Paths of Parity

Noble Arms: The ASEAN War - Thread Three, the Darkest Hour

"Fine, twenty minutes!" Feng conceded to the strange woman (Peony). "Then I'll destroy you all!"

The minutes following the agreement were the most awkward and harrowing of her life. Not that she regretted making the offer, she noted the building being evacuated which was one concern addressed if nothing else.

It was also the first time she saw her comrades, not that any of them considered introducing themselves a priority which was understandable given the circumstance. The raven haired one even stood in front of her. He must be particularly brave.

Things only escalated from there. A few minutes before the allotted time ran out, the blond haired women dashed forward and the world shifted. The town disappeared and Peony found herself elsewhere, presumably trapped in alongside her new team and an exceptionally powerful Arms Master.

In the next moment, the false sky was wiped away and replaced with another, more natural looking, false sky.

Despite it all, Peony didn’t feel afraid, whether that was a result of genuine bravery or having simply run out of fear she couldn’t say. She pulled back her sword and flicked it forward, causing its fluidlike body to lash out. The first few attacks were downright pathetic. The first missed completely somehow and the second was thrown off when she tripped over her own feet.

After emptying her clip, Feng danced out of the way, surprisingly nimble for someone who carried her large, cumbesome-seeming shield, and Myron realized that, "She has Noel inside her shield! I can recognize La Luna's Miraculous Evasion in her movements! She probably has another person devoured too!"

If that was due to an ability, then there was little she could do except attack from a different angle.

She gripped Plunging Tesseract’s hilt with both hands and swung in broad strokes, splashing Flux onto the ground between Feng and Callie. The growing puddle looked similar to the weapon it was derived from but its greater size painted a better picture. Sunbeams could be seen disappearing into the deep violet depths of the puddle. As it spread across the false ground, distant shapes and points appeared and vanished within its depths.

It was a balancing act between avoiding the meteors and continuing to swing in order to keep distance between the interloper and her target. Still, the stakes were too big to let up. Ideally she could surround the girl and her cannibalistic weapon with Flux, hemming her in to create a oppurtunity.

Noble Arms: The ASEAN War - Thread Three, the Darkest Hour

When Peony joined, she didn’t expect such a heavy escort from her new… employers? Comrades? In hindsight, she really should have, given the power an average Arm Wielder possessed, she was as much a liability as an asset and that was being generous considering they were almost infiltrated by enemy Masters.

That didn’t stop the image of several heavily armed soldiers escorting a fairly small woman from being any less comical.

At least the guards were amicable enough, the journey would have been incredibly awkward otherwise. The picture they painted of Obsidian was strange and maybe a little concerning. She didn’t know what to expect from the task force but it seemed far more chaotic than a military organization should be. Although, remembering some of the stories her dad told her, perhaps chaos was just something that happened in every military.

She wouldn’t be dissuaded by them at any rate, her decision to fight wasn’t something she made lightly and she wouldn’t be deterred by gossip.

The countryside itself was picturesque enough, far more vast than Saipan at any rate. She could imagine visiting as a tourist under better circumstances. Unfortunately, she couldn’t quite ignore the ruins even if a more clinical part of her mind noted the relatively small amount of them.

Looking at the town hall, she imagined the negotiations occurring inside of it were probably some of the most politically significant that ever occurred in the building. With the amount of security, the military certainly treated it as such.

She was also told she was late; there was already a meeting in the New Lubao Town Hall (the image cannot be reposted outside of Wikipedia), where one of TFO's allies was making some sort of heartfelt appeal for support. Either way, she would be guided to the heavily-guarded entrance of the building, then her escort's leader would say, gruffly, "Don't be late again, got it? Arms Master or not, that does not give you the privilege to be late in a war..."

@Letter Bee

Even so, she didn’t appreciate the curtness of the sergeant. It was uncalled for even if it was accurate, she gave herself enough grief over the issue.

Peony wouldn’t get any more time to ruminate on the issue when the sky suddenly went dark. A part of her left arm buzzed with an anxious energy. While it still looked normal, it felt as if it was submerged in a viscous fluid at all times. This particular reaction was new in a way that was decidedly unwelcome.

The supernatural change left her and her guards on high alert but she refrained from calling upon her Arm just yet.

A fiery flicker in the corner of her eye caught her attention and a second later that flicker impacted far too close for comfort, nearly throwing her off balance. Deciding she had shown enough restraint, she called upon Plunging Tesseract.

