Lemons

Steal Away The Light

Location: Uhladein, Eastern Marches

---

"Fucking lunatic," Quinnlash muttered as Fianna did...well, Fianna things. Maker, the woman was goddamn creepy sometimes. Still, she'd told Quinnlash what she needed to know. Everything was at least nominally handled down here; she could get herself back up to the tower and do her best to stop those pyromancers from letting everybody die horribly. She turned her wary eye away from the Void all around her, squinting against the blinding rain to look up at the arched window that Galeil's fire had splashed against and through. It certainly wasn't a big target, all told, and it would be unfortunate if she missed. Still, her cannon had been building charge for a bit now, it should be okay to—

Her thoughts were cut off as a sky-ripping cry echoed from above her and she looked up in time to see the shadow of a fully-grown roc, corrupted by the void, cast in harsh relief against the clouds by sweeping lashes of blue fire. Her eye widened fractionally for a moment. That was the blue-haired Hunter again. She wondered for a moment how she managed to get up there before a grin spread across her face. Didn't matter. No way she was letting her have all the fun. Just because she was headed into the tower didn't mean she couldn't make a detour along the way.

She stared up a moment longer, calculating distances, trajectories, running through backup plans. The explosion would be too big to drop it on the ogre without injuring Fianna, the Ldranti, and the melter, so best not do that. Then, with another bellowing laugh, she jumped outwards from the wall, towards the endless Void.

Just as she was about to hit the ground, she slammed an almost fully-charged shot into them, leaving a hole thirty feet across. As the shockwave blew painfully through her, she blasted skyward towards the roc, howling with mad laughter. The remnants of fire from her cannon seared across the sky as she went, a meteoric tail as she rocketed upwards, already charging another shot. She directed herself with small, powerful bursts of pyromancy; rotating, sliding, getting herself in place as she shifted herself around and twisted backwards, placing herself firmly between the enormous void and the Hearthfire keep as she neared the apex of her flight, only perhaps fifteen feet beneath the massive corrupted creature. From here, she could see the iced hole in its wing, could see the azure hair of the Hunter on its back, could hear her crazed laughter so familiar to her own. Her smile spread wider. "Heads up, Ice Queen!" No more than a second later, she blasted it with another explosion. Though it was of course weaker than the last, it was enough, with gravity's help, to send her bolting towards the window. One more course correction with pyromancy, and—

A roc hatchling, its cry like a knife scraping against a sheet of steel, dived towards the opening itself, drawn to the glow of the Emberstone within. With a deft movement, she slammed into it as she fell, catching it between her legs. It snapped at her, clawed at her, but she just smiled harder as she sailed through the window, crushing it between her thighs with one last burst of applied pyromancy. It let out one last strangled cry as it split into two, the halves crumbling to ash and falling to the ground just a heartbeat after she landed ten feet from Galeil with a thunderous crack and a madcap grin. "Sorry I'm late!"

As she straightened up, she tossed her rapidly-failing braid back behind her and gave an offhanded salute. "Hunter Quinnlash Loughvein, reporting for duty!"

A moment later, as she watched the pyromancers staring at her, her smile vanished, replaced with a stormy frown. She gestured angrily at the apprentices. "What the hell is this?" More confused looks.

She flung an accusatory finger at the apprentice just clockwise of Galeil, which steadily traveled around the circle and pointed to each in turn. "Your form is completely wrong! Your focus is clearly almost completely shattered! Your form is off too, even more than hers is! Your form is off too—do you people have no idea how to channel a Hearthfire?" Sparing a second or two, she adopted a mock channeling stance in front of the crystal, though of course a Hunter couldn't actually channel into it. "Like this, morons! Head up, back straight, legs evenly spaced, shoulders back, arms fully out in front! How long have you been doing this, three days? And all of you are too nervous! Your arms are trembling so much they can barely channel at all, let alone properly!"

Another Void rocling screamed through the window, and without stopping her rant or even looking, she thrust out a hand, roasting it to an ashen crisp with a jet of scorching flame. "Galeil's clearly needed in the defense effort, since he's the only one of you that's at all competent. So you need to be able to hold this without him! Maker help us if this is what's supposed to preserve the Hearth! You need to ignore this shit! Don't be afraid of the Void!" She lifted her cannon to her shoulder and reloaded it, pointing it threateningly at the kids. With any luck, the golden flash of light and the sudden sharp report would get them properly intimidated of her. "Be afraid of me if you don't calm down and fucking FOCUS!"

