[list][*][u][b]Name[/b][/u]: Gertrude Jäger, the Delinquent Mage [*][u][b]Age[/b][/u]: 19 [*][u][b]Gender[/b][/u]: Female [*][u][b]Race[/b][/u]: Human [*][u][b]Appearance[/b][/u]: [hider=The Delinquent Mage][img]https://i.imgur.com/MKM0GIT.png[/img][/hider] [*][u][b]Personality[/b][/u]: Willful, arrogant, and fickle. Like a Human version of a cat, she does what she wants when she wants to do it. She’s languid and abrasive and sadistic, but she wasn’t always like that. She still longs for connections even though all of her relationships have ended badly. Though she’s incredibly knowledgeable and powerful, she is emotionally immature due to neglect, abuse, and lack of socialization. Her physical frailty has always engendered a monstrous sort of envy inside of her, which continues to grow even after becoming a top-class mage. Her biggest weakness is her desperate need for validation. [*][u][b]Brief Backstory[/b][/u]: [hider=TL;DR: Her dad is mean and a Witch took her in] As a descendent of Mirror Knight Florian, and as the greatest hunter in Marburg, it was a foregone conclusion that herr Gunther Jäger should have a strong son. It came as a disappointment, then, that his first-born child was a girl, and a weak one at that. Even as a baby, Gertrude was often sick, and required many visits from the local healer growing up. Gunther would just as soon have nothing to do with it, but Helga, the girl’s mother, was keen on reminding him that Gertrude was his blood. Florian’s blood. If Gunther paid attention to anything, it was how he was perceived, and spitting on the blood of one of the founding members of the Iron Rose Knights would tarnish the grand image of importance that he tried to affect. However, as grand as his image was, he was only a hunter, and to anyone’s knowledge Florian didn’t exactly leave him much. The need for medicines was constant and grew expensive, and as the price grew, so too did his resentment of his daughter. When Gertrude was finally well enough to get by without a weekly visit, Gunther took her out into the woods. “You owe me a lot of money,” he said, “and you’re going to pay it back. If you can walk, you can hunt.” He trained her however he could, and she had a surprising talent for learning things quickly, but her body just couldn’t keep up. Even drawing a bowstring was too difficult for her weak arms. Frustrated, Gunther smacked the weapon out of her hands. “Useless.” Though Helga treated Gertrude kindly, there really wasn’t much she could do to dissuade Gunther’s crusade. He was determined to turn a profit from his daughter. To create something he could show off, something he could be proud of. So every day, he took her out into the woods, and every day he made his disappointment known. Gertrude was pushed constantly to her limit, and had nothing to show for it. “Useless, Useless, Useless”. This is how she also began to perceive herself. Then one day, the arrival of an Orcish warband was heralded by Helga’s mangled corpse. It was no longer safe to go out, and the villagers had to start paying tribute. Gunther was called upon to drive the band off, but he suddenly had more excuses than availability. Gertrude grieved, and wallowed in her own powerlessness. She was useless, and because she was useless, the only person that ever truly cared for her was gone. Eventually, the village was dragged out of the depths of despair by the Iron Rose Knights. The group was cheered ecstatically when they arrived to relay news of the warband’s routing. They were celebrated. They were loved. Gunther was nowhere in sight, and all Gertrude could do was look on as Tyaethe, a girl even smaller than her, was congratulated on saving Marburg. Something inside her broke. If a girl that small could do it, why couldn’t she? She couldn’t blame it on being born a girl. She couldn’t blame it on her size. The only thing left was the echoing of her father’s words, blaring more true than they had ever been. There was no excuse for her weakness. She was just useless. Gertrude didn’t understand that Tyaethe was a vampire, older and stronger than anyone in the village. She didn’t understand that Tyaethe had troubles too, that some saw her as a monster, not to be trusted. All Gertrude saw was a girl smaller than she was being lauded, and years of barely-contained vitriol boiled up. She grabbed a nearby rock, and chucked it at the knight with all of her strength. And it fell just short. Gertrude ran away, cursing under her breath. When Gertrude got back home, her father was not happy to see her. He never was, but this was different. He had unmitigated hate and frustration in his eyes. “Get out. Don’t come back unless you bring me a kill. You either die in that forest, or you bring me a damn carcass.” Gertrude