phantasmods | APPLICATIONS

APPLICATIONS

Applications are currently closed and will open at 12:01 AM PST on February 22nd.

Post your applications to this entry in the following format: First comment should contain the OOC information section only. Successive comments should be posted in reply to that comment, as many as you need. Moderator responses will be appended to the last comment of the application.

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APPLICATION TEMPLATE:

OOC Information

Player name

Player age and gender

Player Contact

Any other characters in game?

IC Information

Character name

Character canon

Canon point

Physical Description

About the Character

Character abilities

Inventory

Samples

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IMPORTANT: Be sure to post your app with the journal you intend to use for the game!

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Gracious, comforting, kind, ambitious; Merry was put into a terrible situation no one should have to deal with, least of all a teenage girl, and she knows it. Her pilot Anna is in a worse one, and she knows that too. She's as sweet and kind as she is because of natural inclination... and because she wants a world with room for sweetness and light.

And it's much easier to cultivate friends than pawns, something she doesn't think that her old boss James Paul Preston realized. The one great advantage of being placed in a Sansa Stark situation is that she's bright enough to know and count on being the Sansa at base. Further with a kind word and a gun than with the gun alone, after all. She prefers to be honest, but working for an authority figure she can't trust has taught her subterfuge.

Merry is an Anchor - while the other romantic leads are Sara's fellow Pilots, she's rear echelon support staff. She serves as mission control, in general and for Wing Commander Lin and prodigal son Joshua Preston-Castellano in particular (she's effectively, in the campaign/VN project I'm drawing her from, the unnamed Anchor in the published one-shot here.) The other Anchors defer to her for her superior expertise.

She hopes to win the peace - to make a better world than Before. As a black girl from Oakland she has no illusions about the nastier aspects of Earth That Was. While the others fight a war, she conspires with the other Anchors and with Anna to build a society, one more equitable then that of 20teen America, and pull Colonel Preston's junta out from under him before he notices he's been democratically overthrown.

She also acts as a quartermaster, rationing and distributing supplies. In practice, this also means she's usually on kitchen patrol - she doesn't trust anyone but Anna and the main character's boyfriend Keenan in her kitchen unsupervised, for both sanitary and supply reasons. She does enjoy cooking; she does NOT enjoy herding dishwashing cats till 11 PM and sleeping at 2 AM, and is outright irate when people try to foist other scutwork on her.

She's traditionally feminine with traditionally feminine hobbies; needlework, gardening, romance (and sci fi, and mystery) novels, a weakness for (making and eating) sweets when ingredients are available. She's not particularly fussed about her weight and would have been a foodie or a chef or a nominative determinism victim... if there was no war. The one 'masculine' outlier in her hobbies is boxing with - and spotting for - Anna, and this may be an excuse of hers to stay close to her favorite Pilot without it being gay.

Meredith is one of the five path characters and romantic leads of the VN project, who protagonist Sara Smith can entangle her life and Hopes with - although, to fix the chronic shortage of teenage lesbians at Phan-Rift (and because my Sara's at another game where she's on Keenan route), I'm taking her from a timeline where she's not involved with Sara and has not confessed to Anna.

On Meredith route (or more properly, "A Better Society" route where Sara flirts with her), she becomes Sara's princess - and it turns out that being a princess is hard work. Merry is always, always lowkey exhausted. Her back and neck is sore from a combination of standing all day, sleeping poorly, and being generously endowed... but she manages to look regal doing her work, if weary. Working in her kitchen turns to volunteering in her kitchen to spend time with her, turns to giving her tokens of esteem and backrubs and tea and sympathy and shit when did I fall in love with her. Merry is always very, and sincerely, grateful for it. Eventually they adopt "my princess/ milady" and "my knight/ Ser Smith" as pet names.

Just to shitpost, when Sara asks "Lesbians, share your wisdom" Merry offers "World is hard and cold... tiddy, soft and warm."

Character abilities:
As an Anchor, Meredith is a chaplain, navigator, and dream interpreter. Anchors are the closest things to base counselors and psychologists that the Resistance has got, and her style is a blend of hypnotherapy, cognitive-behavioral tech, and Jungian dream interpretation. She's empathic, patient, understanding - and totally willing to call bullshit when it'll help.

Her Anchor training also means she's skilled with the particular psionic sensor and monitoring equipment used by the Resistance (as a Jungian the name "ANIMa" makes her giggle, and she calls her rig's software the ANIMUS, for Alien Numina Inversion Machine Utility System), which transfers well to mundane radar and mapping technology.

As a cook and quartermaster, she knows how to properly organize, manage and ration scant resources for maximum benefit, and how to cook healthy, delicious and energizing meals - which she considers another important facet of her psychological work. She's damned proud that no one will go hungry on her watch.

She's a voracious but necessarily eclectic reader (the Resistance library is small, but growing), with a good base of contemporary culture popular with teenagers at her time and some reading in more complex works of literature. Whenever possible, naturally, I'll invent canons that don't actually exist to avoid canon puncture, but her costume does reference her beloved House Ravenclaw explicitly.

She is not a good shot, but she knows enough about firearms to not shoot anything accidentally, and she's not harmless. Just mostly harmless.

She has no overtly supernatural powers. If she does pick them up from PhanRift, her affinities will be for healing, dream-based magic, and extrasensory perception.

Inventory:
A traveller's backpack with camping supplies and suitable backpacking rations for one week.
A water bottle.
A first aid kit.
A 9mm Parabellum police issue pistol looted from the Blissed, two magazines, and 36 bullets.
A layered outfit suitable for the cold, rainy seasons of California: black raincoat over everything else/packed into her bag, flowing purple dress, Ravenclaw scarf for a sash, green and yellow jacket, orange blouse, red scarf, over black boyshorts and a strong sportsbra. Her backpack has two changes of clothes - one sensible orange tank top and jean overalls, and one black skirt and pastel-on-black All The Pretty Little Horses t-shirt featuring the Pegasus Champion of Valor, Skybiscuit.
A set of posters depicting a Ymir-class terror drone and reading:

"GIANTS NO MORE! WE CAN BEAT BACK THE ALIEN MENACE ONCE AND FOR ALL! JOIN UP AT THE TREASURE ISLAND RESISTANCE - WORK FOR ALL - FOOD FOR ALL! Meet at the Embarcadero Bart Station. DO NOT ATTACK THE MEETING SITE. We do not carry food or medical supplies and will respond to attack with OVERWHELMING FORCE."

Samples:
https://phantasmemes.dreamwidth.org/6621.html?thread=2263773#cmt2263773 - Main thread
https://phantasmemes.dreamwidth.org/6621.html?thread=2264029#cmt2264029 - Pleasantries with Asch

Edited 2018-07-27 02:45 (UTC)

OOC Information

Player name: Claire
Player age and gender: 23, she/her
Player Contact:

superorbital |

superorbits | discord: superorbital#3758
Any other characters in game? Yuuri Wakasa (

serrata)

IC Information

Character name: Erina Estival
Character canon: Original character, from an OC verse called "Synchronic Blade"
Canon point: About two months after starting to attend Estrella Academy
Physical Description:

Erina is a sixteen year old teenage girl, Caucasian but of pretty indeterminable nationality. She has blue eyes and long black hair that's mildly wavy and falls to the bottom of her back when she leaves it loose. Most of the time it's pulled up into either low ponytails or a high side pony. No matter what she does with it though, it always seems a little out of control with a handful of stray locks doing basically whatever the fuck they want to do.

She's fairly tall, standing at 5'8'' with most of that height in her legs. She's got an athletic build with toned muscles but it should be noted that her actual physical strength is pretty out of proportion to her her actual musculature.

Erina's PB is Aki Adagaki from the manga Masamune-kun no Revenge.

About the Character:

RIGHT HERE

fiercely

Character abilities:

Just as a note, some of Erina's abilities are reliant on the presence of other Synchronics and will be basically dead on arrival in PhanRift. I've listed them anyway in case anyone else from the cast rocks up and anything Erina won't be able to use by herself is marked with a ◇ symbol.

◆ Synchronic:

◆ Sync:

◆ Combat Training:

◇ Resonance:

Inventory:

◆ Estrella School Uniform:

◆ Zweinter:

◆ Messenger Bag:

Samples:

TDM Toplevel
Tagging out to Asch

Edited 2018-07-20 12:17 (UTC)

OOC Information

Player name: Adrian
Player age and gender: 19, he
Player Contact:

RossoFantasma
Any other characters in game? No.

Character name: Kyoko Sakura
Character canon: Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Canon point: Immediately pre-death.
Physical Description:
Her transformed clothes.
Her casual outfit.
About the Character:
Kyoko Sakura is a Magical Girl contracted by the mysterious Kyubey to fight Witches, in exchange for one wish and sweet magic powers. Her father was an excommunicated priest with unusual ideals, leading her family to living in hunger. She learned that every piece of food was precious, because they never knew if they would even have a meal the next day.

So Kyoko's wish was for people to listen to her father's words, believing that if people were to just give him a chance they would see he was right.. She believed they would save the world together, him leading people in public, her fighting monsters in the dark.

During her duties as a Magical Girl, Kyoko met Mami Tomoe. A veteran Magical Girl in her own right, Mami took Kyoko under her wing and helped her develop her abilities. She became something resembling a big sister to Kyoko, someone who she could come to about anything.

Eventually, her father learned of her contract with Kyubey. The knowledge that his followers were only there because he had been unwittingly controlling them broke him. He descended into alcoholism, eventually snapping completely and killing his family besides Kyoko, and lighting his church on fire before killing himself.

This resulted in a major shift in Kyoko's world view, which lead to her falling out with Mami. She decided that magic should only be used for one's own gain, as you can never truly know what another person is thinking. Mami heavily disagreed with this, even going so far as to fight Kyoko to stop her from leaving. Kyoko won the fight, becoming a Magical Girl that only fought for herself. She began to use any method possible to obtain more Grief Seeds, including feeding humans to Familiars.

Eventually news of Mami's death in Mitakihara reached her, and she decided to take over her teacher's old territory. It was there she met Sayaka Miki, a beginner Magical Girl. Her ideals, so similar to the ones Kyoko used to hold, initially infuriated Kyoko. She held a fierce rivalry with the girl, even attempting to kill her after a statement that particually angered her.

Her anger at Sayaka slowly changed into respect over the course of several days, as she began to learn more about why Sayaka fought as a Magical Girl. She felt like she could understand the girl, and maybe Sayaka could eventually come to understand her.

However, thier rivalry was interrupted by the shocking reveal of some hidden truths about the soul gem. The knowledge that it was her very soul that she held was an eye opener for Kyoko, leading her to try to connect with the only other girls she knew that had also been tricked by Kyubey.

Those same truths led Sayaka into despair, resulting in her becoming a Witch. Kyoko, desperate to not lose the bond that had started to form between them, attempted to reason with the Witch, hoping to return Sayaka to her senses. Once it began clear that what she was trying was impossible, she resolved herself to killing the Witch Sayaka became. However, after being so lonely for such a long time herself, she wasn't about to let her die alone. She gave her all in a literal suicide attack. It was just before the strike connected that she was brought to Phantasmal Rift.