That said, she whirled around and stalked to the wall, leaning against it, but keeping her attention sharp. Whatever happened, she needed to be ready. These stupid kids got Void anywhere near them, and the Hearthfire was probably doomed. The cannon in her hands, ready to fire at any moment, began once more to rumble and roar. It was louder now, with the rain and Void outside muted by the thick stone walls. She rent her soul into four more pieces and flung a hand wide, placing an everburning soulflame within each of the windows. She hissed and swore as the pain redoubled before she spoke one more time. Aggravation dripped from her words, masking the pain in her voice.

"You super-special kids have a full-fledged Hunter here for the sole purpose of keeping the Void off you. So focus up and do it right."

Pokémon Showdown! [Invite Only]

Amy

"We can do it this time! We just need to try a little bit harder!"

<sub>18 | Femme

Character Synopsis</sub>

Born in a high rise in Castelia City, Amelia—but please, call her Amy—has been a social butterfly since she reasonably could. When she was in middle school, someone tried to bully her by throwing her backpack into a trash can. Those two became the best of friends and he cried when Amy's mom got a new job out in Mistralton. She still talks to him regularly.

It was a bit of a culture shock, going from the glitz and glamor of Castelia to the more industrial Mistralton, but she adapted to it quite well, and early in her high school career at the Academy—already well on her way to becoming a skilled trainer, despite having no real gift for it, through pure persistence—she'd already amassed quite a crowd of people that she was happy to call friends. She's more than ready to cheer them on all the way to Regionals!

And hey, if that means she can take Rhubard, Dumpling, and Lemon to the top, that just makes it better!

_{Character Ties}

1) TBD later if accepted. Do not fill out. Add more if needed.
2) TBD later if accepted. Do not fill out. Add more if needed.

_Pokémon

1) Rhubarb the Servine | Male | Overgrow

Tackle
Growth
Leaf Tornado
Leech Seed

2) Dumpling the Minccino | Female | Cute Charm

Double Slap
Encore
Pound
Tickle

3) Lemon the Emolga | Female | Static

Thunder Shock
Quick Attack
Charge
Spark

In Search of Gaea A Seafaring Fantasy Adventure (REBUILD)

---

The Sharkfin, Lower Decks | South Seas Ocean

---

Tella looked quickly down at her feet as Marina entered the diving chamber with her typical flair for the dramatic.

She hadn't been too fond of Marina for longer than she cared to think. Being neck deep in devotion and propaganda to the Imperial cause had the lovely little side effect of her deeming anybody that had left as a 'coward' and a 'deserter' and 'unfit to lick the Emperor's boots.' Of course, she thought different now; she'd gained a great deal of perspective recently, after all, or she certainly wouldn't be preparing to drop from a Diver vessel.

But still. The pure embarrassment over her former steaming, simmering resentment had her looking at the floor whenever the fellow 'Imperial' was around, and very pointedly avoiding most contact with her. Still...she'd been looking back on her days in the Academies more often recently, at the people that she'd known and the bridges she'd burned, and she found herself profoundly missing Marina. It had been years since they'd known each other. Eight since they'd talked? She remembered them being fairly good friends once upon a time.

But then again, she thought bitterly, she was a very different person back then. The Tella of today was a shattered shell of her old confidence, especially in her headstrong adolescence.

Still. As silly as it was, as burnt out the embers of that ancient friendship were, Tella missed her. And hearing her again, recognizing that same cadence even now, only made her miss Marina more. And so, as she made one last check of everything, she raised her eyes shyly from the floor. Her voice trembled slightly when she started, but as she continued, it steadied out:

"If the sea really was sick of us, then we'd have all sunk to the bottom long ago, no?" A deep breath, and she finally brought her eyes up to Marina's soft violet ones. Not entirely sure what to say, she fumbled some over her words, but kept speaking. "The tides may bring terror, but they—Mother Ocean also brings hope too, right? And joy. And...forgiveness as well. And we should thank her for that."

Contradicting Marina in that particular way would probably get her labeled as a wet blanket, which was...well, certainly not conducive to rekindling any faint embers of the friendship that she remembered.

But she'd at least talked to her. And that was a start, right?

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

---

Alja bit her tongue in frustration. Looked like Kazuki was dodging around things again. But at least Luci seemed...well, she didn't seem like she was doing great, but she seemed reasonable, at least. Last she'd heard, the swordsinger had still been absolutely catatonic. If nothing else, that was comforting. And the two of them were speaking pretty normally. A sudden spike of doubt punched through her. Had she been wrong about what was going on between Luci and Kazuki? She'd gotten better with people as Alja, but she still couldn't read these situations instinctively like she wished she could. In situations like these, Kelly was far too prominent for her liking.

As they spoke, she found her eyes wandering past Luci and into the chapterhouse proper, roving to the side where she knew Leaves' room was. She was worried about her. Really worried. She hadn't seen her at all since Arnaakus, and she'd seemed shot all to hell at that point. It was only natural to worry, regardless of feelings she might hold for her. Right?

