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Edged Horizon

Hanzen mountain. [i]Shit.[/]

Even without Lenz’s almost condescending speech, Chad knew that the mountain was extraordinarily close to the capital, and troops likely had easy access from the capital. If they were discovered, they would be obliterated by the Astopolan army and the diplomatic row that he’d feared would become reality. They would have to approach the situation very carefully. And of course, the situation would only get worse if the posh butler just sat around doing nothing.

“That is an incredibly risky operation,” started Chad, musing over their options. “Of course, I’ll figure out the “combat part,” or however you put it, but like it or not, you’re fighting. We would need to prioritize getting in and making sure no word gets out to the capital, or we’ll be surrounded before you can say “holy church.””

Of course, that entailed posting sentries on the outside perimeter the place, and perhaps splitting the party in two to find this Mr. Warren. The plan would continue with Lyra spearheading the party going in; if she could stealth the party somehow, then that would be done, but if not, they would be going in with a full assault. The second party, likely consisting of a half-dozen men from the ship, would hold their flank and another six would be posted as sentries.

“I assume you could at least prevent word from getting to the capital, Mr. Lenz? Now that we know the challenge of this operation, we most certainly need all the competent men we have.”

Academia Abyssus: More Edgeyness and Despair than 13 Year Old Linkin Park Fans

Within the hour?

Academia Abyssus: More Edgeyness and Despair than 13 Year Old Linkin Park Fans

*steal

Academia Abyssus: More Edgeyness and Despair than 13 Year Old Linkin Park Fans

Well, she's just going to be stealing a whole lot of shit then. That was basically her job, except it's not very legal like the ones she had before she died. And that won't prevent her from dicking around with anything electronic and messing shit up. But fuck, so she can't turn lights off remotely or stare at people when they sleep and shit?

Practice, like school track meets and stuff. But not something obnoxious like pumping iron every day or chugging shakes. She's got hacking to do, yo.

In that case, no kitten were harmed. There's no appeal in killing animals to her.

Academia Abyssus: More Edgeyness and Despair than 13 Year Old Linkin Park Fans

Hacking is only 50% of her entire trick. It's manipulating people, breaking in, entering, picklocking, or physically forcing out information that gets her what she wants. And of course, she is more than willing to learn 'magical' hacking, time and powers beyond us willing.

Sporty. She can play something like soccer or do something like track just fine. She knows a bit of martial arts, and a few things with knives, but she hasn't actually stabbed anybody, yet. In that regard, yes, fantasizing.

Why do you think she's here? She didn't find it very fun, though.

Academia Abyssus: More Edgeyness and Despair than 13 Year Old Linkin Park Fans

I can has crazy person?




Name:
Iphigenia Tsubame

Age of Death:
17

Gender:
Female

Appearance:
Clean. Institutionally clean. Her hair is always neatly done and her clothes bloody spotless, like her room. She’d rather dress up than dress down, and likes blazers, a lot.

Personality:

“Studies prove there is a direct correlation between obsessive cleaning and sociopathy, and by extension, the inclination to murder or otherwise exhibit anti-social behaviors.”
-Iphigenia Tsubame, AP Psychology paper.

Preppy, proactive, and friendly, Iphigenia is every bit the role-model high-school junior. A person that plays sports, sings karaoke, and is fantastic with electronics, she is seen by others as an easy to approach and amicable person. She is empathetic and has a stunning ability to lead, to the point that she was elected class representative at the beginning of her third year, and was poised to win her school’s student council elections.

Yet something seems a bit off about her. Her jokes and comments always seem to allude to death or some other morbid joke, but probably most disconcerting is her tendency to clean. She is always crisp and neat and always wears well ironed, spotless clothes. If she gets a bit of dirt or some sort of stain on her clothes, she disappears for hours on end, only to appear with her hands in the pockets of new clothes, and a forced, demure smile. Some people swear they see something metallic on her body, but can never pinpoint what it is.

Those that visit her home see a similar scene of neatness; the rooms are spotless, with nary a piece of dust to be found. Framed pictures are perfectly centered and horizontal to the ground, there is nothing on tables, and everything is inexplicably lined up, with no crooked placements to be found. Even her computer space is sterile; for an electronics guru like her, that is unusual indeed. Wires are perfectly coiled, discs neatly arranged and cataloged, and the PC desktop is spotless. Alongside her neatly arranged collection of computer and audio equipment is a disconcertingly large collection of knives and scalpels in a Pelican case, with many of the spots for the weapons empty, presumably on her person.

Perhaps “something off” is a bit of an understatement. Role model student, you say? More like cold-blooded psychopath and an unrivaled control freak that happens to be role-model student. The only reason she hasn’t stuck a hunting knife in somebody’s back or slit somebody’s throat with a scalpel is because she’s fully aware of her own condition to the point where she emphasizes with others (but just doesn’t really care, and can essentially turn it off at will) and has enough self-restraint to not go on a super stabby-spree. Even then, the only reason she does that is because she doesn’t trust herself to not get caught killing somebody, and getting stuck in a looney-bin while the government attempts to brainwash you and feed you apple sauce every day is not a very enjoyable pastime.

