Lemons

The Things We Fight For, A Science Fantasy Space Opera

Oh somehow I didn't put myself here.
I'm here!

Lem's Stash

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx B A S I C I N F O [Name] Aberrant Integration System, Subject 1 - AIS S1 [Callsign] Aissi [Gender] Female [Age] Early 20s [Rank and Designation] Experimental Constellation, Stardust Rank [Place of Birth] Kepler-195 C O M B A T A B I L I T Y [Anti-Barrier Sword] #236 - AB1 (Aberrant-integration Blade One) and #371 - AB2. But since they've been reforged into identical forms and serve as a single unit for Aissi, she refers to them much more personally, simply as her Wingblades. [Anti-Barrier Quotient]21% [Physical Description] It's no wonder the Anti-Barrier Quotient of the Wingblades is so low; after all, they're unreasonably large, and there's only so much AB material to go around. Matte black with gleaming red bevels, these double-edged blades are roughly as long as Aissi is tall (about seven feet), and mounted on winglike struts grafted directly into her nervous system through her back. This unorthodox arrangement allows her to manipulate the Wingblades as though they were a third pair of limbs, leaving her hands free for more typical swords used almost exclusively for defense that are sheathed along the struts. [Attributes] In order to supplement the low AB Quotient caused by their large size, the Wingblades have been retrofitted with laser technology. They can ignite their blades in red light, significantly increasing their cutting force; and, even further, they are able to fire powerful, though short-ranged, laser blasts. [Anomaly] Aberrant Integration System [Origin] Aberrant Research Laboratory A2 [Phenomena] Though it fills the same space as Anomaly typically would, this is quite explicitly very different. To put her on level with actual Constellations with Anomaly, Aissi's body is infested with an expansive suite of Aberrant technologies. From the system that controls her Wingblades, to magnetic clamps in her hands, her limbs more biomechanical than flesh now, compact jet engines in her feet and legs along with stabilizers in her shoulders...and this is just the tip of the iceberg. Finally, it all connects to the most important of her modifications, the most powerful, and the most taboo: her core. A fully-intact Epsilon-tier Aberrant core harvested from a high-caste Bishop has been embedded into her back between where the Wingblades emerge, which powers all of her multifarious augmentations, coordinates them, and normalizes them in her nervous system so they feel as natural as whatever of her original body remains. [Limitation] The same way it doesn't function as Anomaly does, it doesn't have the same kind of cost on usage. What it does have, though, is quite an adverse affect on her mental state. The painful experiments that were done to her over the course of years, as well as the overtaxing of her brain as it attempts to manage far more than it was designed to, has led to her being VERY unstable, especially during full-throttle combat where all of her augmentations and implants are working at maximum capacity. Perhaps not a clear-cut cost; but quite a cost nonetheless.

Profile Surface-level Impression [Surface-level Impression] As mentioned, the experiments have left Aissi not quite in full control of herself at all times. Twitchy, relentlessly high-strung, and never overly far from fits of violent hysteria, Aissi's personality alone is proof positive that making a large amount of Constellations in the same way she was made isn't necessarily a good idea. Still, she's not always obviously unstable, clearly. Though during combat she veers way into the erratic, outside of it, she's a notably sensitive and anxious individual. Keenly aware that she looks very strange, and even more keenly aware that the reason she looks strange is that she's essentially half-Aberrant--the thing that's trying to kill everyone and everything--she's constantly fretting over the image that she has. When people look at her, do they see a Constellation? Or a monster? And really, even she doesn't quite know. Paradoxically to her appearance and her position, Aissi knows very little about the world. All she really remembers is being in the lab. Granted, she was told something like what to expect when she went into the field. But being told what the world is like and actually living in the world are two very different things. She only has experience with the first of those two. She knows plenty about Aberrants and how to kill Aberrants...but that's mostly ALL she knows. Personal History [Personal History] The first thing Aberrant Integration System, Subject One remembers is waking up in the lab. What age was she? Teenaged? She isn't sure, and she doesn't remember. What was her name before? Did she even have a name? She's not sure of that either. Only A.I.S-S1. That's it. Well...she remembered how to speak, and how to listen. She remembers language. That's something, right? The second thing A.I.S-S1 remembers is pain. Her first implantation was almost immediately after she awoke. She doesn't even remember what it is anymore; all of it has blurred together in her mind by now. Was it her leg engines? Her neuralware? Perhaps the magnetic clamps in her hands? it all feels so far away. Time went on. Every so often, the procedure would repeat: she would be given an implant though a painful procedure. Then the technicians and scientists that handled her would monitor it. Sometimes, her body would reject the implant, and the pain would come back. The doctors would remove it, put it aside, and try and give it again later. They never gave up. If her body didn't reject it--if it accepted the Aberrant technology as a part of her now--then she'd have another few days, just to make sure. And then another implant would be brought to her, and the wheel would turn again. But it was fine. She'd volunteered for this, according to the doctors. This was what she'd wanted. To let herself be turned into something greater, even at sacrifice to herself. So she simply clung on. But there was one great mercy. Because during all of this, she wasn't alone in the lab. There was another girl undergoing a similar--if much lesser--augmentation, and the two became something like friends. Hope, her name was. And that got A.I.S-S1 thinking about names. Every time she saw that designation emblazed near her, she would look at it, and think of names. And then one day, when she was still woozy from sedation, she saw it with blurry eyes, and she misread it. Not A.I.S-S1. AISSI. Aissi. She would be Aissi. Time went on more. Further. Hope left, and she was alone. More implants. More connections. And then the most prominent: the Bladewings. She rejected them three times before her body finally let them settle. And then, after all that was done...she'd been in the lab for how long now? She didn't know, and she still doesn't quite; several years, at least. But now that all of the implants, all of the cybernetics, all of the prosthetics, were in place, it was time for the piece de resistance. The Core. There is nothing Aissi can remember, before or since, that hurts as much as suddenly having every one of her augmentations fire into her nerves all at once. Sheer, gut-wrenching, mind-warping AGONY. And the pain, the nerves, all of it firing at once...it changed something in her. Turned from a sweet, sensitive girl to something where...well, sometimes you can see that underneath her. But not often. Not anymore. And once it was finally over...she was finished. More machine now than woman. And, really, more Aberrant than woman. Perhaps not even human at all anymore. Another year went by. She had to acclimate, of course. Not only did she have so many new modifications and augmentations working all at once, but she had an entirely new set of limbs to figure out. But then, recently and finally...it was done. She was prepared. And now, the test runs begin. Home World Kepler-195 [Planet Description] Kepler-195 was a dry, arid moon, largely desert and scrubland broken by salt seas and crisscossing braided streams. One of several moons orbiting a gas giant on the far frontier, it wasn't exactly well known. Small and inconspicuous, the people enjoyed a fairly peaceful existence; though a select few eked out a nomadic lifestyle on the surface, most people lived in vast cities deep underground instead, so they felt quite insulated and far from any issues that might plague topside. ...And then the Aberrants came, and they glassed the entire moon. Though the Constellations came, only a scant few refugees escaped, and fled far away from their desolated once-home. [Culture] While Kepler-195 still existed, it had two 'factions' of people. A very few lived nomadic lives on the surface. Because water on the surface was a precious resource, they wore stillsuits, and traveled with their lives on their back to set up around any temporary watering hole that may emerge. The grand majority of the populace--which, mind you, wasn't large to begin with, only about 500 million people across the entire moon--lived in vast underground cities, tunneled out of the bedrock. Water was much more prevalent due to the presence of deep aquifers, and the native plant life grew readily. They lived a comfortable existence; though they were held in contempt by the surface nomads, they were largely happy to simply live in comfort underground. But, of course, this moon no longer exists, and Aissi has no memories from before the lab, regardless. Notable Contacts Doctor Jacob Tobias Brake, Medical Coordinator [Name] Jacob "Jay" Tobias Brake [Relation to Subject] Aissi's "Medical Coordinator and Caretaker" (In so many words, her handler) - Checks for malfunctions in and maintains systems, performs routine psychiatric checks and monitors her sanity, serves as a point of stability for her, practiced at talking her down and reigning her in if she's starting to go sideways. [Analysis] Jay is tired. So very, very tired. Essentially badgered into his position through only having the lowest standing at the laboratory that modified her, Jay is grumpy and world-weary middle aged man who firmly believes that he's not paid NEARLY enough to manage someone as unstable and chaotic as Aissi is. While it's obvious that he does have at least some measure of care for her--if he didn't, then he probably wouldn't still be doing this job--it tends to get drowned out in how overworked and overwhelmed he is, having to keep Aissi on as short a leash as she demands alongside everything else. Theme [Theme]

