LorelleQuips

Welcome to Marchand!

"So many noble ones coming to my aid. I've been reduced to damsel in distress," sighed Canvas, elbowing Larke right back.

"Apologies. Enjoy your victuals Milady." Canvas raised his hands in a whoa-Nellie gesture and backed away a few feet... slowly.

"Heyy," he grinned, "Avalon, right? I see you've already got my back, being a good roommate. We seem to be off to a good start."

He gave Larke a shove and parted with, "Don't think you saving my ass means I'm helping you clean up your mess," before jerking his head and going to retrieve his key, expecting Jason to follow.

Welcome to Marchand!

Canvas' smile faltered a little as things escalated to actual bodily threats. He was pretty sure his good-natured if bad-taste teasing shouldn't be an invitation to a fight.

Wow. Maybe he really had touched a sensitive subject.

"Hey, cool off, sister. I'm just messing around," he said. He was all for some sparring with words, but he drew the line at actual sparring, especially when the opponent looked like she could probably rip his ribcage in half with one hand.

He met the look of the girl who came to his defense, and wrinkled his nose at her advice. "Oh. Don't worry. I'm not actually hitting on her," he defended himself. "I save the real pickup lines for girls who are more my type...you know, females who are more immediately recognizable as such."

@VitoftheVoid@Mr Allen J

Welcome to Marchand!

Yoko's explosive retort only made Canvas' smile quirk to one side. One doesn't go poking a bear if one doesn't secretly want the bear to react.

"Ah," he said without missing a beat. He began collecting his bag as he spoke, glad Madison had dismissed them. "I can see I've touched a nerve. Sorry if I've offended you. Maybe your family is into the whole incest thing? I'm sure I can come up with stupid jokes on a topic that's more your speed if you introduce yourself and tell me your story."

(Dead) The Gifted World

I feel like everyone is probably just waiting for other people tl post haha. Do people know who is up in either scene?

Welcome to Marchand!

Toby's expression lit up. "I'm taking Familiar Summoning and Healing too," he said eagerly, his tongue forgetting its usual practice of sticking to the roof of his mouth as his unease diminished. "I've done some of my own research on summoning - I bet you'll like it."

Despite the fact that she looked a fair amount younger than he, she seemed so friendly and personable that he felt they might get along fine.

Dante, on the other hand appeared to be studiously remaining aloof. He tried to engage the boy in the conversation by fishing for the first thing he could think of, "That's c--cool. My brother's a tracker. It's really practical..."

He paused, clearing his throat as he considered the easiest way to answer Sam's question, rather glad that she evidently had a low enough regard for family names to forget his already (especially since he didn't even know what their family was known for), but simultaneously apprehensive that she recognized it. He walked a delicate tightrope between not wanting to dodge the subject or act ashamed or evasive...while being totally ashamed and evasive.

"And it's Schippers. We're runecasters - mostly, nothing special, honestly, and ah..." Better to just own it, he decided. "...maybe you know--" (Or know of, he thought) "--my older brother, the one I just mentioned? Spire, he...he ran with the Alpha-Omega unit in the war, if you've heard of them, and--"

"Now, then. If everyone is ready..."

Saved by the proverbial bell before he got to the gritty part. With a half-apologetic smile, and a 'hold on a sec' gesture of his index finger, Toby turned his attention back to Madison, keeping his eyes on the presentation - more or less expected information, except when Madison changed the screen. He sat up extra straight at the room assignments, combing his memory for family names and who he might do best to avoid.

Percival Pelacour would be his roommate. That, at least, was a name Toby recognized...a fairly benign name, for his circumstance. He glanced around at the other students, wondering if he would be able to recognize the Pelacour if he spotted him, or if they would have to get acquainted later.

As they were dismissed, Toby turned his head back to smile at Sam and Dante. "So it looks like a nice c--c----campus," he remarked, hoping that (despite the fact that he struggled so hard with the C his shoulder rose up to his ear in the strain) he had offered a neutral enough statement to leave it in their hands whether to respond with either a polite goodbye or an offer to go check out the grounds together...
And off-topic enough to keep his family name from coming up again.

@caliban22

Welcome to Marchand!

Canvas leaned back in his chair, tipping it back on two legs until he was perched at a dangerously precarious angle, sipping orange juice and people-watching, still recovering from the fit of silent laughter he'd endured when Larke got into it with the Norrevinter girl.

He observed the girl sitting near him, a girl of Asian descent whom he had admittedly mistaken for a boy for a split second.
He now saw his mistake.
Kept seeing for a few seconds without too much thought of how his quizzical look might be interpreted.
Determined that his mistake was actually pretty hard to miss once he noticed them.

Sufficiently bored as he waited for Madison to que up the orientation, Canvas let his chair fall with a clang and slid over to Yoko, all smiles.

