#self-indulgent time travel oc let's gooooooo

[eldritchlittleblackdragon]

Images made with the following Picrews: Here and Here. Also here.

Tagging: @oblivionmobile, @wittythreads, @shylittlemayfly, @possiblythreefourthspeahen

Annabelle Nishimura

Also Known as: Belle (preferred nickname), Emi (Alias she goes by in Kamakura Era Tsushima/the Ghost of Tsushima Setting), Emi Sakai (alternative of Alias, after being wed to Jin Sakai)

Age: Late 20′s/Early 30′sish

Gender: Cis Female (She/Her pronouns)

Sexuality: Gray-Bisexual (has very rarely experienced sexual attraction, she was originally thinking she might be demi but the few times she’s experienced attraction weren’t always people she had a close bond/connection to.)

Neurotype: Autistic

Ethnicity: Japanese on her Father’s side, Dutch/French on her mother’s side

Nationality: American

Languages Spoken: English, Japanese, A Smattering of French (learned in K-12 but never really used)

Height: 5′8.5″ (~174 cm)

Build: Notably Tall, Kind of average in terms of not being especially skinny or fat, has some muscle/strength to begin with but gains more when she starts going back into the past.

Eyes: Dark Brown

Hair: Medium Brown in Shade, curly, medium length - will usually wear it loose or ties it back into a low ponytail

Complexion: Fair (with lots of Freckles)

Other Physical Characteristics: Left-Handed (for writing), but can use her right hand for most other tasks if need be, Prominent scar on right hip and a small, barely visible one near her right ear (both from a car accident)

Hobbies: Art, Poetry, Literature, History, Hiking, Camping, Nature Photography

Likes: Nature, Animals, Beauty in Everyday Things, Learning New Things, Appreciating Art, Good Food (especially spicy food), Painting, Swimming, Hearing and Telling Stories/Folklore (especially ghost stories), Parallel Play, Discussions on Philosophy/Ethics, Visual Novels and Puzzle Games (and puzzles in general)

Dislikes: Inflexibility, Masking (especially feeling like she has to in order to navigate the world while being autistic) and generally feeling unable to be genuine in a given situation, Lacking Knowledge/Experience, Being Caught Off Guard, People Who Are Elitist About Things, Feeling/Being Powerless

Relatives (non-canon characters): Yuta Nishimura (Father),  Susan ‘Suzie’ Nishimura (Mother), Rin Nishimura (Paternal Grandmother), Kosuke Nishimura (Paternal Grandfather), Kei Nishimura (Paternal Cousin - child of Yuta’s younger sister, also Annabelle’s coworker in her current job), Maryanne Peters (Maternal Grandmother), Bram Peters (Maternal Grandfather), Damian Peters (Maternal Uncle), David Peters (Maternal Uncle)

Friends/Associates ((non-canon characters):

Modern Side: Joey Andrews (Childhood friend recently reconnected with, is currently engaged to a guy named ‘Lu’), Dante Iwai (Mutual Friend of Annabelle and Joey, reconnected the two of them), Claire Larson (Work Friend - works at the museum gift shop),  Logan Holt (Friend/Apartment Building Neighbor)

Other Coworkers: Vanessa Parker (museum Janitor), Sangha Kim (fellow tour guide, specializes in school field trip tours)

Ghost of Tsushima Side: Miyako, Miki (Ghost- Deceased sister of Miyako, Emi Adachi and Aunt of Sho Adachi, also deceased), Tatsuya, Chihiro and Suzu (Fisherman family, took Annabelle in when she first arrived), Nozawa-senei

Personality: Annabelle is a quiet, gentle, and compassionate individual. Her quiet nature is often mistaken for shyness. But she’s actually not shy at all (typically) and has no qualms about initiating interactions. She actually likes being in the company of other people quite a bit, but doesn’t have a large social battery for spending time with more than one person. (So breaks, especially in her line of work, are a must!) She has a pretty significant fear of having to heavily rely on others/not being able to do things by herself. She feels an intense need to prove she is capable on her own merits. She does experience generalized anxiety, and while it does cover certain social situations for her (particularly matters of romance and sex, and her lack of experience with the latter), it doesn’t encompass social situations in general.

Pre-Canon Backstory:

More of a pre-pre canon backstory. (Because her story with the Ghost of Tsushima characters starts prior to the canon events of the game.) This is also a lot more quick and dirty than the last OC post I did so apologies if its choppy and very bare bones.

~

Annabelle was born to Yuta Nishimura and his wife Susan in the 1990s. Originally, she spent much of her childhood/teens in the American midwest before her family moved to California around the time she was high school. She always had an interest in art, and her parents were very encouraging of her interests. They tried to be supportive of her needs as an autistic person, particularly as both her parents were autistic themselves. While she got along with her parents most of the time, they had a tendency to be a bit overprotective and even smothering at times, which heavily contributed to Annabelle’s desire for self-sufficiency and a need to prove herself.

