Grey — Roleplayer Guild

The Faces of Pyramid City

Not a proper organization, but rather a group chat hosted on the official D-Watch server. The group itself consists of four individuals that met through the forums of a popular online game. Despite all of them living in Pyramid City, they have never officially met in real life (or have they?)

Current Status 
Talking about surprisingly relevant things.

Important FiguresSnow-Fairy - The reason the group name is what it is.
Tsuru85 - Chatroom administrator, and the one who uses the most emoticons. Also a fan of acclaimed western actor Aiden Cross.
xXRising_DragonXx - Objectively the most useful person in the chatroom, and also the one who most recently renamed it.

According to PC Security, an antiestablishment crime syndicate. However that is a misnomer because it implies that they have a universal goal to follow. The exact nature of their activity is similarly erratic, with past actions ranging from mercenary to terrorist to downright peculiar. One notable event occurred a few years ago involving a Level 4 Kotori Namashiya and her school friends.

Base of operations is unknown. No territories appear to have been established. 

Current Status
Content to lurk in the background.

Important FiguresNone Revealed

A series of independent gangs that formed a unified front after the Liulanghan began their conquest of the Pyramid City underworld. After managing to barely resist the growing influence of the LLH, the organization quickly rose to power as the second of Pyramid City's two most powerful criminal organizations as a result of backing from an anonymous benefactor (or benefactors) that have appropriated the name "Cog" (originally an acronym meaning Coalition Of Gangs) for their personal use. It is believed that it is only due to their influence that the COG hasn't dissolved into infighting.

The eclectic nature of their membership means that their activities vary depending on the gang in question. However, PC Security has come to the conclusion that their collective activities all work towards undermining their rivals or accruing resources as opposed to unfettered thuggery. Notably, none of their recent criminal activity has intentionally involved unrelated civilians. 

Due to the nature of their organization, there is no central base of operations.

Current Status
Looking to break the current underworld stalemate.

Important Figures??? // Cog - A mysterious individual or group that has granted the fledgling COG the means to attain and maintain its current level of power.


Corum Nobis
ENMA University

Current Status
Dealing with minor technical issues

Important FiguresKobayashi, Daigo - Dean of ENMA University. A noted asshat.

The PMC led by the eponymous Level 10 electrokinetic. They are known to accept any job so long as they are paid half of the cost up front, and are not being deliberately manipulated. They also reserve the right to quit at any time.

The organization is arranged into six distinct divisions- five operative 'fingers' and one administrative 'palm' - led by a head that is part of The Hand of God's inner circle. It's membership consists of both empowered and mundane humans, but nobody below the age of 18.

Important FiguresThe Hand of God - Leader. Technically a wanted criminal, but nobody has the balls to apprehend him.

Liulanghan / LLH
The highly secretive criminal organization whose members are identified by their featureless white masks. Though they do not act frequently, a trend of targeting members of Pyramid City's scientific community has been observed among the general acts of terror. They are known to work with other criminal organizations to accomplish mutually-held goals. 

Base of operations is unknown. No territories have been established. 

Current Status
Content to lurk in the background (and may be related to recent disappearances across the globe?)

Important Figures??? // Dollmaker - An enigma of a leader that definitely exists.

Nexus Industries
The organization responsible for law enforcement in Pyramid City. (On paper, anyway) While they can be seen doing activities that any police force in any major city would do on a day-to-day basis, they also have a dedicated taskforce that handles supernatural crimes.

However, Pyramid City Security as a whole is known among the public as being simultaneously competent and incompetent at their duty. Incompetent in the regard that their arrests rarely stick for the important criminals, and competent in the regard that allowing these criminals to escape ensures peace overall, a fact which the a lot of the older members of the public begrudgingly admit but younger ones don't understand.

Pyramid City Security also runs a program called "Monitors" that allows student volunteers to police the city in exchange for scholarship money. It's effectively nothing more than a glorified neighbourhood watch, and most of the members don't take it too seriously and are just in it for the employee benefits, though. 

