Additional lore incoming: can't believe I didn't think of this earlier!
What would a magical girl anime be without new powerups? In this case, they're known as Heart Crystals. Dropped by defeated Monsters and Villains, Heart Crystals cans provide magical girls with new attacks and powers, more mana, or further physical buffs. Sufficiently large ones might even be able to trigger short-term 'super modes', but they won't come easy...
Personality: Farrah is an introvert, confident in her work but shy with her colleagues and higher ups. She has a strong sense of justice, and is passionate with those she is close to, but she has a hard time reaching people or keeping them close. This has led to her seeming cold or aloof to those who aren't close to her, but warm and passionate, and sometimes clingy, to those who've managed to get past that.
Backstory: Magical girls came into the light when Farrah was in grade school, and she'd been interested in the phenomenon ever since. Over the years, this turned from infatuation, to dreaming of being one, to trying to unlock the secrets of their magic through controlled experimentation and analysis, which in turn lead to her pursuit of a career in the sciences. Throughout her life, Farrah only ever experienced magical phenomena at a distance. No monsters attacked her hometown, none of her extended family were harmed, nothing. Magic seemed entirely detached from her reality until she reached university, and started working with one of her professors who was leading the charge to understand magic as a force within the world, Professor Ariel Jackson. Under Professor Jackson, a renowned physicist, she studied physical chemistry in an attempt to understand the forces and interactions at play between matter and the energy known as 'magic', though neither had made significant inroads even when working directly with Mascot assistance, leading to their team growing to include a variety of disciplines working under Dr. Jacksons leadership.
One night, yet another late night at the lab, an experiment began to show results; that night would eventually mark the beginning of a new story, but we aren't there yet. Her most recent experiment began to react in a never-before-seen chain of reactions, and in her haste and excitement Farrah forgot to take certain precautions. This lead to the experiment reaching criticality and detonating, destroying the records Farrah had managed to make and wrecking much of the lab in the process as well as knocking Farrah herself out, only regaining consciousness when emergency services found her alive and mostly unharmed save a few scrapes and bruises, laying in a clean circle amongst the ruins of the lab along with the labs mascot, an albino lab rat with oddly purple eyes.
Over the following weeks and months, Drs. Jackson & Day lead the team in trying to safely recreate the catastrophic experiment to little avail, the closest attempt having to be cancelled as the containment measures failed and the reaction nearly went critical. During this time, the lab had gained a mascot somewhere, the little rat, who had figured out how to get out of its cage and wander the lab without disturbing ongoing experiments and dangerous materials. The team originally tried to keep it in a succession of cages, but eventually conceded that their new mascot could wiggle its way out of any cage.
One day, several months after the explosion, Farrah heard a voice in her mind. Her little lab rat, the friendly fuzzy-faced mascot of the lab, was speaking to her telepathically. It told her that in the months since the explosion, it had been recovering its power after saving Farrah and keeping the building intact, and was finally able to reveal its true identity as a magical Mascot. It said that it had originally been attracted to the team, and Farrah herself, by their dedication to their studies, instead of just giving up when the going got tough. Subject 01 had chosen Farrah Day, and the two of them bound their souls together in the name of scientific discovery, forming the magical girl Curie Heart. This did not lead to the rapid leaps forward that the team had hoped for, but the availability of a Magical Girl who also held a Doctorate of her own at least ensured smooth integration and the understanding of experimental procedures and the scientific method. Over the following 6 months, Farrah worked herself relentlessly, working both to advance their understanding of magic (very, very slowly to her chagrin), and to master her own powers as Curie Heart, which went far better. The other reason for Subject 01s choice became clear later, when monsters started to attack New York City and Curie Heart was needed to protect the people.
Other Details: - Fluent in Spreadsheet - PhD in Physical Chemistry & Physics
Curie Heart passively generates motes of Mana that orbit her as if they were electrons in an atom.
Minor Powers/Attacks (3. Small attacks and utility power, like D&D cantrips) - Atom Bolt - -
Medium Powers/Attacks (2. Higher power moves) - Photon Lance
- Newton's Cradle: Newtons Cradle allows the user to modify Newtons Laws of Motion within a short range of the user, with greater changes costing more mana.
