...pation

Name: Juliette Rosewood Age: 18 Gender: Female Personality: Juliette is unabashedly herself, genuine to the point that others can get secondhand embarrassment from simply watching her antics. Especially her doomed-at-the-start romantic endeavors, like the time she performed an hour-long musical show to profess her love to a local knight commander. In her defense, she got mostly wonderful reviews, just not from the object of her affections. Suffice it to say, Juliette is a hopeless and hapless romantic. She's the type that falls quickly and deeply for the wrong person—she's 5 for 5 there—hence the haplessness of it all. That said, she knows what she wants and goes for it wholeheartedly. Once she sets a goal or makes a promise, it's as good as guaranteed. She is as passionate and determined as they come, and she always, always follows through. Her zeal is a double-edged sword, however. Juliette can come across as self-absorbed in her singular pursuit of her whims, and needs frequent reminders to look beyond herself and at the bigger picture. She tends to get swept up in the moment as well, and that often does not bode well for anyone involved. Her level of idiocy is difficult to gauge. Bereft of a formal education, there are noticeable gaps in her knowledge, and she has a habit of following gut over brain. But while Juliette's way of thinking may not be the most sophisticated, she makes it up with an inherent understanding of the vast empire, which she has twice explored from coast to coast. Her candor, meanwhile, is at once refreshing and devastating. Juliette is as transparent as a crystal, heart on sleeves and everything. She can always be relied upon to be honest, but there are truths that hurt and she doesn't hold back on them. Still, if one can look past her brutal honesty and well-nigh boundless enthusiasm, she is actually quite personable. Role/Title: (Magical!) Acrobatic Performer. Juliette is a part of Caradia's most renowned traveling performance troupe, where her acrobatic stunts and theatrical flourishes, infused with just the slightest hint of magic, have become a crowd favorite. History: Juliette was born into a big family and an increasingly meager household. With a grand total of twelve children, of which she was the youngest, it became difficult for her already negligent parents to properly care for their ever-growing brood. They had straddled the fine line between barely scraping by and going days without food for years, their source of income as unpredictable as the changing winds, until they finally tipped over onto the side of starvation. Her parents hit their all-time low just as she turned three, and by then, they had been past the point of desperation. Even with the support of her older siblings, who were forced to do odd jobs for the barest income, it was never enough. Her parents had to cut their losses, and that meant ridding themselves of what drained their resources the most: in this case, Juliette herself. Desperate times call for desperate measure, as they say. Whether by fate or sheer luck, Talberon's Traveling Theater Troupe! happened to pass through their small town that day. Her parents thanked the Goddesses for their blessing, for they would find no better procurer for their daughter than Talberon himself. The ostentatious man had an eye for aspiring talent and young Juliette, already swinging on trees and scaling walls thrice her size, was ripe for the picking. He paid a lofty sum for the three-year-old, and despite the vehement objections of her siblings, her parents gladly accepted the trade. Juliette grew up with the troupe, raised by a motley band of performers that quickly became her family. She trained under the best acrobats and dancers, who shared with her not only the tricks of the trade, but their zest for life as well. Juliette became a hit once she mastered her craft, and her inherent magical abilities gave her performances the crowd-pleasing flourish it needed. There was never a dull day with her troupe, and they traveled the whole of the empire, moving from town to town in a span of weeks, putting on daily performances. Her history of failed romantic intrigues began when she was fourteen years old and she fell for a nobleman's son. He wooed her with his reckless abandon and rebellious ways, but alas, their time together was short-lived. Just as Juliette thought he was the one and they would be together forever, his parents whisked him away to a reform academy and she never saw him again. Her next 'the one' wasn't it either, and neither were the next two (including that knight commander who broke her heart in public, which she might have set herself up for with that public confession and all). The last one hit her the hardest. She accidentally found 'the one' number five in her best friend and fellow trouper, even after spending the last ten years trying not to pine over him. With her less than impressive luck in such matters, she knew how it would end and the last thing she wanted was a strained relationship her most cherished friend. The Emperor's expedition was a chance to go off on her own adventure, and more importantly, to preempt yet another heartbreak. It was a win-win, really; she would be killing two birds with a stone, and maybe get a third if she happened to find the one, the real one, along the way. Besides, Juliette was certain her skillset would be beneficial to the Emperor. Helping out a village in need was nobler than anything she'd ever done, and she probably needed the good karma. Anything extra: - Juliette's brand of magic allows her to focus bursts of energy into certain parts of her body as a means of amplification. She alternately uses it on her hands and feet, for boosts in strength or speed. As an added bonus, whatever body part she targets becomes enclosed in a soft pink glow for the duration of her enchantment. This results in a pretty spectacular light show that has become her trademark move; the crowd eats it up every time. - She is terrible with names. Expect a nickname.

I wonder what kind of energy it is? Is the additional strength or speed coming from additional cell performance, or from kinetic energy being directed in such a way that is corresponds with her movements? If the latter, does she direct it mentally or is it instinctual, following her body's movements by subconscious effort, or is there some factor preventing it from moving in any other way? Could she put it on someone else, or even on someTHING else? If she could put it on someone else, it would be interesting to see if the strength gain is proportional to their current strength, or is a flat bonus. The second would privilege slightly "directed kinetic" over "increased cell work". If it is the cell work, I cannot wait to get the cells affected under a microscope and see how the energy is transferred to the cell: I don't know if Thomas knows was Adenosine Triphosphate is, but if she can create it conservation of energy is out the window, and if she cannot there is some mechanism for cells to receive energy that is unknown to modern science. Speaking of conservation of energy, I wonder if she is capable of exerting a force on her legs or arms greater than the amount of energy she expends. If, for example, she is capable of putting out more energy than she expends through burning presumably chemical energy, either there is an extraneous force that the energy comes from, or conservation of energy is fucked. We could distinguish this by having her do the glowy things for a long time and a short time: if the long run version is more efficient than the short run version, then we would think that it is her using her own energy to trigger and maintain an influx of external magical energy, but if they are the same it makes the idea that the energy comes from her more likely. If the energy comes directly from her, and she is capable of producing more energy than she has access to in her body, all of a sudden we have broken the universe and we can in a few decades start harnessing these powers to create a utopia free of want, at least after the industrial revolution. Also, what is the pink glow, and why is it pink? Is it necessary, and can she cast the spell, or knows someone who can cast the spell without the glow? I don't know how spells are formulated, if it is just something she wills into existence or has to cast some arcane chant, but she should work with Thomas to try and modify the spell, then apply that modification to other exertions of magic Right, that is enough craziness for now. Feels good to get that off my chest.