one more five horu drive to home...then ill stop spamming the status bar. promise. go back to only updating it once every few months
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1 yr ago
back in my home state. actually a real nice hotel compared to the last one that had cockroaches in the bathroom. so thats cool and good. ready to get home tomorrow. blehhhhjgkjgkjhatk
Dareen frowned back at Jandar and Saetan. "That's what I- I know I wouldn't feel the- alright, forget it." Dareen pinched her nose, smiling. Saetan was also insistent on there being a Black Widow involved. If Faeril really did fuck up, then that was too bad. Dareen knew she wasn't a good enough liar to deny it, so she just went with a truth.
"I'm outta my element. Got too cocky. Just gonna take the loss on this one and let you educated aristocrats figure it out. With whichever brain you choose to use; the one in your skull or the one between your legs." Dareen backed out of the cave and turned on her heel, making her way out into the open air.
She looked down at the white haired boy and smirked. "Savor your childhood. Soon all you'll be able to think about is girls." Dareen said. Then she raised an eyebrow. "Well, maybe. Are you Blood? If not, then at least you won't have magical mystical feminine lures placed on you." Dareen mysteriously waggled her fingers, making her voice sound silly.
Level 3: 19/30 Location: The Blue Sea. Word Count: 1,166 Points Gained: 2, -1 New EXP Balance--- Level 3: 20/30
Sakura realised too late she had underestimated the wounded Abyssal. Not only was she not staying down- she was standing up just fine. Even though she hadn't missed the fireball, if she hadn't shot it at all and turned to retreat, she would have been blown away. Just like Araisho. Sakura surged forward despite this, hoping to close the distance. That shell smacked her arm, hard, and she felt something disconnect. A yellow spark of energy confirmed her Ki was still working. Whatever just happened in her arm, she could deal with it later. In the meantime, she would still fight at near full capacity.
And fight she did. The melee was a brutal brawl. Geralt helped, but Sakura didn't register it. One of Sakura's new cat ears was cut and began to bleed. Her Ki, it seemed, wasn't used to channeling through that part of her body. The cut was fairly deep, that part of her left cat ear would be missing from now on.
Sakura got a few good hits in, but overcommitted with the sweep. As she finished her spin, her eyes widened as the Shipgirl bid her adieu. "NO!" She cried out. Sakura tried to defend herself, but the bomber went under her arms and directly onto her midriff, where it detonated.
There was a flash of red hot pain, and everyting burned white. "EEYAAAH!" She screamed. Sakura went flying 20 feet backwards, hit the water, skimmed, and then began to writhe. Her senses had failed her entirely. Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut, her teeth grit. She scrambled to her feet and then stumbled back to her knees, and then back to her feet. It was a far cry from her previously expert maneuvers. Sakura was Stunned. Her Ki had mostly protected her, but it had been overwhelmed by sheer damage and short circuited her nervous system.
"Guhhh...!" She moaned.
Four seconds passed. The stun faded, and Sakura snapped back to reality with a gasp. Falling to her hands and knees she began to cough.
It was a wet, miserable retch. Blood sprayed onto the water and trickled down the side of her lips. The teenager brought a shaking hand up to her mouth, it came away red. The skin of her abdomen was charred and cut, but most of the damage was internal. There was a deep numbness in her belly, and her ears were ringing.
Eyes wide, heart racing, Sakura sat up straight and stared at the Abyssal. "Y...you b-blew us both u-up?" She asked in disbelief. "WHY!?" Sakura shouted. She spat up more blood. A calm part of Sakura's mind guessed her guts were bruised to high heaven.
She just didn't understand. She couldn't understand!
Sakura thought of Kamek's words. "She won’t retreat! She can’t! That is Galeem’s curse!”
(Is this the sickening evil of Galeem's curse? The Ship Girls knew when to retreat! They care for each other! This Seaplane Tender is insane! She acts with reckless hatred. But... maybe it's all Galeem's fault... How can I tell? How much is Galeem? How much is the Seaplane Tender? She takes pride in her ability to kill shipgirls, doesn't she? Was that Galeem? Or was she just a soldier? Why did Galeem organize these wars? Couldn't it have just left the World of Light a peaceful one? Does it matter if she's evil or not, if her actions aren't hers to control!? I don't know!)
Sakura slammed her palms onto her temples. These questions made her head hurt. Or maybe she just had a concussion. Sakura rose to her feet with a quickness someone as wounded as her wouldn't normally be able to manage. She was scared, confused, and...angry. There was an anger that pained her heart and itched at her skull. She wanted to lash out. But she didn't. Her thoughts, briefly, turned introspective.
She knew Ryu had grappled with an internal darkness. The fighting style they shared, Shotokan, is based on an ancient assassination fighting style. It used to be energized by murderous intent, known as the Satsui no Hado. Gouken, Ryu and Ken's master, refined the art. He changed it, and instead changed the source of energy to willpower. An 11 year old Sakura had known nothing of this when she began copying Ryu's moves by watching him on VHS tapes. Unknowingly, she had inherited this internal stuggle of good and evil. And Sakura was determined to not let herself, or Ryu down.
Sakura exhaled shakily as she rose to her feet. Approaching the broken Ship Girl, she raised her left arm, clenched her fist, and hissed. It hurt. But Ki allowed her to work just fine with what she had. She stopped holding her arm. Despite her injuries and the pain, she seemed to be operating at near full strength. Powerful energy coursed through her body, one more resilient than mere flesh and bone. These injuries and their consequences could be dealt with later.
(Galeem's curse...Galeem's curse. The true enemy is Galeem. That's the truth of this world. I want it gone.)
Sakura looked over the ship girl. Unlike last time, she wasn't getting up, or taking aim. She remained half-submered, and her eyes were unfocused. It looked like she was dying, really. Sakura exhaled. Self control. Self control was key. That was what it meant to be a practictioner of Shotokan. Moreover, what it meant to be a good guy.