Her left arm from elbow to fingertip turned steely grey though still moved as flesh should. The blade itself was ornate and massive, longer than Peony was tall though she didn’t struggle to move it in the slightest. The Master focused for a few seconds, entering Liminal state and the nature of the weapon shifted. The once steely grey rippled and became a brilliant white-yellow with pink and sky blue creeping along the ends. Its once solid form was now fluidlike, changing shape constantly if slowly. Ripples formed over the surface of the weapon and drops broke away from the blade, hovered in the air for a few seconds, before falling to the ground. The weapon seemed deeper than the surroundings, like it sunk into reality and its body was the hole.

By the time Peony was ready the dust was beginning to clear, revealing a lone girl. She was shorter than Peony, surprisingly, yet the novice Master felt a bone deep dread looking at her.

"Eheheheheh..." said the girl as she stood up from the center of the cloud of dust and the crater she had formed, then held out her shield, "I am your enemy, Feng Lin, Pig of the Zodiac, Devourer of Noble Arms! I have been sent to avenge the Chinese Pacific Fleet with your lives!"

And to grandstand, the holographic sky above them briefly returned into daylight, then an Eclipse. Then Feng shouted, "Now get your civilians out of here so you can face me at full strength! I can defeat all of you, all at once - You have ten minutes before I use my powers to raze this town to the ground!"

A second later, a giant meteor sponteanously dropped down to just a few inches above the New City Hall... then parked itself there, suspended in midair.

Feng then demanded again, "Now go evacuate all civilians so I can destroy you all singlehandedly!"

@Letter Bee

The meteor certainly helped. Having a blade merely the size of your body never felt so inadequate.

God, what a terrible way to start the new year.

She felt compelled to say something. The girl was here to kill her but she was also giving them time to evacuate civilians so surely she was at least a little bit reasonable.

Tagalog wasn’t her first language but she had a feeling the interloper would understand her second. She cleared her throat. “…Um… There’s a lot of civilians around. To evacuate, I mean. W-We’ll need at least twenty.” She said in fluent Chinese.

She winced at her own milquetoast statement. Maybe she wasn’t cut out for this after all. Given the situation, it was a bit late to back out.

Noble Arms: The ASEAN War - Thread Three, the Darkest Hour

My Hider

Appearance:

Height: 5'8"

Weight: 155lb

Name: Peony Loris

Age: 20

Nationality: American

Noble Arm: Plunging Tesseract

Noble Arm Rank:
Power: C
Speed: D
Range: D
Persistence: C
Precision: D
Potential: C

Noble Arm Type, Element, and Range: Melee, Fathomless Depths

Noble Arm Abilities:

Buoyed by the Precipice - The wielder’s flesh is gradually changed, taking on metallic qualities though retaining its sense of touch. The more the wielder is subsumed, the greater their physical characteristics when the Arm is summoned.

Liminal - When summoned, PT takes on a dull grey hue not unlike steel. When under Liminal, the weapon shines brilliantly and becomes more fluid like. This allows the weapon to change its form to an extent and strike around guards. Most abilities require the Arm to be under the effects of Liminal to work. Without it, it’s little more than a high quality weapon.

Crawling Wake - The fluid Plunging Tesseract is made from is referred to as Flux. It adheres to matter and forms puddles as it is swung. When adhered, it converts the material into more of itself depending on how ‘energetic’ it is. Inert stone takes hours, organic matter generally takes minutes, while anything possessing an electric charge takes seconds. The fluid generally spreads over a surface rather than digging into it.

When Flux is on somebody, the affected area feels heavy and under constant pressure. Moving through a puddle of Flux feels like walking through water even if it’s a mere puddle.

When someone afflicted tries to heal a wound, Flux devours the energy, causing it to fail. The only material truly immune to the fluid is the metal core of the weapon and the subsumed parts of its wielder. The unchanged parts of its wielder are resistant to the Flux as are other Noble Arms.

When PT exits Liminal, all remaining Flux changes into a fragile, gray, shale-like material.

Misc Abilities:
Peony learned how to sew and speak Chinese from her mother.
She is a professional diver and is a skilled swimmer and angler.
Good at long distance running, wants to run in a marathon someday.

Personality: Peony seeks to find a place in the world. Before she manifested her Noble Arm, this wasn’t a problem, there was little she could do to affect the world as a whole and she accepted that. Receiving her Noble Arm called into question that once secure idea. She was taught those with power should use it for the benefit of all but that was a lot easier to adhere to when she didn’t have a lot of power in the first place. Ultimately, her desire to make the world a better place is motivated by her sense of duty as much as it is obligation. Beyond her Arm, she is fairly laid back, slow to anger, and takes life at her pace.

