[h1]New Additions![/h1]

[h2]Blood Wars[/h2]

[hider=Shelly]
[b][u]Character sheet[/u][/b]
[img]https://s17.postimg.cc/es5tgicun/Nadia_Kamil4.jpg[/img]
[sub]Photo of Nadia Kamil[/sub]


Name: Shelta "Shelly" Ocán Coffey
Age: 26
Gender: Female
Race: Witch (Arcane)
Appearance: When "working", dresses in "traditional gypsy" garb, for that air of mystique. When relaxing, like any normal American woman, with a preference towards jeans and practical, sturdy clothing.

Personality: (Chaotic Good)

While Shelly likes to pretend to be a mysterious and level-headed lady, she typically fails miserably within a few minutes of meeting anyone when she isn't working. She finds humour in just about everything, including horror films and real life monstrosities, and generally will break into her loud, infectious laugh at the drop of a hat. She's also [i]incredibly[/i] easy to talk to, with a wide variety of knowledge, coupled with a genuine interest in whatever her companions are talking about. Friendly, charming, and endlessly enthusiastic about life, it would seem impossible to bring her down.
That is [i]not[/i] to say she's innocent. As a result of her lifestyle, dual profession, and the circles she tends to stick her nose into, she has had to bury lots of things in her past, and not all of those were figuratively speaking. She also has a fiery temper, and when riled can do things she might easily regret later. Her temper is not at all helped by a fascination with whiskey inherited from her father, despite it having killed him.
She can be, for those not prepared or used to her, extremely exhausting to associate with, one of those "only in small doses" sorts. She can be fun, and wild, but too much of that seems to be ending up with anyone who knows her for long keeping her at an arm's length, and for good reason. Not only does her temper get her in trouble, but she has lots of issues with knowing where any sort of boundaries might be, or perhaps she simply doesn't care. Regardless, she has a bad habit of pushing things to far in a variety of ways, including magically, and this, in addition to her incessant need for the open road, has driven her to be constantly moving, much like her ancestors, despite all her mother's wishes that she would be a normal girl for once.
In regards to her peers and other supernatural elements, she is actually very cagey, despite her personal openness. She never reveals even a quarter of her powers or tricks to any given group, and flat refuses to discuss previous work except for illustrative purposes, sticking only to pronouns and never specifics even related to things like terrain, except when it must be done. Because of this, while she's never really [i]trusted[/i], she [i]is[/i] considered a reliable source of magic help for anyone who needs it along the networks that sort of news travels in.

History: Born to a Romani man and an Irish Traveller mother, both of whom managed to actually stick together by moving to America, Shelly had a difficult childhood. She grew up in Ireland, moving with her people, but because of her father's blood, was never fully trusted (though she did better than Da did on that point). Though she asked, neither parent ever told her why her father had left [i]his[/i] people for theirs, and once they moved to America when Shelly was ten, it didn't matter. They were all aliens together.
Shelly's mother taught her all the tricks of the fortune telling trade, and her father loved making up tall tales, doing so like it was as easy as breathing. Shelly herself got in trouble in school, finally, for telling one too many herself, and wound up being home schooled for all of high school. Her father died of liver failure when she was a junior, and the grief drove her to start trying to find out if, maybe, all those stories of his people had some basis in truth.
After graduating, Shelly left her mother to go see the world, though her trip stopped when she found her Uncle in Romania. He brought her, in turn, to her grandmother, who tsked and clucked around her for many hours before saying that she was allowed to learn. She found out soon enough that she was born to be a witch, and then next four years were more intense than she ever thought possible. She still has only vague memories of most of it (thanks to something her grandmother did to her), but the lessons and spells themselves stuck hard. Now she travels around the US, taking in sights, meeting new people, learning more magic from everyone and everything she can, and pulling off impressive jobs in eradication of nasty things that lurk in shadows when she can.
Most of her money is made from fortune-telling, though [i]her[/i] fortunes, while carefully vague enough to never prove it, are very much the real deal. In addition, she delights in running a haphazard sort of daycare out of her RV whenever she can, mesmerizing the kids with her stories, illustrated in vivid detail right before their eyes with her magic. She has also begun trying to develop an entire new branch of magic dealing with luck and chance, though she has had only small successes so far.

Abilities: 
-Speaks fluent Romany, Parvee, English (with a thick brogue), and French. Knows enough Spanish and Cherokee to communicate.
-Expert in Glamour and Divination, and fair with Transfiguration, Time, Life, and Imbument magics. "Eh" with Force. Creating Luck.
-Good with a handgun, though no expert, as well as with axes and knives. Only fair to middling with a rifle, and terrible at unarmed combat.
-Good at cooking and baking, especially improvisational meal prep.
-Skilled at first aid, occult research, experimenting with magic, and cunning applications of said magic
Equipment: 
-Tarot deck, a set of dice, Futharc Runes, and Yarrow sticks, all custom made with the runes necessary to make them work quite well. .
-Her RV is actually a rolling fortress of defensive counter-measures, not all of which are magical. Iron dust bombs, UV lights, silver barbed wire, secret compartments loaded with weapons, spells "hung" in time for future use, and more cover essentially every square inch of the thing. Additionally, it has been tricked out for weather sealing and other utilitarian measures, and doesn't actually need gas if she spends the day "filling" it herself.
-Hidden compartment [i]stuffed[/i] with research notes on both the 'bestiary' she works on and her theoretical 'Luck' school of magic. Most of the Bestiary is actually compiled notes from her conversations with spirits, other witches, and the various things she has met in her travels.
Other:
-She is actually a terrible driver, but somehow never gets pulled over.
-DO NOT LET HER GET DRUNK

