Uncanny Tales of Linburn (Sandbox Urban Fantasy RP)

• Name: Christopher Hawke

• Age: 18

• Gender: Male

• Appearance:
  • With white hair, yes. I know, so anime.◊

  • Typical Homicider form

  • His Twisted Harmony form◊

• Powers and Abilities:
  • Homicider (AKA Sam): Chris is a werewolf-esque creature called Homicider. Even among werebeasts, Homiciders are infamous for their bloodlust and deviancy, as their instinct of violation drives their action. Like all Homiciders, it has an incredible strength, agility and endurance. Chris is incredibly susceptible to mental magic.

  • Hurt Me More: However, this Homicider is special that it enjoys and gains power from physical pain. Cuts, burns and other such wonderful things. And his form changes depending on the wound (it does not deviate too far from a werewolf form).

  • Twisted Harmony: When Chris is willing to let his negative side take over (i.e. deems the situation as dire enough for drastic measures or is pissed off), he will take on a form that is vastly more unhinged than even his regular Homicider form. His physical capabilities is ramped up, and reading his mind when Chris takes this form can break a man. Other mental attacks work perfectly, though.

• Alignment: Chris is Neutral Good, Sam Walker (normal Homicider) is Mad Beast, while Harmony is Depravity.

• Personality: Christopher suffers from a weird case of multiple personality disorder due to circumstances behind him being a Homicider. There are three personalities: Christ, Sam and Twisted Harmony.
  • Chris himself is a very compassionate person, who can see good even in evil people. He is generally a very quiet person, who is not fond of getting attention, as well as soft-spoken. Christopher can come across as innocent, or even naive. These traits have been amplified especially after he became a Homicider.

  • The reason for that is because Christ absolutely loathes himself due to his current state, as he believes that Sam is his darker aspect. This unhealthy self-loathing reached the point of masochism, which he also came to loathe. However, Chris hides it and tries to not complain about it, believing that others had it worse. Him trying to be a good person overall is him compensating for having such a twisted dark side.

  • Sam only cares about violating, having a sadistic glee while doing so. However, Chris’s masochism slipped into him as well, resulting in a very depraved sadomasochistic monster.

  • Twisted Harmony is a harmony of Sam and Chris’s actual darker side.

• Backstory: Christopher used to be just an ordinary boy, who lived in Linburn with his normal parents. He grew up to be a pretty decent person, wishing harm for no one, even himself. It all changed when he was kidnapped by an infamous Homicider by the name Samuel Walker. Walker wanted to get rid of his own Rot and place it inside another person through a ritual, so that he would get away from his crimes.
  • However, rituals like this never work. While Walker’s Rot was planted in Christopher Hawke’s mind, the killer himself died in the process, a result he did not foresee. Sam (The Rot of Walker) is not Hawke’s dark side, obviously. However, the ritual process was so torturous and traumatic that he came to believe that it was his dark aspect personified. From then on, he was consumed with self-loathing, but never revealing it to others.

  • He is currently looking for ways to deal with this “curse”, while hiding it from his family. Meanwhile, he tries to control his Homicider side.

• Miscellaneous: His favorite activity is drawing. Currently makes a living with Patreon.

edited 12th Jun '18 1:48:43 AM by kaalban

Name: She seems to change it few decades or so as she fancies, but currently she goes by Sieglinde Aliane von Drachenfeuer. The irony that she’s not a fire-breathing dragon is not lost on her.

• Age: Really. Frickin. Old. She likes to quote times before modern humans existed, let alone written history, but she could just be bullshiting it. Or not.
• Gender: She presently prefers she/her and generally takes a female form, though has been known to take male forms.
• Appearance: In her true form, she’s a giant fucking dragon, roughly 50’ long from snout to tail with a roughly 70’ wingspan, with silvery-blue scales, and as a human generally takes a form something like this◊, occasionally giving herself more draconic features◊. Due to an… unpleasant incident regarding a group of dragon hunters years back (though she never specifies how many years. Could be a few. Could be a few centuries), her left arm in her humanoid form is replaced with an artificial one. The design of this arm varies, one day it will be an Edward Elric-esque fully metal arm, the next a Touko Aozaki-esque doll arm, and the next a steampunk-esque mess of gears and faux steam tech. How she does this is uncertain, but it’s likely some sort of illusion magic. Curiously, this injury doesn’t carry over to her dragon form.
• Powers and Abilities:
  • As a dragon: She’s old, practically immune to anything that's not magical and weaker than a high-caliber rifle, can breathe lightning, and has access to very powerful magic. She’s also, well, a huge dragon. She’s incredibly strong and can fly. She’s also unsubtle as fuck and a very large target that’s hard to miss. She’s not particularly agile either on the ground or in flight (though she is remarkably agile for her size), and confined spaces that restrict her movement and bulk make fighting her vastly easier. She’s also incredibly weak to things designed to kill dragons, obviously.
  • She can usually be found, however, in humanoid form, where she can still No-Sell small arms (well, not quite no-sell, more like getting shot through a bulletproof vest. It’ll hurt like a bitch and might break a rib, but it won’t go into you), but anything of rifle-power or greater will injure her. She’s still got access to her magic, too, and she usually carries around two (allegedly) magic swords. What, precisely, those swords are varies, she’s variously claimed them to be Balmung or Gram, Ascalon, Excalibur, Duranadal, and Arondight. They’re definitely the same two swords, though, so. Make of that what you will. She’s also less vulnerable to dragon-slaying items in humanoid form, though still weak enough to them to make it clear what she truly is.
  • Despite being a dragon with magical power on the level of an accomplished mage, she seems to enjoy fighting with mundane (or not, given that most of them are enchanted) weapons, and on the few times she’s drawn her swords she’s proven to be rather competent with them, and she’s also a competent shot. Also, on a more practical note, it’s significantly more convenient to not cause the massive collateral damage that usually comes with being an incredibly massive dragon.
  • She’s incredibly rich. Like most dragons, she has a hoard, she just took a page out of Lofwyr’s book and her hoard is the aptly- and ironically-named Dragon Heavy Industries (it was definitely called that before she took it over, whether she chose that one because of the name or something else is uncertain), a company which she currently owns 89% of. Board votes tend to be unanimous, though, mostly because (despite her assurances that she won’t, and her welcoming of honest criticism and debate) the rest of the board is afraid she’ll eat them. DHI itself manufactures everything from car parts to airplane parts, and she has a vested interest in making herself both the first permanent inhabitant of the Moon and the first dragon on the Moon. Why? Bragging rights, mostly.
• Alignment: Enigmatic Interferer.
• Personality: She is proud, often to the point of arrogance, but she never makes a claim she can’t - or won’t - back up. She also holds herself to a code of honor almost to a fault, but has been known to break it, usually at personal cost, for the good of many, occasionally for revenge. She’s also fiercely protective of young dragons, who are often hunted because dragon materials are both incredibly rare and incredibly valuable material components for mages.
• Backstory: She’s old, and to be honest most of her life was rather boring. Not to say that she hasn’t done much - just that most of it was either playing chess (Xanatos Speed or otherwise) with other dragons to pass the time, or adventures in pretending to be mortal. Additionally, while she claims much about her life, how much of that is simply either her embellishments or fabrications and how much of it actually happened is a matter for historical debate. The fact that she was forced to fake her death and change names every so often during the two-millenia absence of magic only confounds matters further. She’s variously claimed to have been a Knight of the Round Table (plausible, but unsubstantiated in the historical record) and having been the inspiration for the tale of Saint George (one of the few claims she has that has actual historical evidence, though it’s just as possible that any similarities are coincidental), which, she alleges was a complete misunderstanding, there was only one maiden and that maiden just happened to be a lesbian (of course, ‘abducted by the evil dragon’ is a much more socially acceptable answer), and it was a friendly battle with Saint George. Whether her account of the events is more accurate, well, no evidence exists.
  More recently, she is known to have fought on the side of the Allies in World War 2 as a fighter pilot, curious, as she’s generally avoided becoming involved in mortal conflicts. Shortly after Second Renaissance, she publicly revealed herself as a dragon, and basically sealed the fate of any sort of Masquerade by propping herself up in Times Square and announcing - as a dragon - on live TV - that magic and the supernatural was back whether the world was prepared or not, and that they’d best be prepared for it. After that, she went about her daily life as sort of a celebrity, eventually acquiring a majority share in a company with the wealth that presumably used to encompass her hoard. She moved to Linburn, where the company is located, and took up residence.
  Recently, she’s been investigating both the Giant Crow in The Sky and the sudden influx of people saying they were led here by a voice in the time she spends not running the company because there’s no way that’s not an Ominous Omen of Something About to Happen at all.
• Miscellaneous: She’s an avid ice hockey fan, and owns Linburn’s team, who renamed themselves the Dragons in her honor.

because there’s no way that’s not an Ominous Omen of Something About to Happen at all

gasp How could you have known? That was the top secret of ours!

