Chrys

Primality: Act 1

P A I G E & M A R K O

A chuff came from Paige as mumbled under her breath to herself, "A spark extinguishing a flame? Doesn't he know sparks make flames?"

I can't tell if he is in denial or just a bloody idiot. She thought to herself, rolling her eyes, Yes let's just fill a school of teenagers who are both hormone filled and powered. This will surely grant world peace and acceptance of all peoples.

Hearing that they were going to be handed off to counselors had a lavender purple eyebrow raised. "In trouble already?" She joked to Marko with a little smirk on her face. She couldn't help it, the way he reacted at every little thing made him way too easy to tease.

Marko had been frowning deeply as the headmaster's speech got underway, the expression only cementing itself further as Buchanan went on about the current strife in the world. The things he said were extremely concerning. He talked as if they were somehow expected to take some kind of direct action in addressing the issues he raised- which was ludicrous. He shook his head lightly. My self importance is getting the better of me. The best and only thing I can do is learn to control my powers and then blend back into society.

If nobody outside of this school ever even knew he was a primalist, that would be ideal.

Paige's remark shook him from his thoughts as he let out a low sigh. "Did... she say arena? Why us?" Seriously. Why? His eye shifted back and forth as he calculated what the reasoning could be, why they were singled out, and why the meeting wasn't being held in an office or a courtyard. "I'm guessing," Marko began, his tone dry and defeated. "That everyone called is troublesome in some way. Or has unique potential as far as their powers are concerned. Or both." Please. Let them not ask for a demonstration. Just thinking about it made his fingers itch.

Marko did not disappoint with his reaction and Paige responded by chuckling at his sudden fear at a supposed arena. The arena part had not skipped her attention either, but honestly, she had just guessed it was another word for a gym or stadium.

Getting up, she stretched herself out like she had been caged up for the whole day instead of at an introduction by the headmaster that had been half an hour at most. "Well, whatever it is, guess it's best to just get it over with."

Looking back down at her worried acquaintance, an impish grin grew on her face as she nudged Marko back into the world, "What? Scared they are going to ask you to do a whole fire show?"

Getting free from the tight aisles of seats, she looked back at him and joked, "Maybe they'll ask for your expertise on keeping the lawn trim."

Chuckling obviously thinking herself to be funny, she then held out a hand out to him to help him get his ass up and moving.

Taking Paige's hand, Marko looked back at his other new acquaintances. "Ah, you can come with if you like." But Paige was pulling him and he wasn't about to muscle out of her grip, so he let himself be lead and trusted the other two girls would do as they pleased.

"To answer your question," He called to Paige over the din, his voice faint. "That is exactly what I'm worried about. I'd like to avoid barbequing my classmates or instructors." As they finally got free of the bleachers, Marko came to a stop, the grasp between them briefly pulled taut before he pulled his hand free and buried it in the pocket of his coat. "And to provide an observation," He continued in a dry tone. "You're not funny." The look on his face was caught between irate and teasing, like he wasn't sure if he was offering a playful jab or a reprimand.

His heavy shoulders shrugged, his expression turning thoughtful before once again resetting to neutral. "Come on." He started to trod forward again.

"You just can't take a joke," She said, rolling her eyes.

Without another word, Paige was striding past him and towards the arena. Obviously a little miffed at his comment, she did not look back at him until they finally joined the group that was forming on the grounds. It was only then she peaked a glance back at Marko, not completely knowing exactly what she was looking for or why, but quickly going back to look at the instructor instead of to ponder her own actions.

Marko sighed as Paige hurried ahead of him, his long strides allowing him to keep relative pace with ease. Still, he let her put a few feet of space between them. Conflict, more than anything else, served no purpose for Marko other than to spark his disinterest. It was stressful and tedious and he was already exhausted. More pertinently, it was too easy to argue. Too easy to fall back into unhealthy patterns.

So both for Paige's sake and his own, Marko was happy to let her have the last word. His head buzzed and his fingers itched as they finished their walk to the grounds in silence, the static in his neurons only getting worse as they approached whatever uncertainty the school had in store for them. Catching Paige's glance from the corner of his eye, he exhaled deeply as little puffs of smoke wisped from his nostrils.