Current Status
Forced into the uncomfortable, complicated position of ensuring Pyramid City's factions are properly kept in check by each other.  

Important FiguresNone Revealed

Pyramid City Courier Express
Seneca Institute
Pride, Seneca
Hahn, Amara

The Tsukushi Group
The Tsurara Family

Lore Compendium

The umbrella term describing creation of phenomena through specialized manipulation and expenditure of prana. 

Abilities are naturally acquired through a high-stress event that radically alters one or more of the brain's projection areas, granting them the ability to regulate and generate prana, as well as attuning the relevant sense or senses to a specific facet of reality. The former allows manifestation of power, while the latter dictates the nature of that manifestation and grants an appropriate type of extrasensory input.

First generation ability users have the ability to pass down an ability of related nature - often but not always a more limited version of their own, in the case of espers - to their offspring, but even with less strict requirements for awakening, these offspring do not possess a 100% chance of obtaining an ability. Whether an individual has inherited a power is usually revealed during puberty, and not awakening then does not prevent them from doing so artificially or traditionally further down the line.

Although many have tried to artificially create awakening events to varying levels of success, only Adam Pride of Pyramid City has devised a reliable, safe (assuming no neurological discrepancies) method to artificially awaken individuals. That said, artificial awakening of any sort is heavily biased towards creating espers for some unknown reason, and tend to have less hard limits at the cost of being more difficult to adjust to.

Due to the subjective nature of natural awakenings, powers awakened this way are typically drawn from an aspect of an individual's life experience, while those obtained artificially are more random.

Furthermore, abilities are divided into two categories - ESP or magic - depending on their mode of manifestation. 

The ability type characterized by direct interface through attunement with a singular physical facet of reality. Most abilities dealing with manipulating the environment in some way tend to fall under this category.

Another distinguishing factor is their extrasensory capabilities, hence the name, which are far greater and more varied than those of magicians as a result of their attunement to the physical world. These capabilities always have something to do with the nature of their ability (ex. seismic sense for a geokinetic, slowed perceptions for a speedster) and are often needed to facilitate fine control in the first place. This sensory effect remains passive until approximately Level 6, where an esper is able to disable or enable it at will.

Outside of family lines of espers, natural espers are a far less frequent occurrence than natural magicians. That said, they are still the more populous of the two ability types.


The ability type characterized by indirect manifestation through implements that contain the user's prana. The name comes from the fact that magic-users in fiction are often seen using enchanted objects.

Strictly speaking, all magic is the ability to imbue non-living matter with prana, granting it the ability to carry out a predetermined function that violates the limits of common sense. The key difference between mages is what they have been attuned to upon awakening. As a general rule, the narrower one's attunement, the more powerful the items they can create. Effectively, this means the maximum degree of power a mage has inversely correlates with the versatility of their arsenal. 

All magicians share a single extrasensory capability: the ability to sense where objects with their prana are at any time and any links made of their own prana. They also possess the ability to revoke prana from an implement at any point. Due to containing prana, a magician's creations are considered under the jurisdiction of the resistance effect.

In contrast to espers, artificial mages are few and far between.

The official system used by Pyramid City Security to abstractly classify threats and quickly establish an appropriate response. Originally developed for response against ability-using criminals, the system has been adopted by Pyramid City administration to classify all ability-users documented by administration. As a result, the current method is a syncreticism of the two schools of thought, which consider levels a measure of effective threat and theoretical capacity, respectively. 

It has little do with the power level arguments that occur on Pyramid City's official message boards, despite being constantly being cited in said arguments. This is especially jarring because what these levels officially mean is not revealed to the public for security reasons; although many people rightfully consider it a general estimate of an individual's power.