Lem's Stash

Pew pew

K I R K A
K I R K A

^{"I don't think you're dumb, so please stop trying to prove me wrong!"}

C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T _________________________________________________________ C H A R A C T E R D A T A C H A R A C T E R D A T A _________________________________________________________ True Self Ásta Kristjánsdóttir Persona Kirka Pathos Draethir Role Ranged DPS Weapon of Choice Longbow Domains Lightning Ice Manifestation Conjuration Enhancement Playstyle & Attitude Long-ranged but low mobility sniper, absolute shitstirrer menace

Á S T A K R I S T J Á N S D Ó T T I R: D E A D C O L D Á S T A K R I S T J Á N S D Ó T T I R: D E A D C O L D ________________________________________________________________________________________ The Icelandic city of Akureyri has seen better days. Ever since an earthquake and subsequent tsunami tore the city apart, most of its population has moved south to the capital of Reykjavik, leaving the city mostly an empty shell. Not many people still lived there after that. Still, a few stubborn residents with families who'd been in the city since they could remember clung there despite everything. Like, for example, a man named Kristján and his wife Sigríður, and their daughter: Ásta. Refusing to admit that perhaps moving to Reykjavik might be a good idea, they clung to Akureyri like barnacles to the rocks. The government just needed time, they said. Once they dealt with the new influx of people from the northern cities and towns that the natural disaster had displaced, they'd help to rebuild Akureyri, to make it just as beautiful as it always was. Yet in practice, huge sections remained ruined, and many of those that remained did so out of poverty; which only worsened as the conditions in Akureyri did. Expensive, ruined, and so, so cold. This was the climate in which Ásta grew up. Told at home to be proud of her city, and yet seeing whenever she went out that her city was proving remarkably slow in limping back to its feet. There was nowhere for her to get a part-time job as she aged; any spaces were in such high demand that they were filled before she could even get there. Utilities had become obscenely expensive; even her relatively well-to-do family found themselves carefully rationing their money just so they could pay for heating, electricity, and hot water to find their way in the frigid winters. There were few enough kids remaining in their neighborhood, so she didn't have much of a social life, either; cold, within and without. A part of her grew a bit angry as the world moved around her, and she was left alone. This is when she started developing her tendencies to provoke people. To make them angry, yes, because she was angry and lashing out. But more important, to make things change. She was so angry, so sad, and so isolated. Nothing ever changed in Akureyri; her life was a string of days just like the last, and everything blended together until she felt like the world was blurring by and leaving her behind. So, the day she turned eighteen, she picked herself up, packed her bags, and shipped down to Reykjavik. Her parents were...less than happy with this arrangement, viewed it as a kind of betrayal. But she just laughed, and kindly told them to go and screw themselves, because she was an adult now and could make her own choices. When she finally reached the city, the first thing she saw--before she got a job, found herself a cheap place--was the church, Hallgrímskirkja. It became almost like a symbol to her; not of God, she wasn't a believer. But of warmth. Of freedom. She's been living in Reykjavik for some years now working in customs, and has worked her way up to a rather nice apartment. Just recently, she's found herself interested in one of the cool new things she found listed on a customs form. Pariah Online. What neat concept. K I R K A: F R A C T U R E D I C E K I R K A: F R A C T U R E D I C E ________________________________________________________________________________________ Ásta has never stood out in her life. Blonde hair and blue eyes may be somewhat unusual in most places, but basically everyone in Iceland has them. In any given place, Ásta blends right into the crowd. Kirka looks...nothing like her. Unreasonably tall at just a bit over six feet. Incredibly slender, with an undeniable feminine shape but a nearly completely flat chest (the less to get in the way of anything!). Magenta-violet eyes, framed by pin-straight deep indigo hair that falls about to her shoulders. Her narrow face is typically shown in one of two expressions: either a deadpan stare, or a very obnoxious smirk that usually presages something about to (metaphorically) explode... ...Because in Pariah, her absolute worst shitstirrer tendencies are set free. Owing largely to the isolation and overwhelming, paralyzing, choking stability of her childhood, he hates it, she HATES it, when things stay static. Even if it's a nice, comfortable stasis, if things stand still for more than a brief time, she starts to get antsy and twitchy and starts provoking change. She can do this in a productive way, certainly. If she views something as bad, then she'll commit to changing it, and the world may likely end up better off because of it. But if the status quo is a nice, easy peace, then her needling for things to constantly shift and change can cause potentially cause problems, both in general, and with other people. Consequently, though she has a tendency to surround herself with people so she never feels isolated, she has an equal tendency to drive people away through her antics, and her sometimes less than kind humor. As it stands, she's been part of several different groups and guilds, and been kindly asked to leave many of them. Not all, of course; there's a certain kind of person that she gets along with wonderfully. But that certainly isn't everyone. Well. Perhaps she'll be a little more agreeable, now that things are about to go very wrong.

