The last of Katrina's soda cans found their way into the trash as she rose from her bed. Today was just the next in a long series of lazy days that cropped up between excursions. She was beginning to need to think seriously about finding another, as the money from the last was starting to dry up. Every time she thought about the money, she laughed at how she had come to taking it. She had never thought she would be in the business of accepting money to engage in guerilla warfare, but after all the corrupt assholes she had helped into power, she had started to think less of charging them for her services. The last one that paid her turned out to be a pedophile, according to the reports. Then again, she wondered if that couldn't have just been a trumped up charge to get him out of office. Yet again, she wondered if it really mattered, since the planet was bound to be a mess of politics no matter who ended up in charge. It was always the same damn story.
But whatever her misgivings, she not only couldn't afford to laze around all day anymore, but she also felt compelled to keep doing something, no matter how hopeless it all seemed. She took a seat at her desk and looked through her new messages. The first she read was an offer to help an ambitious warlord overthrow his home-planet's king. It promised a rich reward for her services. She moved on from it without a second thought. Even if she needed the money, she would never fight to help an overtly amoral movement. There was no good in helping a vicious warmonger come to power, especially since he barely made an effort to suggest he was doing this for any better reason than getting rich. The next sounded promising at first glance, coming from a "local community leader" that suggested the planetary government was negligent and corrupt, and that she was in a position to replace them with more benevolent leadership. Then Katrina saw the name, and she remembered having looked this one up in the past. She always did research on those that contacted her directly, and occasionally found out about others long before they came to her. Some there was little information on, but this woman had a bad reputation for being an enormous hypocrite about corruption on their home planet. This one she chose to reply to.
"Dear Myluria Tirell,
Go fuck yourself.
Sincerely, Katrina Makhno"
With that message sent, she continued to search her messages until something curious happened. A notification of a new video from one of the channels she subscribed to popped up. It was a live-stream of a planetary invasion. Planet Terersg was under attack. Something about this really got her worked up. Warmongering bastards were a plague at the best of times, and here was some group of assholes making an unprovoked attack on an unsuspecting planet. Katrina put money matters out of her head, as now she was going to volunteer to take these bastards down herself.
But then she realised what really got her worked up.
She was on planet Terersg right now.
Stepping outside of the Free-Loader, she looked up to the sky and saw for herself the invasion ships descending from the sky. Cursing under her breath, she raced back inside to prepare. As dangerous as this situation was, all she could think of was how it just made things more convenient. The fight was coming to her, and she was going to be ready for it.
Name: Katrina Makhno Age: 25 Gender: Female Race: Human
Appearance:
By iwantedtorunaway
Occupation/Concept: Survivalist/Rebel without Cause
Training:
Katrina’s primary training is as something of a guerrilla fighter. She is acutely familiar with small arms of all kinds and trained to use hit and run tactics to outmanoeuvre and wear down an enemy. Give her a gun and a cause, and she’ll tear down a castle, if only bit by bit. She knows enough about martial arts to put up a decent fight in regards to opponents within her own weight group, but is hardly a master, and would never choose to go in with her fists first.
Katrina has also been conditioned to live simply for the purposes of survival. While she doesn’t engage in this lifestyle if she doesn’t have to, her parents took a few years to teach her how to make do on the bare necessities, and how to scrounge for them if she doesn’t even have those. Ultimately, the use of this is dependent on circumstances, but the most enduring quality she picked up was the ability to be disciplined with food use and aware of her environment.
After having lived in solitary for some time, Katrina has become adept at jury rigging all the little pieces of technology and machinery she has to work long past their usual expiry dates. She is hardly a trained expert, but through a mix of trial and error and sheer necessity, she has learned how to get familiar with new gizmos and swiftly find what makes them tick.
Powers:
Chameleon: Katrina can blend in with the environment around her, making it a great deal harder to see her with conventional means. Katrina has to remain still in order to blend in.
Suppression: Katrina can stifle sound and noises around her, ranging from muffling the sound of her footsteps to silencing a weapon discharge, and even reducing the volume of a nagging acquaintance.
Pyromancy: Katrina has the ability to summon and command the primal force of fire, usually by means of ejecting it from her hands to envelop a target of her choosing.