"I'd rather not argue," He muttered, eye focused forward. It was true. He didn't want that. She was just very good at needling at insecurities. "So, let's try not to." It was a weak statement, but a sincere one. "Surviving this place will be easier if we can get along."

A small sly smile slipped on Paige's face.

"Only because you apologised so nicely," she said teasingly as she stepped back next to him. Of course, that hadn't been an apology of any kind, but she just heard what she wanted from the beginning and so now she stood there happily enough swaying from side to side.

Marko opened his mouth to respond, then sighed, closed his lips, and gently bit his tongue.

Primality: Act 1

This is a check-in post.

The roleplay is still active and alive, of course. But we've had some clear drops/ghosts and some people whose status is ambiguous in regards to this roleplay. So, if you're still here, please reply to this message below. I want to see if I need/want to bring more people into the fold to make up the numbers since I'll be working the inactives into NPCs if they don't show up and I don't want the roleplay to stall for posts if a chunk of the cast becomes NPCs.

@Carlyle

Here!

Calling All Heroes and Villains!

I'm more than happy to make a collab post with anyone if that would make it easier for other characters to interact with Ruby 😁

Calling All Heroes and Villains!

---

Ruby was anything but comfortable. She had tried to find some shadows to hide in, but no matter where she went there were watching eyes and glaring blue fluorescent light on her that made her stand out like the pale scar of the underworld. Much like such a scar, all she wanted to do was fade away and be forgotten about.

Despite all her misgivings, she stood there, pulling at the sleeves of her oversized black hoodie as she watched the fancily dressed and sometimes even costumed people in the area. She had only one simple reason she was here, despite the unnerving invitation and the room filled with people, there was some truth to this Dragon guy being trouble. She had heard whispers running around the Mystique. Rumours about foreigners with interesting tattoos, some odd criminal jobs, drugs flooding Ironclad and even something about a meta boss trying to take over the city.

None of that really seemed to bother Ruby though, what had gotten under her skin was one of the younger women turned up with dark bruises around her neck the other week. She had tried to play it down, saying it was just a customer with unusual tastes but the more the other girls had prodded, the more details had come out. Specifically, this newcomer had decided he was hot shit, and when Linda hadn’t reacted with awe, he had decided to prove his strength. This was just going to be the start if such men were going to be running this town, and Ruby was going to have none of it.

Which left the pale woman hiding in much too big black clothes, looking from person to person with bright sanguine red eyes, as she hesitantly reached for a samosa. She wasn’t about to start being picky when free food was available.

Calling All Heroes and Villains!

Thankeyz! Could someone please PM me the discord link?

Calling All Heroes and Villains!

Anti-hero | 23 | 5'2

Character sheet

Name:
Ruby Bordell

Alias:
Doesn't have one at the moment

Alignment:
Antihero or Villain, depends on who you ask

Powers/Abilities:
- Phasing through inanimate objects
- Moves eerily quiet
- Seems to become one with the shadows while hiding
- Precognition (knows when people are going to die)
- Sonic screams (high amplitude)
- Death song (pulls their life force into her)
- Mimicry (the only way she talks is by copying what she's heard in the exact same voice she heard it in)
- Supernatural detection
- Ages very slowly
- Basic physcian skills

Weaknesses:
- Selectively mute (except for death song and mimicry)
- Death song only works when she can tell they are about to die
- Not a strong physical fighter
- Can't phase through sentient beings
- Doesn't like being touched

Personality:
Ruby appears as a very quiet and hidden person, though most of this probably due to the fact that she is mute. She might not take stage often, preferring to manipulate and organise the situation from the background and let others truly shine. She would rather wait, until death is certain and then step out to the light to show her true colours.

Just because she is mute does not mean she doesn't have opinions though, tiring easily of those people who can't interpret her gestures and true intentions. She tends to like very few people because of this, and those that she does like, she tends to bond intensely with and act like their protector from the dark. It's exactly why you might find her playing with a small and very dead dried violet from time to time.

