Vertigo

Epyllion: Beyond Moonlight's Reach

SPEAKING OF, shit, in my hurry I forgot to react to Shieldwing's bit completely! Will edit my post after work today, sorry about that Digi. Got thrown out the loop when I realized I forgot my original plans for her and had to make do :'D

Epyllion: Beyond Moonlight's Reach

__________________________________________________

Fellwing nodded politely at Heliotrope's answer, but her enthusiasm for asking questions waned considerably the more she watched the older dragon work. Not because of anything she did, but because of the way she was; clearly exhausted, yet unable to take a break with her laboratory crammed with both patients and inquisitive visitors. So when she once again mentioned lost sleep, Fellwing decided it might be best to let her focus on her work and maybe get some well-earned rest afterwards. She could save her questions for another day — or perhaps even for another drake.

"I appreciate your patience with all these questions and patients, Heliotrope," she said with a small smile. "I won't bother you any further. Please do try to sneak in a nap at least, if you can. My clutchmates will hopefully occupy your, hm, assistant for a while longer."

"Fell, do you want to come with us?"

As the Seer turned away from the healer, he found Shieldwing ltalking to her. He looked like he had more to say, so she waited patiently for him to finish - only for the red drake to retort to pantomiming his point across. Fellwing couldn't help but smile at the endearing effort. She was pretty perceptive; there would've been no need for such theatrics, but far be it from her to tell it to him and ruin the fun. Instead, she offered a brief nudge of her head back towards Garrock's general vicinity in turn. Not that she was looking forward to sticking her nose in the older dragon's business, but if it helped her friends... "You go ahead, I'll be with you shortly."

Before addressing Garrock, however, Fellwing had one more thing to take care of, she noticed. From the corner of her eye, she spotted Kyte. They were deep in thought as they examined their wing, and something about it irked the Seer. They'd seen Stargaze's distress, yet had remained quiet in spite of it, even when Shieldwing had directly addressed them.

"An overdeveloped wing is better than one lost to corruption," Fellwing commented, her voice a little colder than she intended, as she passed the other drake by. "You would do well to talk to Stargaze. Sometimes physical injuries heal faster than mental ones."

With that, she turned to Garrock, her tone back to inquisitive. "You keep mentioning your brother and trouble in the same sentence, Garrock, but he didn't strike me as the troublemaking sort." She tilted her head. "Have I got the wrong read on him?"

Or do you, she left unsaid.

Symphony on High

@Vertigo I don't think there's going to be a ton of times where you'll need to communicate with someone 30 stories above you, but fair enough. So long as we're on the same page about using this special in the operation area we can leave it be. just lemme know when you've finished editing her sheet and then she can get summoned to the character tab.

@BrokenPromise

I see you underestimate the amount of sunset brooding dark magical girls do atop skyscrapers.

Edited and yeeted into the char tab!

Symphony on High

The Whisper in the Dark

The Whisper in the Dark

AGE:

20

SEX:

Female

APPEARANCE:

What Cirilla loses in stature, she makes up for in attitude — and heel height. She's a good five feet of spite and accessories, with just enough patience to do her makeup in the mornings, and none left over for the rest of the day. She's thin, barely escaping being sickly-so, doesn't exactly have a physique meant for physical labor. Which is why, if you ever do fight her, she'd appreciate if you dropped dead now rather than later, k? No? Okay, but don't tell her she didn't warn you, because she just fucking did.

👹

When transformed, the most striking change are the two bright pink horns protruding from her forehead. Her eyes also become much deeper in colour — all the better to throw death glares with. Mostly, though, she just gets a sweet new getup with just a little bit more of everything; more leather, more spikes, more saturation, more reasons for her mother to roll in her grave. (Good riddance).

Oh, and she grows an inch. Or two. Arguably. Don't worry, once she knocks you on your ass, she'll look plenty tall either way.

GRIMOIRE:

A heart-shaped hair clip.