Level ScaleLevel 1 - A normal civilian could cope with this ability.
Level 2 - An exceptional civilian could cope with this ability.
Level 3 - A group of trained individuals or a substandard ability user are required to deal with the ability. Civilians have become a non-factor in traditional combat, save those leveraging exceptional assets.
Level 4 - A full squad of trained individuals or a small group of well-equipped ones should be able to deal with the ability.
Level 5 - An average ability user or a substandard ability user backed by a squad of trained individuals could be reasonably expected to be able to deal with this ability.
Level 6 - An average ability user back by a squad of trained individuals could be reasonably expected to be able to deal with this ability.
Level 7 - A small group of average ability users could be reasonably expected to be able to deal with this ability. Two squads of trained individuals equipped appropriately have a significant chance of coping.
Level 8 - An exceptional ability user could be reasonably expected to be able to deal with this ability. Mundane combatants have become a non-factor in traditional combat, save those leveraging exceptional assets.
Level 9 - A squad of average ability users are required to deal with this ability, at minimum.
Level 10 - Another Level 10 is required to be able to deal with a power of this calibre. In the absence of a Level 10, a sound plan of action, significant assets (intellectual and technologically), a multitude of exceptional ability users, and a willingness to sacrifice them are required at minimum.


Notes
Due to its nature as an abstraction, certain circumstances can alter one's effective threat level from their theoretical level

The system assumes hostile conflict between abilities specialized for combat, but can be applied to utility abilities requiring similar measures to counteract.

Substandard, average, and exceptional ability users are defined as those of Level 1-3, Level 4-6, and Level 7-9, respectively.

The term trained individual typically refers to Pyramid City Security officers, but can also apply to anyone with a similar degree of general combat training.

At its most basic, prana is the energy inherent to every person that makes possible the use of abilities and underlies their biological process. In layman's terms, it is understood as the "life force" of an individual used to fuel the phenomena created by abilities. 

Although prana exists in all individuals, it behaves differently manner if one has awakened an ability. Because normal humans cannot expend and replenish prana like empowered humans can, the key difference between ability users and non-ability users can be considered the fact that they have dynamic or static prana, respectively. 

That said, prana isn't necessarily completely irrelevant for normal humans; abnormal prana are believed to be responsible for physiological anomalies.

Also referred to as mana, ki, aura or whatever fictional spiritual energy is the current vogue.


Pyramid City
A phenomenon linked to prana that prevents abilities from acting within the boundary of the human body.

The current explanation behind this is that the concentration of prana within the human body prevents external prana from exerting its influence. This is supported by evidence of residual prana building up through what is commonly known as "the prana shield".

Past approximately Level 5, excess prana is capable of creating physical interference through the creation of a transparent barrier. This shield does not begin to regenerate until an individual's prana has reached its max capacity, and can be expended to fuel abilities should an ability user run out of internal prana.

Due to this phenomenon, it is believed that an individual's prana behaves uniquely or otherwise has unique identifying factors.

Timeline
The living legends of Pyramid City. Although technically speaking, they’re not actually based in Pyramid City, so the title is a bit misleading. However they are commonly associated with the city among laypeople, notably due to the worldwide impact of Seneca Pride and Kotori Namashiya in promoting the Pyramid City agenda. That said, many of them have their own allegiances and keep their true identities a secret from even Adam Pride, so the current roster is considered an unofficial watchlist as much as it is a commemoration of achievement.

Common misconceptions are that inclusion on this roster is a measure of strength and that beating a Level 10 will automatically place you on the list, and that the order in which they are listed is somehow related to how powerful they are between each other.

Codenames are issued by Adam Pride and are drawn from mythological beings, apparently to reinforce the idea of Level 10s as beyond human. These are used in press releases and official government files for Level 10s that have chosen to retain anonymity, and certain other situations. 

Current Confirmed Members and CodenamesKotori Namashiya // Simurgh - Telekinetic. Professor at ENMA University and unofficial Level 10 posterchild.
The Hand of God // Thunderbird - Electrokinetic. Leader of The Hand of God PMC, and responsible for both the Cardiff Incident and the recent 'minor technical issues' that have cut ENMA University's opening ceremony short.
??? // Ryujin - Hydrokinetic. The infamous "Avenger of Hokkaido" being hunted for the war crime of sinking large swathes of coastal China and North Korea, leading to innumerable civilian and combatant casualties during the Second Pacific War.