"I'm gonna show you mercy, now." Sakura said. She brought a hand up to her heart and raised her arms. A pink heart-shape emerged from her chest and Sakura held it gingerly in her red fighting gloves. "Because I know that you don't want to be here, either. Even if you don't know it. With this, you'll be able to give up and go home. And in your state, I don't think you'll be winning any fights." Sakura noted. She gave a small smile. She felt good about this.
Sakura closed the final bit of distance. She put a foot down, hard, on the Abyssal's good arm. She reached down and plunged the Friend Heart into the Abyssal's chest. "Whatever happens next, I'm not gonna let Galeem get another person killed." Sakura declared. She pulled on the Abyssal's shoulders so that she wouldn't sink and drown.
Assuming all of this went as Sakura hoped it would and nothing interrupted her, she would take a few steps back and take a knee. It was her most defensive stance. She used her newly lengthened sleeves to wipe the blood from her lips, staining her altered sailor uniform. Her cat ears perked up expectantly. The one on the left still leaked blood, and was less receptive and lively than the other one. It was made sluggish by the deep cut, and liquid soaked into her brown hair.
If the Abyssal came to her senses the first thing she would see would be the kneeling, noticeably damaged feline ship girl, a friendly, battle-weary smile on her face.
Level 3: 17/30 Location: The Blue Sea. Word Count: 1,229 Points Gained: 2 New EXP Balance--- Level 3: 19/30
Kasugano Sakura nodded to Ranger as she agreed with her plan. Good. Now, all she had to do was chase of Seaplane Tender with the help of Junior and Kamek. The Atomos had a crew full of ranged support, and Kamek's little wizard clone was floating around and taking pot shots. "Yeah!" Sakura cheered as the Water Princess was tossed butt over tea-kettle by a torpedo. Sakura was feeling confident that the outnumbered and surely tired Water Princess would decide to disengage for now.
But that didn't happen. Her fireballs, even empowered by Haru Arashi, were not being respected by the Water Princess. She elected to treat them like they were nothing and surge forward. This greatly reminded her of her fight with Zangief, who also made this mistake. Only this wasn't a big enthusiastic russian guy who would probably get her to try some vodka afterwards. This was real evil. In the back of her mind Sakura was secretly regretting telling Ranger to leave. Her heart rate sky-rocketed with fear. Nonetheless, Sakura had people counting on her. She had to be brave! Any second now the Water Princess would back off!
Sakura's teeth grit harder and harder and her eyes got wider and wider as the Water Princess pushed forward. Her new tail stood on end and her cat ears were aggressively perked. Through it all! She was just tanking all of it! Sakura knew her fireballs were having an effect. But that didn't make the Seaplane Tender's approach any less terrifying. The street fighter's arms pumped back and forth like the wheels of a locomotive.
(Is she crazy!? Did insulting her hat send her into some kind of rage mode!? Just leave us alone! Why does she want me to sink so bad?!)
Faster and faster. The less fireballs she had out at once, the more she could fire. "Hado! Hado! Hado Hado Hado UH OH!" Sakura yelled out as the ravenous biting tail came swooping in amongst the veritable firestorm she had created. She bit her lower lip in anticipation. She had to time this just right!
"SHOUOKEN! Right there!" She spent a bar of her EX meter. Sakura zoomed forward with a flash of energy. The fist connected. It hit hard. Sakura hadn't thought about it, but this was the first time she had used an EX move on someone with no Ki like her. There was no spark of defensive energy. This wasn't just cosmetic damage that could be healed with a good night's rest. She was inflicting serious bodily harm on someone. It didn't feel good the way hitting another street fighter did. Her fist sunk like a rock into the enemy shipgirl's belly. It pushed the air out of her lungs and she felt her knuckles compress internal organs until they jostled out of position.
But she committed anyway, out of resolve, and out of muscle memory. The Water Princess was knocked away and Sakura landed expertly in a spinning descent. Sakura felt violent. In a way she never had before.
The Seaplane Tender was brought low by this hit. She was saying strange, delusional things that made Sakura uneasy. Sakura briefly let her guard down, mouth forming a sympathetic 'o', eyes shimmering with guilt. Seaplane Tender didn't even have her hat anymore. Sakura didn't actually think the hat looked stupid- she was just saying that to hurt the Water Princess's feelings. If this was a real street fighter, with rules and rounds and honor, then this fight would be over. Habit took over. Sakura took a tentative step back and began to turn away from the downed Abyssal fighter. She wanted to go back to her new friends.
These thoughts were pushed quickly out of her head. It wasn't over. That horrible toothy maw rose up and began to take aim. Even now, that Seaplane Tender wanted to kill and murder. Guilt became obscured by frustration.
"Stop it, idiot!" Sakura cut her hand across the air in a definitive 'it's over' motion. "I win!" She declared childishly. Sakura's fighting instinct pushed her back into battle. Besides, if she ran away, this Water Princess would just shoot her in the back.
Sakura spent her last EX bar to charge up a viscous fireball. It exploded forth with tremendous speed and power. Outperforming even the ones she had just been using. It was aimed right at that drooling tail mouth. It would impact, rolling and pushing against the tail for almost a full second, before detonating.
She used it to cover her advance. The teenager dashed forward. Once in range she did a chin buster kick, her flexible leg going nearly 180 degrees. "Uriyah!" Her kiai became wordless shouts of focused breathing. She followed it up with a elbow strike to the same spot she had just Shouoken'd. At this point the impact of her blows would have pushed her and the Seaplane Tender apart.
"Sore!" She took a step forward and did a standing medium kick right into her ribs. Sakura's hips twisted in an elegant, artistic way to maintain both balance and force. She shot her left fist downward and brought her right hand close to her body. All of it so she could strike with as much force as possible in a moment, and then bring her foot back down to the surface of the water to maintain balance.
Another step forward, a crouch, and then fierce uppercut into the Water Princess's body. Sakura shot off her feet and span around. "Shunpu!" One hard back kick across the face. Sakura landed on one foot and kept the spin going. It smoothly transitioned into a spinning leg sweep, Sakura maintaining perfect balance on only the toes of her left foot.
