COURAGEOUS - HOPEFUL - SECURE - CALM - HAS NEVER DONE ANYTHING WRONG IN HER ENTIRE LIFE
• Who created you, and why?
Once upon a time a buddhist priestess approached Lady Foxfire. She told her of the four noble truths. She told her of the eightfold path. She told her of the cycle and the wheel. She laid out all the wisdom of the universe before her as though they were not the greatest treasures, as though they could be freely given.
And Lady Foxfire snapped her up in a single bite of her jaws, ideas and all! She crunched and swallowed and cleaned her whiskers and then went for a nap in the sunshine and dreamed of teriyaki. But when she woke she found that she hadn't quite forgotten the encounter or the priestess.
Have you ever heard of fox pearls? Beautiful gemstones, precious beyond all measure, worn in imperial crowns and used to focus high intensity lasers. They're basically hairballs. When a fox feels remorse, regret, or self-doubt then it catches in their throat. That little glimmer of perfect virtue is then encased in a perfect shell of magical crystal so the fox can cough it up without ill effect. This is true! For weeks after eating the priestess Lady Foxfire coughed up dozens of pearls. She refused to learn but she couldn't forget, so eventually she just stashed the idea in one of her tails so she'd stop vomiting divine blessings.
Every time since then that Lady Foxfire committed an evil act, the virtue reproaching her for the act collected in her tail. Eventually so much wisdom had condensed in place that it became conscious, became me, and burst forth as a being of pure intellect like Athena from the butt of Zeus!
• How are you different from humans?
Humanity is but an imperfect vessel for the true nature of reality: philosophy. It takes millions of humans and centuries of political development to work through basic ideas like 'murder is bad', 'politics are driven by material conditions and class interest' or 'foxes are superior to cats' and even after they do half of them still don't even get it!!! I am a superior being, an idea wrapped in the sunset fur of an angel, a vessel of pure higher consciousness, the only one who clearly sees the smouldering chemistry between Twilight Sparkle and Equestria Girls Twilight Sparkle and why it means that they're the one true pairing.
• Who, outside of the team, is your caretaker?
ArAN and I have an agreement. I give her ideas for things she should draw, I pose so that she can draw me, I explain to her why she was an idiot to have believed in Destiel, I demonstrate advanced combination meditation-napping techniques, I tend to her spiritual welfare, I liberate her from the material temptations of samsara and I get to sleep on the bed. In return she hardly ever tries to chase me out of her apartment with the broom.
• What about humanity fascinates you the most?
No matter how many times I tell them foxes invented Buddhism they never fall for it. And yet they do believe me when I say that foxes invented social media! Sometimes they figure something brilliant out like the path out of the cycle of suffering being meditation, but then they do something stupid like trying to preach to a fox goddess. Are they dumb, or am I just really smart and cool and pretty?
• Why do you care about the team?
In a sense, aren't they my tails? In a cosmic sense? As we are all emanations of the eternal divine and I, being fully enlightened and free from suffering, sit beyond and outside the wheel, aren't they just the cute little attachments to my glorious temporal form that I get to wave around to attract suckers? They're like bait, but for heavenly blessings!
MOVES
Not from around here: When you act clueless, goofy, or confused to get out of a sticky mundane situation, roll + Freak. On a hit, you create an opportunity, a distraction, or a plausible excuse. On a 7-9, you also feel all the weight of playing the clown and of the people staring at you. The GM shifts one of your Labels up and one down. On a miss, no one is fooled, and you’ve put yourself in their crosshairs.
A mind of their own: Your powers evolve and mutate. When you are facing an obstacle or threat that your powers would not be able to deal with, you can mark a condition to gain brand new abilities adapted to the situation. You lose these new powers once the danger is gone.
When you share a triumphant celebration with someone, ask them what makes them proud or happy about the actions they took and write a lesson based on it, either filling an empty slot or replacing an existing lesson. When you share a vulnerability or weakness with someone, if their response helps you understand human feelings and problems, mark potential. If their response confuses or offends you, shift your Freak up and your Mundane down.
A BLANK SLATE You were created with a basic understanding of the world. When you learn something that helps you make sense of the world, write it down as a lesson. Fill in two lessons when you create your character; fill in the other two when you’ve learned those lessons during play.
