Pirouette

[MEDIEVAL, REALISM] Marches of Man: The Black Shields!

@Errant Son

Your interest check has not gone unnoticed. Just considering ideas for a character.

Thrivenshell and the Baron - Western Survival Fantasy

Hi

Vidi, Vici, Vixi

Miyako

The Prince and the Pauper
Aventino District

---

Miyako's quiet retreat was rudely interrupted by her casual thematic ringtone. This particular ringtone was the alert for none other than the young ghoul's handler, David Sinclair. Not that Miyako received many calls, in fact, her phone really only buzzed for one. She didn't understand the reference or why David was proud of this particular tune, but she remembered the man raving on about a certain movie. She pulled the phone out and let the tune carry on in her hand until the phone answered itself.

David greeted Miyako but clearly wasn't expecting anything back as he pressed on with a chuckle. Which brought up the point in the girl's mind of whether or not she was actually appreciated and not just used. David was clearly one for his jokes but Miyako did not really know many jokes and certainly wasn't good at identifying them. So naturally, she just thought David didn't really care for her well being or anything, but that was fine, in a morbid sort of way. The thing was, Miyako really didn't know much else. At times, she'd suspect that there had to be something like love, appreciation, and so on. She saw it all the time in humans, mostly, which didn't help her case because she really did subscribe to the notion of "ghouls are unnatural". But then again, why did she yearn for that? It was a puzzling dilemma that might never get answer under David. Thus, Miyako has thought of leaving David many times, but never could bring herself to. Why? She didn't really know. The thought of rebellion was mostly beaten out of her only two years prior but a part of her still clung onto the notion of wanting something more out of life. Not just eating.

Which brings the point around to the Ancelotti. To answer David's unasked request, yes Miyako did leave something behind that belonged the Ancelotti, as per his earlier instruction. A group as large as them had to keep track of their members somehow so someone in their ranks designed a red rag to tie around their arm with a large stitched in "A" in black lettering. The whole thing was reminiscent to the Nazi's of Germany and often stirred up that imagery in humans as they heard about a "killer gang of ghouls" on the local news. But to Miyako, she didn't know history and certainly didn't associate with a negative imagery. In fact, she could only think of a positive connotation as the band symbolized something she never really had. Camaraderie. More specifically, she had only ever seen members of the Ancelotti being supportive and friendly with each other. They seemed nice for what it was worth. But orders were orders and that particular ghoul, more a boy than anything, had something Miyako was ordered to retrieve and she did just that. She also ended up eating the boy entirely as a phantom thought of David claiming "hide the evidence" circulated in her mind, but that's not entirely why she ate him. That 'part' of Miyako came out again and after that, there wasn't much she could do. Though it makes no difference, she did feel bad about it after the fact, but that is probably little consolation to the boy or even Miyako, herself.

That and David's desire for surprises reminded Miyako of something. "Wait." Miyako gasped just as David finished his speel. It was, as a matter of fact, that Miyako did have something for David. "I have a surprise for you." Miyako's voice perked up slightly (but nothing behind a faint sense of excitement) as the fantasy of adoration for her find came into mind. If David was expecting a followup to the girl's previous statement, he'd be left in without an answer as he could hear the phone being stuffed into the pocket but never turned off as the sound of ruffling and movement was heard on the other end. Ending the call was left to David as Miyako often forgot to formally end a call.

---

Miyako returned to the building dubbed "HQ" and with a secret excitement, looked forward to a cup of Japanese coffee.

Masked Heroes (Fantasy Crossover, eg.: do whatever you want(within limits))

Hm. I'll try to think of something.

Vidi, Vici, Vixi

Yes, yes. Very good.

Vidi, Vici, Vixi

Miyako

Roma's Unholy Ghost
Aventino District

---

"RUN!"

