Athol — Roleplayer Guild

True Name
Risyla Sarora Nemoress 
(Her true name is not something she has shared with anyone other than Aiden)

Stage Name
Lady of Blades

Appearance

’Nerissa’ in her human form

Date Joined
August 12 1890

The Act
Knife Thrower, Juggler and Acrobat. She does precision and trick shots while using dynamic movements along the lines of parkour to hold her audience’s attention. While she leaps and flips about the arena, she will use her powers to ‘stretch’ her leaps to make jumps that the audience is sure she’s not going to make; or to make moves that border on the impossible, without fully crossing the line.

While moving, she produces a seemingly endless series of thrown weapons at targets all across the stage; hitting them with improbably speed and accuracy.

Her most popular piece is when she selects skeptics from the audience and let them propose a challenge to her, which she then inevitable completes, much to the shock and awe of all.

Nerissa’s Contract is a bit different than others. Given who and what she is, there was little Aiden would be able to offer in terms of Powers, instead he offered her shelter and anonymity on the condition she would never raise her hand against the Powers that Be again. 

Why She Joined
To put it plainly, survival. She’d already burned her bridges with the Powers that Be once, and more recently with the Powers that Were; the Circus was the only option that didn’t include being hunted by both sides.

Biography
Once she was an ‘Angel’, a compatriot of Aiden’s brother, and soldier for the Powers that Be. For a long time she was a good soldier, followed orders, did what she was told and never asked any of the ’wrong’ questions; but as humanity began to grow and flourish, she began to see things that upset her, the arrogance and, to use a human term, benign racism of the Celestials towards humanity. She’d always believed they were there to try and guide humanity as teachers and to protect them from dangers they were ill equipped to deal with, not sneer at them from on high and dictate how they behave.

Such thoughts sat and festered in her mind for a long time until a supposed ‘chance’ encounter with an agent of the Powers that Were. He came to her under a banner of peace, saying he wished only to talk, and while she was most suspicious, she let him speak his peace.

The agent spoke of how he had been observing her for some time, not something she found overly assuring for a lot of reasons, and he’d suspected she was not as happy with the decisions of her superiors as she let them think. He spoke of how the Powers that Were wanted to free humanity of the invisible shackles that the Powers that Be had ensnared them with; he spoke at length and with passion about how all the terrible things she was told about the Powers that Were, were simply lies to blind her to the truth, and to her eternal shame, she bought it.

When she returned from the patrol she’d been on when she’d encountered the agent, she calmly made her way to, for lack of a better term was the armoury for the host she was a part of, and cast her power against it destroying it utterly, before escaping in the ensuing chaos.

Once it was discover who was responsible, she was branded a traitor and called a Demon, with orders given to destroy her on sight should she be found. She cared little for all that, pushing herself full time into what she thought was freeing humanity from her old masters, and for a time it was good and she felt happy…but bit by bit cracks began to show in that pretty façade that suckered her in, until one day it broke and she realized the actual truth. The Powers that Be may have some, pretty serious, issues, but at least they don’t see humanity as so much disposable cattle something to either be consumed or used and discarded.

That nearly shattered her, for a time she even considered ending her existence, but before she got that far, she caught wind of the Circus. At first she shied away, she knew what Aiden was and figured he would try and kill her, and despite her own thoughts of suicide, she couldn’t let that happen; but still, the place called to her, so she watched it from a far, watched it genuinely trying to help humanity defend itself, not with beings from another plane, but with humans themselves…yes granted powers, but still humans.

Eventually she worked up the nerve to approach Aiden, to ask if she could be a part of it all.

Connections
During hunts, she’s either scouting ahead to find their target(s) or flanking to hit from unexpected directions; that said, even playing the role of ‘merely’ a human with powers, she’s a good heavy hitter; and if she find she needs to go all out, there isn’t much that can stand against her for long.

If not preforming on stage she will wander through the crowds in costume, doing small juggling routines, a bit of slight-of-hand magic and bantering with the guests. Off-duty she can be quite sociable, and is generally game for a bit of partying.

The Audition
The audience sat in tiered benches before a massive stage, a dull roar of side conversations that rapidly died as the lights dimmed. ”Good evening to all and welcome,” A voice said out of the darkness. “We’re glad to have you with us, and we hope you are all having a fantastic time. Now, for your enjoyment and amazement we are proud to present the Lady of Blades!”

A single spotlight illuminated a woman standing in the middle of the stage. She appeared to be dressed in a mass of feather weight blue satin ribbons that twisted and flowed like they were alive. Moving with fluid grace, she made her way to the edge of the sage and bowed, just as music began to play. In time with the beat, small targets, no bigger that a smart phone started to light up, and as they did, she flicked a knife out of her hand and into the target.

As the show went on the targets got harder, and she began to move about, flipping and vaulting over set pieces, all the while either throwing a variety of knives, darts, axes and swords into various targets, or while juggling said knives, darts, axes and swords. Finally it all came to a spectacular  conclusion, targets moving so fast it was inconceivable that she could actually hit anything and yet she did, picking tennis balls (or smaller) out of the air with lightning reflexes while both juggling blades and balancing on wires, the lot.

The stage lights died down until, once more, the Lady of Blades stood under a single spotlight and bowed to the applauding crowd. “Now,” She said, speaking for the first time. “Is there anyone out there who is skeptical of me? Please, don’t be shy. Doubt can be a good thing, especially when confronted with the fantastic.” Eventually a man in the crowed put his hand up, and as soon as he did a light shone on him. “Ah excellent,” The Lady exclaimed. “Please sir do come down. If you are truly skeptical about what I can do, then please…give me a challenge.”

It took some time for the man to make his way out of the audience, but eventually he made it to the stage, where he joined the Lady. After asking his name, she asked what his challenge was. He challenged her to hit a dime, in the air, at fifty feet, with a throwing dart. After letting him inspect, and mark, both the dime and the dart, “Please be careful Sir, they are very sharp”, there was a drum roll and a stage hand flicked the dime into the air. The Lady moved in a blur of blue, and there was a faint clatter in the darkness. Moments later the stage hand came forward, with the dime impaled on the dart. The crowd broke out into cheers and applause as the house lights came up and the Lady handed the dime to the stunned man from the audience.
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