[OOC] Progressive Arcanum (Page 20)

"Oh, you didn't know about that? Well, let me fill you in on a little secret..."

Character Sheet

Name:
Aoife (EE-fa) Halloran, the Magic Detective
Gender:
Female
Age:
18
Appearance:

Image [+]

Altogether lean and at a modest height at 5' 4.5" (163.5 cm), Aoife's is a body wrapped in supple muscles that hint at a lifestyle of high-paced athleticism, providing her with a rather pleasing figure and silhouette with her build metaphorically comparable to that of a large predatory cat. Aoife is possessive of bright red hair neatly cut into short locks, with contrastingly cool grey-green eyes that appear to be capable of quite a good range of expressions. While rarely described as being intense in aura, owning a sharp stare that seems to dissect those under her gaze, Aoife much more commonly displays a varied combination of charm, curiosity and craftiness, carrying a dichotomy where she appears to bear experience in many matters while still carrying an almost child-like intrigue with the world surrounding her, constantly watching her surroundings and other people.

Being something of an honor student, Aoife's choice of wardrobe is modest and functional, often covering much of her skin while affording her a deal of mobility and practicality. Her primary outfit manages to compliment her figure while providing her preferred skin-coverage. Aoife often wears a belt with a clip to hold a grimoire and can be seen carrying a magic amplifying staff that can shrink itself into the size of a wand.

Personality:

Details [+]

Contrasting her predatory physical appearance, Aoife is pleasant and overall cheerful in disposition, displaying herself as a rather gentle, considerate and loyal person to those not on her bad side. She likes things that can sate her curious nature as well as things that create intriguing situations to be solved. Aoife can be found reading books, investigating mysteries, gathering information on the world around her, or solving puzzles. Similarly, Aoife is quite fond of offering—relevant or irrelevant—information she has learned to others in the form of advice or flexible directions. She will also offer her skills for hire. Hired as an information gatherer or tactician by friends, this information and insight is often free, whereas she'll occasionally request a usually insignificant fee from other parties, usually in the form of information trade—though a small amount of money for her troubles to acquire and transmit information is acceptable.

Central to Aoife is her sense of curiosity, where she seeks questions and the answers to those questions, fashioning herself after an image of a magical inspector of sorts, one that is capable of both the physical and mental sides of mysteries. She is also particularly interested in crimes involving magic. To these ends, she can find herself aggravated to the point of depression if left long enough without things to learn, mysteries to solve or information to spread/gather. Highly observant and intuitive, she enjoys finding the source of things as well as discovering their mechanics, a trait she seems to have inherited as a side effect of her quest to find the answers to her family's problems, a situation that brought her the idea that the best method to solving the issues was to study them and diffuse them through the use of unorthodox tactics where she could incisively strike at their core. Due to this relationship with curiosity and unorthodoxy, Aoife does not lean on or claim to rely on the many books she reads to dictate how she approaches or understands things, instead maintaining a philosophy of observing then thinking for oneself.

Alongside her love for mysteries and fondness for information, Aoife is of the belief that a strong body supports a strong mind, both of which should be the foundations of a good magician, and exercises rather rigorously in parallel to her intellectual endeavors. She shows interest and promise in Reinforcing Spellcraft that can boost her already capable body and the bodies of others, making her quite familiar with the workings of the human body as a consequence, a trait that she happily applies to learning healing spell techniques. Rounding out her interests in Outsorcery, Aoife also takes pride in her ability to create flexible spells of the offensive and defensive variety, as well as using her analytical mind to discern the functions and workings of the spells of others.

Aoife displays her own brand of kindness in the form of trying to encourage and push those around her toward a sort of tactically oriented mindset where they are willing to rely on others when needed, but capable of self-reliance. To this end, Aoife is far from the haughty intellectual that some informed people are, and she truly enjoys explaining how things work to people and helping others in a way that they can support themselves after she's left. She will also try her utmost to use only enough power or display as much skill as needed, so as not to seem demeaning or overwhelming to the helped party. Also due to this ideology, Aoife shows consternation toward the lazy and cowardly, especially those that will easily resign themselves in a bad situation if they don't see any direct routes out.

