STATUS:
Wow three years since an update....well - I guess I've been busy. Finally getting back into real story writing instead of just editing and submitting old stuff.
3 mos ago
Current
Wow three years since an update....well - I guess I've been busy. Finally getting back into real story writing instead of just editing and submitting old stuff.
2
likes
3 yrs ago
Responses didn't come like I meant them to. I'm working on being able to get to them this week. Thank you for your patience with me.
1
like
3 yrs ago
Responses to those waiting to hear from me will come tomorrow. Apologies.
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3 yrs ago
Shit happens, responses slow. Working on it. Please be patient.
I'm an adult with a family and responsibilities that take priority, as well as mental health issues that can cause me to not get on this site for periods of time. Just know I will get back to you within a few days. If I had something going with you at some point, and you're interested in either starting it back up or starting something fresh, just reach out.
I recently started working on getting published, and have self published one story so far. Check it out on Amazon - Into the Night by Alexia Wynd.
You can also check out more of my work - short stories and the like - at my recently started Patreon: patreon.com/storiestocaptivate
Neil chuckled at her response to his first inquiry. It was most certainly true. Then again, he was never really great at getting up early or anything. He liked to take his time to get ready - a previous significant other said he took longer than most of the women they knew - and he certainly agreed with the assessment. It seemed university was the only time he truly managed to be a 'morning person' and those days were long gone. Considering he could operate entirely at his leisure currently, there was no big rush to be more timely unless he had appointments.
While she tinkered and went over what her day's agenda was, Neil poked at a little gadget he knew - or rather assumed - he wouldn't break just from idly toying with it. Some kind of thing on a spring? It certainly wasn't actually close to working - more likely a component if he had to guess. But it still distracted him from being more bothersome than she likely needed him to be while she put the finishing touches on another gadget. It was pretty much the same thing he did every time he showed up to hang out if Trinity didn't put him to work. Sometimes he would just mill about around her, working out formulas in his head or on paper; that didn't happen quite so often right at the moment. Usually those formulas were something he immediately went to his workshop to test out, stuff too dangerous to test run outside of the controlled environment. So, fiddle with her gadgets he did. "Overdue is a very mild way of putting it. If I didn't come visit, and every so often bring Markovis around, neither of you two would get any kind of socialization," he said with a laugh.
He waited patiently as she finished up the last bits to leave. That was something he didn't miss about being a shop owner. Call it spoiled, but he certainly enjoyed the fact he had employees and managers that dealt with all the day to day tasks of business stuff so he could focus on everything else in his life - inventing, guild mage, helping out Trinity and Markovis when things came up. Win win for everyone, the way he saw it. He didn't have to deal with that boring minutia while still being able to get involved when needed, and handsome compensation for the person that did enjoy doing that stuff. It wasn't something he ever wanted to take for granted after lucking into his current store manger.
"I've heard of them," Neil chuckled softly. "But no. Damian and Penny must have left before Markovis and I joined. Heard nothing but good things about them, then again, who would actually say bad shit about someone that could probably break them in half?" He laughed again before nudging her. "Looking forward to seeing them again?"
Neil looked forward as they walked, hands idly resting in his pockets. "I'm looking forward to meeting them. I heard there's supposed to be a meeting in the guildhall with a few other guild masters. So maybe we'll see other new faces. Or maybe just some old faces you recognize might be showing up from a hiatus. Day's still young enough that there are bound to be plenty of surprises." He was looking forward to it, but considering Mark was gone before he'd gotten underway with his own morning routine, it was likely the younger mage was already in the guildhall. A pile of new faces was exactly the opposite of what he was sure his roommate and friend would want - especially if those new faces went looking to interact with him. "Maybe best we don't doddle," he said with a chuckle. He flashed his inventive friend a brilliant smile."While we might enjoy company, there's a certain brooding member of our team that definitely would not appreciate a round of introductions."
Location: Magnolia, Ending at Phoenix Wing Guildhall Interactions: none
Sleep did not come last night. He wanted it, he tried, but it ended up with Markovis staring up at the ceiling just watching the shadows shift with the moon's path across the sky. Trying to master his latest spell came to mind, but that wasn't exactly something he could work on in the late hours - both because he couldn't safely practice it in the house, and because he needed someone else to be the target. Neil would have been willing. Markovis didn't want to interrupt his friend's sleep just to get another spell under his belt. It didn't matter anyways. Since sleep would not come, he gave up in the early hours of the morning. He flipped on the lamp over his bed and started reading his latest book purchase. Penelope, a soft silver and black furred tabby cat, lay curled up against his hip. Soft purrs were the only thing to break the silence, quietly indicating her content state even as she slept. Much was the usual way he did anything in his room - with Penelope curled up on his lap or against him. He wasn't entirely sure he wanted it any other way.
When the sky began to brighten - as much as much as it could with the overcast outside - he had already finished the book and moved Penelope to his lap to just sit there cuddled up with her and gently petting her. That brightness was as much a cue for him that it was finally daytime as it was for Penelope that it was breakfast time. She stood, stretched, then headed for the kitchen while he did much the same. He always saw to getting her fed a bit of moist food mixed with dry first thing, quiet enough as to not wake Neil before he needed to. While the cat ate, the mage moved through the house to double check the plants and water any that needed it. Then it was time to set about his own food. Garden omelet, toast, and orange juice - enough for two. Making Neil breakfast was the least he could do considering how much his friend had stuck by him over all these years, no matter how much Markovis didn't see the point in it.
He knocked on Neil's door, and left the tray of breakfast on the table beside it. As he did most mornings. Routine was key. Take care of everyone else eating, then eat. Then it was off to shower and dress. Like most days, he chose dark slacks, a dark colored button up, and comfortable shoes to match. Some days, it included a tie and jacket, some days it was a polo. Most of the time, it was just a semi-formal outfit and he was content with it. A few scritches behind Penelope's ear as she sat on the table beside the door, and Markovis left with his messenger bag of things - a carefully packed glass, a bottle of bourbon, and a couple of books accompanied by a notebook and pen.
In no time at all, he'd made it to the guildhall. Before they'd joined Phoenix Wing, he would have headed for plot of land Neil had since sold - a place to train safely without risk of hurting someone that didn't deserve it. Since joining, at least it was a place he could train if he wanted, or simply sit and read alone. He didn't even pay any attention to the group gathered not far into the guildhall; any other day...he still wouldn't pay a noisy group gathered in the middle of the guildhall any attention. Much less a bunch of people he didn't recognize with the chatterboxes, the pretty boy, and the upstart.
The quiet mage headed straight for the usual table he sat at, in a corner away from prying eyes - back to the corner to keep the guildhall as a whole in view. Markovis took the bottle and cup from his bag, placing them on the table before removing the books and notebook from it as well. The bag strap rested over the back of the chair, and he took his seat. Remove the cap, pour his glass, replace the cap, chill the glass to desired temperature, then choose a book to start with - the same thing he did most days when he had no desire to go look at the job board. Today was one of those days he'd rather read and make notes of interest than go on a job.
Location: Magnolia, Ending at Trinity's Shop Interactions: @CitrusArms
The knock on his door woke him. It should have been his alarm, but it wasn't. Thankfully, Markovis had a routine. It helped Neil deal with those nights he fell asleep entirely too late because he was working out a formula. Unlike the neat and tidy room Markovis kept - and thankfully helped keep the house - Neil's room was scattered paperwork, notes taped to his walls, and (this morning, like many) a piece of paper stuck to the side of his head as he sat upright at his desk. "Morning!" he yelped, then yawned. It was a full minute before he realized he had something stuck to his face, found when he went to scrub the sleep from it. What kept him up late this night? The same thing as most nights as of late. Working out that stupid formula. How was it eluding him still?
Tired eyes took a few minutes to focus on the scribbled notes on the page in his hand. Nope, this wasn't going to work either. He sighed and put the paper with the others he'd scribbled notes on last night. For the past few days, he'd considered combining a different ingredient with the base set, but when he actually went through with the test, it was - well...His gaze drifted to the scorched side of his room no longer designated as his testing area. He'd just bring someone in to get that fixed up. Maybe later he'd try a few other combinations; this time, he'd do it in the safety of the testing labs at his factory. For now, breakfast.
- - -
Showered, dressed in jeans, his usual sweatshirt over a tee-shirt, and sneakers, and assured his hair wasn't a complete mess - Neil found himself leisurely walking rather than headed anywhere in particular. He had stopped in to check on his shop as he left the house - the entire reason he bought the building - but no one had stopped in for anything specialized. Crystal had it under control, as always. If she couldn't manage the store, he wouldn't have hired her after all. The factory ran by itself too, mass producing the formulas he saw no reason to regulate. Again, as it was intended.
Once he realized he was headed in the direction of Trinity's shop, he started walking with a bit more purpose. In the past two years, most of the best potions he'd created were in attempts to make something to help her recover her power, after all. She was a great source of inspiration, just being around helped. Plus, they were friends and teammates. No reason to not check if the shop was open.
When the door worked, he stepped right on in with a dazzling smile gracing his face. "Morning, Sunbeam. It still qualifies as morning, right?" He laughed softly as he closed the door and walked further into the shop. "Do you have appointments today, or are you free to go hang out at the guild?"
