Introduction
A member of the Masked Fools. Inscrutable and unscrupulous.
A dangerous maestro of theatrics, utterly engrossed in the art of performance. Adorned with innumerable masks, she is the hero with a thousand faces.
Wealth, status, power... None of those matters to Sparkle. The only thing that can get her attention is "amusement."
Appearance
Sparkle is a petite young woman with dark brown hair tied into two high pigtails with red ties. Her hair reaches her hips and has pink tips, fringe middle bangs, and side bangs at different lengths on either side of her face. She has fluorescent pink eyes with a light colored butterfly detail under her pupils, a small cherry blossom flower tattoo on her right collarbone and back, and tiny black dots under each of her eyes. Additionally, a white-and-red kitsune mask is at an angle on the top of her head, which has a pink flower gem on its forehead. Below it, a bell is tied into her hair, with another bell hanging off a black neck piece.
Sparkle wears a sleeveless and backless short red kimono with crossing black spaghetti straps. Cherry blossom flowers and a grey trim decorate the kimono along with a black obi belt overlaid with a small golden rope, which is tied into a bow. Attached to it is a white spherical ornament with a goldfish inside, with a golden tassel attached under it. On the back of her kimono is a large golden rope bow from the back, under which is a black large tied bow. She also wears detached, short red sleeves with hanging fabric that reaches her knees, along with a cherry blossom flower ornament and a tassel hanging from it. Two light salmon-colored fabrics hang from the back of her kimono, reaching her calves, resembling caudal tails. She has a black glove on her left hand, while her right hand is adorned with red ropes with a small bell attached to it. On her feet, she wears black sandals with thin red ankle straps and small flowers embellishing each, a bell hanging off the straps of the left sandal. Additionally, red nail polish adorns her fingers and toes.
Character Stories
Character Details
A member of the Masked Fools. Inscrutable and unscrupulous.
A dangerous maestro of theatrics, utterly engrossed in the art of performance. Adorned with innumerable masks, she is the hero with a thousand faces.
Wealth, status, power... None of those matters to Sparkle. The only thing that can get her attention is "amusement."
Character Story: Part I
• Unlocked at Character Level 20
The girl, an abandoned orphan, lived without knowledge of her origins or destination until she encountered a passing troupe. From a distance, she watched a black-haired lady with a double ponytail, gracefully moving across the stage like a fish. Despite donning various masks, they did not hinder her laughs and cries during her performance, captivating the audience even from afar. The fish leaped in front of her, then dove back down, creating ripples in the surface of the water.
Gradually, she realized she was watching the performance from beneath the stage.
Intrigued, she continued to watch the performances for countless days, but she remained an audience member, never stepping into the spotlight. After one of the shows ended, she went backstage, where the black-haired lady handed her a mask.
"Can I perform, too?"
"Why not? If others believe you are 'Sparkle,' then you are. Go, it's time for your show."
As the curtain, serving as the fourth wall, was drawn, the stage remained dimly lit, revealing an unsettling black void. Though wearing a mask, she knew the audience could see and hear her. She kept recalling Sparkle's performance, imitating her movements, voice, and demeanor.
"You've done very well for your first time."
"But my imitation... Was not perfect."
"That is a minor hiccup, but not a problem as long as nobody notices the difference... By the way, we are leaving tomorrow, so for as long as you want, you are the true Sparkle here, and you can make her whoever you want her to be."
Sparkle wanted to say something, but the lady affectionately rubbed her head.
"Not many people come to see us, except for you. We're just a small troupe, and we don't have grand aspirations of becoming famous in the cosmos... It brings me joy to meet someone like you who will remember an insignificant character named Sparkle... Don't cry, you can keep this mask. Now it's yours."
Sparkle nodded.
"When you don this mask, you have the power to become anyone and no one... If you truly aspire to be an actor, don't limit yourself to this small stage. Set your sights on the larger world and explore new horizons."
Character Story: Part II
• Unlocked at Character Level 40
As the last descendant of the Puppet Clan, the girl lacked the freedom to choose. She was bound to live her life according to the dictates of the mask, as puppets were mere vessels for the masks.
