LorelleQuips

Welcome to Marchand!

Toby could tell by the look Dante gave him that he had miscalculated. He nevertheless took a seat at a safe distance, since it didn't look like he would be eating today either. "It's nice to meet you both, S..." He paused mid sentence when he heard one Maddie speaking - unlike some others, he did not pause to puzzle, as he had seen this Lovette before - but quietly resumed during the lull.

"Right. Blood feud," said Toby, wincing as he watched the carnage. He managed a wry smile as he looked back at the siblings . "Good to see the new generation of Norrevinter line has maintained its...um, d--diplomatic skills."

Ryan. Ryan. As he listened to their familial banter, he tried to place the name, but couldn't recall. That's what he for for keeping away from magical society for the majority of his teenage years.

Then Sam was prompting for an introduction, and he did his best not to stiffen.

"I'm Toby Schippers," he said, trying to play that casual, which was difficult, since in this crowd, that would be like trying to introduce himself as Toby the Ripper or Toby Bundy or Toby Manson or something and expecting not to get a double take.

Well maybe not quite that bad. But it felt that bad.

"So what classes are you two going to be taking?" he pressed on after the bare minimum of the polite customary pause had passed.

@caliban22

Welcome to Marchand!

Toby's maternal side is the Fox family, which I've worked out a link with VitoftheVoid, so if you want terramancer prestigious turned cultist Fox connections better go to her, but I'm so down with coming up with some Schipper links. They are a line that has been largely in America practically since the Mayflower, but they have roots in both Germany and the Medittereanian. Power wise, underwhelmingly dilluted but with some good runecasters here and there...but more known for some seriously spotty individuals, probably because people go looking for it now. Kind of one of those circumstances where any time some violent criminal is caught in the magical world, it's like... "Oh look, his grandma was half Schippers. That explains that nasty streak."

Granted, they don't have to go looking very far this generation.

So if anyone wants to come up with some history there, be it recent or ancient... hit me up!

(Dead) The Gifted World

Sorry. Toby is aiming at Dawn. Spire is zapping Vivian. That wasn't clear at all.
Two dark haired girls and all that.

Welcome to Marchand!

For my part, I thought Oren's little dig was funny. XD

I can tell she really loves teenagers.

Welcome to Marchand!

Outside the academy, another arrival pulled up. The driver, a dark-haired, angular, keen-eyed man, didn't look quite old enough to be the father of the boy in the passenger seat, a gentle-featured young man dressed not unlike some kind of dorky professor, but despite the difference in demeanor, the family resemblance showed in the structure of their faces: brothers, albeit separated by more than a decade.

"Ready, kid?" the elder, Spire, asked, door open and one foot on the pavement.

"Hang on," Toby mumbled, sliding down in his seat, even though he wasn't the one who should be doing the hiding. He had spotted two distinctive figures descending the steps. Even if Toby hadn't seen them before, the red hair told him Norrevinter.

Spire shut the door and watched them pass with a wry smile, his hands thrumming on the steering wheel as he obviously fought to restrain himself from popping out and saying hello, just for the simple pleasure of seeing their reaction.

Toby's cheeks went red at this reminder of why he feared this crowd.

Spire reached down and popped the trunk, evidently thinking better of accompanying his brother inside. "Tell Byrne hi for me."

"Okay," Toby mumbled.

"Are you nervous?" Spire checked, since he was famously bad at interpreting the nuances of those kinds of things.

Toby shrugged. "I mean. As much as you'd expect."

"Don't be. Nobody is going to mess with you," Spire assured him.

Toby laughed once. Only because they'd be afraid he was related to a psychopath, he thought. They said their goodbyes - no hugs, just a punch on the shoulder, and Toby retrieved his duffel from the trunk.

Spire rolled the window down. "Hey. Please do something irresponsible for once. I'm beginning to worry about whether you're human."

