I like the prompt we've been thrown so I'm likely to type up a post later today. I don't know if we're heading towards conflict, but I feel like bluffing hard.
What ensued was a peculiar argument. Elizabeth's claim of "I suspected it was an enemy" was rebuked by "this is a safe zone, right?", while "she started it" was left uncountered. Ultimately, Elizabeth's words succeeded in making me uncomfortable about the situation, leading Elizabeth to utter an insincere apology to keep my negative emotions from reaching herself by stemming them.
"...and you won't do that again?" I asked.
"I can't promise that. What if some monster tries disguising itself as one of us? But I'll check if it's not that damn slime first." Elizabeth answered, self-righteous as ever. I nodded in response - it was probably all I would get.
Looking around, I noticed entire minutes have passed. There was no sign of the others. "And now it appears our friends - allies are gone. We should probably find them, it could be dangerous to be alone." The significance of what I said took a little moment to get to me - along with the beginnings of panic. They were, however, cut short by Elizabeth's voice.
"I can easily find them." she said, sniffed at the air a few times, then ran to the doorway. I followed to the best of my ability, managing to keep up with her, if only barely.
Fortunately, it appeared that the others barely left the shrine, facing off against a single person on the edge of the woods. "Stay. Let's see what happens before we do anything." commanded Elizabeth, then added "I just got scolded for acting rashly, after all."
Elizabeth began clapping her hands slowly. It also made a weird clicking sound, rather unlike what normal hands would make. "Well, isn't this just splendid, big guy? Now you can be a happy camper, singing songs and roasting over a fire. Here, I'll show you the door." Elizabeth pointed. "Want to be outdoorsy, go right this way." Elizabeth's tone of voice made it very clear that she considered the concept idiotic in the circumstances.
"My name's Angela. I said it earlier. I guess you could have done so too and I didn't hear it, so it's fair." Angela stated. Then she shuddered and turned around to look at Elizabeth.
A moment ago, a black aura surrounded her head briefly and her mind raced, some part of that getting to Angela herself. Thinking too quickly to word her thoughts, Elizabeth decided to keep her composure up for a little while longer - then attack. It helped that her face appeared to just freeze rather than adopting an expression appropriate to her true feelings, any actual expressions being kept a layer below. Their shameful hilariousness was safely hidden away.
"Why yes, this is a beautiful form - if it wasn't, I wouldn't be donning it!" Elizabeth said, her mouth not quite matching up to the words she made at first. "And while I admit the original isn't quite as cool, I believe my take on it to be an improvement." Elizabeth raised her hands to point their palms at her double. "Here, try it out!" she said much more loudly, although not quite at a shout, as she shot rays of cold from both hands.
Angela stared at the conflict, the slight admixture of emotion spurring her into action. "What are you doing?" she shouted as she began running back there. "Why's there two of you now?"
Elizabeth was consternated for a moment. How should she respond? She didn't actually have any of these useful skills. She could, truthfully, blame Angela for not knowing any of that, say things like 'can't get blood from a stone'. But that'd still be admitting own faults, and that'd require much more desperation than she was experiencing.
Instead, Nathaniel's prior words gave her an idea. Elizabeth shifted back into berating gear as she marched up to Vestus. Standing on her toes, which certainly looked interesting wearing heels, she did a decent attempt at towering over him, being just slightly taller by default.
"Excuse me? Do you need food? I don't. Do you need a fire? I don't. Look at how I don't." With her last words, Elizabeth pointed a hand at the floor and shot out a ray of cold, tracing a chilled line on the floor. "I'm a cold one. Of course, it's likely that someone here can be a hot one, ask them for a fire."
In the meantime, Angela wandered off, failing to contribute to the conversation. It was like that all the time - any time she was talking to more than one person, the other people just ended up talking to each other and she didn't see where could she add anything. Noticing that the boy from before also wandered off, she sidled up to him. "Hey. I don't believe I ever got your name."
Appearance: Standing at five feet tall, Angela is a petite person. She has a rather small, narrow face, making it appear crowded with the standard features - the fringe covering all of the forehead down to the eyes, the four-way battle between the nose, mouth and eyes leaving little space that could count as cheeks. Despite her slight build, Angela isn't especially weak, having a penchant for carrying a heavy bag full of stuff with her - books, paper, groceries, whatever would it be. Angela doesn't appear to be a person particularly concerned about her appearance. Her hair is two-toned, having been dyed dark red at some point when it was much shorter. It has since grown longer, the natural brown color taking up a significant span between the scalp and the red zone. As of now, Angela's wearing an oversized T-shirt and yoga pants, both stained with paint and other substances from her hobby misadventures.
