Oh boy, I went on a wild goose chase through Wikipedia and found a really, really tenuous coincidental(?) connection.
The city of Gdansk in Poland was formerly named Danzig, as in this roleplay. An early record states Danzig as a city in which the practice of adopting the Grain Mother (a good-luck figure fashioned at harvest from the last sheaf of wheat) occurred. One theorised example of the Christianisation of the Grain Mother tradition is an early depiction of a particular female saint associated with grain and holding stalks of grain. That saint is Saint Walpurga. Whose saint's day is celebrated in Europe as Walpurgis Night.
fkn' grain-based illuminati bullshit right there, guess who's not eating corn flakes tomorrow morning (hint it's me)
I tried to match Kei's backstory to her relatively high levels of Despair in advance, though, rather than as well as having an angsty backstory for its own sake, so I'm not sure if her Despair will need adjusting further.
Name: Kei Wentz.
Age: A little over fifteen.
Appearance: Although she likes to tell herself that having perfectly on-fleek eyeliner 100% of the time makes up for the fact that she doesn't otherwise care much about her appearance, Kei is often wrong. With her hair in a mess despite the effort she went through to get a characteristic pale green dip-dye, limp muscles and a faint hunch that speaks volumes of her time spent online, and a stubborn determination not to shave her legs at any point- Other than on the rare occasion that she manages to get a date, Kei can actually be described as dumpy, or as a tryhard. She prefers to introduce herself as 'rocking a scrawny-chic tumblr aesthetic'. Her eyebrows are usually half-raised and one corner of her mouth twitched up in a half-smile. Kei's transformation is fairly typical in a flaunty, over-the-top, show-off kind of way. She matches her hair with a cyan split dress, cut so generously as to be more of an elegantly extended shirt, and not quite brave enough to be backless but at least shoulder-less. A fashionably triangular wrap skirt falls down almost to her knees and allows surprisingly free movement, for which Kei has described it as a 'glorified utilitarian kilt'. High garter socks lead into similarly green ballet shoes. Kei's skirt, elbow-length gloves, and long sleeveless coat are all stark white trimmed with black; Her socks invert the pattern. Kei's Soul Gem is cyan green, and, when transformed, worn as a fine silver filigree anklet with a small green ribbon attached to flow in the wind as she runs. Her fingernail mark is a cyan green chambered spiral, like an ammonite fossil.
Nationality: Considers herself Australian, but was born to Polish/Japanese immigrants to that country. Though Kei's parents consider this something of a homecoming, Danzig still feels a little foreign to her. At this point, when someone asks her where she's from based on her name and appearance, she just cracks her knuckles and stares. Her nationality comes complete with a deep tan, something of an accent, and a fascination with rain and snow.
Personality: For the vast majority of her upbringing, Kei Wentz was far from poverty, and the casual affluence of her environment has left obvious marks on her personality. She's a practiced user of the internet, and at that something of a meme queen, who claims that online culture helps foster her sense for abstract humour. Kei is generally sufficiently easy-going about her own life to avoid serious conversations, and despite the circumstances of her wish, most of her worries remain relatively trivial social issues. That said, these tend to be numerous, and pool ultimately into a single cause and insecurity- Her need to feel memorable. Kei is constantly looking for validation from others, and this has made her noticeably social. She'll never turn down an offer to meet or do something together, even with only loose acquaintances. The confidence she has gained from being a Magical Girl has amplified this behaviour considerably. Her words, however, tend to be few, as she lets pass chance after chance to ask questions or say something about herself, until the exact moment at which she can make a sufficiently sassy, funny, or dark comment. This has often left her hanging out with friends for hours, following and listening closely, without saying very much of anything out loud, although her body language is rather practiced. Interestingly, Kei has also lost count of how many times she has been a third wheel because of this. To some extent, Kei's privileged life has also allowed her to carry a lingering attitude of entitlement. Her hobby of graffiti started out early, when she noticed that certain places tended to accumulate it naturally but were always repainted anyway, not really noticing that this was only due to the damage. Although she now chooses her sites more consciously and rationalises her habit better, she still scoffs at anyone who tells her to stop. Additionally, Kei sometimes turns out to be much more rude than she or her friends expected. She's been caught in the past making cheap humour based on immigrants, the disabled, and short people. Though she generally doesn't intend harm, it shows that Kei sometimes listens to herself in all the wrong ways. In any case, whenever her comments are taken negatively, or, worse, ignored, Kei tends to sink into a slump of gloomy teenage angst and anti-social feelings.
