CaliforniaState

Nomadic Odyssey: Find Your Heart

---

It was the opening day of the tournament, and they were only a mere 60 minutes from being placed in the ring and finding themselves on a bracket that dictated their life path for the next few days. Mot people would be randomly paired with an easy match and others not so much. Upon entering the city and country she could feel the hubris emanating from the fighters eager to show off their skills and muscles. Rui was more on the clandestine end of the fighters who were entering the fray, the cultural collision she experienced in Brazil was unlike any other. There were some similarities between Portuguese culture and Japanese, but very few and far between. Brazil seemed to welcome a life of overindulgence and independence which is something that Rui had always been looking for especially now give her ronin title. She had arrived there a few days ahead of schedule and had scoped out the grounds, the city, and the people most importantly. She didn’t need any kind of fancy accommodation, so she picked whichever place had a free room above a bar before the games gave her a fancier room with no soul.

Up until the day of the game she spent most of her time at bars and in-between alleyways playing street gambling games. She had her whole life to train so to relax and participate in decadent displays of leisure was something she definitely deserved. She was a gambling addict and had already swindled and crushed any of those who tried to swindle her. Her reputation started to garner unwanted attention and so as quick as she rose through the street urchin ranks was as quick as she vanished. Now, the day of, she found herself in the same bar that the remaining fighters began to huddle into. She had been there the whole day, so her presence went unnoticed by the fighters in large part due to the congregation of bodies huddled around a small table preventing any line of sight to penetrate the amalgamation of meat suits serving as a wall. At the heart of the circle sat a wooden table with an array of empty shot glasses that had been upturned and placed in front of two parties. One was none other than the firecracker Rui sat contently with an army of glasses drained empty and fat sacks of coin.

On the other end was another would be contender who was a large man, rosy in cheek by way of natural pigmentation only hyper expressed from being on a shot that was somewhere in the dozens at this point. His hand struggled to find a new cup full of brown liquid that made his stomach swell in revulsion from the smell and the idea of having to slug it down. Rui had been challenging men and fighters all day in a drinking competition for money. She had knocked down a slew of men who thought they would get the better of quite the dainty framed girl. However, one by one they fell at her feet and kissed them before stumbling into a stupor and a good night’s sleep. The crowd grew with each battle and a posse formed around her making her their goddess. Betting was occurring and money greased and transferred hands with each new challenger. Cacophonous roars echoed through the room, aiming to choke out any show boating that was occurring directly adjacent to their own raucous event.

The boiled fat man took one sip and immediately collapsed from the table, smacking his face against the now soaked wood. His body went limp and rolled out from his chair leaving the opportunity for a new challenger to appear. Rui simply sneered and swallowed down the rest of her drink waiting for the next brave challenger to take helm in a battle of liver proficiencies.

The Hourglass Order

Event: Mandelein Castle

---

Ymiico and the rest of the group had finished their mission in the forest. She had finally come out the other side slightly unscathed along with the help of Casii and Ismette. While the rest of the congregation continued on with some sort of raid, Ymiico gelt unsatisfied with the politics and mystery that shrouded the town and the castle specifically. She would be no use to the raiding party with so little moons out in the sky. Instead, she would use her gifts of subterfuge and stealth to infiltrate the church to look for some leads to put her mind to rest. There was no time for her to wait for the sun to set and aid in her search, so she slipped in with the sun at her back.

There was construction going in and out of the tabernacle as it was not the holy day, so this served as good as any time for them to go to work on the dilapidated building of worship. Any long shadows casted by the building’s rough edges and the position of the sun aided her in her espionage. There were moments where she almost walked in the direct pathway of the construction workers, on the very precipice of having to resort to violence, omitting murder from her schedule of things to do here. Ymiico was not above murdering an innocent, but they had done nothing to her like those who still existed in peace within the walls of Nikan.

Clearing her mind of her past once again she hopped, skipped, and lept up walls, scaling them until she could get to a hidden corner and enter through the empty space created to manicure the bell that rung deep and powerfully when prayer was in session. Slipping past the bell and down the ladder provided she could make out the layout of the pews and confessionals with the podium serving as the helm in which the leader leads the masses in prayer. From what she learned of Ersandinese history, all of their pillaging centered around the podium and what was underneath the table that sat directly behind the podium which housed the watered-down wine and wheat products.

Descending down silently like an owl retrieving its pray, Ymiico touched down and began to work immediately with what limited time she had. There was no treasure under the tabernacle, but a case of stairs that lead down into bleating darkness. Ymiico against her better judgement, followed the shaky steps until she found solid footing once more. She lit a lantern she found hooked on a beam and lit it with a flame of her finger. Illuminating in yellow light was a room filled with old portraits that have been sealed for preservation. Some of lords, some of priests. They're signed by different artists, but all have an insignia of a now defunct artist guild in Kerremand called Weißer Felsen. Dubosque's portrait isn't there, nor his predecessor's, but the most recent has a particularly ornate look to it, as if everything was paid in extra. It was made around fifty years ago, "Herr Müller" it is titled. These can likely be sold at a very high price if stolen.

A corridor connected her to Dubosque’s room. Nothing more than his personal records and recollections at first. The records tell of the downfall in the town's economy starting fifty years ago, witnessed by the current Priest's predecessor. However even before that there are a few passages involving Herr Müller's moving of a considerable amount of goods just before his early retirement. Church envoys were also present at that time, but little information on their whereabouts or the results of their inquest are found. Supposedly, they hadn't made a report to the Holy See a year into their deep investigation. More recent records show a sudden surge in supplies just a few months ago where they had been struggling for years prior. The origins are not marked.

Dubosque's recollections describe the arrival of not a beast, but a wicked man that brought nothing but a Blight as Caldores came about. He was once thought as a friend, but became the monster the Beast of Mandelein was once meant to repulse. Very vague wording is used, likely to protect whoever may find this. However, he makes a final remark on the Hunting Lodge in the Forest containing the answers, should his brother find this. With nothing more for her down below the tabernacle, it was time for her to move on to the lodge and confront anyone if she had to. Returning everything to its original condition she bowed out once more and headed for the lodge, this time with less of a precaution of alarming the masses. Entering the lodge, she found no one, the state of the lodge proved otherwise with the bed being undone and the cupboards stocked with food for weeks.

Once more she searched and searched finding yet another passageway that led her underground. Once more she traveled down into the hidden cellar looking for answers. Vials adorned the space with revelations of what Kaspar had found just before. Her eyes shifted to a folded piece of paper, once unraveled showed yesterday’s date. Her eyes moved in a cadence from left to right following the sentences from start to end on line after line. A shiver of discovery prodded through her with a chill, the note had revealed the numbers related to the number of Wildbloods downed the day prior, the number of injured, and the number of students present, with a '+2'. Along with it is a black sheet of paper, with the bottom pre-signed 'Viktor Strauss'. Her mind went into a frenzy trying to connect the dots and make sense of all she had read. What she couldn’t make sense of due to the language barrier was causing her to doubt the simplicity of what was written. Just as she was about to turn tail and run her vision went black and her body crumpled like paper to the floor.

The Hourglass Order

Mistake

The Hourglass Order

Keelee

"Take pride in what has yet to die"

19 | Female | Helbaurean | Noble | 6.91

P E R S O N A L I T Y

❖ Shy
❖ Melancholic
❖ Disconnected
❖ Perfectionist
❖ Dedicated

Keelee was deeply affected by the loss of her father and the disavowal of her ability to take over his research and life’s work as she was still a child. This influenced her personality and in-part her blood type when her necromancy had manifested, wishing she could bring the dead back to life and live with the ones she loved forever, she acquired a special blood which allows her to bring the dead back to life even if only as zombies. Some operated by strings while others are hosts for demons from the void and beyond. The host inhabiting her father's vessel has only further served in exacerbating her paranoia and delusions that plague her mental wellness.

