@Xaltwind - Excellent. I think I'll start with my swamp witch concept since I've got the most content set up for her already. It's just a matter of fitting it into the format and I'll have her posted soon.
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@Xaltwind - Alright. Here are some ideas for characters I can write up.
My first idea is another concept I've dabbled with. She's a young witch who was raised in a deadly swamp by a strange otherworldly being known only as "The Care Giver". One day it simply was gone, prompting her to set out from her swamp on a quest to find The Care Giver. As far as powers are concerned she'd be similar to a druid of sorts, mainly dabbling in plant and poison magic with a side focus on spirits.
_
My second idea is a young man that is a golemancer, someone who practices the arcane art of constructing golems. Originally he got into the craft after inheriting his father's workshop but due to the laws of the city he was in he was forbidden from making golems unless he was a member of the Chess Guild, a guild of golemancers who build entire armies of golems to take part in their "Chess Games", wars conducted between several high ranking members against one another in an never-ending effort to rise above one another in the hierarchy. This man would have the misfortune of being conscripted to the White Queen's forces as a pawn. The White Queen is a ruthless psychopath who is cold and calculating with a seething hatred for all things but herself. The young man is forced to build and operate pawn golems for her army, his caste being seen as essentially disposable labor. On the day of a major battle the fear of getting killed in battle combined with the crushing knowledge that nobody would even bat an eye if he were crushed or disintegrated by the magical volleys lead to him taking his pawn golem and sneaking it away from the battle while everyone else was busy. Now he's on the run as his immediate superiors are furious at his desertion.
His main focus would be his golem, his magic mostly consisting of spells to help maintain his golem. The golem itself would start off as a simple affair, a large blocky stone dude who's main form of damage is smashing things with stone fists. With the right tools and materials the golemancer would be able to construct new attachments and addons to his golem to make it better & more versatile. While the golem would be powerful it would require the golemancer in order to function as without a rechargeable feed of power it's own supply of arcane power would dwindle until it eventually shut down.
_
My third idea is a short elf guy from a tribe of elves that have lived trapped within the mountains in a series of caverns for many generations, never seeing the light of day. This guy was training under the head alchemist to be their new head alchemist, the one who leads their ritual where they paint the walls of their home cavern with a special paint that wards away a massive worm. On the day of the ritual however, the first time this guy would be performing it no less, giant bats suddenly fly up at them, eating several elves and knocking this guy way down into a river below. He gets dragged below the water by the currents and passes out only to be washed out into the sea. After drifting ashore he eventually comes to, awakening to find himself surprisingly alive and somewhere completely foreign to him. From there he sets out to explore the world, his aim to study the night sky so that he might one day be able to join with it.
As his people lived in caves his chosen vocation of magic is shadowmancy, the manipulation and control of shadows. His spells would involve conjuring shadowy hands from people's shadows, hands as thin as paper but as tough as hardened leather yet no less flexible for it. He would also practice alchemy, brewing up useful potions, salves, paints and poisons to use.
I think the only difficulty for this concept would be the fact he'd be relatively nocturnal, mostly napping throughout the day and staying up at night. This is due to the fact that his race of elves lived in nearly total darkness for generations so his eyes are very sensitive to light. He'd be able to see in almost total darkness but any bright lights would be blinding to him. Much like himself his magic would naturally be weakened by strong light sources and light magic.
_
My fourth idea is a relatively normal young man who's entire life is changed forever when a strange old man wandered into town. This old man paid a couple silver coins to the young fellow for him to watch over his wagon, warning that if the strange box goes missing there would be "Dire consequences". As the old man meandered into the nearby tavern to stuff his maw with pies the young fellow watches over the wagon until he's distracted by a beautiful young woman. She seduces the young man, luring him away for some fun. When the young man finally comes to however the beautiful young woman is no longer with him and he realizes he completely forgot to watch the wagon. When he returned the old man, furious at the young man, cursed him to die a thousand deaths. At that moment a lightning bolt hit the young fellow, killing him instantly. Three days later the young man rose from the earth, naked and alone. Such was the first of his one thousand deaths. Now he travels the lands in search of a way to break his curse.
This guy will be relatively normal with fairly low stats and unremarkable skills. His main feature is that when he dies he will rise from the earth three days later at a location chosen by fate's whims. While it is a powerful feature for sure he is quite limited in many other fields, possessing no magical talent and being relatively weak with no effective combat skills to start. Also anytime he dies his equipment remains on his dead body, he takes nothing with him to his next emergence point.
_
I've got more ideas but I think these should be the most fitting. Do let me know your thoughts and if any of them are any good I'll get a sheet started for 'em.
