Chinami was out the door not a second after acknowledging Reverio's gratitude with a mild nod. She barely paid attention to anything else he was saying, by now certain that if she allowed herself to care, it would simply stoke her risen temper unreasonably higher. Besides, even then, she'd managed to grasp the cliff notes through her Spirit's partially manifested hearing.
Rotten world this. Survivor's guilt that. People are liars, and no amount of beauty in the world can overcome the ugliness. Words dripping with pessimism, with a frank inability to let go of the past and focus on the future. Wallowing in regrets and stagnating in obsession. There was no use in pining over a perfect world. That was an unrealistic dream, fit only to drive the dreamer to ruin. Humanity's nature was ambition, and there was no future where humanity lived in blissful harmony. That was impossible. Such a world... could only come about by way of grand scale tyranny... or a lack of humanity entirely. Chinami frankly couldn't think of anything she'd like less than to "dine" with Reverio now or in the future... Well, except maybe dining with Suzakura, but at least the latter had the advantage of having shared the same air during lunch at Kiburi's and so had some level of precedent.
It was a truly strange thought to realize that she might actually be the optimistic one between herself and Reverio, despite their outward presentations. When it came right down to it, they were disturbingly inverted mirrors. He seemingly saw only a glass half full, beauty overshadowed by ugliness. Flowery words and false hope spewed from him, poisoning the results. As he had said, far too many people wore masks, shadowed their intent and actual beliefs. Not so many as he seemed to think, but many nonetheless. One might wonder at the hypocrisy of wearing such a mask himself however...
She instead saw the ugliness of the world and humanity for what it was, wasn't surprised, and accepted that imperfection, content to seek the silver lining, to carve her own limited corner of peace. She didn't need to obsess over making the world into some idealized caricature. She only needed to improve what surrounded her personally, only when necessary and without coming at an innate cost to others at large. She preferred brutal honesty, speaking her mind. After all, she too was frustrated with the lies everywhere she looked, but how could she call herself truly dissatisfied if she didn't live up to her own words? So, maybe she was rude, and prickly -a bitch really, and more than a little volatile to the point that she would kill for her ideals... but she liked what she liked and hated what she hated. She'd say so upfront without shame, all but shouting her beliefs from the rooftops, and if others disagreed? Tough. They were free to be as incorrect as they liked. She despised lying, so when it came down to it, she preferred to stay silent instead. Even when her words conveyed falsities, her tone would more often than not make it perfectly clear how genuine she was about them.
She wondered how Reverio felt, to meet a person like her. She wondered if that discordant image clashed with his world view in new and amusing ways. What would it do to him to meet someone who was honest about their ugliness? Would he reconsider his position that humanity should be more honest if all that would do is create a world of honest selfishness? Somehow, Chinami could only think that such a realization would merely make him double down on his foolishness harder. He seemed like the type.
Consumed by her thoughts, her pace was languid, enough so that Ken quickly passed her by on his way to make his own departure. Apparently, his parents seemed to be picking him up this time as well. Shaking her head, Chinami's pace slowed until Ken's family was well out of sight... and then she turned on her heel. Adopting a brisk stride, she glanced around for onlookers and, seeing none, made her way around the side of the apartment complex, sticking close to the wall while retracing her path within on the outside. And after a minute, she came to a halt and tilted her head, before her Spirit launched her up to grab hold of and lever herself onto the second story of the fire escape stairwell on the side of the building.
"Good enough?" she muttered quietly, glancing around again and nodding at the seeming lack of observers.
"25 meters... Sufficient," was her only reply, as Chinami leaned up against the building, out of sight of easy observance from the windows, extracting her phone from her pocket. Frowning at the idea of how fast this might be moving, she settled in for what might end up being all too short a wait. The fact that the strange man in her soul had stated that Reverio's foolishness was backed with a frighteningly immediate will to act left her with little choice in whether or not to be done with matters concerning him today.
So, is there anything that I need to explain, fix, or delete about Lambda, Kurogane and Zephyr? If not, can I move them to the CS tab or not yet?
I don't think there is, actually, but that's just my gut feeling. The GMs have yet to chime in, but I'm fairly sure these sheets will get accepted. Just a matter of when they get looked over fully, as the GMs are busy for various reasons currently. So definitely don't drop them in the CS tab yet though.
@Nimbus Perfect! Sorry about how long all that took in the discord, but I would say you're ready to roll now! Approved, pending the other go-aheads from @Letter Bee and @SkyHresvelg. Once they get back to you, you can toss that in the CS tab and post whenever you like.
Yeah. After all, technically, Qingshe's "shadow world" is a type of pocket dimension.