INSTRUMENT:

KISS & MAKE UP: A black handgun with pink highlights. It fires peace offerings — or as the normies call them, bullets. They, too, are pink. There's a heart-shaped charm hanging from the trigger guard, reminiscent of her grimoire.
GRADE: Silver
KEYWORD: Handgun
DAMAGE TYPE: Physical
DAMAGE: B
SPEED: C
SENTINEL: E
SPECIAL: WE ARE BUT DUST AND SHADOW | Upon dealing a final blow to an enemy, calls forth a summon from their shadow. This shadow creature takes the appearance and physical characteristics of the fallen foe, but its prowess is determined the same way as a [Summon] cast, using the instrument's grade. This ability has a six second cooldown.

STYLE:

HELLSPAWN: Black meets pink hot enough to make your eyes bleed. If it doesn't, all the spikes will, when applied directly into your eye sockets.
GRADE: Bronze
PHYSICAL: D
ARCANE: D
CHAOS: E
SPECIAL: STREETSIDE DEVIL | Gives the user two brightly coloured horns. They're somewhat sharp, I guess. Not enough to be truly dangerous or anything, but don't like, get close enough to be headbutted? Because she will do it. Unprompted.

GENRE:

FRIENDS ON THE OTHER SIDE: A style all about making friends. Literally, making her own friends. If you're a monster and willing to work with her, you can be counted among that lot. If you're not, you'll be sent to the other side, fast, most likely without ever finding out what hit you. Ciri's a little camera shy that way.
GRADE: Gold
ELEMENT: Shadow
NOTES: [Obfuscate, Intangible] Damage X (6), Restrain (4), Blink (4), Minor Heal (2), Summon (4), Enhance (2), Powerful (0), Homing (2), Avoid (2), AoE (2), Bend (0), Construction (4)
SPECIAL: ABYSSUS ABYSSUM INVOCAT | Ciri has a particular affinity for the shadows, and the beings called forth from them. She can enhance her minions in two ways. She can use both of these modifications only once per operation, and they cannot be applied on the same cast.
Deepen Shadow / a creature summoned by the user receives a +1 rank to all of its attributes.
Stretch Shadow / when summoning a creature, creates a replica of them without extra mana cost. Any notes that would buff the first creature upon casting will be half as effective on the second creature.

LEITMOTIF:

SO(ME)THING ON YOUR MIND: Allows the user to speak telepathically with a sentient creature whose presence she's aware of. The connection is two-way, enabling a back and forth conversation via transferred thoughts.
GRADE: Silver

PR:

GRADE: Bronze
GEAR: Disguise (30cr), Self Defense Weapon (20cr), EMP GRenade (40cr), Medical Supplies (10cr)
SPECIAL: Leg Up in the Race | Do almost 4 inch heels count as a backup weapon? Cause they should.

BACKUP:

n/a

FACTION:

Maverick Alternative

TRIVIA:

In one way or another, monsters have always been part of Ciri's life, even before she knew they existed. Her parents worked in the field, her mother as an esper, father as an IT guy behind the former's operations. The two worked tirelessly to keep the city safe, and were well-respected by their peers. Or that's what Cirilla has since heard, anyway. If you ask her?

They fucking sucked.

In over their heads from the start, they were a prime target for monsters seeking to cultivate their misery crop, and before they realized it, they had become prey to the very things they were supposed to hunt. And young Ciri bore the brunt of it. It was, after all, easier to blame the wailing little shithead that had forced them to divert so much of their attention and time from their budding careers than to admit to being shit at their jobs, or something.

Luckily for Ciri, she made a friend early on. A friend no one believed existed at first — children did have wild imaginations, and regular humans, particularly such young ones, weren't supposed to be able to perceive monsters, let alone befriend them. Her friend was a large hound of some kind, big and fluffy and somehow able to fit into every shadow in her room all at once. Its where It lived, away from prying eyes and the light of the day.

Until one evening that Ciri cannot properly recall. She remembers her mother yelling, remembers her parents looking at her friend as if It was something bad, and then remembers them lunging for her, weapons in hand. She remembers she thought she would die, and that she didn't, because her friend was there. And then her parents were not.

Because It fucked them up.

For the next few years, Ciri grew up among monsters, though she couldn't really tell them apart from regular humans — yet apparently, there was supposed to be a huge gap between them and actual humans. Because, as it turns out, killing monsters was fair game, but apparently the opposite was not.