When you embody one of your lessons, shift one Label up and one Label down, your choice. If you cause a misunderstanding, collateral damage, or unintended consequences in the process, mark potential. When you reject one of your lessons, reject its Influence as if it were an NPC. If you choose to have it lose Influence over you, erase that lesson and write a new one in its stead. When you approach your creator or caretakers with a problem, tell them what obstacle you face or what you need to achieve, and they will offer you something you need. The GM chooses one: • secret information • a way to temporarily boost or expand your powers • access to instruments, weapons, or resources • official and explicit backing If you accept their help, they rewrite one of your lessons for you
I am basically the Buddha, Karl Marx, and Superman combined but also way smarter and better looking. A superhero should always: Always act in accordance with perfect virtue, class consciousness, supernal charity, unparalleled skill, never making mistakes or showing weakness, so that you act as a beacon to inspire all creatures on wing, hoof or foot to rise above their mundane nature. Never allow anyone else be unvirtuous
Conditions [_] Afraid (-2 to directly engage a threat) [X] Angry (-2 to comfort or support or pierce the mask) [_] Guilty (-2 to provoke someone or assess the situation) [_] Hopeless (-2 to unleash your powers) [_] Insecure (-2 to defend someone or reject others’ influence)
Straight. Up. Creepin’.: When you scope out a person or place, roll + Mundane. On a 10+, ask two. On a 7-9, ask one. - what’s my best way in/out? - what happened here recently? - what here is worth grabbing? - who or what here is not what they seem? - whose place is this? On a miss, you find yourself in over your head. The GM will tell you why this is a bad spot.
No powers and not nearly enough training: You’re always picking up new gear to keep yourself in the game. Whenever you pick up a new piece of gear, you can write it in as a new ability if this line is empty. The first time you use each piece of gear to directly engage a threat, unleash your powers, or defend someone, you can roll + Mundane instead of the normal Label.
Choose four drives to mark at the start of play. When you fulfill a marked drive, strike it out, and choose one: mark potential, clear a condition, take Influence over someone involved. When your four marked drives are all struck out, choose and mark four new drives. When all drives are struck out, change playbooks, retire from the life, or become a paragon of the city. X lead the team successfully in battle ❑ kiss someone dangerous ❑ punch someone you probably shouldn’t ❑ help a teammate when they most need you X take down a threat all on your own ❑ outperform an adult hero ❑ pull off a ridiculous stunt ❑ save a teammate’s life ❑ get drunk or high with a teammate ❑ drive a fantastical vehicle ❑ get a new costume X get a new hero name ❑ earn the respect of a hero you admire ❑ make out with a teammate ❑ punch out a teammate ❑ break up with someone ❑ stop a fight with calm words ❑ tell someone your true feelings for them X travel to an incredible place (or time) ❑ reject someone who tells you “you shouldn’t be here”
Rain has a smiling, distracted face, glasses, comfortable clothes and a satchel with a book and some fruit with her at all times. She's got a cascade of black curls going down to the small of her back, with fuzzy black cat ears and a tail to match from an exotic quirk of her family's bloodline. She tends towards earth tones, cream and brown and dark green, all in long flowing skirts and copper bracelets, but will sometimes instead dress up in a riot of color or sleek formality when the occasion calls for it. When operating as a vigilante, she wears crisp monochrome, white shirt, black pants, and an oversized coat with silver embossing depicting doves in flight. She carries an extendable shock baton in either outfit, and is learning to apply classical sword training to it.
How did you gain your skills?
I grew up learning them. Swordplay was an interest after reading a story with pirates, as was acrobatics, though sadly until recently I was never any good at the latter. History and old architecture sparked from a trip to an old family summer house, where I could see three different ages and styles of building all grafted onto the main house. Transportation and logistics came from when I visited the Three Leg Canal.
But you're asking about the ghost stuff. I came to Skygate City for, bluntly, resume building. Intern between schooling, it looks better, and there was the need for somebody who knew about old tunnels. I'm not entirely sure what the goal of their experiment was: they tried to explain some of the science behind what they were doing, but it didn't click for me at all, kept coming off like a bad screenplay.
Then it did turn out like a bad screenplay, because everything was silver lightning and a horrific shrieking noise that I was told afterwards the entire city heard. Not sure how I'm not deaf, or dead for that matter. I survived, somehow, but the next thing I clearly remember was stumbling into Doctor Huan who was trying to study the aftereffects of whatever I had just survived. It'd been three days.