Still. At least they had an objective now. Or she did; she didn't know how the rest of her party would react. She nodded to Luci, leaning against the wall herself. "Children of Letria, huh? I've played with 'em once or twice, on decent terms. See if I can bring 'em into the fold, get some lines of communication opened." A moment passed, and she moved away from the wall, nodding at the other three. "If you want to get a head start, you can head on over there. Or go do somethin' else, I can probably back Pris up on my own if you have pressin' stuff to get done." Her eyes roved again, back towards Leaves' room. "I've still got some business here, so I'll meet back up with ya later. Capisce?"

Steal Away The Light

Location: Uhladein, Eastern Marches

---

Quinnlash leapt backwards, breaths coming fast heavy. The flames dropped from her hands and feet as she hopped up on a shattered-off piece of the tower, taking a moment to survey the fight. It was going...well? Or if not well, at least it was going predictably. The Void was encroaching, and normal humans were falling back and taking shelter. Whirls of blue flames and ice spat from the rooftops, alternately torching and freezing flying Void in its wake. It moved smoothly, quickly, as though gliding. That would be the Hunter with the spear and blue hair, she thought. The one that held herself like she was some kind of special. The one that looked at Quinnlash like she was better than her or something. She twitched, and her lip curled up in a sneer.

In front of her, the paltry remnants of a guard patrol ran from the army of Void goblins, and the enormous ogre-shadow at their head. Between the two of them was the little one, the small Hunter with the angry eyes. She radiated heat, steam rising from her constantly as the rain poured down. Her claw-talons, the ones that Quinnlash had thought were inefficient weapons, were blazing white-hot. Perhaps not inefficient at all. But certainly painful. As she watched, the girl rushed to meet the mass of Void, shearing through them with ruthless savagery. She left molten footprints as she went, the stone itself yielding to the immense heat before the rain darkened it once more. Quinnlash snorted scornfully. We've only got five and one's a Melter. Of course. Thanks, Maker.

She hadn't seen where the tall pink-haired Ldranti had gone, but from the horrifying sound of a Void creature being butchered and bellowing in pain coming from around the other side of the keep, she could probably guess.

And, of course, along the top of the wall was the only Hunter here that she knew personally. As usual, her body was some degree of twisted, and the metal...meat...sword...thing that twisted out of her arm gave Quinnlash a chill that few other things could. She'd had the...dubious pleasure of working with Fianna a few times. Midnosian Hunters both, after all. And every time. Every time. It always ended up with her dying. Sometimes once or twice. Sometimes over and over. She growled deep in her throat, and her cannon growled with her.

There was a grating shriek from above and she snapped her head skyward in alarm in time to see a blast of fire explode from a tower window. The Void had taken hatchlings from a roc, seemed like, and they dipped to strike at the pyromancers that tended the Hearthfire crystal. Their mother couldn't be far behind. As skilled a pyromancer as Galeil—it had to be him, she didn't respect any of the other idiots up there—seemed to be from that blast, the Void was far more than he could handle, or else the Hunters wouldn't be here. A half-forgotten memory of a voice whispered in the hidden recesses of her mind: You are a pyromancer. Pyromancers like us are the final line, and have the final say. You must not shirk in your duty. You must not leave the fire. And you must not abandon your comrades. We are the final line. We have the final say. All of us. The phantom memory galled her, and she waved it away with a snarl and a swear, spitting foul-tasting Void blood and dry ash from her mouth in disgust. "Fine! I'll go! Now fuck off!"

With a few deft steps, she bounded over broken chunks of masonry, bouncing across crumbling, rain-slicked fragments of stone towards the wall. Crazy or no, molten-hot or no, that girl wouldn't last long against a horde like that. She was a Melter, after all. Mostly cannon fodder. But the longer the cannon fodder lived, the easier the real Hunters' job would be. She moved like a wildfire, burning without stopping through any Void in her way, until she topped a steep pile of rubble where she could have a moment to aim and unslung her cannon.

She pressed it to her cheek, pointing towards the lone, white-clawed figure that blazed incandescent within the swelling Void sea. She had a much better angle here. Wouldn't risk immolating the guards if she twitched. The world was lit with the cold white glare of lightning, and with an abrupt exhalation, she pulled the trigger. Another tremendous explosion burned through the night as she unleashed a blazing pyre upon the ogre, careful to catch the other Hunter out of the blast radius. Or at least only slightly within it. The ravaging inferno consumed the enormous beast and anything even remotely near it in golden radiance. It certainly wouldn't die from that. It would take at least two or three fully-charged shots to bring one of those to its knees, let alone kill it, and this was far from that level of power. She could tell it was in pain, though, and the burning goblins streaking through the air like little meteors brought a smile to her face. She gave a casual salute towards the girl. Least she had some breathing room for a couple seconds until more came to fill the gap.