Character abilities:

Illusion magic (currently unusable due to mental block due to disillusionment as to her wish. May regain if her former ideals return, something that is already close to happening. Certain illusions may be semi-physical)

Compelling voice (Magical Girls abilities are based on their wishes, granting her voice the same effect her father's had.)

Weapon creation (can make as many of her spear as she needs as long as she has the magic for it, including giant variants.)

Enchantment (can improve mundane objects, even giving them magical effects)

Latticework Barrier (can create linked metal diamonds to serve as a barrier)

Superhuman speed and strength

Expert at spear fighting

Telepathy (can mentally communicate with others, can only hear thoughts intended for her.)

Soul Gem (her actual soul, torn from her body and crystalized. The source of her powers. She becomes unable to control her body if it is moved over one hundred meters from her, and worsens emotional states when tainted. If the corruption of her Soul Gem reaches full, either by over use of magic or her giving in to despair, she will become the Witch Ophelia.)

Ophelia specific abilities:

Barrier (every Witch can make a personal Labyrinth to protect them and draw in victims.)

Fog creation (Ophelia is always shrowded in a thick fog.)

Familiars (Servents that Ophelia creates, their duty is to March in order. They can deliver a powerful bite attack with dragon heads, launch fireballs, and summon others of their kind.)

Fire control

Can transform into a spear
Inventory:

Grief Seed of Elsa Maria, several snacks, the clothes on her back
Samples:

She's not cute!

A familiar face (sort of.)

A few misunderstandings were had.

OOC Information
Player name: Wes | Periferal
Player age and gender: 18; he/they
Player contact: discord@twincaptor2#0162
Any other characters in game? No

IC Information

Character name: John H. Watson

Character canon: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes X Geist: The Sin-Eaters

Canon point: This is an AU in that Watson is a Sin-Eater, Holmes is a demon, Lestrade is a mage, and the rest is a goddamn mess. Early days, when they are just becoming famous. The century has not yet turned, gas lights still line the streets of London, and Queen Victoria sits proud on her throne.

Physical description: About 5’10”/11”, about thirty years old, five years dead. A robust, in that he still has his military build but hasn’t been training as regularly recently, white guy with receding brown hair and a mustache. If you look closely, you can see stitches where he’s had to reattach various bits of himself. Blue eyes.

About the Character: John Hamish Watson was born in Scotland during the latter part of the 19th century to parents he doesn’t talk about, with a brother who was an alcoholic and had little more than a watch to will him when he died. He was not born John Hamish Watson, but something more feminine, which he is not about to tell anyone. He is a man, by god, and if there is anything good about coming back from the dead is that he came back with a body a little bit more to his liking.

He is a doctor, first and foremost, and the life he now lives (or, well, lived until he ended up… wherever this is) with a defective AI pseudo-god doesn’t change that. He is quietly becoming famous in his universe for a highly fictionalized account of his adventures with said AI god, where he either tells the most mundane versions of those stories or just straight up makes things up.

What he has published about his past is mostly true: he was shot in Afganistan, and his body was retrieved by a fellow Fusilier. What he has not put to published pen and paper, for obvious reasons, is how that bullet killed him. As he lay dying, a being that took the form of a plague doctor, and which quite probably once was a plague doctor, struck a deal with the poor soul. In exchange for semi possession of Watson’s body, it would return the doctor to life, granting him new abilities and a new purpose.

His body, however, was not completely healed in this exchange, and he kept a sometimes limp and the need to continually repair himself. So, for the limp, if not for the falling limbs, he was invalided home, and spent a good while quite depressed, unable (or unwilling?) to do his duty.
It would be redundant to explain the entire rest of the opening of A Study in Scarlet so suffice it to say he met a strange man named Sherlock Holmes who, it turns out, was a demon guarded by a strange, not entirely loyal angel.

As a doctor, he knows how to heal, and to harm. As a sin-eater, he knows how to aid and maim, and feels no sympathy for those who abuse or harm or violate others, living or dead.

He is a man from 19th century London, but his time among other Sin-Eaters, his past as something other than a man, and his travels make him less likely to say something absolutely horrible than otherwise possible.
He has, and this is something he will not admit unless pressed by Sherlock Holmes himself, very little when it comes to intrinsic morals. They were lost somewhere in the sands of Afghanistan, as he lay bleeding out fighting a war he would come to believe was utterly bereft of good purpose. Instead, he sets himself by what Sherlock Holmes considers important, hence his focus on the innocent and the downtrodden.

While not as good as a detective as the man whose life he chronicles, his time spent at Holmes’s side has given him enough of an exposure to his methods that he can muddle through a mystery if necessary. He has formal medical training in a time when one could practice medicine without it, and his skill with the arts he has learned from the spirit riding around in his head are not to be underestimated.

Events in this universe have happened in a slightly compressed way, so Holmes’s return took less time in universe than it did out of universe for Doyle to get back to writing. Watson’s current relationship with his demonic companion is of a romantic nature, due both to previous feelings and Holmes’s temporary existence as Mary Morstan, whose life he borrowed during the Great Hiatus. They are blatant in supernatural company, secretive in mundane. He is friends with Lestrade (a mage), Tobias Gregson (a werewolf), and familiar with Mycroft Holmes (an angel).

Familiar information: Watson’s gheist is the spirit of those who died of plague while trying to cure it (a failed plague doctor, then). It manifests as the blurry outline of one of those once-common medicine men, holding a cane in one hand and a (is that a book??) in the other. It mostly does not speak, but can if needs must.
It has some remnants of its desire to help others, though any knowledge it retains is now centuries out of date. Beware the day it steals control of Watson’s body from him, though thankfully, it seems that day is a long way off.
(Note! The way Watson being a sin-eater works is slightly different than in most game canon. Because synergy isn’t exactly a thing in RP, he mostly sacrifices his own… bodily integrity? Think a Discworld Igor, covered in stitches and made of disparate parts)

Character abilities: Mundane: Trained with firearms + swordplay, along with the basics of hand to hand combat. Battlefield medic. Trained doctor.

Magical: Can shape his own body to his will (temporarily), including as attacks; can summon his Gheist.
The following are quotes from the White Wolf wiki
“Of all Manifestations discovered by Sin-Eaters, the Caul is among the more intimate. When a Sin-Eater dons the Caul, he invites his geist deep into his body, allowing its plasm to flow outwards through his every cell, filling him from the inside out. Sharing his body with his geist is an incredily intimate act, one that strengthens the ties between the Bound and the geist. Once it’s within his body, the Geist can change his flesh, molding it in ways defined by the Key used to unlock this Manifestation.”
http://whitewolf.wikia.com/wiki/Caul_(GTSE)
This can be nerfed and changed as requested by GM
For the sake of narrative convenience, I’ve been treating the Gheist as a sort of summonable companion. There is the possibility that the Gheist will take over Watson’s body entirely, but that seems unlikely at present.

Inventory: (1) Sword-cane, (1) medical bag, cloak, shirt, jacket, trousers, underthings, dashing hat, pair of glasses, wallet with 2 pounds stirling, his card, and two tickets to an opera he was going to bring Holmes as a surprise.

Samples: Oversharing??

Top level: There are only two people who tagged

Are you fictional?

Edited 2018-07-20 19:59 (UTC)

OOC Information

Player name: Nai
Player age and gender: 25 and [train whizzes by], he/him
Player Contact: starcrossedsky @ plurk, starcrossedsky#0506 @ the disco
Any other characters in game?: Izunia Lucis Caelum + also various NPCs those don't count

IC Information

Character name: Asch ~~the Bloody~~ - he's really rather redacted that last bit
Character canon: Tales of the Abyss + LifeAftr CRAU
Canon point: DEAD + after all his LifeAftr adventures
Physical Description: A somewhat short (by JRPG protagonist standards) boy in his late teens, with green eyes, generally European features, and brilliant crimson hair hanging to his waist. He usually secures the hair up these days with an assortment of Very Long cactus spines, and prefers to dress in loose clothes (tunics and the like) over tights and boots. Muscular of the strength over speed variety, actually has a six pack, fat chance of you seeing it since he rarely uncovers anything but his hands and head. Yuri Lowenthal/English voice, tending to be a bit rough; headcanon for accent is "vaguely musical, drawls things out when stressed/relaxed enough that his Kimlascan accent comes out."
About the Character: Original LA app - LA thread tracker + CR chart - please note that I didn't bother updating his last round of inventory stuff.

To summarize the canonical bits: Asch is a teenage not!prince who was born because a prophecy some lady made two thousand years before he was born said that if he was born, his kingdom would reach 'unprecedented prosperity.' As a part of that prophecy, he "inherits the power of Lorelei" aka has the power of the only god-being of the setting that actually appears in the game. Also, he's supposed to use that power to destroy himself and a city at the age of seventeen.

Understandably, his family doesn't tell him this.

Instead, Asch finds out the whole thing from his swordmanship instructor in the aftermath of a horribly traumatic kidnapping in which he was hooked to a magitech machine in order to create a perfect living replica of him - a perfect replica aside from thoughts and memories, anyway. This replica would be sent back to the royal family in place of the real "Luke," who Van wanted unrestricted access to for his own plots and purposes. Given the name Asch at that time, the traumatized 9-10 year old was taken to the religious city of Daath, and Various Forms of Isolating Psychological Abuse happened over the next approximately seven years.

Cut to game start, where Asch, now seventeen, the Commander of Oracle Knights Special Operations (under Van's thumb), has his first encounter with the replica now called Luke. Who... doesn't exactly leave a good impression, but this isn't about Luke's character arc. Suffice it to say that he's a total brat and Asch tries multiple times to kill him out of misdirected anger and need to avenge the life that was stolen from him by Van.

And then there's Akzeriuth - where Van uses Luke to fulfill the prophecy re: destroying the town and kickstarting the war that follows - and I'm not summarizing the whole of the rest of Tales of the Abyss here because we'll be here all day. If you want all the dirty details I've got seven thousand words about it on my journal, so we'll boil it down to this:

After dueling Luke a final time in the final dungeon in order to decide which of them has control over their collective identities (and losing), Asch dies, his character development painfully neglected by the bit of a clusterfuck that the characterization of pretty much everyone at the end of Abyss turned into. Aside from growing more intensely stressed and, as a result, more aggressive, Asch does not much change from the beginning of Abyss to the end; every time he seems to be on the cusp of growth, he self-sabotages himself with one of his other myriad of issues.

Aaaaand then he wakes up on a tropical island jamjar surrounded by strangers from other worlds, and has to figure out where the fuck to go from there.

Over his time at LA, and in particular due to the nature of Storytelling and the memory sharing event, Asch began to find commonalities with people from other worlds (most notably Ardyn and Akechi), and, as a result, began the slow process of opening up and learning to trust people again, in a way he never bothered to in canon. Ardyn, in particular, was unintentionally an extremely validating force simply by doing what he does best (getting angry); while to him, the expression of the one emotion he could normally feel wasn't particularly noteworthy, for Asch it was the first time anyone had really gotten angry about the whole thing on his behalf, rather than on Luke's or their own.