[hider=Notes on Luck magic]
Shelly herself got into this theory after realising how lucky she generally already is, compared to most. Utilising bits of Divination, Time, Force, and Life, she has been [i]very carefully[/i] trying to figure out how anyone with the right knowledge might be able to influence chance and fate in various ways. She has suffered several mishaps during her experiments, which mostly happen outside of towns along the road, at night, where she doesn't risk other peoples lives if something goes terribly awry. 
Failures have included:
[u]The Lottery[/u] - This flat out has not worked yet. In fact, it doesn't seem to have any effect at all on any form of gambling. Scholars she has spoken to about it refer her to the Arcanum's awareness, and that such an unsightly attempt at personal gain is doomed to failure.
[u]Friendly encounters at bars and restaurants[/u] - As far as she can tell, this has only gotten her in fights, though that may have nothing to do with the magic and everything to do with her drunken temper.
[u]Police Attention[/u] - Again, this may have had less to do with the magic and more to do with suspicious actions.

Unfortunately, this form of magic would, if it becomes real, be the most difficult to detect, since, if pulled off correctly, there would be no evidence at all that it even worked. Shelly doggedly tries. Without expert analysis by other magic users or supernatural creatures, it's nearly impossible for her to even know if she's having effects at [i]all[/i], good or bad. 

The utility of this school shouldn't be understated. Not only is it nearly invisible, but aside from obvious choices, offensive capabilities are also possible. For example, during a car chase, increasing the chances of a mishap to the pursuers vehicle, or a timely traffic blockade, or a other sudden events that turn out in the caster's favour. The issue is whether or not it backfires, which, for this specific school would be fairly high due to laws of Karmatic return. It is, perhaps, Shelly's wholehearted belief in Karmic energy that causes her so many problems with it.[/hider]

[/hider]

[hider=Renne Mathilde Deschamps WIP]
[b][u]Character sheet[/u][/b]
Name: Renee Mathilde Deschamps
Age: 450
Gender: Female
Race: Daywalker Vampire

Appearance: 
Renee looks to be anywhere from fifteen to thirty, depending on her mood. Bright chestnut hair falls in waves to frame a delicate face with wide, dark eyes and a short, pointed nose. Everything about her features tends to lead people to believe she is an innocent bystander, or perhaps too vapid to really understand what is happening around her. To their chagrin, this effect even disarmed the Daywalker leadership during the wars with the Nightkin, especially when she favoured them with one of her bright and cheery smiles, warm enough to thaw even undead hearts.

Her looks found their roots in nineties Americana, though she grew up a peasant in France and tends towards simpler clothes and colours that tie into the earth tones she grew up around. Accents of bright pastels and neons happen tastefully, and jewelry tends towards the subdued and understated, mostly in wrought iron and silver intertwined chains, though the Daylight Medallion is also always somewhere on her person. She can flip flop styles seemingly on a whim, and wears anything from pantsuits to sundresses, shredded jeans and tee shirts through to elegant ballgowns, never seeming to settle on any one style for more than a few weeks.

Renee is long of limb and naturally thin through her malnutrition and abuse as a mortal. Though a healthy size, it is barely so, and none of her features could be called incredibly voluptuous. She likes to play this up by utlising a few charms to disguise her hair and parade as a boy as well, slipping amongst the ranks of mortals before letting the charms fade and disappearing into the crowd of onlookers at the site of her most recent victim's death.

Personality:
Though she outwardly keeps up a charming and debonaire appearance, the epitome of elegance and class in her tumultuous clan, Renee did not get to where she is on charm alone. She is vicious, cunning, and paranoid, and those traits show whenever she actually drops the manners and gets down to business. She has no qualms at all sacrificing even useful retainers to further her clan's interests, and they know it. She has made enemies of all comers, and revels in the challenge of keeping herself alive through the attentions of competing clans, bloodlines, other supernaturals, and mortals.

Renee thirsts for not just blood, but knowledge, something that she learned from her sire and that has served her quite well during her climb through the ranks. Not only interested in secrets, she maintains a masive library of scientific and philosophic texts, some dating back to well before she was born. A separate and secret section is devoted entirely to occult research. This is all because she [i]obsessively[/i] collects rare texts, and they are one of the few things that can break her carefully crafted composure or be used as a bribe.

She is [i]extremely[/i] ambitious, due to her unique lack of ability to procreate in the normal vampiric way. Her desire to create a legacy has instead been driven into her desire to make her own [i]personal[/i] legend. While this gives her strength and conviction where others might falter, it also leads her to be narcisssistic, egomaniacal, and overconfident. She tends to deal with threats in one of two ways: either with overwhelming force and complete, root-and-stem annihilation, or a careful and subtle crafting of contacts and secrets until she can bring the threat to heel and keep it firmly under her thumb, hopefully for eternity.

Renee has little time for sentiment or conviviality when it's not called for, and while she can be charming, inside she is a cold, calculating monster. This tends to manifest as a lack of care about whether or not she truly looks human. She does nothing to disguise her teeth, or her eyes. She cares nothing for art or music, even less for mortals. She forgets to do the little movements that others use to look alive, and when not moving resembles a statue more than anything else.

History: 
During the Seventeenth Century, while the French were fighting the French [i]again[/i] and the Blood Wars were coming up to speed after a century, two poor peasants living near the edge of the Loire Valley gave birth to a little girl. She grew up to be very pretty, but had a tendency to go talk to travelling teachers and come back espousing heretical ideas like God being very far away or Galileo's theories, which they still viewed as evil and wrong. So her father arranged for her to be married off to another man's son in another village. But the night before she was to leave, a man came to her in her room, and told her that he could show her the world in a hundred ways she hadn't though of, and she would be free to study whatever she liked forever, as long as he could kiss her. This seemed like a great deal to her naive fifteen year old brain, so she readily accepted. And then she died.

