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	Honoka Kousaka: "I'll make it happen! Just watch me!"
	APP HMD BARD CLAIRE

Player Name: Claire
Age: 18+
Contact: superorbital
Timezone: GMT
Other character currently in game: None!

Character name: Honoka Kousaka
Age: 16
Canon: Love Live! School Idol Project (TV Anime)
Canon point: Season 2, episode 1
History: Wiki link right here! Just as a quick note, the information in the "Other Data" section comes from a now-outdated part of the canon that isn't applicable to the anime series and vice versa. So there might be some stuff in there that contradicts the anime sections, but the anime is the core canon!

Three key adjectives: Energetic, determined, dramatic

Influential Events:

Otonokizaka shuts down

When Otonokizaka High School announces its closure, Honoka doesn't even finish reading the announcements before she screams, swoons into the arms of her friends and cries real, actual tears over it. This is a pretty dramatic response, but that's kind of who Honoka is in a nutshell. For better or worse, she's loud and larger than life, so animated with her emotions that every high is the peak of her life and every low is a tragedy of Shakespearean drama and proportions. She swings between emotional extremes at the drop of a hat, which she demonstrates quite neatly when she confesses the real reason for her horror: she's just freaking out over the fact that she's going to have to take an entry exam for a new school if Otonokizaka closes. What a champ.

Once she actually gets the full story – that Otonokizaka won't close until all the current students graduate – Honoka immediately dials back down to her usual tempo, placated once she realizes that whatever's happening won't affect her and therefore is not her problem! This is pretty typical of Honoka in a different way; she can be pretty self-centered and has a hard time seeing the bigger picture of things until they're shoved right into her face. But to her credit, once Honoka sees the negative impact Otonokizaka's closure is going to have on people not her, she all but immediately decides she's going to put her all into trying to fix this problem, with Kotori and Umi by her side.

This is a good example of who Honoka is at her best: once she realizes something is making people truly unhappy, she decides she's going to put her heart and soul into trying to fix it for them. Does she have a plan? Nope! Does anyone really believe she can do it? Not on your life! But that's Honoka for you: if someone tries to tell her she can't do something, her response is basically a big smile and "Well, I'm gonna try it anyway!".

Honoka and μ's

Once Honoka gets it into her head to become a school idol she is absolutely consumed by the idea. She has absolutely no practical framework in her mind for how this is going to work, but she knows school idols are popular and that's about as far as she thought things through. Umi and Kotori end up dragged along in her wake but that's to be expected given that they're Honoka's best friends. What's worth nothing, however, is that Honoka was totally ready to become a school idol without them – that's how determined she was to give it a try. She proves her determination and dedication even more strongly when Umi takes over their practice schedule and pushes all three of them to their limits to get them stage ready. Honoka complains endlessly but she never once relents in her pursuit of their goal and she never for a moment even thinks of stopping.

It's because of this limitless energy and Honoka's total sincerity that so many of the other girls are drawn to μ's. This works out great for Honoka, who's an extrovert through and through and adores being around people. She's not shy in the slightest and she'll approach anyone she thinks she can make a friend of regardless of how cordial they appear to be. She invites Maki and Hanayo into μ's within minutes of meeting them and going by the show's timeline, it can't be much more than about two weeks before she's as comfortably cuddly and affectionate with them as she is with Umi and Kotori. She'll beat up against against boundaries and do her best to worm her way into your affections with dorky shows of attention even if you try and push her away. For the most part, this serves her well. If she's trying to befriend someone shy then it means she won't be put off by awkwardness. For people who don't appreciate Honoka's brand of enthusiasm though she can be kind of unbearable.

Korekara no SOMEDAY

Although μ's was formed with the intent of bringing attention to their school, Honoka herself doesn't really have any kind of desire for fame or attention. She'll get excited about the idea of being recognized by fans and practically explodes with delight when someone asks her for an autograph but at the end of the day, the allure of a celebrity lifestyle isn't really what Honoka's about. She might bloom in the spotlight, but she's not the kind of person who's really interested in fame or attention for its own sake. When her position as the leader of μ's is threatened, she thinks about this for literally two seconds before cheerfully and sincerely declaring "Whatever!" and saying Umi's free to be the leader if that's what everyone wants.

At the end of the day, Honoka's what matters most to Honoka about μ's – and being a school idol in general – is singing and dancing together with her friends. Even once they achieve their goal in keeping the school open, Honoka still wants to go full throttle at being a school idol and so long as she gets to do that, it really doesn't matter to her what her role in the group is. Honoka just wants to have fun and make good memories with the friends she loves so much and it's that love and enthusiasm for the things they do together that give her strength.

