Raineh Daze

Qlippoth Shift: A Supernatural Action RP About Combating Otherworldy Anomalies

Yakumo Sakura

Sakura's response to being blasted with coffee was a surprised squeak... and then immediately stepping back out of the office, once again demonstrating a consistent and wilful disregard for the notion of doors, or proper entrances and exits. Where she had gone to wasn't entirely clear, as first one minute passed--presumably while Numako was cleaning up her own coffee-related mess--and then another, before a new portal opened and the pink-haired girl made her return.

On the plus side, her clothes were no longer saturated in coffee. On the downside, it looked like she needed to do laundry, or at the least didn't have a spare jacket and wanted to match, as her clothing was now about as unprofessional as it was possible to get. While the cartoon rabbit on the t-shirt was cute, and the long, star-spotted skirt definitely seemed appropriate for someone with a habit of opening portals like she did, the result with the slightly-too-large hoodie could be described as "someone's little sister had wandered into the office".

The large cup of coffee in her hand at least explained part of why she'd taken so long, it appeared Sakura had given up and just found a nearby shop to visit.

"Be more careful! What if that burnt someone?"

@Rune_Alchemist

Qlippoth Shift: A Supernatural Action RP About Combating Otherworldy Anomalies

Yakumo Sakura

"It's this coffee machine!" the girl in question answered, neither reacting to the silent approach or turning around. Whether it was spending her whole lifetime around things like this, or just her constant horror movie watching, it seemed to have paid off in making her nearly unspookable. Instead, she just slid her phone into one pocket and gestured at the offending appliance. "Why is it always so complicated to use?"

... not that it actually was. Sure, it was a bit on the elaborate side--likely so that people at least slightly more adept than Sakura wouldn't have any reason to open it up and put anything in--but it wasn't like the touch screen to select things was actually a challenge to navigate. Aside from that, the big 'go' button was fairly obvious, and the worst that could happen was getting the wrong drink.

Except that this girl seemed to be a hazard to nearly everything kitchen related. The tentacles hovering ominously near the machine spoke to that.

@Rune_Alchemist

Qlippoth Shift: A Supernatural Action RP About Combating Otherworldy Anomalies

• U-433: Perfect and Elegant Maid
• Grade: Avon
• Description: Subject appears to be a young woman, although her appearance is known to change to conform to the desires of her current 'master', including slight variation from human norms. Subject's most recent appearance has feline characteristics and unusually pale hair.
• Containment-Thwarting Measures: Upon separation from her designated 'master' of a period between six hours and twelve minutes and twelve hours fifteen minutes, Subject will spontaneously emerge from either a nearby doorway or, if no doorway is available, from behind an obstacle capable of hiding her person. If the 'master' is kept in a featureless area, Subject will either appear behind them or, ultimately, as soon as they blink. Observation of onlookers does not appear to make a difference.
  Attempts to sedate or otherwise incapacitate Subject will become progressively less effective over the same timespan, until she inevitably regains full functioning and consciousness. Both dismemberment and death have proved completely ineffective except at hastening this process, with no containment being effective other than containing whatever human has been designated as her 'master' until she decides to free them instead.
• Mitigation Protocols: Subject is happy to enter negotiations and consider suggestions when searching for a new 'master'. Suitable candidates that will not grow to resent Subject's presence are to be screened and kept on file in case her current 'master' dies. While partnered with someone suitable, Subject is to be considered mostly harmless.
• Anomalous Qualities: Aside from the Subject's apparent transformative and regenerative properties, subject displays mild magical abilities related to the rapid cleaning and maintenance of domestic environments using basic tools. Upon deciding that a human is her 'master', with or without agreement, subject will take measures to maintain both their place of residence and work at all times, using nothing more apparently magical than teleporting when not observed by her 'master'. Subject will also perform bodyguard duties if her 'master' is known to enter dangerous situations, but will not consider action beyond immediate protection of her 'master' and extraction.
  Upon the death of her old 'master', Subject will take up to a week to select a new one.
• Notes: Subject does not appear to require sustenance or rest, yet will act human as long as her 'master' desires it and even accept a wage.
  Despite repeated efforts, Subject cannot be persuaded to use tools more complicated than an electric stove for her duties.

Fate/Illuminate Histoire

@The Otter detpecca

Qlippoth Shift: A Supernatural Action RP About Combating Otherworldy Anomalies

Yakumo Sakura

There was one employee that didn't come in through the entrance. This wasn't because of some exemption--at least, not originally--but because Sakura never seemed to really grasp the idea of using the door for some place she was meant to be more than the first time. It had long gotten to the point that the small girl had forgotten where she actually lived and whether that was technically part of some Sefirot base or not, as she'd both not used the front door in years and lost the key at some point. After several attempts to make her enter properly had come to nothing, they'd thrown their hands up and just gone for the easiest solution to tell whether the random intruder in their base was an employee or not and just put a tracker on her. Not that she minded.

