yoshua171

The Prophecy

Partially popping in to say hello to everyone, but also doing so to say "How is it that your RP and the world it is set in are so incredible that they keep pulling me back into their orbit?"

Capes of Samekh - A Post-Worm RP

Presidio

Vision colored only by the backs of her eyelids, Presidio nodded at ⁴Sight’s response, wishing he had elaborated on the others. Despite that failing, she understood, he was likely juggling other more pertinent thoughts such as strategies and how to utilize his own abilities and considerable experience best.

Her attention shifting she finished the rest of her armor, allowing its various components to remain floating entirely out of the way, unmoving despite the motion of the helicopter. With that finished she called to mind images of compound bows, frowned, and then opened her eyes. Swiftly she extracted her phone, opened a search engine, swiftly typing in a related search. Even as it loaded Presidio began creating more forcefields. As she honed in on a set of designs she duplicated her initial work and created the remaining necessary parts before closing off her phone and stowing it away. Setting to the task with a fierce diligence, Kari expanded upon her initial designs, stress testing where she could, and losing some awareness of her surroundings despite the constant motion and noise.

While she worked, SWAT addressed her and without opening her eyes, she responded. “Hard to say, but I’m confident that they can if they’re layered sufficiently. What is it you have in mind?” Following that, Kari fell silent, focusing on her work.

They touched down while she worked and she let the others disembark first. Once everyone was out of the way she extracted herself from the various protective belts and then, with a mental command, pulled her forcefields inwards. As she stepped out of the craft, dozens of forcefields of various size and shape arranged themselves and locked into place on her form, slotting into armor that was both decorative and functional--something that mundane armor would not be quite so well suited to accomplish. At one point there appeared gauntlets around her forearms and hands, but they quickly became enclosed by another set of interlocking shields and mechanisms. Even as they fitted into place she began locking most of them in, letting them shift purpose.

Briefly her gaze swept over her teammates before observing the street, the buildings, and then--high above--the situation that had brought them all there. Frowning slightly, Presidio couldn’t help but be daunted by the sheer scope of it. The quantity of the wires and cords entangling the helicopter, encapsulating the hostages, and keeping the far away figure aloft. Narrowing her eyes faintly she fixed an expression somewhere between honest determination and an imperious cold across her features. The woman had taken hostages and held their lives in her hands and while she’d known before, seeing it was something different.

Presidio flexed and clenched her fingers and in an instant forcefields rapidly began to pop into existence around her. Quite intentionally she took several steps away from her comrades, giving herself room to work. In the seconds that ⁴Sight used his power, she used hers, crafting several things at once, though this time with her eyes open. She called to mind arrows and as they were relatively simple things, she was able to quite easily construct them, but perhaps from more components than one might expect. When one was finished, it would “collapse” into itself, becoming shorter before floating swiftly into a compartment within the set of constructs that encased her arms.

By the time ⁴Sight stumbled, drawing her eye, she had roughly two dozen of the arrows crafted and hidden away. Their squad leader spoke and she nodded, frowning ever so slightly before the expression slipped away, leaving only a slight tension in her features as she spoke, “I don’t like this.” She directed her gaze back to the shaker, scanning for more details. She leaned forward slightly and squinted, as if that might help her see and while it didn’t she still managed to confirm something. “I think we have independents on scene,” she said, soundly only faintly unsure.

Then, before she could reevaluate their situation or say anything further, chaos ripped loose across the street before them and her eyes widened in an instant of confusion, which was followed swiftly by dawning terror. Wire had torn across the empty street in devastating fashion, shattering glass, cutting away at vehicles, and otherwise causing tremendous damage. Her mouth opened and she took a step back, but caught herself, not allowing any more retreat than that. She shut her mouth, lips pressed into a thin line as the noise and chaos of it all swiftly diminished, glass tinkling to the ground in an unpredictable staccato of sound.

While fear had dominated, she let a thread of anger well up to balance it, then tempered that as well, even as she shifted her awareness to her power, distracting herself from the statement that the villain’s actions had made.

“I don’t think she has any interest in talking this out. ⁴Sight, can you get us more information about the positions of the hostages?”

As she spoke her forcefields folded themselves into incredibly thin, notched chains, which fitted into one another and began to connect to the larger construct of her armor, specifically at her back and looping around to the constructs enclosing her gauntlets. By this point she was a figure outlined in an expanding halo of blue, almost crystalline, forcefields. Around her a veritable aura of additional shields continued to appear and arrange themselves to her will.

While she said nothing further aloud, Kari had made a decision. First she and her squad would assure the safety of the hostages...then she would take out and thoroughly restrain their target.

If she had her way, the woman just might find herself restricted by the uncaring embrace of someone else’s power.

---

Exactly

Despite his suggestion, it seemed that the beast of a cape had decided to take on the more easily accessed target. Understandable, if rather annoying. Tilting his head he watched at the startling display of speed and violence as his sole ally charged and attacked the woman. Something flew across his field of view, passing from one end of his multiple perspectives to the other in a frantic rush where it then struck the woman. She toppled, the door avoided, though through outside means. His gaze casually slid across the room as he advanced, shifting to her partner. Briefly his grin widened, but as the man spoke, threatening lives--and with a conviction the woman had lacked--the mirth in his eyes went cold. At the edges of their awareness faint glimpses of his various duplicates would begin to make themselves known. Each looked faintly different, something that was a result of his state of dress during their creation.

Noting this development, Exactly began to pick up the pace, approaching with renewed vigor. As the monstrous cape attempted to attack the woman a gunshot rang off, aimed at a hiding child. A cold anger flashed through him as he processed the villain’s threat and--worse still--his blatant disregard for life. Driven to disable the bastard, Exactly pushed off into a dead sprint, his movements undetected. In but a moment he found himself across the room, and directly in front of the counter that the menacing villain stood upon.