Equipment:
Katrina’s weapon of choice is a Belash-Arms “Eviscerator”, an assault-rifle style gun loaded with armour-piercing rounds capable of tearing a whole in the defences of most conventional human militaries.
Katrina makes sure to carry multiple miniaturized explosive charges on hand for multiple purposes, such as blowing open locks, blowing open walls, or maybe just blowing something open for fun.
Katrina acquired a skin-tight bodysuit during her wandering, called the “Halyna-Guard”. It was designed to allow unrestricted movement while protecting the user beyond adequately.
She also possesses a filtration mask both for handling gas attacks and for surviving in hostile environments. The mask has a button to extend over her entire head or simply rest over her mouth.
Airship: The “Free-Loader” was originally nothing more than a fairly small freighter from the planet Hetmana. Upon being repurposed by both Katrina and her parents, it has become a highly modified personal ship, with the focus being upon speed and survivability. It is both a transport and home for Katrina.
Motivation: Katrina has become somewhat aimless of late. Initially, she just wanted to fight back against people who had wronged her, and after that, against those that had wronged others. However, after many experiences with insurrections and rebellions, Katrina has become highly cynical, and mostly goes along with these movements half out of a sheer bull-headed desire to do something good, even if she feels it might not work out, and simply because burning down regimes is something she has become accustomed to. She goes from conflict to conflict, each time swearing she wouldn’t do it again, only to hear something that pulls her heartstrings in the next one.
Personality: Underneath everything, Katrina is something of a dreamer and an idealist. Nobody would think so from the way she acts, but via a combination of her upbringing and her experiences as an adult, she has developed strong opinions on right and wrong and a low tolerance for what she sees as unjust. These ideals of hers have catapulted her time and again into conflicts that barely had anything to do with her, sometimes because she made a snap decision to help at the time, and other times because choosing not to act gnawed at her until she could take it no more. Once involved in something, she finds it hard to disengage from it, as she takes these causes into herself in an almost self-destructive fashion.
The reason why nobody would guess at her idealism is due to the pervasive cynicism built into her general demeanor. In spite of throwing herself into these situations at the drop of a hat, she always goes into them with a feeling that no matter what she does, it won’t necessarily work out for the better. As she tells it, it might be that a person she helps “turns out to be a jerk”, or helping a new group into power will see them “be just as much of a bunch of assholes as the last ones”, or even if nothing goes wrong, nothing will really change either. She doesn’t hesitate to let anyone know she doesn’t expect much of what she does, which frequently mystifies those that she gets involved with. She’ll also freely tell them she’s not sure why she’s actually there either.
Outside of her strange crusade, Katrina is perfectly sociable, if not terribly enthusiastic about anything. Shooting the shit is easy enough, though she doesn’t expect much from the people around her, and neither will she go to any great lengths to develop some form of bond. She’s not one for mincing words, and if she has something negative to say, she’ll say it, whether it’s clear someone won’t like it or not. Generally, she doesn’t go looking for fights to pick, but she admits to having very strong opinions on a few subjects. Usually she’s just looking to chill out between tasks, and if someone’s fun enough to be around, she’ll be A-okay with them.
She also enjoys blowing things up and setting them on fire. She’s not a psychopath, though. Honest.
Flaws:
Katrina’s bull-headed determination to get involved in conflicts could easily be her undoing, for as much as she harps on about how little she expects, she still ends up trying to do the right thing in the end, and could be roped into doing the wrong thing with the right sob story.
Katrina has no tact or delicacy when dealing with anyone, let alone someone who upsets her sensibilities. If you want someone to talk an enemy down or encourage an ally, don’t pick Katrina.
Bio: Katrina was born and raised on the very ship she calls home; the Free-Loader. Her parents, Vladiv and Katariah, were wanderers that went from place to place in search of something to do. They spent the majority of Katrina’s formative years teaching her all kinds of survival skills, such as weapon use, temperance with supplies, and general maintenance. Katrina wouldn’t understand the purpose of all this until later, but otherwise her parents were plentifully loving and protecting, and Katrina looks back on these years as the best of her life.