finally understood. If she couldn’t do that much, if she couldn’t kill, then she should just die. Death, or kill. That was what stood in the way of her happiness. Even her mother, if she hadn’t been so useless… death or kill. The village… everyone suffering… death or kill. But even with her emotions running high, even with a truly monstrous envy and determination, her body had not grown any stronger. As she tried and failed to hunt, over and over, it became ever more certain that she would die in the woods. Then, she heard the sweetest voice in her ear. It said something that made her spine tingle. “My, but you’re strong.” The words she had always longed to hear, from anyone. It didn’t sound patronizing or sarcastic. Even with her massive victim complex, she could tell that the voice meant it. She was strong. This girl thought she was strong. And it was a girl. Again, just about her size. But there was a cool maturity in her voice. A depth when Gertrude looked into her eyes that told of experience and complexity. “Who are you?” “I am a Witch.” And somehow, Gertrude knew this to be true. She was so cute… but with an undercurrent of danger. A danger that Gertrude knew instinctively, and yet… “You’re not scared?” the Witch asked. “I think… all my fear went away,” Gertrude answered flatly, “but what do you mean? Saying I’m strong… but I’m so weak. I can’t do anything.” “Your soul is strong,” the Witch answered, smiling tenderly, “one of the strongest I’ve seen.” “But what’s a strong soul good for? Without a strong body, you-” “A strong soul is the best of all. It means you have the potential to accomplish truly great things. It means that you could become the strongest mage of an era. Only, you have to know how to draw out its power… and none of those foolish villagers could have given you that,” the Witch replied, patting Gertrude’s head. Gertrude became strangely docile, the things boiling inside her coming to a simmer as the Witch told her all the things she wanted to hear. Gertrude hugged her, and the Witch held her close. “Only a few people can tell how special you are. Lucky for you, I am one of those people. And I’m looking to take on more apprentices.” Gertrude was taken to Aleksiya’s Wandering Mansion, and given a maid uniform to represent her apprenticeship. As she grew, so too did her skill in magic. The Witch quickly discovered one of Gertrude’s greatest strengths: her incredible ability to learn by watching. If she could watch someone do a certain kind of magic, she was quickly able to understand the underlying mechanics and adapt different spells into her own lexicon. It still took practice, but her mind made her especially suited to spellcasting. Even the advanced rule-breaking magic of soul partitioning was Gertrude’s to take, though such a magic was so unique to each person that it was no easy feat, even if she watched someone do it a hundred times. She pushed her body to the limit studying, desperately wanting to please Aleksiya. Desperately wanting to hear her words of praise, over and over again. Aleksiya, for her part, didn’t exactly dissuade Gertrude’s growing obsession. When Aleksiya had felt Gertrude had learned enough, she gave the girl one more task. “I want you to take the powerful magic you have learned, and kill your father.” Gertrude was speechless. “You tell me all the time, how awful he was. It’s taking up an unhealthy amount of space in your heart. If you kill him, you free yourself from your past. It’s shackling your soul. Do this, and your power will soon grow beyond your wildest dreams.” “I… I can’t,” Gertrude answered. Her heart had grown hard over the years. She had ripped her soul apart so many times, she didn’t even know if she was Human any more. And yet, killing her most hated person was somehow something she could not do. Maybe it was the only thing standing in the way of her potential. Maybe it was the only thing keeping her from becoming a total monster. She felt that familiar ichor begin to boil inside her again. “That’s boring. You don’t want to bore me, do you? If you do it, I’ll reward you well.” “Anything but that. I’ll do anything else, but I don’t want to go back there. I don’t want-” “Which is exactly why you have to do it! I’ve praised and pampered you this long, I’ve been following this drama from the start, and I’m ready to see the climax. But this? This is boring. I don’t want to see you until you do as I say. Leave, and don’t come back until you’ve shown me something fun.” How many times can a person break? Aleksiya’s words were just like her father’s. She was just a tool for both of them, only the Witch knew how to work her better. It started boiling over. Repressed feelings, raging hormones, buried complexes… “Fuck you! I