Without any remorse or hesitation, Exactly drew back his baton, met the man’s still unseeing eyes, and then drove the baton--with all his strength--into the side of the bastard’s shin. Immediately, Exactly generated a duplicate, then darted to the right three feet. The duplicate would appear as if it was recovering from having struck the man with a baton, taking a step back before lunging back up and at the man in what appeared to be a tackle. It moved with speed and grace that was slightly off as if unencumbered by the world. Still, it would be well within the man’s ability to react.

The same could not be said for the second strike, which came at an odd angle just as the illusory form of his power lunged at the man. Rather than strike at the man himself, Exactly had deigned to slam the point of his baton into the raised gun in his hand with the express intent of disarming him.

The smile on both his and the duplicate’s lips was one of cold mockery, without empathy, and with clear disdain.

Exactly loathed murderers.

Capes of Samekh - A Post-Worm RP

Presidio

Activating her communicator as she saw ⁴Sight doing so, Kari awaited his debriefing with bated breath. Her forcefields continued to be generated low to the ground, shifting into complex mechanisms which began to float into place, building from her feet upwards, forming the beginnings of what might be armor. Kari’s attention split as ⁴Sight’s voice came through her comms, her expression going serious as their team leader mentioned the hostages. That was going to make this whole situation incredibly difficult. Nonetheless she took in a deep breath and squared her shoulders, a determined look coming onto her features. With a thought the forcefields worked into her crenellated tiara and the rest of her facial mask slid into place, giving her visage a faint blue tint. Similarly the growing construction of her armor--something she had practiced before and was always building on--had crept all the way up to her hips, where it slowed. Her entire lower body was covered in a complex array of interlocking translucent forcefields, which shifted soundlessly with each microadjustment of her posture. She barely felt them, in fact her awareness of them came more through her power than through their contact with her person.

Very slowly she began locking in most of the forcefields, particularly those on the outer two layers. As she did so, ⁴Sight bid them to make contact so he could transport them. Nodding she took a step closer and put her arm out, making sure that all her forcefields were physically in contact with her body, before she laid her hand on his arm. Anxiety had become excitement and it lifted her lips in a faint smile even as their surroundings changed in an instant. Her eyes widened and a small surprised laugh fell from her lips.

Her gaze fell on ⁴Sight’s face and she patted him on the arm while he recovered, disengaging. Still she found herself flinching against the noise of the helicopter. Orienting herself she took a few shaky steps and then took a breath, changing gears and then approaching the helicopter. Forcefields had begun forming again as she walked, narrow almost flat sheets draping themselves over the trailing cloth of her costume. More formed, latching into aspects of the thin pieces, which all played back into the forcefield armor that was creeping slowly up her lower abdomen. She made sure to keep breathing, ensuring enough room for her to do so once the shields locked into place. While everyone else’s clothes were whipped uncontrollably backwards by the harsh winds created by the helicopter, Presidio’s clothes seemed subdued in their movement, flowing in a disconnected way back from her person.

‘At this rate I’ll have time for more than just the armor before we arrive,‘ she noted internally as, covering her ears, she entered the helicopter and donned the protective gear, strapping herself into one of the seats loosely at first. She picked one facing towards the outer wall and at a corner with another seat to her right, that one packed between the wall behind them and on to its right as well. This gave her some room to generate and arrange her forcefields while they headed into the field.

She made sure to keep her forcefields close to her person or at the ceiling of the helicopter, making sure they stayed out of everyone’s way. She closed her eyes, contemplating how to deal with the threat without significantly endangering the hostages. First, she’d need to know the position of everything, after that...well, she’d need time. A thought struck her and she spoke into comms, asking a question “I’ve worked with ⁴Sight before, but what about the others. Shouldn’t we confer regarding our powers. It might help us deal with the situation if we can work together efficiently.”

She kept her eyes closed, hoping that everyone would collaborate without issue. She didn’t expect them to be an effective team right off, but if they knew eachother’s capabilities it would be a step in the right direction...she hoped.

---

Exactly

It had been a normal day, he’d gone to the bank to get a bit of money out for the week, and then things had just had to go completely wrong. His heart beating only a tad faster than normal, Kelly got down on his hands and knees and covered his head. Or, well, that was partially true. Technically, three of him got to their hands and knees, though only one was apparent. You see, the villains had gotten one thing wrong. They’d carelessly swept their gazes across the crowd, over and past him, more than once since their somewhat dramatic entrance. He kept the two images overlapped with his person for long enough for another cape to make an appearance. He glanced to the side, still on the ground, and looked them over. A smile lit his eyes and stretched his mouth wide. With the entrance of the crocodile man, he now had four duplicates. The one he walked around with all the time, the one generated by the two bank robbers, and another for the man. Fantastic.

He rose to his feet, but only one of the duplicates followed the motion, while another kept an eye on things from ground level. The one that had risen up was only visible to Basilisk and it raised a single finger to its lips, implying the man not mention anything. The invisible image approached a central point, putting itself roughly equidistant from both the villains. Then, it just stood there, totally motionless. Eventually it would become visible to them, but it would take some time.

He had plenty of time.

Glancing around he found his smile growing. Changing tact, he walked straight up behind one of the two villains (Vanish) and bent down. Gently he wrapped his fingers around the guard’s baton and then unclasped it and drew it out. The item was out of sight and as he drew it his power draped itself around and through the item, rendering it just as impossible to perceive as he was. Three duplicates had basically rendered him non-existent. Rising to his feet, baton in hand he regarded the back of the woman’s head. He considered bashing the baton across her temple and almost laughed as a result, barely stifling it. If he made too much noise they’d perceive him and that would quite swiftly put any hostages in danger.

While the man behind the counter addressed the monstrous cape, Kelly made his way to one of the other civilians that had stayed. No one was paying them any mind, but that was perfect. Kneeling down in front of them he tapped them on the shoulder. Immediately he felt his power open up and he used it, creating a fourth duplicate. Quietly, he spoke to the man through the duplicate and instructed him to remove his jacket and scarf. He did, very slowly all the while with Kelly making contact with both making them harder to notice. It took several seconds, but when done Kelly took the pieces of clothing from the man and bid him to stay there.