Former Members and CodenamesSeneca Pride // Seraph - Dynakinetic. Founder of the Seneca Institute and the woman almost single-handedly responsible for making Pyramid City as it is, for good or for ill. Deceased.

Urban Myths
The Box Man
The Oni
The Red Devil
The Synchronizer


Grey's Player Characters

[ESPER] - Square

Data


Name: Alkaev, Mika
Nickname/Alias:
Occupation: Cleaner, Courier, Student
Faction:Seneca Institute
Seat Number: 12
Nationality: Russian
Age: "4 years old" (18)
Gender: Male
Blood Type: B

Biography: Overall, Mika could have been said to have lived a solidly "okay, I guess" childhood. As one of the many orphans of the Second Pacific War, Mika was taken in by Adam Pride's Seneca Institute to receive education and other appropriate social services in the newly founded Pyramid City on Tokyo Bay. Fortunately, the Institute allowed such pariah children to live in the relative isolation of their facilities and thus avoid too much contact with the nationalistic fervor that had affected Japan and the outside world at the time, even if that outside world often came to them in the form of media and orphans, both native and foreign. Like many of the enemy war orphans taken into Pyramid City, Mika was subject to discrimination by nationalists for opposing their nations; this treatment had improved with the end of the war and the defeat of his homeland's allies, if only slightly. Unfortunately the damage had been done, and Mika and his ilk were left wondering what their place was in this frightening new land. 

While many of his peers had opted to join street gangs, run away from the city or otherwise abandon the system, Mika trusted Pyramid City to do good by him, like they had done so far. At age seven, about half-a-decade earlier than most, Mika came into his esper ability as a result of his participation in a special program offered to students of the Institute like him. Though not particularly powerful due to lacking sufficient force of personality, his synchronization with his power was developed to the utmost as a result. After graduating elementary school, he was "adopted" (or more accurately, assigned to live under supervision of a researcher) and began taking on more specialized experiments regarding his esper ability between, and instead of some, classes at the Seneca Institute's middle and high school divisions. Save for skipping classes that may or may not be important for most future prospects, Mika's schooldays were hardly what you could call unusual. In his free time, he opted against participating in any clubs or studying at a cram school, and instead took on a wide variety of odd jobs in and around the Institute to avoid the hellish idleness he'd otherwise be subjecting himself to. When he became 16 he was tasked to join the PC Express by virtue of his ability's use in that industry.

But between two jobs and a constant series of favors to uphold, it's unsurprising that Mika's often flitting in and out of the apartment he shares with his assigned researcher/legal guardian. Despite this, the relationship they share is a rather tight-knit one, fostered through an innumerable amount of sleepless night ramblings, shared housekeeping and everything in between, even with its beginnings as a way to increase stipend and an occupational obligation, respectively.Even if he's unaware of the fact himself, those six years had impacted Mika's worldview more than all of his formative years had. Despite the incongruity between their two personalities, the two managed to bond over their similar backgrounds, shared love of reading, training sessions, and a certain someone's attachment issues. This is compounded by the fact that he is oft doted on, and their relationship often resembles that of a stoic father and his impetuous child - a fact not lost on the young Russian, who refers to the other as his "father" even considering their rather small age gap.

After highschool graduation, Mika was sponsored by the Seneca Institute for a chance at enrollment into ENMA University.
Personality: As a young man of strong will but weak conviction, it's only natural that Mika's nature be that of the utmost ambivalence. The unfortunate consequence of synchronization with his ability is that it has left him an aimless mess, aware and yearning but afraid and in constant denial. After all, being able to think more than anyone else is fine up until one's thoughts stray into negativity, and being forced to dwell on these types of thoughts has done little good for the speedster's psychology. Indecisive and prone to self-doubt, it's no surprise that he prefers to act under guidance, and under situations where he can act without thought or consequence. However, a desire for absolution has thrust him into a particularly vicious, socially-parasitic cycle. Rarely does he act because of his own agency, but rather because he has been tasked to or feels some kind of obligation. As a result, he hasn't quite developed what he considers a proper sense of personal identity, a fact which bothers him to no little degree.