Likes: The ocean, fruit, romantic vistas
Dislikes: Dirty bedrooms, pirates, lionfish
Fears: Being stranded, losing her sense of self, becoming a statue

Bio: Peony was born in Saipan, her father was a former American soldier while her mother was a Chinese migrant. Her earliest memories with them are happy if faint. Shortly after she entered elementary school, her mother abruptly returned to China. She doesn’t remember why or even if she told them in the first place but the loss was painful to both her and her father.

Regardless, life went on and she did what she could to make the most of it. After high school, she took up diving as a profession, catering to tourists, catching rare fish for aquariums, and combing the ocean floor for valuables. That changed when one day a fisherman went missing after a storm. Having a boat of her own, she joined the search, eventually finding the missing vessel. As she drew near, the damaged boat capsized, taking the fisherman down with it. In a panic, Peony dove after. She nearly drowned herself in the process, but managed to save the man’s life.

To save a life was a disorienting experience, being humbling, fulfilling, terrifying, and euphoric all at once. She assumes that was what caused her Noble Arm to manifest which only made the whole ordeal even more distressing. When she took the half conscious man back, she was lauded as a hero but didn’t tell a soul about her power, not even her father.

After the incident, she would occasionally go to isolated locations around her home to test and train her NA, all the while uncertainty churned within her. One one hand, she wanted to continue living the life she made for herself. On the other, there was a lot of strife in the world and she could help. Even then, she only told her father after the tips of her left finger took on a metallic sheen.

Her father didn’t talk much about his past in the military and for good reason, his own experience with it was plagued by tragedy and he didn’t want her to go through something similar, especially with the ongoing war. Instead, they tried to figure out what was going on with her NA by themselves to limited success. All the while, guilt built up within Peony as she continued to do nothing meaningful with her new power.

For the second time in her life, the choice was taken out of her hands. While on a ship to Guam, pirates attacked the vessel. Even then, she held back as they shouted, pushed, and corralled the passengers into one area. When one of them leveled a gun to the captain’s head, she found she could no longer stand idle. She remembers bisecting that man from shoulder to hip, everything beyond that was a blur.

Taking a life was similar to saving one except all of the good, warm feelings are wholly absent, replaced by a gnawing guilt. Beyond the internal crisis, it became clear she couldn’t hide for long. There were dozens of witnesses and more than enough evidence that there was a new Noble Arm wielder, even if they didn’t know her exact identity. Rather than wait for the military, the US’s or otherwise, she shared a tearful goodbye with her father and packed her bags.

Six months after she first manifested Plunging Tesseract, with the metallic sheen encroaching past her elbow, Peony Loris boarded her boat and set off for Luzon.

Current Goal: Do something meaningful with her power. Figure out why her NA is changing her. Find time for herself.

Military or Civilian: Civilian Volunteer

Noble Arms: The ASEAN War - Thread Three, the Darkest Hour

I have an updated character sheet for review.

My Hider

Appearance:

Height: 5'8"

Weight: 155lb

Name: Peony Loris

Age: 20

Nationality: American

Noble Arm: Plunging Tesseract

Noble Arm Rank:
Power: C
Speed: D
Range: D
Persistence: C
Precision: D
Potential: C

Noble Arm Type, Element, and Range: Melee, Fathomless Depths

Noble Arm Abilities:

Buoyed by the Precipice - The wielder’s flesh is gradually changed, taking on metallic qualities though retaining its sense of touch. The more the wielder is subsumed, the greater their physical characteristics when the Arm is summoned.

Liminal - When summoned, PT takes on a dull grey hue not unlike steel. When under Liminal, the weapon shines brilliantly and becomes more fluid like. This allows the weapon to change its form to an extent and strike around guards. Most abilities require the Arm to be under the effects of Liminal to work, without it, it’s little more than a high quality weapon.

Crawling Wake - The fluid Plunging Tesseract is made from is referred to as Flux. It adheres to matter and forms puddles as it is swung. When adhered, it converts the material into more of itself depending on how ‘energetic’ it is. Inert stone takes hours, organic matter generally takes minutes, while anything possessing an electric charge takes seconds. The fluid generally spreads over a surface rather than digging into it.

When someone afflicted tries to heal a wound, Flux devours the energy, causing it to fail. The only material truly immune to the fluid is the metal core of the weapon and the subsumed parts of its wielder. The unchanged parts of its wielder are resistant to the Flux as are other Noble Arms.

When PT exits Liminal, all remaining Flux changes into a fragile, gray, shale-like material.