Donning the black jacket and wrapped the scarf around his neck and lower face he made himself a makeshift mask, with the hood of the jacket pulled up over his head, hiding his hair as well. Jogging over to the other guard--who could not see or hear him in the least, just like everyone else in the room--Exactly drew the man’s baton with his other hand and then strode away, the man not noticing in the least. Now equipped with two batons and a hidden identity he debated on who to target.

His grin became a smirk and then he commanded the duplicate that only the monster man could perceive “They can’t hear or see me. I’m going to distract the little lady. You should take the man. We can switch if it’s a bad match-up. Nod if you understand.” The duplicate shrugged.

Kelly, yet undetected, approached Vanish.

Capes of Samekh - A Post-Worm RP

Presidio

Smoothly. Things were going smoothly. No one seemed to have noticed the nervousness she hid. Matthew even gave her a lingering smile, and that felt good. It felt like recognition and success. Her heart rate slowed slightly and her smile became just that much more genuine as the idea that she was ‘selling’ her image of a calm, confident, and playful heroine settled in. A subtle warmth filled her chest, and the tapping of her finger on her hip slowed and then absently stopped without her noticing.

Matthew’s words washed over her and she absorbed them until his voice cut off and she blinked, stirred out of the moment by the physical interruption of John’s entrance. Her eyes widened the barest fraction before narrowing down, the smile slipping away as the seriousness of the situation crystallized in her mind. Though subtle, she noticed the shift in the room’s atmosphere as well, but she didn’t let it shake her, tightening her jaw before consciously relaxing. Despite her efforts some of the tension remained.

It seemed she’d be taking on more serious responsibility and action sooner than she’d expected; the thought made her twitch and simultaneously feel a small jolt of thrill shoot through her body. With the tension, the static of her own suppressed nervousness, and her own internal excitement, she briefly felt like a livewire. Her lips twitched upwards slightly, she swallowed, and then swallowed again, letting out a long breath as she slipped out of her casual stance.

’Time to make preparations.’

Immediately she willed her power into action, tiny forcefields forming near the ground and within a foot of her body. She turned part of her attention to taking in the back and forth: the organization of human resources, as it were. She understood resource management well, even if not so much in the human sense. Her gaze slid to ⁴sight, and then between John and Matthew, before settling on John. She considered addressing him directly for information regarding the Shaker in question, but thought better of it; something about him dissuaded her from that course. Instead she glanced at ⁴sight, wondering if he was going to be briefed or if this had been their briefing.

She frowned slightly and then wiped the expression from her face. Only several seconds had gone by, but already, the observant individual might have noticed the transparent, faintly blue array of forcefields forming around her feet and legs. Unencumbered by the forming pieces of the construct, Presidio took a moved to stand nearer to ⁴sight before turning towards John and Director Matthews.

Presidio had decided, despite her buzzing anxiety, to address the room: “May we have more information regarding the shaker or should we expect to be briefed further enroute?” With some half of her focus dedicated to the construction of useful implements for the coming exchange, Kari had actually managed to make herself sound almost…imperious. Calm, discerning, in control. A flicker of pride slipped through her mask, apparent only in a brief upwards tick of her lips.

This was real. She was a hero. She had a goal.

Now all she needed was information and to be placed before her target.

Kari as Presidio, was raring to go!

Capes of Samekh - A Post-Worm RP

Presidio

It was a fine speech, she thought as she mingled with the crowd, it made her respect the Director more. She’d not seen much of the man since her joining, there’d been little need for them to interact, which was fine, she supposed. Mostly she’d done a few patrols with her new associates, well...that and power testing and paperwork. She’d learned more than she would have expected from the power testing, funny that. Though, it wasn’t too unexpected seeing as she’d only had her powers for roughly a year. At the thought a small frown flitted over her features, before they smoothed out again.

Her thoughts flitting elsewhere she remembered his mention of the coffee pot needing refilling and how two of her colleagues had reacted. Her masked gaze drifted down to her hands and she fidgeted, they were empty. Maybe he hadn’t thought to acknowledge her? She was rather new after all. Her lips ticked up faintly at a new thought. Maybe he’d thought her presence was obvious and didn’t need to be mentioned. The thought, no matter how unlikely it was, warmed her.

As the speech ended, Presidio turned away from the stage and to the rest of the Final Guard’s team, or at least those who were present. Her head tilted faintly. She’d done her research on them, but had yet to meet them all. Mostly she’d interacted with ⁴sight and Dart, the two she’d patrolled with before, the latter twice in fact. Thinking back brought more of that bubbly warm feeling up through her chest, brightening her smile.

She took steps forwards, gently making her way through the edges of the crowd and back to the other parahumans even as the crowd thinned out, most people leaving. Her eyes drifted to the two present she didn’t know and she felt her heart briefly flutter, her breath catching for a moment before she forced herself back under control.

'Focus. It’s okay, you know of them even if you haven’t met yet. Can’t be too bad. Heard good things. They’re competent capes. Look! SWAT is even shaking hands with the Director. A man of integrity' Her gaze darted back to Slingshot, the hero looked...decidedly tired based on posture, or maybe bored? Those were natural, he couldn’t be too bad.

Gritting her teeth against the anxiety in her mind, Kari steadied her beating heart as she approached and then offered the group a friendly wave in tangent with a winning smile. “Room for one more?” She asked, her voice steady and almost teasing.

'Thank god,' she thought, realizing that all those days and nights of practice had let her slip into the persona of Presidio rather than resorting to the hopeless shyness of her civilian identity. It was a relief honestly and her shoulders relaxed slightly as the anxiety faded into a quieter sort of background noise. Feeling more confident now, she glanced at the Director after casting her gaze across each of her colleagues. The man was engaged with SWAT, that was fine. She moved to shift her attention but remembered that the others were paying attention to the Director as well. All this taken in, she tested a posture, resting a hand on her hip and swaying her weight to one side as she regarded the man, eyes no longer darting between people. She swallowed slightly, hoping the progression had looked natural.

