Player Information
Name: Claire
Age: 18+
Contact: superorbital
Current characters: not a bean, sir

Character Information
Name: Violet Evergarden
Series: Violet Evergarden (TV Anime)
Appearance: Anime character sheet | Light novel illustration sheet | Anime key visual | this is just here because i like violet evergarden gifs
Age: Fifteen...ish?? Violet says she's been told she's "around fourteen" in episode five but there are some slightly unclear but obviously significant passages of time between that and her canon point. LOVE THEM ANIME AGES
Canon Point: Ending of episode 9 - "Violet Evergarden".
Canon History:

Wikipedia has outlines of the anime episodes but it's pretty bare bones and the fanwiki primarily details the light novel which differs from the anime, so I'll write out the bulk of Violet's history here. Content warnings for war, death, inscription of child soldiers, loss of limbs, suicidal ideation and self harm.

That said, Violet's exact origins are never divulged to the viewer. As per the anime's timeline, she is found as a lone orphan in the north-west warfront of Leidenschaftlich by Dietfried Bougainvillea apparently mute and unable to communicate. He soon discovers that despite her apparent fragility, Violet (though she remains unnamed for quite some time) is a brutal killing machine, able to understand and enact orders to kill with little trouble. Following this, while on a boat back to the mainland, Violet kills all of Dietfried's men with ease, leaving only him alive. The anime doesn't detail exactly why this happens, but the light novels imply it was in an attempt at self-defense.

Upon returning to Leidenschaftlich, Dietfried turns Violet over to his brother, Gilbert, who has recently been promoted to the rank of major amidst the chaos of war. Dietfried himself claims to be giving her as a gift, dehumanizing Violet and referring to her as a 'tool' but there are some implications that he is afraid of her and is simply attempting to get rid of her as quickly as possible. Like any human being with a smudge of empathy, Gilbert is quite rightly horrified by Violet's treatment and takes her under his wing, becoming the first person in her life to treat her as a child instead of a tool of war.

Gilbert does his best to raise the feral Violet and give her the care she needs, teaching her to speak, read and write and eventually naming her. Violet in turn becomes incredibly attached to him, making Gilbert the center of her world and her only reason for existing. This is an unhealthy enough dynamic in any case that's made even worse by the fact that Gilbert is forced by his superiors to have Violet join him on the front lines, despite her age. The army neatly dances around the horrific implications of enlisting a child, by registering her as a 'weapon' with Gilbert as her user.

Violet spends most of the rest of the war quietly doing a lot of killing and not much else. She becomes infamous among the two opposing armies and is called "Leidenschaftlich's Soldier Maiden" which is kind of a mouthful and super unoriginal, but go off, I guess. Gilbert is incredibly torn apart by guilt, unable to go against his superior officer but horrified at seeing the child he'd raised become just a took of bloodshed. This comes to a head when, during some downtime, Violet and Gilbert attend a small festival at which Violet is transfixed by the sight of an emerald brooch, which she compares to Gilbert's eyes. She struggles to find a word to describe it and when she is prompted with 'beautiful', innocently and matter-of-factly observes that she has never heard such a word and has no understanding of what beauty is. Faced with the catastrophic levels to which he has failed Violet as a parent – to the point of robbing her of a sense of beauty and wonder – Gilbert buys Violet the brooch and begins quietly planning on how to let Violet live a life separately from him.

Eventually, Gilbert (and therefore Violet) find themselves assigned to an operation that, if successful, is predicted to end the war. The night beforehand, Violet expresses a great deal of anxiety about her future to Gilbert, but due to how thoroughly she has been stunted by her use as a tool in the army, she is only able to express this in terms of being 'reassigned away' and 'not receiving orders from' him. In guilt and self-loathing, Gilbert eventually lashes out verbally at Violet in an attempt to make her express some sort of emotion or sense of self-preservation but only succeeds in making Violet cry, while she insists that she does not understand how she feels and that she is simply his tool. This is implied to be what pushes Gilbert from "lowkey not expecting to make it out of this battle alive" to "high key hoping for it" as an expression of self-loathing over how thoroughly he has damaged Violet.

This unfortunately comes terribly true in the battle that commences. Gilbert's men (and Violet) are able to seize the enemy fortress, but Gilbert and Violet are both critically injured when the enemy attacks them again just at their moment of apparent victory. Gilbert is shot multiple times and Violet is hit with both a grenade and a shotgun, causing her to lose both her arms. The two of them scramble to safety out of the line of fire, and though Violet attempts to save him, Gilbert is aware he is a lost cause. With his dying breaths, he tells Violet that all he wants is for her to live and be free and tells her that he loves her. All Violet can do is sob that she doesn't understand and beg him to explain, but these are the last words they ever exchange. The losing enemy bomb their fortress and Gilbert shields Violet from the blast, giving his life for hers.