Misc Abilities:
Peony learned how to sew and speak Chinese from her mother.
She is a professional diver and is a skilled swimmer and angler.
Good at long distance running, wants to run in a marathon someday.

Personality: Peony seeks to find a place in the world. Before she manifested her Noble Arm, this wasn’t a problem, there was little she could do to affect the world as a whole and she accepted that. Receiving her Noble Arm called into question that once secure idea. She was taught those with power should use it for the benefit of all but that was a lot easier to adhere to when she didn’t have a lot of power in the first place. Ultimately, her desire to make the world a better place is motivated by her sense of duty as much as it is obligation. Beyond her Arm, she is fairly laid back, slow to anger, and takes life at her pace.

Likes: The ocean, fruit, romantic vistas
Dislikes: Dirty bedrooms, pirates, lionfish
Fears: Being stranded, losing her sense of self, becoming a statue

Bio: Peony was born in Saipan, her father was a former American soldier while her mother was a Chinese migrant. Her earliest memories with them are happy if faint. Shortly after she entered elementary school, her mother abruptly returned to China. She doesn’t remember why or even if she told them in the first place but the loss was painful to both her and her father.

Regardless, life went on and she did what she could to make the most of it. After high school, she took up diving as a profession, catering to tourists, catching rare fish for aquariums, and combing the ocean floor for valuables. That changed when one day a fisherman went missing after a storm. Having a boat of her own, she joined the search, eventually finding the missing vessel. As she drew near, the damaged boat capsized, taking the fisherman down with it. In a panic, Peony dove after. She nearly drowned herself in the process, but managed to save the man’s life.

To save a life was a disorienting experience, being humbling, fulfilling, terrifying, and euphoric all at once. She assumes that was what caused her Noble Arm to manifest which only made the whole ordeal even more distressing. When she took the half conscious man back, she was lauded as a hero but didn’t tell a soul about her power, not even her father.

After the incident, she would occasionally go to isolated locations around her home to test and train her NA, all the while uncertainty churned within her. One one hand, she wanted to continue living the life she made for herself. On the other, there was a lot of strife in the world and she could help. Even then, she only told her father after the tips of her left finger took on a metallic sheen.

Her father didn’t talk much about his past in the military and for good reason, his own experience with it was plagued by tragedy and he didn’t want her to go through something similar, especially with the ongoing war. Instead, they tried to figure out what was going on with her NA by themselves to limited success. All the while, guilt built up within Peony as she continued to do nothing meaningful with her new power.

For the second time in her life, the choice was taken out of her hands. While on a ship to Guam, pirates attacked the vessel. Even then, she held back as they shouted, pushed, and corralled the passengers into one area. When one of them leveled a gun to the captain’s head, she found she could no longer stand idle. She remembers bisecting that man from shoulder to hip, everything beyond that was a blur.

Taking a life was similar to saving one except all of the good, warm feelings are wholly absent, replaced by a gnawing guilt. Beyond the internal crisis, it became clear she couldn’t hide for long. There were dozens of witnesses and more than enough evidence that there was a new Noble Arm wielder, even if they didn’t know her exact identity. Rather than wait for the military, the US’s or otherwise, she shared a tearful goodbye with her father and packed her bags.

Six months after she first manifested Plunging Tesseract, with the metallic sheen encroaching past her elbow, Peony Loris boarded her boat and set off for Luzon.

Current Goal: Do something meaningful with her power. Figure out why her NA is changing her. Find time for herself.

Military or Civilian: Civilian Volunteer

Noble Arms: The ASEAN War - Thread Three, the Darkest Hour

@Paths of Parity, I like it, but iffy on the NA continuing to change her even when its not activated. Also, how does this interact with energy barriers/forcefields?

@Letter Bee

The idea was to create something that forces her to act despite her inner turmoil and is only resolved if/when she overcomes it but if it's too much of a stretch then it can just change her when it's active. Any other thoughts?

Noble Arms: The ASEAN War - Thread Three, the Darkest Hour

Hello, I was interested in creating a character. It might be rough around the edges but please tell me what you think.

My Hider

Appearance:

Height: 5'8"

Weight: 155lb

Name: Peony Loris

Age: 20

Nationality: American

Noble Arm: Liminal Tesseract

Noble Arm Rank:
Power: C
Speed: D
Range: E
Persistence: C
Precision: E
Potential: B

Noble Arm Type, Element, and Range: Melee, Fathomless Depths

Noble Arm Abilities:

Buoyed by the Precipice - The wielder’s flesh is gradually changed, taking on metallic qualities though retaining its sense of touch. This occurs even when the weapon is not summoned. The more the wielder is subsumed, the greater their physical characteristics when the Arm is summoned.