The month and a half that followed on the island of Monsun, which brought out characters' best traits on one half of the island and their worst traits on the other, cemented the development of Asch trying to overcome the barriers to trust that Van left him with on a conscious level - because at his best, he didn't have those issues, and at his worst he was downright paranoid and aggressive and generally a danger to be around other people. Though Asch kept up a relatively nomadic lifestyle in the name of gathering supplies and just having an intense wanderlust born of "I ran around the entire planet and now you expect me to stay here?," he kept in close contact with the desert camp on the positive traits side of Monsun. This period solidified his weird, Asch-is-afraid-of-paternal-attachment relationship with Ardyn (who was... considerably changed by having his daemonic side suppressed on the island) as well as his friendships with Ignis and Muffet.

The other notable bit of CR from this time period was Xion/Aster and, eventually, Shion - themselves CRAUs from Tower of Animus, where they had known a different version of Asch and been very close with him. In a callback to Animus Asch himself deciding to trust Luke because his future self had (because I also played Asch at Animus and I love callbacks), the Asch on the islands made the decision to trust in his other self's judgement and started up a (somewhat awkward, a bit hesitant) friendship with the two.

The last event that Asch participated in at LA was a sort of wish-granting event that granted a character's subconscious desires - in Asch's case, the desire to see what happened to Auldrant after his death. This was ultimately a bit of a Madoka Wish for him (if the shoe fits, call it a duck), as while it did reveal that Van had been defeated, it also revealed that Asch's family erected a grave for him under the name of 'Luke,' even as they held out hope for his replica's impossible return from death. Feeling thus that his family had neglected his own identity as Asch, and generally scorned overall, Asch cut ties with his blood family in terms of his own regard for them. Ironically, where he once considered Luke an imposter and nuisance at best, as things stand now, Luke is likely the only person Asch would acknowledge as any sort of blood family (though that is, of course, tenuous based on whatever might happen should he actually ever encounter his replica again).

The lack of save-the-world pressure hanging over his head at LA gave Asch a chance to mellow a bit; additionally, the fact that his own death on Auldrant is come and gone has allowed him to finally let go of the need to carry duty to the world on his shoulders. Or, at least, try, as it's hard to let go of something that's been ingrained in you since birth, as first a royal heir, then as Van's chosen tool for saving the world, and then finally as one of the only people who could stop that 'salvation.' Asch finally has the freedom to work some of his shit out as a result, and he's been... trying, mostly out of a resolve to get closer to that 'best self' he had on Monsun, the one capable of laughing and having friends. But that doesn't leave him without many, many issues (in particular, the father-figure issues that he refused to confront in his relationship with Ardyn, and his inability to accept that most people are kind simply because they want to help, not because they're out to take advantage of you), but... Well, he's a work in progress.

Good luck, kid.

Character abilities:Modified slightly from C/P of his LA app; I am so sorry about this wall of text.

PREFACE/GLOSSARY/the-app-won’t-make-sense-if-you-don’t-read-this: The Seventh Fonon is a magical particle affiliated with sound, memory, and healing. Generally only a small percentage of Auldrant’s population is capable of using it (these people are called Seventh Fonists). Abilities in the Tales series in general are called artes - strike and arcane artes are physical attacks with an element of magic to them (eg lighting your sword on fire before hitting something), while fonic artes are traditional spells (all with incantations in the game, but they often get skipped in the anime).

CHUNK #1: PASSIVE THINGS. Asch is, on a purely human level, an excellent swordsman and athlete, and a fully trained soldier. While the Abyss "normal" seems to be different from that in our world, he's strong enough to literally punch people into the air and jump ten feet up from a standstill. While it's implied that the ridiculous strength of the Abyss cast is from infusing their own bodies with fonons (evidence: how much weaker Jade gets when his fon slots are sealed), it's still a "passive" ability. Also, fonists have the ability to sense the elemental particles of fonons, especially when they're in high concentration (basically: low-key elementally based magic sense).

CHUNK #2: ARTES. Asch has a full list of strike artes (including Luke's sidequest artes) and a short list of casting artes, which I'm not going to list out in full because there's a better list at the wiki and anyway we'd be here all day. Suffice it to say that he's very capable in combat - the major notable gap in his abilities is that he can't heal with anything other than the lame "10% to allies" of Guardian Field. I also tend to assume that there are generic abilities shared among fonists, such as heating water, that go without mention in the game simply because there's no need to talk about them.

A SPECIAL SIDE NOTE ON MYSTIC ARTES: AKA, limit breaks, but Tales Edition. Asch has one, Rending Saber, which is unusual because most characters have two but they apparently never finished programming his second one so whatever. They can only be used in Overlimit, which is a heightened state from your usual build-a-gauge system that prevents staggering and can basically be treated similarly to any other low-level super-mode. Rending Saber doesn't have any special requirements to use beyond landing a higher-tier arte on an enemy.

CHUNK #3: GENERIC SEVENTH FONIST ABILITIES. Although Asch is in theory a very capable Seventh Fonist, in practice... not so much. It's unknown if he can read the Score and known that he can't use healing artes, but logic declares that he has the potential to do so and be really good at it. He just didn't ever learn. Dingbat. Also, he has naturally perfect pitch and a good, if unpracticed, singing ability.

He can probably also test others for the ability to use the Seventh Fonon - on Auldrant the ability to use it safely is possessed by roughly 10% of the population (if you try to use it and don't have this ability, Things Go Bad Fast), but if that ever comes up ~~I'll yell for mods before doing anything with it~~ fuck this I am a mod I do what I like.

CHUNK #4: SCION OF LORELEI BULLSHIT, AKA HYPERRESONANCE. Possessing the fonon frequency of the Seventh fonon itself allows Asch to cause a single-person hyperresonance (that is, make seventh fonons vibrate together a lot). There's several instances of hyperresonance doing weird things in canon, but the most important is that it can be used to dissolve matter by vibrating it apart at subatomic levels. Asch can do so at will, but it takes a lot of concentration and isn't exactly stealthy, because it makes him glow and hyperresonance makes a weird humming noise. And comes with the risk of just blowing up if he screws it up, so he doesn't usually like to use it, either.

CHUNK #5: PERFECT ISOFON PROBLEMS. Not only is Asch a perfect isofon of Lorelei, but his replica is in turn a perfect isofon of him. Thus, the three of them can utilize a mental fon slot connection to speak telepathically (although, in practice, it's mostly Asch yelling at Luke). Said connection usually causes an awful headache for the receiving party, for unknown reasons. Asch can also spy on Luke through this connection (seemingly by looking through Luke's own senses, although canon isn't exactly clear) without Luke being aware of it. (It presumably could be used the other way around, but... Luke is not precisely skilled at his world's magic-type skills.)

Also, since that connection was opened, Asch spent the last several months slowly dying as his fonons fucked off to go hang out with Luke instead (just like everyone else in his life) (thanks, replica). The result was something very like a degenerative illness - decreased strength both physically and magically, lowered endurance, occasional bouts of disturbing numbness and/or pain, etc. If this had run to its conclusion, Asch would have "died" and then woken up in Luke's body with Luke's memories as an appendix on his own. Fun times for everyone.

CHUNK #6: NON-COMBAT ABILITIES. Outside of combat and other fonon related abilities, Asch has a decent grasp of court manners, geography, and a few other more academic subjects. He's an excellent cook, especially of Japanese and American foods (by Earth standards). He knows his way around religious doctrine and is passable at infiltration-type activities. Auldrant's technology level is below ours, but selectively; Asch has some basic computer skills, but would probably be more at home with command prompts than touchscreens. His wilderness survival skills are not quite top-notch, for a setting with Earth-based florafauna; he'd be unfamiliar with most of them except in the most general way, but has the basic skills required for hunting, starting a fire, clean water, etc, etc.
Inventory:
-> Clothes worn (tunic, undershirt, leggings, high boots, sword belt + scabbard) + 18 cactus spikes in hair
-> Two swords (they were in him); technically replica weapons and thus 100% Seventh Fonon, but unless you poke them with a "is this magic?" sense of some sort they're just normal swords. (one in sword belt, the other strapped to his pack without sheath)
-> Handful of basic personal travelling supplies (pocketknife, hairbrush, whetstone, small sewing kit, small canteen, 2 cord hair ties, cloth sack) in a belt pack that you probably couldn't cram much more into if you tried
-> Waterproof large travelling pack, with a 1.5 liter canteen hooked onto it, containing the below; strapped onto the pack is a cloak/blanket of light purple spidersilk (a gift from Muffet)
-> Additional clothes (two pairs of jeans, two pairs of long underwear, two teeshirts, some extra socks)
-> Food (several mangos and other tropical fruits, smoked fish, cabbage rolls)
-> An extra knife, a toothbrush, a bit of fishing line, a couple of red feather charms (from the aftermath of the sun-going-out event party) and a couple of black chocobo feathers (from Ardyn's Hraesvelgr)

Samples: top-level tag-out

Player Information

Player Name: Rook Seiðr ("Rook" is fine, I can't even type that ð without copypasta)
Player Age/Gender: 45, non-binary, they
Player Contact: Discord = Rook Seiðr#0425 (you need to copypasta that ð)
Other Characters in Game: none

Character Name: Harriet Miller
 Character Canon: OC, from the tabletop superhero RPG Masks: A New Generation 
Canon Point: Immediately after the final boss battle of Season 1 of her original campaign 
Physical Description: Face claim is actress Q’orianka Kilcher ca. 2006 (image link). Age 16 and 10 months, height 5’3”.

About the Character:

This is what Harriet understands about how she came into being. Some of it may be erroneous, and she knows and accepts that. (OOC reason: adaptation to Phantasmal Rifts canon; IC reason: memories deliberately edited by Anpw.)

Outside the universe of form, underlying the laws of time, space, physics and magic, are the shinma, entities that define reality by their opposition to it. Each shinma has countless lesser aspects that simultaneously partake of and contradict its nature. One such shinma is Nishkriya, which defines conflict; as Nishkriya is perfectly peaceful, everything that is not Nishkriya—which is to say, everything in the universe—is at least a little bit violent. The aspects of Nishkriya are self-willed weapons of staggering destructive power, such as Danda the Punisher, Modaki the God-Bludgeon, and Mohana the Thief of Minds. (Note: the shinma are borrowed from the tabletop RPG Exalted.)

It came to pass that Mohana separated itself from shinma Nishkriya and entered into the universe of form through the Gateway of Sundraprisha. This could not be permitted, as it would mean that minds would be and would always have been a thing that could be stolen, like wallets. An aspect of shinma Nirguna (which defines existence—Nirguna itself does not exist, thus everything that is not part of Nirguna exists) was detached to track and retrieve Mohana: Nirvahara, the Completion of Things. In order to exist in the universe of form without breaking it, Nirvahara needed a host, so That which does not permit itself to be named (whisper not the name of shinma Nirvishesha, for it has no identity and will destroy anything that tries to give it one) created Harriet Miller and wove her history into the world.