---

Spells & Spell-like Abilities

Lotus Petal Dance
Leveraging both her illusion and enhancement magics, Papiyon becomes as a phantom; as she dashes around enemies and strikes from unexpected angles, afterimages are left in her wake, causing no damage but confusing monsters and hostile players alike with the graceful movements; like dancing across a pond on water lilies on tiptoes.

Butterfly Haze
With a sound like falling leaves, a cloud of phantasmal butterflies envelops the area around Papiyon as she melds into it. The rustling of a thousand tiny wings hides sound, and the flashing of countless colors distorts vision; and by the time you realize that she'd circled around behind you, it's already too late.

Butterfly Flurry
A mesmerizing purple gleam envelops Papiyon's nagamaki, and attempts to block it seem to land on thin air as its position wavers like water, slipping past guards and through cracks in armor.

Flittering Wing
You may think you have Papiyon pinned down and a surefire killing blow. You may think that you've escaped her, put enough distance between the two of you that she could never close the distance. In both cases, you are very wrong. With no more than a breath's sigh and a flare of purple light, Papiyon blinks forwards and backwards, in and out. She can't use it more than once or twice sequentially, but being able to blink through an attack and end up right at her enemy's throat is powerful nonetheless.

Painless Butterfly
The most powerful spell in Papiyon's arsenal, Painless Butterfly sees her close her eyes and sheath her sword as pink energy builds within, crawling up the sheath like butterflies swirling through the sky. All sound becomes muted and distant to her, and the world slows to a crawl. Then, in one fluid motion and with a sound like lightning, she unleashes a single clean stroke from her sheath, trailing pink light and phantom butterflies as it rends through space and time. Finally, the blade is stowed once more; and with the deafening click of the guard on the sheath, destruction unfolds and time resumes.

Character Feats

Holly, Heather, Hydrangea
Just because she's off the clock doesn't mean she loves flowers any less. She keeps a small plot of land in Thorinn where she grows an assortment of flowers both magical and mundane and sells them as she wanders to alchemists, tailors, and other crafters with an eye for magic and beauty.

Whirling Sting
All of Papiyon's abilities to get close and empower her strikes are useless if the strikes themselves are weak. Luckily, not so; she's quite impressive with her nagamaki. Perhaps not as much as she would be if she were strictly martial; in any competition that completely excludes magic, she's certainly not winning. But with all of her powers and talents factored in, she does a lot of damage, either quickly or over time.

Open Mind, Open Heart
For as kind as Papiyon is, and as committed as she is to emotionally protecting those around her--what good is that if people are so distrustful that they won't even let her? While her natural tendency is to hide how she's feeling, she curbs that as much as she possibly can. A constant flow of honesty is infinitely important, and that flow NEEDS to be two-way.

Always There
Still, even if she does alienate someone, she'll try her best to un-alienate them, regardless if there was any major fault to be had there. Running alongside the sweetness and kindness, Papiyon is nothing if not incredibly forgiving. Not infinitely so, of course, she has her limits just like everyone else does. But unless either you or her does something truly heinous, she'll find a way to make amends.

---

A Stellar Tomb

Annalisa Diamond (Jav)

A n n a l i s a

“What do you mean, sir? I've been here the whole time!”

image

Name
Alias: Annalisa Diamond
Real Name: Javelina Coswell

Age
28

Gender
Female

Company
Vira-Legat Bioengineering

Personality
Miss Annalisa Diamond is at once the most useful and useless kind of employee. Sweet and kind but unambitious and somewhat vapid, she's the 'gofer;' the woman you send to do meaningless busywork; getting cups of coffee, organizing cabinets, that kind of thing. That's not to say she's unintelligent; she just...has a ceiling, and she's not likely to get any higher.

Javelina 'Jav' Coswell is...very different.

Whipcrack smart and highly driven, with a bloodhound's nose for information, a mind like a steel trap, and a real knack for thinking on her feet, Jav is everything Annalisa isn't. Though not exactly unkind, she has very little reason to be so most of the time. She's self-interested, yet she fully believes herself to be an altruist: to her, self-interest is altruism, and once she gets clamps her teeth down into a story, she has no intention of ever letting go; she'll hold on like a pit bull until either it comes apart or she does.

And all of this, the altruism, the stubbornness; all that she says or does is organized around a single, critical facet of her character. There are many values in the worlds. Peace, order, prosperity, conformity, hope. But to Jav, all of those pretty words are meaningless before the altar of 'truth.' Truth, at any price.

Truth, no matter the cost.

History
Annalisa Diamond was born in the high-rises of Mars' Valles Marineris to a family of obscene wealth. Raised with more money than she could even understand, her father eventually bought her a place (that she was rather unqualified for) in Vira-Legat, hoping to use her as a bargaining chip to get into the doors of the company. There's not a good reason for her to be on Kepler; just money and politics.

Annalisa Diamond also doesn't exist.

Oh, the Diamond family does, assuredly; and the identification she has checks out in every way. But she certainly wasn't born in Valles Marineris. Javelina Coswell was born in the slums of the Martian north, and spent her childhood in abject poverty. And disgust. Utter disgust, at the corruption she saw around her. At the money and food and power flowing between the already wealthy and powerful. So as she aged into a teenager, she decided to do something about it. Showing the first of her investigative chops, she managed to sneak into the Governer's residence, find all of the money on his system, every record of every transaction. So she downloaded them, and uploaded them into the network for all to see. Before the month was out, the governor had been shot.

The heady kick of truth had infiltrated Javelina and locked itself inside her, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. So she got a job as an investigative journalist (with what little journalism meant on Mars), and set herself to finding out the truth. Nothing major; bits here and there, frauds exposed, corruption shined a light upon, all on a local scale regardless where she moved on Mars, but anything was something, right?

And now, things have gotten bigger.

Recently, she found an interesting tip from a source she trusted: on the vaunted Kepler, Vira-Legat was up to something, and it was up to her to find out what. Her curiosity was fatally piqued, the opportunity to investigate one of the big megacorps in an official capacity too much for her to pass up. So she took the cover--lucky it didn't require her to be qualified!--and shipped out.

The truth was waiting.

A Stellar Tomb

It's app time! Let's see how this goes!