Gwen didn't seem fazed at all by the fact their client seemed uncomfortable with her lack of clothing. She took them, but continued her inspection of the room without dressing.
As soon as the clothing was out of his hands, though, Carver turned his attention to the man that had next addressed him. He took a calming breath, and pulled his shirt in order as if it needed minding. "Yes, that is what I was going to address had your companion not disrobed." The man pulled a cloth from his pocket and removed his glasses. He focused his attention to cleaning them for a moment before returning both articles to their proper place. "Though, sir, considering how this whole thing is starting off, I'm not entirely sure I will be doing that just yet. Thus far this has gone quite below standards of a proper job undertaking, as you have yet to introduce yourself and disregard the rather uncouth behavior of your disrobed companion."
The historian's attention turned to Jessica and Asher - so far the only two to conduct themselves professionally. "Is this truly how your guild operates? I had heard good things about Fenixtear; though - perhaps - I was mistaken and should take my job to another guild."
Ria's gaze followed Kaden as he disappeared into the crowd. Training with him - while advantageous for him - likely could do her good as well. She knew his magics, and getting better at combating opponents that wielded lightning was something that would certainly help. There was also the fact that in training him for water magic, she could work on getting more control and shaping the water into other ways. No better way to really master your own magic than teaching someone else.
Her gaze dropped to Damian after she realized he'd been talking. How long? Well, the wolves knew. The important thing was she caught the last part. She assumed the rest was mostly just explanation leading up to the apology. A smile spread on her face, and she lightly brushed the apology away. "Fights happen. Unseemly, but no one called for Rune Knights, no bystanders were hurt, and nothing was damaged. You were acting in good faith to try to help nullify a situation between our guild and another. There is nothing for you to apologize for."
She tapped her chin, looking around for a moment. "We were going somewhere. Where were we going...?" Her voice was soft, almost like she was talking to herself and not addressing Damian. Her attention turned back to Damian as she gave a soft laugh and shrugged. "We were headed back to the guild, right?"
For the time that it took for Duncan to meet with the new mage, Markovis considered the position in which he found himself from such a simple request. Playing babysitter wasn't exactly his forte. It shouldn't prove too challenging. Appearances were deceiving, as the latest member of their elite guild showed. For now, he would observe and complete the task given him. That would prove to be easy at least. At least, it would prove easier than pretending he wasn't also tasked to keeping her under control should the new mage become a threat.
Of course, there would be no hiding it if Kurt got overzealous. The older mage kept a positive outlook on the kid being able to handle himself appropriately. Given the spectacle the woman made showing up - something he understood - he was not surprised to see her gather attention. Some of their weaker members would certainly want to connect with someone as apparently brazen as her. Her choice in seats came as no surprise she drew the attention of other S class members as well. Perhaps a bit too much attention if his original assessment was accurate.
Markovis stood and approached the table. He stopped, hands folded neatly together behind his back, as his gaze leveled with those before him. "Arvin. Johan." Each name received an inclination of his head in greeting to the other members. "I believe Ms. Grasidia would be more comfortable if you did not crowd her." His tone was neutral, almost flat, but the seasoned members would not be mistaken to think it was any less an instruction to leave her alone. His dark eyed gaze landed on the woman in question. She was much more unassuming up close, which certainly could prove dangerous. "Ms Grasidia, I am Markovis. When you are ready, I will show you around and explain things. You will find this guild different than the one you were before." Another incline of his head, the mage turned and headed back to the table he alone frequented in the corner of the room. She likely needed to process things. He would not press for her company. If she was ready, she could seek him out. When it was right, he would do the same. Right now, it was not the time to press getting acquainted; it was time for her to adjust to her new arrangement. He was in no rush anyways.
Watching the fights, Ria mostly stayed on alert in case there was a rogue display of magic. But after the slayer was downed, there weren't any. It seemed the one Damian was fighting just used magic that once. But still...she wasn't about to risk the safety of those around them. Not until the guy had taken a powerful enough hit that landed him close to both her and Kaden. Considering he didn't seem quick to get up, she figured it was over and dismissed the water shield around them. The wall faded seamlessly, without leaving a trace it was even there before.
Salvis landed on his back with a grunt. He pushed himself up to his elbows, gingerly touching his jaw. The grimace of pain quickly gave way to a smirk though, and furthermore a chuckle. "Solid hit. Seriously - Steel Hydra - we've got a hall right in the city."
Kaden closed the bit of a gap and offered the guy a hand up. "Alright, enough recruitment. Go peel Teague off the sidewalk." He slapped the mage on his shoulder after the man was on his feet. Both laughed.
"You know, if you want to come crawling back after your poor decision to leave, I'm sure we can work something out. You'd have to beg to come back as S-Class though."
"Aw, how nice of you to be looking out for me. I'm good where I'm at." Kaden smirked. "I'll even keep it quiet that you got beat by a weaker mage from a nothing guild."
Salvis hoisted Teague up to support the woozy comrade. He chuckled softly. "Meet up at Sunset? Say, around 9pm?" The guy's gaze shifted to Ria and Damian. "The invitation is open to you two as well."
"Sure, maybe you'll have half a chance to get laid if you ditch the dead weight," he nodded toward Teague.
Ria's brow rose questionably. "You want us to go out for drinks with you? After you instigated a fight?"
"I didn't start it." Salvis looked at Damian with a smirk. "Didn't finish it either, apparently." He laughed. "But that's past. Right? So, if that's water under the bridge, we can all appreciate a nice pint. I'll be there. Heard Sunset is one of the better places to drink during festivals here." With that, the pair of Steel Hydra mages headed off, Salvis playfully tossing quips about Teague's loss at the still recovering mage.
Kaden smirked, shaking his head, before leveling his gaze on Damian. "Next time, ask before you steal someone's dance partner. That was going to be the most fun I've had since I joined up with this back alley guild." He smiled to himself as he turned and started walking away. "Think about what I asked, Ria. Could really use a decent water mage instructor."
The woman eyed Menzai when he started to talk like he had appeared out of thin air just to irritate her. The look only grew colder when he sneezed, despite the apology and her own curt acceptance of it. When he finally got to the point, she sighed. "Well, the most direct route is following the foot trail that cuts through the forest between here and Crocus. Ain't the safest though. Safest is probably back the way you came - following the main road. Easiest too, given those wheels aren't going to like the bumps the foot path have. Less you jostle those flowers up, the better you'll have it there, boy. One bad whiff, specially with your allergies, you might not make it back to Crocus. These ain't deadly to humans, but they'll still knock you on your backside for a solid day at the least if you give 'em a sniff before they're finished being prepared."
That was all the time the woman seemed to have. She turned, almost seeming to forget there were non-workers in the back, and started barking instructions at a pair of young workers who had apparently mixed up orders.
The bulkier of the two men who had been helping load up the cart shrugged at them. "Y'all be doin' just fine takin' that cart, though. Ain't too bad to pull if ye can't get help." With another shrug, the man turned and headed off to help load up a box another worker was struggling with.
The old man let out a deep chuckle as he straightened up. "Oh, that. Miss, not to contradict you but Sapphire Farms didn't post that job; Opal Arrangements did." He wiped dirt from his hands as he rounded the counter. The friendly smile didn't fade. "See we're a bit behind what with some increased requests from a lot of businesses. Apparently t'is the right time for being a gardener." He motioned for them to follow him toward the back of the shop where orders were being readied.
Coming to a stop next to the woman barking instructions at a young man, he touched her arm. She turned on him like a fury unleashed on him for a split second, until the woman realized who was interrupting her. "Oh, Kato. Sorry, thought you were - never mind." She turned to look at the two guild mages. "Who are they?"
"Sweetheart, these are mages from Fenixtear. Seems Lainy wasn't happy waiting another day or so for us to get the shipment to her."
The woman nodded, adjusting her own glasses as she looked through the paperwork on her clipboard. "I suppose she would. The order needs to be in the palace by Thursday and I'm not sure the trucks will be back by then." She looked at a pair of men finishing up with one truck. "Heath, Oscar - get the order for Opal loaded onto a cart," she said as she handed the pair a list. Her attention turned back to the pair. "All our trucks are in use at the moment, but if you two don't mind a bit more heavy labor, we've got a cart the two of you should do just fine pulling back to Crocus. But y'all better be mindful. Keep the tarp on them, especially during the day - and don't go sniffin' them until Lainy's dealt with them."
It would be another twenty minutes before the pull cart was filled up with the colorful array of flowers, some of which seemed to glow with a light all their own. The old man, in that time, had shuffled his way back to the front of the shop to help a walk in customer pick out a small table arrangement. The old woman had gone back to making sure everything was getting done properly. When the cart was full, the woman motioned them to take it and leave.
Ria's attention focused more on the crowd. She was a bit leery about what they might be thinking, but luckily most either looked intrigued by the fight or at least the mages involved. The only thing working for them was that it seemed they weren't using magic for the most part. There was the one guy that kept doing so, but if they kept it to that, then all the better.