Keelee is particularly shy and usually melancholic, often speaking to corpses and animals as if they were people. She has a sincere desire to help others, especially to achieve their dreams and save lives. However, precisely because of his ingenuity she is also easily manipulated and easily gets involved in dangerous and illegal projects. Probably due to her background and her experience in medicine, she does not seem to feel disgust at working with human bodies, even if they are decomposing, nor does she feel remorse at awakening their bodies and manipulating them to achieve her end goal of perfect resuscitation. Keelee is a hard worker, giving all her strength and resources when given a task, locking herself in on the job until it is finished or completely exhausted.

C H A R A C T E R A P P E A R A N C E

Keelee’s skin color, perhaps from the aberration that passed down to in birth, led her skin color astray from most Eeaiko. Rather than a pallid or pale blue the hue that flushes her skin is a soft yellowish-green color, similar to the algae that hangs at the water’s surface. No, rather more akin to algal blooms seeing as her nature predilects the nature of algae that grows out of control while producing toxic or harmful effects on people, fish, shellfish, marine mammals, and birds, inevitably killing them. Her facial features are a bit more rounded and humanoid, possibly from her location in the Arid Sea exposing her to many a race and culture.

A deep brown, almost tattoo-like, mark runs down the edge of her right eye matched only by several fish scales she has adorned onto her skin as her own personal flair of aquatic fashion. Her fascination with the shimmering of scales and refraction of sunlight glistening off them has triggered her to cover her body in sporadic locations. Aside from the marks and scales she dresses herself in dressed with the base or affections being made from sea fans. Her hair is left messy with a braid forming from the center of the back of her long cyan colored hair. The rest of her attire and accessories are made up of corals, tunicates, and other aquatic invertebrates.

L A N G U A G E S

Naturally fluent in both water and surface languages of Helbauron, Keelee saw no real use for learning any languages outside of that seeing as they were a people that kept to themselves. It wasn’t until she was older and felt a bit more ostracized did, she frequent the surface more and more. Due to her geographical positioning in the Arid Sea, Keelee was exposed to several dialects and languages, most notably with Xochi. She’s built up a working knowledge of phrases and words that assimilated together form a very broken version that’s exclusive to foreigners. Her latest addiction is Avician seeing her enrollment at the academy.

T H E G I F T

Keelee’s RAS borders on the high end for most Eeaiko, ending at 6.91. Beyond the RAS she has grown into she was blessed or perhaps cursed with the aberrative mana type that is known as Necromancy. Her ability to reanimate the corpses of nearby enemies or allies into vessels for the possession of minor demons allowing her to become a puppet master has piqued the interest of the prominent university. More so in her breakthrough with keeping a permanent, dominant puppet in play that possesses somewhat of a higher intuitive demon than most basic summons. Dark and Chemical is where she draws from the most to keep her zombies quite potent while masking the smell they denote. Her zombified father has benefited from the two schools so much so it is hard for those to mistake him for a dead man. Binding and Kinetic are her second focus mostly for preservation and constitution of her puppets while kinetic is her least focused school but aids in fine control of her machinations movements.

❖ Magnetic: Neophyte
❖ Arcane: Apprentice
❖ Binding: Adept
❖ Chemical: Journeyman
❖ Kinetic: Novice
❖ Atomic: Neophyte
❖ Blood: Neophyte
❖ Dark: Adept

B A C K G R O U N D

Before the inception of Keelee, her parents, part of the nobility with the Eeaiko demographic, enjoyed a life of comfort and ease. Her father was responsible for overseeing many inventions that saw the light of day. These ideas weren’t stolen from the Yasoi nor the humans as they usually were, but elevated or expanded on for the use of water dwelling people. His contributions were significant yet decadent in display which was something the other niche populations of Eeaiko were not used to. They were more traditionalist in nature and had grown accustomed to just one-to-one copies of Yasoi and human constructs. His inventions were then labeled heretical and dangerous that turned off some, but gained traction by forming a large cult following, gaining the eye of Royalty and ensuring funding since they enjoyed the nuanced inventions and the crowd it brought in. This put him in direct competition with a few other creators and in a negative light that led to the greasing of palms, exchanging of good for services, and mortal peril. Unaware of his position and security he thought nothing of it and returned day after day to his wife at home, ready to welcome his child along the way. Except he would never live to see the birth of his daughter, for on return to his workstation, he fell victim to an assassination attempt that proved true.

When news arrived to his wife the grief would not subside, which she knew was actively effecting the health of her child. To circumvent this and her sorrow she used the riches that were now in her name to contract a temporal mage to use their magic to reverse the Ymeehook bestowed on her husband. Unskilled in the ways of magic, she was none the wiser this mage had scammed her using a very chaotic spell. The temporal magic had worked as promised but ignited an aberration within her body that unbeknownst to her, manifested in their child, generating a cryptic mana type. Her father now back in the picture he was able to return to his family and his research. News quickly broke and hushed whispers spread through the localities, eventually dying out to plain gossip. No retaliatory actions were taken by the father or against him. Instead, years went by where he raised his daughter with his full attention, not wanting to waste his second chance. Keelee grew up more or less a happy child under the love of her parents, but waves of behavioral and mental disorders flared up from time to time.

It wasn’t until he unveiled his newest invention to streamline power to multiple localities did a new devious plot arise. A Quazoomik had found its way into his ranks, attempting to vie for his research and head of development. Surely another attempt at his life would be made, and so it was, or was it? He met his fate once more, but the details were a bit sparser this time around. His passing appeared to be a genuine accident, or had it? Unable to declare Hemvoorik, there was no clear perpetrator or anything to link to a murderer. The news broke to his family once more, completely breaking the wife, creating a catatonic husk that had spurious bouts of lucidity, presenting itself in laughter and denial. And awakening the magic in Keelee, giving rise to her obsession. Keelee was helped in burying her father, adorning his body with kelp and coral. Kelee wondered why people have to die and expressed her desire to bring everyone back to life, to be able to live with everyone she cares about for a long time.

Soon after she would begin to reanimate small creatures until she was plagued with staunch morbid curiosity, she ignored sentimentality and revived her father. The first iteration was an abomination from a child playing God, but she never quit. Afraid of being rejected and outcast from her home she moved on her own to a port city in the far east of Xochiyeteteo. There she was able to slowly perfect her reanimated father to a passing Eeaiko at the price of her sanity and entertaining a more notable demon to possess the vessel of her father that whispered indiscriminately in her ear. Word of her magic and research hit Ersand'Enise, making her a person of interest. Correspondence had reached her time and time again, yet Keelee was unsure if that is what she wanted or needed.

M O T I V A T I O N

Keelee’s motivations are painfully simple, she wants to be able to perfect necromancy to the point she can fully reanimate a deceased boy with their original soul. Eeaiko religion in relation to the afterlife centers around the idea that, “You have two deaths. When you physically die and the last time someone remembers you." Keelee doesn’t accept that, rather, she fears the prospect of losing a loved one to the void for all eternity. Keelee is hellbent on preventing her father’s Ymeehaup and so needs the resources that no one but Ersand'Enise can provide, whether that is tools or faculty that support her. To her the relationship feels very quid pro quo, which phases her very little. Becoming a grandmaster and mastering her mana type for her own means justified the ends of what the school would do with her research, altruistic or not. The fear of failure is not an option of a symptom she's allowed to feel, once you're aware of it you can't remove it.

I N V E N T O R Y

Keelee doesn’t carry much, she has no particular attachment to anything physical seeing as she holds bonds to a higher regard. She does carry around a small botanist pouch where she carries a few aquatic medicinal herbs but more importantly some marine mammals for chemical extraction. This can range from tunicates to sponges to bryozoans. Other than that, she keeps a necklace given to her mother by her father and a few pretty shells and pearls she can barter for coin if she ever needs it.