Thunder rolled in the distance, and just like that, the smile winked out. She couldn't spare the time to really enjoy it anyway, not before the anger flooded back. With a few more nimble leaps and some well-applied bursts of pyromancy, she topped the wall, staring out at the endless Void ocean. In the lull that followed the last crash of thunder—the comparative lull, at least, only the hissing of the rain and the horrifying sounds of the Void—she turned and shouted at Fianna with a sharp and loud voice, another lightning-harsh sound accompanying another golden crack and another soul-deep pain as she reloaded. It took some doing, breaking the crazy woman out of her battle trances, but she was still the only Hunter here that Quinnlash was familiar with, and as much as she hated to admit it, the only one she could even moderately trust. At least as far as she knew. But that didn't hold if she couldn't even think. She needed her to listen and talk. Now. "Hey! Freakshow!" She kicked a fist-sized rock at her, smacking her in the back of the head. "Snap the fuck out of it, dumbass! You—"

She broke off, whirling a high kick at a Voidling that came scuttling up the wall. As it connected, a burst of flame surged out of her booted foot, launching the sickening creature back into the rest of its kind with a chittering scream. Three more followed and she gnashed her teeth. The enormous barrel of her cannon was suddenly wreathed in ethereal flames and she swept it back and forth like a warhammer, slamming it through their chitinous shells and sending them flying as her pyromancy consumed them. She glanced down and saw a swarm of the insectoid creatures skittering up the wall at her. Her cannon wasn't charged very much, but it was more than enough for this, and so she brought it to bear and it poured out a curtain of blazing light, knocking them from the stones.

As the swarm collapsed, it let out a sound like ten thousand knives on ten thousand stones, and this time she beamed, throwing back her head in a laugh of absolute euphoria and letting the freezing rain dull the pain, if only a little, as it washed the ash and ichor from her face.

When her joy abated, she huffed out another heavy breath and stood straight again, tossing her sodden braid behind her. She turned to Fianna, Undying Light resting on her shoulder and still leaking remnants of the pyromantic flare. The searing light flashed again on her chest as another soulflame nestled into the core of her cannon and began to swell as fast as she could grow it. In defiance of the rain, the familiar pain surged back stronger, carving its way through her whole body. Her eyes darted skyward at the boiling rainclouds overhead. Who knew how much time the pyromancers in the keep had left?

"You all up shit's creek down here, or can I head up?"

Steal Away The Light

You think I don't

Steal Away The Light

Location: Uhladein, Eastern Marches

---

The cold rain fell.

Cold enough to chill the blood in the veins. Cold enough to sluice away hope. Cold enough to clot the soul.

The small figure atop the keep stared out at the screaming, roiling mass as they seethed through the southern front. The rain hammered down hard enough to nearly knock her breath away. It was loud for sure. But not enough to blot out the terrible sounds of the Void, nor The piercing scream that had emerged from within them, cold as the falling rain. Zecimia had gone to ash defending the breach. Uhladein was next. The Hunters within the walls were the only ones left that could stanch the endless tide. She flicked her eyes to just behind her, to the fading, wavering of the Hearthfire, and then down, to the group of pyromancers that clustered around the crystal. The tide wasn't endless. But it wouldn't stop until the rain did. And she had her doubts about which would come first; the rain's end, or theirs.

She took a deep breath. The world around her was frigid. The darkness was lit up only with the flashes of lightning, marking time through this nightmare dreamscape, and the fitful flickering Hearthfire behind her. But despite the cold, the air that she breathed hissed down her throat with painful heat. And though the swarm beneath her was loud enough to drown out the pouring rain, it fell away before the roaring furnace of Undying Light beside her face. With ease born of long practice, she quickstepped around the perimeter towards the entrance of the tower. Stretching out before her was the end of the world. The roaring was nearing fever pitch. She could feel the fire that it surrounded swell as it gorged itself on her inner flame, and she bared her teeth in a soundless snarl. Almost ready. Almost time.

After this, time would be precious, and every wasted moment meant she crept closer to a final death. So this shot had to be as powerful as she could make it. Her jaw creaked as she clenched her teeth, the pain in her soul intensifying. She pushed ever harder into the fire. She gasped out an involuntary breath as the pain redoubled. And somewhere within her, she felt something deep and fundamental break.

Ah. There we go.

The metal was searing hot as she pressed it to her cheek. She steadied herself. She aimed, taking sight on the grim ocean beneath. And, heedless of any audience, she gave vent to a harsh, grim death rattle of a laugh.

Click.