Major Power/Attack (1. Signature move/finisher) - Hadron Smasher
Other Details:
Name: Subject #01
Personality: Subject 01 is incredibly curious about the physical world, and takes to new experiences, and experiments, with great zeal. He is enthusiastic and caring, always looking for new ways to help the team of researchers he works with and the magical girl he has partnered with.
Other Details: Subject 01 is a relatively inexperienced Mascot, and as such is discovering the full extent of his powers as a Mascot while Farrah is discovering her own powers as a Magical Girl, and both treat it as a collaborative research project for better or for worse. When out and about, Subject 01 accompanies Farrah by hiding in her shirt pocket.
EDIT: Fixed the backstory & Subjects blurb (I hope) but still working on the powers.
Workable, but I'm going to have to disagree with the 'mundane causing magic' bit. Perhaps Subject was attracted to her curiosity and hought she'd be a good candidate?
Workable, but I'm going to have to disagree with the 'mundane causing magic' bit. Perhaps Subject was attracted to her curiosity and hought she'd be a good candidate?
Otherwise, so far so good.
Sounds good, I'll update that as well when I get off work today.
WIP. Most of the important details are ironed out and it is only missing some flair, but it is... rather important flair.
Name: Sienna Hawthorne
Age: 33
Appearance:
Personality: At a first glance, Sienna is a model housewife. Not only is she a loving spouse, but she is also great with children. She cooks, cleans and does the laundry. She is always by her husband, taking care of their three children so that they may have bright futures. Furthermore, Sienna always awaits her guests with a loving smile, not to mention that she minds her manners maybe just a little bit too much. Indeed, from the outside, it seems that she loves and is loved in return in equal amounts.
Yet this is a mere facade.
Deep down, Sienna is a woman with a vivacious fantasy, an imagination beyond compare and ambitions that she never fulfilled. The only time when her real personality gets to shine is when she is telling fantastic stories to her children... but even that is starting to fall by the wayside. With her youngest starting school soon, he is growing out of her 'childish fantasies' and so, Sienna finds herself at her wits' end. Every day, she feels like she is playing a role, that she is living out the ideal life of someone else. Everyone tells her that they are envious of her situation and it is slowly killing her inside because she can never be who she truly is.
Backstory: Born to a middle-class family, Sienna's story started out great. She had everything one could want in life: a loving family, an older brother and a younger brother. She especially loved playing with her siblings, often using her vivid imagination to conjure make-believe scenarios that were beloved by all. She always dreamed of worlds beyond worlds; even at a young age, she excelled in telling stories to everyone. Her parents humored her as was their duty but while most kids grew out of their story phase, Sienna had not really gotten the memo.
While her parents had warned her repeatedly, Sienna did not listen, which turned into a disastrous school debut. Instead of endearing the other children like her family, she alienated them. They thought her weird for living in a world of fancy fantasies, quickly deciding that she came from another planet, then ostracising her in a rather cruel fashion. Rumors spread about her through the whole school, turning Sienna's life upside down to such a degree that her parents made the decision to switch her schools.
While there had been no physical bullying, Sienna did learn her lesson. Never again would she share her internal world with others even if it killed her deep inside. Nobody wanted to hear about them. Even her family had only indulged her because they were nice to her. And so she created a facade to hide behind, painting a thick, metaphorical mask over her face. No longer was she a girl of stories, of creation. No, instead she was interested in the classic topics: Boys, gossip and whatever else seemed popular at the time.
Wearing this mask only further reinforced her beliefs, for the more she talked about what others wanted to hear, the more successful she became socially.
Therefore, her fantasies were useless. The worlds, the characters she created were worse than worthless. They held her back. Society did not value such things; instead, it emphasized being just like everyone else. And so she would have to adapt even though it was slowly murdering her inside. Every smile she put on, every gesture she faked, everything she did to appeal to others only diminished her, grinding away at her soul iota by iota. And yet no matter how she tried, she could not shake off her 'childish tastes' - they seemed to be a part of her soul regardless of how much it hurt to acknowledge.
So she tried her best to forget about them. She did everything correctly - married young to a relatively wealthy husband, gave him beautiful children, stayed home to take care of them. Played the part of a perfect housewife, of a loving spouse. Swallowed poison every single day. Broke just a little bit more every single day. And as her children too, started to grow up and discard the fantastic stories she told them, Sienna realised just how alone she truly was. Indeed, she could never show her true self to anyone else, lest she be destroyed again.