Salvis ducked and dodged the blows, but not bothering to return any of his own yet. The latest dodge left him low, and he aimed a sweep kick for Damian's legs to get the other man off his feet. "Disciplined, not bad. Ever considered joining a real guild? We're always on the look out for new talent."
Kaden laughed, leaning away from another punch Teague aimed his way. "Classy as ever, Sal." He grunted as he landed square on his back when Teague tackled him. After slamming a few punches into the guy's ribs, the Fenixtear mage finally kicked the guy off him. He got to his feet in the same motion. Then sent the other mage sliding away with a solid kick to the ribs. When Teague finally stopped, close to the feet of Ria and the wolves, he lay there groaning but not really moving much.
"At this point, might as well just throw in the towel and clean Teague off the ground." He crossed his arms, tilting his head to watch the fight between Salvis and Damian if they continued. "Would have been one thing to be out done by me, but to lose to a schlub...? Might want to save the embarrassment."
Name: Neil “The Alchemist” Yoska Age: 23 Birthday: April 20th
Magic: Requip: The Alchemist (plus 2 magic weapons) Magic Level: B
Requip “The Alchemist”: He stores a lot of various pre-mixed concoctions using this spatial magic. He also stores two weapons and three “battle outfits” in this space as well. The holographic inventory is specially formulated to properly track the shelf life of his concoctions to make sure none hit volatile states left unused. Some of these are manufactured into special bullets that are preserved to not allow the concoction to expire; these are all loaded into quick load clips in his requip space and each has their own pocket. His skill with his requip is quite immense, able to change between loaded clips or pull out his premixed alchemy vials in the middle of a fight without needing to withdraw to do it.
As far as other magic goes, it’s all from either his dirk - Staken - that is enchanted with a single permanent spell that keeps the edge eternally sharp, and his pistol - Bullseye - that is enchanted with a few spells that require activation from the user.
Keen Edge: Resharpens edge of blade without use of whetstone. Can be activated by command, but does so automatically after being returned to storage after use.
Farshot: Enables the user to shoot with precision even over large distances. Doubles the average range of the shot’s accuracy tragection. Tracer: Trick shot that allows the user to hit a target no matter the distance or partial coverage. Complete coverage or barriers block the bullet. Bullets can be deflected if the target is able to see the bullet considering it continues moving at the same speed it is launched from the barrel at. Tracer cannot be used to target vital organs, and is more adept at targeting appendages or joints. Dead Shot: Once per day - user is able to hit a target perfectly in a vital organ provided there is no complete coverage or barrier to block the bullet. Dead Shot is designed to hit the target as a lethal blow, but can be blocked if the target is able to block a speeding bullet.
Alchemy Wares: Neil has made a breakthrough on a century old academic endeavor to scientifically design concoctions that have properties that mimic magic. Through extensive research and tedious efforts, he managed to enfuse chemical components with ethernano - and occasionally combine concoctions of such together - to make a variety of magical effects. He has further managed to convert them into special bullets for use in his gun, as well as quick application wipes for his blade, and AOE like effects as well.
These are produced en masse as they are easy enough for others to assist in the crafting of. These are produced in his factory, and distributed through stores contracted with him. The only form sold in stores is the vial form. Blade coatings and Bullet format are exclusive sales sold only in his own store, which he tracks information on who purchased such items and has strict sale rates for how many can be purchased at one time.
Entangle: When this potion comes into contact with a surface, it immediately binds to both the surface and anything within a 5 foot reach of the puddle of goop left in its wake. Things stuck in such a manner would need moderate effort to be removed from it. This same issue remains for up to 30 minutes before it will dissolve. Comes in just a vial or as a bullet.
Enbrittle: This potion will cause metal to which it is applied to become brittle and easily destroyed with very little effort. This effect is permanent on the metal it is applied to. Comes in a vial or bullet.
Fireball: Also known as Searing Flame, and Blaze Juice, depending on what form it comes in. This potion does much of what the name indicates - creates a fireball that has the potential to ignite flammable material along with harming living things it touches like normal fire does. As a bullet, it creates the same effect on a smaller scale against the target the bullet hits, providing blunt impact damage to the fire damage. As a coating on a sword, it gives the sword the ability to cause heat/fire damage to the target, as well as sear wounds closed if one is sliced open by it.
Caustic Bath: This potion can be used as a bullet, a vial, or a coating for a weapon. As a vial, it will create a pool of acid that will eat through organic material it comes into contact with in a matter of minutes - where the liquid lands. As a coating on a blade, it eats away at organic material sliced, but also can cause infections to exposed skin it slices and be much harder to stop bleeding wounds caused by it. As a bullet, it deals blunt damage from the impact, but also splashes the liquid against the target, causing organic matter to be coated in the liquid and receive chemical burns from it.
Flash Freeze: Used as a vial, a bullet, or a coating for a blade, this potion can cause a location to freeze or become super chilled depending on the method of delivery. Thrown as a vial, it will coat a surface the liquid touches in ice that can penetrate into a surface about an inch deep; size of the iced surface depends on the size of the vial. Items frozen in this means may stay frozen up to an hour, depending on the ambient heat of the area and As a bullet, it will deal blunt damage upon impact and either freeze the location the liquid within the bullet hits upon explosion or completely freeze the target (Flash Freeze 2.0); targets with weak constitutions generally feel chilled to the bone even if they are hit with a single location freezer, though limbs and body locations frozen in such a manner are simply transformed to ice crystal, and while not ideal and unusable, there is no ill effects on the location after the location thaws (usually 5-10 minutes after the target was hit depending on the target’s fortitude.) As a coating for his blade, the air around the blade chills, and causes locations cut by the blade suffers from frostbite; the frostbite doesn’t spread but can cause permanent damage if the target has a weak constitution and is not treated for the injury.
Lightning in a Bottle: As a vial or a bullet, this potion administers electric shock equivalent of a lightning bolt strike to the person it hits; if smashed against the ground it creates an electrified puddle that has the potential to electrify anything conductive that touches it.The puddle will last for about an hour. As a coating for a blade, it gives slash damage electricity damage as well, searing the edge of the wounds and with the potential to transfer an electric shock via contact near metal objects on the target.
Black Out: Comes as a vial or a bullet. This is meant to create a bubble of temporary darkness into an area. The bullet makes for a smaller bubble of darkness but can be created further than throwing the vial. The bubble lasts for 15 to 30 minutes depending on if it is the bullet or the vial, and can be dispersed by a bright flash of light (from a light source, fire, etc.) Bullet may not do much other damage to a target, but can still hurt when hit due to blunt force damage.
Flash Bang: Both a vial and a bullet, this creates an instant auditory and visual distortion of blinding light and singular intense noise meant to temporary blind and deafen people within a 10 or 20 foot radius (bullet vs vial). Can hurt if hitting a living target due to blunt damage.
Fog Bank: Vial only potion that generates a cloud of thick fog originating from where the vial is broken and spreading out for about a 20 foot diameter. Fog naturally dissipates in about 10 minutes.
Douser: Both a bullet and a vial, this potion generates a source of water to put out a source of fire - either small fire (single object), or a larger fire (up to a 20’ diameter), depending on if it’s a bullet or a vial. Can hurt if hitting a living target due to blunt damage.
Date Night Pick-Me-Up: This one is for the guys, comes in a pill. It’s little, and blue. You get the drift.
Hair of the Dog: A hot seller once he went mass-production, this potion is marketed as a remedy for hangovers. Comes as a pill or a potion, though the potion takes effect much faster than the pill.
Good Night’s Sleep: Currently only available in a vial, this potion is what Neil based his thesis on for being able to make breakthroughs on combining Ethernano and chemistry. It doesn’t properly replace the effects of having a good night’s sleep, but it certainly helps someone feel as though they managed to. A favorite among college students, this tonic will leave someone feeling refreshed for 12 hours regardless of how little sleep they got the night before; after those 12 hours, the weight of the sleepless night before and whatever activities of the day will crash down on the person and certainly help ensure they get the much needed rest the next day.
While these are not only exclusive used by Neil, he is the sole crafter of these potions. He is also the only one that is allowed to sell them, so while they are on a list of available potions to be sold within his shop, he maintains full discretion over who is allowed to purchase said potions. Like with Bullet and Blade coating versions of the above, he maintains detailed records of all that he sells these potions to. Example: only certified Locksmiths within Fiore are allowed to purchase Alchemist's Lockpick, and a single farm is allowed to buy Growth Boost as part of testing effects on how its effects from being used on produce may transition into those that eat it (so far there is no negative or observable impact reported from the community.)
Knock Out: Used as a vial or a bullet, this potion does what the name implies - acts as a sedative to knock someone out from the vapors released when the liquid is exposed to oxygen. The effects last anywhere from 5 minutes to 1 hour depending on the target’s fortitude and size. The larger the target, the shorter the time. The unconscious state generally leaves the target feeling a bit groggy and confused when they first wake up, and can leave a feeling of being a bit drained though it doesn’t actually have any draining effects.
Alchemist’s Lockpick: A drop of this potion into a lock will cause the internal mechanisms to release. Effects last for only 1 minute, so if multiple locks need to be disengaged, it needs to be done quickly.