Anyways, you are...

Approved

• Name: Noya
• Age: Stuck at twenty years old.
• Gender: Non-binary.
• Appearance: "I am liberation, dressed in beauty, clad in truth."◊ (They're wearing a combination pants-skirt◊ in that picture.)
• Powers and Abilities:
  • Absorption: By maintaining constant contact with a creature, Noya can absorb them into their body, obtaining their knowledge and powers. Technically, Noya can do this to anyone, but the bigger/stronger they are, the longer it takes to absorb, and one could always fight back and escape the process before it's done.
  • Enhanced Intellect: After absorbing several humans, Noya's brain gained the ability to easily recall any piece of information they have ever absorbed. as such, they possess photographic memory. Additionally, due to the fact they have absorbed an entire cult of Old World worshipers, Noya knows almost everything there is to know about said Old World and its creatures.
  • Shapeshifting: one of Noya's first non-human absorption was that of a skinchanger that their parents were researching. As such, Noya can easily modify any part of their body- growing additional limbs, removing existing ones, turning limbs into weapons or changing their entire skin into an element, for example. Noya commonly manifests this by giving themselves wings or constantly changing the color of part of their hair (they have been red for the past month or so).
  • Enhanced Resistance/Speed: One of the Old World beings Noya absorbed was a weakened Minotaur. This gave them enhanced resistance (capable of getting hit by a car without any problem) and speed (which manifests as enhanced reaction time and also makes them two times faster than the fastest human). Even with this, one can injure Noya if they just hit them enough times, and they also lack any form of super strength.
  • Weaknesses: whilst Noya can control their powers easily, any traumatic experiences similar to their abusive past can make them lose control of their powers, which means Noya can accidentally absorb someone (thankfully, it hasn't happened... yet). Noya's fighting method relies more on hit and runs, or on the occasion where they have to stay and fight, transforming parts of their body into weapons... which means they suuuuck at close quarters combat. And finally, Noya has an inherent interest in any living thing and will shirk at the idea of killing someone (even if that someone is against their objective, they will always aim to maim or severely injure). They will only reserve such cruel punishment to those that they deems truly deserve it.
• Alignment: Neutral Evil.
• Personality:
  • Noya is dainty, a daffodil given form. Whether this is because of their tendency to never wear shoes or the fact that, until a year ago, they had never seen the natural world, one can’t really know. What one can see is that they speak softly, gently, and usually treat others with the kindest of manners. Respectful and with a constant tendency towards waxing philosophically about any subject at all, Noya is grace in person, like a ballerina in all but dance.
  • Their gentle nature, however, is reserved only to those they know superficially. If Noya likes you, they will more often than not ask for your opinion, as if thousands of tacks they must aptly dodge surround any subject. They will ensure your comfort and well-being above any topic, and will often put themselves in danger to protect you. Their excuse? “Your soul is irreplaceable.” If Noya loves you, a trait they have yet to display to anyone, they will yearn for your presence and latch onto the positive feelings you create as if they have never tasted anything sweeter (because they haven’t).
  • On the opposite side, Noya only hates a specific kind of person: those that remind them of their parents, and those who would place their comfort and the structure that provides said comfort above the well-being of those oppressed by it (AKA the representatives of Old/New Earth). If you are one of those people, rest assured that Noya will seek to hug you or touch you as fast as possible, for you are nothing more than an obstacle towards the freedom they seek. But if Noya simply doesn’t like you, then they will use any opportunity to deliver pointed commentary or strive towards kicking you out of a conversation (sometimes literally), almost always through the same soft persona that they naturally exhume- because that’s just who Noya is.
• Backstory:
  • Noya was born Marcellus Garside, the son of Danielle Garside and Simon Garside, two scholars of the Old World who met in college and who had one thing in common: a distaste for the unruly and chaotic nature of the New Earth. Danielle was born to a conservative family, whilst Simon had lost both of his parents to simple, common New Earth crime, a robbery gone wrong. The two connected over the way they felt that humanity had lost its way, and how the society of the Old World, ruled by the gods, knew exactly how things should work. After getting married, Danielle and Simon formed an organization dedicated to studying and cataloging every god and creature of the Old World. However, as they get deeper and deeper in their studies, they start realizing that bringing back the old gods is not only a possibility, it's also something they can work together to achieve. Whilst the 'respectable non-profit organization' remains as a front, they use their combined wealth to begin what is essentially a cult devoted to worshiping and eventually resurrecting the old gods.
  • When Marcellus was born, both Danielle and Simon wanted to turn their son into the personification of their beliefs. They would raise him through methods they adopted from the old gods, shunning away any kind of influence from New Earth society and essentially molding him into proof that things were better in the old days. Unfortunately, Marcellus wasn't born the way his parents wanted him to be. From the beginning, he never felt truly comfortable following the established guidelines of the old world, or fitting into the role his parents had fashioned for him. They believed this to be the unspoken influence of modern society (even though Marcellus had never left the cult's compound- which had been deliberately created as far away from civilization- during his entire life) and began forcing their son to fit into their pre-established conditions. For years, this was the way things worked. To their followers, Danielle and Simon would force their son to pretend to be the picture of old world order, only to painfully punish him in secret whenever he dared to tread out of the line. Even something as simple as letting his hair grow out was seen as deserving of a couple scars.
  • At age twenty, Marcellus was a sickly man, both mentally and physically. His parents had given up on expecting him to become the perfect son they always wanted, and were now focusing all of their Marcellus-related efforts on just making sure no one ever thought about him. It was then that Danielle made a final offer to their 'son': they had found an ancient ritual that would resurrect the old gods they worshiped, and all they needed was for someone to act as a beacon, a living generator of potent energy. Marcellus would be immortal, yes, but he'd also spend his entire life in a catatonic state of constant happiness, living only so that the old gods could live again. Seeking a way out, Marcellus accepted the process. But in what were supposed to be his last hours, he felt an urge to live within his heart, something he had never felt before. Using the knowledge that his parents had forced him to learn, Marcellus altered the process, changing a few elements around. When the ritual began, none of the cult members thought that something had changed. It was only after they sacrificed an innocent human that they realized... Marcellus had gone from the generator to the receptacle of all that energy.
  • When the ritual was done, Marcellus stood there, looking all the same. His father ordered him restrained, but when one of the cult members touched him, the others went aghast as they saw their fellow follower disappearing into Marcellus' body in a glow of angelic light, leaving behind nothing but his clothes. One could see the cogs connecting in Marcellus' head, and before long, he started just walking through the compound, touching every single cult member in sight. With every absorption, he could feel himself getting stronger, his mind getting clearer, all those years of abuse being lifted off his back... until he cornered his mother. Her cries, the way she started calling him 'son', it all called back to a part of his brain that wanted to be normal. He almost considered not killing her, until he saw his father trying to stab him. Rage, disappointment, grief, all of these emotions took over him, and for the first time in his life, Marcellus hugged his parents, holding on tight to them as they disappeared within his body.
  • All in all, that night, Marcellus absorbed sixty three people. By the time he left the compound, it was morning again, and Marcellus couldn't process the joyous feeling that was seeing natural sunlight for the first time in his life. He fell to his knees, his eyes struggling to adjust, and saw someone staring back at him through a puddle. He knew, from years of mirrors being his only companions, that this was his reflection. But he couldn't see himself. He looked healthier. He looked happier. His fingers noticed something touching his cheek. It seemed as if, after absorbing so many healthy adults, his hair grew longer. Long enough to cover one of his eyes. His eyes struggled some more, not from the sunlight, but from the tears of joy covering them. Asthey cradled their own body, they felt that Marcellus had been absorbed as well. From now on, they would be called Noya, the only word befitting who they really were: divine beauty.
  • Reborn, Noya knew a few things: there were others like them. There were people out there who suffered under the iron fist of modern society. And there were people like Marcellus' parents, who believed that the solution was to resurrect the old world. But for Noya, this was nothing but a distraction, an evolution of the same sickness. Noya wanted to help others, but they felt that the only way to do so, to truly free them, was to clean up the mess left behind by previous generations... and by bringing forth a new gotterdammerung.
• Miscellaneous:
  • Noya is still very much interested in fruits. If you offer them a fruit they haven’t tasted before, they will love you forever.
  • Noya does not wear any shoes ever. They like the ground far too much to do that.
  • Even though Noya has enough combined knowledge to cook even the greatest chefs under the table, they'd much rather other people cook for them so that they can marvel at their abilities. This goes for just about anything Noya can do. They really like to see other people shine.