Toby gave an awkward through-the-luggage wave goodbye."I'll t--turn in a paper late just for you," he promised.
...He totally would not turn in a late paper, ever.

After checking in, Toby wandered into the common room to find it...remarkably quiet. A few side conversations persisted at the fringes of the room, but the focus had been drawn to a demolished buffet bar, where a teacher appeared to be breaking up a fight between a boy and a girl who looked a whole lot like the Norrevinters he had just avoided. He took mental note to steer clear of the girl, and to find a time to approach the boy. He remembered from attending functions in rooms full of mages from his earlier youth that this was a world where one needed allies, even more than in mundane high school. And enemy of my enemy is...

Not that Toby wanted to have enemies. It wasn't exactly his fault everyone thought his brother had arranged for Ren Norrevinter to be killed to cover up his war crimes.

Toby fussily adjusted his collar beneath his argyle sweatervest and scanned the nearby students. He would rather curl up in the corner with a book for now. But this was about social survival.

He eventually sidled up to a boy and girl he spotted on his right. Survival skills kicked in - graphic tees and comic book symbols, often a sign of the laid-back and the less popular, more likely to be safe for conversation than, say, the the confident-looking blonde and tall, curvy dark-skinned girl at the table on his left who either knew each other before or had already found each other like glamour-magnets. They might be perfectly nice. Or they might be vicious, stereotypical mean girls...with super powers. Best play it safe.

"Hi," Toby said, directing the question to the innocuous boy and girl, though the two aloof young women were still in earshot. "Are you...ahm...what's g-- what's going on up there?" he asked, a bit lamely, since it was pretty clear what was going on.

@caliban22 @Dodi do 900 @Mr Allen J

(Dead) The Gifted World

Feel free, anyone who is in that scene, to interfere with anything in my last post. Nothing is intended to autohit.

And Toby and Spire are not taking their wildcard of Montana into very close account at the moment.

(Dead) The Gifted World

At the sound of the three shots, Spire's heart would have dropped into his stomach (if he'd had one of those hearts people talk about). Toby would rarely waste three bullets in such quick succession in normal circumstances. Spire was in a state of disbelief that after all the dozens and dozens of fights, his one arrogant move - not getting the teleporter out of the way first - could cost Toby's life.

His relief as he turned a corner and saw Toby apparently safe was palpable, but he settled almost instantly into cool amusement as he caught the tail end of Vivian's jeering. His mad dash slowed to a saunter as he caught his breath.

"Innocent," he said, half laughing, "is a very liberal term to apply to anyone these days."

Toby glanced at Dawn. The mind manipulator was still quite far away, farther than Toby could reliably hit with a pistol. Even with his skill as a marksman, his chances of making a fatal (or even incapacitating) shot couldn't be better than 50/50, but if the teleporter caused much more delay, the two women would have them.

Toby and Spire exchanged a short glance of silent communication, and acted as one.

Spire used his ability on the teleporter unless by chance she zapped away before his gaze had settled, Vivian would feel herself whipped out of her position as he distorted her Gift in a flash. He couldn't plan where it would land her, but he knew it would almost certainly get her out of the way so Toby could do his part.

At the same moment, with a fast-twitch aim, Toby took the shot, praying that the fourth bullet, the final one in the clip, the one that was supposed to go in the ground, would find Dawn.

Welcome to Marchand!

Definitely have no authority to say anything about anything seeing as I haven't even finished my intro, but since people seem a little lost on who is where in this flood of new characters and intros, and they don't wanna have to completely re-read everything (understandably, since having just read through them all, I can 10/10 confirm it is a bit overwhelming to catch up on), maybe everyone could briefly post like a single sentence summary of who and where each of the characters are and with whom they're interacting, as a reminder? Or something?

There is a lot going on to react to. People summoning big ol familiars, teachers displaying powers and blood feuding teenagers making incest insults and trying to murder each other with breakfast foods, etc. It's a lot haha. And somehow I feel like people wouldn't have missed the guy getting thrown into the food table if we were all on the same page.