All of which meant that it was an ordinary day for a portal to open into one of the office areas, already with a few agents waiting to find out if today was going to be a slow day or not, and reveal the interior of someone's living room for a few seconds before she came through. Ordinary for this branch, yet still quite an oddity in the general scheme of things.

More impressive was that the girl's phone didn't skip a beat, still talking away as she meandered towards the coffee machine.

"But they're different subgenres! One's a classic slasher film, one's a gothic--" she protested, waving her free arm aimlessly.

"Fiiiiine... just don't pick something in some long continuity this time! It's no good watching a movie that won't introduce any of the characters properly."

Face turning a shade to match her hair, Sakura had reached the coffee machine--and the nearby cupboards, her free arm digging around for a specific cup. It had to be here somewhere, she'd only used it yesterday. "I--you... that's not the point! There was nothing else for me to appreciate!"

"Muuuu..." Finally producing the desired mug--one slightly chipped on the edge, a white design stencilled on black, the girl stepped back to look at the coffee machine. How did this one work again...? Did she need to put something into it or was that already handled somehow? "Should I bring snacks?"

"I'll be over after work, then. It shouldn't take as long to set up, I've cleaned the cabling up since last time." Well, the cup went there, and... would it really be so bad if they labelled these buttons with words and not pictures? All she wanted was coffee, why was this machine so complicated!

"Really? If we just start the movies later, I could help!" Hm, this flap looked like it opened, and... was this where you put something in or took something out? It was empty, so maybe this was where you had to put coffee in. Which cupboard would have coffee... mugs, cleaning supplies...

"Oh, good point! I'll see you later, then."

"Misakiiiii, don't call me that," the pink-haired girl pouted, overall pink again. "Yes, yes, I love you too... take care, bye."

Maybe the coffee was in one of those overhead cabinets? A few exploratory tentacles started reaching out of the nearby air, opening them. If there was no coffee, she'd just have to push all the buttons until it worked.

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Saria

With Sanae doing... something--exactly what, Saria couldn't say, except that this seemed far more like some esoteric arts than any medic's work, for all that it was helping--to keep people alive, that left more time for her to perform any necessary aid. Oh, they were still in triage conditions, which meant turning away some to follow after the green-haired girl and provide more lasting attention, but it was a bit less hectic.

It would have been useful to have an actual medic on hand. As much as she could conserve supplies using her own abilities, it would have been useful to have a larger supply of the bsaics, rather than conserving them and making do with whatever equivalents the locals could supply. As cold as it might have been, she had no idea how long they would be here or if she would ever be able to replace anything used up, and Saria didn't want to find herself needing to patch someone up during a fight and having nothing but a semi-clean bottle of medieval liquor to fall back on.

"No casualties to report." There was that enemy caster to bring up--more than the common soldiers, someone who could fly and repeatedly fire attacks of that magnitude needed to be considered as a major threat, although her apparent vulnerability to physical damage was something that they could take advantage of as a group. If she would even be back soon, given the injury already inflicted.

Unfortunately, it seemed that they were needed outside--which meant picking her shield once again and preparing to fight. It seemed unlikely it was the raven guard; after being driven off, surely they would need just as long to regroup before another attack as this village did simply to treat its wounded?

Fate/Illuminate Histoire

accepoted

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Kitchens

"Of course you can deal--"

"When it's your turn." Parvan finished, already shuffling and dealing out a hand. "Where would the fun be if only one person was able to deal?"

Rather, where was the ability to turn it into a game of who can cheat harder if you gave one person such an obvious advantage in the manipulation stakes. At least that meant there would be some chance for other people to influence how things were dealt out.

---

Talderia

"I'm sure he does, and it can't hurt to ask," Florian acknowledged, leading the way straight to the castle... and right past its guards, who at least took the intrusion with impassive grace. Either they had permission to enter, or it simply wasn't worth the trouble to stop the knight from taking them through the outer gates and into what was probably a practical courtyard at some point, but now made Candaeln's gardens look like a patch of weeds. There were probably as many gardeners here as they had cooks.

"I'll go see if he's available."

It seemed that Florian was allowed in, then. Or maybe everyone was just allowed as far as these gardens? Nonetheless, the knight left, and it was another awkward few minutes where Randon had apparently decided that now Fionn needed careful inspection before he returned, leading someone that could only be Prince Erion. Not because his physical appearance was inherently distinctive or his portrait well known, although his looks had a boyish charm to them, but because it could hardly be anybody else wearing a cape of dragonscale, the red-gold scales having a shimmering, jewel-like quality to them.

