Ardent Dawn

Doll Master: A Partners RP Interest Check

I'll give the character some thought for a while - it'll need some fairly extensive reworking, but I should be able to keep the core concepts on a different character.

Doll Master

Donovan and Sickle-Cell are planning to wind up at a train station by the end of their first post, with a train just pulling into the platform. Any PCs or NPCs who want to meet us there are absolutely free to :P

Doll Master

Righty-ho - that should make sneaking around as Yazuko somewhat more interesting :P

Doll Master

Oh, and I just realised that I've been assuming something for a while - are Puppeteers are to hide themselves from existence while outside of their Marionettes, or is that exclusive to Dolls?

Doll Master

That works fine for me - thanks for the detailed reply :) So once she's transitioned from her Assessment stage to her Reaction stage, she remains in that state and works down the list until she runs out of people?

Doll Master

chukklehed said
Actually, the idea behind her state is that Melody has no emotions. She's not hostile, or angry, or anything. She reacts only one instinct, and anyone reading her mind or emotions would think she was asleep. As for prioritization, she methodically moves from the first obvious threat to the next, but sometimes she can take on two or three people at a time, since she can summon multiple blades..Melody's state is triggered by her desperation, so it's possible to hold her back from it, but not indefinitely. In fact, it would probably only work for a minute or so.As for the second part, Melody's state does not return to normal immediately. In fact, Melody cannot descend from it normally. There are only two ways for her to stop: Carson talking her down, and Melody using so much energy she just collapses.

I can work with that - she'd still show up in the same way as a sleeping individual (which would probably be fairly confusing until Yazuko susses it out), but impossible to interfere with once she's already flipped. If Yazuko triggered her battle state in a crowded area without any obvious threat (assuming that Melody wasn't previously aware of Yazuko), how would Melody respond? How much potential is there for collateral damage? And would that differ depending on whether or not Melody was consciously aware of Yazuko's ability to launch emotional attacks compared to simply experiencing a surge of fear with no obvious cuase?

Doll Master

I'm perfectly happy for some Dolls to have a natural edge over Yazuko - anyone going up against Sickle-Cell with a bladed instrument is going to have an interesting time, so things could always be worse :P

As far as Melody goes, it seems as though she would be experiencing a lot of hostile intention once she flips, even if it's fixed enough to stop Yazuko from picking up her normal cues about when someone intends to pull the trigger on her (since she's constantly in the same headspace). Certainly impossible to override using her projected emotions, but I'm open to discussion as to whether or not she'd be visible on her emotional radar. Even if she effectively became invisible to her radar once she flips, I'd be content with simply triggering that state at particularly awkward moments and dealing with the consequences :P How much target prioritisation does Melody retain when she triggers?

Also, interesting thought - if Yazuko can trigger Melody by bombarding her with fear and paranoia, how much would she be able to hold back Melody's transformation by dropping a dumpster's worth of peace and serenity on her head? It doesn't override the underlying emotions (so I doubt that she could simply keep her out of that state indefinitely), but how would things work if she didn't feel that either of them were in danger? It's all somewhat hypothetical, since she would still use her swords on Puppeteers regardless, but I could imagine circumstances where it would be relevant. On the same line of thought, does she simply return back to her normal state once there's no longer anyone else around to perceive as a threat, or are there more intricate cues that that?

Doll Master

VitaVitaAR said
Also just because of this discussion there has to be an NPC Doll at least who has pastry powers.

Would it be too much to ask for her to be able to set them on fire (as an extension of her ability to bake them), purely so we can make corny jokes about a cinnamon burn? :P

Doll Master: A Partners RP Interest Check

Here’s my Puppeteer at last - I got a little carried away when writing one of her Marionette’s backstory, but on the other hand, I would almost consider her to be a third-and-a-half character application (since she could potentially see some independent screen-time but would only ever appear in the context of her Puppeteer).

Name: Yazuko
Gender: Female
Appearance: “What a pretty little mind you have - I wonder what it looks like inside-out?”

Personality: Yazuko considers herself to be a connoisseur of human emotions, seeking to indulge herself with as wide and sophisticated a range of ‘flavours’ as possible through her abilities. Relatively young in terms of her time amongst human-kind, Yazuko’s hunting methods are still evolving, growing more sophisticated and ‘richer’ in their emotional payoff with every passing day. After several years of predation, she has come to view humanity in terms of two distinct categories - the ‘Faces’ (whose psyches are rich and unique enough to deserve her prolonged attention) and the ‘Faceless’ (whose natures are too bland to offer anything more that fleeting amusement). Although the former holds the greatest amount of interest overall, the latter are far more common and offer Yazuko the easiest fix through her hunting sprees. While the thrill of the hunt provides an exhilarating rush between her long-reaching projects, Yazuko is extremely loathe to end her victims’ lives, preferring to leave them bleeding out slowly and savour the bitter-sweet intensity of their dying emotions - through her eyes, the only moment when the Faceless show any meaningful amount of individuality.

