Full Resolution
Name:Liv & Vitus
"It's a little hard to explain..."
"Understatement of the era."Gender:"Ugh.""Ugh."Physically Female
Female (Liv)/
Male (Vitus)Race:Human (Both)
Age:20 (Liv)/
32 (Vitus)Rank:D-Rank
Personality:"
Devilishly handsome and bitch, respectively."
"
Don't you mean utterly useless and warrior?"
Vitus, although he has 'accepted' his position in life, has not exactly gotten any happier about it since the incident. While the two of them have forged a tentative alliance of necessity, it doesn't stop Vitus from being an absolute pain Liv's backside. He's very sarcastic, often openly atagonizing Liv while she's in control. He doesn't do this out of any desire to open a rivalry between the two, just a way of playfully annoying his unwilling partner. He tends to carry the same attitude over to anybody he talks to, and he really has no desire to not be astoundingly punchable.
When he's in control of the body, it is only subtlely different. Vitus is the calm and collected yin to Liv's wild and rash yang, and he prefers gathering as much information as he can about a situation before he makes any decisions to move forward. Everything seems slower with him at the wheel; cool and calculating.
Vulgar, eager, and passionate--those are the three words that most are able to draw from Liv at a glance. While still getting accustomed to the idea of sharing her body with another, permanent resident, she's been able to...
almost accept Vitus's presence. Liv's personality runs on the fiery side, and if she could punch her snarky soulmate of sorts, she absolutely, 100% would. The behavior doesn't exactly shift when she's dealing with others--her personality makes her a little abrasive to be around if she doesn't respect you enough to hold her tongue.
When in control of the body, Liv's quicker to spring into action. Though keen and perceptive in her own right, the very temporary nature of her abilities and the need to get close and personal has made her more adept to flying by the seat of her pants than in Vitus's more meticulous planning. Under Liv's command, it's act quick or be swept away by an unyielding torrent of fire.
History:Vitus was an average, if ambitious young adult before a little brat showed up and caused his whole life to go straight to the shitter. He grew up in a small village in Rhode. His life was nothing short of uninteresting, save for the fact that he grew up hearing tales of adventurers and even getting the chance to see some of them as went about daily life. With little-to-no fighting ability of his own, it was understandable that Vitus turned to magic as his adventuring foothold.
It happened that Vitus found himself no to terribly good at casting normal magic either. He wasn't able to channel his own energy too terribly well, and he had just been getting discouraged with his lot in life when one of the casters told him about a different type of magic. He'd been trying to learn how to channel magical energy through himself, but it was also possible to channel magical energy through existing energy. This was where he first learned the art of Soul Casting, and while not the coolest sounding arcane art, he was finally able to cast magic like a natural.
Born and raised in a small, intimate little "clan" (for lack of a better word), Liv knew from a young age that she'd be some sort of Adventurer, there had never been any question about it. Most of the people in her family had been Adventurers--a good way to obtain the ammunition that they needed for their magic. After all, almost everyone had been able to utilize some form of Liv's Soul Forging magic, why not earn some magic out of it in the process? Hearing stories of places far from home was enamoring, and Liv couldn't help but
want to be able to live it herself.
First, she just had to obtain some weapons.
It was an unfortunate decision, really, that Liv decided to be young and brash. Unfortunate that she didn't seem to notice that most members of her family didn't have the need to continue carrying the souls they used with them, and those that did had methods to do so with. Unfortunate that Liv tried to carry souls that didn't belong to her in her own body. Fortunately, she was young, brash, and weak--things could have gone worse if she'd tried to take the souls of anything particularly strong. As it was, she suffered from a few days of a cataconic state and a permanently slowed rate of aging. Nothing too severe compared to going insane.
After a shaky recovery and a a few years more of training, Liv decided that it was time for her to leave and finally enroll in the Guild--if only that was what
actually happened. What
actually happened was that she had heard a few whispered rumors about a certain someone that utilized souls for their magic, but utilized them in ways that, according to her family's teachings, weren't safe...so she sought Vitus out, prepared to do anything to set him straight.
So, imagine Vitus's surprise when a teenager showed up at his university, clad in armor that appeared to be ancient, and did not fit her at all. There was plenty of shouting to be had, something about Vitus's method of magic casting being 'wrong', and something about Liv being out way past her curfew. Imagine Vitus's double surprise when the child grew frustrated enough to challenge him to a duel over their differing styles; an offer that Vitus took because, hey, how hard could it be to beat up a snotty teen?
At least, that's what he thought right up until she almost lopped his head off with her first swing.
It was during this duel, after the metaphorical gloves had come off, that they found something interesting happening. Neither of them could quite gain the upper hand, athough they were still landing hits against the other. The match was fairly even up to the end, with both of them teetering on the brink of death. However, by some twist of fate, there was no winner of this fight. Both Liv and Vitus landed their killing blow at the same time, causing a wild reaction between the two styles of magic.
Vitus's style attempted to capture Liv's soul for future use, while Liv's gem worked at absorbing Vitus's soul. In essence, Vitus collected Liv's soul and they were both sucked back into the now-empty body of Liv. Vitus was killed, while Liv was reanimated as some sort of psuedo-undead creature; a ghost possessing a corpse.
With the two of them technically possessing the body, they found themselves inexorably linked together. One person could control their actions as normal, while the other was forced to sit on the sidelines and shout, unable to do anything but watch through shared senses as their body moved on it's own. However, with two equally powerful souls, it was found that this 'control' would constantly shift between the two without warning, and neither of them could predict when a shift of dominance would happen. They've been living like this ever since; a forced cooperation between two rivals eventually blooming into a reluctant team.