Katrina was a teenager when everything turned for the worst. It turned out that her parents had fled the authoritarian, ultra-nationalist regime on the planet of Hetmana years ago. They were nothing important, just average citizens that wanted out of the insanity, but the Hetmanian regime was just that vindictive towards those that left it. They captured the family as they strayed too close to their area of space, and brought them to the planet. Katrina’s parents were executed without any pomp or ceremony, and Katrina was to be taken to a re-education camp to turn her into a “productive citizen”. Katrina was fortunate enough to be sprung from captivity by a local resistance cell, led by a man named Sergei Limonov. Katrina jumped at the opportunity to fight back against the regime that had wronged her, and helped Sergei’s cell on their long battle. Katrina grew close to Sergei and others during this time, and after many struggles and wounds, the Hetmanian government collapsed, and Katrina retired as an average citizen on the world she had helped liberate.
But it was not to last. Soon enough, Katrina found out that Sergei had proved just as corrupt and brutal and overlord as those he had deposed, even reviving the re-education camps that she had almost been condemned to. Feeling beyond betrayed, Katrina picked up all the weapons she had used during Sergei’s rebellion and began to use them on the very people who had given them to her. She fought against so many people who had been her comrades just a year earlier. Once again, Katrina toppled the authoritarian regime of Hetmana, but it almost worse this time; no solid leader emerged like Sergei, and the planet collapsed into anarchy. Katrina fled the chaos aboard her parents old ship, swearing never to be involved in such a mess ever again.
Yet, Katrina found she couldn’t help herself when it came to these things. Perhaps it was her past grievances, or perhaps it was because she was used to getting into these conflicts, or maybe she had no idea why, but whatever was true, she kept jumping at the opportunity to throw herself into gunfights and armed insurrections. The first rebellion after Hetmana saw her helping out because she saw a young family perish on a station she was passing through. That one didn’t end as bad as Hetmana, but the victors ended up being ineffectual and mired in political agendas, and Katrina left them without a care. It was not always great upheavals she was involved in either; sometimes she just helped a stranger escape armed pursuers because they seemed innocent and vulnerable, only to discover some of them were as bad as those that chased them. Somewhere in the midst of all this conflict Katrina exalted. Katrina doesn’t remember where, as between all the wounds and chaos, she doesn’t remember exactly when or where she suddenly got faster, stronger, and capable of spewing fire. Nor does she care; the whimsical machinations of gods or the cosmos or whatever don’t matter to her. She’ll take the nice gifts, but she won’t care where, why, or who.
Katrina continues to travel Elysia with no real direction or purpose, just wandering with her ear to the ground, hoping that the next whistle of bullets leads her to something promising for a change.
Extra Info: Dragon Blooded yet not the least Draconic.
Finally finished my sheet. Hope there's nothing wrong with it. I'm completely fine to change the powers if they are unsatisfactory.
Name: Katrina Makhno Age: 25 Gender: Female Race: Human
Appearance:
By iwantedtorunaway
Occupation/Concept: Survivalist/Rebel without Cause
Training:
Katrina’s primary training is as something of a guerrilla fighter. She is acutely familiar with small arms of all kinds and trained to use hit and run tactics to outmanoeuvre and wear down an enemy. Give her a gun and a cause, and she’ll tear down a castle, if only bit by bit. She knows enough about martial arts to put up a decent fight in regards to opponents within her own weight group, but is hardly a master, and would never choose to go in with her fists first.
Katrina has also been conditioned to live simply for the purposes of survival. While she doesn’t engage in this lifestyle if she doesn’t have to, her parents took a few years to teach her how to make do on the bare necessities, and how to scrounge for them if she doesn’t even have those. Ultimately, the use of this is dependent on circumstances, but the most enduring quality she picked up was the ability to be disciplined with food use and aware of her environment.
After having lived in solitary for some time, Katrina has become adept at jury rigging all the little pieces of technology and machinery she has to work long past their usual expiry dates. She is hardly a trained expert, but through a mix of trial and error and sheer necessity, she has learned how to get familiar with new gizmos and swiftly find what makes them tick.
Powers:
Chameleon: Katrina can blend in with the environment around her, making it a great deal harder to see her with conventional means. Katrina has to remain still in order to blend in.