And yet, there was hope within the darkness. Ever since her disastrous debut at school, Sienna found solace in the stories of magical girls. She loved how they presented themselves. She loved how they fought for justice. She wished that one of them had stood beside her when she was being bullied, but more than that... Sienna wished to become one of them, for they would have allowed her the freedom of using her imagination. They would open the doors of the gilded cage she constructed for herself, relieve her of the burden of pretense.
Except that moment never came in her life. Indeed as she entered into her thirty-third year, Sienna realised that this is yet another of her childish dreams and yet... she just can not let go of it. Oh if only she could don a mask and unburden herself! If only she could unleash all of her fantasies and fancies without a care in the world! That would be nothing else than true heaven.
Other Details: - There is some Italian blood in Sienna, the relevance of which will become evident later on. - She enjoys being a magical girl way too much and would rather spend her time in costume than out of costume. This makes her already tense relationship with her Mascot even more so.
Transformed Name: Her Eternally Exalted Excellency, The Diligent Dealer of Death, Decay and Devastation, The Righteous Regent who Reminisces of Ravaging Rebellions with Relentless Rows of Revenants, Magicae Mortem Puellae Quae Dominatur Arcem Loculis
A.K.A.
Coffin Fortress
Appearance:
Minor Powers/Attacks
Si omnis mortalium qui conspectui meo occurrere audet, carnem eorum in saxum sua insensibilem vertetur (Every mortal who dares to meet my gaze shall have their flesh turned into unfeeling stone): When Coffin Fortress channels magic into her baleful eyes which conceal behind them the horrifying truth of life and its end, she gains the ability to freeze creatures by looking straight into their eyes, or equivalent sensory organs. Should she meet their gaze for a long enough time, usually measured in a dozen seconds at least, her target's bodily functions will also start to fail, slowly killing them as time goes by.
This ability is far from instantaneous; the stronger Coffin Fortress' opponent is, the harder it is for her to paralyse them, never mind eliminate them using this spell.
Omnes mortales sarcophagum amplecti cupiunt, et gratiam eis misericordiam tribuo maledictis redemptionem affero (All mortals crave to embrace the coffin, and so I show them mercy by delivering it unto their cursed souls.): Reaching deep into the endless void from which there is no escape and which will never accept a living thing for as long as it exists realm of eternal rest, Coffin Fortress summons a large coffin beside herself, which she then launches at an enemy of her choice. These 'projectiles' may be summoned rapidly if she desires, but the more she summons at once, the smaller their size - and impact - will be.
Loculis solamen mortuis non tuentur, sed nam tutelam homines praestabunt donec parati sunt fatum suum amplecti (Coffins do not offer their comfort only to the dead, for they will ensure one's protection until they are ready to embrace their fate): Calling upon the spinners of Fate who determine one's life just as much as they determine their death her magic, Coffin Fortress summons seven revolving coffins around an ally or herself. These coffins follow and protect their target as though they were a shield, though they can not defend against stronger attacks.
Medium Powers/Attacks
Per crux vivis et dedit crucem morieris (It is by the cross that you live and it is by the cross that you shall die): Opening her hands as though she were embracing the inevitability of Death itself, Crossed Swords spends a moment to summon a massive, elaborately detailed cross as a weapon. Her gaze then sweeps across the battlefield until it lands on an opponent she deems suitable, marking them as her target. She may then use weapon in one of two ways: Either she can launch the cross at them with supernatural speed, impacting and hopefully pinning or straight up impaling her opponent, or she can blitz up to them to deliver a vicious blow. Coffin Fortress may use the cross for as long as she fuels her spell with magic, choosing new targets as she pleases.
Requiescit non curat qui in eo infernus (The grave does not care about who rests in it): With a loving kiss to the ring on her right finger, Coffin Fortress closes her eyes and summons up to thirteen ornate graves around herself, always arranged as though they were points on a star. Forged by Death itself and decorated with all trappings of a world beyond mortals, These graves are masterfully crafted, ornate constructs that emit an aura of crushing despair. Should any creature stray too close to them, no matter how strong-willed, they will be overcome by the urge to open up one of the graves and lay there, unmoving until death comes for them.