Afflictions: Still mostly healthy.
Biography: Until barely a year before she was approached by Kyubey, Kei's life was lax, happy, and somewhat naive- Sheltered, in other words. Her parents were both employed and her elder brother had moved out, and Kei was left to simmer out her childhood in an Australian suburb. Sufficiently academic to have developed something of an ego from parental encouragement and primary school awards by the time she transferred into high school, when Kei was thirteen, she met someone whose story shook her cramped worldview harshly. Katherine Viktor was everything Kei wanted to be and more. Smarter than she was, more popular, and infinitely more determined to go far in life, Kathy immediately got along with Kei and just as soon gave her a light for Kei to look inside herself and realise her true mediocrity. The fact that she could be so easily eclipsed by a relatively humble figure like Katherine very quickly helped Kei's personality establish itself as a desperate validation-chaser. But Katherine's story ran deeper and cut further. Before, Kei had known about domestic abuse from a kind of detached, clinical perspective. Her empathy was underdeveloped and, until Kathy, was never close enough to anyone to really appreciate how perfect her own upbringing had been. But the biggest factor in drawing the two so close together- Their desire to act perfectly in front of their peers- Was not a native trait of Katherine's. Her mother an unemployed trophy wife, her father a well-dressed and well-connected figure in a large mining company, Katherine was intended to have been born a male and an heir. Her parents had even chosen a name, which they soon gave to her younger brother Ethan instead. Kathy had underperformed just by being born, and the weight of perfection that Jason Viktor expected from the women in his life forced her further and further down. Any appreciation that Kathy earned was piled upon Ethan. Little by little, anecdote by anecdote, the story unravelled into Kei's memory. The two had come from environments that were polar opposites. Kei had been hospitalised for a sprained finger, told to get better; Kathy had been denied access to medication for her anxiety, told to get over it. Kei had been praised for a sticker at school, Kathy had been screamed at for scoring lower than 90%. Kei stayed indoors for her safety. Kathy was locked in alone. Kei. Kathy. First as a trickle, and shortly as a monsoon, all the fury for a childhood lost, all the unfairness that Kathy had been taught to treat as normal, every painful question answered by something darker than had raised it- For the first time, Kei learned to feel hatred. There was nothing she could do about it but fruitlessly try to talk Kathy out of self-harm night after night. Jason was rich and his friends were lawyers and judges and all the other parents at their school. He was loved. He would be remembered for decades as a Good Bloke, and Kei, and Kathy, and all the suffering he spread, would be forgotten. Kei could do nothing, until Kyubey came. For the first time in a long while, Kei felt that she had finally done something really memorable by killing Jason. But the illusion didn't take long to break. Her fathers death threw Katherine into panic, and her mother and brother took much of the money. The depression that had been planted found other sources of water in the wake of Kei's wish, and Kathy would be worse before she had any hope of getting better. Kei didn't say a word. Nothing of Jason's behaviour came to light, and he became a suburban martyr. A few days later, the Wentz parents announced that they were moving back to Poland. Kei wouldn't even see the aftermath of her decision when it eventually turned to the good. All that remained to her was to leave a legacy of hope and salvation where it really lasted, by destroying the things that were truly at the heart of human misery. Transplanted into Danzig, Kei's territory began to grow, and witches learned to fear.