In the wreckage, Violet is found alone and hurried back to safety where she can be given medical care. To replace her missing arms, she is fitted with a pair of metal prosthetics that serve all the functions of her missing limbs, hands included. I am BEGGING you not to make me explain how this works because I literally do not know. Violet then spends a considerable amount of time in hospital healing and regaining her strength (around half a year) but critically, is not aware of Gilbert's death.

And this is the point at which episode one starts. It took me nearly a thousand words to cover just the pre-anime backstory. I'm. I'm so sorry, mods.

Once she has recovered, Violet is released from hospital into the custody of Claudia Hodgins, an ex-army Lieutenant who had been asked by Gilbert to care for Violet in his absence. He is unable to bring himself to tell Violet the truth and lies that Gilbert is still alive and has entrusted her to Hodgins, for the time being. She is taken back to Leiden, the capital city, where she is intended to be left in the care of the Evergardens, who are some of Gilbert's closest relatives. This arrangement doesn't work out, as Violet reacts with extreme distress at the idea that she is simply being left behind by the Major, asking Hodgins to "discard her" if she, as a tool, is no longer useful. Hodgins (and the viewer) immediately gains a +1000 Dad Modifier and decides to take Violet into his own care instead, offering her a job and a place to feel useful at the CH Postal Company, a letter-writing and delivery business he has established to meet the needs of the population following the war.

Violet tries her hand at a few odd jobs like letter sorting and delivery but her militaristic mindset makes it difficult for her to feel truly settled in any of them. By coincidence, however, she finds herself watching over a job taken out by one of the company's Auto Memoir Dolls, Cattleya – essentially, a ghostwriter whose responsibility it was to properly transcribe the often complex and messy thoughts and feelings of clients into a sincere letter. Cattleya is able to intuit from the twitterpated customer that he wishes to confess his love to the woman he's addressing and Violet finds herself quite emotionally affected. Wanting desperately to understand the meaning of the words "I love you" and therefore, the Major's last words to her, Violet begs Hodgins to allow her to work as an Auto Memoir Doll. Hodgins is taken aback, but recognizing that this is the first and only thing that Violet has ever requested of her own will, he agrees to let her do so.

It's a bit of a bumpy ride at first. Violet is trained both at CH Postal and at a school intended to train exemplary Dolls but struggles to pick up the skills necessary to thrive. She has incredibly typing skills and receives top marks when it comes to grammar and vocabulary, but her blunt and awkward nature upsets clients and her lifeless writing is unable to convey any true sentiment. This isn't helped by Violet's own confessed difficulties with understanding both her own feelings and that of other people. However, she is eventually able to write her first true letter, on behalf of her first friend who she wished to help. Her sincere efforts are able to properly convey the feelings she's been entrusted with and to honor that, she is granted a pin marking her graduation from the school and singling Violet out as an exceptional Auto Memoir Doll... in the making, at least.

From there, Violet's letter writing skills improve in leaps and bounds, even if her personal progress is somewhat less smooth. She's hired by a great many people, including royalty and through her services as an Auto Memoir Doll, Violet is both able to convey their feelings and see parts of herself in their stories, leading her both to a better understanding of her own feelings and that of other people. However, that progress also comes with it a deeper and more thorough understanding of Violet's own history of pain and atrocities during the war. Something that isn't helped by a passing encounter with Dietfried, who regards her with bitterness and reacts with scorn at the idea that Violet, who had caused so much death and despair with her hands, could be writing letters that bring people together with them instead.

This comes to a head when, after helping a grieving playwright to move past the death of his daughter by finishing a play dedicated to her, Violet finds herself shaken to the core by the sudden and painful understanding of the amount of lives she herself has snuffed out. In this intensely emotionally vulnerable state, Violet has a chance encounter with her would-be guardian, Tiffany Evergarden, who inadvertently reveals, at the worst possible time, that Gilbert is dead.

On the verge of a total breakdown, Violet demands the truth from Hodgins, who admits to his part in the deception. But Violet, hysterical with grief, refuses to believe him and flees from the CH Postal Company. She manages to find her way back to Gilbert's house where she had grown up but instead of reuniting with the Major, Violet is confronted with his grave instead. Shocked into numbness, the only thing she can bring herself to do is return to the place he died – the bombed out wreckage of the enemy stronghold – to try and find him. She is eventually found and brought back to the CH Postal Company by Hodgins, but she is so deep in grief that she locks herself in her room and refuses to take any more work.