Personality: Angela's primary traits that warp her personality around them are her psychological disorder and lack of drive. Angela's incapable of feeling most emotions, or doesn't feel them the way other people do. For her, only the negative emotions exist. Lacking positive reinforcement, she doesn't exhibit much interest in anything, so she does whatever occupies her mind to stave off her boredom and she thinks will benefit her further in life. While she might smile a lot, it's her brave face she puts up as she tries to make the most out of what she still considers social ineptitude. Not feeling any of the relevant pleasure, Angela lacks interest in sexual matters.
Biography: Layla Richard was born in 1986 to parents in the Richard family in a certain city in Maryland. She got to attend the local, oddly well funded school. It was a nice place with much potential for extracurricular activity while lacking in discrimination, and so Layla made a very early start at learning Japanese. She had a lot of success with anything she tried and took well to an active, ambitious lifestyle. She moved out early to go to Harvard, and now has a PhD and multiple well-paying jobs, occupying her free time however she wishes. Angela Richard is her younger sister, born in 1992. Angela was also set to attend the same school, but the plan fell apart as she was diagnosed with leukemia while in first grade. She received a bone marrow transplant and other pertinent therapy, and in many months she made a full recovery, no remission having happened after five years or at all. After returning to school, Angela considered herself alienated. She still attended classes, but she didn't show passion or any form of social behavior aside from simple services - asking what homework was and the like. The trend continued as she moved on to middle and high school, and her academic achievements weren't ever anything special, her sister's past grades being consistently higher. Despite her parents trying to be supporive, they couldn't hide the strain of caring for a seriously ill person entirely, and that instilled some perception of inadequacy in Angela. Even now, after she's finished her Computer Science studies (with all the options being bad, she picked the one with potential for being well-paying), she still lives with her parents, trying to look for a job and seeking something that could give her actual pleasure or at least fascination. Well, until now. While she hasn't found either, being kidnapped into what can very well be called a different world certainly has put a stop to these concerns.
Skills: A wide smattering of various skills. Her college education in Computer Science, giving her some idea on math and programming. Some basic education on how to draw, how to cook, basic strategies from many games board or otherwise, the very basics of a few martial art courses. Some basic Spanish, Japanese, a few phrases in German. The list could go on, but it would never again reach anything actually worth mentioning as a significant skill.
Elemental Cores: Dark, Cold
Abilities: Non
Familiars: Elizabeth (Dark, Cold)
Possessions: None
Name: Elizabeth
Sex: Female
Age: Technically 0, apparently
Race: Bipedal canid (vulpid)
Appearance: An emaciated-looking humanoid covered in moderately long black fur, nearly six feet tall. She has an elongated, animalistic head, although its ears are more visibly located on the sides rather than top-looking, and there is a very thick trail of hair coming out of the back and sides of her head. It billows out only to gather back together around hip level, where the hair appears frozen together before spreading out again a little with the remaining few inches of its length. The hair quickly fades from being black near the head to being blood-red, its meeting place darkened. Elizabeth's hands and feet don't possess digits as much as digit-shaped claws, somehow capable of bending with a finger's range of motion but made of tougher stuff. Usually, that form is concealed beneath an illusion of a woman. The illusion retains the height and the ridiculous amount of head hair, admittedly recolored brown, and looks like an attractive woman in a backless green gown adorned with roses. So, essentially, her illusory look was likely cribbed from that one character from AAI2. Whether that's the in-universe reason or not is not up to me.
Personality: The first thing I should mention is probably Elizabeth's vanity. Well, vanity might be the wrong term. Elizabeth pays a lot of attention to her own and others' own outwardly visible characteristics, and is more or less obsessed with appearing in a way she likes, which is being as close to being best at everything as is possible. This leads to her being incredibly arrogant as she reassures her superiority at any applicable point to prevent cognitive dissonance. She has little regard for morality, and her decision-making processes are, again, geared towards maintaining her appearance. Elizabeth lacks interests, flexibly changing them to suit the situation and always keeping herself from enjoying anything. Any attachment she might show to anyone is superficial and diplomatic. Since being bound to her mistress makes her wellbeing important to her own wellbeing, she has no choice but to care about it.
Biography: Personified imagining of interpersonal philosophy.
Skills: Aside from the smattering of skills Angela has, Elizabeth is a cunning plotter and opportunist. Some imagined traits of Angela's sister are reflected in her.
Elemental Cores: Dark, Cold
Abilities:
Stasis (Both): This magic, delivered via some form of ranged attack, is a debuff/curse/whatnot, preventing the intended target hit from changing in some way, the spell's energy opposing other effects until it runs out, the exact power (work per time) and thus possible duration being adjustable by Cold mastery. Primarily, it halts motion, preventing the target from changing position in space, but it can also keep the target from getting warmer (by preventing heat energy level from increasing by keeping it out, handy for when other Cold spells leave it down), and probably have a myriad other effects, her Dark mastery and ingenuity being the limits of what she can tell the spell to do. At its core, this is a counterspell. It counters. For now, Elizabeth voices her desires to help her form the curse.
