Name:Imogen Reed
Arcana: The Hanged Man
Birthday: July 29th
Appearance: Quietly composed, with a tasteful and cultivated smidgen of elegance. Her expression, while seldom happy or cheerful, suggests mere seriousness rather than haughtiness or ill temper. In fact, her big bright eyes make her solemn manner cute in the eyes of some. The combination of dressing for comfort in what are clearly still expensive clothes says enough about her in and of itself. Even in her student uniform, the presence of her signature beanie and scarf (as well as her headphones) give her that same dignified yet casual air. At 5ā4ā and on the slender side, she doesnāt stand out much otherwise
Reputation:For the most part, people donāt think about Imogen. She is merely an element in the background, like a lampshade or doormat, nice enough but quite forgettable. People don't know much about her background, or care to know, and she doesn't care to inform them. That said, everyone does know she's Irish, and the bad blood between the Irish and English goes back a long way, subtly tinging her interactions. While not shy, sheās soft-spoken and taciturn enough to seldom get much attention, and though sheās happy enough to exchange pleasantries she has no problem with silence, either. The headphones she often wears give the impression that she doesn't want to be disturbed, although this isn't strictly true; instead of desiring silence she is dealing with the silence that is assumed. She never gets into trouble, always minds her own business, and dutifully does her part in group projects but rarely attends social events. The end result is someone that to most other students is little more than a warm body, an unassuming inoffensive occupant of space, and whether sheās there or not makes not a whit of difference.
Background:Obedient, independent, self-sufficient, mature for her ageāif these were not traits Imogen were born with, they were ones that her upbringing made more than second nature to her. The two happiest days in her father Cedricās life were the day that he married Millicent Lancaster following an extended trip up from England to Ireland, and the day that their only daughter was born. Her dad knew that the woman heād somehow married was too good for him, and so did she, but they were in love. He showed her how to love again; she shone a ray of radiant light into the murky hae of his life. It was like a storybook tale come true. Whether she came from a rich family or not, he -a poor, blue-collar Irish laborer- would do his damnedest to provide for his precious family.
Millie allowed him to. While he worked long hours to make ends meet, she idled her time away wherever she pleased, leaving young Imogen at home. She came from the fast life, after all; the simple pleasures after a hard dayās work that Cedric cherished, and that Imogen yearned for, would never satisfy her. Her needs for diversion, attention, and appreciation had to be met, and slowly, her husband ceased to satisfy. That wonderful spark of passion that galvanized them into a quick marriage was gone. With the passing interest known as a family now little more than a nuisance, it was no wonder that Millie ended up cheating on Cedric. What good was he for her, after all? Though stunned and hurt, Cedric forgave her, only to later learn that the affairs continued. When the infidelity finally reached the breaking point, he attempted to confront her, threatening to take his beloved daughter and leave. Instead Millie divorced him, crushed him in the legal proceedings, and took with her back to England the one thing he had to his name.
In England Imogenās lonely life continued, all the lonelier for the absence of the only one who really cared about her. Millie provided for her, sending her to fine schools to try her hardest and succeed, but any show of tenderness inevitably rang hollow. Naturally awkward Imogen made few friends, spending most of her time either on schoolwork or online. She didnāt know how to talk with people her age or get them to like her, and felt like an outcast. For a while she did everything she could to try and make people give her the pity, sympathy, and kindness she believed she deserved. At the same time, she felt the urge to lash out, to bitterly dismiss and rebuke those who did as insincere, inadequate, or misguided. They should pity her, but she didnāt need their pity. Somehow, self-loathing and self-absorption walked hand in hand. As a result, those around her saw her as a selfish, manipulative drama queen, a weirdo, and a freak.
In the years of misery that followed, Imogen eventually had to change her tune. Starting after middle school, she calmed down. She buried her anger and the despair that caused it beneath a polite, considerate dignity. Imogen succeeded in completely changing her image, from her behavior to her appearance, seemingly becoming an upstanding young lady with an excellent academic record, a totally different and much more tolerable person. Though never popular or anything, she behaved long enough that all memories of that crazy, maladjusted problem child disappeared. All except Imogenās, of course, To most, she just grew up, but in reality she worries that she never did, and had merely given up instead. She more or less accepted that itās her lot in life to be a āghostā that matters to nothing and nobody, meaning that instead of othersā love and appreciation, she gets her new sense of self-worth from spiteāthe wholehearted commitment to spitting in lifeās face by living a good one despite all its cruelty. She's still bitter about her loneliness and apathy, but she hides it and is too exhausted all the time from her studies to act out. It sometimes feels like somethingās crawling inside her, a mania just waiting to break free.
Miscellaneous:- Although outwardly calm, cool, mature, and collected, Imogen is something of a dork. āTerminally onlineā might be a bit far, but she spends a lot more time watching streamers than hanging out with friends. The fact that she needs those glasses to see doesnāt help, either
- She doesn't like the quiet, or being alone with her thoughts, so when she isn't playing a game with a stream on in the background she's typically listening to loud music
- Her hobbies are surprisingly intense. It would probably be a surprise to anyone to learn that she owns and often uses a punching bag, or that she considers a day at a shooting range an absolute treat. She also likes horror, war movies, and so forth, perhaps desensitized by all that she's seen on the internet over the years
- There are bags under her eyes from staying up late staring at screens and textbooks for either stimulation or study
- Sheās an avid coffee drinker and would probably suffer withdrawal symptoms if she stopped suddenly, but thatās probably not going to happen anytime soon
- Wherever there are students bragging to one another about how little they slept last night, Imogen can typically be found
- Owing to a childhood spent on fast food, frozen food, TV dinners, and a lack of motivation to cook for herself, Imogen's taste in food (and diet) are objectively terrible. She's immune to freezer-burn, ignores nutrition labels, doesn't care if things are burned a lot a little, and might very well eat something that fell on the ground if it looks fine. She'd probably be huge if not for her remarkably high metabolism
- To summarize, Imogen is an outwardly quiet, sweet, polite, very tired, slightly twitchy nerd, who may or may not be suppressing psychotic tendencies
Persona: Odradek - something adrift and unanchored, obscure and aimless that is neither quite dead nor alive, neither object nor human, and bereft of either origin or purpose. It appears to be a simple piece of junk, being a quantity of scrap twine or rope wound around two metal spikes in the manner of a kite or perhaps the sail of a ship, with an eye nestled inside the knot at the very center. It tends to float above and just behind the user, its loose threads flapping gently in some ethereal wind. If held its flight is strong enough to glide with, but not to ascend. When it manifests, it does so like itās rapidly knitting itself together
Moveset: Odradek specializes in screwing with, breaking down, and picking apart enemies. With its baleful, disquieting gaze that brings all into question it can weaken foesā presence of mind (attack and accuracy debuffs), or it can take initiative to restrain them with its thread, making them sitting ducks (speed and defense debuffs). While it possesses only mediocre physical attacks of its own with its metal crossbars, its strange threads allows it to turn enemy attacks against them (counters) or with a little luck and preparation, puppet them directly (brainwash). Its element is Nuclear, the wellspring of enigmatic, almost eldritch radiation that is anathema to living things
Weapon:Imogen's weapon is an unusually volatile and violent one: a grenade on a string, or more specifically, a garrote. Whether a piano or guitar string, the garrote is tough and sharp, ideal for stealth takedowns. When time to go loud, however, it can be used to pull the pin on Imogen's grenade from a distance, setting off its very, very short fuse. The
grenades inherit Odradek's element, acting like teensy-tiny nuclear explosion