Though a generally mature and focused individual, through pressing on the right—or perhaps wrong—buttons, Aoife is known to be capable of an always brief, but extremely intense and sometimes destructive rage that she almost always immediately regrets and will apologize profusely for after it is over. Other than these rarely seen bouts of extreme anger, Aoife is adept at keeping a lid on any strong negativity, holding her distastes and unnecessary criticisms back as best as she can. In relation, she isn’t the type that makes it clear when she dislikes someone, acting in somewhat passive-aggressive fashion toward those people.

Aoife has a complex—which under the right circumstances can border on outright fear—toward damage to or the loss of any of her five senses, with sight and hearing being the two she holds to the highest regard. As such, she takes good care of her eyes and ears, the former with good nutrition and a tendency to wear a hood to shield her eyes from direct sunlight, the latter by making sure to cover her ears properly when in the presence of explosives or other loud noise-creating things. In addition to her complex over damage to her senses, likely due to the large amounts of secrets and information she keeps in her head, she is quite distrustful of those that are adept with insorcery. To this end, she does keep and know of countermeasures, though she still would prefer to stay away from any powerful sykers or insorcerors.

While not in any sort of extreme, Aoife tends toward being a right-brained type of individual, finding some difficulty with academic subjects and real-life methods that she considers much too rigid or straight-forward. Consequently, she may be good with analysis, but she's not the best with raw numbers, nor is she capable of recalling things like history if it isn't within the scope of a situation at hand. Still, she can be considered studious; a lack of rebellious nature and a sense of pride in her place of education puts her on good terms with the instructors.

Despite her athleticism and analytical prowess, Aoife considers herself bad at sports, particularly in regards to team sports, preferring to apply her strengths to more "practical matters". When distressed and incapable of doing anything to resolve the source of her distress, she can be found in her room, practicing her skills at painting. While generally well read, she will admit that she's not a very good writer of prose or poetry, preferring to read and admire the works of others while she sticks to painting.

Abilities:

Intuitive, experienced, and highly capable in her fields of study, Aoife is a prime example of a functional Magestrava and a “great success” as far as an academic institution can be concerned. Powerfully efficient and efficiently powerful, Aoife is a Magestrava who uses her sharp mind and toned physical features in conjunction with superior magical talents to attain any goals she has set for herself.

Outsorcery
In the magical arts relating to and encompassed by Outsorcery, Aoife has attained a level of talent and wisdom comparable to masters and geniuses. Through years of passionate, rigorous and fiercely determined training, she has found herself achieving a level seemingly beyond her years.

Fundamentally, she is capable of utilizing the Maians of Xi and Karma to ensconce fine adjustments up to massive changes to the environment surrounding her. Aoife is most proficient in her control over the otherwise fickle and often considered as inflexible element of fire, while she maintains a still admirable degree of control over other elements of the Maian's sphere of influence.

Outsorcery Details [+]

Intelligence
In-line with her personality, Aoife is highly observant and displays a quick-witted intelligence that she uses to maneuver herself through situations as well as daily life. For the most part, Aoife uses her intelligence to process information on her surroundings and/or further her goals and interests. Combined with what she already knows, she shows an incredible intellectual potential, capacity to learn, and a proclivity toward critical thinking. She absorbs information completely and quickly in order to solve problems.

Aoife works markedly well under pressure, maintaining her composure and calmly analyzing a situation to gather as much information as she possibly can in order to make an incisive action at the right moment. Though this does mean that she may take a respite in a time-sensitive situation in order to decide what would be the best course of action, she does her best not to spend too much time thinking. While she is smart, she is by no means a genius on the level of a savant, and thus she may still have to rush things when the situation calls for it.

She finds the primary use for her intellectual capacity in aiding herself or allies with investigations, and in combat situations. As a matter of fact, the easiest way to dull her intellect would be to put her in a place where she can’t solve anything, somewhere completely peaceful and without conflicts that need attention.