Arctic Ray (Cold): A simple ray of Cold energy, doing whatever concentrated Cold energy does to whatever it hits, likely harmful. It also forms and leaves a path of stilled medium, usually air, through which Elizabeth's other spells can slide much faster. The ray can have some curvature instead of just being straight, although it's simplest to use if straight. Elizabeth finds it easier to project from her claws, and it helps with aiming.
Nerveskitter (Dark): A dark bolt which induces fear, anger and paranoia in its targets. While it can lead to mental stress in large amounts, a little paranoia never hurt anyone, and Elizabeth tends to use the spell on herself to keep her mind sharp for quick reactions.
Cold Embrace (Both): This spell calms the mind and stills the body, numbing pain, closing wounds and sealing them shut, constricting outer blood vessels to stem bleeding, and stiffening the skin and muscles, hardening the target against various attacks. The effect is localized, which is where the Embrace part enters play - to administer the spell to the entire body of another person, Elizabeth practically has to hug them, the spell emanating from her entire being. Generously dosed, an embraced person is left immobile in a stupor, stabilized and recovering quickly, in a good state to receive proper curative magic.
Hideous (Dark): A spell that obscures with a different image, keeping the truth from outer perception. In other words, illusion. For now, Elizabeth is most adept at projecting her usual female countenance, any other images being of low quality. The space within the illusion can be dark or not as it either doesn't let light through, reflecting or absorbing it instead just like matter, or does. The latter option is more difficult to make look realistic since the shading doesn't just form naturally, but it is the variety Elizabeth hides herself with - otherwise, she couldn't see.
"Nathaniel, huh." the girl repeated, testing if she could say the name again. "My name's Angela." she said, deeming that her name might be a sufficient way of describing who she is. Before she could continue, the green-dressed woman bustled her way over to the group.
"Oh my, how formal." she said. "I'm honored that you'd choose such words in my presence, Nathaniel" she said the name with a smirk "but it makes you sound like a dolt that can't speak normally, just like my originator here. Relax, I'm not going to bite for this yet."
Angela just stood there, failing to break through the woman's initiative. "She is suprised, but she's in my hands now, and that's the best thing that could've happened to her here." she continued. "Although I see girlyboy here has a friend too!" the words just kept coming out, assuming a mocking tone. "Little bantam fighters like this are the scariest, it'd be a tough victory if we happened to fight." Some degree of appreciation entered her voice, partially supplanting the mocking. Partially.
Angela finally gathered up some form of courage to say anything. "Are you going to introduce yourself?"
The woman paused for a moment. "I was just getting to that, missy. My name's Elizabeth. It's one word so if you need me to repeat it, ask away."
At a time which to her seemed like just a number of moments ago, she was in a room of a house, applying pigments to a surface. She couldn't call it her house, as she didn't own it, and she couldn't call it painting, because it'd imply she had any amount of talent or skill in it. It was a diligent attempt, though. It also was however much time ago and likely incredibly far away. Then her life as she knew it broke entirely, like it has at least once in the past.
"Get a move on, missy. There's people here." This voice came from behind her, startling her. Angela jolted into a sitting position, pushing the lid of the pod she was in away, and looked around. She heard a click of something pointy moving to her right, so she turned that way.
The sight that greeted her was that of a tall woman with a stern look on her face and a green dress on her body. Her brown hair didn't exactly frame her hair as much as backgrounded it, a rose-adorned headband keeping it away from engulfing her head. A symmetrical, if somewhat longer arc of roses framed her neckline.
And, well, there still was the large amount of other pods in the background.
The woman shifted her weight to another leg. The clicking sound of her shoes was somewhat weird - instead of a single click of a heel, it made multiple, overlaid clicks. Catching Angela's gaze, the woman smiled, her face an image of haughty confidence. "I understand you'd like to keep looking, but you've got getting up to do." she said.
Angela turned aside to let her legs hang off the edge of the pod, then jumped down onto the ground. Her hands reached to her side, briefly seeking a nonexistent bag, then gave up. Then she considered the further course of action. The world was completely unknown save for the fact she was still a person and the objects around her were objects that could be seen and touched. There was a mention of other people - maybe they'd know something.
Angela walked over to the pair of what turned out to be young men rather than a mixed pair, completely ignoring the green-dressed woman or anyone else. "Hello. Who are you?" she addressed them with all the grace and proficiency of a person playing chess after only having been explained the rules.