Maybe she should have hung back till they’d finished talking? No, that would have been much more awkward. Ugh….

Why did people have to be so hard?

Unconsciously she’d begun lightly tapping one finger against her hip, one of the few pieces of evidence that pointed to the emotions she was trying to keep hidden behind the “easy” smile and relaxed demeanor. She desperately wanted to make a good impression.

AACM: Twilight Arena

Mikeil Thae-Araste

---

[+]

Absently, as the others each readied themselves in their own way, Mikeil wondered at the knight's senses. He'd come out on top in the previous battle--at the very least. This likely meant he had fought many adversaries at once, or perhaps his fight had been much like this one, against a single powerful foe. As the Champion moved, Mikeil tilted his head, noting that the fellow had utterly ignored his words and instead turned towards Akiva. A shame, really, but the man was still a fool. Whatever his senses were and even despite his armor, the knight should never have turned his back on a foe--even if he was surrounded. If it had been Mikeil he might have immediately changed his position to one more advantageous, but alas twas not he and so he would take advantage of his opponent's actions.

Deciding to shift the odds further in their favor, Mikeil casually gestured at the others, then pointed at the knight, before he took a careful step forwards...and then another. Approaching at a slow, measured gait, Mikeil shifted the position of Thrann slight and moved only his wrist, beginning the slightest of turning spins. The motion did not so much as disturb his cloak.

Then Akiva acted, a portal forming and Mikeil suppressed a chuckle. Deciding on a course of action, the mixed-blood warrior let his wings unfurl slightly beneath his cloak, spreading the garment outwards in the process. The lightness of his steps remained, but his speed increased all at once as he entered into a dash. Just walking he'd diminished the 20 feet between them down to 16, but now with his seemingly frantic approach, Mikeil ate up the distance like a famished beast; 16 feet rather swiftly becoming 12 and then eight in moments.

Akiva's attack occurred, Mikeil grinned, slammed a foot down, and ended his approach at 7 feet, transferring the momentum into a swift spin and whipping Thrann at the end of it, his gaze still on the knight as the heavy weight sailed through the air on its chain, intent upon striking the knight in the back of the knee.

While talkative before, he uttered not a word, utterly focused on the arena and the hunt.

AACM: Twilight Arena

Big apologies. Going to post tomorrow/today (technically depending on your timezone). Did a ton of unrelated writing today + work hence the delay.

Capes of Samekh - A Post-Worm RP

Presidio

"Alright guys! Let’s...um, make the world a better place, one piece at a time! Yeah…."

Hider

_{[ ♦ ] Bio}

---

♦ Name: Kari, Avalielle. Simmons.
♦ Age: 22.
♦ Loyalty: Final Guard.
♦ Appearance: Kari is short, measuring only 5’3 and is at a healthy weight due to her routine and fortunate genetics. Her neck length hair is styled in a relaxed way, with short bangs that frame her face and highlight her gentle features and hazel eyes. Her style varies depending on mood, but frequently has her hiding within her clothes as if self-conscious of her figure. As such much of her wardrobe is modest, rather than showy, with her favored color choices being soft, gentler shades accented by brighter complements that make everything pop! Though infrequently in display in her civilian identity, Kari’s figure is hourglass in shape with curves in all the right places--something which brings her far more attention than she would normally prefer.

On the other hand, when in costume, Kari attempts to combat her typically quiet diminutive nature by putting herself on display more prominently. To further differentiate herself Kari wears contacts in costume, whereas normally she would wear glasses. While she does not wear much in the way of a proper mask in costume, she does tend to alter her make-up, particularly around the eyes, choosing rather striking blue for eye shadow and liner to shift the color of her hazel eyes. Beyond this, she uses many incredibly thin layers of “locked” forcefields to create a mask of sorts, ringing around her eyes with angular, winged shapes that branch outwards in addition to skintight forcefields that hug her jawline and outline her lower lip.

A tiara-like set of forcefields define her hairline, holding her bangs back in addition to a hair tie. The aforementioned “tiara” is reminiscent of the crenellations on the top of a castle’s walls or towers, with the imagery being an intentional reference to her cape name and insignia. Beyond its ornamental purpose, this tiara actually contains a set of incredibly thin interlocked forcefields and a set of mechanisms, the former being compressed onto eachother to fit in the small amount of space. At will, she is capable of activating the mechanism effectively lowering a curved shield over her whole face. Furthermore, all of the forcefields that help make-up her mask are connected by thin threads of her power or other mechanisms all of which are “locked”. As a direct result of this, her mask is roughly the durability of steel.

Beneath the forcefields around her eyes, against her brows, and against the bridge of her nose there lies a relatively simple light blue mask, which is tied around her head tightly with several strong cords wrapped in dainty ribbons that she works into her hair--she often reinforces this with more forcefields. It is worth noting that in costume, Kari’s hazel eyes appear as a startling blue, whereas most times out of costume her eyes appear a rich brown or light mottled green.

[+]

Casual

Keep scrolling.

Costume

Due to the colder seasons coming on, Presidio has modified her original designs for her costume. She has donned a black turtleneck with sweeping arcs of light blue in place of the revealing top beneath her vest, as well as replacing the shorts with warm black pants that go into her boots.

♦ History:

[+]

James Clairville and Sarah Collins, a performer and an artist fell in love and married. A year or so later in 1993 the two had Kari who they lovingly nurtured. James, an actor, and Sarah did their utmost to support eachother and their daughter, doing double duty as they worked and raised her. Truly things were sometimes a blur in their household, but more importantly it was always warm and fun. Of course things became even more interesting as Kari matured, for as she participated in school her parents found that she was truly gifted. So, naturally, they edged for her to carry on in their footsteps, encouraging the arts--writing, acting, painting, singing, it hardly mattered, “just pick one,” they’d say. Seeking approval, Kari did so, taking part in little plays and helping design costumes. This trend carried on from her early schooling into middle school until finally her burgeoning personality could not simply conform anymore.