After that, I've found that I can turn wispy and ethereal if I focus during the day, and it takes focus to not have that happen during the night. I can do that to anything I can carry that's not alive, with some concentration. I'm not sure what's going on, but I might have to go back and talk to Doctor Huan again: nobody else from the original experiment has turned up alive yet.
When did you first put on your costume?
Okay, there was a costume party a week after I got back from Underneath. I was supposed to go to the costume party, but, well. I didn't really care that much. So I ended up exploring in the lesser night market looking for some really tasty smelling plum sauce, and I accidentally interrupted a mugging. Some shirtless idiot with dragon tattoos and a knife. Tried to stab me, but it went straight through me, and then I grabbed a plank of wood and brained him with it. The couple that I had saved started to babble about the ancestors protecting them, and I panicked and rushed away through the wall into a quiet back storeroom.
So now there's stories floating around about a severe ghost in black and silver saving people, and I keep that outfit in my bag, just in case: it's been helpful several times already. I added a good baton to fight with, though, and a hat to keep my ears hidden on top of the mask it already had.
Who, outside of the team, thinks you shouldn’t be a superhero?
I'm not a superhero! I'm just trying to help people while I'm in the city, and don't have to work. I have 3 months left till I start back up at university again. My Uncle Dor, the one who organized the apartment I'm living in, doesn't even approve of superheroes at all. Says that HOUND will clean up the city and bring a new age of prosperity. He plays cards with Director Li and some others every other week, and they catch up: I think they were childhood friends or something.
Why do you try to be a hero?
Well. I'm not a hero. And to be honest, I'm doing all this for really selfish reasons: I like getting to see people happy. I got to stop back in the lesser night market a few nights after I stopped that first mugging, and a nice noodle vendor was telling the herbalist next to him about it with the biggest grin on his face. One of the two ladies that I'd helped was his niece (though originally the family had thought she was a nephew instead, but she figured that one out young), and it just sort of rippled out through there. So I try to hang around the markets and back alleys and places now, and step in when I'm needed.
Why do you care about the team?
I've known Hsien for three months but it feels like years, and I was so damn excited when I found out she lived in Skygate after I bitched about not knowing anybody there on Tumblr that I couldn't sit still for hours. And the Princess I ran into when I was exploring the tunnels: she was trying to track down a black pearl smuggling group, apparently, and I could help with that! Sure, Hsien gets kinda weird about ideas and philosophy and stuff and I don't actually know the Princess's name, but that's fine. Friendship is one of the good things in life.
- Shifting - Animalistic body - Animalistic Eyes - Mismatched clothing - No Costume
Now, look. Look. You need to understand this, because it’s important, right?
Shifu. Is. A. Shapeshifter.
What that means is, y’know, she shifts shapes? Changes. Changes shapes. Right verb. Goes batty. Note to self, catchphrase. Something she can shout when she transforms, because if there’s one thing she knows in her heart of hearts it’s that you should dramatically announce all of your attacks.
Aaaaaaanyway, what that means is that trying to pin her down with “big coat, teal, loves reds” is always gonna be a losing battle, right? Because tomorrow, it could be green hair and eight feet tall? Or cat? Or fox stealing your wallet?
Well, probably not that last one. Have you heard about Foxpearl? She’s the best at helping people free of the material things binding them to this existence. No stealing wallets, that's stepping on toes.
But the point is that she changes skins like less fortunate people change clothes! Or, actually, actually, more often, because people usually only change clothes like, what, maaaaybe three to five times? Pajamas, work clothes, maaaybe a change for going out, and then pajamas again?
Unless they’re superheroes, in which case they have a lot more costume changes. Thank heaven she doesn’t need to deal with all that–has to be hard to find a phone booth, and then you need to change back, and…
Does shapeshifting count as a costume change?
Anyway! Point is, she’s never the same look from day to day, or even minute to minute. But, if you’re looking for generals….
Orange. Amber, really, like the best mix of yellow and orange? Or occasionally teal. Blue and orange work so well together. Most of her shapes are orange, because it is the best color and it’s a crying shame not to be the best you can be at all times.
If you see an orange tabby-cat in the Terochimomo Net Cafe–or possibly an orange labrador, wandering between clients and collecting pets, or a brilliant cockatoo being taught dirty words when Joshua’s not looking, or a funky-looking cat-dog-thingy with a supremely pettable mane–that’s her. Don’t tell Joshua about the cockatoo, kay? You’re not a narc, right?