Yazuko toys with those around her like a cat would play with its meal, pushing their buttons and drawing out confrontations regardless of the gravity of the situation. While unconcerned by threats to her personal well-being, she is exceptionally possessive of the Faces she has accumulated and responds viciously towards anyone who would threaten her vanity. She is exceptionally selective about which Marionette she uses under different circumstances (in order to evoke the most visceral response from her victims), to the point of refusing to hunt whatsoever until her ‘makeup’ has been fully prepared. Partly as a result of her power, Yazuko shows little distinction between new acquaintances and old companions in her behavior, treating everyone with the same disquieting over-familiarity and deliberately sickly-sweet demeanour.

Abilities: Yazuko can passively sense the emotions of other creatures, ‘tasting’ the world through a sonar-like kaleidoscope of love, despair, contempt and aggression alongside her other senses. Her power allows her to accurately perceive the location and emotional state of those nearby, growing weaker over distance and extending to a meaningful range of roughly 120 feet (where she can detect the vague presence of intelligent life). She spends a great deal of time attempting to cultivate enjoyable ‘flavours’ from her victims, favouring the moment in which their surprise and confusion at her appearance slowly curdles into panic and dread. In addition to its uses for tracking and manipulation, Yazuko has also learned to watch for flickers in her prey’s emotional state, alerting her to hostile intentions and offering a split-second warning in a contest of reflexes.

Although unpleasant to use, Yazuko’s power also comes with an active component - the ability to project her own emotions towards nearby prey, ranging from precision bursts of panic or anger to indiscriminate waves of guilt and despair. Employing her projection briefly overrides the more delicate aspects of her emotional radar within the targeted area (in much the same way as background radiation for a radio) and forces her to experience a weaker form of whatever emotion she wishes to project, meaning that she rarely chooses to do so outside of serious confrontations. While rarely sufficient to disable a determined attacker, such emotional assaults can often interrupt her victim’s concentration or steer more susceptible victims towards a course of action which they would otherwise avoid (although in no way overriding their free will). These assaults have a functional range of roughly 40 feet for targeted attacks and a 15-20 foot radius for indiscriminate waves, growing weaker over distance in the same way as her sonar.

Marionettes: In the past, Yazuko frequently possessed her Faces for only the duration of a single kill, committing murder-suicides using a pair of lovers or abandoning a devoted mother at her home with her children missing and blood upon her hands. However, since she first acquired Gladys as a Marionette, Yazuko has begun to invest far more effort into grooming her Faces, manipulating their lives for months on end and redesigning their broken psyches like a sculpture formed from clay. Although her methods are somewhat inconsistent and her experimentation frequently result in her accidentally ‘breaking’ her favourite Faces, she has managed to assemble a collection of several long-term Marionettes, which she intends to supplement with further recruits.

The Traitor (Gladys Wakefield)

The crown jewel of Yazuko’s collection, Gladys was the first Doll Hunter who attempted to slay her, barely two years after Yazuko’ killing spree began - and uniquely amongst her Marionettes, Gladys is the only Face who is fully aware of the nature of their relationship. Young, headstrong and viciously envious of the stature held by her more experienced rivals (all Doll Hunters blessed with the cosmic fluke of an earlier birth), Gladys craved the prestige of an apex predator from her first taste of supernatural conflict, judging herself entirely through her capacity to outperform her rivals. Throwing herself into the hunt with reckless abandon, it was natural that the first Puppeteer she uncovered would be one attempting to paint the most elaborate scenes of violence possible - the ‘young’ and equally inexperienced Yazuko.

Relishing the emotional turmoil within the young Hunter, Yazuko fought Gladys to exhaustion and (for the first time in her existence) stayed her hand rather than dealing a mortal wound. Bombarding Gladys with a surge of raw elation, she abandoned her Marionette and allowed the inexperienced Hunter to believe that she had claimed her kill. Once Gladys relaxed and allowed her fatigue to sweep over, Yazuko swept in and assumed control of her body, embedding her Marionette's body with enough nails for Gladys to form her own distorted recollection the battle after regaining consciousness.

Over the next few months, Yazuko refrained from her usual killing sprees, instead devoting herself to shadowing Gladys and familiarising herself with her Marionette’s life. Overflowing with misplaced confidence after her supposed ‘kill’, Gladys began hunting ever more powerful Dolls and Puppeteers, throwing herself into the fray with the reckless foolhardiness that only the young are truly capable of. As each conflict grew more intense, Yazuko would momentarily possess Gladys whenever she faltered, allowing her to regain dominance over the fight before relinquishing control back to her Marionette (who attributed the brief memory lapses to stress and post-combat exhaustion). She soon began to enjoy a successful career as a Doll Hunter, matching the achievements of her more experienced rivals through the power that was unknowingly loaned to her.

