Sandbox / Sicarius Amaranthe

Sic'arus

A Half-Elven Assassin with a bounty large enough that few have not heard his name. Only staying on the continent to protect his son - the current young emperor, a secret he dare not reveal.

• Always Save the Girl: Sic'arus has gone out of his way to protect one and only one person aside from his son - Amaranthe. He has appeared on numerous occasions when she has been in danger.
• Contract on the Hitman: More like bounty on the hitman. When the old emperor died and his son came into power, Sic'arus was attacked by the imperial guard under the command of Hecrete, and a bounty was placed on his head, to ensure he did not interfere with the regency.
• Crazy-Prepared: He often carries no less than seven throwing daggers across his chest and waist. SEVEN!
• Hidden Depths: Is a masterful artist, though he has only been trained to apply it for practical purposes.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Is the father of the current emperor. As far as he knows, he and Amaranthe are the only living people who are aware of this fact, and he expects it will remain this way.
• No Social Skills: Sic'arus shows no outward emotion, cares little for social norms such as entering a building through its front door, and chooses to interact with most people through disapproving glares or single-word answers. To say that he is an awkward conversation would be an understatement, and most see him as more monster than man.
• Non-Answer: Any response he actually chooses to give to a direct question will often be one of these.
• The Nose Knows: Has a keen and highly trained sense of smell, able to move about in dark places using scents. Was trained to gain this skill when his handlers would lash him if he could not differentiate the scents of different types of trees and the like.
• One-Man Army: Had a reputation as this during his career as an assassin. Of course, he had powerful magic supporting him, but he still did the precision work himself. Most of the time, he was less an army, more a well-applied dagger to the chest.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: If Sic'arus acts remotely more concerned or distressed about something than regarding it with simple calculation and focus, the situation is more than serious.
• Professional Killer: His entire life and reputation.
• Properly Paranoid: He is an overly practical and highly trained assassin who has an impressive bounty on his head. Of course he wants to check every nook and cranny of every building before entering and screens every individual he plans to meet in private before revealing himself.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: See The Nose Knows. Beyond noticing aspects of his environment that have been disturbed based upon who has recently passed through, Sic'arus can also catch scents, down to perfumes and the like, that indicate a recent presence.
• The Sneaky Guy: An absolute master of stealth who has an immense nose for traps, ambushes, and the like. He wasn't the emperor's personal assassin for nothing.
• The Spock: Sic'arus will always promote the most practical solution, devoid of all emotion, to any and all situations, which, in dangerous or tense situations, usually involves killing the source of danger even if it's merely someone doing their job, such as a guardsman or secretary who might alert someone to his presence.
• Spy Catsuit: Wears a bland, fitted outfit in black at all times.
• Stealth Expert: And how. Has trained for years in utilizing shadows, silencing his footsteps, and all the similar trappings of stealth. Ambushed Amaranthe, who believed she had a bead on him as he passed by on a run beneath her by walking up behind her. Silently. In the snow.
• The Stoic: By way of training. His handlers taught him that emotions could hinder interrogations and display weaknesses. Sic'arus thus learned to hide all indications of feeling from his expressions and from his voice.
• Training from Hell: Near-all the training he underwent as an assassin.
• Walking Armory: See Crazy-Prepared. One might think he will never run out of daggers.

Amaranthe

A Half-Elven Guardswoman-turned-reformer who stumbled upon corruption in the government and chose to strike out against it.