Growth Boost: Can be a vial or a bullet, this allows for either a single target (bullet) or multiple targets (vial) to be instantly grow in size. Growth Boost works on organic and inorganic matter. Comes in several size increases - Growth Boost, Growth Boost 2 and Growth Boost 3 - which increases the target(s) 2 times, 5 times, and 10 times the size depending on what formula is used. Currently the only effects on organic material have been on plants, so the extent of growth and how long it lasts haven’t fully been studied on sentient life (i.e. Neil hasn’t tried it on an enemy and hasn’t asked for any volunteers). Inorganic life, and plant life, do not have a set amount of time they remain enlarged because of this formula; currently the only way to shrink something back down is through the use of Shrink Spray.
Shrink Spray: Can be a vial or a bullet, much unlike the name suggests of being a spray. When the liquid comes into contact, the target (bullet) or targets (vial) instantly shrink in size. Like Growth Boost, works on organic and inorganic matter as well as coming in multiple sizes that decrease the target(s) in size based on which formula is used. Currently it has only been tested on targets that have had the Growth Boost used on them, and some test objects; none of the test objects have shown signs of growing back to size after a set amount of time.
Flash Shielding: Technically two vials combined, this is a byproduct of when two separate chemicals are combined together and shaped by the user. It tends to be best served by behind shaped into a dome, but can be spread quickly to become a small wall to shield. While it initially is a goop, it turns into a rubbery substance quickly which requires quick shaping to maintain proper shielding shape. It can withstand simple strikes for about 5 minutes before it will start to shatter. Powerful magic and bullets and other stronger strikes can be blocked once but it will destroy the shielding immediately after. If it gets onto clothes it tends to bond with the fabric and turn it brittle and easily shattered by even the slightest swift shift of the body, and when applied directly to the skin it tends to turn the person purple for a number of days while providing no actual protection against even the slightest hit; thus is unadvised as a barrier coating of an individual.
Strength Enhancement: Currently only a vial, when consumed it grants a 25% temporary increase to the user’s strength. Effects only last for 15 minutes, and most have reported feeling a bit drained after, though Neil has yet to determine if it is because of the potion itself or because people take it to then do very physically demanding tasks; he has yet to feel drained after simply taking it and allowing the potion to work its way out of his system.
Agility Enhancement: Currently only a vial, when consumed it grants a 25% temporary increase to the user’s agility. Effects only last for 15 minutes, and most have reported feeling a bit drained after, though Neil has yet to determine if it is because of the potion itself or because people take it to then do very physically demanding tasks; he has yet to feel drained after simply taking it and allowing the potion to work its way out of his system.
Beauty is Fleeting: Currently only a vial, when consumed it can alter someone’s appearance to remove defects - scars, crooked teeth, acne - based on what the consumer envisions. The effects are temporary, lasting for up to 10 hours depending on how much of the consumer’s body is modified and how intense the modification is - completely changing one’s appearance to be someone else lasts for only about 10 minutes, where as just clearing blemishes for a date can last up to 10 hours depending on how much skin needs to be cleared. He’s been working on developing it into a cream for a beauty product line.
Scratch Away: Weird name for a nifty potion, but this is the first miracle breakthrough Neil had in his experimentation beyond any of the other things. Developed roughly three years ago, this allows the consumer to heal any minor scrape or scratch instantly. If poured directly into a serious injury, it will heal it a little bit - easing pain for a few minutes and at least helping encourage the blood to clot. It is not meant to help stop the bleeding of severe injury or stave off death even if poured into such a wound.
Pocket Surgeon: The step up from Scratch Away, this potion is meant to help with severe injury or to stave off death. Finished with the tweeks to get the desired effects roughly two years ago and designed specifically to be poured directly onto the location of the serious injury, this potion will help instantly clot severed arteries. It is not meant to take the place of getting a proper stitchup by a proper professional, but it at least will save someone from dying of a near fatal injury, or completely going into shock from - say - a severed limb. It works as a localized anesthetic, helping block pain receptors from transmitting those signals. The anesthetic aspect only lasts for an hour, but should give enough time to get the injured somewhere that can properly help them.
Second Wind: A miracle potion if any there was one. This is the real prize on Neil’s shelf and the most recent addition to his wares as of a year ago. Only in a vial, this potion helps make a mage recover about 25% of their magical energy again. It’s not going to let them do big flashy tricks, or even restore them to full strength, but it’ll help clear their head of the fog of ache and pain and help them get back into fighting if they have no more energy left. As artificial as this second wind is, it doesn’t make someone feel more tired than they would after they’re finished with the fight, and while it can be piggybacked to recover that much energy and feel good a second time once they’re depleted again, prolonged use has not fully been studied and is highly advised against. It will not work to restore more than 25% of their magic at a time, and only works when a mage is empty, or close to empty, of magical reserves.
History: Neil is the middle child of three, and the only boy; not just of his own family but out of all 15 grandchildren on his mother’s side. He’d argue he wasn’t spoiled rotten for it, but he was, and he does know it. Given all the best stuff, privileges, and priority in the family just because he was the only boy, he grew up a little...spoiled. Except Neil never really thought about it. He loved his sisters and cousins and always enjoyed playing tea time, and house, and dressing up with them far more than when his parents tried to force him into liking sports or building stuff - because the others weren’t playing that way. Until his sisters began to take an interest in sports because he had to, then it became fun.
Then, for his 6th birthday, he got a science kit. That sparked an instant enjoyment of being able to create things, combining different chemicals and making things work. From there on, that was his focus - studying science and chemicals, and started excelling at his academics because of it. For his thirteenth birthday, he got a starter chemistry kit, and the rest is pretty history from here. During his junior year, he found through all his research notes academics had left behind of experiments trying to replicate magic using chemistry. It peaked and interest and Neil dove headlong into more information on such ventures. It helped him get a scholarship into college where he had more resources on hand to investigate these theories and further develop upon them. He started making a breakthrough his second year, and by the start of his third, he’d already developed Good Night’s Sleep. It was certainly turning out to be a very profitable venture, just on that one potion. It became his final thesis for his chemistry class and earned him a publication in a scientific magazine regarding his accomplishment, though he kept the exact method of the Ethernano conversion patented.
Though that is all the academic side. His sisters, for all his diving into his interest in science, still wanted their brother that they could play dress up and sports and everything with. Neil’s time was divided between them and his love of science, but it was always in good balance. He learned to be a great listener and never lost himself too far into the rabbithole of craft, and learned the careful art of carrying on a conversation regardless the topic and person from a sister that wasn’t just a self-proclaimed popular student but based her academic career on being the student council president and ensuring she had an easy rapport with all the students.
And thus, when he was in his final year of school and met a student struggling to not simply stare too long into the abyss, he found an odd attraction there and it stuck. Neil opened a small shop, and the two became roommates in the apartment above - allowing Neil to continue working on his concoctions and create new and interesting combinations of his potions, while his friend could simply try to rediscover something to be passionate about in life. About a year and a half to two years ago, the pair decided a perfect change of pace would be to actually try to explore what the magical world had to offer, and joined up with Phoenix Wing to hopefully help Markovis find a passion in life, and so Neil could witness other magics and see if he could expand further into a market aimed at what mages might need.
Personality: Spunky, outgoing, friendly, charismatic - these are just a few of the things people describe Neil as. He is energetic, enjoys being around others, and generally thrives off interacting with pretty much anyone. He loves to laugh and smile, and is always up for some harmless pranks and jokes. He cares about those around him - sometimes to a fault - and is quick to form friendships even if they aren’t as apparent to others. For as energetic as he can be and for as ready as he is to enjoy a party and being as rambunctious as others around him, Neil is just as happy sharing quiet moments one on one as well. Neil is also an equal opportunity flirter. Most times it’s simply just being friendly and not realizing he could be perceived as flirting. There are times where he is intentionally flirting with someone, and doesn't really care if it is mistaken as him just being nice. He isn’t entirely looking for a relationship, after all, but a little flirting never hurt, right?
Guild and guild mark location: Phoenix Wing, Left inner forearm - pink Team Members: Team: Smokin’ Bottle - Markovis Pendergast, Trinity Stratos
Three Strengths:
Silver-Tongue: Ever the smooth talker, Neil prefers to use his words to deal with potentially dangerous situations when possible. He enjoys it, really. Negotiations, diplomatic affairs, and a variety of other applications including helping him talk his way into better deals and advancements.
Marksman: He’s quite skilled with a gun, and on his own prefers to go for limbs over central hits when shooting at a living target. He’s good enough that he can usually hit someone while shooting on the run, though his aim is far better if he’s standing still. Even without a magic enhanced gun, Neil is capable of extremely difficult shots - even moreso when he is using rifles.
Kind Hearted: Neil could be a rich person, but he’s not. He spends most of his profits on helping others, whether it’s taking a lot of the weight off his friend to help him find something to want again, or lending money to his family, to even just helping a friend out with some rent if they’re short on cash this month - he’s more likely to squander his money on charitable acts than make sure he saves up a nest egg for when he’s old or if he ever gets into a fight he can’t recover from. He’ll dedicate time away from his own interests to help others with their own ventures and pursuits, finding their success to be just as fulfilling as his own.