Suppression: Katrina can stifle sound and noises around her, ranging from muffling the sound of her footsteps to silencing a weapon discharge, and even reducing the volume of a nagging acquaintance.
Pyromancy: Katrina has the ability to summon and command the primal force of fire, usually by means of ejecting it from her hands to envelop a target of her choosing.
Equipment:
Katrina’s weapon of choice is a Belash-Arms “Eviscerator”, an assault-rifle style gun loaded with armour-piercing rounds capable of tearing a whole in the defences of most conventional human militaries.
Katrina makes sure to carry multiple miniaturized explosive charges on hand for multiple purposes, such as blowing open locks, blowing open walls, or maybe just blowing something open for fun.
Katrina acquired a skin-tight bodysuit during her wandering, called the “Halyna-Guard”. It was designed to allow unrestricted movement while protecting the user beyond adequately.
She also possesses a filtration mask both for handling gas attacks and for surviving in hostile environments. The mask has a button to extend over her entire head or simply rest over her mouth.
Airship: The “Free-Loader” was originally nothing more than a fairly small freighter from the planet Hetmana. Upon being repurposed by both Katrina and her parents, it has become a highly modified personal ship, with the focus being upon speed and survivability. It is both a transport and home for Katrina.
Motivation: Katrina has become somewhat aimless of late. Initially, she just wanted to fight back against people who had wronged her, and after that, against those that had wronged others. However, after many experiences with insurrections and rebellions, Katrina has become highly cynical, and mostly goes along with these movements half out of a sheer bull-headed desire to do something good, even if she feels it might not work out, and simply because burning down regimes is something she has become accustomed to. She goes from conflict to conflict, each time swearing she wouldn’t do it again, only to hear something that pulls her heartstrings in the next one.
Personality: Underneath everything, Katrina is something of a dreamer and an idealist. Nobody would think so from the way she acts, but via a combination of her upbringing and her experiences as an adult, she has developed strong opinions on right and wrong and a low tolerance for what she sees as unjust. These ideals of hers have catapulted her time and again into conflicts that barely had anything to do with her, sometimes because she made a snap decision to help at the time, and other times because choosing not to act gnawed at her until she could take it no more. Once involved in something, she finds it hard to disengage from it, as she takes these causes into herself in an almost self-destructive fashion.
The reason why nobody would guess at her idealism is due to the pervasive cynicism built into her general demeanor. In spite of throwing herself into these situations at the drop of a hat, she always goes into them with a feeling that no matter what she does, it won’t necessarily work out for the better. As she tells it, it might be that a person she helps “turns out to be a jerk”, or helping a new group into power will see them “be just as much of a bunch of assholes as the last ones”, or even if nothing goes wrong, nothing will really change either. She doesn’t hesitate to let anyone know she doesn’t expect much of what she does, which frequently mystifies those that she gets involved with. She’ll also freely tell them she’s not sure why she’s actually there either.
Outside of her strange crusade, Katrina is perfectly sociable, if not terribly enthusiastic about anything. Shooting the shit is easy enough, though she doesn’t expect much from the people around her, and neither will she go to any great lengths to develop some form of bond. She’s not one for mincing words, and if she has something negative to say, she’ll say it, whether it’s clear someone won’t like it or not. Generally, she doesn’t go looking for fights to pick, but she admits to having very strong opinions on a few subjects. Usually she’s just looking to chill out between tasks, and if someone’s fun enough to be around, she’ll be A-okay with them.
She also enjoys blowing things up and setting them on fire. She’s not a psychopath, though. Honest.
Flaws:
Katrina’s bull-headed determination to get involved in conflicts could easily be her undoing, for as much as she harps on about how little she expects, she still ends up trying to do the right thing in the end, and could be roped into doing the wrong thing with the right sob story.
Katrina has no tact or delicacy when dealing with anyone, let alone someone who upsets her sensibilities. If you want someone to talk an enemy down or encourage an ally, don’t pick Katrina.