<Snipped quote by Letter Bee>
Doesn't Cao Bao do time fuckery though with his teleport reset thing?
The "reset" is not time based. "Save/Load" was simply a comparison made. His power is more like teleportation combined with reconstruction. It's like the Star Trek "beaming" thing. He archives the material state of the thing and then reconstructs it later in the same state, no matter how it's been altered since then.
@Senhara I feel like the theme of the powers is a little wonky in places, but otherwise, tentatively approved. Normally, I'd not let what is basically a living Deus ex Machina through, but I think we both know why he's sort of needed.
"Mou~~! It's a shame really. I gave them everything, you know? The keys to the future, to pull themselves from their filthy rut of pollution and stagnation! They had so much potential, could have revolutionized the world and salvaged their reputation... Instead, they would pervert my work? Use it for war and decimation, rather than creation and advancement? Well, if that's how it is... then they should know they deserve every bit of what's coming to them~." Appearance: A tall, shapely woman with a distinctly unnerving air to her, her gaze almost hungrily taking in everything around her. Her emerald-green hair and oddly colored eyes are "natural", and her demeanor gives off the distinct impression of a predator surrounded by prey. Even when affecting a friendly air, she seems like an opportunistic viper, ready to strike. Dresses extremely eccentrically -even salaciously- in a rather combat-impractical green and black cyberpunk dress, almost as if bragging about her A-Rank status visually, despite not doing so verbally. Rain or shine, formal or informal, she seems unbothered by the conditions and boldly flaunts her body as though she were her own magnum opus... a far from incorrect assumption. Her form is inhumanly "perfect", to an uncanny degree that often sets other humans on edge, ironically imperfect in its perfection. The observant may pick out the utter lack of blemishes on her skin, the way she never needs to bathe for cleanliness except as a luxury, the way she takes far fewer meals than needed, and more besides. Height: 5'10" Weight: 147 lbs. Build: Shapely, but strangely toned.
Name: Lei Qingshe (Jormungandr (black ops codename), The Snake - 6th of The Zodiac) Age: 21 (appears 18) (Born 2001, Year of the Snake) Nationality: Chinese (defector)
Noble Arm Name & Appearance: [Ouroboros], a 5 foot tall green and black cyberpunk tower shield with bladed edges and spikes.
Noble Arm Rank: A
Power: B+ (Creations) Speed: B- (Analysis speed) Range: B+ (Creations) Persistence: D+ (Self-Modifications) Precision: A Potential: D
Due to self/NA modifications and the nature of her NA's power itself, Qingshe's original ratings have become subject to... fluctuation. Her original true classification of B has been, in practice, found to vastly undersell her tactical value, both on and off the battlefield.
Noble Arm Type, Element, and Range: Variable-Range Electric Support-type.
Modified -using its own powers turned against it- from its original state as a mere dated tower shield into a cyberpunk construct of the future, Ouroboros is far more resilient than the average Noble Arm, its biotech structure making it capable of withstanding ludicrous force and even visually repairing itself if damaged. It can hover independently of its user's grasp, utilizing a magnetic force to orbit the user, often trailing just behind them. It has basic light-bending cloaking, allowing the user to keep it discreetly summoned. However, that cloaking doesn't hold up under combat conditions where it must physically obstruct an attack. Due to its modifications, it provides basic access to its powers even when not summoned at all.
Considered to potentially be the true core of her Noble Arm's power, Qingshe seemingly possesses some manner of "shadow world" formed of green-black biotech "fluid". Accessed through her malleable shadow, she can seemingly drag targets into it or expel them. It seems to be some manner of extradimensional plane, as teleportation experiments have thus-far failed to take others to or from it. Qingshe seems to have full control of what and who can pass through her shadow when and where she desires, but it is closed and impassable by default. She is known to be one of the most capable of The Zodiac at taking live prisoners, along with being able to transport large amounts of equipment and materials with ease. Those that have reported on their experience within the shadow world have only been able to describe a single room with no exits, furnished most often as either a prison or lab, but there was no sign of the other objects she was known to possess at the time. It is conclusively clear then that Qingshe has some level of control over the shape of her shadow world and that it is both larger than expected and able to "sort" targets she drags into it into separate sections of itself.
The functionality of it is also unknown, but swallowing targets into her shadow also seems to allow Qingshe to rapidly reverse engineer them and the principles behind their creation, her scientific knowledge and talent expanding at a rate that boggles the mind.