• Action Girl: A well-trained and disciplined guardswoman often wielding a variety of weapons who is attractive enough to have gained attention from an emperor.
• Badass Normal: She doesn't know magic. She isn't trained to be anything spectacular. Amaranthe has no particular advantages going for her, and she was merely a patrolwoman, essentially, equipped to take down robbers and the like. However, with the help of Sic'arus' brutal training in part, she can face all sorts of threats with physical prowess, ingenuity, and a variety of common weapons.
• Brainy Brunette: Amaranthe has brown hair and has always been capable of achieving her intellectual and professional pursuits. Many of her business instructors thought it was a waste that she, bright as she is, left her education in favor of becoming a guardswoman, but her intellect and skill helped her to become a corporal at a younger age - though there are some who failed to see this and assigned her success to her looks.
• But I Would Really Enjoy It: Her thoughts on Sic'arus. She understands his reputation. She believes she maybe even understands what he is and what he's been through. All of this understanding should compel her to keep her distance, yet she dwells on the potential of his affections for her - the only person in the world he seems willing to trust and perhaps even appreciate - and the physical experience that would entail with a man of his physique.
• The Charmer: A female variation, and not exactly The Casanova. Rather, Amaranthe simply appears to have a knack for coercing people to follow along with her ideas, no matter how far-fetched they may seem, by appearing unassuming and encouraging and making it clear she is willing to trouble herself to accomplish her plans, as well. Hecrete seemed to think she was the Femme Fatale, which is why he sent her to seduce Sic'arus.
• Combat Pragmatist: Given she is typically smaller than the people she ends up fighting, with a good portion of them being men, Amaranthe has absolutely no issue going for the practicality of a Groin Attack or jumping onto someone’s back like a monkey to lock in a Choke Hold.
• The Conscience: She approaches every situation presented to her thinking about how it might affect others' lives, and how it can paint her (and Sic'arus) as benefactors who can be called upon and relied upon when people need help.
• Determinator: When presented with obstacles, she will try anything, including placing herself in imminent danger, to overcome them. Sic'arus has mentioned this will surely get her killed, and if not her, then him.
• Dude Magnet: Much to her chagrin. Of course, she got her fair share of comments as a guardswoman for simply being an attractive woman amidst a sea of men in armor. Since becoming a fugitive and fraternizing with more questionable types, however, the attention she has received has become much more overt and much more uncomfortable.
• Guilt Complex: Amaranthe has the tendency to take on the burden of deaths - whether of criminals, innocents, whoever - that take place in her crusade for weeding out corruption and bettering her people despite knowing that it is impossible to save everyone. Sic'arus' violent actions, even when necessary, she views similarly. The guilt has not stopped her because those who believe in her purpose assure her that they are either not her fault or unavoidable, but she still harbors much of the pain.
• Hartman Hips: Frequent points of note and conversation when her looks are mentioned are her ample hips.
• Neat Freak: Obsessed with cleanliness in general, and given the stress she has been through lately, this has been cranked up to eleven as a coping mechanism. She will even clean when she’s trying to be stealthy.
• Nerves of Steel: See Determinator. Amaranthe has been placed in situations that most average city guards would find too harrowing to overcome including being in a horrifying-dungeon lab watching her hours to live tick down and people dying around her and through the power of her will managed to emerge.
• Reassignment Backfire: Hecrete's plan was to assign Amaranthe to seduce and kill Sic'arus to ensure one of two results - she would either get lucky and actually kill Sic'arus, or she would be killed herself. Either way, he would get what he wanted with the assassin or a nosy, too-ambitious guardswoman dead. Instead, Sic'arus showed her mercy, they exchanged information, and they decided to work to take him down to protect the emperor.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Downplayed. She is always noted as being attractive, but she typically wears common leather fighting attire. People often urge her to dress up, however, to accentuate her looks, and she does, everyone seems to notice. Even Sic’arus.
• Took a Level in Badass: She was only recently a mere guardswoman with generic swordskills, impressive athleticism, and an investigative eye. Since becoming a fugitive with a demanding assassin in something of a partnership with her, however, Amaranthe has reached the point where she can outfight foes many times her size, clamber up nigh-unscalable walls, and generally perform physically in ways that would be highly unexpected of a woman her size.
• Underestimating Badassery: What people tend to do with her, especially those who believe their positions are secure, whatever they may be. It's one of the reasons she has such an easy time being The Charmer, because people have a hard time getting past her looks, size, and appeasing attitude to see that she might be a threat.
• Uriah Gambit: How General Hecrete attempted to kill Amaranthe for learning too much about how the emperor was being treated. Sic'arus tells her as much... while he has her in a chokehold after her attempt to ambush him.
• You're Insane!: Gets this a lot due to her daring and dangerous plans - often just a silent look of disapproval from Sic’arus, but spoken aloud by others. She typically cuts through the doubt with charm and a willingness to put herself in danger.