edited 31st May '18 7:58:52 PM by Stratofarius

• Name: Axel Adams
• Age: 34, apparently.
• Gender: Male
• Appearance: 6'7. Tends to stand in a stiff, somewhat forced 'casual' stance, and his skin has little to no visible marks or physical imperfection.◊
• Powers and Abilities: Despite claiming to be a normal human, there have been several observations from his secretary and other employees encircling strange behaviours and phenomena, leading them to believe that he is not all he claims to be. Such observed abilities include the following:
  • Enhanced Strength: Axel has shown no difficulty in moving objects that should cause at least some visible muscle strain in regular people, from things as heavy as large crates of technology or even something as simple as a briefcase, there has been no reported signs of struggle, despite him clearly playing it up to make it seem so. When asked, he simply chuckles and dodges the question, occasionally making an excuse that he goes to the gym despite his observed schedule amissing that activity.
  • Enhanced Endurance/Healing: While rarely leaving his office, Axel did show a suspicious sudden interest in the more physically taxing parts of his company after the rumours about him being superhuman began to circulate, specifically around the unloading and moving processes of ordering new items. During his seemingly spontaneous decision to help some of the moving crew out in carrying crates, he 'accidentally' dropped one, allegedly crushing his foot. If the rumours are to be believed, this was in an attempt to dispel the developing conspiracy that he was of supernatural origin by intentionally having himself hurt, which may have worked if not for the fact he seemed in perfect health and back in his office a full week before such an injury should have healed.
  • Red Eyes: A phenomena observed by some of the employees. When Axel is in an angered state or otherwise poor mood, he seems to gain a dot of red in the backs of his retinas. The glint occurs even in areas of no light, and as such the workers at the Axel Corporation have mutually come to an agreement to try an avoid doing anything that might so much as irritate their boss lest they have to bear witness to the rather unsettling anomaly.
• Alignment: Lawful Good. Apparently.
• Personality: Axel initially comes across as the laidback, joking and friendly type of company CEO, however those with prolonged interaction with him have noted a suppressed intolerance for nonsense and quite a violent focus on the company's state of affairs, showcasing a poor attitude the more faults come up in finances, rival company interactions, and other such hurdles. Axel has an overall aura of mistrust and intelligence about him, despite his sickeningly artificial cheesy grin and his supposedly friendly interactions. He also has a tendency to hide information; something that has earned him weariness from his colleagues and subordinates within the company.
• Backstory: Not much is known about Axel, other than the fact that he seemingly appeared overnight as a wealthy philanthropist and businessman with an apparent family history of scientific research on new weapons and technologies for public use. He soon established himself in Linburn as a respected-yet-somewhat-suspicious company CEO, constructing a large research and development facility within the inner city area under the name of 'Axel Tower'. Strangely, despite his claims, there have been no discovered birth records matching his name and age, nor any history of the so-called Adams family line having any past or inheritance to speak of. As such, there have been multiple cases based on the suspicion of fraudulence on his part, although no court action has been taken so far either due to his lawyers or the sudden mysterious disappearances of the accusers.
• Miscellaneous: Speaks in an incredibly low, bassy tone. Has shown a habit of smoking cigars as well as alcoholism, despite showing no signs at all of intoxication or poor health as a result of substance abuse and nicotine intake.

edited 30th May '18 7:33:31 AM by Enirboreh

and

Approved

• Name: 'The Cultist', or sometimes known as Davison Jones

• Age: Probably like mid-30s, something like that.

• Gender: Male

• Appearance: He wears a black cloak and a golden painted mask with a large smile on it and large eyeholes, revealing part of his face. He also appears to have jet black hair and brown eyes. He wears black gloves and boots. Besides that, he'd be totally nondescript with his cloak and mask off. He's rather tall.

• Powers and Abilities:
  • Command - He can imbue his voice with magic, a rare ability that enables him to convince people to do things. This works to varying degrees; if he were to outright command someone to do something that doesn't make sense, it might not work. If he were to subtly suggest something or suggest something that someone is considering already, it will probably work. It works more effectively on non-mages.

  • Runework - His runes allow him to work a large variety of spells, with the drawback that they must be prepared ahead of time. Examples include an explosive rune to blow down doors, a electric trap rune on the floor, a matter-phasing rune on a wall to walk through it, or a gravity rune to switch the pull of gravity in a room. While blood is probably the most accessible potent runemaker, everything from chalk to sticks can work if imbued properly by the user.

  • Gun - Betcha didn't see that coming.

• Alignment: Neutral. While his goals may seem evil, only be knows what the end result is.

• Personality: He's vaguely taciturn, at least when his mask is on. When it's off he's much more friendly, though this is because he knows no one will recognize him with the mask off. He is pragmatic, doing anything and everything he can to accomplish his goals. What his goals are is a mystery. He doesn't go out of his way to hurt people, but will at least incapacitate you if you get in his way. Loves being dramatic and showy, even if he knows when to cut that crap out. Treats his allies well and does not backstab people. Nope, never.

• Backstory: Not much is known about the Cultist (sometimes known as Davison Jones). Some say he is a Daemon. Some say he is a God. Some say he is something from before our time, something ancient. Some argue he is not powerful enough for any of those things, and that he is simply a criminal of sorts. Some say he is from the future, come to stop our doom. Some say he is from the future to cause our doom. Of course, some say this is impossible, that men from the future do not exist. The Cultist does not confirm nor deny any of these rumors. He likes it better that way.

• Miscellaneous:
  • Likes apples and mangoes.
  • Some say he has a pet goldfish. Who knows?
  • Some say he isn't even human, that he's a zombie made from the Rot. Who knows?
  • Some say he is obsessed with the color black. Who knows?

You'll have to PM me about his true nature.