Her sweep was a graceful 360. She shot her right foot outwards in the low, knee-breaking side kick that would sweep an unprepared fighter off balance. Sakura was learning that going up against opponents without Ki was different. This Water Princess was tougher and stronger than any martial artist she had ever met, but she lacked just that- true martial artistry. That was the reason reason Ryu could destroy a car in seconds, and then use those same attacks on Ken who walked away with a bloody nose.
The Water Princess was just muscle, bone, and machinerey. Things Sakura could... break. And overpower. It didn't feel good. Dread began to well up in her heart. She feared the Seaplane Tender would keep pushing the fight until it reached a final conclusion. She had to push these thoughts out of her mind, too, for the battle wasn't over yet.
(Please just stay down!) Sakura silently pleaded. It was an onslaught of strikes. Combos didn't seem to work against the towering Water Princess, so Sakura was just trying to be as unpredictable as possible. No more jump ins and grab attempts- just strikes. Sakura didn't like the idea of inflicting internal bleeding, but she had to do what was most effective. Six seconds of offense: EX fireball aimed at her tail cannon, followed up with a chinbuster kick. An elbow, a standing medium kick, followed by a crouching uppercut into a spinning kick into a spinning leg sweep. This was no time to be defensive.
Name: O'Kay or Kay (Previously: Whispered Child) Age: 17 Gender: F Race/Species: Human Student/Teacher: Alpha Student Inspiration: Cassandra Cain, DC. Nebula, Marvel. Physical Description: The first thing someone might about Kay is her height. She stands at 6 feet, 2 inches, and unlike most girls her age doesn't show signs of slowing down. She is of Chinese Descent and has short black messy hair and dark brown eyes. She is muscular but lithe, giving her a powerful yet spindly frame. Her body is marked by scars in several places. Her limbs can and do bend unnaturally, being double jointed and reinforced.
Beneath her ribs are two grotesque flesh plated openings that can vibrate with warm breathe. Her body is extremely calloussed in places and very rubbery in others. Several surgery scars are on her chest, back, and legs. Around her navel is an intricately designed tattoo of an eye. Her hair hides surcery scars, as well. Her eyes have a second pair of vertical eyelids, and they can dilate into a line like a cats.
Personality: The only place Kay can blend into is the shadows.
Kay is a shy, gentle girl with low self-esteem. She wears her heart on her sleeve and is extremely overemotional. She is also the most compassionate and empathetic person in any room, caring deeply about strangers, let alone people she's actually forged a connection with. She is very slow to anger and quick to forgive. She dislikes bullying and abuse of any kind and will nervously go out of her way to stop it, if she can. She hates violence of any kind. It is extremely easy to hurt her feelings. Especially about her abnormal body structure, of which she is extremely insecure about.
Kay despite all this, is not an introvert. She loves being around new people and making friends, and hates being alone. The problem comes in actually accomplishing this, as in her limited experience a vast majority of people are skeeved out by her. When she is around someone she trusts she becomes very intrusive of personal space, with lots of hugs and picking up and resting on.
Kay loves hiding and feeling safe in cozy places. She also enjoys movies and stories of all kinds, and she loves practicing her martial arts. Kay is a perfectionist, which is the source of a lot of her anxiety. If she can't do things perfectly right she grows frustrated, disappointed, and sad. She is also very competitive and thus doesn't want to play games or participate in sports on the chance that she loses and makes a fool out of herself by getting upset. On the flip-side she draws pleasure from executing things perfectly. She wants to cover up her face and dislikes the school uniforms bright colors as it makes it harder to blend in. When she gets the chance she wears face masks or scarfs and hoodies to conceal as much of her body and face as possible.
Finally and perhaps most importantly, Kay is illiterate and cannot speak any language at a functional level. She can read and write but not at a level that is considered literate, outpaced by small children. She can understand those around her quite well, but big words can go beyond her understanding. She mostly relies on body language for communication. Though she can speak small sentences, she stutters greatly and usually relies on mimicry and replication when she does speak. Instead she prefers to use her own body language to communicate, with which she is unusually effective.
Backstory:
The Whispered Child was born to be molded and crafted into the perfect weapon. Its father was a Warlord, a leader of a tyrannical zealous cult in a faraway land. its mother was an assassin, devoted only to the cause of lethal perfection. Out of some misguided belief that their child would inherit both of their talents and predilections towards evil, they came together in an unholy union. And so the Whispered Child was created, its destiny laid out before it by its parents.
The Warlord and the Assassin had no love for each other but they raised the child together, both of them united in their interest to see the progress of their spawn. They had two distinct philosophies that blended nicely together. The Assassin would teach the Child to turn its body into a weapon. The Warlord would turn the Child's body into a weapon for it.
A unique draw of this vile experiment was the utter deprivation of spoken and written language. The Assassin's idea. Instead, the Whispered was taught to communicate entirely through body language. The parts of the brain responsible for communication was nurtured in a different way that would make pediatrics everywhere roar in outrage. They never spoke around it. They communicated silently but effectively. It learned to read muscles and twitches instead of the alphabet. It spoke with its eyes and its posture instead of its mouth.
It was not the only Child, but it was the favorite. It was not the first Child, but it was the most special. Indeed the Warlord had kidnapped many boys and girls from different places in hopes of turning them into his perfect weapon. All of them were moderately successful, sure, he was a master warrior in command of a loyal league of black operators. But he held no attachment toward them. The Whispered Child, however, was of his own flesh and blood. The Assassin felt much the same way. It became their obsession. Though the two had cared little about anything other than themselves, in their own twisted and cruel way they came to truly care about the Whispered Child and its upbringing. They wanted to see how far they could push it. It was to be their legacy. A new bloodline of born, silent warriors. As long as they remained in control, of course. Never would they give it too much agency.
While the Assassin perfected the teachings of its martial artist, the Warlord saw fit to augment the Child's body in unimaginable ways. He forced it to battle the other Children, his other soldiers. He calculated every weakness and contrived surgical solutions. Its body was twisted by occult science, flesh that was not its own was bound into its. He made stretched the Child. Inserted vertebrae where none were previously. He made it able to twist its own form in ways that would make contortionists blush. Some experiments that were not a success were remedied with removal or improvements. How many times did he open up the Child? It lost count.