In this rewritten world, Mrs. Margaret Miller, a software engineer for a financial services company, adopted a daughter from a semi-legal Peruvian adoption brokerage shortly after the death of her husband Stan. Harriet Miller grew up in Halcyon City, CA, the world’s superhero and supervillain capital, and led an ordinary life (insofar as life can be considered ordinary when the nightly news lists all the superpowered brawls that have terrorized the city that day) until about eight months past her 16th birthday, when Nirvahara passed through the Gateway of Sundraprisha and joined with her.

At first, Harriet lacked much in the way of free will or personal identity; she was a mask for Nirvahara, nothing more, a necessary tool for Nirvahara’s mission to find Mohana and force it back through the Gateway of Sundraprisha and out of the universe of form. As time went on, Harriet developed independence from Nirvahara, including a sense of mercy and justice and the ability to establish emotional connections to human (and superhuman) beings.

More or less by accident, Nirvahara/Harriet and four other teenage girls from South Halcyon Consolidated High School became the superhero team Factor Five. Initially Nirvahara saw the team as another set of potential assets in its quest, but Harriet bonded with them, and eventually made Nirvahara explain its nature and mission in a way they could understand. Once they knew the stakes, they committed themselves to helping Nirvahara fight Mohana. Harriet also started a relationship with one of her teammates, Zoë “Cygnus” Nevrakis, a third-generation descendant of the Olympian gods (some of whom had become the Halcyon City super-team called the Pantheon). Zoë's uncle Hades warned Zoë that Nirvahara was in danger of betraying its own mission by stealing Harriet's mind, and urged her to be Harriet's best friend.

Before Harriet and Zoë got much past holding hands, kissing and going out dancing together, Mohana struck. It had possessed Ravana, strongest of the Princes Beyond the Gate, beings dwelling at the periphery of the universe of form. Mohana/Ravana had taken control of a space cruiser belonging to the alien race known as the Slavers, and sent it to attack Halcyon City. In an epic battle on the bridge of the cruiser, Factor Five defeated Mohana/Ravana and forced them back through the Gateway of Sundraprisha and out of the universe.

In the moment that Mohana ceased to be part of the universe of form, Anpw (also known as Anubis), the incorruptible Judge of the Dead, stopped time and spoke to Nirvahara and Harriet. Nirvahara had to pass back through the Gateway as well, lest the universe come to its completion too soon, but Anpw granted Harriet separate existence as a human girl, making the fiction woven by That which does not permit itself to be named into truth. Anpw then kissed Harriet on the forehead, enkindling her with a fraction of Nirvahara’s cosmic power.

Harriet awakened, not on the bridge of the Slaver battlecruiser, but in the city ritual park of Resona Aere, catapulted through space, time and dimensions by a final spiteful gesture from Mohana. Alone, disoriented, and missing her teammates, she sought anyone who could tell her where she was and what was going on.

Harriet is a friendly girl, though she has as many mood swings as any teenager. Her basic attitude toward life is positive; had Anpw not intervened, she would have been unwoven from the universe with Nirvahara’s departure, retroactively never having existed, so her life is a gift that she will not scorn. She’s acutely aware of the gulf that separates her from unpowered humans, and even most supers: Anpw clouded her memories of being Nirvahara enough to limit her powers to a level that would not threaten the integrity of the universe of form, but she’s still on a level with Halcyon City’s most powerful denizens. Were she to lose control in a fight, she could flatten skyscrapers by accident.

Unlike many superheroes, Harriet doesn’t fight to protect the innocent or defend law and order. Nirvahara fought crime with Factor Five at first because that meant it would be able to use them in its mission, then because they were Harriet’s friends; Harriet will carry on her superheroics because there’s no other outlet for her powers that suits her personality. She isn’t anyone’s savior, except incidentally. On the other hand, when people are sad, hurt or in trouble, she will rush to comfort and support them through the process of solving their own problems. She is the sort of person who will tell you, once, that the stove is hot, watch you burn your hand on it, then bandage it and kiss you on the forehead and never say "I told you so."

Harriet is a polyamorous lesbian. She knows the world is full of homophobes and other people who would disapprove of her inclinations, but she can set their heads on fire if they get up in her grill, so fuck ’em.

Character Abilities:

Harriet’s mundane abilities are typical for an early 21st Century US teenage girl of average scholarly and athletic prowess, and need not be enumerated, except perhaps to note that she’s a good dancer with a natural sense of rhythm.

As noted in Harriet's character history, the shinma are abstractions that exist outside the universe and underlie all of space, time, physics and magic. Although there are arbitrarily many shinma, Harriet only knows how to interact with seven:

Nirguna, the Heart, which does not exist (therefore everything that is not Nirguna exists);
Nirakara, the Mask, which has no form (therefore everything that is not Nirakara has form);
That which does not suffer itself to be named, a.k.a. Nirvishesha, the Ring, which has no identity (therefore everything that is not Nirvishesha has identity);
Nirvikalpa, the Staff, which is perfectly indivisible and uniform (therefore things that are not part of Nirvikalpa are distinct and separable);
Dharma, the Cup, which is pure and without blemish (therefore everything that is not Dharma is at least a little corrupt);
Nishkriya, the Sword, which is harmless, peaceful and at rest (therefore everything that is not Nishkriya is at least a little dangerous and violent);
and Nirupadhika, the Way, which has neither extent nor duration (therefore everything that is not Nirupadhika connects to spacetime).

She can get information from the shinma, evoke manifestations of them, and abjure them. Evocation and abjuration require her to "charge her burn," bleeding physical and psychic stability to establish a transient link to the shinma; she can then "flare" a few times before her burn is exhausted and needs to be recharged. Charging takes a moment of concentration, effectively a combat round in a turn-based system, and she's somewhat vulnerable during that time. Beings that can sense the balance of cosmic forces will be aware of whether Harriet is currently charged.

Harriet can't get information from Nirguna or evoke it, because it doesn't exist. Abjuring it allows Harriet to create constructs of what she calls non-light, a kind of solid darkness (stained by flickers of deep red, and giving off quiet radio static and a whiff of ozone, because Harriet's connection to Nirguna is imperfect); she can make these in any shape and up to the size of a city bus. Normally, she can move her constructs and change their shape by concentrating, but with additional burn she can animate them independently. They last about 15–20 minutes (i.e., a scene) unless she dismisses them sooner. She can extend her mundane and supernatural senses to see through her constructs as if she were present with them, but is blind to her physical surroundings while doing that. Harriet also abjures Nirguna to summon her superhero costume, a body-hugging sheath of non-light; she's done that particular manifestation so often that it no longer requires concentration or burn.

Nirakara tells Harriet when she confronts things without form, i.e., with no localized nature (this is not the same as invisible or bodiless beings; there may not be anything in Phantasmal Rift that would trigger this sense). She could probably learn to ask Nirakara whether something is disguised or illusory, but does not have that power at present. She doesn't know what evoking it would do, but it would probably harm her, as (unlike Nirvahara) she is incapable of existing without form. Abjuring it does nothing within the universe of form, as it is already absent.

That which does not suffer itself to be named won't talk to Harriet, or anyone else, because that would mean there was something identifiable talking, which is abhorrent to it. Evoking it would allow her to obscure her identity, effectively a stealth or disguise spell, but she has not learned to do that. Abjuring it would allow her to break mind control and other effects that impede someone's free will, but she hasn't learned to do that either.

Nirvikalpa informs Harriet of the structure of reality, including the presence and extent of fissures; she could probably find out more data about fissures by studying Nirvikalpa, but hasn't done so since her arrival. She can also ask Nirvikalpa to tell her about the presence, range and direction of thinking beings. Evoking Nirvikalpa would duplicate the general translation spell in effect throughout the game; evoking it more strongly would allow telepathic contact between consenting beings, but Harriet hasn't learned to do that yet. I don't know OOC what abjuring Nirvikalpa would do—separating or isolating things somehow. If I think of something cool I'll put in a points request, I guess.

Harriet can ask Dharma whether something is pure or corrupt (i.e., poisoned, contaminated, ill, injured or emotionally or morally compromised). Getting detailed diagnostic information from it is beyond her powers at the moment. Evoking Dharma would purify, repair or heal, but Harriet isn't attitudinally suited to be a healer, so she may never learn to do that. Abjuring it would cause things to become poisonous, diseased and in all likelihood infectious; she will almost certainly never learn to do that, because ugh.

Harriet can ask Nishkriya for information about violence and destruction—whether it is happening, has happened or is imminent in a place, whether someone has violent intent, and whether something is a weapon or can easily be weaponized. Evoking Nishkriya would bring peace and calm to a place or group of people, but Harriet hasn't learned to do that. Banishing Nishkriya consumes burn to blow things up; the more surgical and restrained Harriet wants to be with such destructive forces, the more burn it takes.

Nirupadhika gives Harriet awareness of spatial and temporal distortions, such as teleportation, black holes and stasis fields. Evoking it would allow her to teleport within line of sight by expending burn, or to teleport to anywhere she's ever been with more burn, but she hasn't learned how to do that yet; I expect the damage to Nirvikalpa would prevent her teleportation from crossing fissure boundaries. It would also allow her to teleport objects and people around within line of sight by expending burn. Abjuring Nirupadhika blocks teleportation in an area or erases a spacetime distortion.

Nirvahara had access to considerably more power, and didn’t need to charge or expend burn, but such things are forbidden to mere humans. Probably just as well.

Note: Harriet's game of origin, Masks, takes a much more free-form approach to superpowers than the above; I've gone to some trouble to break Harriet's thematics down into specific abilities.

Inventory:

smartphone
wallet with $23 in cash, student ID, driver’s license, health insurance card, ATM/debit card, emergency credit card, AEGIS superhero registration card
compact and lipstick

Edited (amending application) 2018-07-28 04:49 (UTC)

Threads

(all from Test Drive #005)

Harriet partakes of Merry's hospitality and doesn't even have a hostess gift to offer in return, shame Harriet, Mom taught you better

Alex and Harriet rescue each other from the rising flames

So the catgirl…rides a bird…? Whatever, let's get them both underground.

Fortunately this is not the sort of "green girl" K. W. Jeter wrote about

I'm human! I swear! I'm just the kind of human who blows things up with my mind, is all.

Dr. Watson? Like, Sherlock Holmes' Dr. Watson? This just keeps getting weirder.

That's a big hammer. Do your armth get Thor lugging it around?

Edited 2018-07-25 04:35 (UTC)

OOC Information

Player name: Fortuna
Player age and gender: 27, female
Player Contact:

FortunaDraken, FortunaDraken#0962 on Discord
Any other characters in game? Nope

IC Information

Character name: Sync the Tempest
Character canon: Tales of the Abyss
Canon point: After his death on Eldrant
Physical Description: Fan art picture because the only official art in that uniform I can find is the anime art and no. Sync is about 5' ~~purge all wiki ideas~~ and physically appears around 15.

About the Character: Bullet point timeline, GO.

Sync was created, not born, as the fifth of seven replicas of the Fon Master. Despite looking around twelve years of age, and being programmed to already know how to walk, talk, eat, basics, replicas are like babies at birth and know nothing aside from what they're programmed with.