• Name: Mistress Eira Blackburn
• Age: 57
• Gender: Female
• Appearance: A little like this, maybe.◊ Slim as a broomstick. Short, but exudes a presence that makes her seem far bigger. Black hair, tied back tight as piano wire in an iron clad bun, with piercing amber eyes that almost shine a searchlight on your soul.
• Powers and Abilities:
  • Magic and Witchcraft: Blackburn is reared on an old school of witchery, one that places emphasis on horse sense, practicality, and a breed of psychological warfare that some may know as 'headology'. She doesn't need to shoot fire from her fingertips and make a nearby tree explode, she could just stare at the tree until it's embarrassed into catching light. She could, of course, do the shooting magic from her fingertips thing, but she doesn't. There's power in that kind of restraint.
  • Narrative Enchantment: There is, however, also power in stories. If you tie your Hexes and Curses to a certain narrative, it can help to stabilise them until the narrative plays out to its conclusion. Just don't get yourself too involved in the narrative, lest you spring your own trap and all the hard work amounts to nothing. For her chosen profession, Blackburn draws upon stories to bolster her curses, which she then imbues upon objects to be used by others, thereby crafting literal Plot Devices.
  • Divination: Blackburn is capable of using her narrative-bolstered magic to see through the past, present and future, at least up until overly exerting herself. Nothing so trite as mapping the stars or using a crystal ball like a security camera, but by combining mystical awareness with her own meticulous gaze and sprawlingly calculative manner of thinking. Her method operates on the same principles as tea leaves and tossing runes with stones on them. Once she gets her hands on any object that serves as a good example of chaos theory, like a bowl of sand and stones or some ink to drop in water, she can extend her mystical perception into the aether, focus it all into her measuring tool, and through the unfolding patterns get a sense of the five w's regarding the immediate past and future. Shapes representing particular things of importance, living or otherwise, will 'glow' more in the peripheral vision. By channeling focus onto the pattern representing something or someone, she can navigate the possibilities, group the probabilities and discern where they've been and where they're going. She can even use this gaze upon an actual object or person to discern their possible pasts and possible futures, but finds it easiest when she's got some distance between her and them, and can think of them more as an abstraction.
  • Hypnosis: Linked to, perhaps bolstered by her ability to invoke magical effects simply by glaring at something, Blackburn can use her amber glare to stare down a person's conscious mind, let their unconscious mind drift towards the gaze, and then tell the mind what it is. She might use it to tell a target's mind that it's very sleepy, or tell it that it has a completely different attitude or memories, drawing on scraps of what's already there. If that persuasion pushes through into a target's morphogenic field...well, that's a matter for the magic section. In any case, Blackburn far prefers to get her changes done through the Plot Devices she sells.
• Alignment: Stubborn Neutral
• Personality: At her core, Mistress Blackburn is everything Candelilla Waine is not. She's stern, poised, mature, wilful to a fault, and without a nonsense bone in her entire body. While pragmatic like any good old-school witch, her thoughts deal almost exclusively with the long term, in chasing the path of events and mapping out every last branch in the tree of possibility. She can tackle pretty much any tricky logistics you throw at her, except for the illogical matter of people. Sure, she can see the roots of a person's foibles, deconstruct their basic traits, and postulate what kind of path they're laying for themselves. She just can't relate to their passions, their trendy interest, their illogical behaviours, and can't abide any ignorance or shallowness in a person. The matters of the heart are alien to her, and she couldn't tell you why a king or a god deserves more respect than any other sod just for being what they are. But she wouldn't be caught dead admitting she doesn't understand something, and she'll gladly intellectualise a nuisance's problems and suss out what's to be done...for their own good.
• Backstory: Mistress Blackburn keeps much of her history close to her chest, preferring at all times to spin her own narrative as the situation requires. What's known for certain is that she grew up in the English countryside, on 'good soil', and soon learnt the trade of witchcraft. The art not only of telling reality what it was, but of rolling up her sleeves and putting her own work in wherever she could, It was expected that she'd go into the usual profession of being the wise lady of a village, dispensing medicine and odd jobs in return for the villager's gratitude. It was that or wind up as that mad woman high on a hill, feared by the townsfolk, pestered by the children, and subject of many a grisly story. The other witches couldn't abide stories like that. Fairy tales of witches and wolves with no thought put in nor required.
• But yet... a young Blackburn soon grew fascinated by stories. Stories of every shape and size. Not exactly for the mystical possibilities, or for the feelings they grew upon, but it was the recurring structure of the things that snared her methodical mind far more than villagers with their petty issues. By and by, Blackburn cut herself off from her patrons and fellow witches, and began to pursue and catalogue the wild stories and tropes. If she could properly snare them, train them, apply them in the right way, then perhaps the braggarts and the whiners and the no-nothings of the world could be brought to heel. It was following this path, one way or another, that she came to the attention of the gods of stories- to Anansi, to the Shifting Ones, to even an aspect of Loki. With all these gods she talked and she bartered, or more accurately, she negotiated, with a cadre of lawyers that owed her a favour standing at her beck and call. Through these many dealings and discussions of terms, she gained more control over the threads of narrative, and soon enough found her true calling and current profession. Not as a goddess or warlord or anything so gaudy, but as the keeper...of a shop that wasn't there yesterday.
• There are many different motives one might have to become a Shopkeeper That Wasn't There Yesterday. Some do it out of idle mischief to mess with the muggles. Some do it to moralise and teach people some valuable lessons. Some might do it to gain leverage over people's very souls. Some may even do it to thrust their obscure fetish onto people's lives. Then there are others who do it because so far as they can see, those idiots won't do anything better with their lives unless they get forced onto a different path. Blackburn is one of those people. She uses her divination to look for people who displease her, then sets her shop down where those people will wander, and then sells them a curious enchanted trinket in exchange for whatever they have in their pocket. She never gets involved in events if she can help it, just sets the stories in motion then packs up and leaves to find the next poor sap. So it went for some time, until she arrived in the city of Linburn. For some reason, her shop doesn't seem allowed to leave this place, and keeps bouncing off the same four borders. So, for now, Blackburn's stuck here, hopping from one street to the next, and so long as she's here she can try and set its citizens straight, by any means necessary.
• Miscellaneous: Her shop, Old Curiosities, is a detached building in that its interior is severed from space and time. The shopfront can manifest in a spot no-one is looking, usually somewhere in a mall you never needed to pay attention to before something new appeared, or maybe in a run-down area of town that'll get conveniently demolished the day after. Then when people stop looking, pull the lever and off you trot again. The shop itself is a small area, dimly lit, with every sort of strange bit of paraphernalia you could imagine, with the item most useful to the next plot subconsciously drawing the victim to wherever it's sat. A door to the back leads to a small warehouse, with a large baler in the corner to help dispose of recyclable packaging for any new merchandise, a workbench construction and geomancy, a delivery area to receive new materials from shapeless deliverymen in the aether, and a flight of stairs leading upwards.
• Upstairs is Mistress Blackburn's flat, with all the comforts of home. A bedroom, a guest room, a study, a bathroom, a kitchen, a dining room, a sitting room with fireplace, an attic, and a second downwards staircase leading to a basement and enchanted wine cellar. It also includes such amenities as a rotary phone and an old computer. She can't understand the confounded thing, but other such Shopkeepers have been branching out into pop-up windows, so she recognises the need to evolve or die. This upstairs area can also manifest in the physical world as her 'holiday home', usually as an old shack in whatever out-of-the-way location she sees fit. Whether this translocation is currently just as limited as the storefront is or not, I leave up to Kaalban.

edited 2nd Jun '18 3:03:15 PM by LizardOfAus

and

Approved

Name: Leliel.

Age: Older than the New Earth; it tends to not answer when asked how many years exactly.

Gender: Machine.

Appearance: Its true form◊ is that of a very large, centipedal machine. Upon closer inspection, all of its parts that are not armour plating are made of tiny, shifting, intricate clockwork. Its 'human' form◊ is... imperfect, with several components of its true form showing, but the issues are overlooked often enough for Leliel to not bother replacing it. As Bloody Mary, it typically 'hijacks' its target's reflection as it leaves the mirror, the eyes filling up with black oil (an effect only used to keep the legend going); everyone aside from the reflection's owner can't quite seem to focus on it, instead seeing a fuzzy silhouette in the general shape of the victim.

Powers and Abilities:

• The Beckoning Mirror - Leliel is able to step through a mirror to emerge through any other mirror, and can similarly see through any mirror at any point (like a panopticon). Finding people who could be anywhere is incredibly difficult, as it can only check one mirror at a time, and there are many mirrors across the world. Leliel may move any objects it can wear/carry with it when it goes through a mirror, but cannot take other people.
• The Summoning - In a game often played by children, chanting the words "Bloody Mary" thrice in front of a mirror will immediately attract Leliel's attention through the mirror, often with rather lethal results. It is possible to trap Leliel in the mirror using a variant of this ritual, given sufficient magical power; it can take anywhere from minutes to days to escape, depending on how powerful the mage.
• Angelic Radiance - Leliel's angelic status grants it a multitude of boons. First is its multitude forms; it may shift between them at will - The Mary form is fast, the Human form probably blends in best (less so for Leliel), and the True Form is by far the most powerful. In addition, death is very rarely the end for an angel; if killed outside of its True Form, an angel's core will quietly slip out the back while everyone's celebrating their victory, and will, given some time, be given a new body with which to return. The immense amount of force required to destroy the True Form, however, is certain to destroy the core too; an angel can be killed by destroying its True Form. As the core has a physical vessel too, it is, of course, possible to capture an angel by avoiding destroying its core.
• Clockwork Sorcery - Angels straddle the line between magic and technology, and Leliel is no exception. Although true sorcerers are both more powerful and more versatile, Angels have an innate talent for some magic. Leliel usually doesn't need to use its magic, but on separate occasions it has used its sorcery to twist and manipulate its surroundings (revealing previously absent clockwork mechanisms behind manipulated surfaces), create weak 'golems', and perform the classic "make a big gear and smash someone with it" maneuver.
• All Things Are Machines - After a sufficient period spent observing an individual, Leliel gains insight into the way they act, and to a limited degree, think. Given some time to concentrate on laying the mental groundwork, Leliel may predict their actions up to a few seconds in advance; although this technique, a product of both Leliel's design and its sorceries, has vast utility both in and out of combat, Leliel is unable to predict things it hasn't seen, such as with a mage keeping their spells secret. Naturally, if ambushed or otherwise robbed of time, it may not use this ability.

Alignment: 'Benevolent' Interventionist.

Personality: To those it deems unworthy, Leliel is curt and to the point, if it acknowledges them at all. It will usually go out of its way to help those it considers good, but the longer it spends around someone, the higher the risk of it overturning its judgement; it hasn't kept any friends for long, or made many, for that matter.