Major Power/Attack
Somnum: Coffin Fortress raises her left hand to the sky, the very appendage that serves as the key to the door of the afterlife and utters one simple word. The heavens themselves respond in kind, ominous, pale clouds gathering above her as she begins her ritual. As she focuses her energies, baleful energies build up around her, lashing out at any who come too close and injuring them, all the while building a bridge of cursed light that strives to reach ever higher. When it touches the clouds, the ritual is finished.
The next moment, a coffin smashes into the ground behind her. Four times as tall as she is, it opens with an ominous creak, letting out a swarm of hideous, skeletal hands that are far longer than they should have any right to be. They seek out Coffin Fortress' enemies, whether they be few or many, dragging them towards the coffin with supernatural strength, for no creature that crosses the lid will ever live again.
When the spell is finished, the coffin slams shut and ascends back to where it came from.
Given its sheer strength and versatility, it is unfortunate that this is one of the few of Coffin Fortress' attacks that can be disrupted by interrupting it in the ritual phase. When this happens, she may not try invoking it again for some time.
Transformation item: Coffin Fortress' Mascot also serves as her transformation item - as such, she always carries it with her in a shoulder bag.
Magical weapon: The Dread Rabbit of Caerbannog. While this creature may look like an ordinary hare, it possesses powers far beyond one's imagination. Not only is it fiercely loyal to its master, but its teeth are also capable of shearing one's head from their neck. It is also incredibly fluffy and friendly to those its master deems harmless. Petting it is encouraged!
Other details: - Coffin Fortress' personality changes completely in her Magical Girl form. All of Sienna's inhibitions, all of her fantasies and fancies are released, let out to the wind and the resulting picture is... well... someone who speaks in a baroque, over-the-top manner; uses elaborate and overly complex sentences; never refers to people by their name, opting a to use a title instead - which changes about as often as one changes their underwear; and plays up their own powers along with that of her team-mates. - Her Magical Girl personality is contagious to a degree. The longer someone fights beside her, the harder it is for them to remain themselves. This does not effect everyone to the same degree. (Read as: all characters can resist this effect until their player finds the timing sufficiently funny.) - Not even Mascots are immune to this effect. Hers seems to be the only exception to the rule. - Why, yes, Coffin Fortress loves to shout the full name of her abilities. Fortunately(?) there seems to be some sort of weird time distortion effect that allows her to be always on time with them, regardless of how long they might be.
Name:The Star-Studded Tome of Salvation De mortalium suscitandas et carnis ad potestate mortuae carnes.
Appearance:
Personality: Once a book of hopes, light and dreams, Salvation - he refuses to be called by the silly name that Coffin Fortress gave him - is rather angry about being turned into "The ultimate, unquestionable weapon of death from which not a single entity - whether they be mortal or not - is capable of escaping, for entropy and the end of all things will inevitably reap every single soul." and he would rather be elsewhere. The only thing keeping Salvation by Coffin Fortress' side is their contract, but even that is a rather tenuous link. Indeed, he only helps her out if it is absolutely necessary for the completion of her duty, choosing to sulk in silence instead.
Seriously, why did he choose this girl... woman in the first place? Gods, is he ever embarrassed about it. And he had more than enough of her behaviour, thank you very much! She should just shut up already instead of going on tirades about the death, darkness and the nature of the universe and... gah! Why, oh why couldn't he have chosen someone else? Sure, it was an emergency, sure, the whole world depended on it, but he still regrets it to this day and is always looking for opportunities to be rid of her. Unfortunately, magical contracts are a two-way street, so Salvation is stuck being snarky or playing straight man to Coffin Fortress' insanity.
Somnum, Per Crux, and Quid mortale need a bit of toning down. Also, can you provide some translations for the Latin? It's gonna drive me nuts otherwise.
Also, starter is up, if anyone wants to get their characters going. I was thinking we'd all post our openers traveling to the monster, and then we could get into the action.
Also, starter is up, if anyone wants to get their characters going. I was thinking we'd all post our openers traveling to the monster, and then we could get into the action.
Sorry, I fixed (I hope) the story issues you brought up a few days ago, but I've been having a bit of a time coming up with her powers x.x
Now post for Coffin Fortress so MDP can befriend her.
Will that be a traditional befriending or a Nanoha-style befriending?
On a note related to my post, @shagranoz, do Magical Girls get the "usual" suite of physical enhancements that is common in Magical Girl anime (enhanced strength and speed) or do they only have their magic when compared to their human selves?