Three Weaknesses:
Lover, not a fighter: He definitely prefers talking things out rather than getting into a fight. He would prefer to diffuse a situation over escalating one. Whether it’s just a bar room brawl because someone spilt another’s drink or a job going south, he will always try to de-escalate a fight. He will never be the first one to swing, but may be the first one sprawled on his back from a hit. It can sometimes take him a bit to get his head in the game and actually get on with the fight though, as he will continue to try to talk a person out of fighting even as he’s being slammed through a table.
Wandering Mind: Neil would love to say he’s hyper focused when it comes to his work - being on a job, creating new potions, helping friends out. That’s not always the case. Working on a new idea for a potion may either lead him down a path to a second, third, or fourth chemical just from trying to figure out the first and need to be redirected, or it may result in hyperfocusing on a single potion and go a day without even taking a break until he’s made the breakthrough. In conversations, he’s easily distracted and on the battlefield he’s trying to take in everything at once and not focusing on the main task at hand. While he can be extremely intelligent, he makes foolish decisions because he wasn’t paying attention to the right thing - occasionally to disastrous results.
Social Snafu: Now Neil is pretty good at almost all social situations, but the fact he is just a natural flirt sometimes gets in the way. Situations he thinks he’s just being friendly in occasionally end up with a punch or slap to the face from a significant other that he inadvertently was flirting with. He does try to de-escalate those situations, but it still doesn’t save him the pain of making the same mistakes over and over by just being himself.
Greatest Love: His family Motivation: Continue developing his alchemy capabilities - short term to help Trinity find a solution to her magical problem.
Additional Details: Neil has an appreciation for every body type, preference, and just about everything about a person. He has little issues making friends with just about anyone, and is pansexual - not just not having a preference between genders, but also very little preference in what the person looks like as far as what attracts him.
He stays in good touch with his family, and sends his parents a portion of his profits so his mother could stop working when she hurt her back.
Not just inventive, but he started his business while in college and finished a degree in chemistry and business. With all his formulas patented, he’s made plenty of money maintaining exclusive rights to produce his potions, and has built up enough capital that by the time he joined Phoenix Wing, he had already opened a manufacturing facility for producing some of the wares he sells; anything in the exclusives are things he makes in small batches himself and only sells from his flagship store, along with bullet and weapon coatings. His product line is called Alchemist's Spring - sold in retailers all over Ishgar.
Neil also has a cosmetics line sold in pretty much anywhere cosmetics are sold. The line is currently hair products (styling solutions to dies, including beard products), makeup, as and nail polish/polish remover. While there are several product lines, the brand name is Yoska Cosmetics.
Neil owns the building his flagship store (Alchemist's Fountain) is in; the first floor is a fully functioning store. An outside staircase grants access to the upper floors, which is a 4 bedroom townhouse for Markovis and Neil. Both this building and his factory reside in Magnolia Town.
While Neil is familiar with blades, and even occasionally fights with them, his main practice has been in training with Markovis. He’s not as good with his blade as he is with his guns, and prefers any combat he has to get into to be done at a distance rather than up close. Still, he’s handy enough with one that he has it as a backup in case an enemy closes, as it is far more formidable a fighting style for him than using his fists.
Name: Markovis Penderghast Age: 19 Birthday: August 6th
Magic: Thermodynamic Conversion & Abyssal Body Magic Level: A+
A magic that is designed to affect the temperature of targeted things - be it an area, a person, or an object. Because of this, there’s a neutral balance in the air directly around those that are skilled users and makes them immune to hot and cold weather. Those that use this magic tend to make do using only a handful of spells with varying degrees of precise applications to utilize it to its highest degree.
Chilling Touch: This spell removes all heat from the area around the caster’s hand. When the caster touches an object, this spell acts as a vacuum for the heat in that object, pulling it into the space around the caster’s hand to instill a “chilling” factor. When used on an item, it runs the risk of freezing the object. When used on a living being, it lowers the body temperature to potentially dangerous levels; living beings tend to reach with much the same way as being out in freezing temperatures - feeling sluggish, sleepy, with reduction in strength and mobility from muscles condensing from the cold. This feeling will last until the body is brought back up to proper temperature, either by the addition of heat or over the course of time in a warmer environment.
Encompassing Freeze: Caster extends their hand toward a target, and encompasses them in a nearly invisible sphere of air in which all heat has been removed. Those that do become trapped in it will instantly experience a reaction to the extreme cold environment and suffer from the usual effects of the lack of heat the longer they are in there, ultimately putting the target into a stasis like state that can be reversed by warming the target back up to standard temperature. This spell has a natural limit of a few minutes when cast, but can last longer if the caster maintains concentration on it.
Burning Touch: The opposite of Chilling Touch, this spell increases the amount of heat in the area around the caster’s hand. When the caster touches an object, this spell causes the object to act as the vacuum for the heat, pulling the heat from around the caster’s hand to cause a “super heated” factor. When used on an item, it will leave a burn mark and runs the risk of setting the object on fire. When used on a living being, it raises the body temperature to dangerous levels; living beings tend to react with much the same way as if they had spiked a fever - sweating, potential delirium, and trouble concentrating. This feeling will last until the body is brought back down to proper temperature, either by the removal of heat or over the course of time in a cooler environment.
Encompassing Heat: Caster extends their hand toward a target, and encompasses them in a nearly invisible sphere of air in which heat has been increased drastically. Those that do become trapped in it will instantly experience a reaction to the extremely hot environment and suffer from the usual effects of being in excessive heat the longer they are in there, ultimately causing the target’s organs to start shutting down. This is a far deadlier version of Encompassing Freeze as the actual effects can only truly be reversed with healing magic, though can be lessened by removing the target(s) from the extreme heat. This spell has a natural limit of a few minutes when cast, which will not inherently do much more damage than making someone experience heat exhaustion, but can last longer if the caster maintains concentration on it and thus will cause worse effects.
Thermal Blast: The caster increases the heat around one hand, and decreases the heat around their other hand. After they’ve reached a proper imbalance between the two temperatures, they slam their hands together to create a sudden vacuum of negative pressure that ultimately will create a shockwave out away from the caster. Shockwave will travel for up to 20 feet before fully dissipating, getting weaker the further from the caster it travels; within a foot or two it is strong enough to send someone flying back away from him.
Thermal Shift: This spell allows the caster to either increase or decrease the temperature of the area surrounding them, up to a 100’ radius from the caster. How hot or cold depends on the caster’s target, but is generally used as a utility spell to help negate negative effects from being stranded in extreme conditions.
Thermal Reaction: The caster reactively adjusts the how much heat, or the lack thereof, is in a 5’ radius of them in order to stave off an attack. The heat increase is generally done to an extreme, which is likely to cause 3rd degree burns if the attacker tries to get closer; conversely the heat decrease is generally to an extreme, making the attacker feel sluggish and start to freeze up to not be able to press the attack further. It’s an innate defense practitioners of Thermodynamic Conversion have, as this magic doesn’t lend itself to defense very well.
Thermal Activation: Supercharging the heat property of the air around an object will drive the heat into the object, thus causing it to glow - or, in the case of flammable objects, catch fire - from the thermal radiation.
Abyssal Body draws on the properties of Dark Matter, a corrosive substance that is visible to the naked eye as a mass of swirling black and indigo, as well as powers from an extradimensional realm known as the Abyss. This magic is not just an unnatural magic, drawing on dark powers thought to be beyond the reach of Earthland - or it’s sister dimensions - reach, but is one that is thought to be a lost magic forgotten for its potentially dangerous and uncontrollable properties.
Abyssal Sight: A body enchantment, this allows the caster to allow others to see in pitch darkness. It can be cast on multiple people at once, with each additional person costing more energy to cast. Requires the caster to physically touch the target’s forehead. Enchantment lasts for an hour, unless dedicated focus is to holding it longer. Exposure to bright light while this enchantment is in place will temporarily blind the users.
Consuming Abyss: Caster raises a hand - palm flat - toward a target, and summons up a sphere of total dark matter, snuffing out all light and holding the target immobile. The air within the sphere gains weight, to feel a bit oppressive and give a sense of claustrophobia, dread, and abandonment to the target by shutting out all ability to sense the world outside the sphere. This spell can be held for longer than the normal end time, which can cause the corrosive nature of the dark matter to start eating away at clothing and organic matter within the sphere. Will last for up to 5 minutes (unless held longer by the caster), though it can be dismissed by the caster, or overpowered either from the target trapped within the sphere (via magically attacking the sphere) or a magical light strike against the sphere from an exterior source. (An exterior force attacking the sphere will not damage the target trapped within. Simply dissipate the sphere itself.)