In the outside world, Qingshe's primary public usage of her ability is through shaping the green-black biotech "fluid" of her shadow, expanding and shaping it into a multitude of forms limited only by her technical, practical knowledge and personal experimentation. It can take on any material composition she understands in any quantity, shape or size permitted by the size of her shadow. Spears, blades, spiked walls, barriers and other more mundane and utility objects alike, she can shape her shadow any way she likes and never seems to run out of the "fluid" used to create workings. The shadow can be shaped in the blink of an eye, acting at the speed of thought to do her bidding.
Any fluid that becomes separated from the whole either dissipates if it was unshaped or becomes in truth the object it was shaped into, entirely free of Qingshe's domain unless she should swallow it again. Most formless constructs take on a similar green-black cyberpunk look as her shadow, but Qingshe can just as easily form objects with entirely normal appearances. The "fluid" cannot be reverse engineered, as it simply "becomes" in truth what it was shaped into once separated from the whole. The "fluid", both unshaped and not, remains under Qingshe's psychokinetic control until separated from the main mass.
Further, with her "understanding" of targets comes the ability to both repair and "innovate". Beings inside (or partially within) her shadow world can be healed through converting the "fluid" into new mass that then becomes independent of the whole. With the right level of understanding and the right subject, she can perform genetic modification to allow inhuman biological base capabilities or even add cyborg enhancements to those that either cannot be healed otherwise... or desire to become more than human.
As her shadow grows, she can both more rapidly expand it and create larger and more complex objects. Or, at least, this is what she allows others to believe. While it has a grain of truth to it, her shadow can at any time travel speeds in excess of hundreds of feet per second, able to transform vast swathes of land into her personal playground in moments. This is hardly hyperbole, as expanding her shadow is akin to transforming the surface of the world around her into a facsimile of her shadow world. She has a basic awareness of anything in physical contact with her shadow and can hear through its surface and exit her shadow at any location it covers. With sufficient widespread coverage, she can thus act as a makeshift teleporter for herself and others.
While the durability of her constructs depends on the material she transmutes them into, her growing shadow itself is effectively a space-time gap and is thus generally impervious to anything that cannot pierce such things, allowing her to ward large areas against collateral damage.
List of Creations (to be expanded):
Qingshe's personal "battlesuit": A salacious, dress-like affair, its weave far more durable than one might expect, even more-so than Qingshe's modified body, a feat in itself for such... form-fitting material.
Holder.
Qingshe's magnum opus, her own body, heavily genetically, biologically and technologically modified. It is hard to say if she can truly still be called human. Although she would argue that the answer is not just "yes", but that the same would hold true for anyone else that underwent similar or divergent modifications to become what she truly believes is the next step in human evolution, one where humanity takes things into their own hands, rather than any "god".
Qingshe's body is now formed of the same biotech fluid that comprises her shadow world, malleable in unnatural ways and divorced from humanity except by the barest technicalities and most outward appearances. Visually, the primary signs of her transhumanism are now "naturally" green hair and slitted, reptilian eyes that seem to shift between green, yellow, blue and red as her mood shifts. Less obvious is the smooth hairlessness of her body below the neck, devoid of blemishes and "flaws", becoming distinctly unnervingly imperfect in its perfection. Her hair and body retain an almost shine of health even without maintenance.
Beyond the visual level, the changes are far more severe, as Qingshe sought to become a "perfect lifeform" and even today continues to tweak and modify her alterations as improvements present themselves. The extent of these modifications are unknown to either the public or intelligence, but they are confirmed to be drastic.
On the surface, Qingshe's Noble Arm would seem to have unlimited Potential, endlessly spawning new abilities, weapons and utilities, but the terrifying reality is that such is far from the case, not in the conventional sense. No, Qingshe possesses but a single ability of vast breadth, a multifaceted chimera that she has made extensive and creative use of over the years, and her Noble Arm has not given up a single new power since obtaining it. It is an ability that suits her wholly, growing ever stronger that more she learns and experiences, and her Noble Arm has dedicated all of its capacity to this with no room for any other ability.
To explain her ability, we must reach to the conceptual root nature of Noble Arms. Derived from Occult Programming Language as they are, every Noble Arm ultimately has a designated function as a "program" in the grand System that governs reality. A Noble Arm usually accesses a single "skill tree" of sorts, often multiple. Instead of accessing multiple, Qingshe's ability delved deeply into a single tree and shot for the stars.
