McHaggis

Forsaken Children of War (Kirah and McHaggis)

When Siobhan collected her timetable from McGonagall, still grinning wickedly with her back to the Slytherin table so they couldn't see it, her happiness dropped slightly. Only two classes with Kyle -- Potions and DADA -- and the flying lessons that a few of the other first years were talking about. She couldn't help but feel excited over the latter. Due to her small size, she'd often been a seeker when her brothers and sisters had played together, and maybe this was an opportunity to show off her skills.

Alistair had been right, too. Transfiguration was first. Siobhan happily returned to the first year side of the Gryffindor table, taking a seat at the far edge. Two of the other girls sidled away from her with only Yvette, a muggleborn, looking haplessly confused at her housemates reactions. Politics may make it so that she could befriend Kyle's house but it did nothing for her own.

Trisha ("Trish" as she insisted on being called) was the first one to complain as they began to trek to the Transfiguration classroom. "I don't know why you're coming with us, Siobhan," she said eventually. "Aren't you a Slytherin?"

Siobhan shrugged. "Sorting Hat said to make friends in all of the houses," she defended herself. "Or am I not allowed to talk to my brother at all?"

"No! Gryffindors never talk to Slytherins. It's the rule!"

In response, Siobhan merely pushed open the door to the Transfiguration classroom as was marked on the door. They were the first ones in. "It's a stupid rule, then." She much preferred Kyle -- and maybe even the other Slytherins -- to Trish. Merlin, I hope Kyle's not having as bad a time with his house as I am, she thought.

The Walking Dead: What Lies Ahead

We're just the cool kids staying outside ;p

Heavens Fall

Lucretia

A response to Draven had been forming on her pale lips when a shudder ran down her spine. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as if charged by static and her eyes darted around nervously.

Could it be..?

Looking distractedly out to the festival, her fingers picked at her dress in a disgustingly mortal characteristic of anxiety. “Draven,” she warned, not even looking at her son. “Be careful– very careful.” With a low whistle, she called up on her companion, the ghostly pale starling, to circle the druid from above protectively. “My brother's here.”

Folding her arms, she faded into the wind. She had to hide her presence. Though Darko was admittedly an ally – family, even – she had no intention of talking to him. Not unless she was truly desperate.

The Walking Dead: What Lies Ahead

Weeeell, I copied Liriia 'cos it read like there was a set of doors outside sooooo...

Suspension of disbelief?

City of Gold OOC

Posted Mal, just a little bit late 'cos this is the third damn overhaul of his power I've had to do before I was sorta okay with it.

Oh yeah, and they're a cold-case solving double act now. I have no idea why.

City of Gold Character Storage Vault

BASIC INFORMATION

Name: Malcolm Okada
Nickname: “Mal”

Gender: Male
Age: 20
Height: 5'11”
Weight: 159 lbs

Faction: Ally/Connection of the Vanguard

---

APPEARANCE
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Dark Brown
Ethnicity: Japanese-American

Physical Appearance:
On first glance, Malcolm is typical of a young Japanese man, if a bit taller than the average. He is of a fairly athletic build with powerful, lean muscles from kendo. Strangely, his most noticeable and interesting feature is his hands – freakishly large, with long, spidery fingers and callouses from holding a shinai. Small, silvery patches of psoraisis are visible on his bare elbows and forearms.

Malcolm can be considered handsome and has told as much in the past, particularly with reference to his strong jawline and straight nose. With permanently furrowed brows and dark eyes allowing little light to pass through them, intimidating is another word that springs to mind. His shoulder-length hair is wavy, often slicked back from his forehead and held in place by reading glasses, but there are a few erratic streaks of grey that have snuck in amongst the black.

He is softly spoken with a particularly low-toned voice. Malcolm's lips are often chapped with peeling skin, mostly because of an obvious habit for biting them in anxiousness. Despite his powerful build, he tends to slouch and slump over, as well as walk staring at the ground and avoiding eye-contact.

Attire: On most occasions, Malcolm is generally unkempt. His clothes are often wrinkled, his collar untucked, his shoelaces untied and his pockets hanging out and empty. It is painfully obvious, however, that what he wears is expensive and well-tailored, even if he doesn't take care of it, as it fits his form snugly. A typical outfit for Mal consists of a button-down shirt (of varying colours), black trousers and his favourite pair of scratched and tattered brown Brogue boots.

If he ever needs to hide his face, which he does often, he wears a plastic mask with a fox's face etched into it. The back of it ironically reads 'Made in China'.

---

PERSONALITY
Outward & Innate Personality:
Malcolm is horribly, disgustingly, chronically shy and – for the most part – terrified of social interaction with anyone outside his family (and girlfriend). Walking down the street, he would keep his eyes firmly locked to the pavement in front of him so as not to notice or have to smile at anyone he knew. A conversation or even a brief 'hello' gone awkwardly would haunt him for days and weeks as he considered what was and could have been if he'd only done it correctly. His self-esteem is low and anything bad that happens is always his fault even when it's clearly not.