The Whispered Child was given no chances to develop a personality. Its individuality was to be cleansed out of it. The Warlord purposefully weakened its mind against psychic defences so he could assert his will over itss with mind control. It would be his obedient weapon, an extension of his own will.
But there was a flaw in his plan. The Child kept its truest, darkest thoughts to itself. It came to master the understanding of human emotion in ways not even the Assassin could have predicted. The more it learned, the more it learned. it saw the Warlord's inner weakness, his gnawing fear of mortality and dread. It saw the Assassin's desperate, cloying attempts at wealth and security. It saw the others Children's fear of failure, their stunted souls. It saw the way the soldiers looked at it, with fear and with pity. It saw the way some of them cared deeply for those who were far away. Even in the darkest, cruelest of places, humanity existed in some form. The Whispered clung onto those scraps. It found the most interesting soldiers and watched them intently. When they did, and didn't know it was there. The Child began to outpace its mother and fatits. It could elude their detection and return before they realised it was gone, if it timed it just right. It heard its first word when it was 12, a soldier asking another for a smoke. A simple act of kindness. They existed, even itse, and they were alien to it. The curious Child wanted more. But it kept its cards close to its chest. If their perfect Child was not given a soul, then it would create one for itself. It became obsessed with finding any clues to the outside world. Art, music, stories. Not the false things the Assassin created that were really just training manuals in disguise. True things created out of passion for more than just violence.
The experiments and training continued for years. It fought and battled the other Children and constantly bested them. It knew their frustration, their hatred of it. Their digust of her twisted form. The Warlord and the Assassin were enthralled and proud of their creation, their abomination. As it matured, its mind developed, and its spirit grew. Not fast enough. The time had arrive. It was sent on its first mission when it turned 16. The Warlord placed a spell on it, compelling its return.
It completed it flawlessly. It killed the target in the middle of an armed compound, and the alarm would not go off until morning, for nobody knew the target was missing. It killed no one else. It knew little about the target, but in the brief moment it ended his life, it got a picture of the stranger. 46 years old, balding, a developing cancer in his prostate not even he knew about yet. Brusque, business oriented. He had killed before both directly and via orders, and the death of his men weighed on his conscience. He was tired that evening, and looking forward to going home to those who loved him. He never would. As he felt its lithe, long arms wrap around his neck it literally felt his terror, his fear. The sorrow ached. It felt it, too. It could see his own death. It might as well have experienced death with him. There was a snap, a struggle to breathe and a horrible agony, and then a final stillness. Then it was over. It was terribly anti-climactic and impersonal. His life was over and it was responsible. Tears streamed down its face and its heart was heavy. The Assassin and the Warlord never expected their monster to have a soul. In their arrogance they failed to realise how granting a weapon the ability to truly understand those around it would affect it.
On that day forward, it...no, SHE, began to plan her escape. The plan would need to be carefully executed. Being discovered by the Warlord would mean mental domination and re-evaluation. Her kindness could never be discovered.
Needless to say, her plan worked. She was no longer under the control of her malevolent creators. They created the perfect weapon and lost control over it, as so many had before them in so many different ways. Only she was determined not to become some cautionary tale. She travelled alone in the wilderness and eventually found a town, and then a large city.
The place was a joy. She loved it. She wanted to be there and live amongst it, forever. She yearned to be so casually accepted, but her social graces were non existant. She would have to learn to replicate how they walked and talked. The light was beautiful, but it hurt her eyes. She consumed as much visual media as she could.
She was homeless, and used her skills to not survive, but thrive. All it took was a bit of investigation and the city became her playground. She couldn't read the signs but she could smell the food. The crowds were overwhelming but provided ample opportunity. She made friends with the animals, but the other homeless were afraid of her.
Eventually she crept into a place she had deduced to be a place of learning, the library. There the kindly old librarian, her eyesight fading, was nice to her. This was a place known as a community outreach center. In this strange city even someone was bizarre as her could be welcomed with the right mindset.
The lost child found great pleasure in exploring the city. But one day, there was a terrible car accident. She heard a bay, crying. She knew the car was going to explode, and she knew those around her were too scared to act, and unsure of even how to help. So she helped. And it almost went bad. There was an explosion, but the baby, the mother, and the father, all survived. As she cradled the crying baby, she understood it's fear and resonated with it, and he quickly stopped crying.
But it didn't go fully as planned. The flames had sheered off some of her clothes. Her torso platelets opened and closed, exhaling clouds of moist air into the city's cold night. A piece of metal had lodged itself in her back, and her blood flowed freely down it. The people nearby, who came to check up on her and the baby , saw her wounds. Most of them were naturally repulsed by her disgusting form, she knew. But all of them cared for the baby by instinct. And they saw her wounds and though some of them shied away, most of them came to help. They checked up on her. They kept repeating a word, over and over again. She didn't understand english perfectly, but she got the gist.
"Are you okay?" They asked her. "Are you okay?"
"Yes," she replied. "Yes. I'm...I'm... o...kay."
Not long after that, White Wood academy used it's extensive resources to locate the mysterious girl roaming the streets late at night. They offered her a position there, a new life, a chance at something...normal. Of course she knew they were telling the truth, even if some of them were insecure about it. They asked her questions. Tried to gauge who she was, where she had come from.
"I'm o...kay," she replied with a nervous smile. "I'm okay."
The name stuck. O'kay was born that day. Given her weak knowledge in the spoken languages, she is pleased that she was able to craft such a pun so quickly. People called her Kay, for clarity's sake.
Powers/Magic:
Body Modifications: The Whispered Child is a cyborg of twisted flesh and knotted bones. O'kay has had many invasive surgeries that grant her powers.
Eyes Like a Cat: O'kay posesses the ability to see in the dark. She has a third, translucent eyelid that she can use to see while protecting her eyes from particles and damage.
Subdermal Weave: Many parts of her body have been implated with a subdermal weave that grants resistance to damage, even allowing her to resist bullet penetration.
Strengthened Skeletal Structure: As well as being more flexible thanks to additional joints, chemical compounds were added into her bones to make them heavier and more difficult to break.