When she awoke, she found herself a member of the undead. While she wasn't exactly [i]excited[/i] by this prospect, she was free of marital obligations, the prying eyes of the church, and her rather abusive father, so she decided to make the best out of the situation, since she really had gotten herself into it. But the change from mortal to vampire erased most of her sunny disposition, and the ages since have seen the eradication of most of the rest of her feelings and sentiment on pretty much anything. Which is why she had no qualms at all about destroying her sire when he showed a distinct opening during the wars, allowing her to move up in position. She inherited his libraries and several secret tomes full of juicy details of other vampire's movements, then covered up the whole thing as yet another strike by the Nightkin. 

After the Daywalkers were forced out of Europe, the leadership fell into chaos. Those left alive through foresight, political clout, or martial prowess began infighting and throwing blame as to who was responsible for the loss of their holdings. Renee, however, was busy talking to those in the lower and middle ranks. Gathering eyewitness accounts, rumours, intrigue, and anything else she could get her hands on, she amassed an armory of secrets and blackmail, and began using it alongside her own skills, to remove obstacles to her power. As the Industrial Revolution hit, she made a series of wise investments in steel and railroads, always through tertiary interests and intermediaries, and amassed untold wealth. Most of this, in turn, was spent either acquiring additions to her library, additional safehouses, or, most frequently, on bribes and gifts.

In the 1960s, she finally removed the last of her competition, and through carefully crafted loyalties, intimidation, bribes, and promises, Renee ascended to be the head of the Daywalker Clan. She has since held onto it through displays of ruthlessness and skullduggerry, and once by publicly executing a spy from the Gifted through [i]eating them[/i]. She has, however, stated many times that while she may be merciless, her only priority is the clan, and will do [i]anything[/i] to protect it. 

One could assume there are reams of information about Renee and her activities to date, but because of her reclusive and shadowy nature, most of that information is either hidden away or only known by a few loyal retainers. It would take several governmental intelligence agencies months to even put a small file of her modern activities together, so only another vampire with the resources to spend and magical backing stands a chance of learning a substansive amount on her.

Abilities: 
Renee is [i]very[/i] adept at the Daywalker Aura Sense and Pyrokinesis, making her extremely dangerous in combat when she needs to be. In addition, the Gifted she "disposed of" gave her that Clan's Telepathy gift.

She has a small amount of magical ability, enough to cause some cosmetic changes to her appearance, but not much more.

Aside from staying abreast of medical and scientific advancements since she was turned, Renee is a vast repository of all sorts of knowledge, including but not limited to: agriculture, astronomy, military strategy, socioeconomics, political science, espionage, criminal syndicate activity, antiquity dealing, chemistry, anatomy, vetinary science, psychology, and history. 

She has learned, aside from her native French: German, English, Arabic, Cantonese, Russian, Mali, Italian, Portugese, Spanish, Aboriginal Australian, and Japanese.

Despite her not liking to fight anyone, she knows the necessity of personal combat and has had to indulge from time to time, and thus in preparation has learned how to fight in a variety of ways. She is a master of rapier and sabre fencing, horseback riding, marksmanship with modern rifles and pistols, judo, tae kwan do, wing chun, and jogo do pau.

She is decent at a wide variety of other martial skills, though not close to mastering any of them.

She [i]can[/i] drive motorised vehicles, but not very well and she doesn't like doing so. She is very adept at sailing, though.

She is terrible with computers and cannot stand them, preferring to write and read hand written correspondence. 


Equipment: (Various important possessions)


Other:
[/hider]

[h2]Heritage[/h2]

[hider=Kaya]
[b]Name:[/b] Kaya
[b]Age:[/b] 15
[b]Gender:[/b] Female
[b]Race:[/b] Epona (equine)

[b]Appearance: [/b]
[i]Height:[/i] 10’3” (312 cm), 19 hands(6’4”) at the withers
[i]Weight:[/i] 2,169 pounds (984 kg)
[i]Colours:[/i] Black hair kept in a long loose braid (n a bun when wearing a helmet), black tail, darkly tanned caucasian skin tone, bay dun colours (light tan coat on the equine half with black socks and a black dorsal stripe), long tan ears sticking out from underneath the hair, warm honey-coloured eyes
[i]Build:[/i] Long and tall frame, but very heavily muscled in the equine half, and typical muscles for a fighter in the torso. Not very feminine at all.
[i]Looks:[/i] Aside from the ears, Kaya looks much like one would expect a farmer or soldier to look. Her nose has obviously been broken, though it remains straight. She is missing one of her upper canines, and a faint tracery of scars, mostly nicks and small cuts, line her arms and face. Her eyes have developed a permanent squint, as most people do who spend a lot of time staring across brightly sunlit distances do.

[b]Personality:[/b] Kaya is, like her father before her, and indeed most Epona, brash and headstrong. She also, as a result of her childhood, has a tendency to be dark and brooding, having a hard time being light-hearted, though it can happen. She does like a good laugh, but has a fairly morbid and dry sense of humour after serving so long as a warrior. She is, to Taldan’s chagrin, completely undiplomatic, and cannot use flowery speech at all. She prefers being direct, blunt, and honest. That isn’t to say that she doesn’t understand diplomacy; on the contrary, she can read through honeyed words quite well, and has a keen sense for deception.

