The situation escalated a little more than Andras would have liked - but at the same time, it was likely that this Galbrek may have done something worse than causing a scene. Either way, he seemed to be indisposed thanks to Vernon.
Andras looked towards the man who was currently summoning a ball of energy in his hands. Though she brandished her spells for dramatic effect, she also knew that she didn't have much in the way of useful spells at the time. Whoever this new face was, he and a few others seemed to be working with Galbrek. The situation seemed to be a bit of a standoff.
Andras nodded at Ascot's suggestion, keeping her eyes on Galbrek's helpers. "Good idea, William. Let's go... Eat." She emphasized her words, showing to Bertrand that she was going to leave and not try to attack him. She took a few steps back, not turning away from Galbrek's minions. "Masami, I don't suppose you'd come with us too?" Andras gave a somewhat strained smile.
Lise was at her limit. Too much had happened. Somewhere in her heart, she wished that the fox had taken her with him. The only thing she could manage to do is blink with a blank, slightly horrified expression on her face. One of the only students she feared had seen her in such a humiliating situation. A ghost had walked right past her in a heated rage. At the same time, a police officer tried to ask her for help fighting said ghost. Some kind of flesh golem had (admittedly, fairly politely) interjected into the existing fight. She would have broken down by now if it weren't for her partner.
Andreim tried to keep his cool, Lise could tell. He offered something strange, but in this situation it seemed fitting. After all, a gentleman would be justified in sacrificing clothing for the comfort of a lady. His strength under pressure was significant. Lise was grateful enough that she didn't even care about Andreim's lapse in using her proper name.
Lise gripped Andreim's arm, as if to steady herself. Her eyes were fixed on the ground, and her voice was tiny and shaking. "Andreim... Please get me out of here." Lise managed to glance up to him once, holding back tears.
Two shadow maids crouched around Lise, summoned by her without a word. Their long dresses seemed to flutter without any influence from the air, providing a makeshift cover for Lise's state of undress.
Andras
Andras had noted that this new fellow had wanted to speak to her, but as he turned to look at Andras, the enchanted ribbon that she had used as a makeshift eyepatch seemed to react. The free-flowing ends of the ribbon stretched in front of Andras's eye, blocking her from making eye contact with Galbrek. Andras tried to look past the ribbons briefly, frustratedly saying, "Erayo, what are you-"
Andras stopped mid-sentence. The enchantment, a magical legacy of the moonfolk monk Erayo, was a powerful protective magic. It would block the first attempt to affect the wielder with a magical ability. She stepped back, quickly summoning her spells to her hand. "What did you try to do just now?" Andras said. Maybe it was a mistake. He could have an ability that he couldn't turn off. Maybe she was on edge from the previous two fights. But she felt uneasy with this man in front of her.
Lise admitted it. She may be a little over her head.
Obviously she wouldn't admit that to anyone else, but she definitely admitted it to herself. What kind of royalty would admit something like that? But as she and Andreim dodged past several other people trying to work on a flanking manoeuvre, Lise realized that she was relying a whole lot on Andreim to have an idea of what was going on, who was an enemy, and what they should do. 'Maybe I need to thank him after all this...' Lise thought briefly, before denying it. 'Does someone like me compliment a pauper like him for doing his job as my partner?' Lise's thoughts had been all over the place recently. Maybe it was Andreim's fault, somehow?
Lise's silent introspection was just about the only thing that was silent in the apartment. Below there was some kind of din with the sound of snapping wood, a downpour... The sound of boiling water? Lise was not given the chance to fully make sense of the sounds before some kind of attack ruptured the floor beneath them. Splintering the walkway, countless nigh-invisible bolts destroyed the floor beneath the two. In the blink of an eye, the floor gave way beneath the Andreim and Lise. One particularly unlucky bolt skimmed right across Lise's skirt - thankfully missing her, but not missing the clothing, which it tore right through. Then the floor beneath her gave way entirely.
Lise had been told once that ladies never fall, they simply descend with grace. She always told herself that she could pull off a graceful fall when the time came.