Backstory:

• An Angel created before the New World, Leliel has seen... a lot. Originally tasked with dismantling Daemon-worshipping orders, Leliel was often summoned by cults using a 'ritual' planted as bait by its colleagues. Aside from that, it provided critical intelligence to the war effort with judicious use of reflective surfaces.
• As its spying and attacking of the worst of the Old Earth brought exposure to the many, many bits of grime on the ugly underbelly of the world, Leliel came to the conclusion that guiding those who wish to be good is insufficient. For every palm, there must be a fist, and Leliel resolved to be that fist. Its efforts increasingly going towards the eugenic method of reducing negatives rather than cultivating positives, it was eventually given the mission of helping keep up the average 'goodness' of humanity by eliminating the selfish, vile, and corrupt.
• Eventually, the strategy Leliel was to follow changed, and it was reassigned to a posting in Linburn. Charged with focusing its efforts on a single city in an attempt to create a bastion of light in the darkness, Leliel continued to ply its trade, assessing and passing judgement on individual after individual. Its patience eternal, it won't stop until either its work or its life end.

Miscellaneous: Leliel has a particular soft spot for fire, and usually gets distracted, if not outright mesmerised, if shown a display of flame. It also particularly enjoys birds, and will occasionally stop to feed a particularly large group if it spots one.

Edit notes: Leliel's fighting style increasingly fit the ability mold rather than that of a side note, so it's been added to the abilities section.

edited 13th Jun '18 5:55:53 PM by Mistfader

Finally, the first Angel! Subject for suf.... I mean, fun. Yeah, fun.

Approved

Alrighty, the Knight Order character:

• Name: Abigail Payne

• Age: 29

• Gender: Female

• Appearance: An African-American woman of average height with short straight black hair, one brown eye and one golden eye. This golden eye is the result of a fight against the cult of bloodshed, consisting of Homiciders. She needed to replace her ripped out eyeball with the one made from her Angelic Tear. Along with that, some of the scars that she acquired during battles have turned into blue mechanical tissues.

• Powers and Abilities:
  • ''Angelic Tear': As the member of the Knight Order, Abigail uses Angelic Tear to combat various supernatural threats, especially Rotten Beings. Specific uses for it in the case of Abigail includes:
    • Sniper Rifle Creation: Her particular Tear can transform into a sniper rifle with unlimited ammo and the scope that can change its function depending on the will of the wielder.

    • Healing: Abigail can heal most of her wounds when she is out of combat.

    • Knives Creation and Knives Combat: Another weapons she can create with her Tear are knives. Abigail, obviously, is proficient with these weapons, utilizing a battle style that can only be described as "elegant".

• Alignment: Lawful Good

• Personality: Abigail is quiet to the point that people first assumed she was mute. She is the type of person who, during conversations, 90% listens and 10% actually speaks. It's the result of both her general shyness and the trauma of losing her friends. However, Abigail is deeply earnest and quite talkative to the person she opens up (never mind the internal conflict she has inside her).
  • She is noted to be an extreme workaholic, constantly trying to find a lead on any kind of Rotten Being, especially Homiciders. This is driven by her need for vengeance (which she denies due to the fact that this is not what Knights should feel), as well as her wish for no one to be victims of these monsters. Obviously harbors a cold hatred and disgust towards Rotten Beings.

• Backstory: At first, Abigail used to be a person who seemingly had no purpose in life, as she was an orphan. The fates of her parents were unknown to anyone. However, her newfound faith in God-Creator had paved a clear way for her life, which was dedicating herself to the Father Of All (another title for the God-Creator) and protecting everyone else around her.
  • After acquiring Angelic Tear, Abigail proved to be a very talented combatant. She was put into a semi-elite squad of Knights. These Knights built a very strong friendship, and Abigail called them "my first true friends". Unfortunately, in their mission against cultist Homiciders, all but Abigail perished. In her unbearable pain that led to wrath, she slaughtered all but the few of them that escaped.

  • This very pain came to change her forever. She came to believe that becoming friends or something more with someone will lead them only to pain, especially for people like her, the ones that put their lives to risk in order to save people. As such, Abigail Payne tries to distance herself from everyone around her, despite still longing for such friendship. In addition, she swore to kill every Rotten Being She remains as a capable Knight of the Order

  • For the time being, that is....

• Miscellaneous: Is fond of anime

edited 12th Jun '18 1:48:48 AM by kaalban

[kicks dragon's ass] You're going here before you get anywhere close to my definition of "long"

• Name: Zima Savenko
• Age: 34
• Gender: Female
• Appearance:
  • Human: While Zima's kind are capable of altering details of their human appearance to a certain extent, she almost never utilizes this, instead sticking to one general (and to Leta, outlandish) look: Thick, shoulder-length white hair; bright green eyes; a heart-shaped face; and pale skin. Human tends to assume she's just a weirdly colored girl of mixed race Asian due to her features. She stopped growing in this state at 5'6", but has worked to gain some toned muscles on her otherwise lithe frame. Unlike her twin, she tends to show more bright colors in her fashion sense.
  • Dragon: Due to her young age (being in that nebulous region between dragon adolescence and young adulthood), Zima is an Asian Dragon that is still only roughly 20ft in length, with pearl-white scales and dark green fur down her spine and at the end of her tail.
• Powers and Abilities:
  • Enhanced senses: Especially compared to humans
  • Agility: Very agile both as a human and as a dragon in flight
  • Mind Meld: The most overtly magical aspect of this is the mental communication between her and Leta, and only Leta. However, it's very likely also the reason why they can seem so in sync half the time even without telepathic communication, and why they both feel adverse to looking too different from each other for long stretches of time.
  • Ice magic: As an ice dragon, Zima, naturally, has a natural talent for ice-related powers. While she can emit sharp blasts of ice from her hands and feet, she can also (and if she were perfectly honest, prefers to) make weapons made of hard ice, usually sculpted in the form of some sword. Can also manipulate ice into sprouting sharp spikes—especially from ice weapons already in impaled enemies.
    • Ice breath: Emits a ray of forceful, precise, and beyond-chilling beam of ice from her mouth. While technically possible to do as a human, it's far more potent in dragon form.
  • Life Drain: Zima's solo skill in necromancy^note acquired from curious skimming of the beginner’s section of a restricted tome found in the university library one time (partly because whoever made the book was wise enough to use magic ink that barred new readers from trying to get to the real juicy bits before covering the basics) is so far the ability to slowly steal the life force of plants and living beings to heal herself or another lifeform, and for now still has to be in physical contact or at least very close to her victim in order to effectively sap them. Theoretically, she knows how to instead store this energy into precious gems for an emergence energy source, but has yet to do so (successfully) in practice.
  • Shapeshifting: As a dragon, Zima can turn into one. She can also keep it partial, though, like simply growing claws, or switching human skin for her thin but magic-repellant scales.
  • Flying: Can magically fly, and is incredibly fast and agile at it too
• Alignment: Hovers around neutral, but on a slippery slope at times
• Personality: Contrary to her magical nature (i.e., the ice dragon business), Zima is the more outwardly emotional twin, often appearing fairly peppy and restless to go out and see the world for herself. She can also be somewhat vain about her attractiveness, and, if not for Leta, would likely let her vanity, arrogance, and pugnacity blow her cover and reveal her true form to an unpredictable public. However, while she may be the one that has an easier time with people, at the end of the day she is fiercely loyal to Leta and, to an extent, their parents, making harm or threats against them an equally strong Berserk Button.
• Backstory: Decades ago, on the outskirts of Hilliard, West Virginia^note located just north of a nearby mountain range, sitting right on the Monongahela River on both sides, a young, newly-wedded couple found a pair of what looked to be two large blue stones suddenly laying around in the woods that was their backyard. Being a young mortal pair who knew nothing strange could come of this, they decided to take the pretty, rough "rocks" back to their warm home. Needless to say, they were in for a shock the next spring when those "rocks" ended up hatching two snake-like creatures with legs—whom quickly morphed into two human (and loudly wailing) baby girls at the sight of their new (very shocked) "parents."
  
