Name: Kawaguchi Umeko (川口 梅子)

Nickname/Alias: White Devil, Gundam Girl.

Age: 17
Gender: Female

Appearance:

Standing slightly taller than average, albeit not by much, Umeko clearly cares about her appearance. Her clothes are, without exception, kept immaculately clean and worn in specific combinations planned out long in advance. She wears them quite well, too; Umeko is unquestionably a striking individual. She's built like a fighter, with a solid stance and toned limbs, but her choice of style usually makes her seem much more lithe than she is. Her brown hair is straight and shoulder length, worn differently depending on what she thinks will look best. Umeko is almost always grinning a wide, amiable grin that can turn smug and self-satisfied at the drop of a hat. The deep blue eyes set above that grin are highly expressive, and very much the gateway to whatever Umeko is thinking.

Day to day, she wears the uniform when necessary. Absolutely never when it isn’t. Her casual wardrobe seems nearly infinite, and her attire is usually layered for different temperatures and skews towards the bluer end of the spectrum. Kawaguchi almost never goes anywhere without her white messenger bag, and a hairband that suspiciously resembles a gold V-fin while housing her Bluetooth earpiece.

Biography: Born to a reasonably wealthy family in Japan, Umeko didn’t have far to travel to go to Academy City. Her father was a businessman, so Umeko didn’t see him often; she was mostly raised by her mother. At a very early age she was fascinated by mechanical objects; cars, planes, trains, all manner of vehicles. The first time she was exposed to Gundam implanted it in her mind forever. As her enjoyment of the franchise grew, so did her fascination with robotics; she was working on her own projects by the time she was ten. They weren’t very good, obviously, but within a few years she was working on technology with genuine relevance. Academy City seemed like a godsend. Heightened technological capabilities, facilities with greater resources, opportunities to work on new and exciting technology…

Her own designs were making her money, with her father’s help, by the time she was fifteen. The sum has steadily increased as she produced better products, and got involved in the engineering community at Academy City. Things would change substantially when she met Brennan Griese. Both were working on the Venus probe project, but there was a distinct (and continuing to this day) disagreement on who was the head researcher and who was the secretary. People outside the debate wisely learned not to take sides. Somewhere along the lines, through circumstances not entirely known, the two came to blows over the issue. They have gotten along famously ever since. Especially notable since their fields of interest are not dissimilar, and tend to be remarkably compatible when an extra pair of eyes are needed. Such similarities extend as far as their Esper abilities, too.

Personality: Umeko is energetic. Once she sets her mind on a goal, she will pursue it relentlessly and without fatigue until she has reached it. She doesn’t have any difficulties getting along with people, in fact she’s usually considered to be quite likable, but the people she genuinely cares about are usually on the receiving end of exasperation and criticism. It’s one of the surest signs that she cares, once you realize that she’s not actually irritated. Kawaguchi is extremely competitive, a driving factor in her relationship with Brennan Griese, and will turn almost anything into a contest. Once she decides it’s a contest, she won’t give up as long as there is any room to keep going. Stubborn to a fault, but she’ll turn her ire away from the people she cares about if anyone else tries to criticize them.

Esper Power: Humane Dynamo (Level 3), oddly enough, harnesses waste energy. Whenever there is force exerted, energy is lost; especially in impacts. Heat, sound, it all escapes and no one thinks anything of it. Not for Kawaguchi Umeko. This waste energy is captured from every impact, large or small, and is converted into energy within her AIM Diffusion Field. All espers emit one, but for Umeko the effect is increasingly strong with higher amounts of energy recaptured. The effect on the world around her usually is indicated by increased static electricity around her as well as the air around her being a couple of degrees warmer than her surroundings.

This is merely the storage method; the energy built up is merely stored in her diffusion field. This reservoir can be used to enhance her own output of kinetic energy, either in a burst or a sustained duration. The former is quick and efficient, an exertion from her stockpile to add to a blow or push. The latter requires more energy exerted, but can be used to increase her strength to move a heavy object with greater ease. Once she exerts the stockpile available, she has to wait for it to build back up; high-impact activities, resulting in greater lost energy, will add to it faster albeit at the (obvious) cost of short term energy exertion. Since there is no safe way to absorb an impact that would generate vast waste energy, she has to be patient and ration its use. She can go from ‘empty’ to a full tank in a few days, shorter if she devotes a few hours a day to strenuous exercise. Small enhancements will sip at this reservoir, boosts that simply bump her higher up in the range of what is humanly feasible, whereas outright supernatural feats will burn through her reserves much, much faster if used too frequently.