At the same time, several of Gladys’ rival Hunters began to disappear under mysterious circumstances - hunted down and murdered by Yazuko while wearing Gladys’ body, amplifying the shock of their recognition using her power and exploiting the moment’s hesitation to cripple them with her nail gun. By the time that Gladys realised the manner in which events had unfolded, connecting the lapses in her memory with the disappearance of each of her rivals, she had already earned the prestige and esteem that she had desired throughout her childhood - shackled by a reputation that she couldn't possibly fulfil alone and craving to prove her mettle against opponents far above her unassisted punching weight (just as she began her career against an opponent completely out of her league).

Left entirely dependant on Yazuko for power and with the top of the food chain (in her own eyes) almost within her grasp, Gladys was forced to bargain with Yazuko in order to retain access to her power, cutting a deal with one of the very entities she despises most - she allows Yazuko loan of her body in exchange for tag-teaming with Gladys to eliminate powerful Dolls and restricting her murders as a Marionette to the rival Doll Hunters that stand in the way of Gladys’ ambition (considering the death of Dolls and other Puppeteers to be an 'execution' rather than truly 'murder'). Although unspoken, Yazuko is fully aware of Gladys’ intention to murder Yazuko as soon as she’s strong enough to stand on her own two feet, both as vengeance for violating of her body and in order to rightfully claim the stature and self-respect she gained from ‘killing’ Yazuko for the first time. In Yazuko’s eyes, it only adds to the thrill of their working relationship.

While possessing Gladys, Yazuko wields the nail guns of her previous victims rather than leaving any avoidable connections between her Marionette and her victims - although they lose their supernatural properties in the hands of a Marionette, the delicious irony of turning one Doll Hunter’s tool against another remains just as potent.

The Cherub (Vivian Blair)

A innocent girl of upper-class parentages and one of Yazuko’s first social experiments after her paradigm shift, Vivian was neglected for most of her life by parents more concerned with their social circles and maintaining status than with their own daughter. Singled out to fulfil the role of Cherub, Yazuko contrasts her childish appearance with carefully-painted rivulets of blood and a lascivious, predatorial leer full of teeth while making use of her body. Although typically tearing her victims apart in close-quarter confrontation, Yazuko has begun carrying a hunting bow with her during some of her excursions as Vivian, toying with her victims from a distance and mocking them from the rooftops above before closing in for the kill.

Although entirely unaware of her actions while possessed, Yazuko leaves her handwritten notes congratulating Vivian for her ‘wonderful performance’ and small gifts of jewelry stolen from her victims after each possession, offering her a sense of individual value for the first time in her life. Vivian has grown increasingly dependant on her ‘guardian angel’, drawing newfound self-assurance from the praise she receives and occasionally writing letters to Yazuko, expressing her gratitude and voicing her often-overlooked emotions. Much to her own surprise, Yazuko has found herself responding to these letters, indulging a certain amount of sentimentality for what she considers to be her most successful experiment.

The Casanova (Silas Younger)

Known as a serial womaniser, Silas was once a dashing, conceited young surgeon with money to spare and a history of seducing eligible women from across the city. After years of sweeping young beauties across the dance floor, Silas began to view himself as a higher class of person, a gentleman entitled to all of the luxuries that life so eagerly offered him - all of which came crashing down once he was chosen as a Marionette. While possessing Silas, Yazuko conducts herself as the Casanova, matching his devilish charm and finely-tailored suits with a pair of stilettos concealed up each of his sleeves.

After every hunting spree while wearing Silas’ body, Yazuko paints a fine speckling of blood across his bedroom mirror to mark her passage before concealing a gruesome trophy somewhere in his house for him to discover - a blood-soaked vest folded neatly in his drawers, a broken pocket-watch strewn on a mantlepiece, a locket contained fragments of crudely-ripped hair left in his dresser. Yazuko sometimes leaves Silas in suspense for weeks or even months between possessions - on other occasions, she possesses him after only a single night of respite, shattering any notion of control he might hold about his life. Although one of Yazuko’s favourite Mannequins to toy with, Silas’ descent into paranoia and insanity has been an almost inevitable consequence and she has begun assessing new candidates to fulfil the role once her current Casanova eventually ‘malfunctions’.

Physical changes to Marionette while possessed: While under possession, Yazuko’s Marionettes grow closer in appearance to porcelain dolls, their features becoming subtly smoother and their skin growing slightly cool to the touch.

Doll Master

"On the dawn of the fifth day, look to the East!
...Or the sixth. Seventh at the latest. Just keep looking, okay?"

In all seriousness, this is going to be awesome - don't worry about rushing yourself. We can all hang in :)