Despairing of the Major's fate and crushed by her own self-loathing, Violet struggles to cope with his death, which peaks when she awakens from a nightmare where Gilbert speaks with Dietfried's words, scorning her for trying to do good with her hands when she has killed so many people with them. Apparently taking this to heart and unable to see any worth in herself, Violet tears apart her room, smashes her belongings and eventually tries to strangle herself with her metal hands – but is unable to go through with it.

It's here at her lowest point, though, that Violet finally receives the help she needs. It starts off as something so simple; a letter, written by the coworkers who have watched her grow, who express their concern and care for her and wish for some way to help. Gently encouraged by their words, Violet slowly begins to return to work – first with helping with delivery, where she sees first-hand the joy that receiving a letter can bring. And finally, with a return to her very first successful job as an Auto Memoir Doll; the recipient of her first letter hires her to send a letter of gratitude to his sister, Violet's very first client.

Remembering the reason she began her work in the first place and reflecting on how far she's come prompts Violet to pose Hodgins with a question: is it truly alright for her to be an Auto Memoir Doll, after all the pain and suffering she's caused? Or, more importantly, is it alright for her to even live at all? Hodgins, who has been struggling with the same questions himself, eventually responds that her actions as a soldier cannot ever be erased, neither can the sincere good that she does now as an Auto Memoir Doll. Violet takes these words to heart and decides that this is enough for her to be satisfied with, and is finally able to move past the grief of Gilbert's death and begin moving on into a life without him.

(and no matter how much that sounds like a series finale, I swear to you there's like, four more episodes after this. seriously.)

Personality:

❝She was a lovely girl... who wore doll-like outfits, acted like a soldier... and she changed my life, forever.❞

When people go to the C.H. Postal Company and request an Auto Memoir Doll, they generally don't expect to be dealing with a girl like Violet. She conducts herself with a seemingly effortless degree of poise, placid and doll-like in almost everything she does. Even in her downtime, she's collected and calm, sometimes to the point of being expressionless. She doesn't speak much more than is necessary and when she does, she addresses people politely and professionally, which makes her come off as rather distant. Her military upbringing peeks out in myriad ways, for all she's grown past it – she dislikes taking meals around other people, for example, as she prefers to be alone with vulnerable. It's perhaps not surprising, then, that Violet's such a diligent worker, when she has something to accomplish. She works patiently, almost mechanically, at any task set to her, to the best of her abilities and she'll see it through to the end. This doesn't mean that she's exactly good at everything she does, but she takes everything in stride with a rather comical seriousness, regardless of the situation. She's aware that her own preconceived notions about the way the world works aren't quite in line with the reality, so rather than judging or making assumptions, Violet's more the sort of person to hang back and quietly assess before she engages herself with a situation. She's a quick learner, who likes to fully absorb what she's about to do before she tries it... with varying degrees of success.

When she does come forward to engage with others, Violet can be a bit off-putting. Her eccentricities and her aloof outer self make her seem fairly inscrutable but it usually doesn't take long before Violet shows her cards as an incredibly direct sort of girl. It might take a little bit for her to eventually pipe up, but once you get her talking, it becomes apparent very fast that she's remarkably – almost comically – straightforward. She's honest to the point of being blunt, simply because she doesn't really see the point of mincing her words. While she tries her best to take care and not tread on any toes, she'll occasionally do or say things that are rude or terribly insensitive without really getting why.

It's certainly not as though Violet wants to be quite so insensitive, though. She's quite a sensitive girl in her own sort of way and causing people pain and upset is something that's quite distressing for her. While she's come along in leaps and bounds since her first slightly floundering attempts at connecting with the people around her, she does still have trouble and when she realizes she's made a misstep or caused pain, she'll sincerely accept responsibility and strive to do better. This is often where Violet's straightforward nature is her saving grace. She's learned from her own difficulties and shortcomings that often the best way to help someone is simply to be direct, in words another person would probably shy away from. If she thinks a customer is hiding something from her, she'll frankly ask them to come clean. Or if she finds herself (as she still occasionally does) unable to truly understand someone's feelings, she won't hesitate to openly ask them to explain their emotional state.