Expert Close Combatant
Believing it necessary for an investigator to be able to fight their way out of a situation when it’s called for, as opposed to the ability to just run away very fast, Aoife has put a great degree of study and emphasis into honing her strength in combat nonexclusive to spellcasting. From strengthening her muscles to learning to use the physique that she’s gained, she has a markedly developed sense for close combat. By no means as powerful with her fists and staff as she is in spellcasting or in a field of tactics, she is still an apt contender that considers physical prowess a boon to a good Magestrava.

Notably, Aoife is terrible with swords and knives, preferring to stick to using her staff or using bare fists to take on enemy combatants.

Close Combatant Details [+]

— Physique
Although not as physically imposing or powerful as the strongest women around, and certainly nowhere on the level of a Sepcarim Monk, Aoife has markedly great physical prowess. As a result of daily physical training and exercise, she has developed a toned body worthy of a frontline fighter where flexibility and reflexes are held in as high a regard as pure strength. Combined with her training, she is capable of, without magic, completely overwhelming normal humans in single and even group combat, and can likely hold her own and win against another fighter. In terms of striking capacity, she is the type that can easily shatter bricks with her fists, and has a pain threshold not to recoil from doing so. With speed in question, she can sprint 100 meters in 9.7 seconds. With both strength and speed, she is capable of intercepting oncoming spears and breaking their shafts using sweeping blocks with her forearms.

— Martial Artist
Combining learned knowledge from reading books and having observed soldiers, mercenaries, ruffians fighting, and having gotten into a few scraps herself, Aoife developed an “intelligent” form of martial art for herself with a focus on managing efficient and effective distance, powerful strikes to weak points, and the exploitation of openings in an enemy utilizing swift grabs. Though it may seem violent, Aoife’s primary intent behind developing a martial art was to effectively incapacitate a target without permanently damaging them; yet another allusion to her obsession with becoming the “perfect investigator”.

Taking notes from her observations and what she has read, Aoife surmised that the weakest points on any given opponent with or without armor would be the joints, legs, and sections that are hard to effectively wrap armor around, like the stomach and neck. As most physical combatants would be using swords or spears, she placed emphasis on being able to fight inside the effective radius of attack, closing in with a charging step and focusing on infighting combining short range bursts of power using elbow strikes, arm/fist punches, hip checks and strikes with the shoulder.

Other Skills
On top of everything, Aoife finishes her list of skills with a strong capacity for infiltration and stealth. She isn’t a master of disguise, but instead quite good at sneaking around unnoticed while using all of her other skills in conjunction to neutralize things like observational wards and conceal herself for long periods of time. Similarly, Aoife uses her limited knowledge of insorcery to shield her mind from the prying eyes of insorcerors as best she can.

While not a personal ability, Aoife maintains a rather large Intelligence Network inside of the academy, and a smaller one in the nearby city. Due to this, she also knows about the Teacher’s wards, though she’s likely unaware of the Headmaster’s Wards, as that is information that only the Headmaster himself is privy to.

Studying:

Outsorcery — Primary Subject

Pythomancy — Secondary Subject, knowledge mostly theoretical

Alchemy — Knowledge purely theoretical beyond homework, she has an oddly hard time innovating

Automancy — Studying for the sake of improving her Reinforcement Spellcraft, also to further her goals of becoming a magical crimes detective

Art - Painting/Sketching — Mostly for use as a hobby, though she does try to apply the technical aspects of arts to taking notes and making composites

Interests:

Studying, both formal and informal

Mystery Stories

Mysteries

School Rumors

Secrets

Subterfuge

Urban Legends

Exercising

Inspectors from the Constabulary

Teachers

Eating Increasingly Spicier Foods

Music, particularly wind instruments

Art, particularly charcoal sketches

Violent Crimes that Involve Magic

Dislikes:

Cowards

Complete and idyll peace where nothing happens

Porridge

People who are unconditionally trusting

Laziness and Procrastination

Most Demons

Disloyalty

Contracts

Tactlessness

Biography:

The Halloran Family
The Halloran family had throughout its lineage dating back several centuries found itself blessed with the fortuitous luck of a high amount of Magestrava births. In a world where the capacity for the skilled use of magic is gifted to 10% of the popultation and even with that number is a completely random occurrence, a reputation for “producing Magestrava” can be looked at with high expectations and envy toward both their luck and to the individual skill of such progeny.