The clasp bearing the Talderian crest itself was also a clue.

"Florian tells me that you're new to this place? More knights of his order?"

Qlippoth Shift: A Supernatural Action RP About Combating Otherworldy Anomalies

• Name: Yakumo Sakura
• Age: 25
• Gender: Female
• Appearance: Considerably older than she looks, and obviously of European heritage. Her parents were not imaginative with their naming.
  For all that Sakura seems to more or less exclusively dress for an office job, despite having to do fieldwork, it's pretty much impossible to ever name a time that she's not worn some sort of brightly coloured trainers.
• Psychological Profile: Sakura's personality can be somewhat of a dichotomy. On the one hand, she's normally polite and enthusiastically helpful, even where her help is absolutely not wanted or desirable--such as in a kitchen. On the other, even her close friends are going to get a grumpy response if they so much as hint at calling her cute or drawing attention to her size in any way... which is still better than the absolutely frigid one everyone else gets.
  On top of this, she's endlessly curious, which seems to run in the family. This is generally a bad thing, and part of why they're all permanently part of Sefirot somewhere in the world whether they like it or not, because unsupervised curiosity with no direction generally results in headaches for everyone involved. Said curiosity, and the very similar lack of any rational response to terrifying situations, probably explains a lot about her love for horror movies.
• Skills: With lifelong exposure to Sefirot's paperwork and brand of terminology, Sakura is unsurprisingly extremely good with filling out the paperwork--both in terms of content, and working out exactly what the hell kind of form is applicable for the current situation, as it seems that even an advanced AI can't eliminate an organisational need for bureaucracy. What's particularly useful about this aptitude for paperwork and willingness to help is that it allows everyone to keep her nice and isolated from the break room, where her complete lack of talent for almost any form of cooking would lead to no end of trouble even if she were to merely try and use a coffee machine.
  Inexplicably, she can cook a delicious curry from scratch, and only that. Any other dish, or trying to use something as simple as a roux brick, will be at best inedible and at worst on fire.
  Likely as a result of her inherited magic, Sakura's sense of direction and spatial awareness are uncannily perfect; she's been able to navigate a room full of obstacles even when tied up, blindfolded, taken to a new area, and spun until dizzy, without ever walking into anything... well, without walking into it because she wasn't sure something was there; when done drunk as a party game, she proved completely capable of tripping over her own feet.
  Surprisingly talented at racing games.
• Abilities: Sakura is, by the loosest of definitions, a magician. It's not some refined art passed down from master to pupil, relying on a great deal of study and knowledge to achieve certain effects, dependent on the skill of the practitioner. It isn't some long-lost art of divination, nor is it even powered by sacrifice. Even compared to the magic that people might randomly be gifted with in the modern era, it lacks a distinct measure of skill or room for improvement. Really, it's more of an inherited curse; if it were to have emerged only in the past few years then it would almost certainly have gotten its original user categorised as an Anomaly when its misuse began.
  Sakura's magic is a talent from the Outside, the key and guardian of portals. The simplest, safest thing that she can do with it--the thing that Sefirot most makes use of, due to its extraordinary utility and lack of cost in comparison to many similar abilities--is to open a gateway between here and there, somewhere in the world, made all the easier with modern observation to get the exit exactly where you want. She could leave the doors open, but that in itself gets... problematic, so her direct presence is generally needed for safe operation.
  Yet, its real strength and threat is how it can open to other realms of existence, gateways to anywhere in a vast cosmos far beyond human visibility. This, naturally, would be a disaster in and of itself if done carelessly and without supervision; perhaps the nicest thing that would come of it would be that she might be driven insane or eaten. Any experimentation without an entire raft of protections and preparations is strictly verboten, with the small girl only knowing two safe (and useful--'toss Anomalies into eldritch realms' is an unsurprisingly unwelcome suggestion) dimensions.
  Those realms are entirely the provenance of some vast creatures... probably. No matter where within it her gateway opens, they're all too willing to shove writhing limbs through and into the normal world. One, either bound by her ability or respecting it, is by far the weaker--strong enough that a normal human can contest the appendages and fight them off. It's mostly useful for support duties as a result, or a means to reach high shelves. Or simply an extra pair of hands. The other creature? It's not under her control, has never shown any sign of being controllable, and simply grasps, destroys, and crushes with wild abandon. She's only able to use it because severing the gate cuts off whatever it's forced through, but it's rather indiscriminate.
  One other quirk of her ability is that it doesn't actually require her to do anything to utilise it except to will the gateway to open or close (or the appendages to grab something).
• Equipment: In terms of 'tools useful for her job', not much, aside from the usual "I have a phone with a map application on it", albeit with unusually high clearance to access cameras herself. Apart from that, Sakura owns a very large horror movie collection--not all of it good, and much of it in fact shockingly bad--and a nice home theatre setup to play it. Plus a surprising variety of game consoles, for someone who treats those as a very casual hobby.
• Background: As the girl's European heritage attests, Sakura's family is undoubtedly far from native to Japan, the country merely being the latest (and probably last) stop on their generational trip around the world to get away from organisations or individuals upset by their habit of poking at things man was not meant to know. Where they originally came from is quite lost, but according to her parents, their grandfather was sure that they'd spent the overwhelming majority of the 20th century, if not all of it, moving here and there throughout the USA and only making their customary exit shortly after the turn of the millennium.
  If it hadn't been for the worldwide reveal of how much mystical stuff actually existed, it was likely that they would have continued to take advantage of the divided response to continue making an escape whenever the exploration got too serious. It is, after all, extremely difficult to corner people whose hereditary talent lets them be almost anywhere on Earth at a moment's notice, even if you have the arcane on your side.
  With the advent of Sefirot, as well as public awareness meaning that the priority was no longer "clean up after their messes with nobody noticing", the Yakumo family was finally made to stay put and actually work with authorities--after all, the baseline ability is highly useful, and a history of "excessive curiosity without caution" isn't the same as malice. It did, however, mean that they were always going to be treated with a level of caution and observation only slightly below that of Anomalies themselves, just because of the sheer potential for accidents.
  Consequently, Sakura basically grew up already part of Sefirot, with even her education being done in house. This hasn't particularly bothered her, and she doesn't mind the relative lack of freedom at all, but it does occasionally make her perspective seem a bit odd to the more recently-recruited coworkers. Particularly, her constant exposure to Anomalies seems to have only encouraged her cheerful outlook towards the less immediately dangerous ones.
  Certainly, ever since Branch-092 has been responsible for containing the Natural Born Killer, Sakura was the first to actively try and befriend the Anomaly, and definitely the most successful.