Wish:"I wish for Jason Viktor to insure his life and then die." Kei's wish was one made in anger, targeting the source of the hurt rather than the victim, and ultimately a very simple one. Jason acted mysteriously for a few days, talking to almost no-one and keeping uncharacteristically close to himself and a sudden morass of paperwork, leaving Katherine shakily perplexed and Kei waiting with enormous tension. Then, abruptly, news broke that the man had, hours after finally putting it through the insurance company that his family would receive the full amount for cases of suicide, hanged himself.
Skills: Kei considers herself a graffiti artist, and has learned to work in several media. Spray-paint of various colours is, predictably, one of them, but she has also been known to paint by hand with a brush, scratch and carve into concrete, scar letters into living wood, and occasionally pull something impermanent but creative, like spelling out messages by jamming plastic cups into the holes of a wire fence. She also likes fossils, for a similar reason- She admires their timeless etchings upon the planet's history.
Threads of Fate: 6- Kei's innate strength was stolid enough to safeguard her earliest weeks in the witch-harvesting industry, and she continues to learn new skills now, though she feels that her rate of development has slowed lately.
Magical Weapon: Pistol crossbows, repeating crossbows, and ballistas- If it strings like a bow but fires like a rifle, it's probably in Kei's arsenal. The shining arrows and bolts she shoots usually explode into paint flecks and glitter upon passing through a target. Kei considers the crossbow a handy compromise between the gratifying physical exertion of a spear or bow and the mechanical grace and ease of a firearm. Although pulling cranks and loading bolts has helped her put on a little muscle weight and she's generally satisfied with her choice, Kei still thinks her fragile build might be better suited for the gunpowder end of the spectrum.
Experience: 4- Kei has grown confident enough to start establishing a level of comfort with her new life, even estranged from her country of origin, and is slowly starting to really hone in on her ability to manage witch populations.
Magical Ability: Kei's wish was almost purely destructive, and as such, so is her magic. Chronic Vandalism- When Kei or her weapons come into contact with a foe, or even anyone she is feeling significantly angry at, tangles and loops of crude and indecipherable cyan green graffiti will radiate outwards over their skin or clothes from the point of contact. These markings can be removed by washing or vigorous rubbing, and propagate in a radius that increases by about fifteen centimetres per second (considerably faster via contact with crossbow bolts). These etchings resemble spray-paint, and leave shallow chemical burns as they move.
Harsh Words- Interestingly, both the final acts and death of Jason Viktor occurred by his own volition, distorted as it was by Kei's wish. After the fact, other humans have also proved oddly and occasionally susceptible to Kei's voice when she is feeling hateful. An ominous feeling rises in non-Magical Girls when they are addressed by Kei in such a mood, and most find it rather intimidating. A Memory in Stone- When transformed, Kei sometimes moves using props that don't exist- They seem to flash into being for a split second and vanish as soon as she stops making contact with them. Oddly, they all have the shape of fossils, mostly branching leaves or spiralling shells. Coat of Paint- Incoming damage to Kei while transformed will sometimes disappear upon contact, leaving only an inked or painted likeness where it would have otherwise impacted. This tends to happen mostly when she catches a spell or weapon on her white coat, and almost exclusively to projectiles- Melee weapons tend not to have this problem. Notably, once an attack has been caught on her coat as paint, another projectile that manages to hit the exact now-painted spot will always pass through. De- and Re-transformation cleans her outfit, but not her skin.
██████: 24%- Knowing Kei's tendency to explore and mark territory with graffiti, and her ultimately extroverted nature, her expansion has been a predictable move, but between the pressure she puts on herself to find new witches and that which she has already endured second-hand from Katherine's situation, she has already started to wear herself down. Every time her strive to establish permanence is thwarted, Kei sinks a little further back into feeling like nothing.