In general, he is disinterested with normal, mundane life and was even before his powers began to manifest at the age of fourteen. Malcolm is apathetic towards his university work and truants more than he ought to. He only attends because his grandmother insists that it is the path to a good job and a future of running his family's business – not that he wants to. Malcolm's lack of confidence doesn't stop him from aspiring to be a hero, using his life and power for something more... though he is too timid to take the first step of any action on his own.

Malcolm is a not-so-secret romantic and ridiculously mushy at that. He's the flowers and poetry sort, rather protective over his girlfriend. This is a reflection of his overall loyalty – if he's friends with someone it is for forever; if he loves, it is eternally. Nobody ever said his poetry had to be good.

Hobbies & Interests:
Malcolm's hobbies include kendo (as a sport) and watching MMA fighting, mostly to test and train his precognitive abilities. He also has begun to take an interest in old murder cases – specifically the cold ones – and runs a local, mildly famous blog that was featured in a newspaper for showing the steps he and his girlfriend are taking to solve said crimes. For a bit of fun on the side, he takes on 'regular P.I' cases that are requested of him, like to find out if a lady's husband is cheating on her.

Skills & Talents:
Malcolm is excellent at kendo and as a teenager travelled across the states for various competitions, often placing in the top three if not winning altogether. This extends to an ability to use blunt weapons quite effectively in combat. He is extremely smart, having coasted through high school with straight-As without studying for a single one of them, mostly because of his brilliant memory. Perhaps it is related to his abilities but he has a talent for keen observation, often picking up details that others may miss. Despite not having had lessons for many years, he still remembers how to play the piano, to an extent.

Prized Possession: Laptop – runs his local P.I empire from there and also contains frightening details and clues to solving cold cases including copies of gory, hand-drawn images from Jenna James' psychometry. There are also files of sentimental value there, too, like pictures of both of them together and lewd poetry. He'd just about die if anyone found the latter.

Family:
Hideki Okada || Father || Alive || Often away on business and rarely sees his son, though they are close.
Hana Okada || Grandmother || Alive || A mean old bint who has control of the local restaurant branch.

---

RELATIONSHIPS:
Jenna James Bartlett || Girlfriend

---

ABILITIES
Power Class: Cerebral

Power:
Accelerated Probability – “The user can sense all the variables of any situation, predict the outcomes and what choices one should make to reach the conclusion they want.”

Malcolm's ability, dubbed 'precognition' by his girlfriend, is not a true representation of being able to see the future. His brain is working overtime to process every miniscule detail from the weather to a human's body language in an effort to find the easiest and most successful path to the intended conclusion. When he stands still and has time to prepare, this takes the form of a vision – a branching tree that he follows, imagining the different outcomes – whereas in combat he is only given a flash of intuition on what way to move to dodge an attack and has no knowledge of what the follow up will be until his power next activates. The time difference between both types is about 10 seconds, which could be life or death in combat if they ever got mixed up.

Weaknesses/Limitations/Drawbacks:
– Malcolm's accelerated probability only works when there is a living variable, an 'opponent', to the situation and when he can see that person (either partial or direct line-of-sight). He could never predict a tree about to fall on top of him from natural causes. Since it relies on reading subtle body language like the shifting of feet and the tightening of lips, masks and armour make it far more difficult to predict attacks accurately unless he knows the person behind it all.

– Malcolm's accelerated probability works infinitely better when he knows the variables intimately. It is more accurate and more likely to bring him to the intended conclusion. Therefore, he cannot order others around based on his ability as doing so brings in a whole host of other variables to overload his brain, as do unfamiliar settings. It forces him to be independent and go it alone.

– Overloading is a rarer problem with his ability when his brain gets bogged down with possible event trees, usually when there are more than four human variables to calculate in combat or if he has to compensate for only partial sight. In this case his body refuses to respond and becomes trapped in the 'vision' until he is pushed out of it or it finishes, whichever comes first. If he is forced out of it, his ability is thrown off-kilter for a period of time.

– Sometimes, there is just no possible path that can be taken, a 0% probability of catching a criminal or avoiding a blow. Likely because they're faster or more powerful than he is. In such a case, he is not able to find the 'next best option' and has to suck it up. In addition to this, he has problems predicting meta-human abilities that he has never seen before as it becomes only guesswork. Although he is fairly new to his power, it is clear that it will work much better on those without any powers whatsoever and is designed with that in mind.

---

Other
– The Okada family business is a ridiculously popular chain of sushi restaurants prevalent in seven locations across America.
– Malcolm's university course is in Economics and for the first time in his life he is terrible at a subject.
– Malcolm's weapon of choice is usually a long metal bar or pipe of a similar length to his shinai. He's useless with a live blade.