Now, don’t get her wrong, she is not the type to explode or go batshit insane. She’s actually pretty reliable, and just likes poking things. With knives. Or killing things. She likes the idea of that too; it's one of the things she fantasizes about. Her only real trigger button is the matter of cleanliness, but for all intents-and-purposes, besides the whole bringing knives to school and stuff, Iphigenia has it under control. Really.

Biography:

Iphigenia Tsubame was a junior high school student in London before her death. From a young age, the control-seeking girl recognized that the growing computer industry was the place to go and took up basic programming on her own. It quickly became her main hobby, and as she grew older, expanded to include computer hardware, radio, audio, and general electronics.

Throughout her short life, she was always the smart, popular girl that knew a bit about computers. To others, this seemed normal enough, but Iphigenia began to take it to the next level , first delving into hacking, then spying on others, and then social engineering.

After getting into high school, she joined the robotics team and joined a programming club. This was also the time that Iphigenia became a little more… unstable. She began to keep an unusual amount of tabs on her fellow students through her skills, and on the odd occasion, would use this and the threat of violence as blackmail for the times where things... didn't go as well as they should.

She had no real aim in life; no life goal, no ultimate dream, but she really liked collecting her electronics and knives. In sophomore year, she started doing freelance work for large companies as a “security analyst,” in which she would attempt to crack, break in, neutralize, or otherwise defeat big corporate security measures. It was a high paying job for a well rounded analyst. Each commission brought her up to $15,000 on average upon each successful completion, and she never failed to break in to a company up until her last day as a living person. She would use this money to fund her hobbies, and in the months leading to her death, put together an absurdly well-funded campaign for student council president.

Alas, the up-and-coming but psychotic young programmer died before she could achieve anything or even kill anybody. Her death was ignominious as it was unexpected. One late spring day, she accepted a commission to analyze a corporate headquarters for security flaws. Breaking in to the building was easy enough by stealing RFID pass-codes wirelessly, entering in through the front door and passing security posing as an employee. Certain systems called for disabling in a discreet way, and to achieve this, Iphie chose the fatal mistake to disable a circuit up on the ceiling boards. She slipped from the office’s tiled ceilings and fell, getting caught on the fiber and electrical wires drooping down from the building infrastructure and choked on the wires. Of course, she had half a dozen knives on her but proceeded to drop them within a span of a few minutes. She ended up accidentally hanging herself. Oops?

Theme Song:
Unusually fitting theme

Academia Abyssus: More Edgeyness and Despair than 13 Year Old Linkin Park Fans

If you always talk about it in Skype, there's no avoiding it, Rode.

Academia Abyssus: More Edgeyness and Despair than 13 Year Old Linkin Park Fans

I'll make a CS after this exam...

Wingless: From the Cracked-Open Sky

Tap, tap.

The sound of the cap swinging against the metal body of the canteen came at a rhythm. They matched Isis’ fleeting sips, doing her best to make the water last the entire day. She had taken a position against a wall opposite of an open window, in the hopes of catching whatever rare wind might find itself blowing into the sauna of a Daedalus headquarters.

The remainder of her colleagues slowly trickled in after she arrived, with Carbon arriving a few minutes after her. He was a responsible person and a reliable enough teammate, but even to Isis, he had a personality of a piece of cardboard. He did make random philosophical-like questions like the one he made coming in, but she could not decide if they were deeply profound or just inane. The earnest but utterly helpless Rinshin wheeled in some time later. Isis found her utterly useless, but couldn’t fault her at all save for her career choice in Fae’ing. While she always seemed prepared and well-equipped, Isis always thought the wheelchair bound girl was better fit for a desk job. Indeed, she often found herself preferring to work with the likes of Kathrine or Felix over her, for at least they had the ability to get things done, if only on paper and not in spirit.

As it was, the man of the light-fingered persuasion sauntered in late as usual, and the commander began his briefing. As Lightpost briefed the ill-prepared group, it quickly became aware that they would be conducting SAR, aerial as usual. Isis considered voicing a concern on the grounds that half the team would become lost or disable themselves in the process, but concluded that it wasn’t particularly her problem. Instead, she gave some thought into who’s abilities would be useful in the search-and-rescue, but she quickly came to the conclusion that Southey’s abilities were useless in the heat, Rinshan and Felix’s irrelevant, and Kathrine’s ability probably had the potential to make things worse. So, that really only left her.

“I have to echo Commander Lightpost’s sentiments. Since nobody followed instructions and failed to bring water, we might have a difficult time with our mission today. Everybody, let’s step up our game from here on."

Pausing for a moment, she added a single question. "Did the boy carry anything metal on him?"

Edged Horizon

Oh, so the butler was competent after all.

The bottom of a hole, huh? If Lenz knew the exact location of the ‘prison,’ that removed nearly all the uncertainties of the plan they had conceived. With a definite location, there would be no need to look for Waldo Vance in Astopol, and they could instead focus on creating a siege plan on the described location. Preferably one with Lyra in front in an anti-spell role. Chad grimaced at the thought of sieging a magic-fortified location without ample support.

“Lenz, if you have a name for this place, I might find it in our list or on the military maps. If it’s a location known to the Illiserev military, perhaps Lyra and I could work out a strategy for an angle-of-attack on the place. Can you fight?”

Chad sincerely hoped the butler could fight.