Adjusted Muscular Composition: To accomodate for her many "additions" to her bone structure her muscles were changed. Her grip strength is particularly impressive. If hanging upside down, she expends no extra energy.
Extendable Talons: Her finger and toe nails look normal, but upon closer inspection are actually extendable claws she can use to attach herself to otherwise solid objects.
Secondary Air Intake: Armored flesh platelets grant enhanced protection to her ribs, but they can also partially open up. She can breathe directly into her lungs this way. She also has extremely enhanced stamina beyond just her advanced cardio training, able to hold her breathe for an hour. They also naturally filter out harmful substances like poison.
Advanced Hearing: Kay can hear extremely well, especially when she limits the input of her other senses. Her ears are more resistant to damage from shockwaves and loud noises. This, combined with Secondary Air Intake, allow her to use echo-location to scan her environment. As well as doing a discombobulating shriek.
Full Body Control: Every subconscious routine of the human body, O'kay can manually override. From adrenaline production to pain detection to even her own heartbeat, she can stop and start them at will.
Joint Hypermobility: Surgery has granted her the ability to manipulate her body in creepy but versatile and useful ways. Contortionism is already one of her natural talents but the re-alignment of her skeletal and muscle structure allows her to take it to the next level, with double jointed arms and legs.
Advanced Regeneration: Kay regenerates from wounds far quicker than most people.
Emotional Trigger: The Whispered Child has the ability to give off 'vibes' with her body. Her body language is expressive on a subconscious level that cannot be easily explained. The main application of this, however, is that Whispered Child can trigger the fear reflex in people that look at her, should she so choose. Even brave, courageous, or hardened people will find their minds afflicted by fear should she undergo the invisible transformation.
Abilities:
Most Lethal Martial Artist: O'kay has been prepared since the moment she was concieved to be a killing machine. She is fluent in too many styles of hand to hand combat to count. She has already surpassed some of the worlds most lethal assassins and her potential has yet to be even close to fully tapped. With further training, discipline, and focus, she could become the most dangerous fighter, ever.
Master of Stealth and Speed: O'kay sticks to the shadows like a bat. She can be completely, 100% silent when she walks. In combat she can be hard to trace with one's eyes, like a mosquito in a dark room. She can hide in places where there should be no place to hide. One could mistake her for having the ability of short range teleportation, but this is just her talent for decieving the mind and eye.
Master Markswoman: Kay can aim ranged weapons, of all kinds with impossible accuracy.
Above Her Weight Class: It may be tempting to think that one could overpower Kay with weight and sheer strength, but one would be wrong. While she is already very strong, her techniques allow her strikes and throws to hit with power that seem superhuman.
Like a Book: The keenest and most unique advantage Kay has, the one entirely exclusive to her. The ability to read body language in a fight. With this ability she can anticipate her opponents moves and intentions, their feints and their follow throughs. She can gauge their prowess in a matter of moments, and learn the strengths and weaknesses of their techniques. This skill is so keen she can be aware of her opponents next move before they are. The subtle, imperceptible give-aways of the human body. Even beyond the human body- the same skill applies to animals. Everyone and everything is communicating it's true intentions to her, especially when in the middle of combat. As a result she can accurately tell what other people are feeling. And she is a nearly infallible human lie detector. In this same way she is able to mask her own intentions and tells, making her immune to someone attempting to mimic her techniques, and making her all the more unpredictable, uncanny, and inhuman in a fight.
Potential Character Arcs: 1. O'kay learns to read, write, and speak English at a useable level with the help of the staff and her new friends at White Wood. 2. Bad guys from her old school come to find her. 3. O'kay finds a cause worth fighting for and discovered her passion for being a vigilante or other defender of justice.
And Kay needs a found family and emotional anchor of some kind in order to survive. But that will be up to the other characters!
1. Now that I think about it, I guess it was because I wasn't sure. This is her first year at the academy is all I know. I would like it to be her first day of school as I would like to roleplay her getting used to an entirely new environment from the get go. So if the RP is starting mid semester she could be a new arrival. She's, well, definitely gonna need a lot of help no matter what but I was hoping that could make for some fun roleplay opportunities. What's more school-y than learning how to read?
2. Yes there were but they were just your "average" trained assassins from birth. And there are also regular ninjas who were adults who came there and make up the bulk of the Warlord's forces and do most of the conquering and killing and all that supervillain stuff. Kay was the Warlord and the Assassin's pet project. I imagined that they've pretty much co-opted the government of a nation state so they also have regular soldiers, too.
Alright...here she is. Leaned more into the Nebula aspects, I think. Let me know if there's anything I should change or add. Will be going to bet and probably won't be able to read or respond to anything for the majority of tomorrow, given it's Christmas Day. But y'know I'll be up for like 16 hours and not going to be busy for all of them, haha, so who knows
Name: O'Kay or Kay (Previously: Whispered Child) Age: 17 Gender: F Race/Species: Human Student/Teacher: Alpha Student Inspiration: Cassandra Cain, DC. Nebula, Marvel. Physical Description: The first thing someone might about Kay is her height. She stands at 6 feet, 2 inches, and unlike most girls her age doesn't show signs of slowing down. She is of Chinese Descent and has short black messy hair and dark brown eyes. She is muscular but lithe, giving her a powerful yet spindly frame. Her body is marked by scars in several places. Her limbs can and do bend unnaturally, being double jointed and reinforced.
Beneath her ribs are two grotesque flesh plated openings that can vibrate with warm breathe. Her body is extremely calloussed in places and very rubbery in others. Several surgery scars are on her chest, back, and legs. Around her navel is an intricately designed tattoo of an eye. Her hair hides surcery scars, as well. Her eyes have a second pair of vertical eyelids, and they can dilate into a line like a cats.
Personality: The only place Kay can blend into is the shadows.