Abyssal Reach: Caster thrusts a hand toward the target. Tendrils of dark matter shoot out at the target, and despite their apparent weightlessness and translucency they are quite tangible; these tendrils can be cut and otherwise blocked by solid objects. They can be used to attack a target, striking an opponent with fast and powerful strikes over the course of several minutes - or for however long the spell is concentrated on - and delivering painful caustic burns in addition to any blunt damage when they come into contact with bare skin. These tendrils can also be manipulated to be used to pick up and move objects out of reach. They can squeeze into small spaces and be used to manipulate objects - such as slipping under a door and disengaging a lock - so long as the user knows where the tendrils are moving unseen. The tendrils can only lift and move things that the caster would be able to move - so objects the caster could not lift cannot be lifted, but could be pushed - similar to other forms of interaction with objects. In any capacity, the tendrils have a maximum distance they can reach, which is roughly 100 feet.
Abyssal Imprisonment: Caster summons up several tendrils of dark matter, shooting up from the ground - or from behind - to wrap around the target (depending on if they are standing on the ground or flying). These tendrils shoot up and latch around the limbs and body of the target, restricting movement and restraining the target. They can be cut, or destroyed with the application of magic. They also will cause caustic burns that will slowly start to eat away at the person should any of the tendrils touch bare skin.
Leeching Abyss: Caster extends their hand toward the target. A multitude of dark matter tentacles race forth, forming hands that attempt to grasp the intended target. These tentacles will attempt to restrain the target, and should any make a solid grasp against the target’s bare skin or a source of magic (lacrima infused item and/or holder item) will slowly drain the ethernano from the target and transfer to the caster. While they may seem intangible due to the translucent nature, much like other Abyssal Body spells they can be deflected with weapons and other solid objects, as well as destroyed. The more skill the user has, the faster the tentacles move and respond to adjustments in target’s position, as well as the more tentacles are summoned.
Abyssal Destruction: Caster forms a sphere of dark matter in their hand that is then released at the target in the form of a large beam, or thrown as a destructive orb that explodes upon contact. The destructive capability depends on how long it is charged up for - a few seconds is weak compared to ten minutes which could level a mountain - and the longer it charges, the larger the diameter of the attack (beam or sphere) is.
Into the Void: Caster becomes intangible to magical and physical attacks, disappearing from sight and able to reappear at a different location, or in the same location after the attack being avoided is finished. Unable to spam this attack, as it wears on the caster the more it is used.
Fury of the Abyss: Caster gains a swirling haze of a black and indigo glow. While using this spell, caster is able to move at incredible speeds that allow the user to land powerful melee attacks. The speeds are generally fast enough that it can be difficult to trace his trajectory and thus difficult to defend against. There are traces of heat left in the wake of the caster’s movements, heating up the area more and more. User cannot cast other spells while this is enabled.
Hex of the Abyss: Caster thrusts a hand out toward a magical source. An invisible force pulses out from the thrust hand forward toward the source, dispelling any spells that may be in effect by the target. This attack is typically used to target an opponent in battle, and can dispel magically equipped armor/weapons that are summoned up from Requip, or temporarily nullify the magical properties of holder items; when dispelling caster magic it is instantaneous, but items unequipped in this manner - as well as holder items that are nullified - cannot be reequipped or have that magical property reactivated again for a few minutes. This spell can also be used against static magical effects, such as magical barriers or traps, to dispel the magic in place. Against sentient magical items, it acts more or less like a stun attack, temporarily causing the item to be in a semi-conscious state and partially unresponsive. **Special Notes: this is going to be the next spell he learns, not one already in his kit. He'll be actively working on getting the functions of it proper at the start of the RP but not actually be able to utilize it in any capacity.**
History: One would expect someone like Markovis to have some isolated and gloomy upbringing to create such an emotionally void individual. That was not the case. While, yes, he was an only child, his parents were neither too busy to bother with him nor overbearing. They supported him in whatever interests he wanted to pursue when younger, gave him his freedom to pursue them at his own pace, and even never pushed him to do better than he wished. But he wasn’t happy with just being mediocre when it bored him. He skipped grades and was seen as a bit of a prodigy in his youth - gaining a great understanding of Thermodynamic Conversion magic quicker than many believe would be possible to match his intelligence - and graduated at a young age.
The drive for it was all his own. It wasn’t exactly an external force from his parents, but the accolades of the achievements from those around him - relatives, teachers, the ire of fellow students that were older and placing lower in the class than him. He pushed himself to keep achieving bigger and better, looking into various other magics that eventually led to finding an ancient tomb from which he learned Abyssal Body, as a way of distracting from others around himself. This led to him also entering university on full scholarship at age 14. But upon completing his first year, he found he was losing his drive, despite focusing on theoretical magics and magical applications. He was very capable of exploring the new magic and still making time for his studies, but ultimately found he had no clue what he wanted to do with himself, and professions that require a degree were starting to seem more and more like just attempts to continue receiving accolades instead of something that interested him.
Halfway through his second year, he finally decided it wasn’t worth it. The only thing he did enjoy in all of it was magic and figured that was the better pursuit. He dropped out and decided to focus entirely on developing his magic. Neil helped support him for this year he took off, far more kind and understanding than Markovis actually understood and felt incapable of expressing his gratitude properly for doing such, the younger mage decided joining a guild would help him best - both to find a purpose in life and to put the only thing he considers a passion (magic) to use in being able to start repaying his friend for supporting him the past year. While choosing wasn’t easy, he figured going with the well rounded Phoenix Wing guild would give him a chance at taking a wide range of jobs and he could decide what to do from there.
Personality: Generally stoic and impassive, Markovis doesn’t generally rise to the occasion for most things. It’s not an easy task to incite anger or sadness, or even a smile, out of the man. He prefers being task oriented, focusing on work and keeping to himself when there isn’t a job of interest on the board. While he may not train to become stronger, he does enjoy challenges and often takes jobs that can be difficult for a single person to do by himself. Deep within this mask of impassiveness is someone that does care. But he doesn’t quite understand how to show it. So, he doesn’t bother. It’s far easier to work if you don’t have the bothersome voice of compassion whispering in your ear. This causes him to not try to pursue close connections with anyone, and generally views anyone as an associate or an acquaintance with no real feelings of familiarity toward any one individual beyond that.
Guild and guild mark location: Phoenix Wing, Right pectoral - dark gray Team Members: Smokin’ Bottle: Neil Yoska & Trinity Stratos Three Strengths:
Large Magical Reserves: Markovis started training his magic young, and has learned to build up even larger reserves for his magic to cast more spells or continue casting after using a high consumption spell. He tends to recover his energy faster being in darkened conditions, and benefits from the fact that he acts with restraint that prevents him from expending power he doesn’t need to.
Fearless: That’s not to say he doesn’t have anything he’s afraid of, but when faced with death or torture, or even the same of his allies, he is unyielding and unblinking in his position. He’s not looking to sacrifice himself or others, but he will not bend his position or even break just to see no suffering befalls anyone. The same is said for his pursuit to complete a job, willing to push himself past the limit and risk his very life to ensure the task is completed.
Intelligent: Let it not be said that one who holds their tongue be proven ignorant. It is clear from the look in his eyes and the words he chooses when he speaks that he is far more intelligent than many give him credit for. He understands finer nuances of conversations even if he lacks the emotional wisdom to feel their impact, and can be quite manipulative if he desires; it usually isn’t the case as he sees most interactions with others as a means to an end. Most jobs end up as simple games of chess to him, mapping out the moves of himself (and often able to predict the moves of partners he chooses to accept) and the opposition before the job is even underway.
Three Weaknesses:
Dispassionate / Emotionally Inept: While there is a part of Markovis that does care about others, he has difficulty not only showing it but also acknowledging it in himself. This especially is seen in the middle of dangerous jobs, should someone get hurt - they should have thought better about what to do to prevent it, or not come on the job to begin with, because an injured partner isn’t something he can allow to interfere with completing a job. He also appears a bit listless and with no true preference over what job type he takes. Though he can be found reading and fond of it, it’s not like there’s a particular focus to anything he does and it shows through with generally a very vacant expression and distant tone. This all mostly comes from a fact he doesn’t quite grasp emotions. Either his own or others. They aren’t tools, they aren’t generally helpful, and - more specifically - they generally get in the way. He often doesn’t understand humor of others, which generally either kills the joke or fails to deliver on the perceived outcome (not to say humor being made at his expense to laugh at how he failed to grasp it is not the desired outcome) which ultimately will result in him disengaging from the conversation in lue of better prospects.
Task Oriented: When it comes to taking a job or doing work, he doesn’t allow himself to get distracted. It also tends to mean he has trouble switching gears if necessary. The job comes first, and he will see it through whether it means his partner is injured and he must continue on alone or not. While he does take in information from his surroundings, and will weigh someone’s advice or thoughts on a topic, he generally will demand they follow the most efficient means of completion rather than let the job potentially get botched because of using a plan that may reduce risk of injury.
Poor People Skills: While self-evident, despite an intelligence to help him get through difficult tasks, the one thing he cannot always work out is how to be delicate about someone’s feelings. He prefers succinct conversations that end quickly to be able to continue on his day, and can oftentimes curt to ensure the interaction ends if necessary.
Greatest Love: His grey tabby cat, Penelope Motivation: To find an actual passion in life.
Additional Details: He dislikes nicknames, but not enough to complain should someone insist on using one for him. He will correct once and then just ignore any future improprieties should they arise.
He prefers his personal space, and has issues with people being within arm’s reach. He gets very defensive about being touched, and is only comfortable being by Neil, or when he is injured.