That was the last thing Frank Albanesi's lifelong partner, Leo Tamaro, had managed to scream before being beaten down by a horrific creature. It only took one kick to hear that sickening sound of a man's skull breaking but that wasn't even the worst part. As soon as Leo fell to the floor, the thing just kept stomping on his head. Over and over again, scattering bits of brain and skull all around the room. Frank could swear he still had bits of Leo on his shirt as he turn and ran but he couldn't bring himself to check. Besides, there were bigger issues now.

"The fuck was that thing?" One of Frank's guys asked as he peaked through the wooden shutters to get a second story view of the street outside. He was holding up remarkably well despite what he had just witnessed, Frank thought. A few of the others boys were sick to the their stomachs once they found respite in a nearby safehouse. One of the men finally caught his breath and answered the first guy. "A fuckin' ghoul! .. a ghoul..." His voice trailed off, likely realizing the foreboding that came with that term.

A few of the other guys in the safehouse started to yell in a panic about that revelation but Frank put an end to that quickly by yelling the loudest. "Everyone shut up!" Now that he had the room back in control he had a moment to think of something rousing for his men. "Listen to me, we'll make sure that we get back at the fucking thing but right now we need to lay low. Think this through." Frank had no idea why they were suddenly attacked, especially by a ghoul of all things. Normally, the ghouls would just keep to themselves, outside of eating of course. And that thing was definitely not interesting in eating Leo so why did it attack? What could it want with a bunch of human thugs? Furthermore, this was one of the toughest he had ever seen. So why him? Why them? It didn't make sense.

Frank ran his aged hand through his greasy slicked back hair, sighing aloud as the continued his thoughts into the matter. "Well... Get some rest. I want a few of you on gua-..!" Before Frank had a chance to finish the wooden shutter and glass of the window suddenly exploded as a figure passed through the threshold and into the room. "Oh shi--Bluugh!" The man by the window began before a hand rocketed through his abdomen and out the other side. The other men in the room were trying to bring their guns to open up upon the figure but they were slow by comparison to their intruder.

The man by the window was flung from the figure and hit Frank dead center knocking him from his feet before crashing to the wooden floor. Gunshots rang out in this enclosed space but Frank couldn't see anything while pinned beneath his comrade. Each time the sound of a blood splattering or bone breaking, caused Frank to cringe at the sound until it became eerily silent. Then the soft thud of footsteps on the wooden floor were heard slowly approaching. Frank fought but struggled underneath of the dead weight of the other man as he desperately squirmed to get free. He stopped when he finally witnessed the assailant.

Despite being so deadly, the thing was rather short and thin, dressed in gray but the glittering in the light told Frank she was moist with blood. Of course the thing that caught his eyes were the unmistakable trademark of that thing's identity. Mostly black eyes for the red dilated pupil and iris. Frank spat in defiance as the creature stood there but it didn't react. Instead the moment of staring just went on for a moment longer before the creature finally crouched down to Frank's side. Again Frank tried to free himself but not to flee, this time he wanted to strangle the life out of that ghoul for all the death she brought upon his friends but found no room. When he gave up, the ghoul tilted her head slightly and reached up slowly to remove the bird mask disguising her face.

Once removed, Frank was shocked to see that the thing that killed a bunch of hardened criminals was no more than a lowly girl. "Wh-what... Wait. Wait!" Frank muttered before yelling as he watched the ghoul girl toss aside her mask give Frank a slight smile showing the slightest glimmer of her teeth. But Frank didn't manage to utter another word before the suddenly jumped with her mouth wide open and took a huge bite out of the man's cranium, crushing bone and scooping out brain. Frank screamed all the way until her third bite into the man's head.

With that, the last of the classic Sicilian Mafia had been snuffed out of Rome. They were too slow to embrace the changing dynamic of Rome and for that matter, the world. Ghouls were becoming the underground nowadays and while the Sicilian Mafia had just started building a rapport of contacts with other ghouls and even employing them as security, they didn't have enough.

To the victor went the spoils of their entire network. Although most of it useless to a ghoul, the Mafia was just starting up in ghoul affairs meaning there was some use to go after them.