My first idea is another concept I've dabbled with. She's a young witch who was raised in a deadly swamp by a strange otherworldly being known only as "The Care Giver". One day it simply was gone, prompting her to set out from her swamp on a quest to find The Care Giver. As far as powers are concerned she'd be similar to a druid of sorts, mainly dabbling in plant and poison magic with a side focus on spirits.
_
My second idea is a young man that is a golemancer, someone who practices the arcane art of constructing golems. Originally he got into the craft after inheriting his father's workshop but due to the laws of the city he was in he was forbidden from making golems unless he was a member of the Chess Guild, a guild of golemancers who build entire armies of golems to take part in their "Chess Games", wars conducted between several high ranking members against one another in an never-ending effort to rise above one another in the hierarchy. This man would have the misfortune of being conscripted to the White Queen's forces as a pawn. The White Queen is a ruthless psychopath who is cold and calculating with a seething hatred for all things but herself. The young man is forced to build and operate pawn golems for her army, his caste being seen as essentially disposable labor. On the day of a major battle the fear of getting killed in battle combined with the crushing knowledge that nobody would even bat an eye if he were crushed or disintegrated by the magical volleys lead to him taking his pawn golem and sneaking it away from the battle while everyone else was busy. Now he's on the run as his immediate superiors are furious at his desertion.
His main focus would be his golem, his magic mostly consisting of spells to help maintain his golem. The golem itself would start off as a simple affair, a large blocky stone dude who's main form of damage is smashing things with stone fists. With the right tools and materials the golemancer would be able to construct new attachments and addons to his golem to make it better & more versatile. While the golem would be powerful it would require the golemancer in order to function as without a rechargeable feed of power it's own supply of arcane power would dwindle until it eventually shut down.
_
My third idea is a short elf guy from a tribe of elves that have lived trapped within the mountains in a series of caverns for many generations, never seeing the light of day. This guy was training under the head alchemist to be their new head alchemist, the one who leads their ritual where they paint the walls of their home cavern with a special paint that wards away a massive worm. On the day of the ritual however, the first time this guy would be performing it no less, giant bats suddenly fly up at them, eating several elves and knocking this guy way down into a river below. He gets dragged below the water by the currents and passes out only to be washed out into the sea. After drifting ashore he eventually comes to, awakening to find himself surprisingly alive and somewhere completely foreign to him. From there he sets out to explore the world, his aim to study the night sky so that he might one day be able to join with it.
As his people lived in caves his chosen vocation of magic is shadowmancy, the manipulation and control of shadows. His spells would involve conjuring shadowy hands from people's shadows, hands as thin as paper but as tough as hardened leather yet no less flexible for it. He would also practice alchemy, brewing up useful potions, salves, paints and poisons to use.
I think the only difficulty for this concept would be the fact he'd be relatively nocturnal, mostly napping throughout the day and staying up at night. This is due to the fact that his race of elves lived in nearly total darkness for generations so his eyes are very sensitive to light. He'd be able to see in almost total darkness but any bright lights would be blinding to him. Much like himself his magic would naturally be weakened by strong light sources and light magic.
_
My fourth idea is a relatively normal young man who's entire life is changed forever when a strange old man wandered into town. This old man paid a couple silver coins to the young fellow for him to watch over his wagon, warning that if the strange box goes missing there would be "Dire consequences". As the old man meandered into the nearby tavern to stuff his maw with pies the young fellow watches over the wagon until he's distracted by a beautiful young woman. She seduces the young man, luring him away for some fun. When the young man finally comes to however the beautiful young woman is no longer with him and he realizes he completely forgot to watch the wagon. When he returned the old man, furious at the young man, cursed him to die a thousand deaths. At that moment a lightning bolt hit the young fellow, killing him instantly. Three days later the young man rose from the earth, naked and alone. Such was the first of his one thousand deaths. Now he travels the lands in search of a way to break his curse.
This guy will be relatively normal with fairly low stats and unremarkable skills. His main feature is that when he dies he will rise from the earth three days later at a location chosen by fate's whims. While it is a powerful feature for sure he is quite limited in many other fields, possessing no magical talent and being relatively weak with no effective combat skills to start. Also anytime he dies his equipment remains on his dead body, he takes nothing with him to his next emergence point.
_
I've got more ideas but I think these should be the most fitting. Do let me know your thoughts and if any of them are any good I'll get a sheet started for 'em.
So, I see two main issues we have with this character. The Chaos Surge table and the karma system.
What I'm thinking would be easiest to do would be to eschew the table entirely and just bake variable effects into each spell in a manner similar to Fortune's Transit. While I can understand that this is a collaborative story and not a tabletop game the core concept behind this character does require that element of chance which best befit dice rolls. I feel it would be simply cheesy and dare I say unfair to make a character who's spells effectiveness are decided by chance only to simply have a party dictate the results as, regardless of how fair the adjudicator wishes to be, the results would ultimately be biased. In addition much like in any MMO RNG is a very real element, with elements like dodge percentages and crit rates dictated by the engine that runs it. While this world functions as though real it was still modeled after an MMO if I understand correctly.