While she likes people in general, she still mistrusts both humans and her own kind, and can’t really make herself feel at home anywhere. She’ll smile, and laugh, and play with children, but her smiles never quite reach her eyes. And on the field of battle, she is completely different. Cold, analytical, and utterly indifferent to the lives of the men and women on the field, though her tactics do show that she attempts to keep casualties to a minimum.

Any mention of riding her, joking or otherwise, is typically met with a swift kick or punch, if she doesn’t draw a blade.

[b]History:[/b] Kaya grew up in a tribe whose name has now been lost, because Epona are not known for their written legends. Most history is passed down by the old oral traditions, the songs and tales told around the herdfires after a long day’s travel. But her tribe no longer exists. She was the only daughter of one of the tribes warriors, and stallion on small repute, but well liked for being brave and honourable even if he never turned the tide of battle or slew hundreds of enemies like the legends and heroes of their people. The tribe had made a small ingress into trade with the slow folk, those who walk on two legs and building stone citadels instead of roaming the plains and forests, and grew their food in fields instead of gathering as they went. The tribe elder had proposed twice that they try building a settlement of their own, where the children could learn things that took more concentration than could be spared on the trail.

But Epona are, by nature, distrustful of new things, and the tribe had twice told him it would bring trouble. Unfortunately, even dealing with slowfolk had drawn down the ire of more conservative tribes, and one night, they came by the hundreds to purge their people of the dangerous progressives. Kaya only survived because her father drove them away from the tent long enough for her to escape. He warned her that she should run fast and far, away from the plains she grew up on, and find a new tribe to join. She was two summers old, scared out of her wits, but did as she was bid.

Less than a month later, she found herself in slavery to a group of raiders on the edges of Teryn civilisation. Epona are far stronger for menial labour than Teryn and other slowfolk, and men of low morals used them as plow animals and sometimes mounts, despite the unbelievable shame that imparted. Kaya fought, at first, but she was beaten severely and thrown in a cage until she behaved. It took them a year to break her, but despite her inborn stubbornness, she was still a child. By four she was fully grown, sullen, and maintained only a small amount of spirit, carefully hidden and nurtured. But while hope clung to life, she prayed to anything that would listen to save her from her degradation. An answer came when she was five.

A mercenary band hired by the area's highborn to root out bandits came through, tracking the band who held Kaya captive. The second her captors stopped paying attention to her, she grabbed an axe from a slain man and fell into their ranks from behind, screaming every warcry she could remember. Unarmoured, she could not stand long, but as long as she took a few with her, she would die satisfied. That was not her time, though she took two arrows to her flank and a mace blow knocked her unconscious.

She awoke in the tents of the mercenaries, with their captain standing over her and the company stablemaster looking over her wounds. He introduced himself as Geoffrey Kildare, and offered her a job, with pay and food, if she wanted to fight. Or, he said, she could go free. She liked the idea of fighting more of men like the ones they had slain, so she signed on with what she later learned were known and the Hellcats. A disgraced knight named Taldan was assigned to train her, and he taught her more than fighting. Tactics, foraging and scouting, economics, chivalry, geography, and more were slowly entered into her repertoire, along with all the martial skills she would need. She spent seven years with the company, fighting with the small cavalry unit they had. However, she knew she could do more than just fight for pay, and Taldan agreed when she asked him that the time had come for her to leave the company. As a parting gift, however, he knighted her, though he could not offer her a kingdom to swear allegiance to. The company, being her adoptive family, pooled together what they had and gifted her a massive suit of plate-and-chain. The Captain, meanwhile, gave her a bastard sword sized to fit her, and a heavy spear he assured her would never break on charge. And with those gifts and her severance pay, not a small amount, she left the company to seek her fate.

Since then she has wandered the lands, seeking out the oppressed and the enslaved, or at least honourable cause.

[b]Equipment:[/b] 
-Full suit of plate mail, backed by chain and leather, along with a full helm. Plates cover her torso, neck, shoulders, upper and lower arms, elbows, waist, flanks, and the fronts of all her legs; chain and leather cover the gaps, and drape halfway down her legs to protect the belly. She can put it on herself, though it takes over an hour, even with practise. There is a cunning series of straps built into the armour to allow this.
-A bastard sword, finely made of folded steel, which stands at six and a half feet tall from pommel to tip. Fine black leather for the grip, but otherwise a plain, utilitarian weapon.
-A thick-hafted, twelve foot spear with a sixteen inch straight blade for a point. This weapon is heavy enough for Kaya to use as a lance, and enchanted to not break upon impact, or at all, really.
-A bearded, one blade hafted axe. On a belt hanger, and used mostly for when she is otherwise disarmed. Small enough for single handed use.
-A stout, steel kite shield, well cared for but also well used. Typically slung across her back when not in use.
-Three finely balanced throwing spears, used for hunting, not combat, in a holder strapped to her side.
-Thick blanket and bedroll, and a tarp for making a lean-to in inclement weather.
-Saddlebags containing soap, food, a hoofpick, brushes and combs, a piece of mirrored steel, whetstones, blade oil, scraps of leather and a sewing kit for repairs.
-A pouch run the length of her belt on the inside, and contains quite a few coins, because she rarely spends what she's paid, preferring to live off the land and favours.
-Very well made horseshoes, thick and plated across the front of her hooves. 
-A deep green cotton shirt, carefully folded, pleated white cotton dress which runs to her knees, and a embroidered draping cloth for her hindquarters sit in a flat pack on her back, in case she has to go somewhere without her armour.

[b]Companions:[/b] She generally travels alone, unless she is escorting people.