In vain of this, the Hallorans have experienced both good and bad reputations with different heads taking different approaches to their the conduct of their lineage. Perhaps due to the will of gods or merely just the ultimate equalizer of time, the occurrence of Magestrava in the past few generations has begun to dwindle and the noble household has begun to see decline. While this decline is gradua, a series of two generations without a single Magestrava and several generations with ever fewer low quality Magestrava has brought worry that the line was fast approaching the end of its fortunes. To add fuel to the fire, actions taken by the family some time ago lead to a few scandals, associating the Halloran name with that of “trouble”.

In the current generation, two surprises appeared: the fortunate birth of an apparently high quality Magestrava child, and the simultaneously unfortunate sudden occurrence of spirit problems that would come to vex even hired Ouramancers.

Early Life
Younger of two children and the first Magestrava in nearly a century, Aoife was born and raised in a warm household going through a troubled time. The duality of the family’s circumstances brought about two separate yet equal needs: that the child be sent to an academy—any academy, though hopefully one of some reputation—that she might perhaps learn the ways of powerful Magestrava in order to help boost the family standing, and that she might somehow eventually come about to help fix the second need; the family’s sudden disposition with demons and other spirits.

As neither her parents nor her older brother knew of spellcraft and spiritual activities kept suitable tutors away, there was little hope to develop Aoife’s magical abilities in the Halloran household, much less any hope to find answers to their situation where all the Ouramancers they could afford became stumped or were scared away. The somewhat farfetched hope was, that by sending Aoife to an academy of repute, she would befriend or come to know an Ouramancer of some skill. As the family had its name and Aoife was already known to have a measure of potential, getting her into some prestigious academy should have been easy and it would have presented an equally important benefit of giving their child a pleasant place to learn.

Responsibilities and the expectations of maturing were thrust on Aoife earlier than most; to some this may be a source of bitterness or resentment, but Aoife instead would later look upon these times fondly and found herself enjoying her earliest years. The concerns of the adults—these always slightly depreciated from their true brevity—were always softly made known to the growing Aoife. The concerns helped instill within her a sense of familial duty and overall loyalty wherein she was instructed by her father to prioritize spellcraft and practical knowledge over any other budding interests. At the same time, many of the world’s wisdoms were revealed to her at an earlier age than many, and Aoife found herself taking an active interest in what she was being taught and told, and any questions she had about any topic were always given with honesty and bluntness. To her, the sometimes gritty realities of the world weren’t traumatizing or mind-bending, but were instead like the kindly fairytales that other kids were taught. To the very-young girl, her family’s problems were like the promise of adventure, and the goal of having her admitted into an academy was where the first adventure would take place.

In the meantime, with her early traditional educational needs being fulfilled by her parents, Aoife managed to scratch at the itch to try and develop her magical powers through reading what books she can. The child had a thirst for knowledge, though she still had yet to develop the interest in magic crimes of her later years. Aoife pored through the illuminated manuscripts, grimoires, tomes and notes found within her family’s library, she began to teach herself a little bit about spellcraft to give herself a head start and so that she could possibly make her parents proud.

The Search for an Academy
Initially optimistic that Aoife would easily get into an Academy, the Hallorans’ hopes were brought into question when using their name garnered little—even negative—attention, and the problems with spirits only continued to grow. Despite setbacks, Aoife continued her limited self-study of spellcraft undiscouraged, while her parents continued their tutoring when possible to the best of their abilities, all while seeking an academy to take Aoife in without too many questions or concerns.

As Lismos was a country that heavily supported the development of magical abilities, it was less of a question of if Aoife would get into an academy with her potential, and more of when. Still, everyone was rather eager to get her in as soon as possible, Aoife included.

Eager to prove herself, though humble enough to know that she was only scratching at the surface of Spellcraft without a teacher, she grew somewhat impatient with her lack of fast progress and bit off more than she could chew with one spell. Invoking energies she wasn’t prepared for, and biting at too much energy at once, the much too advanced spell exploded in her face.