In my case my idea was to write up a class that specifically leaned into that particular element, leaving more up to chance in exchange for greater flexibility in the spells cast. The idea would be a class that would encourage taking risks in exchange for banking karma, rewarding the caster for saving their karma by granting them a greater degree of control over a single spell the longer they stockpile it. In essence by indulging chaos Mercurio would be afforded more control when he needs it most. I do agree though that karma shouldn't necessarily offer more power specifically and I'd not include spells that would just result in flatly increasing it's own power through expenditure of karma.
As for the karma system itself what I could do is just implement a soft cap that allows him to bank karma up to a certain amount and past that maximum he'll continue being able to gather more karma but each point stored would expire roughly an hour or so after it was obtained. That way while in the short term he could gather a reasonably high karma amount in the long term he would be limited to his cap, preventing him from obtaining an obscenely high amount of karma and not having to worry about random chance ever again in his magic.
_
As for why he'd be involved with the group it's hard to say. The story is ever shifting and I do not have the freedom to weave his destiny to specifically entwine with the group's own. That would be something for the gm and I to discuss for they have much more of a say in that than I. I can say that I'd probably characterize Mercurio as less like a Cicero-esque figure and more like that one merchant from The Undead Burgh in Dark Souls. A bit unusual, maybe even a little suspect but still reasonable enough to do business with.
As I've mentioned though if he is deemed ill-fitted I do have other ideas I can put forward. I'd want to put forward the summary of each idea first though to make sure they are acceptable and see which would be preferred.
What I'm thinking would be easiest to do would be to eschew the table entirely and just bake variable effects into each spell in a manner similar to Fortune's Transit. While I can understand that this is a collaborative story and not a tabletop game the core concept behind this character does require that element of chance which best befit dice rolls. I feel it would be simply cheesy and dare I say unfair to make a character who's spells effectiveness are decided by chance only to simply have a party dictate the results as, regardless of how fair the adjudicator wishes to be, the results would ultimately be biased. In addition much like in any MMO RNG is a very real element, with elements like dodge percentages and crit rates dictated by the engine that runs it. While this world functions as though real it was still modeled after an MMO if I understand correctly.
In my case my idea was to write up a class that specifically leaned into that particular element, leaving more up to chance in exchange for greater flexibility in the spells cast. The idea would be a class that would encourage taking risks in exchange for banking karma, rewarding the caster for saving their karma by granting them a greater degree of control over a single spell the longer they stockpile it. In essence by indulging chaos Mercurio would be afforded more control when he needs it most. I do agree though that karma shouldn't necessarily offer more power specifically and I'd not include spells that would just result in flatly increasing it's own power through expenditure of karma.
As for the karma system itself what I could do is just implement a soft cap that allows him to bank karma up to a certain amount and past that maximum he'll continue being able to gather more karma but each point stored would expire roughly an hour or so after it was obtained. That way while in the short term he could gather a reasonably high karma amount in the long term he would be limited to his cap, preventing him from obtaining an obscenely high amount of karma and not having to worry about random chance ever again in his magic.
_
As for why he'd be involved with the group it's hard to say. The story is ever shifting and I do not have the freedom to weave his destiny to specifically entwine with the group's own. That would be something for the gm and I to discuss for they have much more of a say in that than I. I can say that I'd probably characterize Mercurio as less like a Cicero-esque figure and more like that one merchant from The Undead Burgh in Dark Souls. A bit unusual, maybe even a little suspect but still reasonable enough to do business with.
As I've mentioned though if he is deemed ill-fitted I do have other ideas I can put forward. I'd want to put forward the summary of each idea first though to make sure they are acceptable and see which would be preferred.
@Xaltwind Funny that, given how most of his list is largely taken from the D&D 5E wild magic list with some options being taken from the D&D 2E wild magic list.
As for being auto-hits these effects only really trigger when the spell itself hits it's target with the only one sans a hit requisite being Chaos Mend and Chaotic Contamination. In a way they function sort of like curses, imposing an effect upon their victim when cast. While certain affects add on in less direct ways like the pit appearing under the target other things would basically fall under the category of magical curses and would face the same restrictions. I could always just eschew the spells that lack a hit requisite however if that is of concern.
As for why he'd follow a group like so he is not one without reason. Though he sometimes comes off as a bit unstable he is oft a pragmatist given his run of poor luck, especially with the number of times he gets caught and sold into slavery only for other misfortunes to pull themselves upon him. He is however first and foremost a scholar. His main interest is the study of the universe and it's inner machinations. No doubt the rumors of the great shard of sky crashing down would of been of great interest to him. Serafeye, a being from another world essentially, would no doubt raise many questions and prompt the need for further study and investigation into her origins.