Kay is a shy, gentle girl with low self-esteem. She wears her heart on her sleeve and is extremely overemotional. She is also the most compassionate and empathetic person in any room, caring deeply about strangers, let alone people she's actually forged a connection with. She is very slow to anger and quick to forgive. She dislikes bullying and abuse of any kind and will nervously go out of her way to stop it, if she can. She hates violence of any kind. It is extremely easy to hurt her feelings. Especially about her abnormal body structure, of which she is extremely insecure about.
Kay despite all this, is not an introvert. She loves being around new people and making friends, and hates being alone. The problem comes in actually accomplishing this, as in her limited experience a vast majority of people are skeeved out by her. When she is around someone she trusts she becomes very intrusive of personal space, with lots of hugs and picking up and resting on.
Kay loves hiding and feeling safe in cozy places. She also enjoys movies and stories of all kinds, and she loves practicing her martial arts. Kay is a perfectionist, which is the source of a lot of her anxiety. If she can't do things perfectly right she grows frustrated, disappointed, and sad. She is also very competitive and thus doesn't want to play games or participate in sports on the chance that she loses and makes a fool out of herself by getting upset. On the flip-side she draws pleasure from executing things perfectly. She wants to cover up her face and dislikes the school uniforms bright colors as it makes it harder to blend in. When she gets the chance she wears face masks or scarfs and hoodies to conceal as much of her body and face as possible.
Finally and perhaps most importantly, Kay is illiterate and cannot speak any language at a functional level. She can read and write but not at a level that is considered literate, outpaced by small children. She can understand those around her quite well, but big words can go beyond her understanding. She mostly relies on body language for communication. Though she can speak small sentences, she stutters greatly and usually relies on mimicry and replication when she does speak. Instead she prefers to use her own body language to communicate, with which she is unusually effective.
Backstory:
The Whispered Child was born to be molded and crafted into the perfect weapon. Its father was a Warlord, a leader of a tyrannical zealous cult in a faraway land. its mother was an assassin, devoted only to the cause of lethal perfection. Out of some misguided belief that their child would inherit both of their talents and predilections towards evil, they came together in an unholy union. And so the Whispered Child was created, its destiny laid out before it by its parents.
The Warlord and the Assassin had no love for each other but they raised the child together, both of them united in their interest to see the progress of their spawn. They had two distinct philosophies that blended nicely together. The Assassin would teach the Child to turn its body into a weapon. The Warlord would turn the Child's body into a weapon for it.
A unique draw of this vile experiment was the utter deprivation of spoken and written language. The Assassin's idea. Instead, the Whispered was taught to communicate entirely through body language. The parts of the brain responsible for communication was nurtured in a different way that would make pediatrics everywhere roar in outrage. They never spoke around it. They communicated silently but effectively. It learned to read muscles and twitches instead of the alphabet. It spoke with its eyes and its posture instead of its mouth.
It was not the only Child, but it was the favorite. It was not the first Child, but it was the most special. Indeed the Warlord had kidnapped many boys and girls from different places in hopes of turning them into his perfect weapon. All of them were moderately successful, sure, he was a master warrior in command of a loyal league of black operators. But he held no attachment toward them. The Whispered Child, however, was of his own flesh and blood. The Assassin felt much the same way. It became their obsession. Though the two had cared little about anything other than themselves, in their own twisted and cruel way they came to truly care about the Whispered Child and its upbringing. They wanted to see how far they could push it. It was to be their legacy. A new bloodline of born, silent warriors. As long as they remained in control, of course. Never would they give it too much agency.
While the Assassin perfected the teachings of its martial artist, the Warlord saw fit to augment the Child's body in unimaginable ways. He forced it to battle the other Children, his other soldiers. He calculated every weakness and contrived surgical solutions. Its body was twisted by occult science, flesh that was not its own was bound into its. He made stretched the Child. Inserted vertebrae where none were previously. He made it able to twist its own form in ways that would make contortionists blush. Some experiments that were not a success were remedied with removal or improvements. How many times did he open up the Child? It lost count.
The Whispered Child was given no chances to develop a personality. Its individuality was to be cleansed out of it. The Warlord purposefully weakened its mind against psychic defences so he could assert his will over itss with mind control. It would be his obedient weapon, an extension of his own will.
But there was a flaw in his plan. The Child kept its truest, darkest thoughts to itself. It came to master the understanding of human emotion in ways not even the Assassin could have predicted. The more it learned, the more it learned. it saw the Warlord's inner weakness, his gnawing fear of mortality and dread. It saw the Assassin's desperate, cloying attempts at wealth and security. It saw the others Children's fear of failure, their stunted souls. It saw the way the soldiers looked at it, with fear and with pity. It saw the way some of them cared deeply for those who were far away. Even in the darkest, cruelest of places, humanity existed in some form. The Whispered clung onto those scraps. It found the most interesting soldiers and watched them intently. When they did, and didn't know it was there. The Child began to outpace its mother and fatits. It could elude their detection and return before they realised it was gone, if it timed it just right. It heard its first word when it was 12, a soldier asking another for a smoke. A simple act of kindness. They existed, even itse, and they were alien to it. The curious Child wanted more. But it kept its cards close to its chest. If their perfect Child was not given a soul, then it would create one for itself. It became obsessed with finding any clues to the outside world. Art, music, stories. Not the false things the Assassin created that were really just training manuals in disguise. True things created out of passion for more than just violence.
The experiments and training continued for years. It fought and battled the other Children and constantly bested them. It knew their frustration, their hatred of it. Their digust of her twisted form. The Warlord and the Assassin were enthralled and proud of their creation, their abomination. As it matured, its mind developed, and its spirit grew. Not fast enough. The time had arrive. It was sent on its first mission when it turned 16. The Warlord placed a spell on it, compelling its return.
It completed it flawlessly. It killed the target in the middle of an armed compound, and the alarm would not go off until morning, for nobody knew the target was missing. It killed no one else. It knew little about the target, but in the brief moment it ended his life, it got a picture of the stranger. 46 years old, balding, a developing cancer in his prostate not even he knew about yet. Brusque, business oriented. He had killed before both directly and via orders, and the death of his men weighed on his conscience. He was tired that evening, and looking forward to going home to those who loved him. He never would. As he felt its lithe, long arms wrap around his neck it literally felt his terror, his fear. The sorrow ached. It felt it, too. It could see his own death. It might as well have experienced death with him. There was a snap, a struggle to breathe and a horrible agony, and then a final stillness. Then it was over. It was terribly anti-climactic and impersonal. His life was over and it was responsible. Tears streamed down its face and its heart was heavy. The Assassin and the Warlord never expected their monster to have a soul. In their arrogance they failed to realise how granting a weapon the ability to truly understand those around it would affect it.