Bio: Katrina was born and raised on the very ship she calls home; the Free-Loader. Her parents, Vladiv and Katariah, were wanderers that went from place to place in search of something to do. They spent the majority of Katrina’s formative years teaching her all kinds of survival skills, such as weapon use, temperance with supplies, and general maintenance. Katrina wouldn’t understand the purpose of all this until later, but otherwise her parents were plentifully loving and protecting, and Katrina looks back on these years as the best of her life.
Katrina was a teenager when everything turned for the worst. It turned out that her parents had fled the authoritarian, ultra-nationalist regime on the planet of Hetmana years ago. They were nothing important, just average citizens that wanted out of the insanity, but the Hetmanian regime was just that vindictive towards those that left it. They captured the family as they strayed too close to their area of space, and brought them to the planet. Katrina’s parents were executed without any pomp or ceremony, and Katrina was to be taken to a re-education camp to turn her into a “productive citizen”. Katrina was fortunate enough to be sprung from captivity by a local resistance cell, led by a man named Sergei Limonov. Katrina jumped at the opportunity to fight back against the regime that had wronged her, and helped Sergei’s cell on their long battle. Katrina grew close to Sergei and others during this time, and after many struggles and wounds, the Hetmanian government collapsed, and Katrina retired as an average citizen on the world she had helped liberate.
But it was not to last. Soon enough, Katrina found out that Sergei had proved just as corrupt and brutal and overlord as those he had deposed, even reviving the re-education camps that she had almost been condemned to. Feeling beyond betrayed, Katrina picked up all the weapons she had used during Sergei’s rebellion and began to use them on the very people who had given them to her. She fought against so many people who had been her comrades just a year earlier. Once again, Katrina toppled the authoritarian regime of Hetmana, but it almost worse this time; no solid leader emerged like Sergei, and the planet collapsed into anarchy. Katrina fled the chaos aboard her parents old ship, swearing never to be involved in such a mess ever again.
Yet, Katrina found she couldn’t help herself when it came to these things. Perhaps it was her past grievances, or perhaps it was because she was used to getting into these conflicts, or maybe she had no idea why, but whatever was true, she kept jumping at the opportunity to throw herself into gunfights and armed insurrections. The first rebellion after Hetmana saw her helping out because she saw a young family perish on a station she was passing through. That one didn’t end as bad as Hetmana, but the victors ended up being ineffectual and mired in political agendas, and Katrina left them without a care. It was not always great upheavals she was involved in either; sometimes she just helped a stranger escape armed pursuers because they seemed innocent and vulnerable, only to discover some of them were as bad as those that chased them. Somewhere in the midst of all this conflict Katrina exalted. Katrina doesn’t remember where, as between all the wounds and chaos, she doesn’t remember exactly when or where she suddenly got faster, stronger, and capable of spewing fire. Nor does she care; the whimsical machinations of gods or the cosmos or whatever don’t matter to her. She’ll take the nice gifts, but she won’t care where, why, or who.
Katrina continues to travel Elysia with no real direction or purpose, just wandering with her ear to the ground, hoping that the next whistle of bullets leads her to something promising for a change.
Extra Info: Dragon Blooded yet not the least Draconic.
Carlos had spent the time between arriving and the orientation beginning keeping his head down. Some confrontation had broken out in the middle of the common room. Carlos didn't want to be in the middle of any dramas, but even worse, it sounded like this one was based on ancient family history or some bull like that. The main draw of the school had been escaping his own ancient family drama, why on earth would he want to get involved in more of it? If he knew anything about proud, ancient families, and he did, it was that they reveled in holding and establishing grudges over petty stuff, so there was no way Carlos was even so much as going to look in the direction of this budding conflict. Plenty of other people were getting in the middle of it, so it wasn't as though he needed to lift a finger to keep it from getting out of hand.
Fortunately, the orientation came to shift everyone's attention. Carlos was almost eager to get it started. Sure, it was probably going to be a dry and boring information dump, but at least with this out of the way, they would be one step closer to getting to the good stuff. Having been prepared for this moment better than most, Carlos simply relaxed in his seat, ready to half-heartedly listen in anticipation of moving on to the infinitely more interesting material.