Once everyone gets into the swing of interactions and familiar with the characters, and maybe if the scenes can mesh a bit, I suspect it will be easier to keep up...

Welcome to Marchand!

Toby Schippers

Name: Tobias (Toby) Schippers

Primary: Runes
Secondaries of Interest: Healing, Familiar Summoning

Description: Tall, but stick-skinny, with the lanky look of someone who used to be tiny but obviously went through a rapid growth spurt. A few weeks shy of 18 years old. Cute, but the way an injured puppy is cute. Wavy mouse-brown hair, big eyes, perpetually concerned eyebrows, and dimples. Wears rectangle-rim glasses when he has to read something far away, and a lot of argyle sweatervests.

Personality: Mild-mannered and polite. Loves literature. His notable block-stutter often makes him seem nervous and unsure--and at any given moment, let's be honest, he probably is nervous and unsure. Between his personality and his appearance, Toby isn't exactly an imposing human being.

Skills: Already somewhat proficient in his self-taught memorization and application of runes. If he lacks depth in certain combative uses, he makes up for with a formidable breadth of knowledge.
He has managed to use one of his secondaries in a limited way, able to summon an utterly harmless Familiar that looks a little like a sugarglider in the face, a little like a duckling, and a lot like it could star in a children's cartoon. Toby has, however, managed a few other summonings. And not all of them are cute or harmless. He enjoys shooting, and is not a bad shot...in a calm, controlled shooting range with stationary targets.

Weaknesses: Toby has no real combat experience, or much social experience in the magical world, for that matter. As mentioned, he's scrawny and his speech impediment is a hinder to his communication. He has no knowledge of healing, merely interest.

Brief History: Toby's mother was grafted in from the powerful terramancy family, the Fox family, which used to be something to be proud of, before Matthew and Morgana Fox had to go become well-known cultists. His father's line, the Schippers family, is known to be a bit of a mixed bag. A few outstandingly gifted rune-casting sorcerers dot an otherwise underwhelming and dilluted family tree. And for as many bright lights, there are black marks--it seems no generation of Schippers can avoid at a criminal lowlife or two.

Toby's father didn't do much to nullify that point of view, as he skipped out on them when Toby was five. His mother later developed an aggressive cancer that even magic could not fix. Four years ago, when Toby was fourteen, she passed away, and Spire, Toby's much older brother, became Toby's legal guardian.

Note on Spire Schippers: Toby will have to navigate school with a considerable shadow hanging over him. The most recent Schippers scandal involved Spire, who was a member of an expert team of operatives during the war. About 15 years ago, near the end of the war, Spire was arrested for murdering three innocents while attacking a den of cultists. (He claimed that the cultists had already cut the victims' throats when he shot up the room, but some members of Spire's unit claimed that Spire himself did the throat cutting, after the shooting occurred, to cover up the fact that he had shot one of the innocents.) Since the gunshot wounds and the fatal exsanguinating cuts were all perimortem, the physical evidence was indeterminate, and the key witness, Ren Norrevinter, was conveniently killed in the war shortly before the trial.

The charges didn't stick. Spire was exonerated, but the Schippers family name took another blow. Much of the magical community knows the name Spire Schippers, most have seen his picture. Rumors float about that he has killed since the war, and he has been seen to mingle with some of the more unsavory sorts in the magical community. Most people who haven't met Spire believe him to be a sociopathic murderer. Most people who have met Spire...still believe him to be a sociopathic murderer. Toby's earliest memories of his older brother are through bars and in tribunals. In spite of all that, Spire has shown himself to be protective and surprisingly close with his little brother.

Other:
For a few years, Toby had foster siblings, his cousins: Cyrus and Dinah Fox, but they were passed along when his mother became ill.