From then on Kari let what she’d long hidden beneath the surface out into the world, a curiosity not for the arts, but instead for what her parents would think their polar opposite. For, unlike her parents, Kari’s passion was the world, math, science, history and as she got older she only leaned into her passions more. In school she excelled, skipping a year in middle school and going into high school earlier than most. She was a nerd, but she found some acceptance among peers, as, while her parents supported her, they could not ever really understand her passions. Kari’s were just too different from their own. Of course, high school ended too soon as she breezed through courses and wowed both her parents and teachers in a frenzy wrought of diligence and ambition. She wanted to be a scientist, to enter the field of tech and much fell away as a result. Hobbies that she’d kept up with since childhood drifted away, only resurging as she required the skills honed through them.

Accepting her passion, even though he did not understand it, her father hired tutors and began the process of enrolling his daughter in college. All the while, Kari and her mother grew apart, a rift opened by what Sarah had taken as a betrayal. Once enrolled she worked hard, majoring in computer technology, intending to go into the field, designing new hardware for the world over. It was hard, but she loved it. However, just before she could graduate--though she’d been damned close--Gold Morning happened, the world collapsing around her. The months were filled with a quiet horror, fleeing, and the desperate hope that they would make it through. Eventually, they did, but not all of them. Many had been lost and among them...people she held beloved. Friends, colleagues, but most devastatingly...her mother.

Wracked by guilt and sorrow Kari and her father just tried to keep their heads up. Despite their loss they were fortunate in other ways, finding themselves in Samekh, and then Serstol, near its infancy. They settled in and her father was forced to take up menial labor--the world was not in a state to support the career he’d led before. She hated seeing him so, and she hated more the terrible loss that tore at her heart. So, naturally, she distracted herself, steeling her resolve and moving forwards. She picked up where she’d left off, teaching herself more skills and applying to jobs with a dedicated determination to ease her father’s burden and to make a difference.

After months of work she landed herself a job and immediately launched into development and customer service--using whatever spare money and resources she could to build and design something new...something that would benefit everyone. Soon her efforts earned her a proper place at her job, allowing her to leverage their resources with her skill to really begin the development of her project. Things were going well for awhile, the pay was good and she was happy, but soon misfortune reared its head. Checking her work one week she came upon an error in her work. Thinking it largely inconsequential she set about fixing the problem, replacing parts and altering code. However, the more she did the worse things got. She’d come back to it only to find things in a worse state than they’d been before. Worse still, a meeting was coming up where she was supposed to be showcasing her new product. The stress only worsened the issue and eventually things spiralled out of control, totally ruining month upon month of work. Feeling totally out of her depth and utterly overwhelmed--and baffled--by her situation she triggered, the fear of losing such a huge part of her life, and jeopardizing everything, breaking her down.

Having lost months of work and seemingly wasted resources, upper management demoted her to a junior position, shelving her project for a later date. Fortunately, they were much more understanding that she’d expected. In the interest of her mental health, they gave her a month’s paid leave and left things at that. Still reeling and feeling cast aside she spent many of those days aimless and lost. The only things that saved her were the preoccupation of experimenting with her newfound powers, research on the subject, and more importantly...escape by way of art. While not many of her mother’s pieces had survived the end of the world, they’d managed to reacquire a few. Kari surrounder herself with them and decided to give her mother’s passion a second chance.

Taking up the brush and pencil, she spread her emotions over the canvas and found that perhaps she’d never really had a particular dislike for the arts. Maybe she’d just been rebellious. Maybe that’s what had led her on this path? She wasn’t sure and it was impossible to go back and find out so instead she looked forwards. She still had a job to lead, soon, but now she had powers. She was a parahuman. Couldn’t she do so much more to affect the lives of everyone for the better?

Eventually deciding she could, Kari began designing a costume and after a time, returned to her work as well. While she has yet to rise to her former position, she still makes enough to get by. Though it is not just her former failure that has kept her from rising again, but rather that her ambitions have taken on a new form. With her costume finished and name chosen, Presidio has every intent to make the world a better...safer place and perhaps bring humanity back to its former glory.

Only time will tell whether her work with the Final Guard will truly make an impact.

_{[ ♦ ] Personality}

---

♦ Motivation: Kari wants to make the world a better, safer place. Specifically she wants to make a big difference, bringing civilization back to something of its former glory. She wants to give more people the opportunity to truly thrive. Similarly, though she’d never admit it, Kari is using her cape activities to branch out, to enrich herself, and as a result she’s trying to rise to prominence in her own way.

♦ Derangement: While perhaps not so life altering as some changes, Kari’s shard has indeed changed the make-up of her personality. First and foremost by shifting her closer to “dominant” than shy, reinforcing confidence and, to a limited degree, arrogance in the interest of causing additional conflict. Where before Kari was just very dedicated, now she is something of a perfectionist. While she’s always been ambitious, her shard has shifted that ambition to a world-scale and is angling for her to become more lofty and domineering, wanting her to attempt at rising above all others. Granted, all of this is very subtle and most of it is not so severe that Kari--or those close to her--would immediately notice. It is worth mentioning that over time some of this traits will be further accentuated, resulting in further change. Lastly, her shard has driven a sort of psychological wedge between Kari’s actions...and her actions as Presidio, allowing Kari to more easily rationalize anything she does as Presidio.