[b]Other:[/b] Kaya has expert abilities in both traditional and underhanded field tactics, logistics, and command. She is talented and trained with heavy blades, axes, spears and lances, cavalry tactics, and personal medicine. She is comfortable with the concepts behind fortifications and engineering, farming, cartography, and history. She has knowledge of the theories behind siege warfare, diplomacy, negotiations, and using magic in combat. She is also, of course, very good with horses, and most comfortable in command of cavalry units.

Kaya has no real head for mind games, and abstract logic puzzles confound her. She is terrible at personal relationships, being only marginally comfortable in the company, all of whom she “placed on pedestals” in her mind. As mentioned before, she does not do well in diplomatic or peacekeeping talks, as she is far too blunt, and thus tends to avoid nobles at all costs. Except for punching a needle through leather to stitch padding and other gear maintenance, Kaya has absolutely no domestic skills. Her cooking could be generously called “atrocious”. She is also not proficient with ranged weapons, preferring melee combat. By no means a genius, it takes her a while to sort through much of any problem that can't be explained in a militaristic fashion.
[/hider]

[h3]Rectifier[/h3]

[hider=Shen Mei Yun]
[center][img]https://i.pinimg.com/564x/a2/a4/21/a2a42145dee99d4f71f0ee3ebf76190e.jpg[/img]

[color=dadada][sub][color=BABABA] 申 美 昀  (M ě i  Y ú n  S h ē n )[/color]
[color=BABABA]⟁[/color] 22 [color=BABABA]⟁[/color] Female [color=BABABA]⟁[/color] 157 cm/ 5'1" [color=BABABA]⟁[/color] Blood Type: B-[/sub][/color][/center]

[color=BABABA][sub]A P P E A R A N C E[/sub][/color][hr][indent][color=dadada]Mei Yun is of a normal, average height, weight, and build for a resident of the GFEZ. Also average: her face, eye colour (black), hair (straight, brownish-black), and skin tone. She has made up for this lack of distinction in her personality, which directly translates to her hair and eye augmentation detailed later. She also tends to wear an odd assortment of colourful clothing, much like a colourblind magpie. Bright neons, pastels, and primaries, in an assortment of scarves, flowing sleeves, and light gossamer clothing, though when she's working or trying to hide she'll switch to optic-mimicry textiles and dark coats. She also has a tendency to wear overly large combat boots at all times, with no laces. ("They're better for stomping puddles!") Typical adornments include LED jewelry, bright plastic bangles, and blacklight reactive face paint. (More details on her jewelry can be found in the equipment entry)[/color][/indent]

[color=BABABA][sub]B A C K G R O U N D[/sub][/color][hr][indent][color=dadada]The Shen family did not celebrate having a girl very much. A simple little party, and then it was back to work. They were [i]just[/i] prosperous to afford a nanny, so little Mei Yun was brought up, along with her three older siblings, under the care of a kindly if inefficient older woman who was told in uncomplicated terms that the two older boys were of far more importance than the two girls. This environment led to Mei Yun and her sister fending for themselves by the time they could walk and talk. As soon as Mei Yun could attend daycare, the nanny's contract was terminated, and life began in earnest.

The Shen's both worked corporate jobs, in a corporate high rise, and most of their lives were taken up by work, leaving little time to socialise with their children. Priority was given to the boys, as carriers of the family name in a clan of traditionalists, and the girls were essentially written off as either future corporate drones or wives of executives if they could manage to land the contract. Mei Yun's sister took to this well, but by the time she hit grade six Mei Yun was tired of being background noise to everyone who knew her.

Knowing that poor grades would lead to doom in Hong Kong, and high grades were almost worse, given the choices of careers, she decided to ride the middle ground, putting just enough work into her school so as to stay perfectly average. In this way she could remain undisturbed while she explored the thing that fascinated her the most: The Net. Through the high rise's internal network, she discovered the troublemakers who populated the lower levels, using their corporate jobs to cover their more illicit (and therefore fun) lifestyles. She gravitated to them immediately, showing no shame at all in trying to get their attention though posts on the Net and graffiti in surprising places. By now she had learned that when she was invisible to society, she could pass almost without trace into places others might be caught in, though she caused her parents no small amount of discomfort when security brought her in for being found [i]yet again[/i] in clearance only sections of the building.

Her boundless curiosity and inclusion as a sort of cute mascot for the hackers inside the building led her to learn as much as she could about the place and the Net at the same time. Soon she was learning how to hardline jack, installing taps for her friends in hard to reach places by squeezing through ductwork and maintenance shafts. In payment, they taught her their craft. By grade ten she was already a sort of prodigy, moving from mascot to member in a smooth transition. That year, however, an accident in one of the maintenance shafts of the building removed two fingers of her left hand, necessitating her parents paying for replacements and a full year of being locked in the family home. After that, she vowed she would make her own money, and delved into the world of the Net with renewed fervor.

Several jobs later, she officially dropped out of high school and became a full-time student of the hackers. This new schedule gave her far more time to study the ins and outs of computers, and she learned not only programming, but how to build and mod her own computers and devices. After her seventeenth birthday, she began to go on 'jobs' with her crew, who she later found were at least half Triad members. It was during one failed job that they found that, no matter how much she might be urged, she would never be a combatant, but at the very least she could reduce risk to the rest of her team.