A. Diamond

A n n a l i s a

“What do you mean, sir? I've been here the whole time!”

image

Name
Alias: Annalisa Diamond
Real Name: Javelina Coswell

Age
28

Gender
Female

Company
Vira-Legat Bioengineering

Personality
Miss Annalisa Diamond is at once the most useful and useless kind of employee. Sweet and kind but unambitious and somewhat vapid, she's the 'gofer;' the woman you send to do meaningless busywork; getting cups of coffee, organizing cabinets, that kind of thing. That's not to say she's unintelligent; she just...has a ceiling, and she's not likely to get any higher.

Javelina 'Jav' Coswell is...very different.

Whipcrack smart and highly driven, with a bloodhound's nose for information, a mind like a steel trap, and a real knack for thinking on her feet, Jav is everything Annalisa isn't. Though not exactly unkind, she has very little reason to be so most of the time. She's self-interested, yet she fully believes herself to be an altruist: to her, self-interest is altruism, and once she gets clamps her teeth down into a story, she has no intention of ever letting go; she'll hold on like a pit bull until either it comes apart or she does.

And all of this, the altruism, the stubbornness; all that she says or does is organized around a single, critical facet of her character. There are many values in the worlds. Peace, order, prosperity, conformity, hope. But to Jav, all of those pretty words are meaningless before the altar of 'truth.' Truth, at any price.

Truth, no matter the cost.

History
Annalisa Diamond was born in the high-rises of Mars' Valles Marineris to a family of obscene wealth. Raised with more money than she could even understand, her father eventually bought her a place (that she was rather unqualified for) in Vira-Legat, hoping to use her as a bargaining chip to get into the doors of the company. There's not a good reason for her to be on Kepler; just money and politics.

Annalisa Diamond also doesn't exist.

Oh, the Diamond family does, assuredly; and the identification she has checks out in every way. But she certainly wasn't born in Valles Marineris. Javelina Coswell was born in the slums of the Martian north, and spent her childhood in abject poverty. And disgust. Utter disgust, at the corruption she saw around her. At the money and food and power flowing between the already wealthy and powerful. So as she aged into a teenager, she decided to do something about it. Showing the first of her investigative chops, she managed to sneak into the Governer's residence, find all of the money on his system, every record of every transaction. So she downloaded them, and uploaded them into the network for all to see. Before the month was out, the governor had been shot.

The heady kick of truth had infiltrated Javelina and locked itself inside her, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. So she got a job as an investigative journalist (with what little journalism meant on Mars), and set herself to finding out the truth. Nothing major; bits here and there, frauds exposed, corruption shined a light upon, all on a local scale regardless where she moved on Mars, but anything was something, right?

And now, things have gotten bigger.

Recently, she found an interesting tip from a source she trusted: on the vaunted Kepler, Vira-Legat was up to something, and it was up to her to find out what. Her curiosity was fatally piqued, the opportunity to investigate one of the big megacorps in an official capacity too much for her to pass up. So she took the cover--lucky it didn't require her to be qualified!--and shipped out.

The truth was waiting.

Lem's Stash

A. Diamond

A n n a l i s a

“What do you mean, sir? I've been here the whole time!”

image

Name
Alias: Annalisa Diamond
Real Name: Javelina Coswell

Age
28

Gender
Female

Company
Vira-Legat Bioengineering

Personality
Miss Annalisa Diamond is at once the most useful and useless kind of employee. Sweet and kind but unambitious and somewhat vapid, she's the 'gofer;' the woman you send to do meaningless busywork; getting cups of coffee, organizing cabinets, that kind of thing. That's not to say she's unintelligent; she just...has a ceiling, and she's not likely to get any higher.

Javelina 'Jav' Coswell is...very different.

Whipcrack smart and highly driven, with a bloodhound's nose for information, a mind like a steel trap, and a real knack for thinking on her feet, Jav is everything Annalisa isn't. Though not exactly unkind, she has very little reason to be so most of the time. She's self-interested, yet she fully believes herself to be an altruist: to her, self-interest is altruism, and once she gets clamps her teeth down into a story, she has no intention of ever letting go; she'll hold on like a pit bull until either it comes apart or she does.

And all of this, the altruism, the stubbornness; all that she says or does is organized around a single, critical facet of her character. There are many values in the worlds. Peace, order, prosperity, conformity, hope. But to Jav, all of those pretty words are meaningless before the altar of 'truth.' Truth, at any price.

Truth, no matter the cost.

History
Annalisa Diamond was born in the high-rises of Mars' Valles Marineris to a family of obscene wealth. Raised with more money than she could even understand, her father eventually bought her a place (that she was rather unqualified for) in Vira-Legat, hoping to use her as a bargaining chip to get into the doors of the company. There's not a good reason for her to be on Kepler; just money and politics.

Annalisa Diamond also doesn't exist.

Oh, the Diamond family does, assuredly; and the identification she has checks out in every way. But she certainly wasn't born in Valles Marineris. Javelina Coswell was born in the slums of the Martian north, and spent her childhood in abject poverty. And disgust. Utter disgust, at the corruption she saw around her. At the money and food and power flowing between the already wealthy and powerful. So as she aged into a teenager, she decided to do something about it. Showing the first of her investigative chops, she managed to sneak into the Governer's residence, find all of the money on his system, every record of every transaction. So she downloaded them, and uploaded them into the network for all to see. Before the month was out, the governor had been shot.

The heady kick of truth had infiltrated Javelina and locked itself inside her, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. So she got a job as an investigative journalist (with what little journalism meant on Mars), and set herself to finding out the truth. Nothing major; bits here and there, frauds exposed, corruption shined a light upon, all on a local scale regardless where she moved on Mars, but anything was something, right?

And now, things have gotten bigger.

Recently, she found an interesting tip from a source she trusted: on the vaunted Kepler, Vira-Legat was up to something, and it was up to her to find out what. Her curiosity was fatally piqued, the opportunity to investigate one of the big megacorps in an official capacity too much for her to pass up. So she took the cover--lucky it didn't require her to be qualified!--and shipped out.

The truth was waiting.