_{[ ♦ ]
Parahumanism}

---

♦ Skills: Having pursued a career in computer hardware and software engineering, Kari has all the skills one would expect. She is competent with numerous code languages in addition to a number of tools as well as familiar with the terminology. Beyond this she is a middling artist, preferring paint and pencil or charcoal on canvas or paper as her medium. She’s has some skill in costume and clothing design--though rather minor--which work well in tangent with her good fashion sense. During her very limited time--roughly two months--with the Final Guard she’s taken to some combat training, though she’s always made a point of eating well and staying in shape. Perhaps her most prominent skill is one of the mind, as she is an incredibly quick study on top of being exceptionally observant and dedicated. While she is fairly shy and a bit socially awkward--though not as much so in costume--she is very understanding and empathetic, allowing her to comfort and connect with people fairly easily in spite of her social hiccups. This, in tangent with the theater her parents had her participate with, has contributed greatly to her ability to act differently in costume. While she wouldn’t be terribly convincing as a liar or manipulator, she can still sell a character quite well.

♦ Classification: Shaker|Thinker.
♦ Mechanics: Kari’s power allows her to generate numerous translucent blue forcefields within a 30 foot radius of herself, which she is capable of shaping and interlocking at will. At most she can generate 12 forcefields per second, with the rate decreasing depending on several variables, including the quantity of active forcefields, the state of those forcefields, and a number of other unknowns to which she is not privy. Kari maintains awareness of her forcefields and is capable of controlling them telekinetically with incredible precision, implying an enhanced capacity to process information and multitask. In tangent with this enhanced processing, Kari’s power grants her an intuitive understanding of how components can fit together to form larger functional wholes. The aforementioned thinker power almost solely applied to her forcefields, but can be applied to things with similar constructions, thus excluding technology that possesses wires, circuits and the like.

Her shields do have their limitations though, with each Baseline shield being individually weak, capable of being broken by mundane, if well-placed, blows. Of course their durability and strength is a mite more nuanced than this as Kari may shift the focus of her shields from mobility and malleability to solidity and strength. At base, or in their baseline state her shields possess the aforementioned properties, being fairly brittle, but mobile and subject to change; conversely Kari may “lock” her forcefields, drastically reducing their mobility and maneuverability, but enhancing their durability and mechanical viability. Similarly, “locked” forcefields benefit from being part of larger constructs becoming increasingly durable relative to the quantity of shields that compose the larger whole. At the lower end, “locked” shields are roughly the durability of brass with the upper limit of their durability being similar to steel. It is notable that despite their generally being inferior to “locked” shields, forcefields in the baseline state are strong enough to very briefly carry Kari’s weight before shattering. This fact reveals an odd quirk to her power in regards to its behavior as her shields are far more effective at pushing, pulling, or interacting with eachother than they are at simply bearing weight more passively. As a result of this quirk, Kari’s forcefields more or less make things such as flight impossible.

The process of “locking” a shield takes roughly 5-15 seconds, with it taking more or less time proportional to the size of the forcefield in question. As an additional limiting factor, her shields require either active use or focus to maintain lest they decay--a phenomena which will also occur if they leave her range, eventually resulting in them shattering into formless dust. The decay of her shields within her range is slower than if they leave it. In a similar vein, her power’s range of influence is somewhat variable, capable of expanding if her constructs become large enough to exceed its size so as not to limit her experimentation overmuch. However, while the size of her constructs is not limited, the size of her shields is with the upper limit being roughly the surface area of a 3 foot wide disk and the lower end being roughly the size of a half dollar coin (1.2 inches in diameter); the average size measuring in at approximately 1.5 feet in diameter. The factor of size does alter her control somewhat, with forcefields becoming more unwieldy and difficult to control proportional to how large they are. Last, but perhaps not least, her shields are distinctly limited by the manton limit, meaning that they cannot be generated inside living matter and--until locked in--would be hugely ineffectual at cutting much of anything.

♦ Equipment: What sort of goodies do you have on you when you're in costume?

Gauntlets: Though their name implies heavy armor, the reality is that these implements are more like gloves than anything. They are mostly cloth, with thin metal fittings, including pieces that jut out and then hook in as well as slots. She has worked similar metal embroidery into her costume as well. The colors include light blue, silver, and gold with patterning to match the rest of her costume.

Med kit: She carries a small medical kit at the back of her belt in a pouch. Contains gauze, bandages, pain pills, small scissors, and several ointments for pain or infection. Similarly there is hydrogen peroxide, though only a small quantity.

Wireless communicator: Issued from the Final Guard. Often defended by a complex array of tightly bound forcefields.

Capes of Samekh - A Post-Worm RP

Presidio

"Alright guys! Let’s...um, make the world a better place, one piece at a time! Yeah…."

Hider

_{[ ♦ ] Bio}

---

♦ Name: Kari, Avalielle. Simmons.
♦ Age: 22.
♦ Loyalty: Final Guard.
♦ Appearance: Kari is short, measuring only 5’3 and is at a healthy weight due to her routine and fortunate genetics. Her neck length hair is styled in a relaxed way, with short bangs that frame her face and highlight her gentle features and hazel eyes. Her style varies depending on mood, but frequently has her hiding within her clothes as if self-conscious of her figure. As such much of her wardrobe is modest, rather than showy, with her favored color choices being soft, gentler shades accented by brighter complements that make everything pop! Though infrequently in display in her civilian identity, Kari’s figure is hourglass in shape with curves in all the right places--something which brings her far more attention than she would normally prefer.

On the other hand, when in costume, Kari attempts to combat her typically quiet diminutive nature by putting herself on display more prominently. To further differentiate herself Kari wears contacts in costume, whereas normally she would wear glasses. While she does not wear much in the way of a proper mask in costume, she does tend to alter her make-up, particularly around the eyes, choosing rather striking blue for eye shadow and liner to shift the color of her hazel eyes. Beyond this, she uses many incredibly thin layers of “locked” forcefields to create a mask of sorts, ringing around her eyes with angular, winged shapes that branch outwards in addition to skintight forcefields that hug her jawline and outline her lower lip.