The entire battlefield was, for a brief moment, bathed in a light like the sun as as a cascading torrent of flames bloomed from her cannon like a flower, and the crash was louder than any thunder. Where it struck, Voidflesh sizzed and burned before the rain doused it. sending forth a cloud of foul-smelling steam above the scorched earth. The laugh only grew louder. And though the ebb in the tide was filled again in the space of a moment, her blood still burned with satisfaction.

In the absence of the cannon's roar, the sounds of the Void and the frigid rain filled her ears once more. She paused, her laughter stopping as she heaved in a breath through clenched teeth. With a sound like lightning striking stone, an incandescent crack of golden light seared across her chest for a moment before fading away. Her breathing grew jagged, and the furnace began to stoke once more. She gave Undying Light an affectionate stroke as the hot metal began to vibrate with the as-yet-inaudible force of the nascent soul-fire within.

Then beneath her, she saw a massive Void beast slithering its way through the dread all around them. Her eyes widened, and a vicious knife of a grin spread across her face as thoughts of duty and protection fled her mind. She backed up, retreating until she felt the paltry warmth of the fading embers at her back. The flame continued to build. She could hear the roar now, could feel it swelling. She slammed as much magic as she could into it, one more time.

Then she ran for the edge and catapulted herself into space.

The fire roared. The cannon burned. The rain fell. And beneath her, the world once more blazed white with staccato cracks of lighting, highlighting the horrifying faces of Voidlings and the grim determination of hunters alike. She hurtled towards the colossal thing, howling as she went with rage, pain, and glee. The fire roared. The rain fell. The Void screamed back at her. And, as she plummeted—cannon pointed straight beneath her—Quinnlash laughed.

"And choke on it!" she screamed, the laughter mangling her words, "Choke on it, you bastards!"

Her fall ended.

The flower bloomed.

Lem's Stash

A T S U K O

“I'm bleeding, I guess. Shut up. Hurry and get outta here 'fore you get hurt.”

Overview

---

_Name

小林熱子
Kobayashi Atsuko

_Age

20

_Gender

Female

_Occupation

Hiki-NEET

Characterization & Conceptualization

---

_{What Do They Look Like?}

Atsuko is a scruffy young adult a little on the shorter side, measuring in at just over 5'1," with tangled, unkempt blonde hair that goes for far too long between washes and brushes, and hasn't been properly cut in much, much longer. Because of that, it's longer than it used to be, going down to a few inches above the small of her back. Her skin is as pale as it can realistically ever become—after all, she hasn't seen the sun in years—and her eyes are fixed in a constant tired squint from not sleeping enough, with nigh-permanent shadows undercutting them from the same. Her frame is thin from not eating much or working out, and unless she needs to, she moves at a slow, languid pace, almost like she doesn't have the energy to spend. She has a long scar down the inside of her left calf from a childhood accident.

_{What Are They Like?}

In a word? Tired. Not only is Atsuko physically tired much of the time, from the aforementioned lack of much food or exercise, but she's mentally tired as well. Consequently, she tends to speak in a bit of a bit of a monotone, quite lacking in inflection. Her voice is usually quiet and somewhat raspy, and she doesn't really show a whole lot of emotion—especially positive emotion—in large part because she sits in the bottleneck of a vast ocean of self-recrimination. She refuses to let herself be happy, because in her mind, she doesn't deserve to be happy. Because she needs to be punished for her crimes. Because she is a terrible person.

_{What's Their Story?}

Atsuko grew up with her small but wealthy family—her father Akito, her mother Sakaki, and her younger sister Hana—in a small town some twenty miles north of the Sapporo city boundary in Hokkaido. They were all of them close, but especially the sisters. They adored each other, and as they aged, Atsuko began to feel a fierce older-sister protectiveness. For most of her life, she was altogether typical; healthy home life, healthy school life, and a future ahead of her.

But then she entered high school and everything started going wrong. Some students got it into their heads somehow that she'd cheated on her entrance exams. The bullying was merciless. She'd done something wrong. She'd hurt people. She was disgusting. But she could handle it, she thought. Better to not provoke even more bullying by going to a teacher who wouldn't believe her anyway. And though it certainly took a toll on her, she—self-confident, self-assured—made it through. But then, as she went into her third year and Hana went into her first at the same school, she realized with horror: if it was affecting her like this, then Hana would be destroyed, just by being her sister. And she refused to let that happen. So she struck back. A whisper here, a cruel note there. Unkind words etched into lockers and desks. Anything to keep them from targeting her baby sister. To keep her safe.

She did her job too well. Hana started crying. Wouldn't say why. Atsuko was furious. Obviously, somebody was still bullying her, and she needed to stop them. She became crueler. Never openly, of course. Quietly, subtly. More etched words. Worse words. Vases of flowers on desks. Then, a bit later, she overheard Hana crying hysterically to their mother, because all of her new friends had left her alone. Looked at her like they were deathly afraid of being near her, like they panicked if she even walked by, like they'd be punished for even talking to her. And Atsuko realized what she'd done.