You know what five of seven means? He wasn't good enough. Requiring a replica that had at least the ability to use the Seventh fonon at the same level as the original Ion, each one was tested. Out of all seven, Sync's abilities were the worst, despite also being the most physically capable (original Ion was weakened due to illness; Sync was one of the only replicas to not inherit this). He was regarded as trash, to be thrown away.

Quite literally. Grand Maestro Mohs ordered the leftover replicas to be left at the Mount Zaleho volcano. The staff, apparently being assholes, took this further and literally shoved them into the volcano itself. He survived somehow, hiding under a rock first chance he got.

Van Grants, one of the others involved in the creating of the replicas, came out to the volcano. Why, who knows? But he found and called out to the fifth, impressed with the physical abilities displayed. Van offered him a choice, to go or to stay. In a decision he came to regret immensely, he chose to go. At this point, Van officially named him Sync.

He was taken to a place just outside of Daath, and given a mask to hide his face, given he was identical to the Fon Master. Here, Van trained Sync to be a tool for his own purpose, making him learn to fight, to analyse, to calculate and assess. Sync was smart and progressed at a rapid rate.

At the same time he was learning that while he was 'free' as Van said, he was also only alive to be used. This gave rise to self-destructive tendencies, making him borderline suicidal. Van refused to let go of him however, making it clear that the only time Sync would be allowed to die was when Van had no further use for him.

Eventually he was integrated into the Order of Lorelei, becoming one of the six God-Generals, Van's direct subordinates, along with becoming Chief of Staff thanks to his tactical abilities. By the time that canon begins, he's been alive for a mere two years, though Auldrant's years are over 700 days long, so by Earth terms he's slightly older.

As the game starts, he is one of the chief antagonists, though is also one of the less seen ones. He helps with the plan to kidnap Fon Master Ion (in truth the seventh Ion replica) in order to take him around unsealing the Sephiroth, something only Ion could do.

Sync is briefly encountered in Choral Castle when Asch the Bloody, one of the other God-Generals, had Luke kidnapped and brought to the replica machine present there to have his fon slots opened (Luke, unknowingly at the time, was a replica of Asch). Sync helps the resident tech genius of the generals, Dist the Reaper, with this task, before being briefly unmasked by Guy Cecil. Guy is thus the first to begin to suspect was Sync is, but the Tempest doesn't stick around for the others to see, retreating soon after getting his mask back on.

His first major encounter with the main party is in the Zao Ruins when they come to rescue Ion. Sync and one of his allies, Largo the Black Lion, team up to take them on, though are defeated. However with the Sephiroth unsealed, Sync called Asch back, and offered the party a deal: take Ion, but leave now, or else everyone present got to get buried under the sand. They take it.

The next time he's encountered is also brief, but during this point, he also gets a curse slot on Guy. For some time after, Sync uses this to turn Guy on his allies, Luke in particular, before it is eventually removed by Ion.

Given the main party had thoroughly messed with Van's plan at this point, Sync's next mission was also likely to be his last. A suicide mission, to hide on the Tartarus (a landship) as it dove into the core of the planet; his mission to stop the main party from returning. Despite his best efforts, they defeat him, and it's revealed not only that Ion was a replica, but that Sync was the same. Ion offers a hand of friendship to his fellow, but it is rejected, and Sync backs off, allowing himself to fall off the Tartarus and into the core, believing himself finally having a chance to die.

Van gets fought later on, also falls into the core, absorbs the sentience of the Seventh fonon, Lorelei, and finds Sync there. Since he still has work for the replica, he picks him up, returning to the surface with him. Sync is not overly pleased but doesn't say anything about it.

Van's plan comes to light then – in order to destroy Lorelei and abolish the Score, the planet's memory that tells the future and predicted that one day everyone would die to plague, Van planned to replicate the entire planet and everyone on it, as replicas weren't bound by the Score. As Score readings at this point had been abolished, Sync was tasked with going around giving fake readings to the desperate people, as a ploy to actually extract their replica data. The main party encounters him doing this, but is unable to do anything about it due to civilians being in the way.

Eventually, the device that would allow Van's vision to come about, Eldrant, rose into the sky. Sync remained on it as the main party worked to get up there, eventually gaining access as Eldrant crashed into the ground, an entrance formed thanks to the work of Asch, who turned traitor awhile ago. The main party took their time, but eventually got past various obstacles, before getting to where Sync waited. As the penultimate boss of the game, he was the last thing in their way before they could truly stop Van. They fought one last time, and Sync was finally defeated, disappearing in a cloud of fonons.

One important fact to mention before going into Sync's personality is that when replicas are born, they're total blank slates. In a way, they don't even have basic instincts, though they learn them fast by copying what those around them do. However when created, replicas can be programmed to have some basic motor skills such as walking, talking, eating, etc. Sync is one of these replicas. The problem with the programming is that in exchange for being born with these skills, development in other areas will be stunted, making it harder to learn. In Sync's case, he has severe trouble understanding emotion, especially positive emotions. As a result, it shows through in his personality and (in)ability to handle ordinary people.

Perhaps the very first thing to understand about Sync is the sheer amount of hatred he has for the simple fact that he was born. He views himself as trash, a failure of a replica, and has a fair amount of self-loathing going on. He doesn't display it as such, viewing it less of something that his emotions make him feel and more of just a fact: he was born to be a replacement, he was deemed unworthy, and was tossed away. As a result, the mere fact that he was born is something that he hates. More than once in his life he's contemplated ending his existence, but never has to come to anything. Regardless, it is one of the defining points of his character. As a result, he also hates the Score for being the reason he was born. If it hadn't dictated that the Fon Master would die, he wouldn't have been born. It's why he goes along with the plan to destroy it and Lorelei, not caring about the fact it would also destroy the world.

Sync views himself as empty, and in way isn't entirely wrong. While normal people (or successful replicas) go through life as you'd expect, Sync spent most of his short life training and be used as a tool for Van Grants. He was very aware of this fact, and in all honesty doesn't really mind it. It gives him some sense of purpose, a feeling of being useful in some way. It makes his life easier to bear. Regardless, that kind of upbringing has resulted in him being very much unattached to everything and everyone. The idea of friendship, of caring for someone or something, to have a reason to actually live, is foreign to him. People who act normally are confusing. As a result, he tends to really not give a damn about a lot of things, particularly other's opinions.

It makes him dangerous as an opponent, as he's not afraid to fight with everything he has, to give up his life, as it doesn't mean much anyway if he loses. If he loses the fight, he's clearly not useful anymore, and should just die anyway if the fight didn't kill him. It's that reason that he lets himself fall from the Tartarus when he loses to the party in the core. He doesn't need the party's pity, seeing that kind of life as worthless and pathetic.

Despite this, it's also true that if he was going to die, he'd rather it be on his terms. It's why he fights so hard, because dying to some pathetic excuse for a person is not exactly okay by him. If he's going to die from a fight, then that person had better put everything they have into it. Heaven help he ever gets killed by something managing to catch him off guard or sneaking up on him. It'd just make him hate himself even more.

Two words that describe Sync very well are ruthless and sadistic. Ruthless in that he is not one to care about what happens to those that aren't important to Van's plans, ruthless in that he will destroy anyone in his path without stopping or hesitating. If there is one thing he definitely is, it's an effective weapon. Sadistic in that he's not beyond doing whatever it takes to achieve what he plans. When Anise tries to stop him from taking people to get their Score read (and quite possibly dying), he's not above changing his voice, raising it to sound identical to the replica Ion, whom Anise was quite close to, despite the fact that Ion had just recently died. He knows damn well it'll hurt her, and frankly he doesn't care. In fact, if anything it simply amuses him that it's so easy to get by her.

Sync doesn't have a temper as such. It is kind of hard to anger someone who really doesn't give a damn about what you think. But he does have a few things that can make him mad (put in the right way, sometimes they'll just amuse him), namely pretty much anything that attempts to validate his existence, or claim he's actually worth something, or knows more about the whole existing thing than he does. Ignoring him in a way that says he's being underestimated can also do it. His temper doesn't tend to boil up to exploding point like a normal person's; instead it usually flips to mildly annoyed at best to pissed off to high hell and likely about to punch someone in face if he isn't already. Given his age, it's almost like a temper tantrum, except that his are lethal and can very easily be fatal.

Character abilities:

Have an artes list. Artes are basically spells of assorted kinds, of both the normal "sling elements at your enemies" types and the "channel elements into your weapon (aka fists and feet because Sync) to enhance your attacks". Plus the big huge damage in short timeframe that are mystic artes. So have a list, it's easier than making this huge!

In relation to this, Sync has a pair of glyphs seared onto his body. The huge one on his chest allows him to draw in more Seventh fonon that he can do naturally, massively enhancing the amount he can do with the Seventh. The smaller one on his back allows him to control it, so that the fonons don't simply dissipate as soon as he draws them.

Sync is stupidly fast and stupidly strong. His speed is such that it can be hard to actually track him once he gets moving, though he can't maintain that speed for long periods of time. His strength is such that he is literally the only character in the game to not use a weapon because honestly, he doesn't need one. He is the definition of the glass cannon fragile speedster because while his defences are lower than the other God-Generals, he can and will hit you like a truck if you let him. And with how fast he can dish it out, it's very easy for it to rack up quickly.

Sync is also stupidly smart. His intelligence is such that he can learn skills incredibly fast, and he's considered a tactical genius. The other God-Generals would look to him for advice in a situation, due to his ability to read and work out an answer to a situation very fast.

Inventory: Just his uniform because what is carrying stuff around with you.

Samples: A wild TDM thread appears!

OOC Information

Player name: Rem
Player age and gender: 24, she/her
Player Contact:

remaix or Remaix#1545 on Discord
Any other characters in game? Heart, Elize Lutus

IC Information

Character name: Eizen
Character canon: Tales of Berseria
Canon point: Not long after the game's end
Physical Description: Here he is. Height of 6'2", and somewhere around 1000 years old. What? Malakhim get real old.
About the Character: Eizen @ the Tales wiki

Eizen is first introduced to the party by fighting them, asking them to team up with his crew, and makes it clear that while it would be stupid to do so, they're free to refuse. It's a very blunt introduction, but... that's Eizen. Blunt. He's almost unfailingly serious and direct, with his default and most common expression being a frown. It adds to his intimidating exterior and is fitting for a pirate.

With an attitude like that, it is easier for him to keep a clear head, usually. He's more intelligent than one might assume of a pirate. Combine that with his level-headedness, and it's no wonder that the crew of the Van Eltia knows they can count on their first mate. It extends to Velvet as well; Eizen seems to fall into the role of second-in-command with her a lot of the time, with them discussing the best strategic option, and having each others backs. It's a natural fit for Eizen and a role he's very comfortable in.

Don't think that this means Eizen is all serious business all the time. He does have a sense of humor. It's just... generally very deadpan and he'll deliver even extremely serious puns with a completely straight face. Hell, he actually gets very into it when Magilou puts up a comedy act with him as part of her sidequest, it's just that he's too intimidating to get the proper reaction. But boy, does he try.

Not that people are entirely wrong to find him scary. Eizen is still quick to solve problems with violence. Can't forget the time the group needed information and he started breaking an exorcist's fingers one by one until he started talking. That's not something he really has any moral objections to. He is a pirate, after all.