S T R E N G T H S & S K I L L S

❖ Herbalist & Medic
❖ Powerful Swimmer
❖ Nimble/Dexterous
❖ No Morality
❖ Methodical

Necromancy has become her, Keelee’s strengths are shaped and catered around her obsessions and mana type. This has manifested into skills and strengths that help develop those abilities to a higher level. Being a puppet master has made her excellent at manipulating the living just as much as she can with the dead. She has no sense of morality, a given seeing as she pilfers the dead to join her army and will get her hands dirty where others would cower. In practice, it’s made her a better physician and botanist. What started off as a hobby due to the nature of her people that live in rich flora and fauna areas, turned into a tool. Her intimate knowledge of the interworking’s of the human anatomy and what they can endure and be prescribed has facilitated her goal to perfect her necromancy. There is a method to her madness and while the vision is lost on others, for Keelee it needs to be trusted to execute properly, regardless of who gets in her way.

W E A K N E S S E S & F L A W S

❖ Unhinged
❖ Obsessive/Stubborn
❖ One trick pony
❖ Traditionalist
❖ Physically weak

Her strengths are also her weaknesses. Not completely of her own doing but the tragedy that had awarded her, her mana type and the constant forum with her dad’s vessel demon has served to erode much of a healthy mentality and trust of those around her, specifically in regard to the conspirators in her father’s death. Her need to strive for perfection and have such a lofty goal looming overhead has made her stubborn and obsessive, often making it hard to pry her away from anything but the tunnel vision road she’s laid out for herself. Stemming also from how devout her beliefs and traditions to the Eeaiko culture. While she is heavily adept at necromancy and the use of puppets, she has no real versatility outside of that. She has basic spells she can pull from but no secondary talents. Specifically in any kind of physical combat which makes it hard for her to fight in close quarters or in melee range, distance is key for her which makes her so nimble.

M I S C E L L A N E O U S

HEX Code: 52B2CF

Harold's Academy for the Magically Inclined

Primrose Greenleigh

◈ A p p e a r a n c e ◈
Primrose very visibly is comprised of mostly if not entirely dark features. Her hair is a bushel of curls untamed and unruled. The more she attempts to comb the brambles of her hair the more they defy her hand. They’ve gotten to the point that Primrose lets them bunch and hang in a high ponytail while the front curls are slicked back and held undertow by a green bandana, neatly folded. Some curls jet and streak across her head, but otherwise it’s a neat nest. Her eyes are a deep rich cocoa color, that melts in contact with sunlight imitating an ever-flowing fountain of chocolate. Her skin is a bit lighter in complexion but could be best described as patchwork skin. Mostly because of how much time she spends in uncomfortable positions from roaming the gardens and forest alike. Hard callouses decorate her palms, feet, elbows, knees, essentially anywhere that has prolonged contact with the earth below her. Giving her darker blemishes around these areas versus the soft and pristine portions in between.

Primrose despite looking very small and dainty in stature is in reality quite sinewy from countless hours assigned to farming and gardening chores through the major parts of the year. Of course, her figure is usually obscured by her collective fashion choices. She subscribes to the large pants or overall build with a short or long-sleeved top. She is very adamantly against wearing shoes or any kind of apparel that inhibits her connection to the planet. Her sinewy build is propped up together with her weight of 63 kilograms and a height of 172 centimeters. When she’s at schools she wears the standard uniform presented to them as student’s, not without alterations of course. She wears a wooden mask with two burrowed holes for her eyes with lines carved down to the bottom from the sockets. Attached at the tops are horns retrieved from her home forest. Additionally she is shrouded in a ruffled canopy of leaves that form a sort of cloak around her, obscuring her figure.

◈ "We are all children of the woods, it just takes some time to find your way back." ◈

◈ N a m e
Primrose Greenleigh

◈ S p e l l c a s t e r N a m e
Briarthorn

◈ A g e, H e i g h t, a n d W e i g h t
19, 172 cm , 63 kg

◈ R a c e
Mystic (Seraph's Kiss)

◈ G e n d e r
Female

◈ S e x u a l O r i e n t a t i o n
Asexual

◈ Y e a r
6th

◈ P e t
A Gupoo named Goo

◈ H o u s e
House of Eusebia

◈ I l l u m i n a i r e
No

◈ C l a s s e s

◈ Gifts

◈ Herbology

◈ Care of Lekëon Creatures

◈ Apprenticeship and Support

◈ Geology

◈ Defense Against the Ni-Seraphi

◈ A r e Y o u O n Y o u r H o u s e ' s W a a g a T e a m?
No

◈ "Your tea could do with some mushrooms." ◈

◈ P e r s o n a l i t y
Pragmatic◈ Skittish◈ Compassionate◈ Protective◈ Studious

Primrose is a curious case, she herself isn’t so sure about what her personality is like. There was the one she had when she was at home and another for when she began school. Primrose sees herself as both a child of the forest and a herald for those without a voice. Her exposure to other people was cut vey short and led her to be mostly isolated at the time. This never really affected her because she had plenty of other avenues of which to express herself. In her element she’s wild, meaning she doesn’t submit to antiquity on how one should act in comparison to societal roles. She loves exploring, laughing and screaming when chasing her woodland critter friends, and the chaos of getting lost in the woods only to be sound asleep in a serene patch of grass, tucked in by the light of the moon along with the glittering stars. She’s also quite responsible after having been assigned so many chores before she could have any kind of fun by her grandmother. The chores also led her to books of tonics, botany, and scientific illustration where she thirsted to understand how the natural world worked creating a studious and capable child, she didn’t however have much interest in any other worldly applications like history or math.

Attending Harold’s Academy was a shock to her system, the land it was secured in was rife with people of varying socioeconomic status’ she had never seen before. A lot of the natural world she had know had been perverted from light and sound pollution that was normal for a capital city littered with multiple sky islands in close proximity. The unknown challenged her naturally promiscuous personality, causing her to hide within herself. She quickly turned from feral creature to a skittish stray lurking around the streets. Nervous of each interaction from strangers and staff all the same, this often made her homesick and spend an odd amount of hours in her dormitory or outside. Despite being a bear in a big city, through the years and guidance she has become a bit more refined and amiable towards the life she has secured for herself. She’s shed most of her weariness of the industrial world and is more outgoing and vivacious as she once was, but she still hides behind a mask and thicket of leaves as a shield. A beauteous blossoming flower not without its thorns, however.

◈ H i s t o r y
Primrose never really knew her parents growing up, there were faint memories that scurried across her mind like an exposed mouse, but nothing ever so permanent. There were flashes, with the most prominent being the night in which she last saw them. So clearly could she see the pained face of her mother who could not help but tremble at the idea of losing her daughter. The sweet and soft caress of her hand could still be felt like a phantom pain on the little girl’s cheeks. It was at night that the dilapidated chariot ship arrived and scooped up her father and mother. Before they vanished into the night of chaos and disarray, they wept and hugged Primrose ensuring they would come back for her one day, but at this time she would be spending the rest of the year with her grandmother. Her mother released the knot in her bandana allowing her hair to unbunch and flow aimlessly around her. Tears stained the cloth material as her mother wrapped it around the young girls bangs and halting before her pigtails. Off their carriage went and so did her own, Primrose could feel her hand react on its own and reach out one last time, her parents being swallowed by the night’s darkness.

She arrived not a half a day later to a very serene sky island she had never seen before. There were no castles or buildings that reached higher than the stars. It was very flat and seemed devoid of most luxuries that Primrose grew up in and saw in books and postcards her parents would routinely receive. Stripped of all decadence and flair she was too young to realize what such significance could mean for someone being tucked away in hiding. Either way the ship landed and converted to a terrestrial vehicle, diving deeper into the island. It was a bit more prehistoric than what she was used to, dense in vegetation and houses that were cobbled together by normal working hands. Streets were unpaved and the sight and smells of flowers and the sea could easily be caught in a wisp of air. What scarce eyes existed darted straight to the carriage in awe and bewilderment of a new addition to the island. Of course, being a tiny six-year-old girl did nothing to ease the engagement. Eventually, the carriage would stop deep past the houses and small towns on the way into a remote one-way road that ended at the foot of a mailbox with the name Nuthatch in metal shapes.