Pariah Online

Floats Like A Butterfly

P A P I Y O N
P A P I Y O N

^{"The world is always better off with a little more kindness in it."}

C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T _________________________________________________________ C H A R A C T E R D A T A C H A R A C T E R D A T A _________________________________________________________ True Self Moriyama Chou - 森山蝶 Persona Papiyon - パピ四 Pathos Drox Role DPS Weapon of Choice Nagamaki Domains Darkness Enhancement Illusion Playstyle & Attitude Hypermobile evasive DPS, Mom Friend™ ♫

M O R I Y A M A C H O U: W H E R E F L O W E R S F L O U R I S H M O R I Y A M A C H O U: W H E R E F L O W E R S F L O U R I S H ________________________________________________________________________________________ Rikako, empress of the Moriyama business empire, loved flowers and butterflies. So it came as no surprise that her two twin daughters were named as such: the elder, Hanako; and the younger, Chou. The two were borderline inseparable through their younger years, all the way up through private high school, when Chou's life path was forever changed. With her parents as they were, a calm and mild temperament, and a manner of speech and bearing so polite as to be strange at times, it was taken for granted that she would attend university as well. Even if she was only in her first year of high school, she certainly had the grades for it, she loved learning. Though she never really had a subject in mind--business? That was most likely, but what about literature? Philosophy? Studying abroad, even? She never could quite think of one--it felt like the world was opening itself up before her, full of wonder and promise. And then Examination Hell began, and any desire Chou had of attaining higher education withered on the vine, burned to the roots. With how much she'd been sheltered growing up, she had no idea what she was walking into. It was a nightmare. A pure nightmare. Her and her sister both barely functioning and yet required to, bags under their eyes, after coming back from yet more rounds of practice exams. Grades slipping from exhaustion. Locking themselves in night and day to keep cranking at exam booklets and textbooks ad nauseum. To Chou, it was like both enduring torture and watching a victim thereof, and in between rounds of bringing snacks up for herself and Hanako during long study nights (every night) and getting her own schoolwork done, she began to look further afield for a possible future. She wanted no part in this whatsoever. And during one of her brief searches, she came across a florist's shop nearby, owned by the elderly woman Satou-sama, who was in need of help to keep things running smoothly, and started working part time. And she fell in love. Her parents were...frosty a year or so later, when she told them she didn't want to go to university, and she would be continuing her apprenticeship as a florist. Very frosty. But after some cajoling (not quite enough, for what she was doing), they gave her the go-ahead, in a way that disturbed her just a little bit for how easy it was. Still. Here was her chance to make her own life, and she took it. And so the years passed, and Chou found herself in a comfortable apprenticeship, as Satou-sama was aging more, and so more of the responsibility passed on to her young protégé. She has a comfortable, if quite small, apartment above that same florist's shop in familiar Kōriyama now, and a touch of disposable income that didn't come from her obscenely wealthy parents. And so just after dyeing a wisteria-purple streak into her hair, she started looking into something Hanako mentioned on one of their occasional chats: this crazy cool new VR game that she'd started playing called Pariah. Well, hey, couldn't hurt, right? P A P I Y O N: D E A T H I N P I N K P A P I Y O N: D E A T H I N P I N K ________________________________________________________________________________________ That wisteria streak, now spread across her whole head, and a pair of kind, warm magenta-purple eyes. Papiyon isn't far from Chou at just a touch under 165 centimeters, and could fairly accurately be described in appearance as the "typical" Japanese young lady thrown into a blender set to 'pink,' then dressed in a white and gold leather longcoat and gifted a very sharp weapon. But more important is what it does to her personality. Which is to say, it unleashes her most powerful nurturing urges. With her most prominent character trait being how kind and sweet she is as a matter of course, she's here to give her all in making people smile as much as she possibly can. And in protecting those smiles, as well. Of course, not so much literally, as she's quite far from a support, but more in the emotional sense. She seems to have a hurt-person-radar, and those that ping it best be prepared for the Mom Friend to descend. Both a newcomer to MMOs (and video games in general) and never one for super organized groups in any situation, Papiyon's never touched a guild, at least not up to now, and nor does she truly see the point. She prefers to meander around, either looking for and then sticking with pick up groups, or simply roaming and marveling at the incredibly rendered Pariah world. As of now, she's not managed to link up with Hanako at all, but that's all the better. University was stressful, she knew. Well. Small world.

---

Spells & Spell-like Abilities

Lotus Petal Dance
Leveraging both her illusion and enhancement magics, Papiyon becomes as a phantom; as she dashes around enemies and strikes from unexpected angles, afterimages are left in her wake, causing no damage but confusing monsters and hostile players alike with the graceful movements; like dancing across a pond on water lilies on tiptoes.

Butterfly Haze
With a sound like falling leaves, a cloud of phantasmal butterflies envelops the area around Papiyon as she melds into it. The rustling of a thousand tiny wings hides sound, and the flashing of countless colors distorts vision; and by the time you realize that she'd circled around behind you, it's already too late.

Butterfly Flurry
A mesmerizing purple gleam envelops Papiyon's nagamaki, and attempts to block it seem to land on thin air as its position wavers like water, slipping past guards and through cracks in armor. Using illusion magic, she is able to conceal the position of her sword, distracting the eye with an illusory feint.

Flittering Wing
You may think you have Papiyon pinned down and a surefire killing blow. You may think that you've escaped her, put enough distance between the two of you that she could never close the distance. In both cases, you are very wrong. With no more than a breath's sigh and a flare of purple light, Papiyon can blink up to twenty or so feet in whatever direction she chooses She can't use it more than once or twice sequentially, but being able to blink through an attack and end up right at her enemy's throat is powerful nonetheless.

Painless Butterfly
The most powerful spell in Papiyon's arsenal, Painless Butterfly sees her close her eyes and sheath her sword as pink energy builds within, crawling up the sheath like butterflies swirling through the sky. All sound becomes muted and distant to her, and the world slows to a crawl. Then, in one fluid motion and with a sound like lightning, she unleashes a single clean stroke from her sheath, trailing pink light and phantom butterflies as it rends through space and time. Finally, the blade is stowed once more; and with the deafening click of the guard on the sheath, destruction unfolds and time resumes.

Character Feats

Holly, Heather, Hydrangea
Just because she's off the clock doesn't mean she loves flowers any less. She keeps a small plot of land in Thorinn where she grows an assortment of flowers both magical and mundane and sells them as she wanders to alchemists, tailors, and other crafters with an eye for magic and beauty.

Whirling Sting
All of Papiyon's abilities to get close and empower her strikes are useless if the strikes themselves are weak. Luckily, not so; she's quite impressive with her nagamaki. Perhaps not as much as she would be if she were strictly martial; in any competition that completely excludes magic, she's certainly not winning. But with all of her powers and talents factored in, she does a lot of damage, either quickly or over time.

Open Mind, Open Heart
For as kind as Papiyon is, and as committed as she is to emotionally protecting those around her--what good is that if people are so distrustful that they won't even let her? While her natural tendency is to hide how she's feeling, she curbs that as much as she possibly can. A constant flow of honesty is infinitely important, and that flow NEEDS to be two-way. All that being said, her mind can be a bit...too open. Because of her sheltered upbringing and tendency to always think the best of people, she has a tendency to be a bit naive and easily manipulated by more canny individuals.

