Member
Name:
Monique Simon
Age:
17
Magic:
Mirror Magic
A magic that deals in the action of mirroring rather than mirrors themselves. This can allow the user to mirror the movements of others around them or to make others mirror their own movements. A less-advanced form and the first stage of Reflection Magic, which does deal with the use of mirrors to reflect attacks or create illusions. Mirror Magic itself, however, is more similar to organic link magic. More advanced users can perform Mirror Magic with multiple targets. Mirror links are generally established by contact with the target, however they can be created by manipulating the magical energy itself and touching the target that way for more range (though this method naturally takes more magic).
Reflection Magic
Magic that deals with the use of mirrors themselves. The user has the capability of creating mirrors made of magic that can bounce back most forms of attack. As well, the use of multiple mirrors can create offensive capability or illusory capability. In Monique's case: she is only just learning the basics of Reflection Magic and presently lacks enough skill to use it in combat. She is only capable of creating small, weak mirrors incapable of reflecting attacks.
Magic Level:
C
History:
Monique Simon was born in the small village of Oasis near the southern edge of Web Valley. The youngest of three sisters, all three had an affinity for magic that both their parents lacked. Her eldest sister, Shantae, was seven years older than her. And the middle child, Savannah, had Monique beat by three years. The age gaps between the three allowed Monique's older sisters to be able to teach her magic in a superior fashion to the way they had to learn it. Though the magic they were learning was essentially dictated by Shantae as she was the first to start. By the time Monique was thirteen, all three girls had skill in varying degrees with Reflection Magic. Though Monique was considered the weakest as she seemed to find her plateau at making the mirrors required for the Reflection Magic while her sisters continued to grow in ability.
What she lacked in magical capability, she made up for in other skills. Particularly her dance skills. Starting around the time she became a teenager, she shifted her focus from magic to dancing. Due to her quiet nature, she found the art of dance to be a good way to express herself. While her family supported her (her father was the only one begrudging about her decision but supported her regardless), there wasn't much for her in the small town. Oasis was a small town built to support mining in Web Valley, a venture that proved fruitless. The occupants of Oasis were mostly impoverished and relied on the weak rock mining business. When Monique was fifteen, however, something happened that changed her hometown forever.
A rich man from Shirotsume Town stopped by Oasis on his way to a business meeting in the east. Though he viewed the town in general distaste, as most snobby rich types would, he did find an attraction to Shantae. He offered her a way out of her poor lifestyle but she refused, wanting nothing to do with a man as rude and vain as him. The man was displeased with being turned down, but he was persistent. His next offer was much more difficult. The man offered to use his fortune to revitalize Oasis and save everyone from eternal poverty. With an offer like that, the eldest sister couldn't refuse. The two were married and the man fulfilled his end of the bargain. However, his intention for Oasis and his new wife weren't as honest as perceived. As he now "owned" both Shantae and Oasis, he asserted himself as the mayor and levied heavy taxes on the villagers to get his money back.
Needless to say, everyone was angry with him. However, as most rich men are, he was well guarded. Most notably he had hired two powerful Mages as his personal bodyguards. With Shantae essentially held prisoner while this man, Argoyle, bullied Oasis from the comfort of his mansion in Shirotsume, Savannah decided she had enough. Enlisting the help of Monique, the only other Mage in the town, the two travelled to Shirotsume to attempt to force the man to leave Oasis alone and return their older sister. The plan didn't go smoothly and both Savannah and Monique ended up captured and thrown in a dungeon. After being held for several weeks with the minimal amount of food and drink to live, Argoyle decided to broker a deal with the two sisters. He said that he would forgive them for their attempt at attacking him and would even consider returning Shantae and Oasis. For a humble price of one billion Jewel. To top off the deal, he told them that he would only let one of the two sisters leave and the other would be forced to stay as a servant for punishment. But he left them to decide which one got to leave.
The discussion was brief. Savannah was far more stubborn than the soft-spoken Monique, and as such it was Savannah that stayed behind to allow Monique to return to her home. The three sisters were all close and spent most of their time together. Now on her own, Monique felt terrible. She went back to her poverty, only by herself this time. With both her mother and father working in the mines all the time, Monique truly felt lonely for the first time. At sixteen, she decided that what happened to her family and her town was partially her fault and that as the only Mage it was her responsibility to do something about the situation. She left Oasis and resumed her magic training alongside her journey. She travelled all the way to Shirotsume on her own and confronted Argoyle again. This time, she was ensuring he would keep his word if she could earn a billion Jewel. With a sinister smile, he confirmed that he would hold up his end of the bargain.
Young and naïve to the world, Monique found great difficulty in making any profit. After being tricked and swindled several times, she finally managed to get a full-time job in Acalypha as an exotic dancer in a themed bar. Despite being rather young for the job. It was only a matter of time before someone discovered her true age and she was politely dismissed. With little cash and dwindling hope, Monique was starting to regret her bold decision. Soon after she turned seventeen, she got another job. Though it was far less enjoyable and far less profitable. She became a janitor at a casino. During one of her early morning shifts, when the casino was less occupied, a particularly rowdy customer had lost all his money to the slots and decided to take it out on the first janitor he saw. Before he could attack her, Monique used her Mirror Magic to stop him in his tracks, forcing him to mirror her exact movements. As security guards arrived to the ruckus, they found Monique headbutting the air at the exact same time the drunk customer headbutted a wall, knocking him out.