Background:
Many wonder how a meta comes along, and there are lots of ways that one can be created or born. Though in Ruby's case, it was that her mother had tried so hard to hide her pregnancy from the madam at the brothel, that she ended up causing not only her death but also her child's. Well... almost.

A small pale and death touched baby, Ruby was given up to the child protective services as soon as she was discovered. Which led up to her bouncing from foster house to foster house, no one wanting to keep the unnerving child along for long. She had basics of education, learning low levels of writing and reading but she never got much out of school. It was not like the teachers really knew what to do with her, and the other students would either avoid her like the plague or let her know they didn't like her. After coming back from school covered in enough bruises and cuts, and still not uttering a word at the young age of 10, she was shipped off again and that was the last of education she ever got.

She didn't last in the foster homes much longer than that. At the age of 12, her foster father came home drunk and had the brilliant idea of sneaking up on an asleep Ruby. Fumbling hands and the stink of alcohol ended up with a shriek that shook the house to its foundations and the same man clutching his head as blood poured out of his ears.

Ruby took off into the night, cold bare feet running across the asphalt, and she never looked back.

They say history repeats itself, and in a way it did once again. Aimlessly shuffling through Ironclad, she had no idea where she was going but someone above must have been looking out for her because she ran in to a extravagently dressed and fragrant woman who seemed to somehow recognise her.

This is when she met Janette, though she would go by Violet to most. The older woman, a beauty in her own right, ushered her back into the high class brothel. She filled the silence with tales of what Ruby's mother was like and insisted that since she was born here this had to be her home. The madam didn't see it as simply, but she was willing to let her stay if she helped doing the small menial tasks in the shadows. There after all was laundry to be washed and items to be delivered.

Though unlike most younger women who could be called trainees, she wasn't brought in front of the customers as all her appearance did was tend to scare them, instead she learnt the skills of a physicians. Tending to the cares of the women in the household, havingpicked up on the rare hobby of collecting herbs and creating her own conditions. All things considered Ruby did well for herself.

The only real thing that seemed to catch her up, was well the fact that she was ... 'unnatural'. She couldn't help the fact that she knew when someone was going to die, she couldn't help the scream that would come screeching from her mouth at the sight of them. Leaving her hiding from the people who were terrified of her, no words being uttered from her, as she lived in the shadows.

This was her life until around her 20's, when things were becoming increasingly obvious to the young woman. Many of the injuries that she treated on her fellow sisters, were not naturally made but inflicted by customers with bad habits. Customers, that all the escorts agreed they would be better without but could not turn away.

This all came to a culmination as one day as Violet out with one of her favourite regulars, did not find her way back one night. They had hoped she had just forgotten to message the madam back, maybe even hoped that she had run away with this man. Ruby would have hoped for anything but what she learnt from the other girls.

Violet had been out on a date to a fancy restaurant when her regular had taken the large risk of asking the beautiful brunette for her hand in marriage. He did not take her turning him down well. She later turned up in the sludgy river, hardly recognisable from the head trauma and bloating if it wasn't for her garish bright clothing.

The sight of the only person who had ever cared for her being abandoned like trash broke something within Ruby.

Hunting down the monster that had killed her beloved friend was easy enough. So was making sure that he never did this horror to anyone ever again. But that wasn't enough, there were still others that the police never did anything about. That they had no 'solid evidence' on.

Ruby took matters in to her own hands, trailing the often drunk and disordely men down the dark alleyways, pushing them gently in the right direction of their fate. Towards a run away horse, a slick staircase or in the most desperate situations, just in to the way of her knife. Finally as fate seemed to accept her terms, she would take a deep enthralling breath as their death was sealed.

There she sang to them, in a language no one had ever been able to place, so lullingly soft and beautiful entrancing them as she pulled away their life force. She had started to defend her sisters, but the more she participated the more addicting it got.



Appearance:
Pale white skin and long white strangly hair, she could be easily mistaken for a fresh corpse if it wasn't for the blood red eyes that bore into anyone that meets her. Her eyes are usually the first thing people notice about her, especially when she tends to hide in the shadows and the glow of the red is the only thing one can see.