Always There
Still, even if she does alienate someone, she'll try her best to un-alienate them, regardless if there was any major fault to be had there. Running alongside the sweetness and kindness, Papiyon is nothing if not incredibly forgiving. Not infinitely so, of course, she has her limits just like everyone else does. But unless either you or her does something truly heinous, she'll find a way to make amends.

---

Lem's Stash

Floats Like A Butterfly

P A P I Y O N
P A P I Y O N

^{"The world is always better off with a little more kindness in it."}

C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T _________________________________________________________ C H A R A C T E R D A T A C H A R A C T E R D A T A _________________________________________________________ True Self Moriyama Chou - 森山蝶 Persona Papiyon - パピ四 Pathos Drox Role DPS Weapon of Choice Nagamaki Domains Darkness Enhancement Illusion Playstyle & Attitude Hypermobile evasive DPS, Unflappable Mom Friend™

M O R I Y A M A C H O U: W H E R E F L O W E R S F L O U R I S H M O R I Y A M A C H O U: W H E R E F L O W E R S F L O U R I S H ________________________________________________________________________________________ Rikako, empress of the Moriyama business empire, loved flowers and butterflies. So it came as no surprise that her two twin daughters were named as such: the elder, Hanako; and the younger, Chou. The two were borderline inseparable through their younger years, all the way up through private high school, when Chou's life path was forever changed. With her parents as they were, a calm and mild temperament, and a manner of speech and bearing so polite as to be strange at times, it was taken for granted that she would attend university as well. Even if she was only in her first year of high school, she certainly had the grades for it, she loved learning. Though she never really had a subject in mind--business? That was most likely, but what about literature? Philosophy? Studying abroad, even? She never could quite think of one--it felt like the world was opening itself up before her, full of wonder and promise. And then Examination Hell began, and any desire Chou had of attaining higher education withered on the vine, burned to the roots. It was a nightmare. A pure nightmare. Her and her sister both barely functioning and yet required to, bags under their eyes, after coming back from yet more rounds of practice exams. Grades slipping from exhaustion. Locking themselves in night and day to keep cranking at exam booklets and textbooks ad nauseum. To Chou, it was like both enduring torture and watching a victim thereof, and in between rounds of bringing snacks up for herself and Hanako during long study nights (every night) and getting her own schoolwork done, she began to look further afield for a possible future. She wanted no part in this whatsoever. And during one of her brief searches, she came across a florist's shop nearby, owned by the elderly woman Satou-sama, who was in need of help to keep things running smoothly, and started working part time. And she fell in love. Her parents were...frosty a year or so later, when she told them she didn't want to go to university, and she would be continuing her apprenticeship as a florist. Very frosty. But after some cajoling (not quite enough, for what she was doing), they gave her the go-ahead, in a way that disturbed her just a little bit for how easy it was. Still. Here was her chance to make her own life, and she took it. And so the years passed, and Chou found herself in a comfortable apprenticeship, as Satou-sama was aging more, and so more of the responsibility passed on to her young protégé. She has a comfortable, if quite small, apartment above that same florist's shop in familiar Kōriyama now, and a touch of disposable income that didn't come from her obscenely wealthy parents. And so just after dyeing a wisteria-purple streak into her hair, she started looking into something Hanako mentioned on one of their occasional chats: this crazy cool new VR game that she'd started playing called Pariah. Well, hey, couldn't hurt, right? P A P I Y O N: D E A T H I N P I N K P A P I Y O N: D E A T H I N P I N K ________________________________________________________________________________________ That wisteria streak, now spread across her whole head, and a pair of kind, warm magenta-purple eyes. Papiyon could fairly accurately be described in appearance as the "typical" Japanese young lady thrown into a blender set to 'pink,' then dressed in a white and gold leather longcoat and gifted a very sharp weapon. But more important is what it does to her personality. Which is to say, it unleashes her most powerful nurturing urges. With her most prominent character trait being how kind and sweet she is as a matter of course, she's here to give her all in making people smile as much as she possibly can. And in protecting those smiles, as well. Of course, not so much literally, as she's quite far from a support, but more in the emotional sense. She seems to have a hurt-person-radar, and those that ping it best be prepared for the Mom Friend to descend. Both a newcomer to MMOs (and video games in general) and never one for super organized groups in any situation, Papiyon's never touched a guild, at least not up to now, and nor does she truly see the point. She prefers to meander around, either looking for and then sticking with pick up groups, or simply roaming and marveling at the incredibly rendered Pariah world. As of now, she's not managed to link up with Hanako at all, but that's all the better. University was stressful, she knew. Well. Small world.

---

Spells & Spell-like Abilities

Lotus Petal Dance
Leveraging both her illusion and enhancement magics, Papiyon becomes as a phantom; as she dashes around enemies and strikes from unexpected angles, afterimages are left in her wake, causing no damage but confusing monsters and hostile players alike with the graceful movements; like dancing across a pond on water lilies on tiptoes.

Butterfly Haze
With a sound like falling leaves, a cloud of phantasmal butterflies envelops the area around Papiyon as she melds into it. The rustling of a thousand tiny wings hides sound, and the flashing of countless colors distorts vision; and by the time you realize that she'd circled around behind you, it's already too late.

Butterfly Flurry
A mesmerizing purple gleam envelops Papiyon's nagamaki, and attempts to block it seem to land on thin air as its position wavers like water, slipping past guards and through cracks in armor.

Flittering Wing
You may think you have Papiyon pinned down and a surefire killing blow. You may think that you've escaped her, put enough distance between the two of you that she could never close the distance. In both cases, you are very wrong. With no more than a breath's sigh and a flare of purple light, Papiyon blinks forwards and backwards, in and out. She can't use it more than once or twice sequentially, but being able to blink through an attack and end up right at her enemy's throat is powerful nonetheless.

Painless Butterfly
The most powerful spell in Papiyon's arsenal, Painless Butterfly sees her close her eyes and sheath her sword as pink energy builds within, crawling up the sheath like butterflies swirling through the sky. All sound becomes muted and distant to her, and the world slows to a crawl. Then, in one fluid motion and with a sound like lightning, she unleashes a single clean stroke from her sheath, trailing pink light and phantom butterflies as it rends through space and time. Finally, the blade is stowed once more; and with the deafening click of the guard on the sheath, destruction unfolds and time resumes.

Character Feats

Holly, Heather, Hydrangea
Just because she's off the clock doesn't mean she loves flowers any less. She keeps a small plot of land in Thorinn where she grows an assortment of flowers both magical and mundane and sells them as she wanders to alchemists, tailors, and other crafters with an eye for magic and beauty.

Whirling Sting
All of Papiyon's abilities to get close and empower her strikes are useless if the strikes themselves are weak. Luckily, not so; she's quite impressive with her nagamaki. Perhaps not as much as she would be if she were strictly martial; in any competition that completely excludes magic, she's certainly not winning. But with all of her powers and talents factored in, she does a lot of damage, either quickly or over time.