A tiara-like set of forcefields define her hairline, holding her bangs back in addition to a hair tie. The aforementioned “tiara” is reminiscent of the crenellations on the top of a castle’s walls or towers, with the imagery being an intentional reference to her cape name and insignia. Beyond its ornamental purpose, this tiara actually contains a set of incredibly thin interlocked forcefields and a set of mechanisms, the former being compressed onto eachother to fit in the small amount of space. At will, she is capable of activating the mechanism effectively lowering a curved shield over her whole face. Furthermore, all of the forcefields that help make-up her mask are connected by thin threads of her power or other mechanisms all of which are “locked”. As a direct result of this, her mask is roughly the durability of steel.

Beneath the forcefields around her eyes, against her brows, and against the bridge of her nose there lies a relatively simple light blue mask, which is tied around her head tightly with several strong cords wrapped in dainty ribbons that she works into her hair--she often reinforces this with more forcefields. It is worth noting that in costume, Kari’s hazel eyes appear as a startling blue, whereas most times out of costume her eyes appear a rich brown or light mottled green.

[+]

Casual

Keep scrolling.

Costume

Due to the colder seasons coming on, Presidio has modified her original designs for her costume. She has donned a black turtleneck with sweeping arcs of light blue in place of the revealing top beneath her vest, as well as replacing the shorts with warm black pants that go into her boots.

♦ History:

[+]

James Clairville and Sarah Collins, a performer and an artist fell in love and married. A year or so later in 1993 the two had Kari who they lovingly nurtured. James, an actor, and Sarah did their utmost to support eachother and their daughter, doing double duty as they worked and raised her. Truly things were sometimes a blur in their household, but more importantly it was always warm and fun. Of course things became even more interesting as Kari matured, for as she participated in school her parents found that she was truly gifted. So, naturally, they edged for her to carry on in their footsteps, encouraging the arts--writing, acting, painting, singing, it hardly mattered, “just pick one,” they’d say. Seeking approval, Kari did so, taking part in little plays and helping design costumes. This trend carried on from her early schooling into middle school until finally her burgeoning personality could not simply conform anymore.

From then on Kari let what she’d long hidden beneath the surface out into the world, a curiosity not for the arts, but instead for what her parents would think their polar opposite. For, unlike her parents, Kari’s passion was the world, math, science, history and as she got older she only leaned into her passions more. In school she excelled, skipping a year in middle school and going into high school earlier than most. She was a nerd, but she found some acceptance among peers, as, while her parents supported her, they could not ever really understand her passions. Kari’s were just too different from their own. Of course, high school ended too soon as she breezed through courses and wowed both her parents and teachers in a frenzy wrought of diligence and ambition. She wanted to be a scientist, to enter the field of tech and much fell away as a result. Hobbies that she’d kept up with since childhood drifted away, only resurging as she required the skills honed through them.

Accepting her passion, even though he did not understand it, her father hired tutors and began the process of enrolling his daughter in college. All the while, Kari and her mother grew apart, a rift opened by what Sarah had taken as a betrayal. Once enrolled she worked hard, majoring in computer technology, intending to go into the field, designing new hardware for the world over. It was hard, but she loved it. However, just before she could graduate--though she’d been damned close--Gold Morning happened, the world collapsing around her. The months were filled with a quiet horror, fleeing, and the desperate hope that they would make it through. Eventually, they did, but not all of them. Many had been lost and among them...people she held beloved. Friends, colleagues, but most devastatingly...her mother.

Wracked by guilt and sorrow Kari and her father just tried to keep their heads up. Despite their loss they were fortunate in other ways, finding themselves in Samekh, and then Serstol, near its infancy. They settled in and her father was forced to take up menial labor--the world was not in a state to support the career he’d led before. She hated seeing him so, and she hated more the terrible loss that tore at her heart. So, naturally, she distracted herself, steeling her resolve and moving forwards. She picked up where she’d left off, teaching herself more skills and applying to jobs with a dedicated determination to ease her father’s burden and to make a difference.

After months of work she landed herself a job and immediately launched into development and customer service--using whatever spare money and resources she could to build and design something new...something that would benefit everyone. Soon her efforts earned her a proper place at her job, allowing her to leverage their resources with her skill to really begin the development of her project. Things were going well for awhile, the pay was good and she was happy, but soon misfortune reared its head. Checking her work one week she came upon an error in her work. Thinking it largely inconsequential she set about fixing the problem, replacing parts and altering code. However, the more she did the worse things got. She’d come back to it only to find things in a worse state than they’d been before. Worse still, a meeting was coming up where she was supposed to be showcasing her new product. The stress only worsened the issue and eventually things spiralled out of control, totally ruining month upon month of work. Feeling totally out of her depth and utterly overwhelmed--and baffled--by her situation she triggered, the fear of losing such a huge part of her life, and jeopardizing everything, breaking her down.

Having lost months of work and seemingly wasted resources, upper management demoted her to a junior position, shelving her project for a later date. Fortunately, they were much more understanding that she’d expected. In the interest of her mental health, they gave her a month’s paid leave and left things at that. Still reeling and feeling cast aside she spent many of those days aimless and lost. The only things that saved her were the preoccupation of experimenting with her newfound powers, research on the subject, and more importantly...escape by way of art. While not many of her mother’s pieces had survived the end of the world, they’d managed to reacquire a few. Kari surrounder herself with them and decided to give her mother’s passion a second chance.

Taking up the brush and pencil, she spread her emotions over the canvas and found that perhaps she’d never really had a particular dislike for the arts. Maybe she’d just been rebellious. Maybe that’s what had led her on this path? She wasn’t sure and it was impossible to go back and find out so instead she looked forwards. She still had a job to lead, soon, but now she had powers. She was a parahuman. Couldn’t she do so much more to affect the lives of everyone for the better?

Eventually deciding she could, Kari began designing a costume and after a time, returned to her work as well. While she has yet to rise to her former position, she still makes enough to get by. Though it is not just her former failure that has kept her from rising again, but rather that her ambitions have taken on a new form. With her costume finished and name chosen, Presidio has every intent to make the world a better...safer place and perhaps bring humanity back to its former glory.