"Oh, well, like I said, Altay's not too big, so there's not that much to say." Berke began, surprised to find someone that wanted to hear about the tiny little village he had come from. A lot of people were more interested in talking about themselves. This was a refreshing change of pace, of course. "Anything unique about it is more just the way much of the region acts, really. We've got these zebra monsters we ride on, you see, and-"
Berke would have continued, had the alarms not gone off. It seemed it was time for them to pack up and leave. Berke would have expected that to be the end of their discussion, but it appeared that Elsa was keen for them to talk more. "No no, it's quite fine, Elsa! Come along, I can tell you all the little things about Altay you want to hear, and anything else you're interested in too." He got up and beckoned for her to come along with him. If the dorms were the only place to go, then the dorms would be their destination.
---
In the days to come, Berke went through his classes as middlingly muddled as ever. He didn't understand Brovak's magical theory class in the least, but taking on faith that the professor knew what he was doing, he attended to all the strange tasks with utmost diligence. He had many misgivings about throwing water balloons at administrator, however, and apologised profusely after each time. Emilya Vance's lectures were much more straightforward, though Berke's ability to preform Vision left much to be desired. Berke found Professor Thorne most bizarre, but at least his Compromise was better than his Vision skills. Hans Vance's class represented a return to normalcy, and even better, Berke found that his Foundation was his greatest magical skill to date. None of his magical skills were exceptional, but at least he could boast above averageness in Foundation. The Groundskeeper's Botany classes were almost like a slice of home life for Berke. While Altay wasn't much for farming, they did have to deal with more than a few hostile pieces of shrubbery that cropped up from time to time. The Altay approach to botany was less to find a clever way to deal with plant life and more to punch, slice, and burn it out until it didn't pose a threat to their activities. Berke didn't really understand the purpose of Professor Chompi's class; after all, what did all this economics stuff matter if they could just learn to work together? Berke wondered if they shouldn't be studying how Altay did things rather than all these greedy bank things.
All that was past him for now, however, as today they were set to have some "mock battle" or the other. Berke was all down for a friendly spar, as long as it remained that way. Given magic was involved, Berke was a little worried that someone might get hurt badly, but he assumed that the staff knew what they were doing. Not only that, but this would all be overseen by members of the Mage Corps, including Clarissa Uoyovvo, whom had been heard of even in Altay. With all these big shots around, Berke couldn't help but be a little nervous, but he was still going to do his best and nothing less.
------
Mycona Frisa
Mycona would have launched into an excruciatingly detailed description of what she had been doing lately, had it not been for the sudden ringing noises. Zyphyria insisted that at this point, they go to the "dorms" instead of staying there. Mycona agreed to come along, eager to tell Zyphyria all about what she had been doing lately, and to find out if this large other wanted to be friends as well.
---
Mycona was pleased to finally get around to the magicking. She had been here a while already, and nobody had taught her anything new about magicking. Mycona, for one, loved Brovak's classes. She loved investigating every tiny phenomenon that he instructed them to investigate, and she especially loved telling him in excruciating detail all the things she had learned about licking dust and other curious activities. She was a little lost when it came to the free time moments, but she always found something to do. She once asked Brovak if she could magic him, and he said yes. The result was uneventful, however, and Mycona did not learn much other than that Brovak did not react much to her magic. Mycona found that she had already read a few of the textbooks used in the Vision classes, though while she could effortlessly regurgitate the text found within verbally, anyone that tested her would realise she didn't fully understand what she had read. It was clear, however, that it was more of a technical problem surrounding the meaning of words and other basic concepts than it was an inability to actually wrap her head around the idea of using Vision, and when explained more and more, she proved to be much better at using it than first demonstrated. Mycona's Compromise also proved to gradually improve with time. At one point, Mycona volunteered for Xanderthorne's "extra credit", though before she could figure out what he meant, they had a chance encounter with Leonora. Leonora told her that any further mention of "extra credit" or other offers made by Thorne were to be reported to her first, and afterwards took Thorne off somewhere. Mycona was not sure what happened, but Thorne never offered her extra credit again. Mycona took to Hansvance's class about as well as she took to Emilyavance's, which proved to be a recurring theme for most lessons. Mycona did not understand why they had a Botany class. She had thought she had come here to learn magic, not to deal with plants. However, while it might be outside her intent on coming here, she was just as eager to learn the intricacies of Botany as she was to learn about everything else. Mycona found Gnomechompi's class very informative, though she was starting to suspect that her constant interruptions to explain the definitions of words and concepts were irritating people. In fact, in many classes, at least a few people seemed bothered by her questions.