Toby is familiar with Maeve Byrne, one of a few members of Spire's old team who didn't renounce his association, and whom Toby views in a capacity not unlike a crazy aunt.

Toby and Spire have more or less kept away from the magical community as a whole for the last few years, with Toby attending an ordinary high school and studying his gifts in private.

Canvas Ahktar-Sterling

Name: Canvas Fajaar Ahktar-Sterling

Primary: Necromancy
Secondaries of Interest: Levitation, Blood Magic

Description: 16 years old. Average height, average build, and casual style, but with the tanned complexion, dark hair and thick lashes of the Persian Ahktar line and a dash of the infamous good looks of the Sterlings, Canvas cuts a fairly striking picture.

Personality: Though Canvas got his magical ability from the Ahktars, he seems to have gotten the personality of a Sterling through and through. Charming, flirtatious even when he doesn't mean it, even when it's entirely not the time and place. He is capable of more deceit and manipulation than he usually has the guile to execute. Canvas is more concerned with being liked than being powerful, and doesn't spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about the future, though as the bastard son of his Sterling rather and Ahktar mother, he knows it probably won't involve being a family heir.

Skills: The Sterlings paid for an expensive private education, and additionally his springs and autumns with his mother gave him hands-on experience with summoning spirits sprung from the zoroastrian tradition of the Ahktars.

Weaknesses: Despite his access to good training, Canvas is not exactly ambitious, and isn't much more skilled in his crafts for all the extra expense. His flippant attitude can also get him into trouble.

Brief History: It's never any massive shock when a Sterling goes impregnating someone other than his wife. They worked out a decent system. Summers and Christmastime with his father and the silver spoons, the rest of the year with his mother and the vultures; though both respectable magical families (the Ahktars being a very old Iranian necromancy line), they are two different cultures, and two entirely different worlds, which Canvas has learned to straddle.

Tatia Fale

Name: Tatia Anne Fale

Primary: Aeromancy
Secondaries of Interest: Illumination and Levitation, because those sound the most straightforward.

Description: Light brown hair, dark eyes. 16 years old. A slim 5'10" figure that people would call "willowy" if they were being kind and "lerpy" if they weren't. Her features are naturally rather unremarkable, but she makes up for it by using makeup to accent what she has to work with.

Personality: Sarcastic, witty, dry, and not easily fazed. More likely to say, "welp, okay," and just go along with things in a mild state of functional shock than she is to express fear or dismay. She can come across rather unempathetic and will rarely go out of her way to serve anyone in an altruistic manner, but all of that said, if she's pinned to a corner in a moral dilemma, she'll usually choose the noble route, albeit while rolling her eyes.

Skills:
-Making people feel stupider than her.
-Legitimately being smarter than most of those people.
-Playing the violin like a boss.
-Being a quick learner, which is a good thing because...

Weaknesses:
-...she's totally clueless about this entire culture and its emphasis on family pride.
-She has never been in a physical altercation beyond hitting kids smaller than her when she was like 8.
-Her apparent fearlessness ends with a deep, irrational phobia of seeing other peoples' blood.
-Literally no practice with any secondaries, and only instinctive use of her primary.

Brief History:
Tatia grew up with no knowledge of magic or the occult other than what she read in Harry Potter and saw in the episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that her dork older brother was obsessed with, and the weird shit her grandmother sometimes babbled on about once she started getting a bit senile.

Tatia's maternal grandmother was a weak Aeromancer in a family of sorcerers that had mixed with nonmagical humans for so long that the magical culture had already all but forgotten their names. When good ol' Gran's children (including Tatia's mother) never manifested abilities, she let that part of her heritage disappear, living in a normal suburban Oregon neighborhood.

Tatia's magical blood may have trickled through a generation without manifesting, but lo and behold, Tatia began to grow up and SURPRISE could create windstorms with her brain. By a statistically improbable twist of fate, somewhere deep in the roots of her father's family tree were more Aeromancers: the combination yielded Tatia (who boasts a level of natural power one would expect from a moderately respectable Aeromancy line -- only so-so by general standards, but pretty remarkable considering her lack of breeding).