Commotion could be heard outside the carriage and voices exchanged; Primrose dropped down from the high floor meeting the dusty earth in her upheaval. Upon following the corner of the ship, she was greeted to a very homely older woman who was clearly not her grandmother by blood relation. Her skin was too fair albeit wrinkled with age to be a common ancestor. She exuded all the presence one would imagine of a caring grandmother. She was a shorter woman who had ample bosom and regaled in a dark blue dress with buttons that encapsulated her motherly figure. Her hair was a sheen of gray with wispy hairs falling out of the mound of what shaped to be a bun on her head. A tortoise shell cait wrapped itself around her legs. Her voice was smooth and welcoming with a hint of age melding into the mix to give it that extra set of flavors. Primrose looked up at her with her pools of brown eyes and immediately ran into her legs, pulling at her dress and getting a slurry of snot and tears on her gown. Grandmother nuthatch embraced the young sobbing girl and brought her back to her cottage.

The cottage was all the little girl knew, the inside was laid a strew with a medley of herbs and spices that made the kitchen smell rich. Walls were stacked with shelves that paraded an assortment of jars containing everything from common salves to ingredients so rare they bordered fiction. Cobwebs encircled the ceilings which did less in the way of making the house less inviting but rather fit the aesthetic of the home much better. There were several different brooms, ones mostly for cleaning but one in particular that was positioned higher than the rest, off limits to use by her grandmothers’ orders. The home felt massive, especially for a dotting girl at the age of 6, the stairs led to several bedrooms, a private study, a stacked library filled with books and grimoires. It felt almost endless as well as almost feeling alive, it was probably her imagination, but the house felt like a living organism that guided Primrose along her way in settling in. Grandmother Nuthatch only had three rules for young Primrose, she was never to leave the cottage beyond the road she came in on, she had to do her chores everyday without fail, and she could not stay out past sundown until she was of age. And so, the girl began her long summer where she participated in animal husbandry, the cleaning of the cottage, gardening and farming outside, and studying the books in the library.

A year began to dwindle to an end and the sign of her parents arriving began to shrink and shrink. It wasn’t until one day her grandmother received a correspondence that she did not share with the spry young girl. Once the year passed, Primrose grieved in silence and carried on with living in the cottage. She spent her free time with the woodland critters creating a new family. She felt so close to them that she began to feel as though she could speak their language. The rest of her years there she grew closer to the forest becoming their guide into the world of humans, learning all she could about the relationship between animals, fungus, and plants. This was only increased by the aid of her grandmother who began teaching her more knowledge akin to magic. Finally hitting adolescent at thirteen, Primrose understood her grandmother was a powerful mystic, hoping one day she would walk the same path. It didn’t take too much longer for them to manifest when she fell violently ill and grandmother nuthatch understood that time had finally come for Primrose to leave the nest.

Almost instantly a valiant and elegant ship arrived at the road she entered in on and took her away from the cottage, marking the second time her world was taken from her.

◈ R e p u t a t i o n
Being a sixth year has meant a few things for Primrose as a student and her reputation. Luckily being a veteran of the school meant she could have multiple renaissance periods to really establish who she was as not only a mystic but also a person. On her start, she was the fervently awkward introverted student that had been pushed into a world unknown to her and not her own. She hid within the bundle of her leaves as protection and ran to the nearby verdant gardens that the schoolground possessed. She resided to getting lost into the world of books in libraries within the school. Over the years she found her footing and confided in her professors who reminded her of her grandmother and the familiar feeling of the cottage. It wasn’t too long before she found a staff member that took special interest in the development of Primrose and became her advisor and more importantly, her first friend.

Through trials and tribulations, the next few years was a testament to her resolve, she was able to congeal into her life as a student and the island she was living in now. As a sixth year she’s seen more or less as a teaching assistant, almost as if she should have graduated by now and been a shadow for the professors until there was a slot for her. She’s easily the figure most people will go to for tutoring and aid if it means studying things like herbology or any sort of natural science and conservationism. Some people misjudge her passion for studying with her being a teacher’s pet, but that was never the case. While the professors do love her for being a model student, there is no preference or preferential treatment awarded to her. To put it simply, Primrose is seen as very librarian-chique.

◈ G o a l s
Primrose isn’t the type to have any established life goals, she moves based on where the wind takes her. Never would she imagined she’d be here in this academy. Ideally, she’d like to return to Grandma Nuthatches cottage and aid her in the remainder of her years. She would use her gifts to aid the townsfolk just as her grandmother does and take over the cottage in years ahead. Yet, there is a nagging reminder in the depths of her mind to seek answers behind the loss of her parents. The letter that came in the mail her grandmother never showed her is the last piece of evidence that had any lead on her parents’ whereabouts. Quite possibly allowing her to go on a life changing adventure, but first she needs to increase her arsenal of offensive magic.

◈ R e l a t i o n s
Aegis Greenleigh - Father (Status: Unknown)
Willow Greenleigh - Mother (Status: Unknown)
Grandmother Nuthatch - Guardian

◈ "Have you read the newest encyclopedia on parasitic plants?" ◈

◈ M y s t i c C l a s s i f i c a t i o n
Astra & Elementalist

◈ G i f t
Garden of Greenleigh

◈ M y s t i c C o d e
Primrose has forged a connection to the earth that transcends the stifled means of an elementalist, giving more presence in the form of an Astra than the former. However, with the aid of being Seraph’s kissed she’s been awarded the ability to mix and house the two to create quite the heterogeneity. Primrose’s garden manifests in a few different applications, the first application is known as sprouts.

Sprouts: Being one with the earth she can infuse her Vitesse in the land below her through direct contact (i.e., hands and feet). Once enough is channeled through she can breathe life into the soil below and raise tiny soil constructs known as sprouts. These sprouts are as sentient as her pet Gupoo and act on verbal or mental command of Primrose. These tiny constructs are robust but do not break 30 cm’s in height and have a decent durability from minor attacks. They can either take form of plant or fungus displayed by root system in their soil bodies. White, spongy, stringy bodies denote that its a fungi sprout and can shoot webs to ensnare beast or person with tensile strength mycelium. Floral sprouts have green root systems and blossoming flowers on their ‘heads’ which serve to spread pollen and aromatic scents that can weaken, impair, or tire a target if needed. Their true strength lies when they mash together to create a human sized golem, which greatly increases their durability and strength.

Decomposing Biomass: Primrose holds all fauna life as precious, more so when it’s time for their passing. As such she’s dubbed herself the ferrymen for the departed wildlife no matter where she travels. With this ability she communes with the earth below her and can sniff out the remnants of dead or decaying biomass and once again give it life, in a roundabout way. Primrose will take the bones and remains of the animal and use it as it’s foundational structure. Infusing Vitesse into the earth will cause soil to congregate and act as the fleshy organs inside which will then be covered in vines and leaves to create ‘skin’ for the animal. Primrose keeps her own bag of bones to reanimate biomass on the fly if needed in a pinch or simply for espionage. The size can range from small to large carnivores, detritivores, frugivores, insectivores, etc.. that all possess their natural living abilities.

Queen of the Briars: Her last, yet most potent power bestowed on her is to create a nativity of a sea of trees and briars from the ground in varying ranges and size (including thorn size) at her behest. This is her most offensive technique that she uses in various ways. Her most common and subtle take is using a simple briar whip as her main hand weapon that she’s become quite efficient with. She can also summon briars to create constructs such as nets, thorny projectiles, or clones, or underground spiking attacks, or creating a walled in space from briar trees. The most potent version of this ability is when she recedes all briars in the area and converges them onto herself creating an exoskeleton/armor of briars with autonomy on controlling the viney construct.