Typically, such an accident would have resulted in the loss of limb, life, or some other important piece of the girl. Strangely, despite initially catastrophically building energies, nothing happened. As Aoife was the only one present, the seven year old couldn’t tell just why she had come out of the accident completely unharmed, but what she could tell was that it seemed like something ate the catastrophe. With crisis seemingly averted, Aoife thought she and everyone that she could have possibly involved were in the clear.

She was wrong.

The immediate effects would not come to light until later. Fearing that her parents might lose faith in her, the seven year old kept quiet about the event. In a way, this did help teach her the importance of sticking to the foundations rather than cut corners and skip to the advanced magic. The biggest problem, however, was that she had exhausted the books that she could learn from at her level of linguistic and analytical skill. Most of the books in the library were meant for much more advanced Magestrava, and she had read all of the ones that made sense to what she knew. It was painfully obvious that she would need an academy to continue.

Unforeseen Circumstances
The Hallorans’ growing spirit problem was strange to begin with. To start, it didn’t appear that anyone in the family or involved with the family were harmed. Ouramancers were perplexed because most of the spirits involved were Cursing Spirits and Demons, yet they all seemed to temporarily retreat, then come back some short time later. This was markedly odd behavior for spirits, who weren’t normally attracted en masse to a bloodline or household without any apparent reason, and most certainly not without harming anyone.

Up to a point, the spirits did absolutely nothing, had absolutely no pattern, and did not bother anyone beyond just having their presence known.

Several weeks after Aoife’s isolated accident, the spirit’s modus operandi had changed for the worse. Even more scarily, the actions of people involved with the family changed as well. Members of Aoife’s family, being herself, her elder brother, and her mother suddenly gained a unique propensity toward meeting, being targeted by, or otherwise pestered by cursing spirits, demons, and even divine spirits—though never gods—along with a host of lower classes of magical beasts.

The spirits’ actions varied between family members. For Aoife, she had inexplicable run-ins with humanoid demons that were known in their circles and amongst Ouramancers to be very dangerous or downright murderous under specific circumstances. Yet despite their dangerous reputation, the creatures almost always tended to be completely harmless to her, and even offered to help without the contracts normally associated with them. Contrastingly, her elder brother was plagued by lesser known demons that would often try and completely fail at killing him. Strangest yet, Aoife’s mother appeared to strike fear into all forms of spiritual life without having to take any actions herself, leading to conflict between spirits trying to run away from her or ones agitated by her presence.

Finally, while no spirits seemed to bother Aoife’s father, the man appeared to change overnight. While physically the same, and with the same priorities, her father Doyle became distant and aloof. He remained with his intentions to have Aoife admitted into an academy, and diligently worked towards this, but it appeared as if the once loving husband and father lost his sense of strong emotions. Doyle became austere and impersonal, serious to a fault, as if stoicism had suddenly become his life creed. It was inexplicable and made him seem strange to all those around him, but as he did no harm and offended no one, the sudden change was taken without too much resistance, if not with slight reluctance.

Still, those with more extreme views took these events as a sign that perhaps the Halloran family was contracting themselves with maligned beings. Those around the family and associated with the family would occasionally get injured, and the tarnished name continued to lose its luster while further associating them with the word “trouble”. Worse yet, whenever a magic related crime would occur in the area surrounding the Halloran estates, it would be blamed on them or “their” demons. It was a matter of fortune that the family members didn’t get arrested, as more sensible people with power supported them, not so easily swayed into believing the Hallorans would stoop so low.

The accident from weeks back still fresh in mind, Aoife easily put two and two together and blamed herself—if only in part, as she understood that these problems had been around prior. With magical crimes being committed near her doorstep, and considering herself as a small-time criminal for her accident, Aoife was even more eager to join an academy, get her learning together, and fix her family’s problems by any means necessary.

Aledine Academy
It was fortunate, then, that Aledine Academy had a somewhat ill reputation. It was home to misfits, accepted non-Magestrava, and seemed to still manage to produce quality Magestrava. It would surely accept the Halloran girl when no other academy would consider the prospect anymore. Best of all, it’s not like it was a poorly performing academy, it merely had the same sort of reputation as the Hallorans themselves.