Markovis is quite fond of animals and plants. He has led him to foster several stray cats and even nurse a pigeon back to health, though he only kept the one cat. He also has several houseplants - all of which are pet safe should his cat decides to eat them - which he tends to as well. He can name many plants without more than a single glance, and is quite content for long strolls in the park to see the flowers cultivated in the gardens.
Theoretical magic and magical theory, as well as other intellectual ventures of all kinds spark an interest even if he may not seem like it does. Even in college, he enjoyed his classes regarding magical research and theoretical application of lost or ancient magics.
While he isn’t exactly going to always accept a drink, Markovis is also rarely seen without something alcoholic nearby to sip on when in the guildhall. He doesn’t usually pound drinks, or even drink enough there is a notable change in his personality or perception, so he would argue against being called an alcoholic per say. That doesn’t mean it isn’t apparent there may be a problem there or developing; he just doesn’t see it.
Markovis’s love of consumables isn’t just limited to liquor, and is quite fond of cooking as well. While it is easier to simply use the appliances provided to cook, there are times he uses his Thermodynamic Conversion magic to cook.
While he may not look like much, or even really rise to the occasion often, Markovis is a skilled fighter both with weapons and without. He doesn’t “fist fight” per say but does have a great deal of skill in countering opponents attacks by using their momentum and strength against them. He is a talented swordsman, knowing how to utilize multiple different sized blades from daggers to long swords and even glaives in various sword fighting styles; it seems his most comfortable form is a glaive fighting which he uses both at full length and choked up to utilize as a sword. All his movements tend to be much more fluid than strength based with a focus on dodges, counterstrikes, and feints that have him moving like a dancer.
Markovis lives with Neil in a townhouse Neil owns in Magnolia Town. He hasn't seen much point to moving out and pays his share of the utilities, food, etc. - at least ever since joining Phoenix Wing and generating his own income.
Name: Nyssa Age: 16 Birthday: November 20th
Magic: Elemental Dancer Magic Level: B
Elemental Dancer is a rare magic that allows certain movements to be combined with magical properties to summon up elements. These are able to be combined in different ways - some acting as buffs, others as debuffs, and some as attack spells of their own. Users of this magic have the ability to manipulate existing forms of their element, or create the element of desire on their own. This ability grows with practice and power, first starting as only able to manipulate existing (natural) elements of that type before being able to summon up that element without any existing around them to eventually being able to utilize elemental attacks of that type and return the attacks toward the original caster.
Elemental dancers are skilled at using their movements and dances to fight whether they’ve used these dances to increase their natural speed or strength or not. Many elemental dancers fight with only their body, using no weapons, though some have adapted these movements to include physical weapons which they lace their magic into the weapon to have it become an extension of themselves.
Call the Flame: A very basic spell, this consists of mostly hand movements to summon up fire to the caster. The spell can create fire if there is no natural fire present, so long as the caster is skilled enough to do so. It can also be used to manipulate natural fire (say from a campfire) to be under the caster’s control. It is generally used to start the fire dance, but can be used for such simple means as starting a campfire should one need it and the dancer be able to create fire.
Fire’s Tale: Another basic spell, using existing fire typically from a small campfire or larger, allows the dancer to perform movements to draw out fire and help illustrate a story through their dance. Talented Elemental Dancers are capable of using smaller motions and flames to be able to do the same thing. The fire cannot affect anything, and loses the potential to set flammable material on fire during the dance. Upon completion of the dance, the flames dissipate harmlessly if not returned to the original source.
Fire’s Reach: As the dancer moves, more fire builds up around them, coiling like snakes around them and their arms. This eventually starts to take the form of a large whip or chain as they move, and can be used to lash out at opponents as a slightly long range. This spell will last as long as the dancer maintains the ability to continue their movements; should they be restricted, the flames will dissipate harmlessly.
Life of the Wildfire: As the dancer moves through the area, their movements become faster and grow more unreadable. This eventually coats the dancer in fire, and adds fire/heat damage to attacks. As the fire swells, the attacks can land harder than before and flammable material runs a chance of catching fire. If left unimpeded from movement, the fire will grow until the dance culminates in an explosive burst of flames - shooting out with the dancer at the epicenter - to blind and knock objects back like a shock wave from the pressure; this can injure objects and beings based on how close they are to the center, with heat burns and or potentially catching fire. Any fires burn naturally, though the flames directly from the dance dissipate naturally in a puff of energy.
Call the Water: A very basic spell, this consists of mostly hand movements to summon up water to the caster. The spell can create water if there is no natural water present, so long as the caster is skilled enough to do so. It can also be used to manipulate natural water to be under the caster’s control. It is generally used to start the water dance, but can be used for such simple means of getting fresh water to drink should one need it and the dancer be able to create water.
Serenity’s Sway: A dance that will build up to make vague humanoid figures out of water, Serenity’s Sway is generally used as a sort of mass hypnosis dance. Calm movements, and subtle shifts that can be considered hypnotic, are used to lull watchers into a sense of peace. To calm angers, wash away sadness, lighten burdens - dancers use this as a form of entertainment more than not as it takes time for the dance to lure the viewer into lowering their guard.
Flow Like Water: This dance causes water to influence their allies like other buffing magic. As the dancer performs, the water charges with energy to help their allies deliver their own attacks more swiftly as well as react to incoming attacks faster. When the dance finishes, it sends the water to the dancer’s allies to be absorbed by them through their skin/clothes - almost like magic circles. The effects of this spell can last for upward of an hour, depending on how strong the dancer is.
Soothing Waters: A dance that is more movement of arms than of the whole body, this can be converted into full body movements for effecting masses. Traditionally, it is a series of movements over an individual that empowers the water they manipulate to have healing properties, and sculpts the water into the same general size and shape as the individual it is being performed for; en masse, the motions lead the water to spread out from the dancer to climb up the targets to shape around them. This does not do much to heal serious - or even moderate - injuries, but can wash away minor scratches and abrasions - ones that are likely to heal and go unnoticed by the next day. The main property to this dance is to grace the water with properties to ease pain and help ease exhaustion after a fight.
Dance of the Rapids: A dance that causes the water swirling around the dancer to froth, it contains a lot of rapid and almost erratic movements that appear both chaotic and controlled at the same time. Dancer tends to stay close to a target of the move, channeling the speed and power of water flowing through rapids and uses it to hit the target in rapid succession with increasing power and ferocity. Under-trained dancers tend to be tired afterward.
Call the Wind: A very basic spell, this consists of mostly hand movements to summon up wind to the caster. The spell can create wind if there is no natural wind present, so long as the caster is skilled enough to do so. It can also be used to manipulate natural wind to be under the caster’s control. It is generally used to start the wind dance, but can be used for such simple means of calling wind to help do things like put wind in their sails.
Leaf on the Wind: As the dancer moves, they don’t do so seemingly quickly, but they appear to float through the space they’re in. It isn’t meant for speed, but pure mobility - the moves guiding the dancer though their surroundings to avoid injury from traps, attacks, and other injury. This will last so long as the dancer is able to continue moving.
Strike of the Whirlwind: The dance summons up wind around the dancer as they move, and it grows in intensity throughout the course of the dance. The dancer delivers this dance as part of a series of attacks. While the attacks gain no extra power or swiftness, the wind around them has chances of blowing things away from the dancer, starting at small and light objects and growing in how large or heavy an object is until even the target of the attacks has the potential of getting blowing away from the small tornado built around the dancer.
Pull of the Zephyr: Much like Strike of the Whirlwind, the dance summons up wind, which grows in intensity throughout the course of the dance. The dancer builds up the winds in front of themself, then launches the wind in the direction of a target when it is a moderate tornado roughly 60 feet high. The whirlwind attack will travel in a straight line, pulling items and/or people toward and into it as it travels across land, and will dissipate either if it strikes a surface taller than it, is struck with a magical attack directly targeting it, or has traveled a distance of up to 600 feet. People and items sucked into the swirling vortex could be injured or destroyed (respectively) by other items within it, but can be pulled upward while inside. When the twister does disperse, things and people within it fall back to the ground - which can destroy or kill depending on how high up it is.
Call the Lightning: A very basic spell, this consists of mostly hand movements to summon up lightning to the caster. The spell can create lightning if there is no natural lightning present, so long as the caster is skilled enough to do so. It can also be used to manipulate natural lightning to be under the caster’s control. It is generally used to start the lightning dance, but can possibly be used to help restore lost electricity/energy from devices or generators.
Jolting Dance: While channeling lightning around the dancer, they can move in sporadic bolts from one target to another, or simply bounce from place to place around the target, to make an attack. While the movements are classified as sporadic and may seem chaotic, there is still a beat and a very clear rhythm to how and when and where the dancer will move. The more skill a dancer has with this dance, the faster these movements can become, from first just being quick like bolts of lighting moving from one place to another to ultimately moving like the blink of an eye. This dance does take a lot out of even a skilled dancer, but can last as long as the dancer keeps up the dance.