Plunge - When summoned, LT takes on a dull grey hue not unlike steel. When under Plunge, the weapon shines brilliantly and becomes more fluid like. This allows the weapon to change its form to an extent and strike around guards. Most abilities require the Arm to be under the effects of Plunge to work, without it, it’s little more than a high quality weapon.

Crawling Wake - The fluid Liminal Tesseract is made from adheres to matter and forms puddles as it is swung. When adhered, it converts the material into more of itself depending on how ‘energetic’ it is. Inert stone takes hours, organic matter generally takes minutes, while anything possessing an electric charge takes seconds. The fluid generally prefers to spread over a surface rather than digging into it.

When someone afflicted tries to heal a wound either through natural regeneration or supernatural healing, the fluid devours the energy and spreads proportional to the healing the target would have received. The only material truly immune to the fluid is the metal core of the weapon and the subsumed parts of its wielder. The unchanged parts of its wielder are resistant to the fluid as are other Noble Arms.

When LT exits Plunge, all remaining fluid changes into a fragile, gray, shale-like material.

Misc Abilities:
Peony learned how to sew and speak Chinese from her mother.
Professional diver, has a talent for swimming and fishing.
Good at long distance running, wants to run in a marathon someday.

Personality: Peony seeks to find a place in the world. Before she manifested her Noble Arm, this wasn’t a problem, there was little she could do to affect the world as a whole and she accepted that. Receiving her Noble Arm called into question that once secure idea. She was taught those with power should use it for the benefit of all but that was a lot easier to adhere to when she didn’t have a lot of power in the first place. Ultimately, her desire to make the world a better place is motivated by her sense of duty as well as obligation. Beyond her Arm, she is fairly laid back, slow to anger, and takes life at her pace.

Likes: The ocean, fruit, romantic vistas
Dislikes: Dirty bedrooms, pirates, lionfish
Fears: Being stranded, losing her sense of self, becoming a statue

Bio: Peony was born in Saipan, her father was a former American soldier while her mother was a Chinese migrant. Her earliest memories with them are happy if faint. Shortly after she entered elementary school, her mother abruptly returned to China. She doesn’t remember why or even if she told them in the first place but the loss was painful to both her and her father.

Regardless, life went on and she did what she could to make the most of it. After high school, she took up diving as a profession, catering to tourists, catching rare fish for aquariums, and combing the ocean floor for valuables. That changed when one day a fisherman went missing after a storm. A search was organized and, having a boat of her own, she joined, eventually finding the missing vessel. As she drew near, the damaged boat capsized, taking the lost angler down with it. In a panic, Peony dove after. She nearly drowned herself in the process, but managed to save the man’s life.

To save a life was a disorienting experience, being humbling, fulfilling, terrifying, and euphoric all at once. She assumes that was what caused her Noble Arm to manifest which only made the whole ordeal even more distressing. When she took the half conscious man back, she was lauded as a hero but didn’t tell a soul about her power, not even her father.

After the incident, she would occasionally go to isolated locations around her home to test and train her NA, all the while uncertainty churned within her. One one hand, she wanted to continue living the life she made for herself. On the other, there was a lot of strife in the world and she could help. Even then, she only told her father after the tips of her left finger took on a metallic sheen.

Her father didn’t talk much about his past in the military and for good reason, his own experience with it was plagued by tragedy and he didn’t want her to go through something similar, especially with the ongoing war. Instead, they tried to figure out what was going on with her NA by themselves to limited success. All the while, guilt built up within Peony as she continued to do nothing meaningful with her new power.

For the second time in her life, the choice was taken out of her hands. While on a ship to Guam, pirates attacked the vessel. Even then, she held back as they shouted, pushed, and corralled the passengers. When one of them leveled a gun to the captain’s head, she found she could no longer stand idle. She remembers bisecting that man from shoulder to hip, everything beyond that was a blur.

Taking a life was similar to saving one except all of the good, warm feelings are wholly absent, replaced by a gnawing dread. Beyond the internal crisis, it became clear she couldn’t hide for long. There were dozens of witnesses and more than enough evidence that there was a new Noble Arm wielder, even if they didn’t know her exact identity. Rather than wait for the military, the US’s or otherwise, she shared a tearful goodbye with her father and packed her bags.

Six months after she first manifested Liminal Tesseract, with the metallic sheen encroaching past her elbow, Peony Loris boarded her boat and set off for Luzon.

Current Goal: Do something meaningful. Figure out why her NA is changing her. Find time for herself.

Military or Civilian: Civilian Volunteer