Otherwise, her physique is not remarkable. She is slightly smaller than average and has a thin build with no real muscle tone. Which is made all the more obvious by the oversized and dark clothes that she tends to wear.

Affiliations:
- The only real allies she has are the ladies that work at the Mystique Brothel who both helped raise her and she has ended up protecting in her own way

Motivations:
- Ruby first killed as revenge and to stop the same fate that befall Violet from happening to anyone else
- Ever since her killing has been her own way of protecting the vulnerable

Relationships:
- Violet, her once dear friend and mothe r figure who has now passed away

Base of Operations:
- She still lives in a small room that looks like it used to be a closet in the Mystique Brothel within Ironclad

Signature Gear:
- One dried flower, a violet
- One knife, looks like a basic but sharp kitchen knife

Public Perception:
- Known by very few even in Ironclad, Ruby is mostly known as that ghostly figure that appears in the Mystique Brothel hallways or the dark alleyways of the red light district area.

Combat Style:
- Ruby's preference is to be unseen until it is too late for her target
- She is stealthy and hides in the shadows. Being out in the open gives her a large disadvantage including the fact that she will have no idea how to react or what to do.

Calling All Heroes and Villains!

Character sheet

Name:
Ruby Bordell

Alias:
Doesn't have one at the moment

Alignment:
Antihero or Villain, depends on who you ask

Powers/Abilities:
- Phasing through inanimate objects
- Moves eerily quiet
- Seems to become one with the shadows while hiding
- Precognition (knows when people are going to die)
- Sonic screams (high amplitude)
- Death song (pulls their life force into her)
- Supernatural detection
- Ages very slowly
- Basic physcian skills

Weaknesses:
- Selectively mute (except for death song, which is in a language she doesn't even know)
- Death song only works when she can tell they are about to die
- Not a strong physical fighter
- Can't phase through sentient beings
- Doesn't like being touched

Personality:
Ruby appears as a very quiet and hidden person, though most of this probably due to the fact that she is mute. She might not take stage often, preferring to manipulate and organise the situation from the background and let others truly shine. She would rather wait, until death is certain and then step out to the light to show her true colours.

Just because she is mute does not mean she doesn't have opinions though, tiring easily of those people who can't interpret her gestures and true intentions. She tends to like very few people because of this, and those that she does like, she tends to bond intensely with and act like their protector from the dark. It's exactly why you might find her playing with a small and very dead dried violet from time to time.

Background:
Many wonder how a meta comes along, and there are lots of ways that one can be created or born. Though in Ruby's case, it was that her mother had tried so hard to hide her pregnancy from the madam at the brothel, that she ended up causing not only her death but also her child's. Well... almost.

A small pale and death touched baby, Ruby was given up to the child protective services as soon as she was discovered. Which led up to her bouncing from foster house to foster house, no one wanting to keep the unnerving child along for long. She had basics of education, learning low levels of writing and reading but she never got much out of school. It was not like the teachers really knew what to do with her, and the other students would either avoid her like the plague or let her know they didn't like her. After coming back from school covered in enough bruises and cuts, and still not uttering a word at the young age of 10, she was shipped off again and that was the last of education she ever got.

She didn't last in the foster homes much longer than that. At the age of 12, her foster father came home drunk and had the brilliant idea of sneaking up on an asleep Ruby. Fumbling hands and the stink of alcohol ended up with a shriek that shook the house to its foundations and the same man clutching his head as blood poured out of his ears.

Ruby took off into the night, cold bare feet running across the asphalt, and she never looked back.

They say history repeats itself, and in a way it did once again. Aimlessly shuffling through Ironclad, she had no idea where she was going but someone above must have been looking out for her because she ran in to a extravagently dressed and fragrant woman who seemed to somehow recognise her.