Only time will tell whether her work with the Final Guard will truly make an impact.

_{[ ♦ ] Personality}

---

♦ Motivation: Kari wants to make the world a better, safer place. Specifically she wants to make a big difference, bringing civilization back to something of its former glory. She wants to give more people the opportunity to truly thrive. Similarly, though she’d never admit it, Kari is using her cape activities to branch out, to enrich herself, and as a result she’s trying to rise to prominence in her own way.

♦ Derangement: While perhaps not so life altering as some changes, Kari’s shard has indeed changed the make-up of her personality. First and foremost by shifting her closer to “dominant” than shy, reinforcing confidence and, to a limited degree, arrogance in the interest of causing additional conflict. Where before Kari was just very dedicated, now she is something of a perfectionist. While she’s always been ambitious, her shard has shifted that ambition to a world-scale and is angling for her to become more lofty and domineering, wanting her to attempt at rising above all others. Granted, all of this is very subtle and most of it is not so severe that Kari--or those close to her--would immediately notice. It is worth mentioning that over time some of this traits will be further accentuated, resulting in further change. Lastly, her shard has driven a sort of psychological wedge between Kari’s actions...and her actions as Presidio, allowing Kari to more easily rationalize anything she does as Presidio.

_{[ ♦ ]
Parahumanism}

---

♦ Skills: Having pursued a career in computer hardware and software engineering, Kari has all the skills one would expect. She is competent with numerous code languages in addition to a number of tools as well as familiar with the terminology. Beyond this she is a middling artist, preferring paint and pencil or charcoal on canvas or paper as her medium. She’s has some skill in costume and clothing design--though rather minor--which work well in tangent with her good fashion sense. During her very limited time--roughly two months--with the Final Guard she’s taken to some combat training, though she’s always made a point of eating well and staying in shape. Perhaps her most prominent skill is one of the mind, as she is an incredibly quick study on top of being exceptionally observant and dedicated. While she is fairly shy and a bit socially awkward--though not as much so in costume--she is very understanding and empathetic, allowing her to comfort and connect with people fairly easily in spite of her social hiccups. This, in tangent with the theater her parents had her participate with, has contributed greatly to her ability to act differently in costume. While she wouldn’t be terribly convincing as a liar or manipulator, she can still sell a character quite well.

♦ Classification: Shaker|Thinker.
♦ Mechanics: Kari’s power allows her to generate numerous translucent blue forcefields within a 30 foot radius of herself, which she is capable of shaping and interlocking at will. At most she can generate 12 forcefields per second, with the rate decreasing depending on several variables, including the quantity of active forcefields, the state of those forcefields, and a number of other unknowns to which she is not privy. Kari maintains awareness of her forcefields and is capable of controlling them telekinetically with incredible precision, implying an enhanced capacity to process information and multitask. In tangent with this enhanced processing, Kari’s power grants her an intuitive understanding of how components can fit together to form larger functional wholes. The aforementioned thinker power almost solely applied to her forcefields, but can be applied to things with similar constructions, thus excluding technology that possesses wires, circuits and the like.

Her shields do have their limitations though, with each Baseline shield being individually weak, capable of being broken by mundane, if well-placed, blows. Of course their durability and strength is a mite more nuanced than this as Kari may shift the focus of her shields from mobility and malleability to solidity and strength. At base, or in their baseline state her shields possess the aforementioned properties, being fairly brittle, but mobile and subject to change; conversely Kari may “lock” her forcefields, drastically reducing their mobility and maneuverability, but enhancing their durability and mechanical viability. Similarly, “locked” forcefields benefit from being part of larger constructs becoming increasingly durable relative to the quantity of shields that compose the larger whole. At the lower end, “locked” shields are roughly the durability of brass with the upper limit of their durability being similar to steel. It is notable that despite their generally being inferior to “locked” shields, forcefields in the baseline state are strong enough to very briefly carry Kari’s weight before shattering. This fact reveals an odd quirk to her power in regards to its behavior as her shields are far more effective at pushing, pulling, or interacting with eachother than they are at simply bearing weight more passively. As a result of this quirk, Kari’s forcefields more or less make things such as flight impossible.

The process of “locking” a shield takes roughly 5-15 seconds, with it taking more or less time proportional to the size of the forcefield in question. As an additional limiting factor, her shields require either active use or focus to maintain lest they decay--a phenomena which will also occur if they leave her range, eventually resulting in them shattering into formless dust. The decay of her shields within her range is slower than if they leave it. In a similar vein, her power’s range of influence is somewhat variable, capable of expanding if her constructs become large enough to exceed its size so as not to limit her experimentation overmuch. However, while the size of her constructs is not limited, the size of her shields is with the upper limit being roughly the surface area of a 3 foot wide disk and the lower end being roughly the size of a half dollar coin (1.2 inches in diameter); the average size measuring in at approximately 1.5 feet in diameter. The factor of size does alter her control somewhat, with forcefields becoming more unwieldy and difficult to control proportional to how large they are. Last, but perhaps not least, her shields are distinctly limited by the manton limit, meaning that they cannot be generated inside living matter and--until locked in--would be hugely ineffectual at cutting much of anything.

♦ Equipment: What sort of goodies do you have on you when you're in costume?

Gauntlets: Though their name implies heavy armor, the reality is that these implements are more like gloves than anything. They are mostly cloth, with thin metal fittings, including pieces that jut out and then hook in as well as slots. She has worked similar metal embroidery into her costume as well. The colors include light blue, silver, and gold with patterning to match the rest of her costume.

Med kit: She carries a small medical kit at the back of her belt in a pouch. Contains gauze, bandages, pain pills, small scissors, and several ointments for pain or infection. Similarly there is hydrogen peroxide, though only a small quantity.

Wireless communicator: Issued from the Final Guard. Often defended by a complex array of tightly bound forcefields.

AACM: Twilight Arena

Oh, my bad. I thought...no matter. I'll work on getting something up!