---

Having gotten her fill, Miyako retreated to a quiet perch on a rooftop of a nearby neighborhood to watch the moon and the faint flicker activity in the city center. While it was a pretty view, she was also waiting for company. Many would call this man "Miyako's handler" and certainly the way the two have become associated one would believe that to be true. But she was in relatively good spirits now that she had a full belly as she watched and heard the chaos of her evening unfold not too far away. The entire Sicilian Mob murdered in one night. You think the police would be rejoiced to hear the news but Miyako could only imagine the distaste in the police's mouths would have seeing a number of half-eaten corpses. If there was one thing worse than organized crime, it was ghouls.

Vidi, Vici, Vixi

Miyako

"Your wish is a command."

Name:
Miyako

Age:
19

Gender:
Female

Height & Weight:
157 cm & 49 kg

CCG Rating:
S~

CCG Title:
Mourning Crow
Harpy (Kakuja)

Mask: Mask of Mourning

Kagune:
Miyako's Kagune is a pair of wings with quite a large wingspan in comparison to the girl's actual size. Both wing seems to have a dark red spine, or band, on top of the wing while the rest of the wing fades from the red from a more dark purple at the bottom of the wing. While deployed, the wings appear to occasionally drip with excess RC cells in a thick viscosity very similar to blood, but many compare it to tears.

The "tears" of Miyako's wings aren't just for show as the RC cells will remain for awhile. At Miyako's internal command, the cells can crystallize into long thin spines to form lethal traps. Using this ability creatively, Miyako can purposely spray a mist of her RC cells and then have the cells crystallize suddenly in the air.

RC Type:
Ukaku

Special Quirk:
She is a half-Kakuja meaning the process has started but hasn't full completed, yet. In her half-Kakuja state, a jagged crystalline structure forms around her arms and joins together around the top of her torso. A few things are added to Miyako's arsenal in this state.

Starting with the hands, two crystal spikes gently curve out from her knuckles with a third spike jutting out from her wrist. The spikes form a sort of talon and the spikes curve around the girl's hands to allow her freedom to still move it. Continuing up her arm slightly, the crystal structure starts from the girl's wrist and at a small angle slowly increases its length away from Miyako's body up until her elbow. Overall the triangular structure is comparable to something like a harpy's wing. Finally, the crystals continue up the girl's arms, over the shoulders, and finally both arms' crystal structures are connected around the neck and breast. A half mask is formed covering the right side of Miyako's face which looks as if half a deer skull.

Personality:
Miyako takes many forms so it is difficult to understand what type of person she actually is. On first impression and many after that, she appears quiet with the sense of being shy. While she may seem cute, further inspection will reveal she is rather cold and uncaring to others, not really caring for another's well being without being ordered to. She is very quick to harbor disdain if she feels slighted but depending on the circumstance may or may not be willing to act aggressively towards the one who has slighted her.

Internally, Miyako struggles daily with feelings of loneliness and a strange feeling of she compares to hunger. That strange feeling might be the desire for friendship, appreciation, love or really anything but so far has little to base it on so far. Though these feelings are repressed and hidden only showing the emotionless vessel due to her understanding that strength is key and revealing weakness isn't a good thing.

In combat, she is vastly changed even without entering a Kakuja-state. Her calm and emotionless state is replaced by a rather blood-lusted ravenous beast, who gets a sick satisfaction from it all. It appears as if she thoroughly enjoys fighting and maybe she does actually enjoy it, after all it is the only thing she has known. However, a small part of her is scared of herself and this quiet internal battle rages every time she fights. Fearful of herself, for others, and the ever-lurking creature that is her Kakuja.

Backstory:
For most of her life, Miyako had taken after her parents quite a bit as she grew up. Quickly adopting a feisty temperament to go along with her rather wild and irrational nature. Her parents were very feral and aggressive with both humans and ghouls alike. They weren't completely lost in their bloodlust but any astute observer, they could tell that it was slowly consuming them as they were obsessing about. It was surprising that her parents weren't willing to eat their own daughter but it seemed only human flesh was their desired palette. Maybe at one time her parents were not so consumed in their obsession about eating, seeing as they did have and raise a child. However, Miyako can't remember a time when her parents weren't particularly savage to most.