◈ L i m i t a t i o n s a n d W e a k n e s s e s
The most glaring weakness to Primrose’s gift is heat/fire, the amount needed scales with how intense her structures are. Her unpaired sprouts and smaller biomass constructs are also susceptible to more devastating abilities or magics’. Primrose needs direct contact to the earth to create and tether her creations to the world. Any interruption during this will reset the ability to zero, as well as if she is knocked out her connection to her constructs will disrupt and cause them to cease. While she is in her suit of briars, she does not have access to her other two abilities within her Garden.

Harold's Academy for the Magically Inclined

What’s the current cap for seraph’s kiss pc’s?

Harold's Academy for the Magically Inclined

Eye open

OBLIVION

_{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}

▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅

▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅

Ivy was sat at the head of a beautiful red oak table that had been lacquered and engraved with ornamental floral pieces. Her feet dangled from the chair unable to touch the floor, while her studious hands went chirping with enthusiasm on the latest illustration, she had in front of her. The sound of a tea kettle warming up was muffled by the sizzling of freshly cut bacon, the whisking of egg yolk by a deft hand equipped with simply a fork, and the jumping of the toaster revealing crisp brown striations on a now brown piece of white. It was an early morning, a vision of her father sat next to her indomitable in presence, face obscured by the hefty pages of newspaper. The print on the pages swirled and shifted creating new sentences and words that she was too unaware to notice. Her mother in an apron working away at the stove with her face obscured by the sun bleeding in through an open window in the kitchen. “⊑⍜⍙ ⏃⍀⟒ ⊬⍜⎍ ⏁⍜⎅⏃⊬ ⟟⎐⊬?” What could only be described as static, frayed through her brain, yet not impeding her from doodling. Both newspaper and her father shuttered like a damaged VHS tape. “⏁⊑⟒ ⌇⍜⎎⏁ ☊⎍⌇⊑⟟⍜⋏ ⏚⍀⍜☍⟒ ⏁⊑⟒ ⋔⏃⋏'⌇ ⎎⏃⌰⌰?” This time her mother turned with a plate of fresh food that was at one second eggs, bacon, and toast, now just a stack of pancakes from her own shutter. Ivy paid no attention to anything but the doodle, relentlessly scrawling away like a woman possessed. The kettle began to hiss louder and more angry in its pitch. Finally snapping young Ivy out of her daze to a paper covered in black crayon with the word Oblivion outlined in white. Her eyes snapped open, she was in pitch black. The ringing in her ears wasn’t from a tea kettle, but the fallout from the explosion she had no recollection of. Pain seared through her body as if she had been branded and tortured for a millennia. With what little she could make out directly in front of her she studied her body to no avail. Her skin and clothes had still be perfectly intact, no blood, no bruises, no dirt. Her stomach violently churned like a cream to make butter, expelling vomit that splattered what was left of the turf in front of her. The back of her palm sufficed as a temporary napkin, but when she pulled away the periphery of her eyes noticed something strange. Her vomit wasn’t the standard pink to orange hue nor did it smell rancid from the cocktail of food and bile. Instead, it was purely black and more vicious akin to an ink-like consistency. With her teeth and lips now stained with a heavy charcoal tint, she forced herself up, still hearing the ringing echoing through her ears. Sheer grit pushed her through the worst of it, sweat poured from her forehead absorbing the light bouncing off of Jacks phone onto the little globules. It looked like their wishes of toppling the establishment had bore fruit, way before the expected demolition date. Reeling from her mental and physical exhaustion, she still had no memory of what happened after opening the book, aside from chaos. Perhaps it was a curious case of wrong place wrong time, still, the president needed to be just that, the Commander in Chief. The ringing instantly was sucked out of the vacuum of her ear canal, allowing the shouting of Jack to finally pierce her head. She was right, whatever happened was bad and they needed to get out yesterday. Ivy looked around to see if anyone had landed near her, no chance. The closest was Hanna who had unknowingly put herself in harms way by drying stray tears from Ivy’s face. “I have the keys!” Her voice strained and hoarse, “We need to get to the car ASAP!” Legs feeling like pudding, she pushed her way to ivy, fighting invisible sand undertow. “Hanna, get up, we need to go, now” hobbling to her best friend with hopes she was still alive. ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔

█ #1.02 CAUGHT IN THE CLUTCHES blurred view — big thief ritman high football field interacting with: Hanna/@Mirandae ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔

Nomadic Odyssey: Find Your Heart

Nijima, Rui

"I can drink you under the table, hic."

酒 が 沈 む と言 葉 が 浮 か ぶ _____________________________________________________ NAME: NIJIMA, RUI _______________________________________________ EPITHET: SPIRIT _______________________________________________ AGE: TWENTY-EIGHT _______________________________________________ PRONOUNS: SHE/HER _______________________________________________ HEIGHT: FIVE-SEVEN _______________________________________________ WEIGHT: ONE-FORTY-FIVE _______________________________________________ NATIONALITY: JAPAN _______________________________________________ LIKES: DRINKING, DEBAUCHERY, DECADENCE _______________________________________________ DISLIKES: RESPONSBILITY, MORNINGS, AUTHORITY

^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}

OVERVIEW

"I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine."
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}

APPEARANCE

"気 持 ち 悪 い っ て 言 わ れ た こ と あ る？"
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}

Rui looks unremarkable, but only at first glance. There’s little in regard of seeing her as a fighter due to her quite diminutive frame. She’s above average in height but her arms and build feel lacking in comparison to most brawlers. Rui doesn’t strive to be sinewy either, she’s comfortable in her wiry style if that. What she lacks in body mass she makes up for flare in her appearance, she has such distinct features and clothing that it’s hard not to command attention from potential onlookers. Her hair is a dizzying lime green, casting an aura when caught in the blaze of the sun. If the sun wasn’t enough to cast it’s light, the intensity in her yellow eyes was more than enough to account for. All resting on a crème colored surface devoid of any blemish or imperfection.

Her hair is usually seen pulled back and tied in a pony tail, falling to the just at the small of her back, to avoid any kind of hair pulling or wisps of her obstructing her vision. Red earrings hang from her ears and no make up is worn, relying on her natural beauty to carry the load. Despite her small frame she does have quite the buxom bust, only emphasized by her battle regalia. Skintight blue pants/leggings cling to her body forming a second skin, pinned under a deep purple leotard tight around the neck. The purple and blue combination is pulled together with a long orange sash fastened securely around her waist by an emerald. Matching deep purple arm warmers extend from her fingers all the way to midway up the bicep. White shoes pulled over her leggings complete her simple fit.

Rui keeps two gourds strapped to her waist as well that are attached to her fingers by string and rings. Serving as a way to keep her from getting parched or sober, but also serving as a weapon as well. The gourds themselves are heavily imbued with Ki from the first moments of creation to now. This has made them far removed from being brittle as she can also channel ki constantly into them if need be. The wire attached to the gourds allows for high velocity projectiles similar to that of an enlarge yo-yo.

PERSONALITY TRAITS

"Hey dumb*** ************ eat **** you *****"
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}

Just about any negative adjective could be attributed to Rui. Her demure presence is ruined the moment she opens her mouth. The beauty she emanates fades with the vulgarity and consequent belches that erupt from the bellows of her stomach. She’s rude, arrogant, incredibly violent and peevish. Having a filter was never a concept in her mind, alcohol only served as a vehicle to let those words flow out faster. Egging on her opponents or calling them offensive names isn’t beyond or underneath her either and more or less falls under strategy and general sentiments.

Her passionate ire is also manifested into giving her a fiery warriors spirit and battle tenacity; to say she was a sore loser is a far cry from what else could be said. Competition was born into her and has naturally led her to seek stronger opponents. She hasn’t met an opponent she could not smack down nor suffered a loss that left her on the brink or the throws of retirement. Losing was almost alien to her now that she was a tenured veteran in the arena. Fighting has been the only thing to ever bring her joy and negate the drivel that spews out of her mouth like a cesspool.