Qingshe's ability is to have access to and control over an isolated "programming test zone" in the System. Her ability's true nature and element is [Data Manipulation], and all that it does is derived from this. In essence, her ability allows her to peer upon, dissect and manipulate the "code of reality", limited by her personal understanding and only so long as her manipulations occur while they are inside the "test zone", otherwise perceived as her "world of data". This "test zone" exists entirely within the raw data realm that can perhaps be perceived as the "upper planes" of reality. Because of being attuned to this specific form of [Data], Qingshe's ability also makes her Noble Arm one of the rare few that can interact with unstructured Occult Programming Language, enough to make Qingshe a fair hand at it on the side.
Qingshe can draw things into her test zone or expel them freely, converting targets into data or vice-versa. When doing so, she expands a "shadow" across surfaces from her position, which she must maintain physical contact with to keep open. The shadow -it should be noted- is centered on her physical body, not her soul or the Noble Arm itself. Her body is used as a conduit to transfer energy to the portal. Anything that she has created from the ground up can be freely controlled as long as it's not physically separated from the shadow, after which point it becomes entirely independent in theory. As long as it does not, however, she can freely control what she expels and retract it at any time, allowing her to exert some measure of power on reality that pales in comparison to her grasp of her personal data space.
Her shadow's range caps out at 2 kilometers from her position in any direction and can extend to any size and shape within that spherical range as long as the environment provides, able to manifest across nearly any solid surface, including water tension. Because she draws energy from the System itself instead of a personal reservoir, Qingshe doesn't -strictly speaking- have a limit on how much she can create and never seems to run out of mass. The real problem is her stamina, as her body being a conduit to pass energy through her shadow gateway puts incredible and painful strain on her body, enough to paralyze her from the electric currents... Or, so it used to. In her pursuit of transhumanism, she has heavily modified her body to handle this strain and can now casually reach and sustain heights she never could have dreamed of touching as a child. Solving this stamina issue is what largely propelled her to the heights needed be considered A-Rank.
To boil her ability down, it can best be summarized in three parts:
A): She has the ability to access and manipulate an expanding "world of data" that's gateway and unshaped internals take visual form and manifestation as electrified ooze. It grows larger the more "knowledge" it absorbs.
B): She has the ability to draw energy from said "data space", largely in the form of electricity, which uses her body as a conduit to empower her shadow and pass things to or from the data realm.
C): She has borderline omniscient and fine awareness of the data world through which to best manipulate it, and it effectively radically expands her memory capacity in order to store more knowledge and most efficiently access anything she knows.
Tech Wiz: An effective super-genius in many scientific fields (especially biochemistry and genetics) Intrigue: Skilled in deception and navigating social environments. Inhuman Mentality: Has an incredible mental resilience and pain tolerance. Cook: Can cook edible and safe food, despite any rumors to the contrary. Though taste is... debatable. Polylingual: Knows most major languages (English, French, Chinese, Russian, Japanese etc.). Soldier: A former -and current- soldier of sorts, she has undergone standardized martial training. It's nothing she's particularly passionate about, but she's not useless in CQC, and her unconventional methods of fighting tend to even the odds. Despite being a creature of modern lab comforts, she's no slouch in survival skills, and she can handle a gun with... well, not the best of them, certainly. But she won't fall behind. Occult Programming Language V1: Qingshe has long studied the mysterious occult practices that are currently quietly attributed to the advent of Noble Arms after being misused on a worldwide scale during World War 2. This gives her a grasp on the concepts behind Noble Arm functionality. Though, hers is not as strong as the advanced V2 language developed by the Paragons of Science. Still, she is capable of creating comparatively rough "magitech", like restraints that bind, suppresses or otherwise weaken Noble Arms.
A snake in more than one sense of the word, Lei Qingshe is manipulative, sly and proud of her power, yet restrained enough to avoid megalomania. Analytical and introspective, she has a powerful grasp on her own nature and desires, along with the will to see them through at any cost. To the public, she is simultaneously caring to those under her care, often with a strangely motherly bent... while also being horrifyingly ruthless to her enemies, willing to casually commit abject atrocities for the sake of the slightest sliver of progress in her research and victory as a whole. This juxtaposition often makes it difficult to tell where her "lines in the sand" are, assuming she has many at all, and it is further unclear whether she holds any true morals or if she simply puts on airs of civility so as to not be treated as an uncontrollable threat.
Qingshe can oft be described as "married to her work" with both little interest or time to dedicate to other pursuits, a state of affairs she is satisfied with... or so she tells herself. She seems to find no greater joy in anything but advancing her knowledge, ravenously gorging her mind on any biological or technological subject she can grasp. Driven to an admittedly obsessive degree, she is an avid transhumanist, and were her definition of a potential "humanity" not so broadly inclusive, she'd likely be a shoe-in for the interests of the likes of the Paragons of Science. Despite her loose morals, she is never cruel for cruelty's sake and, in fact, despises such things as being "wasteful" of "human resources". Self aware as she is, she acknowledges that her beliefs and attitude are in opposition to the widely held "common sense". As such, she lives by the adage of "faking it till you make it" as a social chameleon, often affecting a playful and mildly seductive air... Genuine or not, despite her disdain for the current "weakness of the flesh" that is "plaguing" humanity, she admires humans as a whole for their will to survive and capacity to evolve mentally... and especially physically.