Orange eyes! Did I mention those? Technically, she doesn’t have to keep them in all her shapes, but she made them one day and liked them so much she decided to keep them? Oh, there was a fuss that day, but she won that friggin’ argument, see if she didn’t. Deep orange–like, almost a green-brown level of orange? Orange with green underneath, like cat-iris marbles.
Oh! And the two kids hanging around the cafe, but you never see both of them in the same place? Also her. Probably wearing orange and blue, which, again, best colors, and finding new ways to put them together.
She’s got a round, open face–except for when she doesn’t–but she likes the world and likes the people, and yeah she has a little bit of baby fat still hanging around, and so she’s the perfect shape for hugging.
Or petting.
Or giving brushies, come to think of it.
You should give her brushies.
Really, when you think about it, her abilities should be taken as evidence that celestial lion dogs aren’t supposed to be guardians, right? She can fly in all of her forms, which is not something you need when you’re standing on a plinth all day, and she can coax the five elements to her will, which is only tangentially related to standing on a plinth all day, and she can shapeshift, which, again, is not what you need when your job is to sit in one place all day, and be the same shape all day, and growl menacingly all day.
I mean, toughness, yeah, but that’s only really useful as a guard dog if you’re actually doing anything with it. You know, fighting, and saving people and such.
- Mostly based around different animal shapes, Beast Boy / Animorphs / Nimona style - Not limited to animals but animals are quickest to mind, easiest to do - Plant shapes might be theoretically possible, but off-theme and she has no interest in being a plant. Being a plant is boring. - Inanimate objects are a no-go. Needs to be something with a mind. - While she can transform to be shaped like somebody else, it's taboo and rude - Most of her shapes are amber, again, Beast Boy and Nimona style. Not mandatory, but she likes amber and teal and why wouldn't she be the best colors? - Shapeshifting is not instantaneous, but it's within the half-a-second to three second range. Shapeshifting is both audible and visible--burst of changeling fire style is what I'm thinking, but I can be persuaded otherwise. Shapeshifting should be non-destructive--she cannot use the burst of fire to actually set anything on fire - Shapeshifting is a full-body deal. While she can shapeshift to do small things, it's still a full-body change even if she's just like, changing hair color - Shapeshifting large is usually harder and takes longer than shapeshifting small. She also needs to have enough space to shift into something--can't just shift into a whale unless there's a whale shaped hole in the world for her to fit into - She hasn't quite mastered the art of talking around a mouthful of teeth if they aren't her own or human. I theory, she might be able to get that down, but she's still learning. - While she can modulate her weight to better match the animal form, she does not always remember to do so, which means that occasionally a house-cat weighing approximately one statue's worth of granite will crawl into someone's lap and stay there. - Cannot transform while collared, because mystic.
Emotionally: - Shifting is like fidgeting. It scratches an itch to be something new, to feel something different. Part of the reason she doesn't want to go back to heaven is it means that she has to assume her role as a guardian, which means sitting in one place in one shape and that's awful - She loves taking new shapes because it lets her be new things, experiment with new shapes, new ideas, new senses - She has a number of standby shapes for comfortable daily use--cat, labrador, squirrel, snake, teenager of both genders, her own lion dog shape--and tends to swap between them as the mood takes them does not like taking on adult human shape. While she can, it comes with Expectations and social pressure and gross gross gross - Different shapes represent different moods and requests for engagement
LABELS: Freak: +3 (Unleash Your Powers) Danger: -2 (Directly Engage a Threat) Savior: +1 (Defend Someone) Superior: +1 (Assess the Situation, Provoke Someone) Mundane: +0 (Comfort or Support, Pierce the Mask)
Conditions [ ]Afraid (-2 to directly engage) [ ]Angry (-2 to comfort or support or pierce the mask) [X]Guilty (-2 to provoke someone or assess the situation) [X]Insecure (-2 to defend someone or reject what others say) [ ]Hopeless (-2 to unleash your powers
Okay, peel your ears back and stick your head in a convenient bucket, because Shifu’s about to blow your mind. Shifu’s actually from heaven.
Or, you know, the heavenly court, which is much less interesting. Specifically, her guardians were assigned to protect the peaches of immortality? Which is nice for them, because the trees only give fruit once every three thousand years, which means they only need to be worried about once out of every three thousand years?