Skills: An avid kickboxer, among a handful of other fighting styles. She doesn’t exactly seek out a fight, but if she finds herself in one her competitive streak kicks in immediately. Professionally Umeko is a gifted engineer, primarily where powered armor and mechanical fighting units are concerned. Mostly because that is where her interest lies almost exclusively. Powered suits for herself are her own pet project, increasing in complexity as she grew older. Nowadays they’re designed with a mass market production in mind, but that doesn’t mean she won’t go all-out in designing the prototype before she cuts back on the production model. Some of her component designs have been licensed out to other organizations, though the best is kept in-house, providing a steady stream of revenue.

An impressive, or disturbing depending on your opinion, level of knowledge regarding mecha anime backs up her engineering skills. Scale models of proposed designs are a gleeful guarantee. A good nose for fashion backs up her day-to-day attire, too.

Extra: Lives in a spacious student apartment with Brennan Griese and her plamo in District 23. Carries around a pair of self-designed gloves with metal plating and padding sewn in at each knuckle, to try and protect her hands if she uses her power.

Name: Braonán Ailill Griese

Nickname/Alias: Brennan, Irish Bastard

Age: 17

Gender: Male

Appearance:


Biography: Brennan is clearly not native to Academy City; he lacks any Japanese ancestry to speak of. In fact, when he arrived in Academy City eight years ago as a young trust fund lad with a bottomless pit of a savings account and a rowdy temper, there were rumors that he was somehow connected to the still-burgeoning Irish organized crime scene. Brennan himself is mum on his family's money or his history in the old country. What is important is that, for all his endless attitude issues and bratty nature, he proved himself highly adaptable and even eager in a classroom setting. His grades soared in the competitive district he attended middle school in, and this intellectual prowess, combined with his financial resources and his zealous love of aviation and spaceflight, led to him attending school in District 23 when it came time for his high school years.

His academic supremacy found itself threatened, however slightly, upon arrival in District 23 however. Sharing his first year and second year classes with his rival, an otherwise-friendless robot otaku by the name of Kawaguchi, proved to be one of the highlights of Brennan's stellar high school career. It was only in the third year, when their homeroom teacher genially suggested that they work together on an entry for the worldwide Venus Probe Contest, that their differences finally came to a head. Brennan, as the lifelong space enthusiast and charismatic lynchpin of his year, obviously felt entitled to being called head researcher on the probe; the friendless otaku disagreed, and the passions and differences between the two flared up within days of working together. They haven't cooled since.

As of now, the probe is nearing completion faster and faster by the day.

Personality: There is clearly something ticking the wrong way in Brennan Griese. He seems to act as if he's the centerpiece of his own gangster movie, a hypercompetitive jock living by a strict code of honor in his personal and academic lives but reacting with frothing, white-hot rage when he is treated with dishonor in turn. A fiercely proud individual who will react to the faintest of slights with vandalism and butchery, Brennan has been a rough-and-tumble individual who possesses the charm to turn enemies into friends but lacks the emotional self-control to refrain from beating them into a bloody heap first. Renowned in his high school as a violent force of nature, it's a moniker he owns proudly.

Internally, however, even the violent youngster has a privately tender nature. Brennan has a precocious fascination with science, particularly technology and space. It was this passion that united him with his greatest rifle, and the person closest to him in Academy City; both students, obsessive and competitive as they are, made common cause and grew close while working on their design for the Venus Probe Contest (Sapphire Jubilee Blue Destiny SAPPHIRE JUBILEE), and the Irishman's glee in provoking both ends of the tsundere's mood is generally palpable whenever the two are together.

The positive relationships he's formed in Academy City, especially with this student in particular, have dulled the razors at the edges of his personality. In these calmer moments, Brennan has honed his natural mile-a-minute tendencies into the less violent art of the sales pitch, proving himself to be an open and gifted communicator in groups - if a bit terrifying and overly brash when asserting himself against foes.

Esper Power: Moon Walk. Brennan is able to absorb the kinetic energy of objects or attacks being thrown at him and store it within his own body. For a time, he will appear to be physically supercharged, resulting in a slight increase in his natural capabilities, but in short order he will release that kinetic energy into another object, overclocking it and supercharging its own natural motion.

Skills: Gifted with the silver tongue of a born salesman and promoter, engineering acumen, and the leadership skills necessary to survive in the battle royale of the boardroom. Will probably end up a tech entrepreneuer in his own right someday. Loves to fight. Loves to scream. Getting tsunderes hot under the collar.

He's spent much of the last year learning how to cook for himself.

Extra: Lives in a spacious student apartment with Kawaguchi Umeko and her plamo in District 23.