Kirche was, rather immediately, introduced to what was most likely a nen ability that seemed to dump a person (almost two) beneath the floorboards upon entering the establishment. That was certainly a way to introduce yourself to potential hires. Normally she would suppose it was an ambush, but the fact that such an ability was revealed so early and in her presence made her think that they weren't serious about hurting her. An assassin doesn't show their hand until the deed is nearly complete, and never to strangers.
Looking around the bar, most of the patrons didn't seem particularly phased by the action earlier. Whether or not they were plants to make the setting seem more natural was up in the air, but one thing was for certain: the preceding events were not natural. There was no doubt in her mind that the patrons, then, must be Hunters.
Yes... they were all Hunters. The barkeep was saying something about identification before, wasn't he? Combined with the unassuming, clandestine location and the closed sign out front... that meant that this was possibly...
"A Hunter's Bar, correct?" Kirche asked politely, brandishing her Hunter License at the bartender. She gave a short curtsey and nodded at the fellow patrons, nearly allowing herself to chuckle at Lyle's sputtering and shouting. She seemed to find some degree of enjoyment in his misfortune, which she quickly redirected into what seemed to be kind concern for the young woman who had just burst in.
"No, no, you haven't missed any action at all, I don't think," she told Shei gently, "in fact, I'm fairly certain that was just the prelude. Did you, perhaps, get a letter also?"
Kirche looked down at her letter, and then back up at the tavern. She supposed it was natural to meet in a junk heap that no one in their right mind would go near. She doubted anyone but those in receipt of that strange letter would want anything to do with this place. In fact, Kirche herself almost didn't want to go in. It reminded her too much of the seedy shitholes that populated Meteor City. She wasn't exactly expecting a fancy hotel bar, but...
She shook her head. She wasn't there to judge. She was there, ostensibly, to hear a White Tiger out about a vague proposition. Preferably something that would cure her affliction. Something to assuage her boredom and, perhaps, something that was capable of forcing her to become the sort of person that Old Man Yorki and the others thought she could be. She sighed, removed a small handkerchief from inside her apron, and used the fabric to turn the knob without getting the filth all over her fingers.
She entered the bar with something of an irritating, dainty air, closing the door gently and tucking the handkerchief back into her apron. It would be an understatement to say that she stuck out like a sore thumb. The maid outfit was almost certainly overkill, but she personally enjoyed it. In Yorknew city where she spent most of her time, a woman in such an outfit bled into the crowd so much as to be unnoticeable. It was nice. Here, though, she assumed not so much.
Kirche scanned the room quickly, and was somewhat surprised at how many people were actually there. Then, raising her eyebrow, she scanned the room again. Weren't there a surprising number of relatively young men? They seemed an odd fit for a bar. She stared at Provoke especially, noting that the lad couldn't possibly be more than sixteen. Hunters, perhaps. Hunters were called here, after all, and possessing a license could let you ignore certain age restrictions...
Kirche kind of wanted a drink, but she wasn't willing to pay money for potentially poisoned swill. She'd find a nice bottle of something later if everything went well. Maybe a good chardonnay.
I think Crazy Slots is ultimately a fascinating skeleton to work from, even though very few of the weapons and their functions were revealed. It gives you a good idea of what Nen is capable of in its more out-there forms.
Notable Physical Attributes- Good Kid: Kirche was born looking like a “good kid”. This led to people being abnormally predisposed to trusting, liking, and to some extents even taking care of her. If not for this trait, she would likely have died on the streets of Meteor City before her life even began.
Impeccable Hearing: Kirche gained the ability to hear incredibly well growing up in Meteor City. Before you can see someone, the best way to detect them is through sound. This helped her to avoid conflict on the streets as she learned to listen well and pick out sounds that meant danger from ambient noise.
Athlete: Running, jumping, and climbing are important tools needed to escape danger if you find yourself in trouble. If her hearing failed, the ability to bail quickly was another important skill to master.
Discovery of Nen- After taking the Hunter Exam and passing somewhat easily with the help of others, she managed to get a job that she was supremely underqualified for because the contractor had taken a liking to her. After an immense blunder on her part, almost getting some of the team killed, one of the hunters there reluctantly took Kirche under her wing and taught her about Nen.
Nen Type- Conjurer
General Ability- Due to learning very early in life, Kirche is competent in all basic and most advanced techniques. Her En, however, has never quite surpassed the bare minimum of a competent user, as she would much rather fly under the radar. Inversely, her Zetsu and In are incredibly well-honed.