According to their legend, the longer a puppet dons a mask, the higher the chances of the puppet acquiring a soul, resembling a true human. However, in human folklore, masks were depicted as tools used for resurrecting the deceased, thus leading to the dwindling numbers of her people.
However, as she had no interest in becoming human, being a doll was not an unfavorable choice for her. She dutifully obeyed the commands of the mask, despite the risk of attracting pursuers, as defying the mask proved to be challenging.
Movement was a crucial aspect.
By the will of the mask, she needed to smile sweetly when happy, hold her forehead while crying, grit her teeth when angry, narrow her eyes when jealous, and make a scene when in despair. There were also signature gestures, such as raising her eyebrows slightly to face others with the left side of her face, and raising her hand to express love, although she had to lower it later, as slightly biting her lower lip was the way to convey her true desires.
Voice was another aspect.
Depending on the situation, her voice needed to be cheerful when happy, mellifluous when expressing lyrical emotions, calm and assertive when making statements, strained when harboring hatred, and sorrowful when filled with grief.
Remarkably, she managed to sustain this way of life for years, seamlessly blending into her surroundings and even becoming a playwright. Nobody ever suspected that she wore a mask. However, she couldn't help but wonder if there existed another type of "mask" in the world — perhaps someone wearing such a mask would laugh when seeking revenge, shed tears when smiling, remain silent when raging... And speak the most sarcastic remarks with the utmost calmness.
Naturally, she couldn't do this due to the will of the mask, but as a playwright, making her characters on stage act like this was easy for her.
One morning, the doorbell rang, but it wasn't her usual delivery person at the door.
"Dear Miss Sparkle, I wonder if we could have a chat?"
"We have read your latest work, and we're curious if you know anything about the 'Mask'..."
Character Story: Part III
• Unlocked at Character Level 60
The faceless girl realized that she must be under some kind of curse. Why else couldn't she feel any stimuli? Her sense of pain, taste, and smell were all intact, yet she was unable to react to them. Naturally, she couldn't experience joy, anger, sadness, or a range of emotions. She could only strive to observe others' reactions in various situations to understand their feelings.
"...How would you feel if you were drinking a cup of bitter tea? How would you drink it?"
Although tied to the chair and immobilized, the homeless man on the left made an appreciative gesture and nodded. The girl in the middle immediately cried and shook her head in denial, while the madam on the right wrinkled her nose in disgust.
"What if you were in an extremely cold hut, with only this cup of tea at hand?"
Naturally, the man nodded. The girl cried for a while and then reluctantly accepted, while the lady still reacted in disgust.
She continued to change her scenarios and ask questions day and night until her interviewees passed out. She would send them home and seek out new targets for her "interviews."
During that time, the town's inhabitants all had the same nightmare. They found themselves trapped in a place where a blurred-faced young girl politely asked them questions, and they had no choice but to answer. They could only provide responses repeatedly until the young girl meticulously recorded every detail on paper masks, one after another. Whenever a mask was filled, it was replaced by another.
This nightmare was soon replaced by another, as residents claimed to see paper masks flying through the air in the middle of the night. The masks would talk to each other, faintly glowing before eventually fading out, resembling sparklers in the night sky. They appeared every night, as if they were residents living in the shadow of the town.
In a dark basement, a young lady remained unaware of this nightmare. She had gathered enough information about people's nuanced emotions and their perceptions of different things... To make more paper masks. She firmly believed that although she possessed no emotions, the masks she created had flesh and blood. She even believed that one day, they would become real beings.
Character Story: Part IV
• Unlocked at Character Level 80
"There are a few versions that are particularly popular." When Sparkle arrived at Fool's Tavern, she admitted her deeds. "Liking and believing are two different things, but people are more likely to believe in their favorite stories."
"Lies? Come on, I'm not trying to tell a grand story or fabricate an eye-catching experience... I'm wholeheartedly exercising my imagination for my own sake. I imagine various lives, seek excitement, and then recreate them as best I can, and pump the brakes on my imaginative balloon just a second before it bursts."