Open Mind, Open Heart
For as kind as Papiyon is, and as committed as she is to emotionally protecting those around her--what good is that if people are so distrustful that they won't even let her? While her natural tendency is to hide how she's feeling, she curbs that as much as she possibly can. A constant flow of honesty is infinitely important, and that flow NEEDS to be two-way.

Always There
Still, even if she does alienate someone, she'll try her best to un-alienate them, regardless if there was any major fault to be had there. Running alongside the sweetness and kindness, Papiyon is nothing if not incredibly forgiving. Not infinitely so, of course, she has her limits just like everyone else does. But unless either you or her does something truly heinous, she'll find a way to make amends.

---

Five of the Sky

Righto, throwing my hat into the ring. Feel free to tell me if anything at all is off and I'll fix it as quick as I can, the last thing I want to do is mess stuff up.

Mejiro Tsukiko

Tsukiko

Name

Mejiro Tsukiko (目白月子)

Gender

Female

Age

23

General Physical Description

Small and slim at just over five feet, Tsukiko doesn't quite look her age, and as long as she keeps her head covered, she doesn't stick out in many crowds. Once she takes the hood off, though, she tends to draw attention instead. The most notable piece of her appearance is its sheer paleness. Fair skin, white hair, white eyes, and predisposed to white clothing, she stands out like a lit candle in a dark room, or a thin slice of sunlight through a door held ajar. There always seems to be a faint smile on her face when she's speaking to people, faint and perhaps a bit self-satisfied, like she's thinking of something else far away from her conversation even when she's quite engaged.

But regardless how engaged she is, don't expect her to make eye contact with you, as Tsukiko is entirely blind, and has been her entire life.

Still, most people have no idea. Her other senses compensate for it rather well, even when her magic doesn't, and she's able to function almost the same as a normal person, if not even better at times; she carries herself with confidence, and it doesn't seem to intrude on any combat that may occur at all. In fact, that mysterious smile of hers can carry an implication that even then, she sees more than she's letting on.

And for reasons nobody can fully understand, she seems to always be followed by the heady scent of lilac and lavender.

Role

Lunar Sage, resident mysterious mage

Abilities/Formal Knowledge

Light Magic:
Tsukiko's most powerful and defining trait is her ability to channel and manipulate light. Though sunlight is of course subject to her powers, as a Lunar Sage they grow more potent during the night, waxing and waning with the moon. From weaving light into concrete objects to searing enemies in combat with blasts of silver and gold, this ability is the most notable she has.

Lightsense:
And part and parcel of her light magic is how she's able to move so smoothly despite her blindness: she may not be able to see light, but she can feel it. She's able to create a kind of...3d map in her head by using her magic to feel where light is and isn't. She can't feel color, she can't see patterns; but solely in terms of objects, she essentially has 360 degree vision, at least of a sort, though it can be a bit foggy and imprecise while the sun is up, and of course in places where there's little to no light it grows faint or absent completely.

All that being said, this isn't really a passive thing: she does have to consciously focus in order to utilize it, and if used for too long, it can exhaust her and prompt a recoil of confusion and disorientation afterwards. But it's a powerful tool, to be sure.

Acute Senses:
Along with her lightsensing, Tsukiko has a more pedestrian ability on her side: to compensate for her sight, all of her other senses are quite a bit sharper. She can hear things that other people might not be able to, tell (roughly) what's around her by the way the air moves off of objects, and so on and so forth. This doesn't edge into the supernatural or absurd, of course, but it serves as an excellent early warning system that might prompt her to use her lightsense so she can really tell what's going on.

Sage's Rapport:
While her blindness precludes from doing things like reading, or writing with any degree of precision, she's still a Lunar Sage, which can perhaps open doors for her in places where a Sage of any variety may command a degree of respect.

Personality

Favors

+Sweet:
On the whole, Tsukiko is pretty nice to be around. She's a very kind person at heart and offers it liberally to most everyone around her, even those that may stand in opposition to her. A firm believer in the healing power of a smile, she truly loves people and wants them to be as happy as they can.

+Moral:
In addition to that kindness, Tsukiko is the proud owner of a very powerful moral compass, and believes that all people are basically good, and they only need the chance to show it. Very much chaotic good, she's not one to let laws and strictures get in the way of what she believes to be the right thing to do. Of course, she never breaks the law with impunity, she's not a fool and works within it as long as it's possible. But if her guiding principles overpower the potential consequences, she'll do what she must to meet them.

+Canny:
It may come as a surprise to those that see her smiley exterior or hear her extolling the innate goodness of people, but Tsukiko is quite a shrewd individual and tends to be good at judging how any given scenario may play out, and how best to work within that scenario to reach the outcome she believes to be the best. Such is how she's so good at pursuing her morals alongside the law, even if they may contradict it: she's a good judge of how people think and is skilled at leveraging it.

Disfavors

-Vindictive:
As one who has not uncommonly been assumed as frail, fragile, or uncapable because of her blindness, Tsukiko has developed a bit of a spiteful streak that can come out on occasion. It's not particularly common in everyday life, and she doesn't begrudge people not understanding how her powers work. But if people question her abilities or standing even after she demonstrates that she's perfectly competent, she tends to simmer with suppressed frustration and anger that can boil over at inopportune moments.

-Duplicitous:
Just as she's predisposed to genuine smiles as described, and just as she's good at leveraging social situations to her own ends, she's also rather skilled in in false smiles. She has a tendency to be two-faced, most especially around people she doesn't trust, but occasionally even with her closest friends, and she's good at it. It's a habit she's aware of and struggles to get a handle on, and she often catches herself in the act and corrects it. But even if she's aware of it, it's a habit regardless, and it can cause people to distrust her.

-Self-Righteous:
Another foible that she struggles to control and subsume is her ingrained sense of self-superiority. The dark side to that powerful morality, she has a tendency to naturally assume that she's in the right of a problem. It's not an unbreakable thing; if you prove to her she's wrong, then she'll eat her words with at least some measure of grace. But it can take a bit of doing to convince her she's in the wrong. It's less common these days as she's been mostly successful in downplaying it, but in higher stress situations especially there's still a not unlikely chance it'll rear its head again.

Ambiguities

-+Secretive:
Neither a boon nor a blight upon her character is the simple fact that she tends to speak little about herself. She doesn't speak little overall; while she's not a particularly talkative individual, she's also not excessively reticent. No, this is almost exclusive to talking about herself, especially her history and dreams for the future. That's not to say she point-blank refuses to talk about herself, but rather she tends to move the conversation when it starts to drift to subjects she'd rather not touch on.