Hatsu- Present For You: Kirche reaches into her bag and produces a gift box roughly one cubic foot in dimension, offering it to someone and saying ‘present for you’! If they reject the gift, she may not offer them another for at least 24 hours. Kirche may not explain her ability to anyone or else she may never use Present For You again. She can, however, make very vague implications. Kirche may not offer herself a gift. If they accept the gift, then they must open it within the next hour or it will disappear. If it disappears in this way, Kirche may not offer them another gift for 24 hours. If the gift is opened within one hour, the contents of the box take shape. Shaking or listening to the box beforehand will yield no results. The shape that the gift takes reflects the expectations of the receiver, and the gift must fit inside the box. Like any conjured item, these gifts may have supernatural properties which depend on the current desires of the receiver. The gift disappears when more than five feet away from the recipient for over a minute. After disappearing in this way, Kirche may immediately offer the same person another gift. One person may only have a maximum of one gift at a time. The same gift may not be received by the same person more than once, although gifts similar to a previous gift may manifest. With all these limits and restrictions in place, every gift given has the chance to be an exceptionally potent item. However, this ability is based on how the recipient feels about Kirche. If they don’t expect anything special, they will not receive anything special, and their item will have only modest power. Like a pair of socks that make them go slightly faster.
Hand-Me-Downs: When a previously opened gift disappears, it is added to a list of possible Hand-Me-Downs. Once every 24 hours, Kirche may reach into her bag and retrieve an item on the list of Hand-Me-Downs at random. That item is then removed from the list of Hand-Me-Downs, and will disappear forever after 24 hours. If there is only a single item on the list, it will appear at roughly the power it was when first summoned. The power of the item increases immensely when there are many items on the list due to how incredibly random the quality of the item might be and how many more items were possible at the time of retrieval.
Weapons or Equipment- A bag, large enough to produce a gift from.
Her Hunter’s License.
Trained Skills or Knowledge- Pawn Star: While becoming proficient with Gyo has assisted her in identifying items made by Nen geniuses, she has an overall fantastic knowledge of what is and is not valuable which she learned over years of conversing with the local pawn shop owner in Meteor City. Being able to judge trash from art is often the difference between eating and not.
Chef de Cuisine: Learning to make your own meals is par for the course for any street rat, but after leaving Meteor City and improving her quality of living, she’s gained a lot of skill in the kitchen. Currently she is on par with a head chef at a nice restaurant, though not necessarily as good as a competent Gourmet Hunter.
Intellectual Persuasionist: A large part of her likability comes from her appearance, but she has further honed her persuasive abilities with her words and actions. She is excellent at getting her way, although some people certainly cannot be reasoned with. She excels especially at bargaining, befriending, and conflict avoidance.
Notable Scars or Physical Appearance Traits- Underneath her usual maid outfit, much of her body is covered in old scars, proof of difficult lessons learned on the streets of Meteor City before she learned how to survive. She keeps most of them covered up as she doesn’t like to talk about it.
Notable Personality Traits/Personality- Though seemingly kind, she has been somewhat hardened by her experiences in Meteor City. While most children that grew up on those streets learned to cope through violence, she learned to talk her way out of trouble and run away when she couldn’t. Her Hatsu “Present For You” is a manifestation of her reliance on others, and her need to make people fight for her instead of doing it herself. Her gift-giving started when she found that she could wrap up junk and give it to people, and her “good kid” looks would have them interpret it as the good will of a sweet orphan. Just like that, giving people any old junk got them on her side, and she could sic her new friends on those that wronged her.
Though she has grown as a person since then, trying to learn to treasure her bonds rather than use people, she still has a penchant for manipulation. Her desire to become truly close to others, however, manifests in her Hatsu “Hand-Me-Downs,” where the true depth of her bonds bear fruit. She’s usually outgoing and friendly with others, but has a lot of trouble talking about anything deep, especially in regards to herself. Because of this, it is easy for one to write her off as “fake” and “shallow”.
Past Affiliations or Experience- Meteor City
The Hunter Association
The Bull Market
Notable Relations- Old Man Yorki: The middle-aged man who runs Meteor City’s ‘Crater Pawn’. He was the first adult to extend his kindness to Kirche, who was abandoned by her parents when she was very little. He taught her a lot about identifying antiques and quality items, and always gave her a good price on her dumpster dives. While seemingly gruff and reluctant to help, his actions tell a very different story about his kind heart.
Marie Coarseblood: The Hunter who taught Kirche the basics of Nen. At first she despised Kirche for seemingly manipulating her way into a job at her low level of experience, but she quickly discovered that the contractor was simply a moron. Not wanting the kid or any of the other Hunters to die due to this incompetence, Marie had to train Kirche quickly and forcefully awoke her aura nodes. Due to her exceptional experience as a Hunter, this Initiation did not result in too many negative side effects, and by the end of the job Kirche was able to defend herself.