Mycona had come to many realisations during her time at Mordhaben's. One key understanding she had come to was the concept of a "lie". She had read of the word before, but she had yet to fully comprehend its meaning. Many times she had spoken to people and been told things like "there's a pot of gold right around the corner" or "if you run around the fountain all day you'll get one wish" and other such 'lies'. It was only after having fallen for them many times and having the fact that these were all deliberate falsehoods explained to her by Leonora that she began to understand what was happening. Now she had become more careful about what people told her, always wondering if a sneaky little 'lie' hid behind the words of others. She did not know why people wanted to waste her time and fill her head with false notions, but she did not enjoy the prospect. She wanted to learn real facts, not ones that only existed in a few cruel words.
Apparently they were to have a "mock battle" today. Mycona didn't fully understand the concept, but she had been told it was like the fight she had been involved in during the 'test', though Leonora had stressed again and again that she wasn't to make anyone dead, as that would be very bad. There was some group called the "Mage Corps" there to watch them, but Mycona didn't understand the significance of that, nor did she have any idea who the important members of their group were. All Mycona knew was she was here to have a 'fight' and stuff her face with as many of these rations as she could before they got started.
Nicky was disheartened to see that there was a great deal of contention in the group. Some people seemed to want to poke holes in the whole idea, while others just seemed angry about the whole thing. She couldn't blame them for being angry or skeptical, but if there really were kids in danger, she hoped they could all come together and do something about it. Unfortunately, it seemed that the bunny wanted to do his best to antagonise the others right back. They were really going to need a lot of coaxing to actually work together, both themselves and the shadow people as it were. Rather than try to force herself in the middle of everything, Nicky chose to wait for things to be explained properly before saying a thing. Supposedly they were all to use some magical device that they had on hand to tap into their secret magical powers or...however it was supposed to work. Nicky wasn't really following at all, but if it worked it worked, and that was all that mattered.
Just as Nicky was thinking she could muster her courage and get on board with all this, a sudden commotion broke out in the group, and one of them underwent some kindof bizarre transformation and vanished. Nicky was flabbergasted enough by that alone before she noticed the shadow rabbit had transformed too, albeit much less horrifically. This was all so overwhelming. Now they were being told if they lost control of their emotions, they would turn into shadows themselves? This was getting worse by the minute! Nicky almost wished they hadn't been told how that had happened, because now she was worried it was going to happen to her next. How could she not be concerned, being trapped here and capable of warping monstrously if she ever "lost control"? It was all she could do to remind herself that she needed composure just to avoid whatever had just happened.
She tried her hardest to focus on what was being said rather than what could happen. The actual leader of the shadow group arrived, but that didn't comfort her much. Even less comforting was what they had to say. More on how they could be "consumed" if they "lost control", more on how there was a big bad threat looming over them and they had to fight. Nicky just kept repeating to herself that there was something at stake, not only for herself, but also for others. When they were handed their "orbs", what Nicky received from her own was a hand axe. She wasn't entirely sure why, but it felt right somehow. Eventually, it became clear that they were to head back to where it all began and go right into the danger. With her nerves frayed and frazzled, Nicky did not feel ready in the slightest, but she would just have to get through with happy thoughts. She followed the others when the rabbit hole was presented, determined to do her damndest.
Standing in the forest, Nicky glanced around worriedly, looking for the slightest sign of movement. Hopefully she could rely on the others to back her up when things got ugly.
A lot of people Carlos knew hated school. They hated the work, they hated the environment, and they would rather be at home chilling out any day of the week. For Carlos, however, school represented the perfect escape from home life. At least at school he didn't have two different sets of relatives nattering on about cultural issues that were only relevant several centuries ago. With this school it was even better, because it was so far from society that all the nettlesome aunts, uncles and grandparents would have to travel so much further to get in his ear. Today was truly the day that he could forget about other people's expectations and demands and think about what he wanted out of the place, and boy howdy did have a whole list of things he wanted out of this institution. He was going to come out the other side of this place one damn good mage or die trying.