"I really hope she's not right, you know," he said to the Japanese girl. He had a light whimsy in his voice, and he spoke quickly yet lazily, like he didn't need to breathe much. "Viking ginger, I mean, about everyone in the room being Larke Sterling's cousin. See, because I'm Larke Sterling's cousin--Canvas Ahktar-Sterling, pleasure-- and if you're also his cousin, well...I like to avoid dating any closer than my third cousins, you know?" He gave a coy little overdramatized wink and took a deliberate sip of his juice.

Because that was just how Canvas introduced himself to women.

"So. Please make my day and tell me we aren't related." A pause. He made a show of studying her, biting his lip like he was worried he might see family resemblance. "Mind you, if you are a Sterling, don't worry, third cousin's just a general rule. I might make an exception and go for seconds."

@Mr Allen J

Welcome to Marchand!

Yeah @Mr Allen J, it probably makes the most sense that they simply didn't get the same press as some others did, and were resentful? Their heroics didn't get fanfare. Some groups probably got some notoriety and glory because they were super helpful to the war efforts, but also because events lined up to give them spotlights.

...
.....Like having a ton of power-diverse, powerful council children in a unit led by a questionable figure who literally responds to The Devil Himself, with a duo within that group with a catchy-ass name like Storm I and II, and another member who helped deliver a baby on a battlefield, and then another member possibly murder a bunch of innocents...and many of these guys have weird quirks ranging from cross dresser to wearing sunglasses all the time...

That kinda crap just makes good news.

( -ahem- that's just what i know of. Anyone else been concocting behind the scenes backstory? 😅 )

And sure, I will intro him as interacting with Malik at some point today!

EDIT: Yoko. Like you suggested.
Brain.

Welcome to Marchand!

Canvas Ahktar-Sterling

Name: Canvas Fajaar Ahktar-Sterling

Primary: Necromancy
Secondaries of Interest: Levitation, Blood Magic

Description: 16 years old. Average height, average build, and casual style, but with the tanned complexion, dark hair and thick lashes of the Persian Ahktar line and a dash of the infamous good looks of the Sterlings, Canvas cuts a fairly striking picture.

Personality: Though Canvas got his magical ability from the Ahktars, he seems to have gotten the personality of a Sterling through and through. Charming, flirtatious even when he doesn't mean it, even when it's entirely not the time and place. He is capable of more deceit and manipulation than he has the guile to execute. Canvas is more concerned with being liked than being powerful, and doesn't spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about the future, though as the bastard son of his Sterling rather and Ahktar mother, he knows it probably won't involve being a family heir.

Skills: The Sterlings paid for an expensive private education, and additionally his springs and autumns with his mother gave him hands-on experience with summoning spirits sprung from the zoroastrian tradition of the Ahktars.

Weaknesses: Despite his access to good training, Canvas is not exactly ambitious, and isn't much more skilled in his crafts for all the extra expense. His flippant attitude can also get him into trouble.

Brief History: It's never any massive shock when a Sterling goes impregnating someone other than his wife. They worked out a decent system. Summers and Christmastime with his father and the silver spoons, the rest of the year with his mother and the vultures; though both respectable magical families (the Ahktars being a very old Iranian necromancy line), they are two different cultures, and two entirely different worlds.

Welcome to Marchand!

@Mr Allen J I like the potential dynamic of Yoko being resentful of all these war vet teachers who have gotten so famous, but why wasn't her family recognized? Just that their efforts were more steady and less flashy? Or I wonder if someone key to spreading word who witnessed their contributions had a grudge and so tended to downplay how much they really did?

I've been toying with the idea of tossing in another character and I could see there being some history involving that snub...

Welcome to Marchand!

Toby could tell by the look Dante gave him that he had miscalculated. He nevertheless took a seat at a safe distance, since it didn't look like he would be eating today either. "It's nice to meet you both, S..." He paused mid sentence when he heard one Maddie speaking - unlike some others, he did not pause to puzzle, as he had seen this Lovette before - but quietly resumed during the lull.

"Right. Blood feud," said Toby, wincing as he watched the carnage. He managed a wry smile as he looked back at the siblings . "Good to see the new generation of Norrevinter line has maintained its...um, d--diplomatic skills."

Ryan. Ryan. As he listened to their familial banter, he tried to place the name, but couldn't recall. That's what he for for keeping away from magical society for the majority of his teenage years.

Then Sam was prompting for an introduction, and he did his best not to stiffen.

"I'm Toby Schippers," he said, trying to play that casual, which was difficult, since in this crowd, that would be like trying to introduce himself as Toby the Ripper or Toby Bundy or Toby Manson or something and expecting not to get a double take.

Well maybe not quite that bad. But it felt that bad.

"So what classes are you two going to be taking?" he pressed on after the bare minimum of the polite customary pause had passed.

@caliban22