General History- Kirche’s first memory is crying in front of Crater Pawn. She was three or four, and everything before that was exceedingly hazy. Old Man Yorki took her in for a while, grumbling as he fed her, and told her that she was racking up a tab. Not knowing where to go or what to do, Yorki told her to find ‘interesting junk’ and steer clear of street toughs. He showed her a few places she’d be unlikely to be bothered, and told her to get to work.
Kirche dove through garbage all day, and came back with bags full of things she thought were interesting. Her heart sank when the old man tossed most of the things she had found right back in the bin, but alighting on her final find, a small vase, a smile cracked through his otherwise grim visage.
“Is good. Good find, devochka. I will pay for this,” he growled, seemingly pleased.
From that point on, he taught her even more about how to spot valuable things. She began bringing back more stuff, and more of it was being accepted. She needed to expand her search, however, because leads were drying up. She began to look in more dangerous places, trying to avoid the violent ire of the average Meteor City street rat. She honed her abilities in speaking and conflict avoidance in this way, but it wouldn’t always work. Some days, she’d come home beaten and bloody, with no items to show for it. These were the worst days, but still Yorki offered her soup and a pat on the head.
“Can’t be avoided. Piz’duk sons of goats. We call it training day, da? Is no charge.”
Soon after she started getting beaten, she began giving presents to a few of the people who helped her out. She was a good kid, after all. Nothing expensive. Nothing she would ever bring to Yorki. But it’s the thought that counts, and it was enough to get people in the parts of town that she usually wandered on her side. When she was in trouble, she would call out, and soon have a small army to help her. She relished in watching her harassers be beaten. She enjoyed having others crush them into the dirt for her.
Eventually, she made enough money to pay back Yorki, and then some. She had gathered enough savings to begin her journey to become a Hunter, something that Yorki admired and said that he always wanted to do when he was younger. Hunters were loved. Hunters were famous. Hunters had benefits, and scarcely had to worry about money.
Hunters could go wherever they wanted.
She spent her last night in Meteor City examining the vase that she had brought Yorki on her first dive. She’d consulted many manuals over the years, wondering how much it was really worth, but all signs pointed to one thing:
“Is worthless. Da. But worth many for Kirche. You need confidence boost on that day. Objective value good! Books can teach. You make money. But… value of thing in heart? Is good too. You not forget true power of treasure.”
As she was leaving the next day, the people she had given junk to wrapped like a present all showed up with gifts of their own. Traveling supplies, food, clothes…
The junk was meant to manipulate them, but each of those people truly valued the trash she had given them. She left Meteor City in tears, wondering if she could be a better person.
During the Hunter Exam, she tried to rely on her own power, but it was obvious she was too weak to make it the whole way. In the end, she made alliances, stabbed a few people in the back, lied, cheated, and stole to get her license. She finally held it in her hand, but it felt undeserved. Though her victory was hollow, the benefits of the license were real. She was quickly offered a job by a man who had taken a liking to her, and unbeknownst to her, her “good kid” status had worked against her this time.
It was a long job: an expedition in the Republic of Padokea. They were to explore an immense forest and report their findings. Kirche, who could not use Nen, was hired muscle for the experienced biologists and cartographers. She came into contact with poachers in the area and, because she couldn’t hide her presence, she was followed back to camp where many Hunters were nearly killed. Kirche, herself, sustained serious bodily injury. Marie, an experienced Hunter, was outraged and demanded Kirche be taken off the job. Due to the nature of the work, however, this was impossible for the moment. Slowly Marie began to understand the truth of the situation, and reluctantly trained Kirche when she got better. The two parted on good terms, sharing an awkward laugh about their employer, but it was clear to Kirche that she couldn’t only rely on others. She had to become strong enough to back them up. She couldn’t backslide anymore like during the Hunter Exam. She had to be better.
Years later, after working mostly on basic and advanced techniques (and actually developing two Hatsu), she was making money in Yorknew City’s Bull Market by bargaining, buying low, and selling high. Though she was able to live somewhat comfortably, she was still wasting away in a stifling city. A Hunter, she thought, should never stay in one place for too long. It was then that she received a letter that seemed to promise the adventure that she was seeking.
@SilverPaw Yeah, the way I see mine working is basically "I provide the aura, and you provide the image of the end product subconsciously". This carries the inherent limitation that I have no control over the form or power of the gift. Though Crazy Slots was the skeleton for both Hatsu, it ends up working in a much different way.
There are other postulations I have regarding this ability, but it was already a bit overlong reading-wise lol
It took me a couple of days to settle on a Conjuration ability I was happy with, so I get it. It's my favorite affinity because of how unique and off-the-wall you can get, though it feels like because of that, you're kind of obligated to get a bit crazy. I ended up taking some inspiration from Crazy Slots and went from there.
Also I just like playing support-esque characters.
Tim the Yeti
Fish of Oblivion
HereComesTheSnow
Alby47
The Otter