Having made enough money from this work to afford to move out, she did so immediately upon becoming an adult, listing herself as a programmer-for-hire and systems security consultant. This work alone consumed much of her time, but she made a decent name for herself in legitimate circles as well, specialising in physical security set-ups and general use programs as well as specialty software, though she made sure to never design any software for security, in case she was responsible for one of her friends getting caught. She herself has had to, in several instances, brutally erase records of her own activities from official records, though none of these investigations had ever found out her true identity, only one of her various handles. She might suspect that some corporation or another might be keeping closer (and more secure) tabs on her, but she neither knows for sure nor really cares. As it is, she has fun and keeps herself fed, and until that changes, she'll take whatever jobs might interest her.

In her criminal enterprises, she has developed a name for herself as 咆哮的老鼠, the Roaring Mouse, with a reputation for daring and flamboyant hacking and leaving calling cards stating exactly what she took and how she did it (though never a [i]complete[/i] retelling, she's not stupid), laughing in the faces of authority. On the physical side, she has been the infiltrator for several high profile burglaries, though none on her own. The Triad love her, though she's too flashy to go unnoticed by the police and thus they won't fully take her in. Corporations hate being hit by her, but she's done two jobs now where one corporation paid her large sums of money to blacken the eye of a competitor. She's been careful to always backtrace and erase herself from their records afterwards. It wouldn't do to have them know how to get in contact with her any more than she would like, and traces can be run with minimal amounts of information.

At twenty-two, Mei Yun is an up-and-coming star in the hacker circles of Hong Kong. Though she still has lots to learn, she is arrogant in her online persona, and refuses most help. She has made plenty of enemies, and has had to, at several points this last year, fend off attacks from those who would like to take her down a peg or six. Between that and the corporations, she is beginning to feel the pressure, and time has yet to tell whether she will stay bright or wither and retire like so many aspiring 'rockstars' before her.[/color][/indent]

[color=BABABA][sub]P E R S O N A L I T Y[/sub][/color][hr][indent][color=dadada]Mei Yun likes flash, colour, and attention-grabbing things in all forms. This is due to her bland and boring upbringing, leaving an indelible desire to be noticed amongst her siblings, her schoolmates, and society at large. She is loud, vivacious, and always going at full tilt. Even her [i]sleeping style[/i] is flamboyant, muttering to herself about program diagnostics and calculations while tossing and turning constantly. To the wrong sort of people (read: most of them), she can be very annoying, especially when they learn she is an adult and not, as most assume, a fourteen year old.

Despite her flaws, she likes people, and tends to pick one person out of any group to 'attach' to, much to their normal chagrin. Aside from that person, she teases in good nature, and, especially if they don't speak her language, cracks jokes at people's expense in a light-hearted sort of way. She speaks rapid-fire, but likes poetic wordings, and tends to break into flowery speech, more so than normal if she's describing computer systems.

Deep down, Mei Yun wants to be [i]liked and loved[/i]. She wants her ideal of a family, and if she can't get it from her flesh and blood one, she'll make her own. This also manifests itself in a depressive state if she goes too long without company, or if she's made someone angry at her, and she will overcompensate quite a bit to try and make things right. And she's also very fussy about her systems, refusing help or advise unless she respects the one giving it as a fellow "jīngyīng hēikè". 
In combat, she is a coward, and fights like one. She will run away if threatened in close range, and spray rounds wildly from an automatic rather than try and aim at all, if she even remembers to fire. Mostly she hides until the hubbub dies down, or flee completely. She [i]won't[/i] run if someone she has 'adopted' is in danger, unless they specifically tell her to.
[/color][/indent]

[color=BABABA][sub]S K I L L S[/sub][/color][hr][indent][color=dadada]
[list]
[*] Master Hacker: Mei Yun can break into routine systems with a minimum effort. Only government and high-level corporate systems give her real pause, and she enjoys the challenge, and [i]relishes[/i] defeat, as it means she still has room to improve.

[*] Expert Programmer: This is almost a subset of her hacking, but most of Mei Yun's actual money comes from custom built programs for various things and of various complexity. She'll even write for corporations if the pay is good enough, though she is careful to not leave any indication of her more illicit background.

[*] Expert Lockpick and B&E: Mei Yun shows a proclivity and expertise as a cat burglar. She can pick manual locks, disarm security systems, and slip past security obstacles relatively quickly. She doesn't enjoy doing this as much, as if she is caught and forced to fight she knows she is doomed.

[*] Engineering: Mei Yun has developed a knack for building custom computer and electronic devices, and can generally figure out how to bypass, assemble, or take apart delicate electrical equipment and chip. This obviously is harder on the job than in a shop, but she travels with some basic tools.

[*] Security: On the flip side, she is good at setting up jury-rigged and professional security systems, knowing how she would break into a place and planning around that. She has done several system breaking security checks for private entities before, much like a professional safe cracker.

[*] Fast-talk: While not adept at this as a "face" might be, she can talk her way out of trouble more often than not.

[*] Poor Fortitude: She doesn't really take care of her body, eating whatever junk keeps her body going and not getting a whole lot of exercise outside of occasional B&E jobs. One could say malnourished and be close to the mark, though she's not quite sickly yet.

[*] Abysmal Combat: Do not rely on Mei Yun in any sort of fight. The best she can manage is to kick someone in the groin and run away.
[/list]
[/color][/indent]

[color=BABABA][sub]E Q U I P M E N T[/sub][/color][hr][indent][color=dadada]
[list]
[*] Earrings: These are not only questionably fashionable, but also utilitarian! Her typical set up contains a signal cloaker and detection jamming hardware on the left, and a remote IF and wireless accessor subroutine to tap into any open devices or networks near her on the right.