She couldn't.
"KyaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Lise couldn't help but scream as she fell through two floors of the apartment. In a reflexive action, she did manage to summon a shadow maid to catch her - though in the moment she didn't think to do it for Andreim. She landed roughly, but it wasn't anything too painful. It took Lise a moment to understand her surroundings. She was on the first floor, and it was awfully bright. Considering a shadow had caught her, she though it wouldn't be so bright, but-
'Why him?!' Lise was looking into the eyes of none other than Alto. The fearless leader of Laurels. Her shadow maid must have been taken out by the light boy's mere existence. Alto set her down gently, and Lise scrambled to her feet without a word, dusting off her clothes, and opening her now-dry mouth to say something. Anything. She just had to act calm, he was just the Student Council President after all. Nothing to be nervous about.
It was at that moment that the last thread holding her skirt together snapped, falling down around her feet.
Andras laughed lightly at Ascot's greeting. "Hope? Jeez, you poet, stop flattering me." After the (slower) explanation of the plan, Andras sagely nods. "The Root may be unpredictable, but if any magic can do such a thing, it would have to be it."
Andras sighed, mentally recalling her spells. "That being said, I'm looking rather low on spells right now... I overdid it trying to win the midnight tournament." Andras flushed a little as she recalled her defeat.
'It was fun, though. I wonder what Masami thought? I should see where she is...' Andras looked around, her eyes searching for fluff. Andras was never one to miss out meeting with a potential friend, and it was her duty as a resident to show around new faces! 'Ah, we should do something together so I can show her around Rhea!' Andras smiled inwardly at the thought. Andras spotted the fox-girl within moments, and waved at her to come over.
Andras was trying to cool off her burning embarrassment by taking a break away from the crowd in the cool air. She was kneeling down, examining her skinned knee carefully. 'Jeez. Next thing tomorrow, I'm going clothes shopping. Need to get some pants, and definitely some new-'
A new voice speaking up interrupted Andras's thoughts. A man? Before she could get up to talk to the man, a familiar voice rose through as well. Andras recognized Ascot's voice - and he was sure giving a quick explanation to her. "Jeez, William, slow down!" Andras sighed, getting up from her kneeling position and turning around.
She saw her friend William, as she expected, and someone she'd not seen before. The two were now talking on their own, actually. Andras felt a twinge of embarrassment. 'Was I really that slow to respond that they had to talk to each other?' She lightly slapped her cheeks to try and get herself more alert.
She approached the two. "Yo. I see that the Demon Lady of Despair is in demand by many!" Andras held up her hand in a greeting.
Andras took note of the fox girl taking steps away from her. She could feel a slight pang of regret. 'I-I didn't mean to scare her that much, geez... She must be really new around here.'
"A Laurels student?" Andras stopped, chuckling softly. "Well, allow me to give your first lesson." Andras took a wide stance, holding her hand out. Her spells one by one caught in her hand, no longer orbiting her. Fanning them out in her right hand, she turned to the man she originally challenged. "Let's not keep her waiting, shall we?"
To her surprise, Andras's challenge was followed by a new voice. Covering her eyepatch with her hand with a dramatic pose, she glanced sideways at the newcomer with her uncovered eye. 'A face I've never seen before... A fox, even! Maybe she's a relative of that one Laurels boy?' Andras noticed that the fox's demeanor shifted immediately after cheerily asserting herself into the fight. 'Perhaps she spoke without thinking, and is regretting speaking up...' Andras's non-library eye watched the fox's tails, which betrayed her unease. 'Kind of cute, actually.'
Chuckling softly to herself, she strode slowly towards the fox. "I'm personally fine with that, but might I ask who you are?" With every step Andras took, she tapped into her power, summoning the spells she had acquired from Perfect Alexandria. They manifested as golden squares of light, and they orbited around Andras slowly. Of course, it was all for show, and the cards didn't actually do anything on their own other than look cool.