She isn’t completely inhuman, emotions other than anger and joy encapsulate her persons as well. She feels pain, mental and physical, as much as anyone else. She doesn’t necessarily warm up to anyone nor does she have a soft side, but she will cry and experience negative emotions from time to time.

BACKSTORY

"ク ソ 野 郎 "
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}

Rui was born and raised in Hokkaido, Japan. Specifically on the shore which meant harsh winters, which were most of the times outside of July, were much harsher than had they been inland. This meant that Rui was constantly cold and relied on multiple layers and the heat that warmed their home and the bottoms of the floors from the furnace located underneath and out back of their home akin to that of royalty back in the day. However, the family was far from royalty, rather her father was a fisherman. He worked catching and netting fish on a commercial liner he owned with shellfish and arthropods on his off time too. He spent countless hours at sea and when he arrived, drank himself into a coma which Rui never clearly understood. Drinking to unconsciousness was behavior reserved for salary men in Tokyo and her father was far from that. Regardless she and her mom exchanged responsibilities of cleaning up after him and tucking him into bed before he repeated the next day like clockwork.

Her mother on the other hand was a preschool teacher for an insanely tiny school located on the coast off the beaches of Hokkaido. This allowed her to supervise her daughter until she was at a comfortable enough age that she could stay home and watch herself. Some days she would accompany her dad on the ship and help where she could, but she was still far too young to be anything more than a hindrance. So she stayed home, in that she became addicted to the modest CRT TV that had seen more years than her at this point. Rui burned through all of her fathers B&W VHS tapes about samurai and martial art greats from his youth that now passed the torch onto her. One day she went from simply just watching for the umpteenth time to mimicking the movements of the actors. In place of a katana was an unsullied cucumber and in replacement of a body was her pillow.

She took herself to school and joined several clubs, but the most prevalent being the Kendo and Karate club. Her mother found these clubs too manly for a homely girl like Rui, believing archery would have been more becoming of her. Her father, however, reciprocated his daughters fascination with the two. Years would go by and her skills would increase and she’d find herself winning medals for local competitions that only amassed a showing of maybe less than a dozen children. Not much in the way of competition, but she was still able to flex her non existent muscles. Her father found it important to curate a strong body to match her strong center of will for fighting. She trained on his boat, using the ropes and bars for sailing to use as her personal gym.

Rui never looked at alcohol nor did she want to taint her body with such toxins, but the craving for her fathers inventory steadily increased day by day until she was unsure she could handle another day longer without the imbibing of the bitter ichor. She would wait until she was of age, but for now she would travel far from home to attend her high school from her prestigious entrance exam scores. It was a whole new world, she had only seen a shallow square of the world meanwhile there was a Mecca of technology and entertainment as far as the eye could see. While she was obsessed with her ancient samurai stories and movies the kids around her focused on the Justice Riders and being recruited by the SHINING. Rui found the classics better than what ever far fetched bullshit this was.

Rui stumbled in the beginning, not used to there being a higher level of technique. She found her footing shortly and climbed the ranks of the fighting world in Sapporo, both in school and also illegally in the trenches of the city. Her grades took a sharp turn in favor of becoming a delinquent, the top delinquent really, which brought negative publicity and the eye of the SHINING. They set a meeting with her and explained to her what she was, a nomad. Her mind could barely wrap around the meaning but she could feel the presence of Ki they constantly mentioned. She signed her soul away over to corporate greed in exchange for mastering her Ki. She shot up in publicity and popularity across the prefectures of japan, forgetting her roots and life at school.

Her thirst for alcohol finally took its toll when she had both the money and ability to buy her own to relax her from the exhausting weight of being a corporate entities caricature. One drink a night turned into vicious alcoholism, yet it made her stronger and her ki more focused. She unfortunately could not stay sober for the public eye and became a disgraced hero, losing any and all contract to SHINING. Defeated she returned home where her parents accepted her with open arms and more importantly taught her why alcohol had seemed as necessary as water. She bided her time at home before rejecting the title of nomad and taking on something more familiar, Ronin. She was disgraced and had no master so she would seek them out and destroy. For the next few years she would roam around from country to country seeking out opponents. It wasn’t until she found the flyer for the tournament in Brazil did she finally find a sense of purpose once more.

FIGHTING STYLE & ABILIES

"Gross! You got your blood on me."
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}

SKILLS & ABILITIES

"Time-out, I need a drink."
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}

Rui’s fighting style is twofold and relies on a very specific mechanic that revolves around what makes her uniquely a nomad. Unlike most people, Rui has an extra organ in her body that operates like a secondary stomach. A sack that unlike holding and digesting food, holds and breaks down alcohol. As a specialized organ the breakdown of alcohol is broken down much slower and remains active in the system for much longer. Normally this would inhibit anyone from doing anything, keeping them in a dangerous state of inebriation, but Rui has mastered the careful tipping point that her organ provides. Rui keeps her organ at the precipice of being full, without hitting the brim. She requires the alcohol in her body to perform the abilities and martial arts she’s specialized herself in. The more she burns the more she sweats which releases a slight alcoholic vapor. If she rapidly burns through her reserves she instantly becomes hung over and her martial arts suffers by becoming slower and more predictable.

To keep her levels manageable she’ll constantly sip from her gourds during battle, conserving the liquor until fully depleted. She possess two gourds for specific reasons, one gourd contains 白金 (Shirogane) which is light/clear alcohol from rice and the other containing 黒鉄 (Kurogane) which is a dark and heavy liquor mostly consisting of wheat and barley. Filling up on Shirogane grants her incredible fluidity, speed, and unpredictability in her movements. What she loses in strength and durability in this mode she makes up for agility and grapples. Filling up on Kurogane grants her immense strength and durability, she becomes almost unmovable and the ability to deal terrifying damage from strikes and blows. If all else fails she can consume and mix both liquors giving way to both attributes, but causing immense strain on her body and evaporating from her system at an accelerated rate.

While these two are her dominate fighting styles, they both utilize the martial arts she’s practiced. Originally, she pursued kendo and karate, but kendo had been shelved to focus on hand-to-hand. Eventually due to her drinking style she sought the ancient martial art from China known as zuì quán (drunken boxing/drunken arts) both the Buddhist and Daoist style as a well as the Northern and Southern fist. The practice mimicked the moves of a drunken fighter, Rui was actually drunk most of the time, leading her to elevate the martial arts and infuse hints of almost everything East Asian. Overall she relies on powerful strikes and grappling, she prefers to use her unpredictability and fluid movements to be a gap closer, but will control medium to long range with her gourds.

Beyond her fist she also relies on her gourds, not just for providing her with her liquor but as weapons themselves. As mentioned before they are attached to her hands by wires and strings giving her easy access. The gourds can move and grind off the wires giving them a high velocity allowing them to be used as a weapon similar to the Chinese Meteor Hammer.

SIGNATURE MOVES

" 乾杯！！"
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}

■ [Is it hot in here?]

[Akin to hyperhydrosis, Rui uses her ki to rapidly sweat out the alcohol in her system to allow her a vicious liquid membrane that covers her skin and body, allowing her to become slick and harder to grapple]

■ [Hot breath]

[Rui expels noxious gas that smells almost of pure ethanol in a semi transparent cloud that she quickly ignites with a flick of her wire to ignite creating a short range explosion]

■ [Get your feet wet]

[Rui will send her gourds out spinning at high velocity at her opponent. When in range she’ll pull to release the cork and splash some alcohol on her opponents. Depending on the quantity, the smell can be enough to cause disgust, but more importantly make them more flammable and susceptible to being lit aflame]

■ [Around the world]

[Launching her target into the air with a high kick, Rui somersaults into the air and twists her strings and gourds around the opponent binding them. In a crescent arc she lands with the aim to bring their head to the pavement]

■ [Back off!]