Gran has tried to catch Tatia up on things a bit over the last few years (but...well...the senile thing is an obstacle), and Tatia has been sparsely contacted by Council representatives, but she's still jumping in a little blind.

Hooray.

Welcome to Marchand!

Hello there! Sorry for the bit of delay. I'm Lorelle. Pleasure to meet you all, and all that. :D I have another student to throw into the chaos.

Name: Tobias (Toby) Schippers

Primary: Runes
Secondaries of Interest: Healing, Familiar Summoning

Description: Tall, but stick-skinny. 18 years old. Cute, but the way an injured puppy is cute. Wavy mouse-brown hair, big eyes, perpetually concerned eyebrows, and dimples. Wears rectangle-rim glasses and a lot of argyle sweatervests.

Personality: Mild-mannered and polite. Loves literature. His notable block-stutter often makes him seem nervous and unsure--and at any given moment, let's be honest, he probably is nervous and unsure. Between his age, his demeanor, and his appearance, Toby isn't exactly an imposing human being.

Skills: Proficient in his self-taught memorization and application of runes. If he lacks depth in certain combative uses, he more than makes up for with an already formidable breadth of knowledge. His utterly harmless favorite Familiar is less than frightening (and in fact looks suspiciously like the demented but sweet offspring of a sugarglider and a chickadee) but Toby has a gift for unsummoning and resummoning repeated Familiars. And not all of them are cute or harmless. He enjoys shooting, and is not a bad shot...in a calm, controlled shooting range with stationary targets.

Weaknesses: Toby has no real combat experience, or much social experience in the magical world, for that matter. As mentioned, he's scrawny and his speech impediment is a hinder to his communication.

Brief History: Toby's mother was grafted in from the powerful terramancy family, the Fox family..which used to be something to be proud of, before Matthew and Morgana Fox's had to go become well-known cultists. His father's line, the Schippers family, is known to be a bit of a mixed bag. A few outstandingly gifted rune-casting sorcerers dot an otherwise underwhelming and dilluted family tree. And for as many bright lights, there are black marks--it seems no generation of Schippers can avoid at a criminal lowlife or two.

Toby's father didn't do much to nullify that point of view, as he skipped out on them when Toby was five. His mother later developed an aggressive cancer that even magic could not fix. Four years ago, when Toby was fourteen, she passed away, and Spire, Toby's much older brother, became Toby's legal guardian.

Note: The most recent scandal involved Spire, who was a member of an expert team of operatives during the war. About 15 years ago, near the end of the war, Spire was arrested for murdering three innocents while attacking a den of cultists. (He claimed that the cultists had already cut the victims' throats when he shot up the room, but some members of Spire's unit claimed that Spire himself did the throat cutting, after the shooting occurred.) Since the gunshot wounds and the fatal exsanguinating cuts were all perimortem, the physical evidence was indeterminate, and the key witness, Ren Norrevinter, was conveniently killed in the war shortly before the trial. The charges didn't stick. Spire was exonerated, but the Schippers family name took another blow. The magical community knows the name "Spire Schippers." Most people who haven't met Spire believe him to be a sociopathic murderer. Most people who have met Spire...still believe him to be a sociopathic murderer. Toby's earliest memories of his older brother are through bars and in tribunals. In spite of all that, Spire has shown himself to be protective and surprisingly close with his little brother.

Other:
For a few years, Toby had foster siblings, his cousins: Cyrus and Dinah Fox, but they were passed along when his mother became ill.

Toby is familiar with Maeve Byrne, one of the few members of Spire's old team who didn't renounce his association, and whom he views in a capacity not unlike a crazy aunt.

Toby and Spire have more or less kept away from the magical community for the last few years, with Toby attending an ordinary high school.