She dropped out of school immediately. And she made it public. She was the queen bitch bully now, after all. She was the reason her sister was crying. Best to stay away from her. She hasn't left her house in two and a half years now, not even to go to Hana's graduation. After all, better to just stay out of her hair, right? Just keep on staying up late on the computer. Keep lying to people on the internet about a job so she wouldn't sound too much like a loser. Stay out of sight, out of mind, so nobody would ever need to connect Hana with her in their little town. Kobayashi was a common enough last name, right?

All she wanted to do was protect her.

_{Why Did The Wish Choose Them?}

Before she messed everything up, Atsuko thought about being a hero. Not like an Eferion hero, nothing like that, but a kind of hero to Hana. Someone for her to look up to, at least. But that wish vanished years ago, replaced with a crushing sense of emptiness and stagnation. After what she did to her beloved baby sister, she hasn't wanted to be looked up to in a long, long time.

_{What "Hero" Will They Embody? Why?}

All she ever wanted to do was protect Hana. She sacrificed her morals. She sacrificed her self-worth. She sacrificed her future. She will sacrifice anything, throwing herself under the bus in a heartbeat, to protect the people that she cares about. Who else could she be but the Hero of Defense?

_{What Belongings Will They Take With Them?}

Atsuko doesn't keep much on her, day-to-day. Other than a pair of battered gray sweatpants and a rumpled black tanktop, she has her smartphone with around a quarter charge, and a comb stuck in her tangled hair.

Talents & Abilities

---

_{Mundane Talents}

Given how much time she's spent on the computer in recent years, she's become half-decent at video games, which helps her hand-eye coordination. Additionally, she's exceptionally skilled at mathematics, her favorite subject when she was back in school. She's out of practice, but she could pick it back up again pretty easily. Finally, given how much time she's spent in her room, she is very, very good at being alone.

_{Achieved Abilities & Knowledges}

This section should be empty at start.

Lem's Stash

_______________________________________________ // INFO D A T A Full Name - Maki Kirika Hometown - Sapporo, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan Quirk Type - Emitter Gender - Femme - // PERSONALITY P E R S O N A L I T Y Attention-Seeking Kirika is hungry for attention. Forever filled with an urge to always have every eye on the room locked on her, she does her best to always draw everyone's gaze. The personality she's cultivated has resulted in what looks to be an easy confidence behind her as she moves, and though every step is filled with trepidation and fear, she does not show it easily. Fearful One of Kirika's great motivators is the fear she bears towards her Quirk. Its random activation when she was younger, coupled with the lack of any feedback about when it's active and the sheer duration it can last for, has cultivated in her a dread: what if one day, her Quirk refuses to break? What if touching someone no longer pops it open, and sleeping no longer fades it away? If these no longer work—if she no longer has the manual overrides that she needs to pull herself out of it—then what can she do if it refuses to listen to her? She vividly remembers the un-personing of her childhood. More than anything, she is terrified of being forgotten. Loyal Because of her history—both the consequences of her Quirk, and the fear that comes to her with it—Kirika has never had very many friends. She's only managed to find a really good, close friend once or twice. So when she does find one, she is intensely loyal to them. She is loyal, she is protective, she is attached. Some of it is in her nature; some of it is out of that same intense fear that they'll forget about her.