Outwardly, he's far less of a downer than his existential crisis might suggest. He still tends to worry a lot more than most, and becomes a bit too easily attached for his own good.  But as someone who prefers to surround himself with those who treat others well, Mika does his best to return kindness with kindness and radiate positivity in all things, even if he lacks genuine satisfaction. He's also developed a bit of an idealistic streak from all the things he's read and heard, and even with his doubts, is still a bit unwilling to accept that the world isn't as black and white as he'd like it to be. At any rate, he's prone to being ruled by his emotions despite his best efforts; he often holds grudges and is rather spiteful even with his good intentions.
Quirks

Likes:Arts and crafts
Baseball
Loose clothes
No responsibility
Photography
Reading
Video gaming, especially first person shooters
Wet T-shirt contests
Work

Dislikes:Being the lesser end of a height difference
Birthday parties
Fighting
Film and television
Hard choices
Long queues
Personal weakness
Spicy food
Work
Talents

Skills:Combat Training - Knowledge of self-defense techniques as taught by his handler. In other words: basic and bland, but effective and surprisingly brutal. Incidentally, when put into practice it appears that Mika's stature and personal preference aren't too well-suited for some of the techniques. Fortunately he isn't the type to go around looking for fights so that shouldn't be so much of an issue.
Navigation - Occupational requirements and a lifetime of living in Pyramid City has resulted in an in-depth understanding of the city's layout, especially its various sidestreets, shortcuts, and areas of dubious safety.
Parkour - Competency in the art of "hardcore parkour". The steel jungle of Pyramid City is the perfect playground by which to refine this skill. Of all his skills, this is what he claims is his best. That said, he lacks style points.
Running Away From His Problems - Cannot actually run away from his problems.
Stealth -  Compact stature and enhanced awareness assists in the skillful avoidance of detection - a useful asset for transporting important packages, among other things. However, this combined with a propensity towards taking photos and climbing on roofs may result in certain negative connotations.
Weaving - Personal test of ability. Specialty lies in first-class basketweaving, of which he possesses an almost supernatural competency (likely because he 'cheats' with his esper ability). Also capable of weaving other things to a far lesser extent of competency, given the proper resources. Has not yet been turned into a spider by the gods, much to his delight.

Ability: Slipstream; Level 4
Use of prana to manipulate personal speed through an unknown mechanism. Hypotheses include personal telekinesis and localized temporal manipulation, among others. Conclusive results estimated to appear around Levels 5-7.

Primary application is increasing speed to the point the subject becomes a 'streak', as described by observers, capable of altering its trajectory with pinpoint precision. Secondary application is a single high-speed dash at a targeted location, effectively something akin to short-range teleportation. Though this is the subject's top speed, it's prana strain is decidedly above average and no control is possessed during this rapid A to B movement. Tertiary application is concentration of "speed" into a specific body part. The prana expenditure to accomplish this is inversely proportional to the simplicity of the desired action. Cannot be used at the same time as the primary and secondary functions.

Passive effects on subject are primarily related to the side effects of high-speed movement on a human. Mental processing and perceptions have been permanently enhanced to compensate. Furthermore, the inertial reference frame is locked into the speed demonstrated in his primary capability i.e. the world is perceived as going slower. This has resulted in psychological effects on the subject, but this appears to be an indirect consequence. Subject does not appear to sleep, age, or metabolize faster.

Escana: N/A
Miscs

Theme Song(s):Wind God Girl Guy
Albatross
Low Hanging Fruit
Extras:Birthdate is February 29, 2020
Proud owner of an EMP resistant, waterproof (100m) and shockproof (150m) camera with a battery life of about 24 hours, a solar charger, and a connection to a private cloud database.
Equipped with a pair of "boots" designed to reduce kinetic energy from impact with the ground on the user's legs and feet. Though a vestige from his earlier levels, it sees use from the handy side-effect of mitigating impact from high drops, and though he doesn't always need them, he insists on ensuring their continued upkeep.