[*] Bracelets: The set of three on her left wrist contain various levels of 'pricks'. These are tiny hardware devices she can slide into exposed cables to tap into them, giving her a display of the layout of whatever hard network they may be tied into, including power. The silver on on her right wrist is actually just jewelry.

[*] Necklace: A tightband emergency beacon is disguised as a large opal on a silver chain. The flashier set of beads contains a 'server' for close range, secure radio and VOIP transmissions, in case her team doesn't have any secure lines set up yet.

[*] Goggles: These interact with her eye augments and also contain a three-dee holoprojector, allowing her to display what she's is seeing to anyone near her in case they don't have the same augments she does.

[*] Laptop: For times when she doesn't want to risk exposure to possible feedback through her neural adapter, Mei Yun carries a Cao Foo Lung Industries Model IX mobile platform. She has [i]heavily[/i] modified this system, making it virtually untraceable among other upgrades. It sports a hellishly fast 9.2 GHz quad-processor and an ultra-silent cooling system, making it fantastic for on the fly work in questionably safe areas.

[*] Weapon: Knowing that she might get into a gunfight whether she likes it or not, and knowing that she has no skill at all to help her hit anything, Mei Yun carries a Fei Wen 'Bloody Tiger' submachinegun. Made of lightweight carbon steel and fiberglass parts, it has a collapsible stock, bullpup design, and a slender build. It's chambered for 9mm, and she carries two spare clips just in case. I's also not very well kept, needing at the very least a good cleaning, which she doesn't know how to do.
[/list]
[/color][/indent]

[color=BABABA][sub]A U G M E N T A T I O N S[/sub][/color][hr][indent][color=dadada]
[list]
[*] Neural adapter: This is a top of the line uplink to the net. Not only does it let her access the Net the fun way, but it has several built-in security subroutines constantly masking her location, identity, and activity in cycles, so that she appears more as a flickering assortment of random people than anything else to anyone trying to find her.

[*] Left hand, pinky and ring fingers: These are replaced due to a childhood accident she doesn't like to talk about. The pinky finger has a police-style 'autopick' for when she needs to get through a manual lock in a hurry.

[*] Hair implants: Alongside every hair on Mei Yun's head is an accompanying colour-changing filament. This is programmable, meaning she can change her hair colour to anything from natural hues to active camo, but she usually leaves it on the 'mood ring' setting, meaning that it fluctuates colours  as her emotions change.

[*] Eyes: Her natural eyes have been implanted with a side-riding set of cameras, which have x-ray, overlay, telescopic, infrared, UV, spectroscopic, and light-amplification modes. She doesn't often turn these on, even though they make her eyes shine bright cyan, because they give her headaches if they're on for more than an hour. If hit with an EMP or otherwise electronically disabled, her biological eyes function normally, though the installation left her with major astigmatism.

[*] Enhanced Flexibility: To aid in her burglary work, Mei Yun has had extensive work on all of her joints, increasing stretch and tension tolerances in pretty much every part of her body, spine and ribs included. While on a more physical person this might translate to increased combat abilities, on Mei Yun this means she can fit into spaces that would normally be impossible, and also allow her to hide in surprising place no one might think to look.
[/list]
[/color][/indent]
[/hider]

[h2]Sengoku Space Opera[/h2]
[hider=Kitamura Haruka][center][b]Name:[/b] Kitamura Haruka (北村 遥花)

[b]Age:[/b] 24

[img]https://i.pinimg.com/736x/a2/75/71/a27571b3f7adb0aaedbe0c2f1a6c3faf--lr-oriental.jpg[/img][/center]

[b]Appearance:[/b] Haruka stands at 180 cm(just shy of six foot) and weighs in at a willowy 63.5 kg(140 lbs), and yet does not look gaunt, only graceful. Her hair shows evidence of being cared for in the past, and is kept in a long ponytail or a large bun most of the time. Pale of skin, she appears to fairly exude nobility, something she has tried to hide unsuccessfully. Dark eyes, shadowed by weariness and stress, stare into the middle distance most of the time, though her fighting spirit is obvious when she focuses. 

By tiny mannerisms, such as how she stands, the way she looks imperiously over others when observing, the way she holds herself, she is clearly a former samurai, though she has tried to disguise this by wearing only the most common of clothing. Attempts to appear as a born ronin are frequent, though not constant in execution. She can sometimes be observed to check herself and then slouch or otherwise attempt to appear less than she is.

Movement-wise, her long legs carry her quickly, and the strength and speed by which she moves belie augmentation even though none is visible. She also tends to, as most samurai, move as though nothing but her goal matters, cutting through crowds and obstacles with disdain. In combat, her augments become even more obvious, as she moves far faster than a natural human should, and can strike quicker than any but another trained samurai could react.

Armour-wise, without her exosuit, Haruka prefers classically designed raiment with modern material, in the [i]hon kozane dou[/i] style. The scales are all made with lightweight alloyed metal, though she forgoes the [i]sode[/i] in favour of manueverability, leaving her shoulders exposed but with a much greater range of motion. She owns them, and will don them for ceremonial purposes.

Despite her dour exterior, Haruka is quite warm in personality, and this shows sometimes when she is relaxing. A small smile or a lifting of the brows at something a child shows her, or a hearty laugh at a joke. And when drunk, something she has fallen into the habit of doing recently, she can in fact be boisterous and rather ignorant of personal space, tending to hang off of others with abandon to keep herself either standing or in the conversation. Her favourite topics include poetry, music, and small, furry animals, no matter the species or world of origin.