  Instead of getting kicked towards social services or some poachers, Zima, and her older twin Leta, ended up being raised by the stable but somewhat isolated and strict couple, the latter trait apparent through one rule in particular: No revealing of their mysterious dragon nature. While Hilliard was a large city in its own right and had sprouted the second largest magical community in the region^note namely for the dwarf clans and occasional elementals beings (usually of earth and air) that either lived in the city or came and went from higher up in the mountains, even Zima's somewhat clueless parents knew what kind of societal distrust (or flat-out hate) towards what was the already the rare race of dragons would look like, even before the Magic Boom; mortals would only see them as "solitary but destructive brutes" only good for getting killed by brave heroes for glory and their scales, an idea that not even the even rarer Asian branch of dragons would likely be safe from these days. Because of this, Leta and Zima were eventually both, on paper, passed off as mysterious elemental humanoids so as to hopefully go under the radar of any malicious entities.
  
  However, the secrecy over the decades began to chafe against Zima's growing desire to explore the world, and to show said world her true greatness. Because of this, after she graduated high school and was legally considered a human adult, she started going out on her own to Hilliard and the surrounding area—much to the chagrin of her parents—eventually leading to her taking a train far east with Leta when they went to Linburn University. While her twin made sure she didn't go full dragon at any point, Zima had a relative blast, where she was able to more openly show off and hone her ice abilities, among other hobbies. She had an even better time once she graduated and began travelling the world, sometimes with Leta in tow. This was somewhat ruined, though, when they found a black market shop in Copenhagen selling genuine dragon parts—before Zima had to be dragged out of the store by Leta before she could do anything drastic. They proceeded to book it back to Linburn, where they've kept to for the last few months now, though Zima continues to be upset over the reminder of their kind's state of danger in the world at large.
  
  But at the same time, it's likely for the best, she's figured—against her norm, something had been calling her back to the city, and making her stay. Maybe the dark blur she's been seeing around town as of late has something to do with it...
• Miscellaneous:
  • Knows Russian.
  • Loves dancing—but probably loves flying even more.
  • A true selfie nut. She has an Instagram full of them, currently at a little over 7500 followers.
  • Loves rainbow sherbet ice cream (and knows Leta does too).
  • Both admires and envies Leta for her outward poise and control of her emotions. And for her more sensitive senses. And for being the apparent favorite of their parents. And for her proficiency at the more "normal" forms of magic, particularly in the healing arts. And, sometimes, for being the sister with the fire powers. But really, at the end of the day, she just wishes Leta would sing more.

edited 5th Jun '18 6:06:49 PM by BlackRevolver

Approved

• Name: Ewan Fletcher
• Age: 15
• Gender: Male
• Appearance: Exactly 5'5. Slightly off-tinted skin. Eyes look strangely glassy, almost like he's wearing contact lenses. Never seems to smile or otherwise change his expression.◊
• Powers and Abilities:
  • CIP: More specifically known as Congenital Insensitivity to Pain, Ewan has been diagnosed with this medical condition which renders him unable to feel the effects of physical injuries. He still shows normal reactions to touch and physical contact, but notably has none to temperature. It is for this reason that he has been so sheltered and protected, his parents were afraid he'd get severely injured and not even realise it. Thus, he has not had a single injury that he can recall.
  • Inhuman Stamina/Precision: Ewan has never shown any signs of tiring from prolonged physical activity, no matter how strenuous the work is. He can stay in an exact, precise spot for hours without moving a centimetre, and will quite happily do so as well. As expected, he is also very good with activities that require intense concentration and precision, and shows no signs of trembling or muscle spasms even while apparently nervous. This, combined with his eidetic memory, also means he is highly proficient in picking up new physical skills.
  • Eidetic Memory: Ewan is blessed with an incredible memory, able to take in practically any information he is fed and recount it even years past to the most precise, detailed degree. In fact, he even shows a disturbing awareness of things that he should not be able to recall, including minute, pinprick sized details caught only in the very corners of his vision.
  • Attraction/Repulsion: An ability he has recently discovered, Ewan seemingly has the power to pull objects towards him or push them away using his palms. This is made manifest by a visible air distortion stretching out between his hands and the targeted object, which grows in intensity the larger the object and more effort it takes. Interestingly, when he is pushed to his limit with this ability, electrical arcs also manifest within the distortion from both the object's side and his end.
• Alignment: Lawful Good
• Personality: Ewan is... strange, to say the least. Every single mannerism, movement and actions, all are oddly stiff and meticulous in nature. He is also quite distant and off in his head, tending to be highly focused on the world around him even whilst in the middle of a conversation. Despite his apparent monotony and distraction, plus his bizarre lack of facial expressions, Ewan has a highly emotional manner of speaking and a genuine concern and sensitive nature towards other people, which tends to make up for his other odd behaviours along with his child-like innocence and kind heart. Highly observant and intelligent, he can be quite stubborn in the face of opposition, especially in regards to the law and his morality. However, he doesn't seem to be able to read the atmosphere very well as a consequence, and tends to keep going just a step too far at times, resulting in him having to be literally pulled out of a situation lest he end up pushing a person's buttons purely on accident.
• Background: According to his parents, Ewan was diagnosed with a variety of conditions from as early as birth, supposedly showcasing symptoms of autism along with a dangerous lack of reaction to physical pain. Other such oddities included an incredible eidetic memory, extended stamina, and what they described as 'arthritis', although they claim that his ignorance to injury means he just considers it a stiffness and locking up of the joints. Ewan has been home-taught and quite sheltered until fairly recently, once he hit puberty he seemed to be gaining a greater desire to explore the outside world and interact with others, much to his parent's worry. They initially refused against his want to attend highschool, but after intense adamancy on his part and even an attempted escape they have finally backed down enough to let him go out on his own. Their worry for him has since increased tenfold, but his newfound joy and enthusiasm at the thought of seeing others have made them start to reconsider their point of view on the situation, as long as Ewan had promised to 'keep very safe'.
• Miscellaneous:
  • Incredibly talented in regards to drawing and painting, singing, and playing musical instruments. In fact, most activities that require physical precision and reflexes he is either at least proficient in or highly professional, the former of which tends to develop into the latter at an almost inhuman pace.
  • For a strange reason, those around him with good hearing can sometimes hear an extraordinarily distant sound of what seems to be a grandfather clock. When pointed out, however, Ewan doesn't seem to be aware of its existence, which is plausible, since it is indeed very faint and tends to stop and start at random intervals across the day. This phenomenon, if it even exists, hasn't been formally diagnosed nor apparently even recognized by his parents.

edited 3rd Jun '18 9:44:36 AM by Enirboreh

Approved

Um, I'm interested in submitting a sheet, but I'm not sure if a character focusing around support based abilities either with magic/doing something like 'hacking' allies/enemies would be acceptable or if I should just go with something more mundane. >.<

edited 3rd Jun '18 10:09:11 AM by TheRealWren

Support character sounds very interesting. I'd say it's acceptable. If there are problems, then we can work this out

Well, here we go. If it needs to be more magic-y rather than tech-y or if there's anything that might be a bit too much or needs a bit more, just let me know.

• Name: Josh Kinglit.
• Age: 22
• Gender: Male.
• Appearance: ...Without the product placement, really.
• Powers and Abilities: The limit of his 'normal' ability to fight is really little more than the basics of self-defense and, oddly enough, creating wire-frame C Ds that act like chakrams which are at least somewhat effective. As for actual powers, most of them involve summoning a hologram-like monitor and keyboard and being able to temporarily hack or edit the 'data' of his targets for either beneficial or negative effects. Nearly all of them have little use beyond support in terms of either boosting up his allies or weakening enemies. Using his powers require a fair bit of concentration and overusing them can lead to painful migraines, fatigue and potentially dangerous mistakes.
  • Scan.: Focusing on a target he's hit with one of his CD-Chakrams, Josh does his best to try and get any possible data on them, such potential weakness or to hack them properly so he can set them up for another of his powers. The issue is that this can take time to actually get past a monster/enemy's defenses and during the attempt he's essentially a sitting duck unless he stops the hack. Managing to succeed means that opponent's vulnerable to the more other 'programs' he has up his sleeve.

  • Overclock/Burnout.: With a few key presses on his holographic keyboard to temporarily rewrite data of nearby allies by speeding up their blood flow and reflexes, making them faster in terms of movement and reaction time, along with subtly enhancing their next attack to be followed with a weak after-image as if they'd slashed an opponent twice or shot an extra bullet. Using this on a scanned enemy causes a painful spike of heat to rush through their bodies, dealing very little damage but possibly weakening their defense for a little while.

  • Stabilize/Break.: Editing the current value of an ally's body temperature, Josh can essentially keep them at a stable 37C/98F regardless of the climate they're fighting in with little to no adverse effects, along with softening the blows of attacks involving fire and ice. Hacking a scanned enemy with this 'program' attempts to revert them to a default strength if they've increased their power in some way.