Notes: Kei is still unaware of the true nature of witches and Magical Girls, but has begun to have increasingly dark suspicions, noting the correlation of Barrier architecture and Kathy's used sketchbooks. Prior injury in fighting witches has lead her to discover the connection between her Soul Gem and soul, with Kyubey's prompting, though as an atheist, she doesn't seem to care all that much- Though she does keep her Gem closer than ever. Her parents, permissive and loving as they've ever been, assume that she sneaks out to go on cute dates with a boy- or girl-friend, and suspect nothing of the truth.
I am noticing that we have a lack of high-experience girls. I would almost want to request getting a reroll for experience to hopefully become a more experienced one, maybe to help the others out...
On the plus side, that means it'll be more of a surprise when they learn about really weird quirks other than the despairification process, like what happens when you separate a girl from her gem- Since they do tend to be worn close to the body.
Also Incubators eating one another to live forever fuckin' priceless
ima pop this here while i hand in an entirely different application- for employment at a supermarket IRL. Be right back to finish it.
Name: Kei Wentz.
Age: Approaching fifteen in just a few days! Yay!
Appearance: SHHH, I'M STILL SKETCHING HER. tl;dr scrawny girl with messy hair and a deep tan, whose transformation consists mostly of a flowing sleeveless coat, slit dress, wrap skirt, gloves and leggings, I'll get to it. Kei's soul gem is cyan green, and, when transformed, worn as a fine filigree anklet with a small ribbon attached to flow in the wind as she runs.
Nationality: Considers herself Australian, but was born to Polish/Japanese immigrants to that country. Though Kei's parents consider this something of a homecoming, Danzig still feels a little foreign to her.
Personality:
Afflictions: Still mostly healthy.
Wish: "I wish for Jason Viktor to insure his life and then die." Kei's wish was one made in anger, targeting the source of the hurt rather than the victim, and ultimately a very simple one. Jason acted mysteriously for a few days, talking to almost no-one and keeping uncharacteristically close to himself and a sudden morass of paperwork, leaving Katherine shakily perplexed and Kei waiting with enormous tension. Then, abruptly, news broke that the alcoholic man had, hours after finally putting it through the insurance company that his family would receive the full amount for cases of suicide, hanged himself.
Biography:
Skills: Kei considers herself a graffiti artist, and has learned to work in several media. Spray-paint of various colours is, predictably, one of them, but she has also been known to paint by hand with a brush, scratch and carve into concrete, scar letters into living wood, and occasionally pull something impermanent but creative, like spelling out messages by jamming plastic cups into the holes of a wire fence. She also likes fossils, for a similar reason- She admires their timeless etchings upon the planet's history.
Threads of Fate: 6- Kei's innate strength was stolid enough to safeguard her earliest weeks in the witch-harvesting industry, and she continues to learn new skills now, though she feels that her rate of development has slowed lately.
Magical Weapon: Pistol crossbows, repeating crossbows, and ballistas- If it strings like a bow but fires like a rifle, it's probably in Kei's arsenal. The shining arrows and bolts she shoots usually explode into paint flecks and glitter upon passing through a target. Kei considers the crossbow a handy compromise between the gratifying physical exertion of a spear or bow and the mechanical grace and ease of a firearm. Although pulling cranks and loading bolts has helped her put on a little muscle weight and she's generally satisfied with her choice, Kei still thinks her fragile build might be better suited for the gunpowder end of the spectrum.
Experience: 4- Kei has grown confident enough to start establishing a level of comfort with her new life, and is slowly starting to really hone in on her ability to manage witch populations.
Magical Ability: bleh bleh destructive instincts
██████: 24%- Knowing Kei's tendency to explore and mark territory with graffiti, and her ultimately extroverted nature, her expansion has been a predictable move, but between the pressure she puts on herself to find new witches and that which she has already endured watching the aftermath of Katherine's situation, she has already started to wear herself down. Every time her strive to establish permanence is thwarted, Kei sinks a little further back into feeling like nothing.
Vec,
Timemaster