But Andras enjoyed theatrics immensely - after all, she went through all the trouble to climb that tree just to jump down. She even skinned her knee doing it, but nobody seemed any the wiser. 'I should really find a bandage after all this...' Andras mused to herself. But right now, she was being far too cool to worry about skinned knees. She was, after all, the Demon Lady of Despair right now, who was about to make her debut into the night-fight scene.
A lilting laugh rose from among the trees of the park. Standing out against the moon, a dark, hooded figure stood, on a branch of a tree. A single eye gleamed from under the hoodie she wore. Looking down, Alexandria stood, grinning with delight. "Your opponent will be none other than I, Andras, the Demon Lady of Despair!"
Amidst the murmuring of the crowd you could hear individual voices. Isn't her name actually Alex?I heard she once got kicked out of the library for trying to draw a magic circle on the ground.Did she climb up that tree just to say that?
Alex dropped from the tree limb to the ground. "What do you say, mortal?" She grinned once again, her eye sparkling with anticipation.
Name: Alexandria Sova AKA Andras, Lady of Despair AKA Alex
Age: 17
Grade: High 2nd, Vigilante
Biography: Alexandria holds a portal to the source of all magical knowledge, past, present, and future. She calls it Perfect Alexandria, and it is sealed within her left eye. To prevent the raw magical energy from tainting the world around her, she wears an eyepatch that holds impossibly powerful magical seals to prevent Perfect Alexandria from seeping into the third dimension.
That's what she'd say, at least. To an outside observer, her power seems to blend the lines between her somewhat delusional worldview and reality, as she clearly has SOME connection to a deep well of magical power, but it is uncertain if what she says about Perfect Alexandria has any actual proof to back it up.
Alex is actually a fairly outgoing person, perhaps as a result of the unique quirks of her power. However, at the same time, her childish delusions also have tended to keep some people away from her. If she's given a task, she takes it fairly seriously. If given a painfully mundane task, she'll most likely try to fit it within her delusions: Delivering a book to the library becomes stealthily sneaking a forbidden tome back into its rightful place in the eldritch archives.
She likes learning about people. Despite her obsession with heaven-and-hell struggles, she is fairly carefree, and doesn't really take her studies seriously. If anything, she sees mundane life as a game. A game that can be boring at times, but has some fun characters if nothing else. For that reason she decided that taking the definite sides of good and evil was foolish. Instead, she chose to work as a Vigilante, so she could see the most of the people on both sides.
She also insists that people call her by her demon name, Andras. Very few people oblige her.
Powers:
The Root of All Magic: Perfect Alexandria Andras was touched with the powers of two gods - One of light, and the other dark. The dark gave her visions of the unimaginable well of magic - the Root. The light focused her vision, giving it a lens to look through and manifest in the world.
Akashic Tarot Andras's connection to Perfect Alexandria allows her to pull from the library any spell ever created by man. These spells manifest as quasi-real cards, essentially thoughts given a more physical form. Andras is unable to index the spells, however, making them essentially completely randomly procured.
The cards themselves are only projections of her ability, and they can not be interacted with physically or magically, as they are essentially just thoughts given a visible form.
Mana Contract The Akashic Tarots, although being spells manifest from Perfect Alexandria, require anchors to reality to be actually "cast." Perhaps due to some trickery of the gods, Andras has found casting spells of higher power require several points of anchoring. As the power increases, the violation of the rules of reality becomes more flagrant; in order to break the rules, the spell must be anchored to reality. Essentially, the path of least resistance must become "breaking the rules of reality." To a spell, which is normally part of Perfect Alexandria, returning to the Root through Andras's eye is usually the path of least resistance. However, the closer the spell is anchored to reality, the harder it becomes to return through her eye; eventually the easiest method of return is by breaking the laws of reality. (Andras could explain the mechanics of this for days if prompted.)
To put it in simple terms, Andras requires friends to cast magic beyond the most simple types. If a willing friend agrees, Andras can initiate physical contact with the willing party to form a mana contract (she prefers to hug to do this). This will allow Andras to cast spells of higher power than normal by using her friends as anchors to reality. Mana contracts do not impose anything upon the friend, so casting spells will not sap energy from the contractee or drain their power or anything like that.