It was only recently that the two both agreed they could probably do better as adventures, and not just getting by off the land and what supplies they could pawn off for cash. Adventuring seemed more profitable than trying to hunt down woodland creatures for every meal of the day, and they both decided to enroll in the Guild, Vitus making sure that they looked in tip-top shape to hopefully pass under any 'no-undead' clauses.
Magic:VitusVitus employs an arcane cating method known loosely as 'Soul Casting'. It's not a popular method of magic, as some people seem to take offense with people using the souls of dead things as fuel for power. The main focus of Soul Casting is to channel arcane energy through life energy, transforming it into magic. There are some drawbacks of course: First of all, Vitus has to have to souls to be able to use them, although this is a factor where Liv's actually been helpful; the gem in their chest serves as a soul storage for the duo. Secondly, the spell strength is directly linked to the strength of the soul. A soul from a single rat or measly chicken or something less powerful wouldn't make for a very strong cast.
With soul casting, Vitus is able to fill a few roles: He can fight offensively, turning souls into elemental energy and throwing them at enemies, or he can act as a psuedo-healer, forcing the life energy in a soul to bolster existing life energy and heal wounds (a trick made necessary by the fact that their body doesn't heal on it's own anymore).
LivMuch like Vitus, Liv employs a magic dealing with the soul.
Unlike Vitus, LIv employs 'Soul Forging', which is...not really suited for most legitimate mages. Utilizing a soul, Liv is able to "reforge" it into a tangible form. In her case, she reforges the souls into weapons. For all intents and purposes, she could theoretically use any type of soul for this ability, but it's most reliable and effective (and not to mention less frowned upon) when she utilizes the souls of monsters. As far as
obtaining the souls, Liv is capable only of removing the souls from beings that are very recently deceased or in the process of dying, with the latter being easier for her to work with.
Forging a soul into a weapon frequently takes on properties of the owner of the soul--what shape it is, what abilities it may or may not have, what attributes it possesses...all decided the first time that Liv ever forges that particular soul's weapon. These things never change after the first time that Liv reforges the soul. That said, reforging the first time can take a few hours, but once a soul has been given a tangible form once, forging it back into its weapon form only takes a few moments.
Unfortunately, forcing a soul to become tangible does have its drawbacks. For one, the effect isn't permanent. Most of the time, the weapon doesn't last for longer than a few minutes at a time. More than that, the effects are taxing on the soul itself, and utilizing the same one too frequently can cause permanent damage to the soul, which leads to damaged weapons--this type of damage can't be fixed through Liv's magic. Of course, being able to forge and potentially possess any weapon doesn't mean that Liv is capable of
using every soul in her arsenal either. She's only able to wield one reforged weapon at a time, for one thing, and though the soul-forged weapons are easier to use for complete beginners in the most basic sense, they don't make their wielders a master of the art. Liv's ability to use her weapons comes almost solely from what she herself is capable of.
Unfortunately for Liv, since starting to utilize her magic at full force, even before the unfortunate incident with Vitus, her body had issues aging. A few incidents from before she obtained her gem resulted in Liv trying to carry more than one soul in her body, which anyone could tell you is a terrible idea. Her age hasn't quite been able to catch up since.
Skills:"I can make a mean casserole...""You used poisonous mushrooms last time.""Yeah, and it was pretty mean!""
When combat is needed, Liv is the girl you want to go to. Despite a younger, smaller body and a relatively young age, Liv has been at practice since she was first able to
hold a weapon in her hand. Family values aside, the woman had always known that she would have to eventually learn how to take down a monster. As it turns out, Liv has a natural affinity towards violence--she's a damn natural on the battlefield, and her ability to quickly swap between weapons thanks to her magic has made her a force to reckon with.
Vitus meanwhile, is better at tasks that take some concentration or level of detailed thinking. He picks up many topics quite quickly, and there's not many things that can escape his keen eye. It used to be a fairly decent smooth-talker, well versed in the art of persuasion, to the point where he was considering becoming a con-artist if the whole 'magic' thing didn't work out. Getting stuck in body that looks like it belongs to an angry teenager has slightly diminished the effectiveness of this strategy, however.
Equipment:"You did take the stuff off my body, right? ...Liv? Right?""Absolutely not, interloper."Soul GemA gem that Liv formerly carried around--now it's just stuck in her chest. In order to provide her magic a higher level of efficiency, her family provided her the Soul Gem. It has the ability to contain and aid in the redirection of souls that Liv draws from her targets. It makes for easier utilization of both her abilities and Vitus's, but doesn't do much else other than look shiny.
ScalemailLiv's armor is scalemail, and it is
old. Passed down to her from her mother, who received it from...well, Liv's not entirely sure where the armor came from. By the time that it was given to her, it was not only old and somewhat worn, but also wildly unfitted for the girl's slowly growing body. It still hangs a little large on her, but she hasnt had the time or patience to try and obtain a new set, so this is the best that she can do.
Survival Kit
Liv and Vitus carry around a large backpack full of the things they found useful before applying as an adventurer. It's just your basic assortment of camping goods; flint and steel, waterskins, etc.
Emergency Dagger
Vitus's reccomendation; the two always have a dagger sheathed somewhere on their body. It tends to alterneate between being sheathed on their waist and sheathed in one of their boots, depending on who actually used it last.
Anything Else:As mentioned before, Liv and Vitus's body is, by all accounts, a corpse. While their possesion of the body allows for them to 'sense' things like a normal human, their sense of feeling has greatly diminished. Pain is dulled at worst, and there have been more than one occasion where neither of them realized a bone was broken until it snapped back into place during Vitus's maintenance.
Liv's body used to age slowly as a result of a few mishaps with her magic. While she is physically twenty, her body still looks like it's about to reach its late teens at best.