[Rui creates distance by sliding back and shooting her gourds out at the floor, one to drive back and stumble if an opponent chases and another to ricochet off the ground to follow any airborne dashes]

■ [Snarling Dragon]

[Rui imbibes a swig of alcohol before expelling it and igniting it upon leaving her mouth creating a long range fireball]

SUPER MOVES

"Flashy? Just put it on the rocks"
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}

■ [Acid Reflux]

[More of a last ditch effort ability or one used to cover her bases when in her hangover form. The sack in her body becomes filled with bile after being completely emptied. Instead of spitting fire she spews acidic bile that burns the opponent in a spray or on the ground. Can get chunky]

■ [Phoenix Eye Fist]

[A famous martial arts move where the energy of attacks is focused into one knuckle instead of losing the dispersion through the body. Rui can condense the ki in her body and channel it into her single knuckle coating her hand in a lime green aura than can either be condensed into a ki glove, a ball of energy around her hand, or a concentrated blast of destructive energy]

■ [Drunken furry fist]

[Rui viciously stomps on the floor creating tremors that unsteady the opponent. She’ll rush in and deliver a series of furious blows in blinding speed, mostly aimed at the center of the body. A high knee send them up in the air before she jumps up to grab them in a power bomb position]

■ [Have a drink on me]

[A super simple, but pungent ability. Rui shoves a mixture of both her liquors from her gourd down the throat of her opponent until it’s completely finished. Sending the opponent into an immediate drunken state that leaves them vomiting profusely]

WEAKNESSES & LIMITS

"さよなら"
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}

Rui is an excellent close ranged fighter and master grappler which leaves her no stranger to being up close and personal. And while most of her skills are ways to combat distance or close it, she does not have many tools in her kit to defend against an onslaught of long range barrages. Her other weakness stems from her fighting style. She must be constantly aware of her ki displacement in her specialized organ and in her gourds to really maximize her skills in battle. She’s no push over when she is sober but she feels a bit more antiquated when she has to fight like that.

OTHER

"Hate to be your first loss of the day"
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}

Have you ever seen someone catch a fish diving off the side of a ship in the dead of winter?

Nomadic Odyssey: Find Your Heart

Nijima, Rui

"I can drink you under the table, hic."

酒 が 沈 む と言 葉 が 浮 か ぶ _____________________________________________________ NAME: NIJIMA, RUI _______________________________________________ EPITHET: SPIRIT _______________________________________________ AGE: TWENTY-EIGHT _______________________________________________ PRONOUNS: SHE/HER _______________________________________________ HEIGHT: FIVE-SEVEN _______________________________________________ WEIGHT: ONE-FORTY-FIVE _______________________________________________ NATIONALITY: JAPAN _______________________________________________ LIKES: DRINKING, DEBAUCHERY, DECADENCE _______________________________________________ DISLIKES: RESPONSBILITY, MORNINGS, AUTHORITY

^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}

OVERVIEW

"I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine."
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}

APPEARANCE

"気 持 ち 悪 い っ て 言 わ れ た こ と あ る？"
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}

Rui looks unremarkable, but only at first glance. There’s little in regard of seeing her as a fighter due to her quite diminutive frame. She’s above average in height but her arms and build feel lacking in comparison to most brawlers. Rui doesn’t strive to be sinewy either, she’s comfortable in her wiry style if that. What she lacks in body mass she makes up for flare in her appearance, she has such distinct features and clothing that it’s hard not to command attention from potential onlookers. Her hair is a dizzying lime green, casting an aura when caught in the blaze of the sun. If the sun wasn’t enough to cast it’s light, the intensity in her yellow eyes was more than enough to account for. All resting on a crème colored surface devoid of any blemish or imperfection.

Her hair is usually seen pulled back and tied in a pony tail, falling to the just at the small of her back, to avoid any kind of hair pulling or wisps of her obstructing her vision. Red earrings hang from her ears and no make up is worn, relying on her natural beauty to carry the load. Despite her small frame she does have quite the buxom bust, only emphasized by her battle regalia. Skintight blue pants/leggings cling to her body forming a second skin, pinned under a deep purple leotard tight around the neck. The purple and blue combination is pulled together with a long orange sash fastened securely around her waist by an emerald. Matching deep purple arm warmers extend from her fingers all the way to midway up the bicep. White shoes pulled over her leggings complete her simple fit.

Rui keeps two gourds strapped to her waist as well that are attached to her fingers by string and rings. Serving as a way to keep her from getting parched or sober, but also serving as a weapon as well. The gourds themselves are heavily imbued with Ki from the first moments of creation to now. This has made them far removed from being brittle as she can also channel ki constantly into them if need be. The wire attached to the gourds allows for high velocity projectiles similar to that of an enlarge yo-yo.

PERSONALITY TRAITS

"Hey dumb*** ************ eat **** you *****"
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}

Just about any negative adjective could be attributed to Rui. Her demure presence is ruined the moment she opens her mouth. The beauty she emanates fades with the vulgarity and consequent belches that erupt from the bellows of her stomach. She’s rude, arrogant, incredibly violent and peevish. Having a filter was never a concept in her mind, alcohol only served as a vehicle to let those words flow out faster. Egging on her opponents or calling them offensive names isn’t beyond or underneath her either and more or less falls under strategy and general sentiments.

Her passionate ire is also manifested into giving her a fiery warriors spirit and battle tenacity; to say she was a sore loser is a far cry from what else could be said. Competition was born into her and has naturally led her to seek stronger opponents. She hasn’t met an opponent she could not smack down nor suffered a loss that left her on the brink or the throws of retirement. Losing was almost alien to her now that she was a tenured veteran in the arena. Fighting has been the only thing to ever bring her joy and negate the drivel that spews out of her mouth like a cesspool.

She isn’t completely inhuman, emotions other than anger and joy encapsulate her persons as well. She feels pain, mental and physical, as much as anyone else. She doesn’t necessarily warm up to anyone nor does she have a soft side, but she will cry and experience negative emotions from time to time.

BACKSTORY

"ク ソ 野 郎 "
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}

Rui was born and raised in Hokkaido, Japan. Specifically on the shore which meant harsh winters, which were most of the times outside of July, were much harsher than had they been inland. This meant that Rui was constantly cold and relied on multiple layers and the heat that warmed their home and the bottoms of the floors from the furnace located underneath and out back of their home akin to that of royalty back in the day. However, the family was far from royalty, rather her father was a fisherman. He worked catching and netting fish on a commercial liner he owned with shellfish and arthropods on his off time too. He spent countless hours at sea and when he arrived, drank himself into a coma which Rui never clearly understood. Drinking to unconsciousness was behavior reserved for salary men in Tokyo and her father was far from that. Regardless she and her mom exchanged responsibilities of cleaning up after him and tucking him into bed before he repeated the next day like clockwork.

Her mother on the other hand was a preschool teacher for an insanely tiny school located on the coast off the beaches of Hokkaido. This allowed her to supervise her daughter until she was at a comfortable enough age that she could stay home and watch herself. Some days she would accompany her dad on the ship and help where she could, but she was still far too young to be anything more than a hindrance. So she stayed home, in that she became addicted to the modest CRT TV that had seen more years than her at this point. Rui burned through all of her fathers B&W VHS tapes about samurai and martial art greats from his youth that now passed the torch onto her. One day she went from simply just watching for the umpteenth time to mimicking the movements of the actors. In place of a katana was an unsullied cucumber and in replacement of a body was her pillow.

She took herself to school and joined several clubs, but the most prevalent being the Kendo and Karate club. Her mother found these clubs too manly for a homely girl like Rui, believing archery would have been more becoming of her. Her father, however, reciprocated his daughters fascination with the two. Years would go by and her skills would increase and she’d find herself winning medals for local competitions that only amassed a showing of maybe less than a dozen children. Not much in the way of competition, but she was still able to flex her non existent muscles. Her father found it important to curate a strong body to match her strong center of will for fighting. She trained on his boat, using the ropes and bars for sailing to use as her personal gym.