During high school, Annabelle developed a close relationship with her paternal cousin, Kei. They were practically like siblings, and trusted each other almost completely. She also spend some time trying to get to know her paternal grandparents, but found herself standoffish with them. Still, she tried, and by the end of it found some kinship with her paternal grandmother, Rin.

Eventually, Annabelle returned to the midwest for college, attending college in the same town where her maternal grandmother and maternal uncles lived. She was close to all of them growing up, and it helped her transition into college life to have trusted relatives living in the same town.

She returned from school her sophomore year of college to visit her parents for the holidays. On the way to the airport  in the wee hours of the morning to send her back to college at the end of the break, Annabelle and her parents ended up in a terrible car accident, where Annabelle was the only survivor.

Annabelle was devastated by the loss of her parents, to the point she dropped out of college for a couple of years (during which time she stayed with Kei, who had moved out to the midwest by that point after accepting a job at an art museum as an administrator - the same museum at which she would later come to have her current job).

Annabelle eventually returned to college and finished her studies, at which point she worked odd jobs here and there while living with her maternal grandmother and maternal uncles. After three years or so of this, she moved back in with her cousin Kei, and looked for work for a bit until Kei told her there was an opening at the museum they worked at for a tour guide.

She applied and was accepted, and to this day the museum is where she currently works.

Her story begins when the Museum is set to put on a special exhibit on ‘The Art and Folktales of Tsushima’ (an exhibit on, well, art and folktales from Tsushima, an island of the coast of mainland Japan that in the current day is part of Japan’s Nagasaki prefecture). 

On the night before the exhibition is set to open to the general public, Annabelle attends a party with her cousin Kei that celebrates the opening of the exhibit. After passing by a display of a beautiful comb, she has a strange waking dream about a woman in traditional Japanese shrine maiden garb beckoning her towards a door that appears to open to somewhere underwater... a shinto temple submerged under the sea.

She’s snapped out of it by Kei, who gives her a worried look when she comes to.

Unfortunately when she goes to bed that night, she wakes up to find herself underwater again, this time with nothing in sight by light filtering from above. After floating for a bit, and seeing a brief vision of the shrine maiden, she suddenly has the awareness of holding her breath and frantically swims to the surface.

She reaches it in a state of panic and shock, looking around but everything’s a blur. She can hear voices however. Shouts and exclamations of alarm in Japanese. She feels hands attempting to pull her out of the water, and before she knows it, she’s pulled onto what appears to be a fishing boat. This, unbeknowst to her, is the start of her alternating between two different times and places - between her modern day life and Kamakura Era Tsushima, first arriving about fifteen months before the Mongols would set foot on Tsushima and attempt their invasion, kicking off the events of Ghost of Tsushima.

In that fifteen months, a lot would happen to her. She’d be taken in by a fisherman’s family and cause controversy among the the residence of a humble fishing village. A controversy to be settled by the local Jito, Lord Shimura, who decides to go about doing so by taking her into his household as a ‘guest’ until he can determine her trustworthiness. She is confined to his castle for a matter of several months, and appointed a ‘guardian’ of sorts to keep an eye on her and report back to the Jito on observations made about her, her characters, and whatever other information can be gleaned about her.

And who does Lord Shimura appoint to the position but his own nephew, Lord Jin Sakai, a dutiful, skilled, and scarily perceptive samurai who appears to give his uncle the highest reverence. But in spite of every reason to be wary of him, Annabelle finds herself disarmed and at ease in his presence. His gentle voice and forthright, high-minded nature draw her in, and she finds herself trusting him perhaps more easily than she should, given the circumstances.

But it seems he is equally drawn to her in kind, and the two of them develop a strong bond to one another. Little does she know how close the two of them will become, eventually falling into bed together and later bound to each other not as minder and charge, but as husband and wife.

And that’s all before the Khotun Khan shows up with his army to invade Tsushima.

All the while, Annabelle struggles to unravel the mystery of how her split reality came to be in the first place and the identity of the Shrine Maiden. She grapples with what the consequences of finding out might entail. She feels she must, that of course things must go back to the way they were. Right?

But she struggles with allowing her life in the past to unfold, and trying the minimize the heartache that will come eventually when she must cut herself off from it. But try as she might, she increasingly has much to leave behind when that days comes. Chiefly among them, a man she’s come to love madly, a man who slowly comes to be remade by the radically perspective redefining experiences thrust upon him.

And whose very much in love with her in kind and will be absolutely devastated to lose her.