After all, Violet's lack of understanding comes from a place of inexperience, not a lack of attentiveness. She cares deeply for the feelings of others, not just out of necessity for her role as a Doll, but because Violet herself is a genuinely kind, well-meaning girl. Her time in the military and her gradual understanding of the horrors she was made to commit have instilled in her a deeply-held understanding of the value of a happy life and if she sees the chance to do good for someone then Violet will do it, every single time. Unfortunately, for all she means well, this can also make her come across as a bit of a busybody and though she'd had success so far, she also isn't really equipped to deal with the problems of everyone she comes across. She'll try her best, though, doing massive amounts of emotional labor whether it's warranted or not. Her duties as a Doll only extent to letter writing, but Violet still feels responsible for the pain and anguish others feel, no matter if she's responsible for it or not.

It's sort of against all the odds that Violet has grown into the person she is now. Being inducted into the military at such a young age would be disastrous for anyone, but someone like Violet, in the state she was in, had no hope of coming out of it undamaged. Her attachment to Gilbert was a symptom of this and while she has begun to move past the most unhealthy aspects of it, much of Violet's world still revolves around him, the man who raised her and the man she fought and killed for. She is by no means over his death or his absence from her life, but she is beginning to take her first steps into a world without him on her own two feet. It's difficult, and it's not impossible that she could backslide; the war and the fighting has left indelible marks on her and, as Hodgins put it, she's been burned alive by the things that she's done. Her time spent as a civilian and an Auto Memoir Doll have been invaluable in terms of helping her grow and move on but there's some things you just can't change with ease, no matter how you try.

Whether she likes it or not, much of Violet's identity, even the one she's carved out for herself beyond the war, is informed by her capacity for pain. She's learning, always, and through the people she's found herself connecting with, Violet manages to come into a greater understanding of herself, and the person she's discovering she wants to be.

Abilities:

"Auto Memoir Doll, Violet Evergarden, at your service." - Violet is what's known as an 'Auto Memoir Doll' which is essentially a fancy name for a ghostwriter. It's Violet's duty to write letters for people who are either unable to write (as was common for the time period she comes from) or unable to properly express themselves in the way they wish. According to the school that Violet attends, a high-class Auto Memoir Doll is expected to have an exemplar sense of vocabulary, grammar, empathy and a flair for inventive, creative writing. Additionally, they must be able to type at a very high speed. Violet demonstrates that she can type at a rather frightening speed -- when 200 characters a minute is requested, Violet does so without missing a beat. In a later episode, she is shown to be able to type at the exact same speed something is dictated to her and finishes typing a fraction of a second after the speaker is finished.
"You're a tool." - Violet is a child soldier, having been trained from a young age (possibly since birth, as she is a feral child the youngest we see her) to be a weapon of warfare. While the exact circumstances that led to this have yet to be revealed, Violet was a skilled enough fighter at the age of eight at the very oldest to slaughter an entire ship's crew of decorated military officers with nothing more than a knife. Being trained in the army has only made her more dangerous and when given reason to fight Violet is one hell of a force to be reckoned with. She's exceptionally agile with good stamina, and has been trained extensively in some manner of martial arts (as we see her fighting with punches, kicks and other rather complicated techniques). She is also proficient in the use of weapons -- so far, on screen, she has been shown to make use of military grade guns and rifles as well as knives.
"These arms are made from adamant silver." - After losing both arms in the war, Violet is fitted with a pair of prosthetic arms made of adamant silver, starting from just above the elbow. They function identically to Violet's real arms once she has adjusted to using them with a few caveats: Violet cannot discern temperature with them and seems to have some difficulty with more delicate tasks. Additionally, while she seems to have some sort of sense for when she is handling objects she cannot feel texture. They are also bulkier and sturdier than a regular pair of fleshy arms. Because they are mechanical, Violet is required to perform maintenance on them, on a regular basis.

Inventory:

Auto Memoir Doll Uniform: An elegant uniform that Violet wears for her work as a Doll. Makes her look pretty doll-like, appropriately enough. (Worn on arrival.)
Emerald Brooch: A beautiful emerald brooch. Violet's never seen without it. (Worn on arrival.)
Typewriter: A clunky typewriter, currently being carted around in its transport case. To the modern eye, it looks pretty old fashioned, but this was cutting edge gear in Violet's time! (Carrying on arrival.)
Gloves: Some high-class brown gloves, made of suede. The perfect fit for Violet's hands. (Worn on arrival.)

Sample

Thread Sample: i'm mostly linking this because it's about Violet hugging a baby chocobo and it's the most important thing i've EVER threaded

Q&A: if the above sample isn't sufficient then yes, please! otherwise, I'm good.