  • Option B/C.: Creating a trio of digital discs, Josh directs them to orbit around either an ally or foe. In the case of the former, they make a very flimsy rotating barrier that's not likely to take more than one hit unless it's intercepting an electrical attack. They shine most with a fighter getting into the melee as they'll add some extra, if minor damage to whoever they're targeting and making them vulnerable to being Scanned. If at they orbit around a foe, they eventually detonate in an attempt to stop the opponent in their tracks or throw off their concentration if they were casting a spell.

• Alignment: "I...I just want to help people." Neutral Good.

• Personality: One would think that with his ability to rewrite and adjust things to the young man's liking would make him confident and smug with a sense of superiority. In reality, Josh is rather quiet and nervous with his social skills being...somewhat lacking. It doesn't stop him from trying, though, even if it's just the other person giving orders. That's not to say he'll blindly follow everything he's told. If it goes against what he thinks is right or not, he'll meekly speak up and if it's a selfish request to exploit his powers, it's likely he'll flat out refuse.

• Backstory: Most of Josh's younger years in life are a bit of a blur with him recalling growing up as the only child to loving, if poor parents in what was gradually becoming a ghost town. The fields and soil had decayed and no longer grew crops along with very little about it to draw in potential visitors. Even with such circumstances, he faced each day with a smile on his face, naively hoping trying to help in some way. It was a rather lonely experience as most families and friends left to the bigger cities, not to mention Josh kept seeing...numbers, words and other things associated with objects he focused on.
  • Eventually, something just clicked when the numbers and words he saw could be changed to another 'value' and by extension, turning the characteristics of an object into something else entirely. With some experimentation on rocks, he eventually reached a breakthrough and proudly showed his parents the transmuted stone, shining and genuine gold. One would think that when you have the ability to change worthless rocks into gold with enough time and concentration, you'd expect to be able to have a luxurious and easy life.

  • ...But when people found he was capable of such talents, it was clear they wanted easy gold for themselves with very few being concerned of what he could do to actual living things. While he was eager to help and share the wealth, no-one seemed to care about the ideas or concerns he had to improve things for the town such as actually making the farmlands a viable option once more by making the soil fit for growing crops...the older villagers to be told to keep such ideas to himself. No-one needed to work thanks to him and weren't keen on Josh accidentally doing something crazy like turning the farms into fields of magma by accident.

  • Eventually all of this came to an end as the constant exploitation and greed of the other villagers had left Josh in a state of constant migraines and fatigue from all of the 'requests' to use his powers with them making it clear they didn't care for his well-being, just that he kept making them rich. A simple mistake it was all it took resulted in nearly every living person in the village turning into a golden statue and despite his frantic attempts to restore them to normal...nothing worked. With very little idea on where to turn aside he reluctantly listened to the whispering telling him to go to Lindburn...

• Miscellaneous: Josh really enjoys reading nearly any book he can get his hands on, whether it's to learn or a novel, specifically sci-fi adventures. He's also an alright cook, very good at maths and has an affinity with computers.

Approved

You're welcome to join the Discord chat

edited 4th Jun '18 4:40:55 AM by kaalban

• Name: Jane Dodson

• Age: 18

• Gender: Cis girl

• Appearance: Short, androgynous young woman; abnormally pale, with dark blonde hair and brown eyes, an upturned nose, and crooked teeth. Prefers to wear masculine clothes, with her usual outfit consisting of gray pants, a white button-down shirt, and a gray vest, as well as a black wool coat and white silk gloves (the better to keep from accidentally reading objects when she doesn’t want to).

• Powers and Abilities:
  • Psychometry: Jane has the ability to “read” objects by touching them. This allows her to glimpse its history and get a basic idea of how it works. It only works on non-living things, so she can’t get a read on people. (She can get reads on corpses. She prefers not to unless absolutely necessary.)

  • Skilled pickpocket, lockpick, and liar.

  • Has a switchblade and is moderately skilled in using it.

• Alignment: Chaotic Neutral; while affable and kind enough to occasionally qualify for Chaotic Good, her selfishness keeps her from qualifying most of the time.

• Personality: Jane considers herself a survivor, first and foremost. Clever, materialistic, and self-reliant, she firmly believes that everyone looks after themselves first, and if she doesn’t do the same, it’ll end badly for her. She dislikes authority of almost any kind, and likes to know everyone’s secrets - the better to keep them from coming back to bite her. She’ll do anything to keep herself alive, safe, and free, no matter what. She’s not sadistic or cruel - in fact, she can be very kind in the right circumstances - but if it comes down to saving herself or saving someone else, she’s always going to save herself.

• Backstory:
  • Jane was an orphan whose foster family was a front for a ring of smugglers. When Jane was fourteen, her foster parents were caught and arrested, and the children were sent to a juvenile detention center on the other side of the country.

  • Jane managed to escape at the age of 15, and she spent the next three years making her way back to Linburn, where she plans to make her fortune as a con artist and fence of stolen goods.

• Miscellaneous: Probably gay or bisexual. Have not decided which yet.

edited 5th Jun '18 11:32:20 AM by emilyorthoclase

• Name: Leta Savenko
• Age: 34
• Gender: Female
• Appearance:
  • Human: Barring her pitch black hair and red eyes (which are more often than not hidden to look an unassuming brown), Leta, being Zima's twin sister, looks like the spitting image of her sister, barring her fashion choices, which are considerable less outlandish, if not more often formal, and barely ever stray from black and red, with some white dabbed in for variety.
  • Dragon: An Asian Dragon also roughly 20ft, but with black scales and red fur.
• Powers and Abilities:
  • Enhanced senses: Leta's senses—particularly her eyes, ears, and nose—are even more sensitive than Zima's. Considering the occasional mental shut-downs she experiences from sensory overload, she usually doesn't view these as gifts.
  • Agility: Fast on her feet and in flight, possible faster than Zima, and naturally so quiet as to be downright stealthy.
  • Firearms: Zima has no taste for guns. Leta, on the other hand, took the time to become a crackshot with handguns, shotguns, and rifles while growing up in West Virginia.
  • Mind Meld: With Zima.
  • Fire magic: Her dragon powers are based on fire: She can shoot flames from her limbs, she can manipulate existing fire to her whim, and she's impervious to flames.
    • Fire breath: She can breathe out a long stream of fire just in her human form alone.
  • Magic and the healing arts: While Leta showed potential in a number of fields, she decided to put a higher degree of her more normal focus on healing magic. She's most proficient at injury-related issues: She can throw a light green healing aura around a target that can constantly heal one or a few allies at a slow to moderate pace^note Highly dependent on the number of allies being treated and how severely they're injured, or she can get into direct physical contact with an injured being and give a more powerful and thorough heal. All of her magic-based healing skills also give phantom echoes of patients' problems the corresponding areas on Leta's own body, with very severe injuries giving her real aches.
  • Shapeshifting: Like Zima, Leta can shift between human and dragon form as she pleases, or only partially.
• Alignment: Neutral, looks lawful compared to her sister
• Personality: Unlike her twin sister, Leta is a shy recluse, sometimes to the point where people think she's mute, or are just shocked to see Zima has a sister who's such an outward contrast to her. (Which always confuses Zima—she can't be the only person that sometimes gets her biting snark, right?) Part of the reason for her presentation is her mistrust towards everyone—being a creature mortals would likely turn on if they knew her true nature is a good, free source of stress—but it's mostly because internally, she can feel as emotionally volatile as Zima herself can act, if not more so. Due to what her power is, though, Leta is constantly in fear of what she can accidentally do with them if tempers ran too high, so emotional control is something she constantly craves.
• Backstory: Leta and Zima hatched in a home in the woods a good few miles outside of the riverside city of Hilliard, West Virginia. Their mortal parents told them that their eggs were discovered deep in their backyard, looking more like large blue stones. Their mother would later tell Leta that they strangely looked as though the eggs were once a single stone split into two. To say that this has festered a lifelong curiosity of where the hell the two of them came from and of the mysterious, definitely-stronger-than-blood bond between them would be putting it lightly.
  However, unlike her mildly rebellious twin, Leta really took to heart their parents' grim warning against ever revealing their dragon nature to anyone, even after the shocking events of the Second Renaissance. But because she was also unquestionably the more "obedient" daughter that didn't appear to have any issues barring her sparse number of friends outside the house, her parents gave her a second order: Keep a vigilant eye on Zima—make sure she never blows their cover to the world. Knowing that the exposure of either of them would eventually paint a target on both of their backs, Leta vowed to keep her sister from doing that.
  