[Human]

Data


Name: Kirima, Sasaki
Nickname/Alias:Iron Giant
Strongest Man in Pyramid City
Occupation: Researcher, Handler
Faction:Seneca Institute
Nationality: Korean
Age: 24
Gender: Male
Blood Type: AB

Biography: Despite his heritage Sasaki was born and raised in Japan - though most didn't care to make the distinction once the war broke out and tensions took hold soon afterward. His father joined the war front and never came back, and by the time he was seven, his mother was gone as well. As a result, he and his five-year old sister became wards of the state and were sent to one of the increasingly occupied group home facilities. For a short while his life was about as comfortably domestic as it could be for the temperamental youngster, but he was later outcast for injuring another child in a fit of rage and began spending most of his time by himself.

Unfortunately, constant harassment and being treated as an "other" made him not only a temperamental, but also particularly a violent little cuss who used the flimsy justification of defense to take out his rage on whatever he pleased - a behavior which attracted the attention of the gangs of errant orphans that had started to take precedence. He easily found a place among these ne'er-do-wells and formed a reputation as the "Club-Wielding Oni" after his weapon of choice. 

However with the formation of the Seneca Institute by the eponymous Level 10 esper and their subsequent crack down on the roving bands of youth, the gang was dissolved and Sasaki was left with nothing to count on but himself. For a time he persisted, but he was taken into custody one day by Pyramid City Security, and it was under arrest that he met Seneca Pride and was taken into her Institute.

Despite this, he'd still yet to kick his delinquent habits, and became the problem case for the Institute matriarch. After all when normal kids have bad days, they don't tend to leave wanton destruction in their wake. But after much prodding, a breakthrough was made; Sasaki began to decide to build things up instead of breaking things down, or at least build himself up if nothing else. To this end, he sought out the guidance and mentorship of the Level 10 that had given him a new lease on life, and was taken under her wing. Though he'd never found out why she'd agreed to let him play assistant, he figures that he was something of a personal symbol of hope for the success of her ideals.

Her death hit him a bit harder than he thought it would have, and in his second year of high school, he began taking an active role in the activities of the Institute at the behest of her will and husband. At the same time, he met a little birdie and they became friends, but he was either far too blind or far too scared to move past that. And unfortunately, they were pulled into their different realms and grew apart, ending those halcyon days. 

Sasaki prefers not to dwell on what could have been, but he'd be lying if there wasn't at least a faint swell of satisfaction when Adam showed him the new Level 10 roster. 

Currently he lives with and cares for a certain experiment he'd gotten perhaps too attached to for his own good. Anything else concerning the six years interim is [CLASSIFIED]. 
Personality: At first glance, the past six years seem to have treated Sasaki well on this front. No longer does his past temperament appear to plague his mind as it did before, and his spectrum of acceptable expressions has widened itself beyond repressed miens. Yet at the same time this change in demeanor has also made him far more inscrutable, and it's only in his quieter states that his true nature comes to light. Like his youth, he invests himself in the things happening to those around him, though now he's a bit more selective about who he helps and how. Unlike his youth, he carries with him a greater degree of despondence and disillusionment; although he doesn't let most people know that.
Quirks

Likes:Baseball
Classical music
Housework
Kindhearted Level 10 espers
Peace and quiet
Reading
Straightforwardness
Spicy food
Urban legends and crackpot conspiracy theories

Dislikes:Animals
Carrying group projects
Clowns
Danger to his two wards
Gacha-based mobage
Maid cafes
Pessimism
Recreational drinking
Work
Talents

Skills:Analysis and Observation
Baseball
Brawling
Esper Studies and Application Thereof
Housekeeping
Kendo
Peak Human Strength
Team Management

Miscs

Theme Song(s):Drifting Clouds of Solitude
Pompeii
Extras:Birthdate is June 21, 2015
His sister, Sunye, is currently travelling around the world. She sends tacky knick-knacks that he puts on his fridge.
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