Cards from the Sky With her own abilities, Andras can only reach into Perfect Alexandria once per day. Spells may allow her to draw from the library or even search for a specific spell, but by default Andras only gets to draw one spell a day. Additionally, if she has more than seven spells available, she has to throw away spells until she is back to seven.
[OOC description of abilities: She plays Magic in real life. She has a hand size of 7, draws one card a day. Spell effects that last a turn last a day (though the GM probably can override that if it's particularly heinous). Drawing a card gives her a random card from the magiccards.info or gatherer (if magiccards.info is down) database. I'll run it by the GM if I think it's an iffy card; if it's decided it's not permissible, then I'll just random again. Her friends supply her mana, and by default she provides a single mana of any color for her own uses.
Some particular card effects that may pop up and need to be fluffed: -Drawing a card: Gives her another random card. -Looking at the top of library: Checks the random card but doesn't draw it. From then on, that card is set in stone unless something shuffles the library. -Searching for a card: It lets her declare any spell to search for. I'll try to keep her tutoring within reason; it's unlikely she knows the entirety of Perfect Alexandria so she couldn't realistically know every card ever to look for. -Discarding cards: For her, it's a standard discard. Making enemies discard probably is akin to halting a current action; making them stutter for a moment. If by some twist of fate the enemy has magic cards as well, she can discard those. -Destroying Creatures: Player Characters aren't creatures. Destroying target creature probably means killing an NPC enemy, like the imps or perhaps creatures summoned by magic. It doesn't kill a Player Character. If the NPC is particularly powerful it may be ruled to survive kill spells. -Creature Cards: It summons them, obviously. Completely translating power and toughness to reality will be hard; I feel like this will have to be played by ear. -Enchantments and Artifacts: These magical constructs or lingering spells stick around after being cast. However, magical constructs, powers, and attacks can destroy enchantments, and both magical and physical attacks can kill artifacts. -Planeswalkers: What's that? I don't believe in this card type. It's dumb. She can't draw them. -Damage spells: I plan on fluffing them based on their flavor. Lightning bolt is a lightning bolt! It hurts! Doesn't really have any killing power, though, it only deals less than 1/7th of a player's life! -Pump/Weaken spells: Normally these only target creatures, but being able to target players makes sense in this situation. Buffs to power and toughness increase, well, the strength of someone's attacks and their ability to withstand damage and exertion, respectively. Decreasing stats accordingly weakens the target. Other players drawing cards: In this case, they draw the spell and have a vague understanding of how it works, but it's also unlikely that they'll be able to cast it without asking friends for help in anchoring spells. Land Cards: Drawing a land card lets her spend that card to get a mana of that type. It's not permanent. Basically just provides a little boost to her mana, but can't possibly replace the permanent mana that friends offer. Paying Life: I don't think I'd be able to abstract a life total for Andras. However, I'd say that paying life for cards directly affects her stamina and strength. If she is already hurt, it's unlikely she'll be able to pay life without passing out. Gaining Life: Basically the opposite of paying life. A heal spell can cure wounds and rejuvenate friendlies who are hurt. If they're winded or tired out, healing can also help with that. -Countering spells: Can cancel invoked magical abilities. Magical effects that are already lingering can not be countered. Countering abilities (not spells, there's a difference!) allows her to briefly stop a magical or physical ability. -Bouncing/Returning things to hand: If targetting her own cards, it returns them to spell form. If targetting something else, it can be considered some kind of telekinesis for the purpose of moving something away. If she cast a spell that returns an enemy's weapon to hand, it would (ironically) disarm them by making their weapon fly out of their hands.
There's probably more that need to be fluffed. I'll figure them out as I see them.]