Public Knowledge
Tsukiko was born, raised, and trained in the south, and how and why she ended up in the Eastern Region is unknown. Some say that she left out of protest for the incredibly long and powerful dynasty of the Southern Region; some say that she was chased out for speaking out against them; some say that she's a spy sent by them to weaken the East. Whatever the reason, her secretive nature holds strong, and she's not telling anyone (except the spy theory. When that comes up, she denies it without exception).

Lem's Stash

Mejiro Tsukiko

Tsukiko

Name

Mejiro Tsukiko (目黒月子)

Gender

Female

Age

20

General Physical Description

Small and slim at just over five feet, Tsukiko doesn't quite look her age, and as long as she keeps her head covered, she doesn't stick out in many crowds. Once she takes the hood off, though, she tends to draw attention instead. The most notable piece of her appearance is its sheer paleness. Fair skin, white hair, white eyes, and predisposed to white clothing, she stands out like a lit candle in a dark room, or a thin slice of sunlight through a door held ajar. There always seems to be a faint smile on her face when she's speaking to people, faint and perhaps a bit self-satisfied, like she's thinking of something else far away from her conversation even when she's quite engaged.

But regardless how engaged she is, don't expect her to make eye contact with you, as Tsukiko is entirely blind, and has been her entire life.

Still, most people have no idea. Her other senses compensate for it rather well, even when her magic doesn't, and she's able to function almost the same as a normal person, if not even better at times; she carries herself with confidence, and it doesn't seem to intrude on any combat that may occur at all. In fact, that mysterious smile of hers can carry an implication that even then, she sees more than she's letting on.

And for reasons nobody can fully understand, she seems to always be followed by the heady scent of lilac and lavender.

Role

Lunar Sage

Abilities/Formal Knowledge

Light Magic:
Tsukiko's most powerful and defining trait is her ability to channel and manipulate light. Though sunlight is of course subject to her powers, as a Lunar Sage they grow more potent during the night, waxing and waning with the moon. From weaving light into concrete objects to searing enemies in combat with blasts of silver and gold, this ability is the most notable she has.

Lightsense:
And part and parcel of her light magic is how she's able to move so smoothly despite her blindness: she may not be able to see light, but she can feel it. She's able to create a kind of...3d map in her head by using her magic to feel where light is and isn't. She can't feel color, she can't see patterns; but solely in terms of objects, she essentially has 360 degree vision, at least of a sort, though it can be a bit foggy and imprecise while the sun is up, and of course in places where there's little to no light it grows faint or absent completely.

All that being said, this isn't really a passive thing: she does have to consciously focus in order to utilize it, and if used for too long, it can exhaust her and prompt a recoil of confusion and disorientation afterwards. But it's a powerful tool, to be sure.

Acute Senses:
Along with her lightsensing, Tsukiko has a more pedestrian ability on her side: to compensate for her sight, all of her other senses are quite a bit sharper. She can hear things that other people might not be able to, tell (roughly) what's around her by the way the air moves off of objects, and so on and so forth. This doesn't edge into the supernatural or absurd, of course, but it serves as an excellent early warning system that might prompt her to use her lightsense so she can really tell what's going on.

Sage's Rapport:
While her blindness precludes from doing things like reading, or writing with any degree of precision, she's still a Lunar Sage, which can perhaps open doors for her in places where a Sage of any variety may command a degree of respect.

Personality

Favors

+Sweet:
On the whole, Tsukiko is pretty nice to be around. She's a very kind person at heart and offers it liberally to most everyone around her, even those that may stand in opposition to her. A firm believer in the healing power of a smile, she truly loves people and wants them to be as happy as they can.

+Moral:
In addition to that kindness, Tsukiko is the proud owner of a very powerful moral compass, and believes that all people are basically good, and they only need the chance to show it. Very much chaotic good, she's not one to let laws and strictures get in the way of what she believes to be the right thing to do. Of course, she never breaks the law with impunity, she's not a fool and works within it as long as it's possible. But if her guiding principles overpower the potential consequences, she'll do what she must to meet them.

+Canny:
It may come as a surprise to those that see her smiley exterior or hear her extolling the innate goodness of people, but Tsukiko is quite a shrewd individual and tends to be good at judging how any given scenario may play out, and how best to work within that scenario to reach the outcome she believes to be the best. Such is how she's so good at pursuing her morals alongside the law, even if they may contradict it: she's a good judge of how people think and is skilled at leveraging it.

Disfavors

-Vindictive:
As one who has not uncommonly been assumed as frail, fragile, or uncapable because of her blindness, Tsukiko has developed a bit of a spiteful streak that can come out on occasion. It's not particularly common in everyday life, and she doesn't begrudge people not understanding how her powers work. But if people question her abilities or standing even after she demonstrates that she's perfectly competent, she tends to simmer with suppressed frustration and anger that can boil over at inopportune moments.

-Duplicitous:
Just as she's predisposed to genuine smiles as described, and just as she's good at leveraging social situations to her own ends, she's also rather skilled in in false smiles. She has a tendency to be two-faced, most especially around people she doesn't trust, but occasionally even with her closest friends, and she's good at it. It's a habit she's aware of and struggles to get a handle on, and she often catches herself in the act and corrects it. But even if she's aware of it, it's a habit regardless, and it can cause people to distrust her.

-Self-Righteous:
Another foible that she struggles to control and subsume is her ingrained sense of self-superiority. The dark side to that powerful morality, she has a tendency to naturally assume that she's in the right of a problem. It's not an unbreakable thing; if you prove to her she's wrong, then she'll eat her words with at least some measure of grace. But it can take a bit of doing to convince her she's in the wrong. It's less common these days as she's been mostly successful in downplaying it, but in higher stress situations especially there's still a not unlikely chance it'll rear its head again.

Ambiguities

-+Secretive:
Neither a boon nor a blight upon her character is the simple fact that she tends to speak little about herself. She doesn't speak little overall; while she's not a particularly talkative individual, she's also not excessively reticent. No, this is almost exclusive to talking about herself, especially her history and dreams for the future. That's not to say she point-blank refuses to talk about herself, but rather she tends to move the conversation when it starts to drift to subjects she'd rather not touch on.

Public Knowledge
Tsukiko was born, raised, and trained in the south, and how and why she ended up in the Eastern Region is unknown. Some say that she left out of protest for the incredibly long and powerful dynasty of the Southern Region; some say that she was chased out for speaking out against them; some say that she's a spy sent by them to weaken the East. Whatever the reason, her secretive nature holds strong, and she's not telling anyone (except the spy theory. When that comes up, she denies it without exception).