Rui never looked at alcohol nor did she want to taint her body with such toxins, but the craving for her fathers inventory steadily increased day by day until she was unsure she could handle another day longer without the imbibing of the bitter ichor. She would wait until she was of age, but for now she would travel far from home to attend her high school from her prestigious entrance exam scores. It was a whole new world, she had only seen a shallow square of the world meanwhile there was a Mecca of technology and entertainment as far as the eye could see. While she was obsessed with her ancient samurai stories and movies the kids around her focused on the Justice Riders and being recruited by the SHINING. Rui found the classics better than what ever far fetched bullshit this was.

Rui stumbled in the beginning, not used to there being a higher level of technique. She found her footing shortly and climbed the ranks of the fighting world in Sapporo, both in school and also illegally in the trenches of the city. Her grades took a sharp turn in favor of becoming a delinquent, the top delinquent really, which brought negative publicity and the eye of the SHINING. They set a meeting with her and explained to her what she was, a nomad. Her mind could barely wrap around the meaning but she could feel the presence of Ki they constantly mentioned. She signed her soul away over to corporate greed in exchange for mastering her Ki. She shot up in publicity and popularity across the prefectures of japan, forgetting her roots and life at school.

Her thirst for alcohol finally took its toll when she had both the money and ability to buy her own to relax her from the exhausting weight of being a corporate entities caricature. One drink a night turned into vicious alcoholism, yet it made her stronger and her ki more focused. She unfortunately could not stay sober for the public eye and became a disgraced hero, losing any and all contract to SHINING. Defeated she returned home where her parents accepted her with open arms and more importantly taught her why alcohol had seemed as necessary as water. She bided her time at home before rejecting the title of nomad and taking on something more familiar, Ronin. She was disgraced and had no master so she would seek them out and destroy. For the next few years she would roam around from country to country seeking out opponents. It wasn’t until she found the flyer for the tournament in Brazil did she finally find a sense of purpose once more.

FIGHTING STYLE & ABILIES

"Gross! You got your blood on me."
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}

SKILLS & ABILITIES

"Time-out, I need a drink."
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}

Rui’s fighting style is twofold and relies on a very specific mechanic that revolves around what makes her uniquely a nomad. Unlike most people, Rui has an extra organ in her body that operates like a secondary stomach. A sack that unlike holding and digesting food, holds and breaks down alcohol. As a specialized organ the breakdown of alcohol is broken down much slower and remains active in the system for much longer. Normally this would inhibit anyone from doing anything, keeping them in a dangerous state of inebriation, but Rui has mastered the careful tipping point that her organ provides. Rui keeps her organ at the precipice of being full, without hitting the brim. She requires the alcohol in her body to perform the abilities and martial arts she’s specialized herself in. The more she burns the more she sweats which releases a slight alcoholic vapor. If she rapidly burns through her reserves she instantly becomes hung over and her martial arts suffers by becoming slower and more predictable.

To keep her levels manageable she’ll constantly sip from her gourds during battle, conserving the liquor until fully depleted. She possess two gourds for specific reasons, one gourd contains 白金 (Shirogane) which is light/clear alcohol from rice and the other containing 黒鉄 (Kurogane) which is a dark and heavy liquor mostly consisting of wheat and barley. Filling up on Shirogane grants her incredible fluidity, speed, and unpredictability in her movements. What she loses in strength and durability in this mode she makes up for agility and grapples. Filling up on Kurogane grants her immense strength and durability, she becomes almost unmovable and the ability to deal terrifying damage from strikes and blows. If all else fails she can consume and mix both liquors giving way to both attributes, but causing immense strain on her body and evaporating from her system at an accelerated rate.

While these two are her dominate fighting styles, they both utilize the martial arts she’s practiced. Originally, she pursued kendo and karate, but kendo had been shelved to focus on hand-to-hand. Eventually due to her drinking style she sought the ancient martial art from China known as zuì quán (drunken boxing/drunken arts) both the Buddhist and Daoist style as a well as the Northern and Southern fist. The practice mimicked the moves of a drunken fighter, Rui was actually drunk most of the time, leading her to elevate the martial arts and infuse hints of almost everything East Asian. Overall she relies on powerful strikes and grappling, she prefers to use her unpredictability and fluid movements to be a gap closer, but will control medium to long range with her gourds.

Beyond her fist she also relies on her gourds, not just for providing her with her liquor but as weapons themselves. As mentioned before they are attached to her hands by wires and strings giving her easy access. The gourds can move and grind off the wires giving them a high velocity allowing them to be used as a weapon similar to the Chinese Meteor Hammer.

SIGNATURE MOVES

" 乾杯！！"
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}

■ [Is it hot in here?]

[Akin to hyperhydrosis, Rui uses her ki to rapidly sweat out the alcohol in her system to allow her a vicious liquid membrane that covers her skin and body, allowing her to become slick and harder to grapple]

■ [Hot breath]

[Rui expels noxious gas that smells almost of pure ethanol in a semi transparent cloud that she quickly ignites with a flick of her wire to ignite creating a short range explosion]

■ [Get your feet wet]

[Rui will send her gourds out spinning at high velocity at her opponent. When in range she’ll pull to release the cork and splash some alcohol on her opponents. Depending on the quantity, the smell can be enough to cause disgust, but more importantly make them more flammable and susceptible to being lit aflame]

■ [Around the world]

[Launching her target into the air with a high kick, Rui somersaults into the air and twists her strings and gourds around the opponent binding them. In a crescent arc she lands with the aim to bring their head to the pavement]

■ [Back off!]

[Rui creates distance by sliding back and shooting her gourds out at the floor, one to drive back and stumble if an opponent chases and another to ricochet off the ground to follow any airborne dashes]

■ [Snarling Dragon]

[Rui imbibes a swig of alcohol before expelling it and igniting it upon leaving her mouth creating a long range fireball]

SUPER MOVES

"Flashy? Just put it on the rocks"
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}

■ [Acid Reflux]

[More of a last ditch effort ability or one used to cover her bases when in her hangover form. The sack in her body becomes filled with bile after being completely emptied. Instead of spitting fire she spews acidic bile that burns the opponent in a spray or on the ground. Can get chunky]

■ [Phoenix Eye Fist]

[A famous martial arts move where the energy of attacks is focused into one knuckle instead of losing the dispersion through the body. Rui can condense the ki in her body and channel it into her single knuckle coating her hand in a lime green aura than can either be condensed into a ki glove, a ball of energy around her hand, or a concentrated blast of destructive energy]

■ [Drunken furry fist]

[Rui viciously stomps on the floor creating tremors that unsteady the opponent. She’ll rush in and deliver a series of furious blows in blinding speed, mostly aimed at the center of the body. A high knee send them up in the air before she jumps up to grab them in a power bomb position]

■ [Have a drink on me]

[A super simple, but pungent ability. Rui shoves a mixture of both her liquors from her gourd down the throat of her opponent until it’s completely finished. Sending the opponent into an immediate drunken state that leaves them vomiting profusely]

WEAKNESSES & LIMITS

"さよなら"
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}

Rui is an excellent close ranged fighter and master grappler which leaves her no stranger to being up close and personal. And while most of her skills are ways to combat distance or close it, she does not have many tools in her kit to defend against an onslaught of long range barrages. Her other weakness stems from her fighting style. She must be constantly aware of her ki displacement in her specialized organ and in her gourds to really maximize her skills in battle. She’s no push over when she is sober but she feels a bit more antiquated when she has to fight like that.

OTHER

"Hate to be your first loss of the day"
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}

Have you ever seen someone catch a fish diving off the side of a ship in the dead of winter?