As for his karma system while it may seem a bit vague the basic idea is that any instance that would be to his physical detriment, loss of property or otherwise placing him in a situation where either of these two things would be very likely would count to his karmic total. As for how many points he'd net from any given situation the cap is one point, regardless of the gravity of the situation. While a fly landing in his pie would be a minor nuisance and hence not worth enough karma to concentrate into a point things like getting caught in quicksand or getting an enemy that charges at him before anyone else would be worth one point, max. Also, if several things happen to him in a short enough duration it's sum product would still just be one point, not several.
_
Nonetheless if you should still find him of ill fit to this rp I can always change his class over or, should him as even a concept be unwanted, provide a different character altogether.
As for being auto-hits these effects only really trigger when the spell itself hits it's target with the only one sans a hit requisite being Chaos Mend and Chaotic Contamination. In a way they function sort of like curses, imposing an effect upon their victim when cast. While certain affects add on in less direct ways like the pit appearing under the target other things would basically fall under the category of magical curses and would face the same restrictions. I could always just eschew the spells that lack a hit requisite however if that is of concern.
As for why he'd follow a group like so he is not one without reason. Though he sometimes comes off as a bit unstable he is oft a pragmatist given his run of poor luck, especially with the number of times he gets caught and sold into slavery only for other misfortunes to pull themselves upon him. He is however first and foremost a scholar. His main interest is the study of the universe and it's inner machinations. No doubt the rumors of the great shard of sky crashing down would of been of great interest to him. Serafeye, a being from another world essentially, would no doubt raise many questions and prompt the need for further study and investigation into her origins.
As for his karma system while it may seem a bit vague the basic idea is that any instance that would be to his physical detriment, loss of property or otherwise placing him in a situation where either of these two things would be very likely would count to his karmic total. As for how many points he'd net from any given situation the cap is one point, regardless of the gravity of the situation. While a fly landing in his pie would be a minor nuisance and hence not worth enough karma to concentrate into a point things like getting caught in quicksand or getting an enemy that charges at him before anyone else would be worth one point, max. Also, if several things happen to him in a short enough duration it's sum product would still just be one point, not several.
_
Nonetheless if you should still find him of ill fit to this rp I can always change his class over or, should him as even a concept be unwanted, provide a different character altogether.
In his case it's nice to have just in case he rolls one of his stickier effects and needs to fix the mess it makes.
It would appear when I stated that the character was already made I neglected to check to see if that was wholly true. While most of him is finished I still need to finish his history. I should have that done by tomorrow or so, not much later I can assure.
As for the whole random rolling mechanic I can swear on my honor that I will definitely be legitimately rolling each outcome, only swaying the results by the number of karma spent to move the value of the outcome. After all, why introduce a character with a fun random dice element only to cheat myself of the mystery and surprise of letting the dice take the wheel?
Just dipping in quickly to say I am still very much interested. I'll have my character posted at the earliest opportunity. As for now I'm simply confirming my interest before I'm whisked off to other pressing matters at this immediate juncture in time.
Edit: Just to clarify I already have the character made. He'll be posted roughly a few hours later, likely near midnight EST.
Edit: Just to clarify I already have the character made. He'll be posted roughly a few hours later, likely near midnight EST.
January 1st, 2020, Central City.
You Died
The letters lit up her dark and dreary screen, the only source of light in her room. She sat there in her computer chair, eyes fixated on the words with their stark contrast to the dark drab ruins and the consequences they carried.
"Goodbye one point five million souls."
'Twas a tragedy. Her former death marker laying no farther than a bridges distance from her with only a few dozen skeleton giants to bar the path. Her days of grinding reputation for her covenant had yielded little and cost her much.
She exited the game and glanced at the time. It was already seven in the morning.
"Guess we'll just go to sleep when we get home from school huh?" She asked herself aloud.
"Yeah... If 'ya don't boot up another game session for 'Just a couple minutes' " She answered back in this conversation with herself. This was the third day in a row she's gone with no sleep at all. She had a terrible habit of sacrificing sleep to make more time for the things that mattered to her: Lurking the net and gaming.
Coming down from the New Year's Day festivities she's been putting off sleep especially hard whilst her extended family had visited. She might of been an only child but she had a fair share of cousins, nieces, uncles and aunts spread across the states. Given how they monopolized her time during the holidays she pretty much gave up sleep to make more room for her alone time.
