Silver Carrot

Titans of Gotham

Two weeks ago

Natalie stared at the handwritten letter demanding rent. She just got fired today. She'd never been courteous around rude customers but one of them hd kicked up enough of a stink that she finally got axed this time. She stretched, and groaned, turned back to her laptop, and continued brownsing through the seven tabs she had open. Looking for other job openings. Other apartments. Any personal connection she had left. Any bridge that wasn't burned yet. She wasn't going to let having nothing left stop her or get her down. If it came down to it, she could sell her bike for scrap and get an extra week of food, shelter and internet.

Just then, a dialogue box opened up on her screen, and text began to appear. Somebody had just hacked into her laptop. Natalie sword and sat upright, suddenly paying very close attention as she read the message.

---

That night, she was driving down the highway on her bike, a single backpack on her back carrying everything she owned. She had traded in all the clothes and possessions she couldn't carry which amounted to just enough cash for fuel and dinner and no more. What she was doing was a gamble. It might even possibly be a trap. But why would anyone send that message unless it was legitimate? Somebody calling themselves Oracle, possibly even THE Oracle, has offered her food and board in exchange for her using her powers to fight crime? Natalie had never given much thought to fighting crime. Like most people, she considered that the work of Heroes, and did not consider herself a hero. She had enough to deal with. But she would be lying if she said she wasn't excited at the prospect. It also meant that instead of needing to hide her powers, she could actually flex them.

Present Day

Natalie had always known, since hearing of his dissapearence before she even arrived here and no word since, that Gemini was dead. But hearing confirmation made it real. She was silent for a long time, staring at the monitor long after Bolt had left the room. Suddenly she picked up her empty soda can and threw it as hard as she could at the screen. It bounced off and fell to the floor with a clatter that cut through the tense silence.

"Is she really going to tell us that and leave it? No explaination? Are we not owed an explaination?! Somebody just fucking DIED! This is so fucked!" she suddenly screamed out, before getting up and storming off to her own room, though not before everyone who remained could hear her start to sob just before she was out of sight.

In her own room, she crawled onto her bed, boots still on, and drew her knees up to her chest. She hugged her legs to herself, curling into a ball. The few seconds of sobbing she'd choked back on the way here were all she had. Now she felt too numb to cry. What the hell was she even doing here? She didn't belong in gotham. She wasn't a vigilante. She wasn't hero material the way the Bat family were heroes. Was she only recruited because of a power she didn't know how to really use yet? Would she ever figure out how it works, or why she has it?

Harold's Academy for the Magically Inclined

@Ti

I imagine Ana and Lhoren have a positive enough relationship, Lhoren has made it known she will join the student council and try for Illuminaire of House Ivar later on in her school life. Despite being 17, she's only a second year after all.

But par for the course, it's hard to have *any* kind of intimacy or real friendship with somebody who you 100% know is hearing your thoughts

Harold's Academy for the Magically Inclined

On one hand it makes sense that as Lhoren hears thoughts as if they were spoken, Raffaella's masking would prevent Lhoren from hearing them.

On the other hand,

Harold's Academy for the Magically Inclined

This whole concept is the crux of why I made Lhoren. She can't control her gift. If you think a thought next to her, she heard it. Neither of you had any choice in the matter

Harold's Academy for the Magically Inclined

That'd be an interesting route to take Lhoren. Though given the nature of her 'broadcasting', the only obstacle to her literally making a human pyramid of six seraphim with the snap of her fingers is her lack of vitesse

Harold's Academy for the Magically Inclined

Lhoren Ashdale

◈ A p p e a r a n c e ◈
Lhoren is a notably pretty girl, of around average height and build for a girl her age. She tends to dress well, wear light makeup within the dress code as often as possible, and always wears a ribbon in her shoulder length silver hair. Her eyes, when open, are a vibrant amethyst in color.

◈ "Let me know if there’s anything else I can help you with, ‘kay?" ◈

◈ N a m e
Lhoren Faith Ashdale

◈ S p e l l c a s t e r N a m e
Mercury

◈ A g e, H e i g h t, a n d W e i g h t
17, 5”3/160cm, 44 kg/97 lbs

◈ R a c e
Mystic

◈ G e n d e r
Female

◈ S e x u a l O r i e n t a t i o n
Bisexual

◈ Y e a r
2nd Year

◈ P e t
A ginger Cait called Autumn

◈ H o u s e
House of Ivar

◈ I l l u m i n a i r e
No

◈ C l a s s e s

◈ Gifts

◈ Parliament Studies

◈ Cartography

◈ The Time Of Tears

◈ Professions

◈ A r e Y o u O n Y o u r H o u s e ' s W a a g a T e a m?
No. She wanted to tryout but her Gift was deemed to give her an unfair advantage.