The Walking Dead: What Lies Ahead

MALIK & KALI THORNTON

“Y'know, sis, we still have time to turn back.”

As he spoke, Malik's dark eyes fluttered from side to side, wide-open and ever-alert. Ever since he'd seen those things attack with his own two eyes, hours before the spread of the infection– disease– whatever it was became a pandemic, he was determined not to be caught unawares and find himself on the receiving end of blunt teeth and bile. A lack of attention and an overabundance of thoughtlessness. That was how it had multiplied into a doomsday event – a goddamned apocalypse – as quickly as a wildfire in a bone-dry woodland.

With his dad's – no, he corrected himself, Eddie's – old army jacket over the thickest woollen jumper he could find, he hoped and prayed it would stop any unwanted scratches and wounds from the newly ressurected dead. Whatever poison their fluids and teeth and fingernails carried, it was a nightmarish way to die. Victims begging for just a little comfort from the nausea and pain would tend to cling to their family members, and when their hearts stopped beating, when the mourners were left with the body for hours as some unseen catalyst festered within the corpse, that was when they would begin their indiscriminate attack, starting with their loved ones. Flashes of locked doors in bustling corridors with screams inside would haunt his dreams for as long as he lived, he was sure.

Trapped in morbid musing, he wondered if that was the same reason why Eddie pickled himself with drink and never, ever, ever spoke of his time in the war.

With a cough, Malik realised they were standing out in the open, sheltered only by a hedgerow at the side entrance to Emory University. Kali, his younger sister, looked unimpressed, arms folded in an equally padded parka. He held his hands up placatingly. “Jus' saying. We don't know what's in there. We don't know if there's survivors left or those... things. Might even be bandits, preying on weak little maidens like yourself.” He tapped his forehead knowingly, with a worried smile that bordered on a grimace. “You gotta think sometimes.”

“Don't be a cynical bastard, Malik,” Kali commented lightly. She must've known how much he hated that term, given that it was Eddie's weapon of choice in a war of words; however, if she took any pleasure from it, Malik couldn't see it. She wore a stoic mask – there was no twitch of enjoyment in her thin lips – and she simply tapped her nails lightly against the dustbin lid she'd picked up as a shield. “We can hardly survive alone on whatever scraps are left in your cupboards.” An accusation.

A non-confrontational person by nature, Malik simply turned around and led her around to the back end of the eerily silent building, knowing his way to the cafeteria – barely. He'd only been for two or three lessons that required the use of university equipment; his college dealt with the rest of his course. Maybe if he'd studied a little harder...

Kali interrupted his pity-party (and what a welcome relief that was) with a quiet, “If there's nobody there, we'll scavenge for some supplies.” Somewhat appeased, Malik simply put his finger to his lips and shushed his younger sister, pointing to his ear. Dead silence followed, broken only by the distant shambling feet of what he assumed to be corpses and a few low, mindless groans.

A car horn sounded in the distance, turning their moaning into a cacophony of noise.

He leaned over to whisper very carefully in her ear, “Coming from the right. Cafeteria's on the left. Watch your flank.” Gripping Kali's free arm at the elbow, he maneuvered her in their intended direction, careful to ensure that his massive backpack made as little noise as possible during the effort. A dark figure sprinted around the side of the building, prompting a swift intake of breath from his sister but Malik didn't even blink. “We're not checking it out. Could be a Thing.”

With a deep breath, Malik moved over to try and push the door open only to find it wouldn't budge. He tried again, exhaling through his nose in frustration, before Kali wordlessly nudged him out of the way and rapped three times on the bloodstained door. “Hey, wanna let us in? The dead – uh, walkers – they'll see us if we're out here any longer! Please open up!”

Malik raised an eyebrow sceptically. “How do you know there's anyone in there?” he asked, to which Kali smirked.

“Boarded up from the inside. They're still in there, dead or alive.”

The Walking Dead: What Lies Ahead

Is the cafeteria door locked? (Just at the tail end of finishing my post now.)

EDIT -- nvm, forgot how to read.

Forsaken Children of War (Kirah and McHaggis)

Math isn't my strong point x)

Well, all the professors have been replaced in Legacy anyway, which doesn't much make sense if it's this universe. Especially since even the younger ones from the books are gone.

Oh well. There doesn't need to be a connection between both, really. The MacFusty clans are the same in name (and occupation) only I guess.

Forsaken Children of War (Kirah and McHaggis)

Totally up for developing a relationship between Jimmy and Tessa \o/ I'm just praying for a Yule Ball style plotline in that one. Like, I dunno, a Remembrance Ball or something. Just for all the romance (and hilarity).

MacFusty clan = Weasleys 2.0

Also I expect Siobhan and Kyle's 2nd year to be fun with the Carrows as teachers. I predict angst!