_
Yup. Three days in a row and there she sat in her pitch black room, curtains taped up against the wall to keep the light from bleeding through the edges. With what appeared to be great effort she hoisted herself from her chair and went to get changed into her day clothes, a dark attire designed to be minimalistic as to remain unostentatious. With a black long sleeved shirt, gray cargo pants and short white socks she drifted warily into the washroom to clean herself up.
Looking in the mirror certainly was a sight, not a pleasant one though. Her hair was bedraggled and the dark rings under her eyes would make a raccoon envious. There was little she could do to improve on the eye situations so she chose to comb and fix up her hair, a task which took a solid half hour to finish.
"Olivia! Your breakfast is ready!" Her mother called up from the stairwell.
"Just a minute mom!" She croaked back to her. Olivia's voice was definitely far from the prettiest. It sounded like it would be more appropriate coming from a frog rather than a young woman. Not a large frog mind you, it wasn't a deep voice at all. It was just kind of... Blegh sounding.
After getting out of the bathroom she made her way down stairs. At the kitchen table a breakfast of cereal, toast and a glass of orange juice awaited her, her mother and father sat down enjoying their own breakfast. She made her way down the stairs, holding onto the handrail for her exhaustion made her wobbly and tumbling down the stairs would make for a terrible start to her school day. She quietly seated herself and began to eat.
"Did you hear the latest news Ani? Some metahuman down in Keystone City dressed up in a costume decided to go and stop a bank robbery." Her father struck a conversation with her mother, not looking up from his newspaper as he spoke.
"Oh dear. I hope nobody was hurt because of it."
"Hmm... No, doesn't seem like anybody was. Still, beating the cops to the punch in stopping some bank robbers hardly makes up for the killings these metahumans have been doing." The mustached man shook his head, frowning behind his paper wall. "I swear whatever science mumbo jumbo they've got has messed with their heads."
Olivia didn't weigh in on the conversation. All too often she found that she got along with others best when she simply chose to remain quiet. Even innocuous statements made by her were like tinder, igniting irritation in those who hear her. She figured her voice was harsh on the ears, accepting this as her fate. After all, some people got to be born beautiful, smart, charming or fit. She got to be born frail and ugly sounding. Totally a fair trade, not at all a cruel slight by the gods.
_
After breakfast there she was, on the way to school. From the bus she emerged alongside her peers. She trudged through the doors and into the halls, swaying as though the wind could knock her over if the walls weren't in the way. Though she cared little for the others she could hear the conversations of other students around her. It appears the news from Keystone City reached their ears as well as it was the hottest conversation in the halls. Olivia just took a deep breath and sighed.
"How does news of something that minor happening all the way over in Keystone end up blowing up this far out?" she asked herself, muttering just under her breath while glancing about to make sure people weren't listening in on her. Not that it mattered too greatly. She already had a reputation for talking to herself. Just another arrow in the quiver of her bullies.
She reached her locker where an 'oh so pleasant' surprise awaited her. One of her bullies had taped a sign to her locker which read Losre. This simply prompted Olivia to engage a face palm.
"Oh goodie, mean spirited AND dyslexic. You sure do draw the best." She quietly muttered to herself through her palms before tearing the paper off from her locker and unlocking it so she can put her stuff away.
"Maybe today you'll be lucky enough to get run over by the bus, putting you out of this misery for good."
So she turned and left her locker, books in hand as she started towards her first class. Just as she was walking down the hall two boys were shouting from either end of the hall to each other. Nothing new really, the hallways were a constant mess of noise.
"Hey Arnold! You forgot your textbook! Here, Catch!"
Then it hit her.
Footsteps, shoes on smooth tile floors, talking! Voices, voices! Talking, shouting, crowds upon crowds! Heartbeats! Thud thud, the meaty twisting of intestines, lungs heaving, tongues slapping within the caverns of their mouths! Chalk on chalkboards, locker doors shutting, clothes shuffling, cars, buses, engines roaring, horns blaring! Blood squishing about in their veins! Vocal cords vibrating to the tune of words, the words! The voices!
It all came in a calamitous eruption. Every sound around her was louder than could be fathomed by even the wildest imagination. She swore she should of gone deaf but she was incapable of it. Her eyes vibrated as the feedback pushed her mind to it's limits and beyond. She clutched her head and tried to suppress her screams for their noise hurt her further still but it was impossible to resist, her voice boiling out from her body in a primal cry of agony.
The world around her had shifted in an instant. She could no longer see properly for the colors of their sounds flooded her vision. She could feel it all, like being submerged in an endless ocean of her own fingertips. Even that description fails to aptly describe the very alien nature of this intangible phantom limb of hers. It was sound, all sound. Every vibration, every wavelength, it was all part of her now.