Arriving at Marchand, Carlos was mildly pleased by the grandeur of the building, though he knew that more important than anything was the quality of its teachers. If they were a pack of corrupt morons, then Carlos wouldn't have a lot of use for this place. Thankfully, the fact that it looked somewhat impressive suggested that it wasn't some rundown sorry excuse for an educational institution, even if it didn't guarantee it. The counter lady seemed disinterested in her job, but he guessed that everyone got a little sick of their routines at some point. As long as the instructors still had passion in them, he would be fine. Once he entered the common room like the rest, Carlos began to wonder if somebody at this place had too much passion. It seemed like a weird avant-garde experiment in design. The plaque gave Carlos an idea as to why it was like this. If he knew obnoxious "important" families, and he certainly did, they probably all insisted on leaving their mark on this room. It was probably all a great big peeing contest to see who could leave the biggest impact on it, resulting in the mess they saw before them.
Not wanting to waste time and energy puzzling over the decor any longer, Carlos plonked himself down in the common room and started eating. With luck, perhaps whatever initiation this place had planned for them would start soon, and then they could move on to the lessons. Preferably lessons about how to make a mark on this world rather than some technical lecture.
Secondaries of Interest: Shadow Step and Illumination
Description: Carlos is of plainly Mexican-Mestizo heritage, with black hair and green eyes. He stands at 172cm (5’7”?) and has a well-toned build from years of exercise.
Personality:
Carlos is a fairly chilled out young man, and not a lot gets on his nerves. He likes life best when he has minimal drama and emotional baggage on his shoulders, and he does his best to keep life that way. While this makes him an easy going an unjudgemental friend, it also inclines him to keep out of other people’s conflicts for fear of having to deal with them personally. On the other hand, pestering him hard enough to do something might make him do it just to get you off his back.
While Carlos might be a chill guy generally, the man still has a bit of ambition in him. It’s nothing especially specific and more just an urge to make something out of himself and his talents. He tries not to be obnoxious about it, but he still has the inclination to do things just to stand out and make a scene. If someone upstages him, he’s unlikely to have anything against them, but internally he’ll be cursing the fact that he didn’t steal the show himself.
Skills:
-Carlos was schooled in his family’s traditions of Aeromancy, and is quite talented with it.
-Carlos has also been schooled in melee combat from a young age, favouring blunt weapons.
-A large part of his youth was steeped in physical education, and as such Carlos is something of an athlete.
Weaknesses:
-Carlos is determined to make a name for himself, and is likely to take steps to stand out that will put him in harm’s way.
-While hardly incapable of working with a team, his propensity to seek glory may lead him to break with the plan to try and score personal points, especially if he is given an unglamorous task.
Brief History:
Carlos’ heritage goes back to the days of the Aztec empire, where his family were publically Eagle Warriors of some fame while secretly practising Aeromancy behind closed doors. After the Spanish conquest, a split in the family occurred; some kept their Nahuatl heritage and became reclusive, while others assimilated into the developing Mexican identity, marrying into the “Basilio” family, a group of Spanish mages, and adopting their name and customs. The two branches of the family became bitter rivals, and maintained that rivalry over centuries.
During the war with the cult, both sides of the family ended up coming together against it, as neither desired a world of “purity”. During this time of unity, Carlos’ parents came together, and he was born with both families’ names on his birth certificate. Unfortunately, with the war’s conclusion, the two families came apart again, and they especially feuded over the upbringing of the child of mixed heritage. It was due to all the conflicting pressure that Carlos became extremely averse to having to deal with any form of drama at all, and started going to great lengths to avoid becoming entangled in even more problems.
As he got older, it became apparent that the feuding and expectations weren’t about to let up, and so Carlos came up with a plan for himself. He thought that if he became famous and amazing enough on his own, he wouldn’t have to deal with people screaming at him about what he should or shouldn’t be doing anymore, and so he resolved to find a way to step out of the shadow of his family names. When the offer to attend the Marchand School of Sorcery came along, Carlos jumped at the chance to leave his family drama behind and make something of himself. He was going to find out just how to keep himself both physically safe and safe from familial pressures.
