Perfume Splash!
Perfume Splash Girls control the essence of fragrance to save the world from the evils of those who would use the power of scent in twisted ways. Scent is tied to memory, and the Perfume Splash Girls must protect the memories and the scent essences of people throughout the world, sometimes by jogging their memories with a powerful smell of home or their past. To do this they transform using Magical Body Splash, which can be found anywhere the essences of magic and memory gather. They are also sworn to stop the villains called the Apothecary who would use the power of scent in twisted ways to try to conquer the world!
Contents
Characters
- Sakura Akagi / Japanese Cherry Blossom
- Hisae Musumi / Winterberry
- Kinzo Hiroyuki / Dark Amber
- Tomomi Shizuka / Sexy Dahlia Rush
- Madobe Kuroi / Sweet Pea
- Aimi Saionji / Warm Vanilla Sugar
- (When you make your page, list yourself here!)
Character Naming Rules
A Perfume Splash Girl chooses a patron scent that she is associated with. The scents and therefore the character's magical girl title are picked from the Official Bath and Body Works Scent List. So examples of valid character names would be Sweet Pea, Twilight Woods, anything on this primary list. See also discontinued and retired scents for additional inspiration.
Characters who choose "active" Bath and Body Works scents are regular-age magical girls who are in middle/high school or can be younger. Characters who choose "retired" scents can optionally be older.
Gender
All female scents are female characters. Male scents are male characters. Gender-neutral scents can be either, or, a character that is genderqueer or swaps gender during transformation (as long as this is handled respectfully, please). Here is the page of active men’s fragrances (suitable for good guys, see also the Elixirs under the villain section).
Henshin and Powers
All the girls transform by way of a magical perfume that they carry with them and spray on. The transformation phrase for female characters is "HENSHIN! [FLAVOR] SPLAAAAASSH!" (ie: HENSHIN APPLE SPLASH or HENSHIN VANILLA SPLASH!) Male characters use "Spritz" instead of "Splash" but the rules are the same.
Then they have an elaborate transformation sequence spraying perfume everywhere to spray on their costume. This is based more or less on Precure transformations. The outfit can be anything that suits the theme of the character, as long as it’s fun and over the top. Examples: a kimono for Japanese Cherry Blossom, a party dress for Warm Vanilla Sugar, a hipster sweater-dress for Seattle Hazelnut Latte, whatever! Yuuno Scrya's player put together a gallery of inspirational images for some of the names that might strike you - feel free to choose one if you want! (Just be sure it is not dibsed first.)
Characters' civilian identities are secret to others who are not magical girls/boys. You may tell any other character in the game that is your friend though of course! It is possible for character’s hair color or other subtle attributes to be altered during transformation sequences. Example: Japanese Cherry Blossom will have black hair normally and pink hair in her Henshin mode.
Since the perfume is magical it never runs out. Unless it’s super-dramatically appropriate for this to happen, like, right before your big power-up moment between seasons. This is one example answer for the question "how might your character become depowered." A villain might also spike the perfume or turn it evil to some purpose. If the time comes for your character to be upgraded to a Season Two Dramatic Form somehow, later on down the line, this might happen when your Body Splash is upgraded into Shimmer Splash.
Your primary attack has something to do with your flavor, but it can be anything you can come up with that has good flow when shouted. So Japanese Cherry Blossom has Cherry Blossom Elimination for example. Weapons are optional but not discouraged.
There is also a pre-approved Team3 attack for Perfume Splash main team characters.
History and Backstories
A Perfume Splash girl will realize her destiny when she smells the perfume that is going to give her her powers. The perfume has the memory of a past life in the Perfume Kingdom in another dimension, but only the true girl who is the reincarnated essence of that perfume can smell the memories hidden in the perfume. When the girl smells the perfume she begins to remember something about her past life and her powers. She may feel compelled to buy the perfume right away. Or she may go home and have a powerful dream about her past life that reminds her to go buy the perfume. When she sprays it on herself for the first time and yells the secret phrase her powers will activate. Then the active members of the team find out about her, with their incredibly good sense of smell. They find her location in a dramatic fashion involving a monster battle and then induct her into the Order of Perfume Splash.
Path to Power is Artifact and Legacy.
If you would like to include another perfume name or active Splash character in your background, please contact him or her!
Theme Villains
The villains are part of an organization called the Apothecary.
The primary (but not only) inspiration here is a film called "Perfume: Story of a Murderer" where a young alchemist kills women to steal their life essence for perfume. (Note: awesome movie; note: has some nudity, is disturbing. Too dark for our actual theme, be warned.) When the Apothecary kidnaps young women/men/promising students/politicians, they throw them into a vat to remove their essence. The essence becomes a dark perfume, and turns the person into a horrible Youma that Perfume Splash must fight. The dark perfume will be eternal while the youma is still alive, much like a Perfume Splash Henshin perfume, but once the youma is defeated the victim returns to normal and the Apothecary is left with only a limited amount of the dark perfume. The Apothecary can also summon and modify monsters based on bad smells, Dark Scents which they sometimes use as foot soldiers.