The vastness of it was overwhelming, her mind taking in a vast flood of sound without any resistance like a hole the size of the ocean floor swallowing up the ocean in an instant. The nearest sounds rang through her mind at volumes many magnitudes greater than even the most powerful atomic bomb's explosion. It was like compressing all the sand in the Saharan Desert into a single grain of sand.
As the pure torment of this exposure wracked her body the tension it was under was simply too much for her frail constitution. She collapsed to her knees, her cries cut off as vomit gushed forth from her stomach, flooding her mouth as it splattered across the floor beneath her in an explosive purge.
She grew faint as the last dredges of her stomach's contents evacuated her mouth. Whilst the experience laid entirely within her mind the strain her mind's exertion had put her body through was a test her body was failing. Between her insomniac lifestyle and this deluge of mental input the world grew dark and her arms turned limp. She collapsed into the pool of her own vomit.
Her eyelids pulled close, drawing the curtains to this scene.
She could still hear it all though. The sounds never went away. It won't stop.
It won't stop.
It won't stop.
It won't stop.
It won't st
_
_
From an outsiders perspective after being struck by a heavy textbook that was poorly thrown by some student this girl just gave a bloodcurdling scream whilst falling to her knees before throwing up copiously and passing out, collapsing into the pool of bile. Needless to say the crowded hallway cleared out around her, a nice wide ring of bystanders formed around her listless body.
Pushing through the crowd of dumbfounded teenagers was one of the teachers, an older woman with brunette hair that was faintly mottled with flecks of gray. She knelt by the body, her face etched with concern at this sudden emergency, and rolled poor Olivia onto her side. She passed a hand in front of her mouth to check if she was breathing. Her labored breaths were shallow but breathing she still was.
The crowd quietly whispered to each other as they spectated the scene before the teacher stood and pointed straight at one of the students standing at the front of the crowd.
"You there! Go get the nurse here immediately!"
The student, briefly stunned from being so suddenly put on the spot, quickly nodded and pushed on out through the crowd to do as he was told. Shortly after that the boy returned with the school nurse in tow. She joined the teacher by the fallen body of Olivia, examining her for injuries and symptoms.
"I can't tell what happened to her. We probably shouldn't move her in case she sustained any injuries from the fall."
"Should we call nine-one-one?"
"We should contact her parents first. Go inform the office, I'll remain here to keep apprised of her condition."
The teacher stood up and went off to pass the word up the chain as to what happened while the nurse remained by Olivia, making sure she was stable.
_
Meanwhile in a busy stock exchange floor her father worked, observing the recent stock trends to map out his investment strategies when his cell phone rang.
"Hello? Samuel Babbage speaking." He answered the phone, standing by impatiently as he took this call. His expression darkened over the course of the call as they filled him in on what had happened to his daughter.
"No, that's alright, there's no need for an ambulance. I'll come pick her up immediately. Yes. Thank you, goodbye."
With a tap he hung up and started briskly power walking off towards the exits. While it would set him back to miss a day this family emergency demanded his immediate attention.
Some time later her father arrived at the scene, the nurse keeping tabs on her condition while directing student traffic past the scene of the incident. Sam strode up to the prone form of his daughter, frown chiseled upon his stony face.
"What happened"
"As far as we can tell she fell down and passed out. She hasn't sustained any visible injuries but the fall could have injured her head or neck."
"Damn. Just what I needed today." He spoke with a gravelly note of irritation. He reached down to pick up his unconscious daughter but the nurse cut him off.
"We shouldn't move her, it could worsen whatever injuries she might have sustained. We should call an ambul-" Before she could finish Sam interjected.
"Like hell we are! The closest hospital isn't covered under our health insurance. Just the cost of the ambulance charges will bleed us dry right now."
Disregarding the nurse's objections he wrapped his arms around Olivia and hoisted her over his shoulder where she draped listlessly upon him like a damp towel.
"I'll be taking my daughter now. Goodbye."
While the nurse wanted to object to his brusque handling of his potentially injured daughter the last thing she wanted was to quarrel with her parents and wind up getting reprimanded by her boss for it. With reluctance she held her tongue as Sam carried his daughter off to his car to drive on down to the hospital.
You Died
The letters lit up her dark and dreary screen, the only source of light in her room. She sat there in her computer chair, eyes fixated on the words with their stark contrast to the dark drab ruins and the consequences they carried.
"Goodbye one point five million souls."
'Twas a tragedy. Her former death marker laying no farther than a bridges distance from her with only a few dozen skeleton giants to bar the path. Her days of grinding reputation for her covenant had yielded little and cost her much.
She exited the game and glanced at the time. It was already seven in the morning.
"Guess we'll just go to sleep when we get home from school huh?" She asked herself aloud.