Ciri was eventually "rescued" from her "predicament" by GEMINI espers who, upon checking her information, realized she was related to one of their own. They handed Ciri her mother's old grimoire, which had since turned into a regular old hair clip, unresponsive to anyone's attempts to draw power from it. As a memento, they said, and brought her back to live among humans. They aided her in her daily tasks, trying to help her find a house she could call a home.

What they didn't realize was that she'd already had a home. And they'd burned it to the ground.

Assholes.

So when it turned out that in her hands her mother's hair clip turned into an active grimoire once more, it wasn't the GEMINI she joined, like her late parents had wished. It was their complete opposite; the Maverick Alternative.

It followed her. Because wherever she goes, It follows, like a shadow.

Good. After everything, she owes It her entire lifes's worth of hot mana meals. Thankfully, it's not like she's about to run out of misery anytime soon. The world's kinda shit like that.

Footnote

20 | Female | Maverick Alternative | So(ME)thing On Your Mind
Kiss & Make Up | Handgun | Physical | We Are But Dust and Shadow
Hellspawn | Streetside Devil
Friends on the Other Side | Shadow | Abyssus Abyssum Invocat
[Obfuscate, Intangible] Damage X (6), Restrain (4), Blink (4), Minor Heal (2), Summon (4), Enhance (2), Powerful (0), Homing (2), Avoid (2), AoE (2), Bend (0), Construction (4)

DAMAGE: B | SPEED: C | SENTINEL: E | 1000

PHYSICAL: D | ARCANE: D | CHAOS: E | 1000

Symphony on High

For the Leitmotif, I did leave out a strict range intentionally, but tried to specifically limit it to the mission area with the "whose presence she's aware of" line. The idea was to be able to converse with enemy monsters and the Freelancer/GEMINI PCs without her revealing her position, so I wouldn't be stuck in a lonely dark corner rp-wise, ha. So in a battle taking place outside for example, if she knows someone is on top of a building because she saw someone casting from there, even if the building is 300 feet tall, she could talk to them. But not to a person sneaking up right behind her, since she's not aware of them, or someone so far away she wouldn't be aware of where exactly they went.

If that is too strong for Silver grade, though, I can slap on that numerical range too. Just wanted to specify that it was never meant to be infinite.

For the rest of the stuff, gotcha! Will make the edits a bit later today, have to run errands for a few hours.

Rerun: Blackguards!

Missing the background still but tossing up a WIP to show I'm working on things yo

wraith, the assassin

Wraith

Race:

Halfling

Gender:

Male

Age:

25

Appearance:

Short and unassuming even when compared to his kin, Wraith is easy to miss in a crowd — and that is by design. Standing a few inches short of three feet, he comes across as little more than a mobile pile of tattered clothes, scurrying from shadow to shadow. Even when standing still, his posture is poor and stance wary, as if the slightest sound could spur him into a run — a stark contrast to his face, which seems to be stuck on an indifferent scowl if you do happen to see it, and his voice, a monotone mumble. As a whole, he is quite unremarkable, and not many consider him a threat. That's their first and last mistake.

Cloaked in a hood and hidden by a mask, few are those who have actually caught a proper glimpse of the halfling's face — but those who have, will likely remember it, a fact Wraith loathes. A past magical injury has branded him, carving blue veins into the skin below his eyes. They ripple as if made of liquid, an occasional shimmer giving them an eerie hue. Their shade is a turquoise similar to his eyes; sharp, unnatural, unnerving.

Though Wraith comes across as unarmed at a glance, no self-respecting warrior truly assumes him to be such. His kind always carry blades, the smart ones two, and the ones that live the longest as many as they can. Wraith intends to live long.

Personality:

Having long since learnt that knowledge is power, Wraith lets slip very little of himself or his intentions. Some things, however, can be surmised easily enough. For one, Wraith is reserved, keeping to himself in every sense of the word; he abhors physical proximity as much as emotional, and is at his most comfortable (which is to say, not very) when at an arm's length away from others. What he isn't is shy; when he does decide to talk, he does so with deadpan confidence and the boldness of someone who never quite learnt how and when to stay his tongue. In a similar vein, insults from most others don't seem to bother him either, and though he can certainly display frustration, he doesn't anger easily.