Hell, it seems almost uncharacteristic for a pirate to allow a group to refuse his offer, even though he needs them, but it's an important part of his creed. Freedom is what's most important to him. He even informs Velvet and her group right away about his curse, because for them to fall victim to it unknowingly would be an unfair death... They deserve to make an informed choice, after all. Eizen will do whatever he decides and refuses to let anyone else control the direction of his life... and he encourages this philosophy in others, as well. He's very pleased when someone makes their own choices without letting others decide for them. It's part of what made the pirate lifestyle so appealing to him.

On the flipside, taking away someone's ability to choose for themselves is about the worst thing you can do. Brainwashing, slavery, all of that... To say Eizen is no fan would be a massive understatement. It's why he has such distaste for the Abbey, who suppress the wills of malakhim to make them into obedient tools for the exorcists. Forcing anyone in that way? Nope. That's a bad, don't do that, that's a good way to piss Eizen off. Be free, make your own choices, take control of your life... but don't take away control from someone else.

And when someone is so far gone that any will they had has disappeared, Eizen sees it as a better option to end their life. Death can be a mercy. This is part of the reason he was so adamant about killing Theodora, Zaveid's lover, who had turned into a dragon, as well as the malakhim fusion experiment of the Abbey. Even his own captain, Aifread... When there's nothing of you left, death is the better option.

Another important value to him is loyalty. Sure, he has a serious and even somewhat intimidating exterior, but... he's got a better heart than he'd admit. He'll do anything for those who are important to him, no matter how dangerous. The whole reason he even joins up with Velvet is for the chance to find his crew's captain, Aifread. Even when the only option is to head into danger, even when there's very little clues to work with, Eizen never gives up on finding his captain. He looks out for Laphicet too, almost like a big brother figure, frequently giving him advice. And don't even get started on the subject of his sister... Despite the fact that malakhim can't actually be related to one another by blood, Eizen still loves Edna like a proper big brother. He's even the one who named her. Protecting her is of great interest to him, which is... why he left her behind in the first place, actually. And it's the reason for some of his troubles.

Which brings us to the Reaper's Curse, which is actually a blessing, technically. It originated from Eizen's desire to protect Edna. He wanted to get stronger so much that his blessing was created, bringing bad luck to everyone around him so that people can then overcome these challenges and grow stronger. Except mainly it just made him miserable for a long time and made him leave Edna behind so she wouldn't be hurt by his curse. Oops. It wasn't until meeting Aifread that Eizen managed to get over the worst of this, no longer wallowing in despair over his curse, and instead deciding to do what he wanted regardless of the curse. Not that he's entirely over it, as the curse does still frustrate him. Being haunted by bad luck still isn't a fun time.

It should be noted that Eizen is also something of a big ol' nerd. He has a great love for history, relics, old buildings, art... You'll see the biggest, more carefree smiles on his face when the Van Eltia brings back more treasure. When the group fishes up a cursed pot, he's downright giddy, and urges them to be careful not to damage it even when a monster inside it is attacking them. And he just looooves to talk about any finds, going on long, very nerdy rants without needing to be encouraged. He's real eager to talk about his knowledge. Though he does have a very strong desire to be right. When Eleanor corrects him on things, he does admit that theories change over time, but he still gets... pretty surly about it. It's a bit of a blow to his pride.

Honestly, Eizen can get fired up over the strangest things. He gets very into fishing, butts heads with Rokurou over what sort of beetle Laphicet found as if it was of the utmost importance, and he's so adamant about their base needing a secret tunnel that he's even ready to make an island just so the tunnel would actually lead somewhere. No one can say he can't get passionate about things, that's for sure, but he sure can get serious about these things. But that's not helped by his stubborn streak. Seriously, he's not exactly quick to back down about things. Velvet even had to beat some sense into him when he refused to back down from fighting Zaveid.

Character abilities:
Malak: So Eizen is what's known as a malak (or seraph, in Zestiria). It's basically a sort of spiritual being with a strong connection to nature, born from an earthpulse. Generally, malakhim are invisible to humans, unless they have a lot of resonance (spiritual power, basically) or other magic shit makes them visible. Oh, and... since Eizen is an earth malak, he also can't actually swim. Unless he has floaties, then he's good.
Malak Artes: So Eizen is an earth malak, which means he especially has earth elemental artes. Think stone spears, making rock pillars, that sort of thing. He also has artes of other elements up his sleeve, and even some healing artes. One makes people a little faster in addition to healing them, while the other actually revives people who've been downed. A specific arte that he shows off a few times is a binding arte, which chains people up.
Draconic Drive: Every party member in Berseria has a special mode they can activate in battle, and Eizen's is Draconic Drive. It lets him sprout dark wings and even get quite a bit of air, as well as blasting people with fire or darkness. So that's neat.
Reaper's Curse: Well, it IS an ability, of sorts. Eizen has supernaturally bad luck, as part of his domain. What this means is that he brings ill fortune to himself and anyone who's nearby enough. This can mean a sudden outbreak of humans turning into daemons, causing friends to die, and... well, even just minor stuff, like his coin always landing on heads. Attempting to cheat the curse tends to end... badly. He tried flipping a two headed coin once. It exploded.
Martial Artes: Other than all those special powers, Eizen is also just real strong. This is a guy who regularly punches daemons. He's a force to be reckoned with in melee combat. It helps that he uses his bracelet to act as a catalyst, making his punches even stronger.
Dragon: Well, it's not... likely to come up, but it should be noted that, if exposed to too much malevolence, a malak will lose themselves and turn into a dragon. So far, there's no known way to reverse this. Just, you know, that's a thing, technically.

Inventory: ≫ Clothes
≫ Coin
≫ Glasses
≫ Bracelet (for focusing mana)
≫ Pendant with his sister's portrait inside
≫ A letter his sister sent him

Samples: TDM top level and another test drive thread

Edited 2018-07-25 23:10 (UTC)

OOC Information

Player name: Kaja
Player age and gender: 37/female
Player Contact:

kajarainbow
Any other characters in game? No

IC Information

Character name: Melia Zephyr
Character canon: Original
Canon point: After the end of the history
Physical Description:
The thing that stands out the most is that she has green skin and leaves for 'hair' with a few lotus flowers glowing among those leaves. Her overall body shape is plump and curvy. She has a roundish face and her eyes are a deep purple. She usually has a taste for colorful clothes. She stands at about 5' 6'' and is visually in her 30s.

About the Character:
Her world is ruled by gods and magic, by myths and legends. Once the world was perfect, or so the story goes, until that perfection was broken by the cracking of the shell shielding the world from the formless chaos outside. Many disasters were caused, such as the destruction of the aetheric sky and its transformation into a lesser substance called air, but those disasters also gave birth to many new possibilities previously nonexistent in the former unchanging perfection. Eventually new living routines established themselves. But Chaos continued its influence, resulting in mutations.

Touched by Chaos from her very birth, Melia started changing in her preteens. Her god-fearing family cast her out (a merciful treatment for one once of their own blood) for the peculiar growth of leaves upon her head and threatened her with violence should she return. It didn't help that she had decided from an early age she had decided she was a girl, not a boy, which went against the teaching that all are formed as they're supposed to be from birth. Afraid after being outcast, she wandered into the wilderness.

Only the voice that came to her allowed her to survive. It told her to walk until she reached the wildlands, where she would find a land to welcome her. So she continued on, through forest and jungle, over hills and between mountains, and across a deadly chaotic wilderness.

When she despaired for her hunger, the voice told her that she would be blessed with a skin like that of plants so she could take in the sunshine and sink her toes into the ground. It told her that she would be blessed so that the plants around her would yield nourishment to her. When she despaired for her thirst, the voice taught her to speak to even the most reclusive water spirits of the desert, so that she might find water. When she despaired because of the weather upon her, the voice taught her to become tough-skinned to endure that weather. When she feared the predators prowling around her, the voice taught her the forming of thorns and noxious scents and mild toxins to ward them off.

And so she walked across a continent from end to end and into the uncertain and changing geography of the wildlands, where she found the land named Haven. And there, within Newport by the sea, she found a temple to the very voice that had led her. She entered the service of Zephyr to thank her new goddess.

She learned many lessons, such as things a speaker to spirits and gods must know, how to host parties, the mixing of herbs for assorted results, and more, before she was ready to take her place as a proper priestess. And she, as many others in an often besieged land did, joined the militia to defend Haven.

Since she was still young, the loose priesthood of Zephyr took her in and she became a tag-long to their often boisterous ceremonies until she'd matured into an adult and learned enough to fully join the priesthood. She views the other priests as her family.

As a priest, she oversaw blessings and other ceremonies, especially during the planting seasons which were a large boost to the temple's coffers. But for the most part they subsided off their own gardens, which were plentiful enough that what they didn't eat was sold for a modest income.

Zephyr proved a sometimes tempestuous and troublesome god to deal with, but Melia learned to ride with the wave and have a lot of fun whatever happened. Zephyr became something akin to a mischievous older sister to her, who led her on many adventures. Zephyr also provided her with blessings, such as granting her the womanly body she had longed for. It might seem like she has a special relationship with her goddess, and that's true enough, but it's actually a typical relationship for priests; each has their own personal connection.

The followers of Zephyr, as far as the religions of Shell go, are very loose in organization. They lack the organized structures and hierarchies of other religions with more formalized leaderships. But those who particularly devote themselves tend to gain respect and Melia gathered a fair deal of respect.

Haven was filled with many strange experiences to someone born in a more mono-cultural nation. Due to being a grab bag of misfits and outcasts, Haven provided Melia with exposure to a wide variety of cultures. It was overwhelming at first, but with Zephyr's encouragement she adapted. Newport's twisted streets held many interesting surprises and she developed an affection for the city as well as the nation of Haven.

But some gods held Haven as heretic, leading to a few attempted invasions of Haven during Melia's lifetime. Most such invasions foundered in the wildlands as the natives turned the chaotic terrain against the invaders, leading them into numerous perils and putting terrain between them to retreat. But there still were numerous skirmishes seen. Melia saw a few fights herself, which was enough to make her weary of war.

The first thing many will notice is her fun-loving, even hedonistic, tendencies. Growing into adulthood among the frequent boisterous celebrations held to Zephyr has left its mark. She's likely to drag whoever's on hand into some party or other entertaining activity, and is flirty as well as making use of light recreational substances (including but not limited to alcohol).

She's fairly devoted to her goddess thanks to all Zephyr's done for her, to the point of being practically a gushing fangirl at times. The painful exile she suffered from her family and home culture has led her to embrace Zephyr's code of acceptance. Discrimination brings up bad memories for her and she reacts negatively to it.

A close relationship with a somewhat unpredictable god's led to learned adaptability. She's quick to recover from surprise and has learned to deal with sudden inconvenience as well as take advantage of sudden fortuitous occurrences.

She's been diligent from childhood, but seeing her eager efforts to please her parents get rejected soured her on work just to please others. So she now works only for her own sake and the causes she loves. When motivated by those things, she's quite responsible if sometimes irreverent. When unmotivated, she tends to get into trouble. Nurturing others' growth's helped give her a sense of family she had lost, and she enjoys giving spiritual comfort when she can.