◈ "Oh, no. I totally get it. No worries. Don’t worry. I didn’t hear…anything…that important…" ◈

◈ P e r s o n a l i t y
Cheerful◈ Positive ◈ Desperate ◈ Kind ◈ Exuberant

Lhoren is a warm, outgoing, friendly person who likes to think she exudes reliable big sister energy. Instead, her lack of meaningful friendships in spite of trying has made her at times overbearing, awkward and manic in an attempt to overcompensate. The potential for her joking or teasing to bring forth accusations of invasive mind reading, however, means that she never joins in any banter and prefers to keep conversations cheerful and sterile, which can give some louder students the impression she’s a killjoy.

Her eyes are rarely seen fully open and a smile is seldom seen missing from her face as she goes about daily life at the academy beaming with a radiant optimism and positivity. She is always ready to help anybody in need at any given time (when it is in her power to be of assistance.)

◈ H i s t o r y
Lhoren was the third child in her family, born to parents who both worked desk jobs for the Administrative Council for their cluster of islands. She was the only girl in the family and drew up with two older brothers. Her childhood was largely unremarkable. Lhoren was a cheerful, attractive girl who never had any issues making friends at school.

When she reached the age of fifteen without having her gift awaken and nobody in the family having a gift either, she assumed it was something she’d never have to worry about. But only a few weeks later, it started. Began to hear sentences that the people around her weren’t saying. And she could also think a sentence at them and they’d hear it. She had a gift. She was a Mystic, and a Psychiccer at that.

At first she was excited, but during the few weeks of transitional paperwork while she was still at school, her ability to read minds and unearth secrets was seen as intrusive. Her teenage friends suddenly felt uneasy just being around her, and her popularity vanished overnight. Even her family members started acting differently around her, and she could suddenly hear their doubts. Their paranoid thoughts about her. But they smiled through and continued to support her, so she put on a smile herself and reciprocated.

Once the paperwork was finalised, she finally arrived at Harold’s Academy as a first year. Surely, with everyone else being a Mystic, she could make new friends. But it was worse. As a Psychiccer assigned to House Ivar she was inherently mistrusted by three quarters of the student body by default. Even amongst her own house, her gift still made regular conversations tense. The people around her know she’s a nice girl who tries her hardest, but over one year attending the school, she has yet to maintain a single lasting personal friendship with anybody.

◈ R e p u t a t i o n
Lhoren is seen as a cheerful, helpful ray of sunshine who is both dependable and eager to please. Among teachers she’s generally well liked and has a lot of potential as a student. Most people who regularly talk to her like her and will vouch for her good points but admit that they find her gift invasive and don’t like talking to her or having conversations near her as it makes them uneasy. Any student with a secret may find themselves worrying how much Lhoren knows about it.

◈ G o a l s
Lhoren’s immediate goals are to learn how to selectively utilise her gift so that she can perhaps turn it off when she doesn't need to and increase its range and effectiveness when she does. She would also like to make some friends.

Longer term goals, Lhoren likes the idea of entering the world of politics, using her gift to sniff out the truth from the lies in an environment where she could make some real change for the better.

◈ R e l a t i o n s
Lhoren has a father and mother that she still regularly writes to, two older brothers who both have full-time jobs now, and a couple of pen-pals from her old non-Mystic school she writes to on occasion.

◈ "Heehee. You know, I might not look it but I’m pretty good at chess…..no, I don’t cheat! At least…I didn’t…Ah….You know what, why don’t we play something else?" ◈

◈ M y s t i c C l a s s i f i c a t i o n
Psychiccer

◈ G i f t
Telepathy

◈ M y s t i c C o d e
Lhoren can hear the thoughts of all those around her as if they had spoken the thoughts out loud. Similarly, she can also send telepathic messages to others, either individually or by broadcasting a thought to everybody around her. In combat exercises she often uses this gift to announce any tactic the enemy thinks about, directly to her teammates, taking any element of surprise away from the enemy.

◈ L i m i t a t i o n s a n d W e a k n e s s e s
Lhoren can’t actually read a person’s mind. Only their single topmost train of thought at the forefront of their mind at any given time. If somebody had a lot of dark secrets but was currently genuinely preoccupied about what to have for lunch, she would only be able to pick up on them worrying about lunch. Similarly she can only send one thought to other people at any time. The range of her gift is about twenty feet at present though she’d like to train it to reach farther. At present she also has little control over the gift and no way of turning it off when it’s not needed, which she would like to do very much.

Harold's Academy for the Magically Inclined

@Ignorancebliss

It's alright. Thinking on it more, I think the fact Lucius seems to need to actively try to read minds, and Lhoren (that's my char's name) is taking gifts class hoping to learn a way to turn it off when she doesn't need it, makes them fundamentally different enough at a base level to make the similarities interesting

Harold's Academy for the Magically Inclined

@Ignorancebliss Our characters have pretty much the same gift (my character only reads the main thought people thinking and doesn't have a second gift but still). I'm going back to the drawing board >.>

EDIT: Lucius can't send telepathic messages to others so I think we're juuust different enough and I'm going to go ahead with maybe some tweaks

Harold's Academy for the Magically Inclined

I'd also like to know because this is currently the best pic I have

here

Harold's Academy for the Magically Inclined

I haven't even decided on a name, age or appearence yet and people are out here writing up CS's before we even have a skeleton!