Relationships: Brutus - Due to the varied nature of Vigilante work, Andras has usually paired up with Brutus for work purposes. She's also interested in getting past his stoic side. However, they know each other well enough to have a Mana Contract. William Ascot - Andras is interested in his catalogue of the human story, and often run into each other in the library. Ascot has an interest in her ability, and often gives her insight into how to use it herself. They have a Mana Contract. King: A fearless leader! Andras admires his cool aura of mystery. She wants to get a little closer to him so she can form a mana bond, which she hasn't done yet. Clara: Andras is captivated by her forbidden grimoire. She'd love to talk to Clara about it if she had the chance... and maybe even form a bond! Alto: Andras hasn't paid much attention to Alto. She finds his power fairly straightforward, and kind of boring. Still wouldn't want to fight him, though. She'd give him a chance if she met him.
I'm working on a potential new character. I'm gonna post it here because linking a text file in the discord seems a little mean for people's eyes.
Still tweaking bits and pieces.
Name: Alexandria Sova AKA Andras, Lady of Despair AKA Alex
Age: 17
Grade: High 2nd, Vigilante
Biography: Alexandria holds a portal to the source of all magical knowledge, past, present, and future. She calls it Perfect Alexandria, and it is sealed within her left eye. To prevent the raw magical energy from tainting the world around her, she wears an eyepatch that holds impossibly powerful magical seals to prevent Perfect Alexandria from seeping into the third dimension.
That's what she'd say, at least. To an outside observer, her power seems to blend the lines between her somewhat delusional worldview and reality, as she clearly has SOME connection to a deep well of magical power, but it is uncertain if what she says about Perfect Alexandria has any actual proof to back it up.
Alex is actually a fairly outgoing person, perhaps as a result of the unique quirks of her power. However, at the same time, her childish delusions also have tended to keep some people away from her. If she's given a task, she takes it fairly seriously. If given a painfully mundane task, she'll most likely try to fit it within her delusions: Delivering a book to the library becomes stealthily sneaking a forbidden tome back into its rightful place in the eldritch archives.
She likes learning about people. Despite her obsession with heaven-and-hell struggles, she is fairly carefree, and doesn't really take her studies seriously. If anything, she sees mundane life as a game. A game that can be boring at times, but has some fun characters if nothing else. For that reason she decided that taking the definite sides of good and evil was foolish. Instead, she chose to work as a Vigilante, so she could see the most of the people on both sides.
She also insists that people call her by her demon name, Andras. Very few people oblige her.
Powers:
The Root of All Magic: Perfect Alexandria Andras was touched with the powers of two gods - One of light, and the other dark. The dark gave her visions of the unimaginable well of magic - the Root. The light focused her vision, giving it a lens to look through and manifest in the world.
Akashic Tarot Andras's connection to Perfect Alexandria allows her to pull from the library any spell ever created by man. These spells manifest as quasi-real cards, essentially thoughts given a more physical form. Andras is unable to index the spells, however, making them essentially completely randomly procured.
The cards themselves are only projections of her ability, and they can not be interacted with physically or magically, as they are essentially just thoughts given a visible form.
Mana Contract The Akashic Tarots, although being spells manifest from Perfect Alexandria, require anchors to reality to be actually "cast." Perhaps due to some trickery of the gods, Andras has found casting spells of higher power require several points of anchoring. As the power increases, the violation of the rules of reality becomes more flagrant; in order to break the rules, the spell must be anchored to reality. Essentially, the path of least resistance must become "breaking the rules of reality." To a spell, which is normally part of Perfect Alexandria, returning to the Root through Andras's eye is usually the path of least resistance. However, the closer the spell is anchored to reality, the harder it becomes to return through her eye; eventually the easiest method of return is by breaking the laws of reality. (Andras could explain the mechanics of this for days if prompted.)
To put it in simple terms, Andras requires friends to cast magic beyond the most simple types. If a willing friend agrees, Andras can initiate physical contact with the willing party to form a mana contract (she prefers to hug to do this). This will allow Andras to cast spells of higher power than normal by using her friends as anchors to reality. Mana contracts do not impose anything upon the friend, so casting spells will not sap energy from the contractee or drain their power or anything like that.