Curiosity is a vice Wraith has suffered from for the longest while, and try as he might, he cannot keep it completely under wraps. Some say his cowardice is another, perhaps even worse vice, though Wraith considers it his greatest asset. It's his alertness and willingness to drop whoever might slow him down that has gotten him this far — and he isn't about to stop anytime soon. If you can trust anything about this halfling, it's his determination to see the morrow.

Background:

Little is known of Wraith's past, including his birth name, and he'd very much prefer to keep it that way. But to paint a proper picture, it's important to know that where he came from, halflings were not considered a jolly, merry lot with big smiles and bigger yet bellies; they were known as conniving, cunning thieves, likely to steal your coin the second you looked away. As such, Wraith wasn't exactly dealt the best of hands at birth. Living on the streets of a grandiose city known for its magical academy, he got by stealing scraps from mage apprentices and scribes.

That was, until he was caught — and instead of having his hands chopped or being sent to the gallows, he was offered an opportunity. The academy was looking for a few volunteers to help with a few of their experiments. He was promised an easy job even a kid like him could do, a roof over his head, a bed to sleep in, and all the food he'd ever need. Even as a child, Wraith wasn't trusting, and knew there was no such thing as free dinner. But desperate and hungry, he agreed. Whatever they had in store for him, surely it couldn't be worse than his life now?

A decade or so later, as the research wing of the Grand Academia of Magic was burning to the ground behind him, Wraith thought back on that thought and laughed. Since, he returned to his old ways, putting to use the magic carved into his very body by the experimentation he was subjected to. Only this time, he stole lives instead of coppers. Turned out it was far more lucrative.

Talents:

🗡 Universal key // Give him a lock, any lock, and he will have it open before you can so much as blink. The same goes for disarming — and indeed setting — traps, whether magical or mundane.
🗡 Coward's weapon // While it might not sound like much compared to magic, Wraith is very knowledgeable about poisons, able to brew his own.
🗡 Never here // If you're able to see Wraith, it's likely because he's allowing you to see him. He's a master of disappearing at will, partly thanks to his magic, which can render him invisible and undetectable, as well as allow him to jump from shadow to shadow. However, as someone who's specialized in tearing magic away from their wielders, he is quite capable of hiding even without any magical aids. He's inhumanely nimble, and also able to run on walls and other such surfaces.
🗡 Mageslayer // Escaping from the academy was no easy feat, but during his preparations for it, Wraith became quite adept at killing magic wielders in particular. Thanks to the experiments he featured in, his body is highly resistant to magic, allowing him to shrug off spells that would down a regular person. He is not completely immune however, and the more magical harm comes upon him, the longer a breather he has to take to "recharge", so to speak.

Flaws:

🗡 Paranoia // Distrustful to a fault, Wraith's own paranoia prevents him from truly being able to make use of teamwork, and often has him run away even from his own if he suspects them to be after his life.
🗡 Shortstuff // While his short stature has its advantages, Wraith cannot deny the disadvantages either. Simply put, he's physically weak, unable to lift or carry heavy things or withstand nearly as many physical blows as magical. He's light, too, and one of his worst enemies so far has been a particularly strong wind. No, really.
🗡 Magical infliction // While the magic coursing within him offers him many a benefit, it is also unpredictable, the result of curious, not genius, minds. This can cause his magic to backfire at times, causing unpredictable results.
🗡 Curiosity killed the // Curious and greedy to such a degree that it sometimes supersedes his cowardice, Wraith cannot help but pocket every shiny, potential dangerous thing he comes across — or at least, have someone else do it for him. That was, ironically, how he ended up caught by the magical scholars in the first place.