Initially, the family hadn’t considered Aledine due to its reputation, though they had quickly changed their minds as their reputation continued to take a nosedive, with no small thanks in part to Aoife’s father’s lessened emotional capacity. It was an academy, and perhaps the unorthodox methods that the academy employed would bear fruit? Aoife herself had begun to treasure outside of the box methods, and thought that maybe a slightly unstable Ouramancer might be able to help better than some orthodox floozy.

In short, Aoife completely accepted the suggestion to enroll into Aledine Academy, and finally got her life’s first adventure started…

Equipment:

Sage’s Staff — A staff only a head shorter than Aoife. It’s a special-order one-of-a-kind staff made by Aledine’s Alchemy Department with Aoife’s talents and specifications in mind. It appears to be made of iron or steel, though lifting it reveals that it is as light as wood. The staff is topped by a simple metalwork and an ornate green luminescent gem, while the base has a wing motif with a single feather attached to it. Special to the staff is its ability to be condensed into a wand size approximately the length of Aoife’s forearm. While it is able to amplify and focus projected magic to a small degree while in staff form, it is only useful for poking people in wand form. In its wand-like transport form, she keeps the item sheathed and fastened in a leather cylinder.

Aoife’s Grimoire — Actually full of Aoife’s notes, the Grimoire is an excessively large tome full of her scrawlings (more along the lines of neatly organized handwriting). While mundane as a magical artifact, it does have the ability to reorganize information to Aoife’s suiting. She uses it to keep notes on class work, to hold information for her intelligence network, and to maintain her list of spell chants. Unlike her staff, it is precisely as heavy as it looks, bringing some to question if she uses a weight reducing magic while it’s strapped to her waist.

Magnifying Glass — An ordinary magnifying glass. Remarkable technology for the age just below Danny’s glasses in terms of quality, but otherwise completely without magic of its own. As she can create magnifying lenses out of heat and water, there is some question as to the usefulness of this object, Aoife insists that it “completes her as an investigator”. Like her grimoire and staff, it is usually strapped to a waist belt of some sort.

"The Trickster's Crown" — The most significant item in Aoife's possession, it is a highly potent magical item that effectively jams the signals of her mind. It's actually not a crown at all, but a strangely colored feather from a mythical bird's neck. It does take some upkeep to use, so Aoife can only actively use it when she knows someone might be trying to look into her mind, that would overpower her own limited Insorcery. It also runs the risk of backfiring spectacularly and wiping a few memories from her head. The item itself is a family heirloom.

Extra Information:

Aoife enjoys teasing people that she finds to be too serious.

Aoife means “Beauty”, Halloran means “stranger from across the sea”. This is a vague reference to one of characters that inspired Aoife, Enbi Hishigami, whose name translates to Beauty and Caltrop God

Coincidentally, Aoife is also the name of Cú Chulainn’s wife, a powerful warrior lady who managed to overpower him in single combat.

The name “Halloran” implies that the family may have originated from a different land than Feledia. As the family’s history in the continent is stated to stretch back centuries, any emigration would have been quite some time ago.

Mostly since I couldn’t find a place to fit it in the biography section, I suppose it should be clarified that the Halloran family has tests for magic capacity when children are born. Part of it involves alchemic devices, and the other involves scrying by Sykers.

Though Aoife’s spells are highly functional, she considers their spartan lack of flair to be “unromantic”. Despite this, she still feels as if she’s mentally incapable of making flashy spells with unnecessary effects. Unless, of course, flashiness is the point and it’s meant to distract.

[OOC] Progressive Arcanum Page 20

Excidius

Apokalipse AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Komamisa Retired Magical Girl

Apokalipse AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Shifter_Master Atrast Nal Tunsha

Komamisa Retired Magical Girl

Komamisa Retired Magical Girl

Leotamer

Jedly Espresso Drinker

Komamisa Retired Magical Girl

Zombehs One clown circus

Imperfectionist Pathological

Komamisa Retired Magical Girl

Imperfectionist Pathological

Excidius

Jedly Espresso Drinker

Komamisa Retired Magical Girl

Excidius

Komamisa Retired Magical Girl

Imperfectionist Pathological