Physical Description Kirika is quite a tall girl, standing at nearly 170cm (or roughly 5'7"), with a stick-thin physique that looks more like a slender boy's body than a girl's. She feels somewhat like it should make her self-conscious, but she's thankful for it; anything to stick out more. Also somewhat helpful in that endeavor is her hair. Smooth and pin-straight, it falls in a violent silver-white curtain to more or less the small of her back. It matches her eyes, the pale gray of morning fog. The way she walks helps her grab attention as well: a smooth, crisp, snapping stride, moving perhaps a little bit more quickly than is necessary. It makes her look like she's perpetually hurrying, and it comforts her the way people look at her a little bit strangely when she's going about her business. When not wearing the dour school uniform that she's entrapped within, she wears things that, while well within acceptable range, tend to stick out a little bit. Her most common example is a tan trench coat that her father gave her when she went off to school ("In case it's raining, sweetie!). It's a little longer on her than it is on her father, dropping just about to the middle of her shins. The summer is a little warm to wear it unless it's a particularly cool day, but she's beginning to grow attached just the same. Personal History Maki Kirika’s first couple years were completely normal. Her mother and father, an editor and photographer respectively, doted on her. And while of course she doesn’t remember anything of that time, it was almost idyllic until she was about halfway through her second year, when her Quirk manifested and she vanished. Not just from her parents' sight. Not just from their hearing. Not just from their photos and family videos. No, her face even vanished from their memories. And so, her first memories are of smothering attention. Smothering attention and very seldom being left alone. And she didn't understand why, until one day she realized that her parents didn't notice her. The next years of her life would be characterized by a feeling of suffocation. When she was at home, it was that feeling of suffocation that worried parents give. She had very little privacy; even being alone in her room was a rarity, even up through middle school. Personal space was a thing that belonged to other people, and her mom was never too far away to reach out and touch her hand. When she was at school, that suffocation was the feeling of choking fear that comes with being forgotten. Her Quirk was unstable for a long time, and there were times when she would simply vanish, and times when she couldn't reappear. Though she always told people that touch would break it, every time it happened, she would tense up when peoples' eyes skated over her. Even worse were those rare moments when touching people wouldn't break it, at least not for a few seconds. She thought. She never could tell on her own, after all. About this time was when her attention-hogging personality began to come to the fore. She couldn't tell when her Quirk was active, it was true. At least not on her own. But if she was up in everyone's faces, when the whole room was looking at her, then she would always know. She would know. And, she convinced herself—in defiance of the facts—that the closer she was to everyone, the less likely it was to not break on touch. And with that personality came the start of a seething resentment. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair that she always needed to make sure people could see and hear her before she did anything. It wasn't fair that she was terrified of fading away, being un-personed so thoroughly nobody would ever remember her. It wasn't fair. But as she aged and gained some control over her Quirk, she began to experience another side of it. Yes, it was unpredictable, and when it went off without her knowing, it was genuinely terrifying. But, as she discovered when she was cornered on a city street at night before fading both her and her friend away, it could also be exceptionally useful. And that got her to thinking. Using her Quirk in public would certainly be frowned upon—if anybody could really tell, that was. But it would be difficult to learn how to keep it from activating on its own without any kind of instruction. Somewhere to learn how to properly use her Quirk, to peel back the anger that she had towards it, and to harness its burgeoning power as a force for good? Well, she'd lived in Sapporo her whole life. Ishin academy was just down the road, right? Character Arc Kirika's character arc is founded deeply in her fear. How her fear is created, how her fear is handled, and how her fear is eventually resolved. She has a remarkably powerful utility Quirk, something that could be genuinely terrifying if she were to embrace it all immediately. But she can't properly use it, because she fears it desperately. She grew up being terrified of being un-personed and forgotten since she can remember, and it's going to take her a long, long time to move past that. That moving on is going to form the crux of her character development. As she gains better control over her Quirk, her fear will slowly begin to abate. And though of course there will be moments of relapse where her Quirk activates all on its own and she returns to that instinctual fear, she will move past them, and eventually past that bone-deep fear to truly take advantage of the Quirk that she's been cursed or—she will eventually realize—blessed with. Quirk Description Kirika's Quirk, and the great object of her fear, is Null Field At a thought, she can project an invisible bubble around her, more or less five feet across. She, and anybody within that bubble, becomes imperceptible. They'll still trigger motion detectors, infrared lasers; they're still there. But living things struggle with the same. They're not made invisible. More like...they're rendered so unbelievably unremarkable that wherever they are, it just seem like the most natural thing in the world. Other than the somewhat restrictive size limit that requires people to stay close to Kirika, there aren't a lot of inherent factors that limit its use. Though it does constantly drain her energy when it's active, it's more of a passive drain than anything else. She may become tired and hungry a little bit more quickly and easily, but it's nothing she really notices. So duration isn't an issue. The main restriction placed upon its use is when anybody within the bubble does anything that would get them noticed for sure. Touching someone, throwing an object with an easily traceable flight path, having their footprints followed back to them; when one member of the bubble is noticed, then it immediately pops and reveals everybody. And while there's no set duration on the Null Field, once it's brought down it can't be thrown up again for at least a couple minutes. No do-overs. In addition, the field will break whenever Kirika falls asleep or is knocked unconscious—for the most part. Though unlikely, it can stay up through sleep. And this is when Kirika is the most afraid. Because if it won't break, even when she's not conscious...will it ever break at all?

Lem's Stash

_______________________________________________ // INFO D A T A Full Name - Nigata Kayo Hometown - Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan Quirk Type - Emitter Gender - Femme - // PERSONALITY P E R S O N A L I T Y Narcissistic While you might not tell it from first glance, Kayo is a dyed-in-the-wool narcissist, obsessed with status and living on praise. Though she expertly projects a facade of a cutesy, sleepy girl, once you get past surface level she is revealed as the cold, calculating young woman she truly is. The picture is completed with her stunted empathy; so convinced is she of her own superiority that empathy for others doesn't even factor into her worldview. Obsessive If Kayo latches on to something that she wants, she wants it to truly belong to her. This can be harmless; she can want something as innocuous as a new pen. It can also be something truly sinister, as she decides that a fellow human being is now hers. Spiteful A great deal of Kayo's life has been characterized by being hurt in various ways. The only way she could avoid being completely broken down was to build a shell of pure spite around herself, enough that even a small slight against her could have drastic consequences, and many of her motivations—including being a hero to begin with—find their start in anger and spite.