Equipment:

🗡 Serrated dagger, with runes running along the length of the blade. Those in the know call it the Essence Reaver. Wraith calls it a dagger. Its blade never seems to dull, but its greatest strength is its uncanny ability to rend magic from its target. That is to say, a magic wielder injured with it will find themselves unable to properly channel their magic for a time. Weaker mages will lose their abilities altogether until their wounds have healed and their blood cleansed, while extremely powerful ones might experience recoil, or find it difficult to aim where they intended to. If taken from Wraith, the dagger's runes will fade and its special abilities cease to function until returned to his possession.
🗡 Tools of the trade; crowbar, ball bearings, lock picking set, small mirror, the usual things needed to get into places he isn't welcome in.
🗡 Vial of paralyzing poison.
🗡 Hooded cloak.

Miscellaneous:

xo

Symphony on High

Ok 'ere

Ciri, no not that Ciri, no not Siri either

The Whisper in the Dark

AGE:

20

SEX:

Female

APPEARANCE:

What Cirilla loses in stature, she makes up for in attitude — and heel height. She's a good five feet of spite and accessories, with just enough patience to do her makeup in the mornings, and none left over for the rest of the day. She's thin, barely escaping being sickly-so, doesn't exactly have a physique meant for physical labor. Which is why, if you ever do fight her, she'd appreciate if you dropped dead now rather than later, k? No? Okay, but don't tell her she didn't warn you, because she just fucking did.

👹

When transformed, the most striking change are the two bright pink horns protruding from her forehead. Her eyes also become much deeper in colour — all the better to throw death glares with. Mostly, though, she just gets a sweet new getup with just a little bit more of everything; more leather, more spikes, more saturation, more reasons for her mother to roll in her grave. (Good riddance).

Oh, and she grows an inch. Or two. Arguably. Don't worry, once she knocks you on your ass, she'll look plenty tall either way.

GRIMOIRE:

A heart-shaped hair clip.

INSTRUMENT:

KISS & MAKE UP: A black handgun with pink highlights. It fires peace offerings — or as the normies call them, bullets. They, too, are pink. There's a heart-shaped charm hanging from the trigger guard, reminiscent of her grimoire.
GRADE: Silver
KEYWORD: Handgun
DAMAGE TYPE: Physical
DAMAGE: B
SPEED: C
SENTINEL: E
SPECIAL: WE ARE BUT DUST AND SHADOW | Upon dealing a final blow to an enemy, calls forth a summon from their shadow. This shadow creature takes the appearance and physical characteristics of the fallen foe, but its prowess is determined the same way as a [Summon] cast, using the instrument's grade. This ability has a six second cooldown.

STYLE:

HELLSPAWN: Black meets pink hot enough to make your eyes bleed. If it doesn't, all the spikes will, when applied directly into your eye sockets.
GRADE: Bronze
PHYSICAL: D
ARCANE: D
CHAOS: E
SPECIAL: STREETSIDE DEVIL | Gives the user two brightly coloured horns. They're somewhat sharp, I guess. Not enough to be truly dangerous or anything, but don't like, get close enough to be headbutted? Because she will do it. Unprompted.

GENRE:

FRIENDS ON THE OTHER SIDE: A style all about making friends. Literally, making her own friends. If you're a monster and willing to work with her, you can be counted among that lot. If you're not, you'll be sent to the other side, fast, most likely without ever finding out what hit you. Ciri's a little camera shy that way.
GRADE: Gold
ELEMENT: Shadow
NOTES: [Obfuscate, Intangible] Damage X (6), Restrain (4), Blink (4), Minor Heal (2), Summon (4), Enhance (2), Powerful (0), Homing (2), Avoid (2), AoE (2), Bend (0), Construction (4)
SPECIAL: ABYSSUS ABYSSUM INVOCAT | Ciri has a particular affinity for the shadows, and the beings called forth from them. She can enhance her minions in two ways. She can use both of these modifications only once per operation, and they cannot be applied on the same cast.
Deepen Shadow / a creature summoned by the user receives a +1 rank to all of its attributes.
Stretch Shadow / when summoning a creature, creates a replica of them without extra mana cost. Any notes that would buff the first creature upon casting will be half as effective on the second creature.