When Miyako was just about a teenager, her parents sort of "abandoned" her for some reason. They didn't leave her, in fact, Miyako was free to follow them around but they just seemed to stop caring. They no longer helped her with food or really anything else. It was almost as if their daughter vanished and they were fine with that. Of course it wasn't just that. They began bickering with each other and suddenly they weren't even willing to share fresh kills with each other, often willing to fight over a corpse. So when Miyako would try, they'd snap at her, even wounding her, if she tried to encroach on their kill.

With her parents no longer really responding to her, she just kind of wandered with them. She ended up having to study them in order to figure out how to attract and kill for food. For awhile, things remained at that. Just three feral-like people wandering around and eating, like animals, and like animals food was becoming quite their only motivation in life. But perhaps the spark that finally convinced Miyako to leave her parents was one day her father attacked her over her own kill, severely wounding his daughter to get at the food. Nice guy.

Thankfully, Miyako hadn't lost her mind completely before she finally found social outlets outside of family. When she realized there was more to the world than just eating, she left her parents and her their feeding frenzy behind. But now Miyako was faced another type of dysfunction. It turned out her new found 'friends' were a very active and aggressive gang. They saw Mi as a potential member due to increased aggression and strength due to her upbringing and although young, she was already quite formidable.

Her time with the ghoul gang was short and only lasted about two years but within that time Miyako fought with plenty of other ghouls. Her savagery was quite known in Japan and even though she was rather illusive with the CCG, the named the bird-masked girl after a crow for it's ironic flavor.

At around the end of her run with the ghoul gang, she had eaten enough of other ghouls to start the process of her Kakuja. However after her first experience with it was short lived after a group of ghoul peddlers managed to subdue and capture Miyako. Of course the girl was far to feral and dangerous to most potential buyers and thus her captors began the long process of torture and training to quell her rebellious nature. Eventually, they succeed while managing to keep her rather savage fighting potential. They price was high for a half-Kakuja but someone eventually paid the right price...

Other:

Vidi, Vici, Vixi

Here we are, Savato. A nice little place to call our own.

District Map

For reference here is a district map to sort of orientate yourself. Could also use the districts as territory indicates at least at the start.

So we need other gangs. I used the Sicilian Mob to get us started. Well they are dead now so they are no longer a thing. We could be poetic and have six other gangs for the seven hills of Rome or something.

• Ancelotti's List
  
  • Columbine "Collie" Burrows X Ψ
  • Yahto "CodeTalker" Janis ✔ Γ
  • Fermin "Mosquito" Johnson ✔ Ψ
  • Nanelia "Banker" Fredkin ✔ Ψ
  • De "Wizard" Ngo ✔ Γ
  • Leonardo "Professor" Loredo ✔ β
  • Daisuke "Defender" Ikeda ✔ Ψ
  • Lucas "Judge" Lira ✔ Ψ
  • Shane "Inventor" Case X Γ
  • Zihna "Mouse" Little ✔ Γ
  • Champey "Minstrel" Lim ✔ Ψ
  • Imarie "Visitor" Aguilar ✔ Ψ
  • Hong "Iron" Ta ✔ Ψ
  • Putul "Zen" Garg X Ψ
  • Channary "Inquisitor" Uy ✔ Γ
  • Bang "Composer" Tsao ? Γ
  • Yandel "Antique" Montes ? Ψ
  • Munny "Snake" Chen ? Ψ
  • More to come...

Thrivenshell and the Baron - Western Survival Fantasy

Just a thought, anyone have any ideas of the types of beasties and ghoulish fiends that might be lurking outside the town? I've clearly been playing The Witcher too much lol and it got me thinking what kind of creatures could be outside Thrivenshell.

@AtlasRedfox

Pint and Wargs.

If you think about it, their nicknames mean something. ;p

Thrivenshell and the Baron - Western Survival Fantasy

@Snagglepuss89 ?