When she cares to be, she is bold in her opinions and unrepentant in her views. She believes that she is correct and that others will inevitably understand her way of thinking or be outgrown by her, and that is all that she needs to feel validated. She believes that in the face of Noble Arms upending peace and disturbing prosperity, the core concept of humanity must evolve to meet them to once more manifest a world where "all men are created equal". In her mind, once all humans are supernatural beings in their own right, Noble Arms will be mostly obsolete or equalized. In other words, at her core, she seeks to bring humanity peace again... but most would perhaps disagree on the price that is reasonable to pay for that future.
On the whole, Qingshe despises the Big Three. In particular, she blames the Downward Descent for fanning the flames, vices and sins of her home country into a new world war instead of using her technology to escape their pit of stagnation, and she views them and their agents as no better than animals and plagues upon the world that have thrown away their humanity for nothing. At one time, she had seen much in the Paragons of Science to admire; however, after discovering that the advancements and power they offered were a poisoned chalice rather than true, freely given boons to humanity, she grew resentful, viewing it as a betrayal of the glorious image of evolution she had pictured. Even were The Seven Virtues' price for their power tenable, Qingshe would -perhaps ironically- be unnerved by them and their claims, and their proposed ideals for what humanity should be set an ominous pit in her stomach that... something just isn't right.
Likes: Research, progress, small animals, useful things, staying up late, junk food, spicy food.
Dislikes: Stagnation, ignorance, waste (resources, time, etc), obstacles to her studies, getting up early, The Big Three (especially The Downward Descent), excessively sweet or sour food.
Fears: Losing sight of herself. Death.
Enter: Lei Qingshe. Codename: Jormungandr. "A monster in the shape of a human", they call her. Something "beyond". The next step in Arms Master evolution. It certainly doesn't help that she is known to those with an ear to the ground to have been a key figure in the rapid military advancement of China in the past half decade. Her origins and recently acquired lack of firm loyalty to any cause or nation make her intentions suspect, and yet, her power and willingness to -at least ostensibly- use it for good in the present day make her aid impossible to deny, given the stakes.
To the majority of the public, she is known as The Snake - 6th of The Zodiac, China's most well-known and public group of "superheroes", acting as blatant -if effective- PR for the nation to both its citizens and the world at large. The group, composed of all A-Rank Arms Masters or the equivalent in some manner, handles large-scale disasters and crimes. To those with more access to far more sensitive intelligence, however, they are also known to be a ruthless nigh-unstoppable black-ops hit-squad that do China's dirty work seemingly without qualms. It is also known to such intelligence operatives that Qingshe was heavily and seemingly unashamedly involved in many of the worst of China's concealed biological war-crimes and human experimentation. In fact, she was at the forefront of those advancements, seemingly leading the charge with a frightening zeal.
While she isn't exactly blasting it on the airwaves, there are many -often suppressed- clips from Q&A's, other private or public conversations and classified leaks that clearly demonstrate Qingshe has a zealous belief in advancing and further accelerating the evolution of humanity, even partially agreeing with the ideals of The Paragons of Science and The Seven Virtues on occasion. Her dedication to "progress" is to the point that there are rumors that she was mad enough to test her human experiments on herself... resulting in her becoming something more.
Thus, with her track record of loyalty and unwavering dedication, her abrupt disappearance 11 months ago came as a shock to the public in large. Behind far more secure closed curtains, however, a different worry has sprouted in light of the fact that she has violently defected and gone AWOL from China's grasp. The reasons are unknown, but she did do great damage to their research facilities and classified data on her way out. The only thing left of Qingshe's former lab complex is an unnervingly smooth crater...
Current Goal: Short Term: To acquire more "materials" and further her research... Hmm? Oh yes, and to save the Philippines. Sure, that too. Long term: The human condition is weak... but it could be less weak. To improve humanity... and make the sacrifices worth it.
Military or Civilian Rank: QRS Special Liaison (LNO), R&D Consultant, Medic and Volunteer Arms Master Soldier.
Danyel
Reisling
Guardian Angel Haruki
Izurich
4wheathRmany
Aku the Samurai
Otreas