On that day forward, it...no, SHE, began to plan her escape. The plan would need to be carefully executed. Being discovered by the Warlord would mean mental domination and re-evaluation. Her kindness could never be discovered.
Needless to say, her plan worked. She was no longer under the control of her malevolent creators. They created the perfect weapon and lost control over it, as so many had before them in so many different ways. Only she was determined not to become some cautionary tale. She travelled alone in the wilderness and eventually found a town, and then a large city.
The place was a joy. She loved it. She wanted to be there and live amongst it, forever. She yearned to be so casually accepted, but her social graces were non existant. She would have to learn to replicate how they walked and talked. The light was beautiful, but it hurt her eyes. She consumed as much visual media as she could.
She was homeless, and used her skills to not survive, but thrive. All it took was a bit of investigation and the city became her playground. She couldn't read the signs but she could smell the food. The crowds were overwhelming but provided ample opportunity. She made friends with the animals, but the other homeless were afraid of her.
Eventually she crept into a place she had deduced to be a place of learning, the library. There the kindly old librarian, her eyesight fading, was nice to her. This was a place known as a community outreach center. In this strange city even someone was bizarre as her could be welcomed with the right mindset.
The lost child found great pleasure in exploring the city. But one day, there was a terrible car accident. She heard a bay, crying. She knew the car was going to explode, and she knew those around her were too scared to act, and unsure of even how to help. So she helped. And it almost went bad. There was an explosion, but the baby, the mother, and the father, all survived. As she cradled the crying baby, she understood it's fear and resonated with it, and he quickly stopped crying.
But it didn't go fully as planned. The flames had sheered off some of her clothes. Her torso platelets opened and closed, exhaling clouds of moist air into the city's cold night. A piece of metal had lodged itself in her back, and her blood flowed freely down it. The people nearby, who came to check up on her and the baby , saw her wounds. Most of them were naturally repulsed by her disgusting form, she knew. But all of them cared for the baby by instinct. And they saw her wounds and though some of them shied away, most of them came to help. They checked up on her. They kept repeating a word, over and over again. She didn't understand english perfectly, but she got the gist.
"Are you okay?" They asked her. "Are you okay?"
"Yes," she replied. "Yes. I'm...I'm... o...kay."
Not long after that, White Wood academy used it's extensive resources to locate the mysterious girl roaming the streets late at night. They offered her a position there, a new life, a chance at something...normal. Of course she knew they were telling the truth, even if some of them were insecure about it. They asked her questions. Tried to gauge who she was, where she had come from.
"I'm o...kay," she replied with a nervous smile. "I'm okay."
The name stuck. O'kay was born that day. Given her weak knowledge in the spoken languages, she is pleased that she was able to craft such a pun so quickly. People called her Kay, for clarity's sake.
Powers/Magic:
Body Modifications: The Whispered Child is a cyborg of twisted flesh and knotted bones. O'kay has had many invasive surgeries that grant her powers.
Eyes Like a Cat: O'kay posesses the ability to see in the dark. She has a third, translucent eyelid that she can use to see while protecting her eyes from particles and damage.
Subdermal Weave: Many parts of her body have been implated with a subdermal weave that grants resistance to damage, even allowing her to resist bullet penetration.
Strengthened Skeletal Structure: As well as being more flexible thanks to additional joints, chemical compounds were added into her bones to make them heavier and more difficult to break.
Adjusted Muscular Composition: To accomodate for her many "additions" to her bone structure her muscles were changed. Her grip strength is particularly impressive. If hanging upside down, she expends no extra energy.
Extendable Talons: Her finger and toe nails look normal, but upon closer inspection are actually extendable claws she can use to attach herself to otherwise solid objects.
Secondary Air Intake: Armored flesh platelets grant enhanced protection to her ribs, but they can also partially open up. She can breathe directly into her lungs this way. She also has extremely enhanced stamina beyond just her advanced cardio training, able to hold her breathe for an hour. They also naturally filter out harmful substances like poison.
Advanced Hearing: Kay can hear extremely well, especially when she limits the input of her other senses. Her ears are more resistant to damage from shockwaves and loud noises. This, combined with Secondary Air Intake, allow her to use echo-location to scan her environment. As well as doing a discombobulating shriek.
Full Body Control: Every subconscious routine of the human body, O'kay can manually override. From adrenaline production to pain detection to even her own heartbeat, she can stop and start them at will.
Joint Hypermobility: Surgery has granted her the ability to manipulate her body in creepy but versatile and useful ways. Contortionism is already one of her natural talents but the re-alignment of her skeletal and muscle structure allows her to take it to the next level, with double jointed arms and legs.
Advanced Regeneration: Kay regenerates from wounds far quicker than most people.
Emotional Trigger: The Whispered Child has the ability to give off 'vibes' with her body. Her body language is expressive on a subconscious level that cannot be easily explained. The main application of this, however, is that Whispered Child can trigger the fear reflex in people that look at her, should she so choose. Even brave, courageous, or hardened people will find their minds afflicted by fear should she undergo the invisible transformation.
Abilities:
Most Lethal Martial Artist: O'kay has been prepared since the moment she was concieved to be a killing machine. She is fluent in too many styles of hand to hand combat to count. She has already surpassed some of the worlds most lethal assassins and her potential has yet to be even close to fully tapped. With further training, discipline, and focus, she could become the most dangerous fighter, ever.
Master of Stealth and Speed: O'kay sticks to the shadows like a bat. She can be completely, 100% silent when she walks. In combat she can be hard to trace with one's eyes, like a mosquito in a dark room. She can hide in places where there should be no place to hide. One could mistake her for having the ability of short range teleportation, but this is just her talent for decieving the mind and eye.