The Zephyrites instilled her with a lack of respect for arbitrary authority, so she follows only the rules she sees as absolute necessity (or just good sense). And she will count it as a spiritual duty to disregard unnecessary rules even if it costs her. Every now and then she will deliberately cause chaos targeted at breaking people out of their routines.

Her experiences in the Haven militia have left her with a preference for peaceful resolution or at least nonlethal methods. But she's seen enough to know violence's not always avoidable. When she views violence as necessary, she doesn't see any use in playing fair.

Character abilities:
To put it shortly, Melia has plant powers. To expand on this, she can alter her body to take on assorted plant properties as well as changing her colors. She can even regrow lost limbs, though not interior organs or the like. She can also cause plants to grow and control them, as well as mutating them. She can easily grow on her body assorted plants including those with interesting uses like drugs and poisons, as well as unusual properties like fire lilies which're always on fire or steel oak which has the qualities of steel. She also ages at a slower rate.

Every species in her world has a specific gift, and humans are no exception. Where the birdlike skyfolk have their aetheric wind magic, the wormlike underfolk have their earth magic, and the furred landfolk have superhuman physical strength and agility, humans have exaggerated endurance and stamina. Melia shares this gift of extraordinary endurance.

Her priestess abilities consist of spiritual and magical sensitivity, allowing her to see spirits and talk to them though this gives her no direct control over them. She still has to talk (possibly bribe) them into doing what she wants like anyone else would. Though many things won't require an incentive--a fire spirit doesn't need any persuasion to burn things, for example.

She's also familiar with a number of ceremonies and blessings. Generally, she can give blessings that will help ensue good growth and fertility. She knows some fun tricks for parties like turning water into wine. The Chaos-related blessings likely aren't nearly as relevant in a setting without that kind of Chaos, but in general they would increase the likelihood of positive outcomes from interactions with Chaos and decrease the likelihood of negative ones, though there are no guarantees with Chaos. She can also bless others with mutations, basically changing their bodies and potentially granting them new capabilities. All blessings take a ritual of some kind and often materials, though being chaotic Zephyr's flexible about the materials. However, those blessings won't be usable because they rely on her goddess back in her world.

She knows how to use a pistol, but her primary combat methods consisted of turning the local flora against invaders. She's helped out enough on ships to not be a hindrance. One thing she is, is an amazing cook who knows how to make delicious meals even out of some things most wouldn't consider edible, a valuable skill in a land with bizarre flora and fauna. She's also skilled at pranks.

Inventory:
Her clothes, which are a colorful spidersilk priestess robe and underwear. She's also wearing leather sandals.
A coin bag attached to a string tied around her neck.
A shimmering purple blinklizard leather belt with a satchel in which are:
A sheathed utility knife that she uses more as a tool than a weapon.
A little decorated cylinder with a fire spirit in it for creating fire.
Thread and needle.
Dried foods for quick snacking (which got devoured by Harriet on the test drive)
Ritual implements.
A waterskin with wine that's more water than wine, for sanitized portable drinking. Harriet drank most of it.

Samples:
Test drive thread
Short test drive thread
TFLN meme thread

Edited 2018-07-26 01:21 (UTC)

OOC Information

Player name: Emily
Player age and gender: :| she/her
Player Contact:

deerleisure
Any other characters in game? Madeline Curie, Nono

IC Information

Character name: Signe Vågsnes
Character canon: Bleach (original character, tabletop-based)
Canon point: ~1.5 years post her own canon
Physical Description: Signe, physically, appears to be in her late teens or early twenties. She's 5'4", with wavy brown hair and brown eyes. Lacking in the figure department, but is muscled like a shounen girl (she has abs and a gymnast-like build more or less.) She maintains a perpetual expression of boredom or disinterest. She is invisible to people without ghost-sensing ability when in einherjar (or deva) form.

About the Character:
Here is a more in-depth history section covering Signe's life from birth to death and then through the events of her "canon".

Quick summarized version: Signe was born in the 1800's in Arendal, Norway. She died during an economy crash from illness and went to Valhalla, Norway's version of Soul Society, and became an Einherjar (Norse Shinigami.) Because of hangups caused from her death involving taking responsibility, Signe ran from Valhalla when her best friend made Jarl (essentially a Captain) and tried to appoint her his First Hersir.

From there, Signe took up living life as a human, hunting rogue Hollows on the side, and took a job as a college barista. There, she met four college students with powers of their own, two of them apparently Einherjar of some fashion as well, somehow. Signe took on a mentoring role, especially with one of them named Kirk, despite her initial misgivings.

They had a lot of adventures, from beating up organized Hollows to assaulting Valhalla to assaulting Hueco Mundo. The assault on Hueco Mundo, partially fueled by Signe's quest for vengeance after the death of her crush and boss, ended with Signe dying as an Einherjar. Normally this would result in either her soul being devoured or being reincarnated as a human, but Signe seized the wheel of reincarnation and instead became a Deva, a being that can freely move between reincarnations.

Their final battle was on Yggdrasil, the tree of spirits, which had regrown in Arendal. A man named Helkrydd had orchestrated most of the events of the last few years in order to have Yggdrasil regrow, so that he could absorb its powers, gain dominion over human souls, and stop death altogether. Signe and her companions fought and killed him, but in the process lost a great deal of their own power, which stemmed from Yggdrasil's blessings.

About a year and a half has passed since. Signe has trained back to at least being able to support her Bankai and Nirvana states again, but it's been quiet. Kirk trains under her, having lost his own powers as a Visored but retaining his Einherjar ability. Two Fullbringers, Nora and Lisbeth, work under Signe at Café Scande.

[/end history recap]

Because of how she died, Signe had an awful association with taking responsibility for other people. During the Arendal crash, she had been responsible for keeping her family's ship-making company afloat, and her death brought the company and her family under, causing death and hardship to follow to all of her immediate family and to their company's workers. It drove home that responsibility really meant people's lives were in your hands, and Signe, seeing herself as having failed there, couldn't handle that thought. That's why she ran from her problems, and from responsibility.

But through meeting and befriending others, she's grown. Her first response is no longer to run away from her problems. She's learned to accept responsibility, when she needs to. She's, at heart, the anime mentor figure, which means she's both a horrible mentor and the best mentor at the same time. She has experience she doesn't share but will somehow connect with, protect, and nurture those under her care regardless. This is mostly applicable between her and Kirk, who developed a very close mentor and student relationship, but she does consider herself a mentor to Gunbrand, Karoline, and Lise as well.

She takes responsibilities, once she's gained them, seriously. She doesn't always act like she does, but she does. She might loudly complain, but she complains while doing the thing. She slacks off, but only when she knows she can. She has a century of experience slacking to know the difference between good slack time and bad slack time. She takes her role as mentor seriously. She takes her duties as an Einherjar seriously. (As a Deva, well, she still considers herself an Einherjar first and foremost, and Deva didn't come with a job description.)

She also takes her duties as barista seriously. As the new owner and operator of Café Scande, she views the cafe as the legacy of its previous owner, Colette Dubois. Although Signe doesn't feel responsible for her death any longer (and she DID avenge her,) she does feel like it's her duty to keep Colette's legacy alive. She's not above even roping in her superiors in Valhalla into helping her at the coffee shop.

She does have a habit of being cagey. Signe tends to view information as something that connects people. She withholds information to put a barrier in between herself and others. To a point, this was also to avoid taking responsibility, although not wholly. It's ingrained at this point. Although she still tends to want to avoid giving out more information than necessary, especially to those she doesn't know, she does want to improve herself, and work on not being This Way with the people she cares about, at the very least. She's had mixed success with this being more open and honest thing, but at least she will reign herself in if she's called out on it.

Signe is at core a woman who will fight for her convictions, who will fight for others. She's the one who said, "Strength isn't about who can beat who, or how much spiritual energy you have, or how hard you can hit. Strength is force of will. Strength is having something to believe in and protect. We're strong because we have something to protect." She will always put protecting others first. It's ingrained in her very being, it's who Signe is once everything else is stripped away. She got confused for a while in thinking that she could best protect people by avoiding them, but she's over that now.

She's grown a lot over the course of her adventure. She's both lost and gained a lot. This has left her, overall, in a better place, although she's still taking on the role of protector to those under her care.

Character abilities:
Signe, by herself, is an unnatural prodigy. She has an incredible head for numbers and business, but more than that, she can copy something after seeing it done only once. In a fight, she can mimic a fighting style in a way that seems almost mockingly fast, and even copy signature techniques or attacks.

She's also an excellent barista.

Those are Signe's natural skills. But Signe is also an Einherjar - the Norse equivalent to the Shinigami of Bleach canon proper. Like them, she is basically considered a ghost to humans. To those without spiritual sensitivity, she might as well not exist. Thanks to spiritual energy, she can interact with the physical world if she wishes, as well as fight to a far greater extent than a normal human. She also possesses the ability to purify, condemn, or send off ghosts to the afterlife (Soul Burial,) as well as presumably some other basic reaper-ish activities.

Also, like Shinigami, Signe can sense spiritual energy. This means determining spiritual strength as well as differentiate between different type of spiritual energy, such as between a human, Einherjar, and Hollow. It can be done more easily by "visualizing" spiritual energy, wherein she can view the energy as ribbons, with different colors corresponding to different type of energy.

Like Shinigami, Einherjar are equipped with a special spiritual weapon. They are called Verndari as opposed to Zanpakutou for the Einherjar. Signe's is a constant-release (always unlocked, not in its initial form) Verndari named Sølv Speil. Sølv Speil is a mass of liquid mercury kept in a flask on her hip that can take any form, from a normal weapon shape to a Hollow's natural weapons. It possesses the ability to mimic energy that Signe has seen as well, allowing her to both redirect energy or allow her to use her own as a copy of an enemy's. Between Sølv Speil and her own natural ability, Signe can mimic almost any attack or fighting style.

Sølv Speil is, inherently, malleable by nature, and allows Signe to make alterations to its form on the fly. It can also be used to create new, original weapons or attacks, using Signe's imagination to create new forms and alter Signe's energies.

With her natural skill and knowledge, Signe can use Einherjar runic magic (Runo and Galdrastafur) as well, although she rarely does.

It should be noted that although she is a shounen character, she IS still limited by her own strength, speed, and spiritual energy. She might mimic a fighting style but lack the strength and speed of the original. Overall, she is stronger than she is fast, and more technical than she is strong. Spiritually, she IS strong, but there are stronger.

One of her signature attacks is Helreið Geiravör, which she copied from the strongest Einherjar besides the King of Queen of Valhalla. It allows her to focus spiritual energy into the tip of her spear and pierce through any defense. However, as an example of her own limits, it could never match the original, thanks to the raw power and skill of the original user.

Sølv Speil also possesses a Bankai. Hers is called Sølv Verdens Speil. Her weapon creates a mirror on any surface, and anything - an attack, a transformation, a special ability only one person in the world possesses - can shift from within the mirror and overlay Signe's reflection, allowing her to manifest that ability in the real world. The ultimate mimicry.