The dark perfumes can do various things - chiefly among them they can alter people’s memories, or mind control them in subtle ways. They can be used to create potions with additional powers useful for disguises or day to day schemes. Maybe certain kidnapped people would also have different perfume powers. The Apothecary's end goal is to win by creating “the ultimate perfume” that has the right combination of pure maiden essences (In Perfume, it was 13, for example). With the ultimate perfume they can control minds on a mass scale and rule the world.
Dark Kiss - the evil madam of the Apothecary, who wants to steal life force from people to make evil perfume. She has a Victorian manner, wearing dark lace gloves and dark purple lipstick. She has a mundane identity as well as the CEO of a pharmaceutical company. She uses this ID to make deals with the government. She supports animal testing!
The Elixirs - Dark Kiss's male generals; their names are Elixir Black, Elixir White, and so-on.
You may also app any perfume that you like as an evil character or dark perfume if you desire! Sexy Dahlia Rush is one example.
Statement of Purpose
There are two levels to the purpose of the Perfume Splash Magical Girl Team. On the “meta” level, the purpose of the team and its dynamic is to sell perfume in plastic bottles to little girls. There should be other accessories such as jewelry when necessary. Actions should be taken in accordance with this goal. Cheesy theme music is appropriate at any and all times. Glitter is fundamental.
On the in-character level the purpose of the team is to defend memories and love as well as the general suite of positive and pure emotion. Girls/boys who have amnesia or can’t remember their past are excellent targets for Perfume Splash intervention and there is bound to be no shortage of them. The girls are also out to stop the Apothecary and their evil ways, and stop them from conquering the world with dark perfume powers.
Each girl also has a “personal portfolio” of virtues/objects/places she is interested in protecting. This is totally at your discretion: eg., Japanese Cherry Blossom is a patron of springtime, hopeful love, and the Nation of Japan, the latter bit giving her a bit of Captain America flavor (except, y’know, for Japan). Nationalism and patriotism are wholly appropriate for location-based girls. (Keep it positive and don’t be racist.)
Characters can be Japanese, or not; they can be transfer students, whatever is fun for you.
FAQs
Q. Should I participate in the Origin Story Round Robin?
A. Up to you. If you opt out, Sakura Akagi's player is happy to DM any Perfume Splash! origins if you want!
Q. What school should I app in?
A. We default to Juuban for most Perfume Splash girls but it’s flexible, especially if you’d like to app Be Enchanted or some pre-magically-inclined girl. Use your best judgement for your idea!
Q. Do I app into an organization?
A. The first five Perfume Splash! girls apped are now part of the Tuners. You can use that to app into that group if you want. But if you aren’t interested in that, no pressure - we are using it as an easy way to coordinate and make and meet new friends! Perfume Splash! villains app into the Ends of the World.
Q. What if two people want to be the same flavor or flavors that are really close?
A. We should try to cover a wide variety of ideas at first, before getting too much overlap. So if someone wants to be Black Raspberry Vanilla and someone wants to be Black Currant Vanilla, I dunno, it gets kind of dicey. So stake a claim for what you like best and we'll work around. If later on, someone drops a character, then, maybe a totally new OC can come along with a very similar perfume or even the perfume itself can be handled down to a new Black Currant Vanilla. However if someone runs a particular character for a long time, we might retire her perfume.
Q. Is there a limitation about weapons or fighting style?
A. Different weapons and fighting styles are totally fine! Please keep it light in some manner: Perfume Splash! is about perfume magics, not military realism. Guns that shoot flowers and fruit, knives made of candy canes, etc.
Q. Does every character henshin?
A. Yes. Even villains have a civilian ID and transform using perfume or cologne. Henshin can be relatively extreme if you want, but each character is at their base human (if they are not a mascot).
Q. Are there mascots?
A. Yes! Right now, the girls share a Dragon Fairy named Mist. There is also Puff, Winterberry's rabbit mascot! If you want to app your girl with a mascot, just run it by theme creators. Appable Mascots are also acceptable - choose a short name from the Perfume List (Spice, Cotton, etc). Mascots should have some way to hide in the real world. The backstory for Mist, incidentally, is that he was an Apothecary Escapee. The Apothecary has an ability to open dimensional gaps (to summon Dark Scents and experiment on them) and occasionally an egg may fall out! That egg contains a perfume mascot. They are generally friendly, if hatched, but they can be experimented on like the Dark Scents can. This is a suitable origin for evil mascots too.
Q. Is this sincere or a parody?
A. I think of it as reconstructionist, myself. It is sincere, but also slightly self-aware, not in a breaking fourth wall way, but in a total embracing of conventions kind of way. If your character idea is all about breaking Magical Girl conventions in some way, Perfume Splash! may not be a fit for you.
Contact?
There is a more detailed document with further theme information - contact Sakura Akagi/Japanese Cherry Blossom for a list of character names on reserve.