Qlippoth Shift: A Supernatural Action RP About Combating Otherworldy Anomalies

• Name: Yakumo Sakura
• Age: 25
• Gender: Female
• Appearance: Older than she looks, and shockingly European looking. Her parents were not imaginative with their naming.
• Psychological Profile: Overall, nice and polite, as well as helpful (even if it's trying to help with cooking, for all the good that will do) as long as you don't make some comment on her height. Or her youthfulness. Or how cute she sounds. Really, mentioning anything about her appearance aside from her dress sense is probably a bad idea, but if you can avoid that (or make friends with her before starting on it) then Sakura is surprisingly easy to get along with. As long as you don't mind being invited to watch horror movies of wildly varying quality.
• Skills: Sakura's very good with paperwork, and she can cook an excellent curry from scratch. Everything else she cooks turns into some sort of disaster, to the point she's de facto banned from going anywhere near the tea. Or even operating a coffee machine.
  Shockingly good at racing games.
• Abilities: Magic. And not magic of some nice hermetic tradition, refined and passed down from master to pupil for centuries upon centuries, or some derivative of religious rites concerned with the prosperity of man. No, a magic from outside; something unteachable and unlearnable that acts more as a genetic curse than some human art. Used improperly and carelessly, it would be nothing but an invitation to Anomalies or other disasters.
  Put in simple terms, Sakura has the ability to open and close gateways. The simplest, safest thing to do is to make sure both endpoints are on the world itself. Simple, convenient transport as long as she's there to open and close them. This is more or less the majority of her job.
  Opening them to elsewhere... well, finding a suitable other realm is nearly impossible, and basically needs an entire armed response team on standby just in case, so it's not something she experiments with freely. Almost always, whatever might come through won't obey her, if it's not just a pathway to some alien realm. In the end, she only really knows two that are safe (enough) and useful, and both are defined by essentially just being full of writhing masses of alien appendages, although who knows what they're connected to. The main difference is that while one listens to her, overall the strength of said limbs is comparatively weak, not much beyond the gripping strength of a strong man. The other? While it's much stronger, and more destructive, she has no control aside from when to close the gateway and cut off whatever has already pulled its way through.
• Equipment: A very large horror movie collection. And a nice home theatre setup.
• Background: Despite the name, but very fitting with her appearance, Sakura's family is obviously not from Japan, at least not in the past. And the same reason they wound up there--the propensity for careless use of their inherited magic to cause problems for everyone else to clean up, especially before such phenomena were commonly known about--is why she more or less grew up under the direct supervision of Sefirot, often regarded with a caution that would really make more sense when reserved for Anomalies.
  Not that she's ever really minded, it isn't as if there are too many other jobs her talents are suitable for, and at least this way there's some safety and opportunity to experiment and explore.