Which, on the other hand, means that for 2999, they don’t do anything but stand by the garden entrance and glare at people, right?
Boring. As. Hell. Apparently there was this one monkey, but he's busy somewhere else and has already eaten one of the peaches anyway, so he's probably not coming back?
Anyway, there they all are, year 2999–there’s actually a second type of peach that grows every 9000 years? Is it that year?--2999, give or take, and suddenly they’re in a tower, and Shifu’s got this thing round her neck, and everyone’s shouting? And this lady with foxtails is shouting at them, and Shifu gets put in a box!
Well, that’s not going to work very long! Not with Shifu on the case!
And that’s how she found Mr. Chan, right? On the street, wet, a funny little cat-dog alone in the world?
And he took the cat home, and couldn’t find any tags on the collar, and took it off to see if he couldn’t find any chips or notes or something?
And that’s the story of how Mr. Chan found a girl in his room. Which he was very nice about!
You’d like Mr. Chan. He lets her have coffee if she's been a good girl. Which mostly involves not getting into the coffee on her own, but still.
And she’d go back to heaven, but wouldn’t you know it, the next few days after all of that, there was this big ghost explosion, right? And the lady with the tails is gone? Kinda? But also not? She’s somewhere, hidden, like Shifu is hidden, and if she can just find the lady, she won’t need to go back to heaven, right?
It’s not like heaven was that great, after all. This place has squirrels, and coffee, and her friends, and Mr. Chan, and all these new sharpest o try on, and they don’t mind hardly at all when you go off and save people instead of guarding a tree, and she can be a master here, and–
Earth is great, right? Super great. And all her friends are here.
Oh! You’ve met her friends, right? Foxpearl is so smart–she knows everything about earth, and she’s so good at knowing what to do. And Rain is.
Rain is.
Look, you can’t tell anyone, right? You gotta promise!
Okay, you ready? You promise?
Uh, um. Rain is super pretty. And she’s so nice, and she helps people just because she can, and she’s figuring out how to do things so quickly and.
She's really cool, and. And she gives good brushies, and she just.
Shifu really likes her.
You can’t tell anyone. You pinkie-swore!
Relationships: Hsien’s been teaching me about earth. She’s one of my mutuals, and I love reading her discourseposts. I have a crush on Rain, but I keep it under wraps.
Influence: I have a cheerful demeanor, and therefore everyone has influence on me.
Moves: Elemental Powers: When you alter a human device with your magic, roll + Freak. On a hit, you create a device that can do something impossible once and then fizzle. When you roll a 10+, choose one: - it works exceptionally well - you get an additional use out of it On a miss, the device works, but it has a completely unintended side effect that the GM will reveal when you use it.
The Best of Them: When you comfort or support someone by telling them how they exemplify the best parts of Earth, roll + Freak instead of +Mundane.
Not So Different After All: When you talk about your home, roll + Freak. On a 10+, choose two. On a 7-9, choose one. During the conversation, you: - confess a flaw of your home; add 1 Team to the pool - mislead them about your home; take Influence over them - describe the glories of your home; clear a condition On a miss, you inadvertently reveal more about yourself than you planned; tell them a secret or vulnerability you haven’t shared with Earthlings before now.
Team Moves: When you share a triumphant celebration with someone, take Influence over them if you show them meaningful affection, physical or emotional. They decide if it’s meaningful. When you share a vulnerability or weakness with someone, they tell you what you should do to fitin more. Take +1 forward to do it, and mark potential if you do.
Potential: 0/0/0/0/0 Every time you roll a miss on a move, mark potential.
When you fill your potential track, you advance. Choose from the list below. ❑ Take another move from your playbook ❑ Take another move from your playbook ❑ Take a move from another playbook ❑ Someone permanently loses Influence over you; add +1 to a Label ❑ Rearrange your Labels as you choose, and add +1 to a Label ❑ Unlock your Moment of Truth ❑ Choose two new abilities from any playbook as you come into your own ❑ You adopt a human life; take Secret Identity and The Mask from the Janus playbook
When you’ve taken five advances from the top list, you can take advances from the list below. ❑ Unlock your Moment of Truth after you’ve used it once ❑ Change playbooks ❑ Take an adult move ❑ Take an adult move ❑ Lock a Label, and add +1 to a Label of your choice ❑ Retire from the life or become a paragon of the city.