did everything you wanted up until now, and I haven’t earned even an ounce of your respect?” “Doormats don’t get respect, they get my heel.” How quickly love turns into hate. “I did everything… I needed you! I wanted… and you can’t listen to a single request of mine? Well, screw it! I don’t need you. Everything can burn! When I come back… you’d better watch out!” Gertrude stormed away, and Aleksiya smiled. “This could be fun too.” Aleksiya contacted Merilia soon after, and requested that she look out for a rogue apprentice of hers. “If the Iron Roses had another magic expert, they’d bother you less.” The Delinquent Mage, an abrasive woman in a maid outfit, soon began harassing students at the Mage College. Humiliating them with their own favored magic, and gloating over them. She was notable for her lack of recorded education, thus the title. Merilia correctly guessed that this was the apprentice in question and, for a true Witch, apprehending Gertrude was like lifting an unruly child and setting them in a corner. After a short conversation in which Gertrude incessantly teased Merilia and patted her head, the Witch offered her a job, making a quiet note of Gertrude’s transgressions. Gertrude was to become a member of the Iron Rose Knights. The stuffiness of knighthood left a sour taste in her mouth. She didn’t want to take orders from anyone else. She’d only just broken free from her former mistress. And yet, the Iron Roses would make for useful allies if she ever got the chance to turn around on Aleksiya. Gertrude determined that she would join their ranks, but retain her willful demeanor and bask in her new freedom. For Merilia, this was deemed ‘good enough’. [/hider] [*][u][b]Equipment[/b][/u]: Gertrude carries a broom, which also functions as a staff through which she focuses her spells. It’s been imbued with a small portion of her soul and carved with a runic enchantment that allows it to store mana. She can use this stored mana to power her own spells, or to activate another runic enchantment that allows her to use the broom to fly. By using her soul in her spell focus, she can more easily regulate mana usage and even recall excess mana from her own spells. Gertrude also has a pendant she keeps tucked in her blouse. It’s the one thing that Florian apparently left her family, and she stole it from her father before she went into the woods. It wasn’t particularly special on its own, but Gertrude eventually put a portion of her soul into it and gave it a runic enchantment for physical reinforcement. Since she’s naturally very weak, this enchantment functionally allows her to be about as strong and durable as an average woman her age. Gertrude has also placed a portion of her soul into a homunculus that is physically identical to her. This homunculus helps her to do research and accomplish tasks effectively twice as fast. Because it only has a small portion of her soul, its magic power is much lower. [*][u][b]Skills[/b][/u]: Gertrude is an incredibly quick learner, especially when she can watch someone do the thing she wants to do. This is not just limited to magic, she’s also adept at picking up practical skills and weapon techniques. However, she finds a lot of those things either boring or unusable due to her poor physical aptitudes. Thus, her main field of study is magic, which she is quite knowledgeable in. Gertrude also knows soul partitioning, and most of its nuances. She’s studied and practiced it extensively, and routinely experiments with its limits. She can currently partition ~35% of her own soul, and even entrap the souls of others if vulnerable. Gertrude is an exceptional mage, though her main fields of interest are magic that can keep her alive and magic that can kill people. Generally, if it can’t help you stay alive or help you kill someone, it’s not really worth the brain space. She’s especially fond of fire and barrier magic, though her familiarity with mages of great power has also given her an appreciation of counter magic. She’s particularly adept at self-healing, self-buff, and self-restoration spells, which are powerful and mana-efficient, but can’t be used on other people. Who cares about them? Gertrude also has an interest in homunculi creation. Her current homunculus is basically a 1:1 physical recreation of herself, including her physical flaws. She hopes to one day be good enough at homunculi creation and soul partitioning to create a much stronger body and move to it completely. She hopes that being strong will help her get over her complexes. Gertrude is adept at runic enchantments, having engraved her broom and pendant herself. Since she likes experimenting with magic, runes and how they interact with one another was an obvious interest for her.[/list]