Master Markswoman: Kay can aim ranged weapons, of all kinds with impossible accuracy.
Above Her Weight Class: It may be tempting to think that one could overpower Kay with weight and sheer strength, but one would be wrong. While she is already very strong, her techniques allow her strikes and throws to hit with power that seem superhuman.
Like a Book: The keenest and most unique advantage Kay has, the one entirely exclusive to her. The ability to read body language in a fight. With this ability she can anticipate her opponents moves and intentions, their feints and their follow throughs. She can gauge their prowess in a matter of moments, and learn the strengths and weaknesses of their techniques. This skill is so keen she can be aware of her opponents next move before they are. The subtle, imperceptible give-aways of the human body. Even beyond the human body- the same skill applies to animals. Everyone and everything is communicating it's true intentions to her, especially when in the middle of combat. As a result she can accurately tell what other people are feeling. And she is a nearly infallible human lie detector. In this same way she is able to mask her own intentions and tells, making her immune to someone attempting to mimic her techniques, and making her all the more unpredictable, uncanny, and inhuman in a fight.
Potential Character Arcs: 1. O'kay learns to read, write, and speak English at a useable level with the help of the staff and her new friends at White Wood. 2. Bad guys from her old school come to find her. 3. O'kay finds a cause worth fighting for and discovered her passion for being a vigilante or other defender of justice.
And Kay needs a found family and emotional anchor of some kind in order to survive. But that will be up to the other characters!
Level 3: 15/30 Location: The Blue Sea. Word Count: 936 Points Gained: 2 New EXP Balance--- Level 3: 17/30
Sakura's jump in was predicted, and she braced for impact. "Oof!" Sakura inhaled sharply after grunting, involuntarily trying to get the air back in her system. Sakura landed on the water and took a few steps forward before realising the Water Princess was aiming right at her. Sakura braced herself for impact when Ranger came into the rescue. A drop kick! The shot went wide!
Sakura's grin faded when Seaplane Tender smacked the brave shipgirl down under the water. Sakura's lips became a thin, grim line. She really didn't like this big pale monster. Taking the opportunity, Sakura leapt forward and gave the Water Princess a Sakura Otoshi, smacking her three times in the back of the head with her double fisted hammer fists. "Ichi, ni,-san!"
As she came down to land though, her torso was slammed into by the mighty metallic tail. Sakura cried out and then gasped as she stumbled backwards. Another yellow spark of ki prevented her from getting splattered, and she felt like she still had quite a ways to go when it came to health. But still, that hurt a lot. And things only got worse.
Sakura was tossed off her feet by the myriad explosions, yelping in surprise. She felt the heat and the burn, and the concussive force suck the air out of her lungs. She scrambled to her feet, winded. The brown-haired teenager rose to her feet. She turned her head to the side and spat into the water and wiped her mouth. She had a split lip, and her ribs would probably be bruised. The alternative would be permanent damage, but her martial arts training was coming in handy. Even if she felt more fragile as a cat girl, she could still tank quite a few hits.
Sakura glanced around. Everyone was gone, except for Ranger, herself, and...Geralt-san? He had come into the water to help! Fortunately she could probably just pick him up.
"Okay! It's time to escape! Hey you, ship girl!" She pointed to Ranger, who Sakura had still not learned the name of. "Could you go pick up that white haired old guy and get him outta here? Maybe get onto that ship?" She pointed the swimming Geralt out, and then she gestured to the Atomos flying overhead. "I'll be right behind you!" She assured her with a smile.
Sakura then floated forward, making herself the nearest target to the Seaplane Tender. Sakura glared at the incoming bombers. Then she jabbed a finger at the Seaplane Tender. "And you! I think your hat looks stupid!" At that point, Sakura activated the Haru Arashi V-trigger. Releasing the built up energy in her spirit into an upgrade form of herself.
"You're in for it, now!" She declared. She pumped a fist into the air. There was a few circling swirls of pinkish, petal-like energy, before they settled into dark blue glowing energy in her palms.
The result was that her fireballs became more than twice as potent. They travelled faster and farther. They did twice as much damage, but many times more explosive force. Even Ryu would get knocked off his feet if he took one of them! Meaning that blocking them would be very annoying because they'd still knock their target back and around a bit. Her zoning pressure just went through the roof! And she unlocked the Hogosho, a defensive ability that allows her to channel her energy into a short ranged, long-lasting blast that was great for swatting enemy projectiles out of the air.
"Hado! Hado! Hado! Hado!" Sakura began firing off her fireballs at a rapid rate, evidence by the fact that she longer had time to complete the signature callout. The first were dedicated to dealing with the bombers. The large size of the projectiles and their increased durability meant they could knock several out of the air at a time. Even the weakest Hadokens ate bullets for breakfast, let alone these oversized toy planes! She changed up the timing on the fifth one. "HadoKEN!" This one was three times as powerful as her normal fireball.
If the Seaplane Tender got close, Sakura would use her EX Shouoken technique, a wicked fast series of uppercuts. The first one zoomed her quickly low over the ground making her nearly impossible to hit unless one predicted the move entirely.
And all the while she was firing off cannons and torpedoes. They roared with each subconscious activation of the harness. Sharp cracks and the whistle of a cannon shell. For the next thirty seconds Sakura became a stationary turret of ranged, projectile destruction. All of it let loose in the Seaplane Tender's direction. The enemy would probably find the attacks much easier to avoid if she merely flew backward as far as she could, letting the Hadokens sputter out and lose speed, and reducing the accuracy of her cannon fire. Fortunately, that was exactly what Sakura wanted. Keep the Water Princess away, so that she and her friends could make their speedy retreat. If the Water Princess felt brave enough she could try to wade through the saturation fire, the fireballs only becoming more dangerous the closer she got to the street fighting ship girl.
She hoped it would be enough. All she wanted right now was for her and her new friends to get to safety. If Geralt or Ranger or Junior or Kamek got hurt on her account she wouldn't know if she would be able to forgive herself. Sweat dripped down her forehead, and her face was one of intense concentration.
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