"Yeah... If 'ya don't boot up another game session for 'Just a couple minutes' " She answered back in this conversation with herself. This was the third day in a row she's gone with no sleep at all. She had a terrible habit of sacrificing sleep to make more time for the things that mattered to her: Lurking the net and gaming.
Coming down from the New Year's Day festivities she's been putting off sleep especially hard whilst her extended family had visited. She might of been an only child but she had a fair share of cousins, nieces, uncles and aunts spread across the states. Given how they monopolized her time during the holidays she pretty much gave up sleep to make more room for her alone time.
_
Yup. Three days in a row and there she sat in her pitch black room, curtains taped up against the wall to keep the light from bleeding through the edges. With what appeared to be great effort she hoisted herself from her chair and went to get changed into her day clothes, a dark attire designed to be minimalistic as to remain unostentatious. With a black long sleeved shirt, gray cargo pants and short white socks she drifted warily into the washroom to clean herself up.
Looking in the mirror certainly was a sight, not a pleasant one though. Her hair was bedraggled and the dark rings under her eyes would make a raccoon envious. There was little she could do to improve on the eye situations so she chose to comb and fix up her hair, a task which took a solid half hour to finish.
"Olivia! Your breakfast is ready!" Her mother called up from the stairwell.
"Just a minute mom!" She croaked back to her. Olivia's voice was definitely far from the prettiest. It sounded like it would be more appropriate coming from a frog rather than a young woman. Not a large frog mind you, it wasn't a deep voice at all. It was just kind of... Blegh sounding.
After getting out of the bathroom she made her way down stairs. At the kitchen table a breakfast of cereal, toast and a glass of orange juice awaited her, her mother and father sat down enjoying their own breakfast. She made her way down the stairs, holding onto the handrail for her exhaustion made her wobbly and tumbling down the stairs would make for a terrible start to her school day. She quietly seated herself and began to eat.
"Did you hear the latest news Ani? Some metahuman down in Keystone City dressed up in a costume decided to go and stop a bank robbery." Her father struck a conversation with her mother, not looking up from his newspaper as he spoke.
"Oh dear. I hope nobody was hurt because of it."
"Hmm... No, doesn't seem like anybody was. Still, beating the cops to the punch in stopping some bank robbers hardly makes up for the killings these metahumans have been doing." The mustached man shook his head, frowning behind his paper wall. "I swear whatever science mumbo jumbo they've got has messed with their heads."
Olivia didn't weigh in on the conversation. All too often she found that she got along with others best when she simply chose to remain quiet. Even innocuous statements made by her were like tinder, igniting irritation in those who hear her. She figured her voice was harsh on the ears, accepting this as her fate. After all, some people got to be born beautiful, smart, charming or fit. She got to be born frail and ugly sounding. Totally a fair trade, not at all a cruel slight by the gods.
_
After breakfast there she was, on the way to school. From the bus she emerged alongside her peers. She trudged through the doors and into the halls, swaying as though the wind could knock her over if the walls weren't in the way. Though she cared little for the others she could hear the conversations of other students around her. It appears the news from Keystone City reached their ears as well as it was the hottest conversation in the halls. Olivia just took a deep breath and sighed.
"How does news of something that minor happening all the way over in Keystone end up blowing up this far out?" she asked herself, muttering just under her breath while glancing about to make sure people weren't listening in on her. Not that it mattered too greatly. She already had a reputation for talking to herself. Just another arrow in the quiver of her bullies.
She reached her locker where an 'oh so pleasant' surprise awaited her. One of her bullies had taped a sign to her locker which read Losre. This simply prompted Olivia to engage a face palm.
"Oh goodie, mean spirited AND dyslexic. You sure do draw the best." She quietly muttered to herself through her palms before tearing the paper off from her locker and unlocking it so she can put her stuff away.
"Maybe today you'll be lucky enough to get run over by the bus, putting you out of this misery for good."
So she turned and left her locker, books in hand as she started towards her first class. Just as she was walking down the hall two boys were shouting from either end of the hall to each other. Nothing new really, the hallways were a constant mess of noise.
"Hey Arnold! You forgot your textbook! Here, Catch!"
Then it hit her.
Footsteps, shoes on smooth tile floors, talking! Voices, voices! Talking, shouting, crowds upon crowds! Heartbeats! Thud thud, the meaty twisting of intestines, lungs heaving, tongues slapping within the caverns of their mouths! Chalk on chalkboards, locker doors shutting, clothes shuffling, cars, buses, engines roaring, horns blaring! Blood squishing about in their veins! Vocal cords vibrating to the tune of words, the words! The voices!
It all came in a calamitous eruption. Every sound around her was louder than could be fathomed by even the wildest imagination. She swore she should of gone deaf but she was incapable of it. Her eyes vibrated as the feedback pushed her mind to it's limits and beyond. She clutched her head and tried to suppress her screams for their noise hurt her further still but it was impossible to resist, her voice boiling out from her body in a primal cry of agony.