[b]Origin:[/b] Samurai

[b]Former Faction:[/b] Takeda

[b]Skills:[/b] 
Primary: Swordsmanship
Secondary: Piloting, Survival

[b]Fighting Style:[/b] [i]Ten Kara no Kaminari[/i] (天からの雷, Thunder from Heaven) is a fast and brutal combat style, perfected by Morishige Kaito, as befitting his unit's role as a shock force. There is no pause for reading your opponent as in most styles, no standing back and waiting. The fighter is trained through a harsh regimen to read their opponent as they react to the charge, and fight appropriately. Strikes are aimed to maim, disable, or kill outright as quickly as possible, with little artistry if it gets in the way of efficiency. Major joints and the neck are typical targets. Training happens with katana, naginata, masakari, wakazashi, and even tanto. When unarmed, the style relies on closing fast, inside the opponents range, and striking with forehead, elbow, and knee, savaging the opponent too quickly for him to react well. Throws are rare, as it defeats the purpose, though joint locks with the aim of breaking bones are common. Inside an exosuit, the style remains mostly unchanged, though the use of booster jets and utilising the RAI as an offensive tool against unarmoured opponents come into play. The style demands a very small exosuit, compared to others, barely more than an armoured flightsuit, allowing the Iron Samurai to move lightning fast compared to larger, bulkier opponents.

[b]Weapons:[/b] [i]Yume no Hana o Karu[/i](夢の花を刈る, Dream-cutting Blossom), when expanded to it's full length, is a five and a half foot naginata with a monoedged blade that glitters blue when struck by the right light, but otherwise looks mostly just like a normal blade. The pole features cleverly disguised ridges inside a sakura blossom motif, pink and black on a white background. The ridges themselves are the result of the weapons functionality, designed to fit inside a fighter crafts cockpit without getting in the way. It telescopes down to merely a foot and a half, with the blade sliding down into the haft. It can be flicked open remarkably fast, though a safety catch near the base is what releases the blade itself, allowing the super-strong alloyed pole to be used as a staff if desired.

[i]Standard daisho set:[/i] Though monoedged, the katana is a simple affair, bearing a simple black scabbard and hilt with silver highlights. The wakizashi, however, bears the same motif as the naginata.

[i]Kurēnburēdo class fighter craft:[/i] This specialty of the Takeda's is a long, narrow, blade-like ship, cockpit near the rear, with a twin mounted rear impulse engine and extremely powerful manuevering jets. Several heavy rapid-fire auto-cannons, not as powerful as railguns but in the same neighbourhood, spread along the “crosstree” of the craft, pointing forwards. The crowning point of the thing, however, is the finely tuned balance. It turns on a dime and moves extremely fast. In formation they can tear apart most other fighter craft, when well piloted, and does very well even in dogfights.

Measuring twelve metres from nosecone to exhaust, when fully loaded it carries enough fuel for three days of low-grade impulse travel, or around twelve hours of combat. The ammunition bay holds thirty-six thousand rounds of caseless 30mm slugs, in batches of six-thousand for each of the six cannons, mounted hexagonally around the midline "crosstree". The whole of the ship weighs in at around fifteen tonnes, and can easily hide in the silhouette of most other ships when needed, which is how she got it on board the station to begin with. 

[b]Motivation:[/b] With her expulsion from the ranks of the Takeda samurai, Haruka has lost direction. No stranger to being by herself for periods of time, she has kept herself in shape, and currently does odd-jobs to earn money or food. However, her honour pulls her two ways. First, with the dishonour and execution of her lord, society demands that she commit seppuku, but  as the last of her fighting style, she cannot let it die with her. To that end, she is painstakingly saving up to start a dojo, teach one student, and then she can decide whether she should live or not.

[b]Backstory:[/b] Born to a minor family inside a subsidiary company of a subsidiary company of the Takeda Corporation, Haruka was the only child of the Kitamura primary line. Without a son, her father decided that she [i]must[/i] be better than anyone else, to bring glory to their name, and thus she was trained as soon as she could walk in all that bushido aimed to be. Her father, an idealist and of a low enough rank to not be dangerous to his superiours, used much of his money getting her trained with the main Takeda samurai, purchasing favours where he could to earn her place. She did him very proudly, taking to both combat and courtly behaviour quite easily, and was selected for her lord's main body, assigned to the illustrious Morishige Thunders. Here, under Morishige's watchful eye, she became the top student of Ten Kara no Kaminari.

Serving from fifteen years old, Haruka distinguished herself in combat multiple times over, survivng being stranded in enemy territory on several occasions, once even successfully taking control of a small military vessel after being taken prisoner. Several times, she earned direct praise from her Lord Sawada, who gifted her the naginata she now carries.

However, just one year ago, in an unprecedented assault on the Takeda holdings by Nobunaga-Zaibatsu, Morishige's unit was called in, but failed to arrive in time, resulting in a minor lord's death. Morishige himself was found dead drunk the next day, and the whole unit was arrested, saving that Haruka was sent away just before the arrest, and while technically is wanted by Lord Sawada for arrest and judgement, she refuses to come in and has fled to the planet Aishidu, in Date territory. In the past year, she has poorly attempted to disguise her true nature, removed all identifying labels of her former corporate overlords, and now works to survive on the planet, taking jobs she inwardly seethes at having to do. Morishige's final words to her were to not let the Ten Kara no Kaminari die with him, so she is honour bound now to find a way to further the school.

Her fighter craft is now stashed in an abandoned docking bay in the city of Hakuto, where it sits idle until she can one day regain enough of her sense of honour to allow herself to fly it again. The outer insignia have all been masked, and much useless junk added to disguise its sleek lines. She actually lives in the docking bay as well, keeping to herself when not working or drinking at a local sake house.
[/hider]