  Having Zima as a sister, though, made efforts to keep such a promise rather aggravating, particularly when Zima started sneaking off to the city of Hilliard to do god knows what. It was an honest-to-god blessing when their fake elemental status granted the both of them near-full scholarships to leave West Virginia behind through the dwarf-made, newly-expanded underground rail all the way to Linburn University. There, Leta not only showed proficiency at fire-related arts (for obvious if held-back reasons), but for a number of other fields also, but decided to have her official secondary specialization be with healing magic. She also discovered a love for books and the overall collection of knowledge, had a summer internship at the Linburn University Library, and after graduation, earned herself a job at said library.
  
  While Leta would've been content with staying in Linburn, with her cushy job^note she suspects the higher than average pay was partly due to her being one of the only staff members that could reliably handle a strange series of books kept in the restricted section that try to immolate anyone that isn't strong enough in pyromancy. (There are those that say the books have some awareness and simply don't want to be used by anyone they don't deem worthy, but since she can touch them, she very much has her doubts on that.), the few friends she slowly acquired from the senior university staff, and the highest guarantee of safety for her kind within city limits^note some of it probably had something to do with that one western dragon shareholder of Dragon Heavy Industries, but who really knew in this town?, she would relent at least once a year to one of Zima's longer travels, often abroad, if only to keep her from getting too antsy in Linburn and to keep an eye on her, though she did quietly appreciate whenever they went to mountains or when she managed to snag a new book or five out of a trip. Their last trip, left them both shaken after they walked in on a black market shop in Copenhagen—that were selling what the lone shopkeeper said were dragon parts from a recent haul. It was one of the toughest challenges to drag an enraged Zima out without much hassle while trying to keep a lid on her own fear and revulsion.
  
  Needless to say, Leta has not felt the desire to go anywhere that isn't a part of her daily routine in a good number of months now, and isn't too shocked Zima hasn't gone anywhere either. But as of late, other issues have begun to plague her—particularly regarding the large, sometimes blurry crow she'll see around town, the red moon that now hung over Linburn at night, and whether the two phenomena were linked. Not great thoughts for a dragon that is a constant ball of anxiety, to say the least.
• Miscellaneous:
  • Knows Russian too
  • Like singing, and is pretty good at it, but is too nervous to do it publicly. Same goes for drawing, though she'll be a little more comfortable doing it in the open.
  • Loves train rides, nighttime, winter, and cats—which she currently has two of.
  • Doesn't even try to deny to herself that she wishes that she was a lot more like her little twin sister.

edited 5th Jun '18 7:52:10 PM by BlackRevolver

and

Approved

• Name: Nathrach^note  Also known as The Great Devourer, the Serpent of the Highlands, and The Devil Within The Catacombs.
• Age: Unknown, estimated to be at least several millennia.
• Gender: Male(?)
• Appearance: Exactly 6'0. Odd bone structure of the face, pronounced cheekbones and large eyesockets. His true form is that of an entangled mass of snakes, all devouring each other only to be immediately birthed again in an endless cycle. This is reflected in his shadow even whilst under disguise.◊
• Powers and Abilities:
  • Snakelike Physiology: Nathrach possesses many physical traits similar to that of a wide variety of snakes, including venomous glands and folding fangs, an unnaturally flexible body structure and vertebrae that allows him to slip through incredibly small spaces, reptilian eyes and a forked tongue, and a regular period of shedding skin, to which he becomes rejuvenated from his hunger pangs for a short period of time and also of severe injuries (as long as the process isn't interrupted). He can also stand on any angled surface, and has a neck hood similar to that of a cobra that he can inflate for intimidation. Intriguingly, if he is cut, he bleeds only small baby snakes, and if a part of him is completely dismembered, larger snakes may sprout from each wound in an attempt to reconnect the parts again.
  • Unobserved Snake Summoning: As long as it is out of immediate sight, Nathrach can produce snakes from seemingly nowhere, usually from within his clothes as it provides him with a ready disguise to summon them at will, although he can do it even when completely naked as long as he isn't being observed from every possible angle. Nathrach in general requires a lack of direct sight from any individuals in order to use anything snake related, both to hide and reveal his fangs, eyes, and other features as well as his true form. The de-summoning also seems to apply to himself; by covering himself in a mass of snakes, he can cause himself to vanish and reappear in a nearby unobserved location (usually directly behind a target). Nathrach's army of snakes are of an unknown number, although he is confident it is well past the thousands and may be even in the millions.
  • Hypnosis: By combination of his disorienting, predatory gaze and his softly-spoken and manipulative Scottish lilt, Nathrach can hypnotize human and animal alike for basic commands as long as they aren't expecting it or aren't actively fighting against it. He usually uses this to control snakes not already under his command or people in order to drag them to him to satiate his hunger.
• Alignment: Chaotic Neutral (Type 1)
• Personality: For an ancient predator, Nathrach is quite amicable and willing to talk things through, making very clear of the fact that he does what he does purely for survival purposes and not out of any sadistic pleasure, and seems to have a very self-aware sense of humour. He also has a tendency to try and have a genuine, intelligent chat with his victims, willingly disclosing exactly how the devouring process will go if asked while gently reminding them if they are still (understandably) put out by it all that they could have been eaten by a creature far less pleasant than he, albeit still making it very clear to them that he has an equal right to simply lash out instantaneously and consume them with no pleasantries whatsoever if they do not please him. While indeed targeting humans due to their decent size, density of population and provision of a half-decent chase (plus a developed taste for them that never seems fully satiated), Nathrach can also be found feasting on other creatures when desperate, although when given the opportunity to return to a human meal he won't ever hesitate. He is in fact so dependant in humans for meals that he may even temporarily assist them in the case of a world-ending crisis, if not to ensure their survival purely for his own gain.
• Background: Multiple Scottish tales detail different origins for the creature known as Nathrach, ranging from considering him to be the god of snakes to being the result of a family pet that developed supernatural traits over time. Whatever his origin, Nathrach doesn't care, as the most important consistency in each myth is that the snake always ended up nested in the underground catacombs of Scotland, hunting his prey above and dragging them down into the depths to further add to his army of serpents. As of more later times this detail has died out due to a sudden abandonment of the catacombs that the stories were referencing, although new sightings and folklores have popped up in other countries over the course of hundreds and thousands of years. Most recently, the snake seems to have been sticking around America, first appearing again in Native American legends and later picked up by European settlers after their immigration. After a long, blank period, (rumoured by some that still believe in the snake to have it be a period of rest) Nathrach sightings and feedings have begun to resume in a manner oddly focused in the city of Linburn, picking up in frequency after the magical resurgence within the world.
• Miscellaneous:
  • Is obviously fluent in Scottish Gælic, but Nathrach has also picked up a few other languages from his travels, and is well-spoken or at least partially knowledgeable in Georgian, Greek, Hebrew, Persian, and Mexican Spanish.
  • Nathrach seems to be fond of a particular legend of his origin, a poem written in Scottish Gælic.^note Bidh an duine ag ithe nathair. Bidh nathair a 'ithe an duine. Tha an daonna nathair. Tha nathair daonna.
    Bidh nathair a 'ithe dhaoine. Tha na daoine nan nathraichean. Bidh nathraichean ag ithe dhaoine. Mearachd.
    Bidh nathair a 'ithe dhaoine, ach tha daoine nan nathraichean. Neo-chunbhalachd. Cuibhreann leis an acras. Barrachd nathraichean. Bidh nathair a 'ithe dhaoine, ach tha daoine nan nathraichean. Neo-chunbhalachd. Cuibhreann leis an acras. Barrachd nathraichean. Bidh nathair a 'ithe dhaoine, ach tha daoine nan nathraichean. Neo-chunbhalachd. Cuibhreann leis an acras. Barrachd nathraichean...
    (Human eats snake. Snake eats human. Human is snake. Snake is human.
    Snake eats humans. Humans are snakes. Snakes eat humans. Error.
    Snakes eat humans, yet humans are snakes. Inconsistency. Compensate with hunger. More snakes. Snakes eat humans, yet humans are snakes. Inconsistency. Compensate with hunger. More snakes. Snakes eat humans, yet humans are snakes. Inconsistency. Compensate with hunger. More snakes...) He occasionally recites it to himself, as he believes it accurately describes his chaotic, self-contradicting and long lived nature.

Edited by Enirboreh on Jul 1st 2018 at 12:27:24 PM