The world around her had shifted in an instant. She could no longer see properly for the colors of their sounds flooded her vision. She could feel it all, like being submerged in an endless ocean of her own fingertips. Even that description fails to aptly describe the very alien nature of this intangible phantom limb of hers. It was sound, all sound. Every vibration, every wavelength, it was all part of her now.
The vastness of it was overwhelming, her mind taking in a vast flood of sound without any resistance like a hole the size of the ocean floor swallowing up the ocean in an instant. The nearest sounds rang through her mind at volumes many magnitudes greater than even the most powerful atomic bomb's explosion. It was like compressing all the sand in the Saharan Desert into a single grain of sand.
As the pure torment of this exposure wracked her body the tension it was under was simply too much for her frail constitution. She collapsed to her knees, her cries cut off as vomit gushed forth from her stomach, flooding her mouth as it splattered across the floor beneath her in an explosive purge.
She grew faint as the last dredges of her stomach's contents evacuated her mouth. Whilst the experience laid entirely within her mind the strain her mind's exertion had put her body through was a test her body was failing. Between her insomniac lifestyle and this deluge of mental input the world grew dark and her arms turned limp. She collapsed into the pool of her own vomit.
Her eyelids pulled close, drawing the curtains to this scene.
She could still hear it all though. The sounds never went away. It won't stop.
It won't stop.
It won't stop.
It won't stop.
It won't st
_
_
From an outsiders perspective after being struck by a heavy textbook that was poorly thrown by some student this girl just gave a bloodcurdling scream whilst falling to her knees before throwing up copiously and passing out, collapsing into the pool of bile. Needless to say the crowded hallway cleared out around her, a nice wide ring of bystanders formed around her listless body.
Pushing through the crowd of dumbfounded teenagers was one of the teachers, an older woman with brunette hair that was faintly mottled with flecks of gray. She knelt by the body, her face etched with concern at this sudden emergency, and rolled poor Olivia onto her side. She passed a hand in front of her mouth to check if she was breathing. Her labored breaths were shallow but breathing she still was.
The crowd quietly whispered to each other as they spectated the scene before the teacher stood and pointed straight at one of the students standing at the front of the crowd.
"You there! Go get the nurse here immediately!"
The student, briefly stunned from being so suddenly put on the spot, quickly nodded and pushed on out through the crowd to do as he was told. Shortly after that the boy returned with the school nurse in tow. She joined the teacher by the fallen body of Olivia, examining her for injuries and symptoms.
"I can't tell what happened to her. We probably shouldn't move her in case she sustained any injuries from the fall."
"Should we call nine-one-one?"
"We should contact her parents first. Go inform the office, I'll remain here to keep apprised of her condition."
The teacher stood up and went off to pass the word up the chain as to what happened while the nurse remained by Olivia, making sure she was stable.
_
Meanwhile in a busy stock exchange floor her father worked, observing the recent stock trends to map out his investment strategies when his cell phone rang.
"Hello? Samuel Babbage speaking." He answered the phone, standing by impatiently as he took this call. His expression darkened over the course of the call as they filled him in on what had happened to his daughter.
"No, that's alright, there's no need for an ambulance. I'll come pick her up immediately. Yes. Thank you, goodbye."
With a tap he hung up and started briskly power walking off towards the exits. While it would set him back to miss a day this family emergency demanded his immediate attention.
Some time later her father arrived at the scene, the nurse keeping tabs on her condition while directing student traffic past the scene of the incident. Sam strode up to the prone form of his daughter, frown chiseled upon his stony face.
"What happened"
"As far as we can tell she fell down and passed out. She hasn't sustained any visible injuries but the fall could have injured her head or neck."
"Damn. Just what I needed today." He spoke with a gravelly note of irritation. He reached down to pick up his unconscious daughter but the nurse cut him off.
"We shouldn't move her, it could worsen whatever injuries she might have sustained. We should call an ambul-" Before she could finish Sam interjected.
"Like hell we are! The closest hospital isn't covered under our health insurance. Just the cost of the ambulance charges will bleed us dry right now."
Disregarding the nurse's objections he wrapped his arms around Olivia and hoisted her over his shoulder where she draped listlessly upon him like a damp towel.
"I'll be taking my daughter now. Goodbye."
While the nurse wanted to object to his brusque handling of his potentially injured daughter the last thing she wanted was to quarrel with her parents and wind up getting reprimanded by her boss for it. With reluctance she held her tongue as Sam carried his daughter off to his car to drive on down to the hospital.
Got her Background up now. It's a first draft so if there are any issues it's to be expected. I'll hammer out details where needed.
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