushover. She doesn’t take crap. She is headstrong and stubborn, sometimes to the point of her own detriment. She pushes her way into plans, refuses to stay behind when she doesn't think she should. She doggedly pursues Stefan as the Ripper, despite how dangerous it is. At her heart, Elena is a survivor. She’s a fighter. She's strong. Where many girls would've buckled under the weight of what's happened, she only buckled twice in her life. She's taken the wheel fo her own life and made her own decisions. Now, she's ready to take the next step with the man she loves.

Abilities/Powers/Weaknesses & Warping:

Elena Gilbert is a vampire. This means she has...

☓ enhanced speed, ontop of that, the ability to "appear" behind you/in rooms super quietly.
☓ appearing in a flash, essentially.
☓ the ability to jump really high
☓ enhanced strength
☓ enhanced senses (sight, smell, taste and especially hearing, vampires can hear conversations from across a room)
☓ when the fangs come out, his eyes go black, red-black veins protrude outward (this also happens when he's hungry)
☓ the ability to compel a human not on vervain - this is making eye contact and getting them to do something/say something/forget that anything happened whatsoever
☓ she can manipulate or enter a persons' dream state, especially when they're weakened, this is easier with humans
☓ early in the series, and through the character of lexi, it's been illustrated that some older vampires can fabricate illusions. Lexi causes Stefan to think he's been starving for years, Elena has never used this or learned to use this
☓ a vampire can never age, and they heal faster from injuries
☓ her blood can also heal a human's injuries *I read the FAQ
☓ if she feeds you his blood and you die, you wake up in transition to become a vampire

Being a vampire also means there are weaknesses...

☓ intense, often overwhelming amplified emotions
☓ a vampire needs to be invited into a dwelling
☓ a vampire can't walk into the sunlight, but Elena has a ring that lets her walk in the sun
☓ fire, a stake through the heart, beheading, heart-removal, sunlight, and a werewolf (or hybrid) bite are all lethal to vampires.
☓ vervain weakens a vampire if ingested or injected. it also burns. (but it also keeps an original vampire from being able to compel them). when extensive amounts of vervain are in their system, they can't compel
☓ being stabbed by anything wooden is excruciating but not fatal, this is the same with wooden bullets
☓ feeding on animal blood makes a vampire weaker than say if they fed on human blood (which elena learns to do, and always from blood bags, or in season 6 a blood take-out soda complete with straw)
☓ older vampires are stronger but hybrids do seem to be the exception
☓ without blood at all vampires desiccate and become living, dried out mummies

Inventory:

- (one) outfit. black pants. flats. dangly gold necklace. buttoned black sweater. grey shirt with thin black collar, one button from Jo's bachelorette party. one set of dangly earrings. one daylight ring
- (one) ring box containing (one) cure for vampirism
- (one) 2008 Ford Escape SUV containing

- (one) trunk with blood bags + (one) travel mug with straw to sip in style
- (one) overnight bag with a few casual outfit choices, including a black triangle necklace and heels, overnight toiletry bag, journal containing entries of her life during freshman year of college including her relationship with damon and a (totally gross) photo booth printout of the two of them
- (one) phone that won't work but, like caroline's, has pictures worth remembering

Writing Samples:

Elena Top Level on the TDM & Elena & Caroline

*a different sample, a little older but I wanted variety*

OUT OF CHARACTER

Player Name: Brandon
Player Age: 31
Player Contact: manipulative

Other Characters In Game: N/A
In-Game Tag If Accepted: "Elena Gilbert: Brandon"
Permissions for Character: Permissions
Are you comfortable with prominent elements of fourth-walling?: Yep!
What themes of horror/psychological thrillers do you enjoy the most?: I love themes of paranoia, lashing out at the wrong people, fighting back, fighting for your life and the classic slasher. Ghosts and demonic possession is also up there.
Is there anything in particular you absolutely need specific content warnings for?: Anything sexually violent, something with children and, honestly, something being done to a live animal.

permissions for deerington

out of character

formatting ✓
I default and keep up with action spam more often than not, but I have no problem matching someone else's style.

backtagging ✓
I will backtag until I feel like we've accomplished what's needed. I'm a big believer of, sometimes you reach the point of a thread and there's zero reason to keep it going. If I feel we've reached a natural conclusion, I'll reach out and consult. If you want more done or think there is more to be done, please, I'm all for communication.

threadjacking ✓
If something isn't private, go for it. I love the feel of a lived in world and people jacking threads can be very fun and true to life.

fourthwalling ✓
With the nature of this game, I understand the mechanics, but Elena will probably not believe she is fictional. So, don't try to convince her? She is a doppelganger and had run-ins with other famous vampires, plus she's in love with a well known vampire and dated his well-known brother. Those vagueries, I'm fine with!

in character

romance ✗
Generally, I am all for shipping, and with Elena it's M/F. But, most of the time in canon she's very much attached. As of this time, her canon point has her planning a human life with Damon Salvatore who is in the game, so don't expect anything. That said, I'm never against development, and I don't plan everything out. But, for the near future, she has eyes only for Damon Salvatore.

Elena is very affectionate however, so depending on your CR with her, she'll take a hug. She likes hugs. Anything more than that, then it's on your character how she reacts.

telepathy ✓
On the one hand, in canon vampires can only be compelled/have their minds altered/affected by other vampires, but on the other, characters come from different worlds. Please, let's talk if it comes up, but she won't act favorably to anything like that.

violence ✓
Elena's a vampire. I love action and fighting threads, but I'd want to discuss beforehand so neither of us is assuming an outcome/actions/etc. Fight with her, for sure. Good luck fighting against her, though, she has three vampire friends in town, too.

injury ✓
Most injuries don't stick. Vampire. But, in a game of psychological horror, i'm open to discussing it of course.

killing ✗
She's undead right now. Let's keep her that way. If it comes up as game and plot related - we shall see. But, it's something I'll be avoiding for the time being.

trigger warnings !
Not every thread will involve anything worthy of a warning, but Elena's history includes kidnapping, violence, murder, and the loss of agency to her body. She's been privy to and around sexual assault, murder, killing sprees, and senseless acts of violence.