This is when she met Janette, though she would go by Violet to most. The older woman, a beauty in her own right, ushered her back into the high class brothel. She filled the silence with tales of what Ruby's mother was like and insisted that since she was born here this had to be her home. The madam didn't see it as simply, but she was willing to let her stay if she helped doing the small menial tasks in the shadows. There after all was laundry to be washed and items to be delivered.

Though unlike most younger women who could be called trainees, she wasn't brought in front of the customers as all her appearance did was tend to scare them, instead she learnt the skills of a physicians. Tending to the cares of the women in the household, havingpicked up on the rare hobby of collecting herbs and creating her own conditions. All things considered Ruby did well for herself.

The only real thing that seemed to catch her up, was well the fact that she was ... 'unnatural'. She couldn't help the fact that she knew when someone was going to die, she couldn't help the scream that would come screeching from her mouth at the sight of them. Leaving her hiding from the people who were terrified of her, no words being uttered from her, as she lived in the shadows.

This was her life until around her 20's, when things were becoming increasingly obvious to the young woman. Many of the injuries that she treated on her fellow sisters, were not naturally made but inflicted by customers with bad habits. Customers, that all the escorts agreed they would be better without but could not turn away.

This all came to a culmination as one day as Violet out with one of her favourite regulars, did not find her way back one night. They had hoped she had just forgotten to message the madam back, maybe even hoped that she had run away with this man. Ruby would have hoped for anything but what she learnt from the other girls.

Violet had been out on a date to a fancy restaurant when her regular had taken the large risk of asking the beautiful brunette for her hand in marriage. He did not take her turning him down well. She later turned up in the sludgy river, hardly recognisable from the head trauma and bloating if it wasn't for her garish bright clothing.

The sight of the only person who had ever cared for her being abandoned like trash broke something within Ruby.

Hunting down the monster that had killed her beloved friend was easy enough. So was making sure that he never did this horror to anyone ever again. But that wasn't enough, there were still others that the police never did anything about. That they had no 'solid evidence' on.

Ruby took matters in to her own hands, trailing the often drunk and disordely men down the dark alleyways, pushing them gently in the right direction of their fate. Towards a run away horse, a slick staircase or in the most desperate situations, just in to the way of her knife. Finally as fate seemed to accept her terms, she would take a deep enthralling breath as their death was sealed.

There she sang to them, in a language no one had ever been able to place, so lullingly soft and beautiful entrancing them as she pulled away their life force. She had started to defend her sisters, but the more she participated the more addicting it got.



Appearance:
Pale white skin and long white strangly hair, she could be easily mistaken for a fresh corpse if it wasn't for the blood red eyes that bore into anyone that meets her. Her eyes are usually the first thing people notice about her, especially when she tends to hide in the shadows and the glow of the red is the only thing one can see.

Otherwise, her physique is not remarkable. She is slightly smaller than average and has a thin build with no real muscle tone. Which is made all the more obvious by the oversized and dark clothes that she tends to wear.

Affiliations:
- The only real allies she has are the ladies that work at the Mystique Brothel who both helped raise her and she has ended up protecting in her own way

Motivations:
- Ruby first killed as revenge and to stop the same fate that befall Violet from happening to anyone else

- Ever since her killing has been her own way of protecting the vulnerable

Relationships:
- Violet, her once dear friend and mothe r figure who has now passed away

Base of Operations:
- She still lives in a small room that looks like it used to be a closet in the Mystique Brothel within Ironclad

Signature Gear:
- One dried flower, a violet
- One knife, looks like a basic but sharp kitchen knife

Public Perception:
- Known by very few even in Ironclad, Ruby is mostly known as that ghostly figure that appears in the Mystique Brothel hallways or the dark alleyways of the red light district area.

Combat Style:
- Ruby's preference is to be unseen until it is too late for her target
- She is stealthy and hides in the shadows. Being out in the open gives her a large disadvantage including the fact that she will have no idea how to react or what to do.

Please excuse any typos or the like, wrote this while on a road trip 😅

Calling All Heroes and Villains!

Tempted to readapt an old character. She's a banshee, do you think that would work?

Calling All Heroes and Villains!

Are you still accepting?

Calling All Heroes and Villains!

Are you still accepting?