Cards from the Sky With her own abilities, Andras can only reach into Perfect Alexandria once per day. Spells may allow her to draw from the library or even search for a specific spell, but by default Andras only gets to draw one spell a day. Additionally, if she has more than seven spells available, she has to throw away spells until she is back to seven.
[OOC description of abilities: She plays Magic in real life. She has a hand size of 7, draws one card a day. Spell effects that last a turn last a day (though the GM probably can override that if it's particularly heinous). Drawing a card gives her a random card from the magiccards.info or gatherer (if magiccards.info is down) database. I'll run it by the GM if I think it's an iffy card; if it's decided it's not permissible, then I'll just random again. Her friends supply her mana, and by default she provides a single mana of any color for her own uses.
Some particular card effects that may pop up and need to be fluffed: -Drawing a card: Gives her another random card. -Looking at the top of library: Checks the random card but doesn't draw it. From then on, that card is set in stone unless something shuffles the library. -Searching for a card: It lets her declare any spell to search for. I'll try to keep her tutoring within reason; it's unlikely she knows the entirety of Perfect Alexandria so she couldn't realistically know every card ever to look for. -Discarding cards: For her, it's a standard discard. Making enemies discard probably is akin to halting a current action; making them stutter for a moment. If by some twist of fate the enemy has magic cards as well, she can discard those. -Destroying Creatures: Player Characters aren't creatures. Destroying target creature probably means killing an NPC enemy, like the imps or perhaps creatures summoned by magic. It doesn't kill a Player Character. If the NPC is particularly powerful it may be ruled to survive kill spells. -Creature Cards: It summons them, obviously. Completely translating power and toughness to reality will be hard; I feel like this will have to be played by ear. -Enchantments and Artifacts: These magical constructs or lingering spells stick around after being cast. However, magical constructs, powers, and attacks can destroy enchantments, and both magical and physical attacks can kill artifacts. -Planeswalkers: What's that? I don't believe in this card type. It's dumb. She can't draw them. -Damage spells: I plan on fluffing them based on their flavor. Lightning bolt is a lightning bolt! It hurts! Doesn't really have any killing power, though, it only deals less than 1/7th of a player's life! -Pump/Weaken spells: Normally these only target creatures, but being able to target players makes sense in this situation. Buffs to power and toughness increase, well, the strength of someone's attacks and their ability to withstand damage and exertion, respectively. Decreasing stats accordingly weakens the target. Other players drawing cards: In this case, they draw the spell and have a vague understanding of how it works, but it's also unlikely that they'll be able to cast it without asking friends for help in anchoring spells. Land Cards: Drawing a land card lets her spend that card to get a mana of that type. It's not permanent. Basically just provides a little boost to her mana, but can't possibly replace the permanent mana that friends offer. Paying Life: I don't think I'd be able to abstract a life total for Andras. However, I'd say that paying life for cards directly affects her stamina and strength. If she is already hurt, it's unlikely she'll be able to pay life without passing out. Gaining Life: Basically the opposite of paying life. A heal spell can cure wounds and rejuvenate friendlies who are hurt. If they're winded or tired out, healing can also help with that. -Countering spells: Can cancel invoked magical abilities. Magical effects that are already lingering can not be countered. Countering abilities (not spells, there's a difference!) allows her to briefly stop a magical or physical ability. -Bouncing/Returning things to hand: If targetting her own cards, it returns them to spell form. If targetting something else, it can be considered some kind of telekinesis for the purpose of moving something away. If she cast a spell that returns an enemy's weapon to hand, it would (ironically) disarm them by making their weapon fly out of their hands.
There's probably more that need to be fluffed. I'll figure them out as I see them.]
Relationships: Brutus - Due to the varied nature of Vigilante work, Andras has usually paired up with Brutus for work purposes. She's also interested in getting past his stoic side. However, they know each other well enough to have a Mana Contract. William Ascot - Andras is interested in his catalogue of the human story, and often run into each other in the library. Ascot has an interest in her ability, and often gives her insight into how to use it herself. They have a Mana Contract. Masami: Cute! But no Mana Contract.
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