After witnessing the magical display, one of the guards joked that she should take up a better job than custodial work, such as working oddjobs or joining a Mage Guild. Taking this as a much greater praise of her ability than it actually was, Monique quit her job and searched to find a Guild to join. She was turned down at several Guilds for various reasons. Some had rules that only allowed adults. Others found her skills to be useless. One didn't let her join because she was a girl and their Guild was strictly masculine. Nonetheless she continued, learning more about Guilds and Mages as she travelled. After learning about how much money some Mages are capable of earning, she became more motivated than ever to join a Mage Guild. And thus her journey has brought her to the town of Magnolia, to join Phoenix Wing. Though it is her seventh attempt at joining a guild, her hopes are high.
Personality:
For starters, Monique is incredibly quiet. Her normal voice is barely above a whisper. Despite her quietness, she is emotive and expressive enough that people can usually figure out what she is thinking or feeling just by looking at her. Being such a quiet girl combined with her small stature, Monique would be easy to not notice if it wasn't for her exotic style. Though she isn't exactly shy, her low-volume voice and self-doubting nature give the effect that she is. In reality, she is actually quite extroverted and enjoys the company of others and learning about new people and places. Adventurous, though not exactly ambitious. Her desire to see the world takes second stage to her self-imposed responsibilities. In general, Monique isn't particularly confident in her skills and as such isn't very brave in stressing situations. Despite the lack of bravery, the girl has enough determination to act without it. In other words: though she has weak knees, she doesn't have cold feet. Though she doesn't exactly have a strong sense of fear, she does have a strong sense of self-preservation and as such appears to be afraid of many things (though generally only things that she perceives as dangerous). Though Monique actually has some combat value, she generally refuses to acknowledge it and instead believes that she only has value as an entertainer. Even so, she does know how to use her magic and skills to fight, which makes her somewhat hypocritical on the subject of combat.
Team Members:
None yet.
Three Strengths:
1. Contortionist flexibility and dancer coordination/balance.
2. Incredibly skilled in many forms of dancing.
3. Astonishing reflexes.
Three Weaknesses:
1. Physically frail.
2. Very little muscle = very little strength.
3. Soft-spoken to the extreme.
Greatest Love:
Dancing
Motivation:
To earn enough money to save her village.
Appearance:
Monique is rather short, standing at only 5' 5". Her typical clothing is depicted in the picture above, but notably she also will wear a brown parka and wrap a red scarf around her face when she is travelling or in extreme weather. As well, she keeps a decently sized red purse slung over her shoulder at all times (aside from situations that require her to set her purse down).
Additional Details:
Though her hairstyle adds some height to her presence, Monique is often unnoticed due to her small size and quietness. Though she does not find it so funny, it was almost like a running gag for her sisters. Though she knows her magic fairly well and is always practicing it where she can, her actual combat experience is minimal. She rarely sparred with her sisters and has only ever been in two fights, with mixed results. Though she has learned martial arts with help from her Mirror Magic, her absolute lack of strength makes that knowledge mostly unusable.
Mirror Magic: Follow Me - The most common and most effective magical technique in Monique's arsenal. After establishing a link through either physical contact or magic, the victim is marked with a glowing seal shaped like a cloud on their wrist. With this mark, they immediately lose control of their primary motor abilities and cannot move. Or rather: they cannot move themselves. Instead, they will perfectly mirror Monique's own movements. If she were to lift her left hand, they would lift their right. If she took a step to the left, they would take a step to the right. Though this seems to have little combat value, as Monique cannot strike a foe without being hit herself, there are several hidden tricks. Monique's body is vastly more flexible than normal humans and she can contort herself to cause her opponent incredible pain. As well, she can use the environment to her advantage. Despite having a somewhat weak magical presence, this spell is incredibly hard to break out of once linked. In general, it would require outside assistance to free a victim. Or if they were to lose consciousness. This can be used on multiple targets, provided they are all linked.
Mirror Magic: After You - The opposite of the above spell. After establishing a link with a target, Monique will follow their movements and motions perfectly. While this holds no particular combat value, Monique has used this ability to train herself in dancing and martial arts, mirroring her mentors until the motions became muscle-memory. Monique remains in control of this spell and can deactivate it as she wishes. This cannot be used with multiple targets, but can be used in conjunction with Follow Me on a third party target. For example: Monique can be copying the movements of someone else while forcing a target to copy her movements, essentially serving as a relay to allow the first person to control the third.
Reflection Magic: Basic Mirror - Monique forms a small mirror, about the size of a hand mirror, composed completely of reflective magic. Useful for examining her own appearance or perhaps showing someone else what they look like. Due to the small size and Monique's weak ability in Reflection Magic, the mirrors she makes are incapable of reflecting attacks or even holding up to them. When broken, the mirrors dissipate rather than shatter like glass.
Martial Art Style: T'ai Chi Ch'uan
A fluid martial art capable of both soft and hard strikes. The primary component of T'ai Chi Ch'uan comes from the fluidity and harmony of the body more so than directly attacking an opponent. Also good for simple exercise and strengthening one's soul. Monique's skill in the martial art is somewhat difficult to calculate. She knows the forms, the techniques, the strikes, the motions. She can perform that all perfectly. However, she lacks the applicable skill to use it in combat. Fighting thin air, she can be amazing. Handling any actual foe, or even a solid object for that matter, and all her skill seems to lose its effect. In application, her skill in T'ai Chi Ch'uan allows her to nimbly dodge or redirect her foes. Blocking or striking back is out of the question, as she lacks the strength to perform either successfully on most opponents.
Monique is yet to have any written records.