Physical Description Standing at 5'1", Kayo stands at a height just slightly shorter than usual (which only helps her, really). Her most noticeable physical trait at first glance is her long curtain of pale green hair, which she takes very, very good care of (it takes her nearly an hour to brush it out in the morning, it's a nightmare). Her skin is smooth and fine due to an equal amount of care. She has a narrow face and a sharply pointed chin. Finally we reach her brilliant green eyes, which are slightly off-putting to some people: they glow dimly in low light, and her pupils are narrow and slitted, like a snakes. She's almost always wearing a smile; it's just unclear which kind of smile it is. Personal History Nigata Kayo did not have an exceptionally good childhood. It was alright for the first couple years. Her mother—Nigata Kagami, an excellent doctor loved by all—had always been a touch strange, but she was too young to really understand anything about it. Until very early in elementary school, everything was fine. Everything was fine. And then her Quirk manifested itself just slightly later than normal. And it manifested itself while she was playing with her mother. She doesn't remember a whole lot of this time, but she does remember her mother grunting in surprise and pain and then looking at her with sudden malice. And from then on, her childhood grew harder. Her mother dropped the act, revealing herself as the raging narcissist that she was. Someone who only became a doctor for the accolades and praise. Someone who only acted nice because it made people love her. And somebody who had a minor and pedestrian Quirk to adjust her own pain tolerance. Because of her Quirk, Kayo's did very little to her. But now she knew that her daughter's Quirk was more powerful than her own. And she took offense. She became a monster to her daughter, alternately ignoring her, psychologically tormenting her, and forcing her to look in a mirror and use her own Quirk on herself until she was a screaming, crying wreck (mirrors still terrify her to this day). So it's not a stretch to imagine that Kayo began to pull inwards, and give herself the ego that her mother no longer did. This was only aggravated in school, where she would occasionally accidentally use her Quirk on other kids. And though she apologized profusely, they began to avoid her, all but one. And so, the only way for her to rationalize it and preserve the ego that she was beginning to build up for herself was to assert: they're all dumb. Everybody but Kaoru, they're all dumb idiots. And to make it worse, as her Quirk began to build in power more and more, pain stopped repulsing her. Instead, causing pain began to...intrigue her. All of these factors conspired to forge her into an obsessive narcissist who, additionally, was very fascinated by pain. And when she was a little way into middle school, these all combined to give her a horrible fixation on a classmate who she grew absolutely obsessed with. And when she fixed him with her eyes, when she caused that terrible pain, she felt a thrill like nothing else. Though she—with Kaoru's help—managed to escape her obsession, it still bubbled just under the surface, waiting for a new target. Crushing it down as best she could, she decided something then and there. If her mom was that jealous of her Quirk, then what would insult her more than becoming a hero? Character Arc As a character, Kayo is an exploration on inversions. She initially goes to IA out of spite for her mother, but eventually really, truly wants to become a hero. She starts her character arc with manipulation and obsession, and ends it with contrition and redemption. Rather than the character course of someone who wants to become a hero, aims straight for that goal and then perhaps dips down onto a dark place and becomes a villain, she is a character who starts on that dark path towards villainy, but manages to pull herself out of that doom spiral and become somebody that she can legitimately be proud of. And so, her character development over time is just that. The obsessive pit that she digs herself down into is not only a low point for everyone else around her, but a low point for her own health, safety, and sanity. The way that she crawls out of that pit—the challenges she faces in order to get there, the people that she's hurt that she needs to hopefully make amends to—is where the great majority of her character will be, and I'm very excited to see it. Quirk Description Kayo is so toxic that even looking at her can be dangerous. Her Quirk Venom Eyes can be activated any time she makes direct eye contact with somebody, directly tapping into the target's nervous system—specifically the pain receptors. With a pulse of a sickly yellow glow from her snakelike eyes, she can dial them up or down, causing either a searing, full-body pain or a deadening numbness, though she's significantly better at using the pain than she is the numbness. There are a few limits on this power. Since it requires direct eye contact, it has a limited range, and is almost completely useless, at least at the start, on people who either hide their eyes, don't have eyes to hide, can't use their eyes, or have no nerves to aggravate. Each pulse from her Venom Eyes additionally accrues a brief cooldown period where her optic nerves need to rest from the sudden stimulation.