"Seriously, having a script is far from enough. First and foremost, I must wholeheartedly believe that the character I'm portraying truly exists. Then, I need to imagine the other stories where the character would appear. I always need extra information to make their motivation logical and emotional."
"And only then will I feel I can grasp the essence of the character without being influenced by others. After all, I might encounter other Fools, and I won't know what they want until I know who they are. Sometimes, you simply like the appearance of a character, and sometimes, you just want to experience it for fun. I do that sometimes, too."
"And of course, there are those who play solely for the sake of gain or to be regarded in that way, hoping for unimaginable wealth, status, or power... Anyway, what I'm trying to convey is that in such an environment, who but myself can guarantee that I won't stray from my intended path and become a character in someone else's story? Nobody! That's why I have to tirelessly imagine and immerse myself in the act."
"No, I'm not denying it... It's truly addictive to me. The more I imagine, the more I get absorbed in those characters, the wonderful and tragic situations I create for them, and the emotions they experience in those circumstances..."
"Sure, I used to think about that kind of life... Joining a troupe, becoming an actor, traveling to unknown planets for performances, creating a character with my own name on it... But then, one day, I had a sudden realization!"
"If you want to perform, is there a stage more captivating than your own life?"
Light Cones
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3 Light Cones match the category selection:
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Missions and Events
Trailblaze Missions
Companion Missions
Events
- Vignettes in a Cup
- Clockie: Dreamjoy Memoir
- Between the Frames...
- Photography Exhibition: Sparkle's Splendiferous Memoir (as Sparkle Doll)
Character Mentions
Character Stories
Character | Stories |
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Character Voice-Overs
Character | Voice-Overs |
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Light Cones
Items
Consumables
HoYoLAB Articles
- A Letter of Invitation From Penacony
- Astral Express Magazine - Penacony Info Bulletin "Masked Fools"
- Ding! You've got a new message in your group chat "Let's Make It Big."
- Great Analyst Pom-Pom
- Penacony TV Station Special Interview
- Pom-Pom's Intel|Unveiling the Dangerous Members of the Genius Society
- Your Friend Jade Made a New Post
- Your friend request to Aventurine has been approved. You may now start chatting.
Trivia
- Sparkle has the following aliases:
- Mistress Sparkle (by Sampo)[1]
- The most honest person in Penacony (in Mail: Don't Open This!!!)
- The Masked Genius (self-proclaimed)[2]
- Director Sparkle (Chinese: 花火导演/花导 Huāhuǒ Dǎoyǎn/Huā Dǎo)[3][4]
- Sparkling Blaze (username in Between the Frames...)
- Sparkle's true past is unknown, as she can tailor her backstories to the tastes of the individual.[5]
- The 帕姆的收藏夹 Bilibili channel uploaded an official video, 虚一直构|花导故事会 "Pure Fiction: Director Sparkle's Stories", which features stories about Belobog, Penacony, and the Xianzhou Luofu respectively.[3]
- The release date of Sparkle (February 29, 2024) was a leap day. In Mail: Don't Open This!!!, she mentioned that "Next year won't have today's date."
- Sparkle shares the same English voice actor, Lizzie Freeman, with Yanfei in Genshin Impact.
- Sparkle shares the same Chinese voice actor, Zhao Shuang (赵爽), with:
- Sparkle shares the same Japanese voice actor, Ueda Reina (上田 麗奈), with:
Etymology
- 花火 hanabi means "fireworks." Her name means "sparkling like fireworks into brilliant colors."[6]
References
- ↑ Honkai: Star Rail (February 28, 2024). Keeping up with Star Rail — Sparkle: Ability Intro Vid (remember to fix title). YouTube. Retrieved June 13, 2024.
- ↑ Companion Mission, The Interpretation of Dreams: Masquerade Duet
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 帕姆的收藏夹 (March 6, 2024). 虚一直构|花导故事会. Bilibili. Retrieved March 6, 2024.
- ↑ Achievement: Mini Wizard of Oz
- ↑ Sparkle's Voice-Over: About Self: Past
- ↑ Sparkle's Voice-Over: About Self: Name
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