Thanks to dying as an Einherjar and touching the wheel of reincarnation, Signe became a being tied to it called a Deva. Being a Deva gave Signe several powers, the most notable of which is the ability to freely move between her own reincarnated forms. Thanks to this, she can shift between Deva, Einherjar, and actual living human forms. She can also go further back into various forms - human, animal, and eh, but she chooses to move between the three where she is still known as Signe.

As a Deva, Signe possesses zero spiritual pressure. The idea is that, as a Deva, she can manipulate the spiritual energy of the universe around her instead. She also absorbs her Verndari, gaining its abilities without having to use the weapon itself.

Devas also possess their own unique ability called Nirvana. Like Bankai, it's a shift in abilities on a large magnitude, but in the case of Devas it comes from intermingling their soul with the energies of the universe. Signe's is called सिल्वर सोल, Silver Soul, and it allows her to match the rhythm of her soul with any other, gaining their entire suite of unique abilities. Are you sensing a running theme here?

To summarize in a way that might make sense: Signe by herself could copy Izunia's fighting style. With just her Verndari, she could create copies of his actual weapons, or copy his elemancy effects (the spells themselves.) With Bankai, she could imitate his spiritual armor form and all that entails. With Nirvana, she could copy the armiger effects, warping, and his actual elemancy (drawing in the magic as well as unleashing it.)

Inventory:
-Outfit (blue jacket, brown Cafe Scande t-shirt, jeans, boots)
-Cell phone (loaded up with a Hollow Radar app and a Memory Rewrite app)
-Earphones
-Valhalla-branded wallet
-Fake Norwegian ID
-Like fifty krone
-Lighter (previously owned by a dead lady)
-Mod soul (Katt, who acts vaguely cat-like but can run a coffee shop); looks like a large, yellow, unmarked pill
-Energy potion (in a Grape Crush soda bottle)
-As an Einherjar, her Verndari, Sølv Speil
-As an Einherjar, a black tunic, white pants, and black boots
-As a Deva, a golden tunic, white pants, and gold boots

Samples: Top-level | Thread | Thread

OOC Information

Player name: Eric
Player age and gender: 34, he/his
Player Contact:

overbringer Discord: Overbringer#2743
Any other characters in game? Bai Lin

Edited 2018-07-26 23:52 (UTC)

IC Information

Character name: Marco Felluci
Character canon: Invisible Hand (original canon, same as Maddie, Faith, and Jailbreak)
Canon point: Right before Lily tried to pretend to be the endboss of the campaign.
Physical Description: 5'8", 145lbs. Skinny, or wirey if you're feeling charitable. Dark hair just long enough to get in his eyes someone get this boy a haircut. He normally looks suspicious and slightly nervous around strangers, or elaborately casual and lazy around friends. Normally favors a jeans/hoodie/t-shirt look. If he transforms with his magic, however, his outfit gets significantly fancier.

About the Character: Marco grew up like any other Italian/Chinese kid from New York, living an unremarkable, middle class life until he was 13. Then, as sometimes happened in his world, Marco was visited by a magical familiar, a cute fuzzy dog-like thing named Arc, that explained how he had been chosen to be one of the world's next defenders against the scourge of Thaumivores that attacked from the stars. He also developed magical powers, that let him create linked portals. This was...just a thing that happened to people sometimes.

Marco's powers were ill-suited to direct combat, but he wasn't the only mage in New York. He teamed up with four other young boys around the same age, and together they had many adventures protecting the city. Eventually, they caught the attention of Mars Magical Talent Agency. Owned by the reclusive Geoffery Mars, this company made sure young mages had every opportunity to succeed, and incidentally also made a killing selling official merch and managing appearances. Imagine, if you will, a boy band of fifteen year olds who fight monsters instead of singing songs. They had fans, they signed autographs, they had matching uniforms and appeared on the front page of magazines, and all that stuff. Unfortunately, they were also still fighting monsters. And the thaumivores were not known for kindness or mercy. One night, they encountered one particularly powerful thaumivore, and four of them died. Marco was the only survivor, because his magic made him good at escaping.

At fifteen, that's a pretty traumatic thing to happen. Marco dealt with it poorly. He decided that no one would be allowed to get close to him ever again and ran away. He didn't stop fighting, though. His powers made it simple for him to steal weapons. With only his familiar Arc at his side, Marco became one of the most successful vigilante monster hunter mages in history, using portals and landmines and rocket launchers and more to efficiently dispatch the creatures that were assaulting Earth one after the other.

On their eighteenth birthday, all mages were expected to give up their power so that the next generation of mages could have enough magic to keep the fight going, and honestly Marco was relieved to do so. But Arc refused to take his magic. They had another offer for him.

Arc took Marco to an absurdly luxurious New York penthouse, where he met none other than Geoffrey Mars, the owner of the massive media empire that had managed his brief career as a magical idol. He revealed himself to ALSO be a three hundred year old mage, and that he had been impressed by Marco's brutality. Mars explained that mages did not need to give up their magic at 18. Magic was infinite. The whole thing was a scam to make sure a powerful organization of immortal sorcerers known as the Hand of Providence (of which Mars was a member) had an endless income of magical power to keep them young and powerful.

Geoffrey made a very unusual offer for Marco. He wanted a reliable and deadly agent, who could go anywhere and was willing to do anything. An assassin and spy that could work off the books. The offer was wealth and power Marco could only dream of. All he had to do was become complicit in a system of suffering and exploitation that had been going on for 300 years. Faced, finally, with someone who could be called responsible for all his suffering, and for all the suffering of young mages across the world, Marco froze. Then he ran, again. He couldn't do it. He couldn't become part of that kind of evil.

The Hand couldn't have someone who knew the truth on the loose. So they reacted how they always did when faced with rebellious young mages. They flipped a magical switch inside of Arc, returning them to their true form: A thaumivore. Arc went on a rampage, suddenly freed of the shackles the Hand had forced on them. Normally, this did a good job at killing off any mages, but Arc's love for Marco had been particularly strong. Though forced back into their monstrous true form, Arc was able to stop themself from killing their partner, and their friendship continued, even with Arc stuck in their monstrous form.

Stories spread of the renegade mage who had selfishly kept his magic past his 18th birthday and needed to be defeated. Marco was able to keep ahead of pursuit, but he couldn't get anyone to listen to him explain the truth. At least until he met Lily. Lily was another renegade, and something of a legend in the mage community. She had turned 18 and refused to stop fighting, going so far as to kill her own familiar. Lily became the first human Marco felt like he could trust since the death of his team, simply because as a mage she was so powerful that Marco had a hard time imagining anything actually killing her.

Together, they started planning ways to take down the Hand, and became the first members of Lighthouse. Over time, despite some rocky starts, Lighthouse grew, taking in other mages in unusual circumstances that the Hand didn't approve of. A black market expert going by Jailbreak, her blind apprentice Maddie, a deeply bitter young mage name Faith, a thaumivore expert named Hope, a french necromancer named Alice, a mage that actually physically fused with her familiar named Rachel, and more.

They didn't have a solid plan until they found out about Darkest Night. It was a tournament that the Hand ran in absolute secrecy every year, in which mages from across the world were conscripted to fight to the death for the amusement of their mysterious immortal masters. It was also the only time all of the leaders of The Hand were in one place. The only time they were vulnerable. The plan was, then, for Faith to infiltrate the tournament as a member, wait for the opportune moment, and then signal Marco to open the way for all of Lighthouse to bust in and take the fight to the enemy. Marco spent all his waking hours leading up to this point jumping back and forth across the world recruiting more mages to help with the actual assault.

The battle of the last Darkest Night tournament was brutal. The members of the Hand were outnumbered by the small army of young mages Marco had been able to piece together, but they were also the most powerful mages on Earth. In the end, though, it had been too long since any of them had been seriously challenged. The night, Marco faced down and killed Geoffrey Mars himself.

There was one last trial in their battle, though. With the Hand defeated, Lily stepped up and tried to pass herself off as the final villain. One of the Hand's members had managed to get some last minute mind control magic off on her. It wasn't total control, but it had distorted her mind enough that she was a little bit crazy at this point. In one last final confrontation, Marco and his friends were (barely) able to talk Lily down.

That wasn't the end of Marco's life, but it was the end of this most relevant chapter of it. Afterwards, he continued running Lighthouse, now focused on dismantling the power structure the Hand left behind before anyone else could try to jump in and take their place. Eventually it grew into

Marco is a deeply insecure young man with an inferiority complex. His magic is fairly powerful, but because it can't, like, shoot giant lasers or make magic swords or generally just directly attack, he feels like he can't accomplish much on his own. He feels infinitely more at ease when he has allies around him. The time he spent on the run before he met Lily were some of the most stressful years of his life. Despite all evidence to the contrary, Marco has a deep seated fear that he won't be able to accomplish anything on his own.

As an extension of this, Marco hates being alone. He likes to have people around that he feels like he can rely on. If they can also rely on him, all the better. If he wants to be your friend, he will be endlessly eager to please and to help out, to prove himself "worthy" of your friendship. He craves not exactly validation, but the feeling of belonging to the group.

The last few years of being on the run has left Marco rather nervous around strangers, too. He isn't exactly paranoid, but he can be a bit guarded and cautious around people he doesn't know. But on the other hand, he tends to get overly casual and relaxed around people he DOES know. Expect elaborate verbal shitposting, good natured insults, and lounging across furniture like a cat.

He can get carried away. The more into an argument he gets, the less likely he is to back down, even if it's a stupid argument or if he knows, deep down, that he is objectively wrong. He just tends to dig in and get stupid about it.

Character abilities: - Portals: Marco can make linked portals that anything can travel through. The portals cannot be placed through a physical object in a way that would cut it in half. They can be freestanding or floating in the air, but it takes less energy if there's an opening (doorway, window, etc) or flat surface to anchor them to. They last as long as he pays attention to them, though he can invest extra energy into them to make them last longer. He can create them anywhere in theory, but anywhere out of direct line of sight takes increasingly long amounts of concentration to place. Portals cannot be closed on something to cut it in half. If he tries to do so, whatever is stuck in them merely gets spat out one side. All portals can be entered from either side and are bordered by a golden glow.
- Ground sense: Really an extension of the portal power. Marco can sort of "feel" the shape of things that are out of his line of sight just by trying to feel how portals might potentially anchor to them. It's a slow process, expanding his reach at about a walking pace, but it allows him to get a general shape of what the interior of buildings and such looks like, and to place portals in places he's never technically been.
- Transformation: Marco can activate a magical boy form, with a suitably flashy transformation sequence. In this form his magic is significantly more powerful, his outfit is much fancier, and his strength speed and toughness are all midly enhanced.
- Languages: Marco speaks fluent English, conversational Italian, and bad Chinese.
Inventory: - 1 elaborate magical boy outfit, pictured here
- Blue Jeans with torn knees, New York Jets hoodie, T-Shirt. Black boots.
- Wallet
- Android phone with cracked screen
- A pistol with three bullets left in it.

Samples: toplevel on the TDM. Plus, a few more threads

Edited 2018-07-26 23:57 (UTC)

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Asch [Tales of the Abyss/CRAU] | Reserved

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Application: Harriet Miller

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