LEITMOTIF:

SO(ME)THING ON YOUR MIND: Allows the user to speak telepathically with a sentient creature whose presence she's aware of. The connection is two-way, enabling a back and forth conversation via transferred thoughts.
GRADE: Silver

PR:

n/a

BACKUP:

n/a

FACTION:

Maverick Alternative

TRIVIA:

In one way or another, monsters have always been part of Ciri's life, even before she knew they existed. Her parents worked in the field, her mother as an esper, father as an IT guy behind the former's operations. The two worked tirelessly to keep the city safe, and were well-respected by their peers. Or that's what Cirilla has since heard, anyway. If you ask her?

They fucking sucked.

In over their heads from the start, they were a prime target for monsters seeking to cultivate their misery crop, and before they realized it, they had become prey to the very things they were supposed to hunt. And young Ciri bore the brunt of it. It was, after all, easier to blame the wailing little shithead that had forced them to divert so much of their attention and time from their budding careers than to admit to being shit at their jobs, or something.

Luckily for Ciri, she made a friend early on. A friend no one believed existed at first — children did have wild imaginations, and regular humans, particularly such young ones, weren't supposed to be able to perceive monsters, let alone befriend them. Her friend was a large hound of some kind, big and fluffy and somehow able to fit into every shadow in her room all at once. Its where It lived, away from prying eyes and the light of the day.

Until one evening that Ciri cannot properly recall. She remembers her mother yelling, remembers her parents looking at her friend as if It was something bad, and then remembers them lunging for her, weapons in hand. She remembers she thought she would die, and that she didn't, because her friend was there. And then her parents were not.

Because It fucked them up.

For the next few years, Ciri grew up among monsters, though she couldn't really tell them apart from regular humans — yet apparently, there was supposed to be a huge gap between them and actual humans. Because, as it turns out, killing monsters was fair game, but apparently the opposite was not.

Ciri was eventually "rescued" from her "predicament" by GEMINI espers who, upon checking her information, realized she was related to one of their own. They handed Ciri her mother's old grimoire, which had since turned into a regular old hair clip, unresponsive to anyone's attempts to draw power from it. As a memento, they said, and brought her back to live among humans. They aided her in her daily tasks, trying to help her find a house she could call a home.

What they didn't realize was that she'd already had a home. And they'd burned it to the ground.

Assholes.

So when it turned out that in her hands her mother's hair clip turned into an active grimoire once more, it wasn't the GEMINI she joined, like her late parents had wished. It was their complete opposite; the Maverick Alternative.

It followed her. Because wherever she goes, It follows, like a shadow.

Good. After everything, she owes It her entire lifes's worth of hot mana meals. Thankfully, it's not like she's about to run out of misery anytime soon. The world's kinda shit like that.

banner

20 | Female | Maverick Alternative | So(ME)thing On Your Mind
Kiss & Make Up | Handgun | Physical | We Are But Dust and Shadow
Hellspawn | Streetside Devil
Friends on the Other Side | Shadow | Abyssus Abyssum Invocat
[Obfuscate, Intangible] Damage X (6), Restrain (4), Blink (4), Minor Heal (2), Summon (4), Enhance (2), Powerful (0), Homing (2), Avoid (2), AoE (2), Bend (0), Construction (4)

DAMAGE: B | SPEED: C | SENTINEL: E | 1000

PHYSICAL: D | ARCANE: D | CHAOS: E | 1000

Epyllion: Beyond Moonlight's Reach

<Snipped quote by Vertigo>

Haha, I know that feeling all too well. xD Yeah, no problem~ Above board though, I'd just like to know what Fellwing's answer is going to be to Shieldwing's question before I make my own next post. Is Fellwing going to elect to stay with Garroth and Heliotrope, or come with the rest of the group after Coryn and Rudrick?

@Digizel

I'll figure it out and reply tomorrow or so, got two CSes to do first! But won't be a long wait. I think she'll stay for now, but we'll see.

Epyllion: Beyond Moonlight's Reach

To be honest, I can't remember what I wanted Fellwing to ask next aka what she was trying to lead up to lmao.

I'll, uh, see if it comes back to me, but don't wait on that.

Rerun: Blackguards!

Still in, gonna finish the cs come weekend!