Eli Joins μ's

Eli spends most of μ's's early days actively getting in their way for little to no reason and taking it weirdly personally whenever things seem to be going well for them. Unlike Nico who had just been kind of a brat, Eli is aggressively antagonistic the whole time. With all that in mind, Honoka has every reason to hate her guts or at least, want nothing to do with her. All the other girls sure do, but Honoka remains weirdly above it all. She doesn't take any of Eli's antagonism personally at all and seems to just see her as yet another negative voice in the crowd who's going to eat their words once μ's comes out on top.

Because of that, once it comes out that Eli has the skillset to really take μ's to the next level, Honoka has absolutely no reason to hesitate in asking for her help. It's not even a matter of swallowing her pride – she just knows that Eli could help them and has nothing to lose in asking. Even though she might not be someone Honoka gets along with, μ's and everything they do is bigger than one individual person and Honoka knows they can't afford to snub someone whose help could save their butts in a pinch. In short, she's choosing to trust Eli despite everything that's happened.

Her trust is rewarded when, like the others before her, Honoka's bright attitude finally manages to melt Eli's heart enough for her to admit that she wants to join μ's. And even if pride won't allow Eli to ask, Honoka has absolutely no bones about asking Eli to join them as a fellow school idol – and as that offer has now begun to implicitly mean, a friend. Even with all the negativity behind them, Honoka's is able to look past all of it and accept Eli wholeheartedly.

No Brand Girls

When μ's get a shot at performing in the Love Live, Honoka all but loses her damn mind and can't seem to settle properly on anything that securing their place in the competition. She pushes herself to unhealthy limits in practice, neglects to sleep in favor of more private dancing and even starts training at night in the rain. This is the exact sort of hyperfocus that causes most of her problems and it puts all her worst traits – pushiness, self-centeredness and bull-headedness – at the forefront. Inevitably, she ends up hitting bumps in the road. In this case, she develops a fever and ignores it to go on stage, but only manages one song before she straight up collapses. And if that wasn't bad enough, the rest of the girls decide to pull out of the competition altogether, directly as a result of Honoka pushing herself so hard.

Even when she goes rushing off, Honoka doesn't usually trip at the finish line like this. So when she goes down as fast and hard as she does here, she can struggle to pick herself up if she's left alone to mope. Failure smarts and if she doesn't have people around to help her to her feet then Honoka will spend too much time licking her wounds to try and pick herself up. She works best with people at her side, balancing out the more extreme aspects of her personality and to serve as a voice of reason to ensure that she doesn’t get into... too much trouble.

Student Council Presidency

No, this is not even slightly a joke. With Eli due to graduate, she recommends Honoka replace her as student council president and without much apparent fuss, Honoka is promptly elected. It's not entirely apparent why anyone thought Honoka would be a good fit for the job – her first on-screen actions as the student council president are expressing shock and dismay at the fact that she's expected to actually do work as the student council president, complaining that Umi and Kotori are her helpers and they should do the majority of the paperwork.

Umi is the one who says it best, when she accuses Kotori of "babying" Honoka (though she herself is the second worst culprit). Neither of them are very good at standing up to her which means that she's rather used to getting her own way. Her limitless energy tends to be reserved strictly for the things that interest her and behind the scenes work like study or paperwork gets either ignored or pushed onto other people. In short, she's lazy and will tend to focus on the parts of any given activity that she enjoys as opposed to the "boring" busy work. If she has to, she'll do it but she'll complain incessantly.

With that in mind, it's probably a little contradictory to add that despite her laziness, Honoka is fully aware of how big a responsibility being the student council president is and she takes it very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that she very nearly backs out of the chance to compete in Love Live again, as she's worried that she'll cause trouble and embarrassment for the school as their student council president. Honoka's usually a confident girl, but she has an oddly self-deprecating streak that comes through strongly in times like this. She views herself as someone who's clumsy and a troublemaker, and whatever she achieves, she views them as achievements made in spite of herself. It takes the assurance of everyone else in μ's to get her to stop being so hard on herself and realize she can do both of these things so long as she puts her heart into it.

At the end of the day, maybe she's not the best fit for student council president but it's still a job that she was entrusted with and Honoka doesn't take a show of trust like that lightly. Really, in a way, it's just like μ's all over again. Does she really enjoy it? Nope! Does anyone really believe she can do it? Not on your life! But when someone tells Honoka she can't do something, she'll give them a big smile in response and say "Well, I'm gonna try it anyway!".

And that's exactly what she does.

Link to Samples: A thread with Alex on the most recent toplevel and another thread on the same with Ivy!

Chosen path: Bard
5 Abilities: Bardic Inspiration, Prestidigitation, Message, Sleep, Feather Fall
Why this path?: Honestly, I don't think I could make Honoka anything else. There's the obvious draw of music powers and the whole singing-fighter aesthetic, but most important of all is the mood-making supportive role that bards play. Honoka is the leader of Muse precisely because she embodies the exact sort of passion and driving force that the girls need to push them forward and bard is the perfect class for her to capitalize on her existing strengths and put them to good use.

blurb code by photosynthesis