Chaining Lightning: For this dance, the dancer moves across the field, with every step leaving an imprinted path of sparking electricity. Motions of the arms help control the flow of electricity, with quick touches helping lock targets of the spell. By the time the dance culminates, the lightning built up over the time shoots from the dancer and strikes against the targets touched during the dance; this strike feels like a standard jolt of lightning entering at the point of the contact.
Call the Air: A very basic spell, this consists of mostly hand movements to summon up unpolluted air to the caster. The spell can create air if there is no unpolluted air present, so long as the caster is skilled enough to do so. It can also be used to manipulate unpolluted air to be under the caster’s control. It is generally used to start the air dance, but can be used for such simple means of summoning unpolluted air to allow those within a room (or space of up to 20 feet) to breathe normally.
Dance of the Copycat: The dancer uses hand and arm motions to send the called air toward a number of targets relevant to their skill - dancers just starting out generally can only target 1 or 2 individuals, while masters of the dance could potentially control up to 10. Targets of this spell will find a bit of pressure from the space around them as the air condenses against them, before their motions are taken over by needing to mimic that of the dancer’s. This spell can last for as long as the dancer is able to move, but can be broken should the target overcome the air around them. The difficulty of this also varies by the dancer’s skill, being easy for beginner Elemental Dancers, to nearly impossible for masters of this particular dance.
Hiding in the Veil: This dance allows more skilled dancers to be able to hide up to 10 people in a coating of air that will make them invisible to the naked eye. Those that can see through illusions or other magical effects can see the targets without impediment. From simple movements of the hands and arms to sways of the body, the dancer manipulates their summoned air to cloak each target individually. They are still able to manipulate objects and move without breaking the magic; however, this does not mean they do not make noise and can still be tracked by sounds of them interacting with the environment around them. This can be used to target the user as well. This invisibility will end should the target of the spell cast magic, or after an hour. The dancer can dismiss the effect as well, but calling the air back to themselves.
Call the Smoke: A very basic spell, this consists of mostly hand movements to summon up smoke to the caster. The spell can create smoke if there is no natural smoke present, so long as the caster is skilled enough to do so. It can also be used to manipulate naturally occurring smoke to be under the caster’s control. It is generally used to start the smoke dance, but can be used for simply pulling smoke out of location and directing it to disperse elsewhere.
The Smoke Maiden: Another basic spell, using existing smoke typically that billowing from a recently doused flame, allows the dancer to perform movements to draw out smoke into the rough shape of a humanoid female; skilled dancers are able to pull out more humanoid forms to a maximum of 5. Talented Elemental Dancers are capable of using smaller motions and sources of smoke, even smoke that is not from a recently extinguished fire, to be able to do the same thing. Upon completion of the dance, the smoke releases it’s form to dissipate naturally.
Covering the Grounds: As the dancer moves, they slowly leave trails of the smoke behind. The movements are fluid, but slow and methodical to help cover as much space as possible. By the end of it, up to a 20 foot square space may end up concealed in smoke. This is helpful to hide individuals and things, and impair fights, but even Elemental Dancers cannot naturally see through the smoke. The cloud of smoke will dissipate naturally if given a way to escape if in an enclosed space, or if significant wind blows it from the area in an open air environment. If neither of these occur, it will begin to fade after 5 minutes in an open air environment or 30 minutes if in an enclosed space.
Call the Rainstorm: A very basic spell used to summon up storm clouds in the sky. As the dancer moves, clouds will move together or form in the sky, darkening to a light grey until the spell culminates in a gentle rain storm. The spell can create storm clouds that will produce rain if there are no natural clouds present, so long as the caster is skilled enough to do so. It can also be used to manipulate naturally occurring clouds overhead to condense and produce the storm.
Call the Monsoon: A slightly more advanced spell than Call the Rainstorm used to summon up storm clouds in the sky. As the dancer moves, clouds will move together or form in the sky, darkening to a dark grey until the spell culminates in a soaking thunderstorm with clashes of thunder overhead. The spell can create storm clouds that will produce rain if there are no natural clouds present, so long as the caster is skilled enough to do so. It can also be used to manipulate naturally occurring clouds overhead to condense and produce the storm.
Call the Thunderstorm: A slightly more advanced spell than Call the Rainstorm used to summon up storm clouds in the sky. As the dancer moves, clouds will move together or form in the sky, darkening to a near black until the spell culminates in a torrential downpour with boisterous thunder and clashes of lightning overhead. Skilled dancers can use this to summon up hail instead of rain.
Call the Earth: A very basic spell, this consists of mostly hand movements to summon up rocks and dirt to the caster. The spell can create rocks and dirt if there are no natural rocks or dirt present, so long as the caster is skilled enough to do so. It can also be used to manipulate naturally occurring rocks or dirt to be under the caster’s control. It is generally used to start the earth dance, but can be used to coat an area in solid earth for stability and support.
The Warrior’s Preparation: A spell that can be cast over multiple targets based on dancer’s skill, this can affect up to 5 people. As the dancer moves, they pull more earth to them, and can push it toward their target(s) to mold a fortification layer around the target(s). When the dance culminates, the fortification is completed and grants the target(s) physical armor that will chip away but protect from physical attacks. Powerful physical attacks could shatter the fortification away in a single blow, while it may take a series of minor attacks to fully break away the armor - exposing the body beneath bit by bit. The target(s) can still maintain full mobility while the fortification is in place, and will have their senses or ability to talk impaired. This fortification will only last for 10 minutes even with a skilled dancer, though the skill of the dancer will allow for either faster casting, fortification that is capable of withstanding more powerful hits, or both. Strictly magic only attacks will bypass this armor as if it weren’t present.
Mudwalker’s Prance: A dance of odd but still rhythmic movements, this dance alters the terrain around the dancer. Each step spreads the called earth around the foot of the dancer, spreading out in a 2 foot diameter, as the dancer moves; if done in an area that naturally has dirt, each movement spreads out more to touch other mud pockets. Each location then becomes a 12 inch deep pocket of mud that can cause whatever places weight on it to sink in and get stuck. It takes significant effort to pull free from it, as the mud creates a suction like lock on whatever sinks into it. This dance can continue for as long as the dancer continues the movements. The effects of this dance can last for up to 20 minutes after the dancer has completed the dance, fading back to whatever surface it was before the dance, or the dancer may dismiss the effects at any time.
Call the Plant: A very basic spell, this consists of mostly hand movements to summon up plants to the caster. The spell can create plants if there is no natural plantlife present, so long as the caster is skilled enough to do so. It can also be used to manipulate naturally occurring plants to be under the caster’s control. It is generally used to start the Plant dance, but can be used for simply encouraging plantlife to flourish around the dancer.
Constrictions of Vines: As the dancer moves, vines move along the ground out away from the dancer. While many would believe the dancer might trip with the vines, their careful steps allow them to avoid the vines that are quick to latch onto and restrain any that they do touch. For as long as the dancer moves, the vines will latch around feet first, then climb up along bodies until an entire thing is constricted. These vines will only stop movement when the dance is performed by an inexperienced dancer, but masters can use this constriction to cause physical harm to those encased in the vines. While the dance could possibly continue for as long as the dancer moves, the dancer can only truly continue moving so long as there is a safe place to step; once the space reaches a certain point, the dancer will no longer have space to move and the constricting will stop. Those entangled in the vines will need to be cut free, or wait until the plants wither and fall away after 5 minutes of the end of the dance. Magical and physical attacks can slow or stop vines from approaching individuals.
History: Like all other true Kitsune, Nyssa was born on Kitahmasune. She never came to know who her biological parents were, born to a couple that had not settled on becoming permanent mates, and was raised like many other children in the communal children’s hut. Life for her wasn’t so different from other Kitsune. She spent her days playing with the other Kitsune or listening to the history and lessons from the high elders - Kitsune that were well past their 750th cycle and held knowledge of times of old. As she grew older, she cycled through the jobs on the island as others did, getting a feel for what role she would like to play in the community. Nothing at all different from many of the others.
But when other children of two or three were summoning up elements, or casting illusions, or manipulating the plant life around them, Nyssa felt pulled in all directions at once but could never harness those powers on her own. It wasn’t until she was seven that she realized why. While she had an affinity for magic, it wasn’t simply something she could summon up like other children could do. The advice the high elders gave her was to listen to within, and her magic would speak. She didn’t hear words when she listened within; she heard music, and found that when she danced to the rhythm, she could manipulate the elements around her. A magic unlike what many had witnessed before; the high elders called it a lost art.
While others had teachers to help them cultivate their magic, Nyssa had tried to learn from other dancers, but none offered advice that fit the music she heard within. They were far more rigid than the water needed, too flexible for the earth, too grounded for air, and too smooth for fire. The free time she had from her chores were spent at different locations on the island, locations she could better feel the elements and learn to call them, then further develop her dances.
With the difficulty she faced at getting an instructor, none found her whimsical ponderings odd. Many of her peers may have mused over what they might do during a visit to the mainland, Nyssa truly dreamed of what the mainland would be like. In her eyes, the wider world was not simply a place to visit but to explore. She wanted to see what there was and learn more about other magics that might be waiting out there. None of the adults minded her questions, but none of the answers sated her appetite for knowledge of the world beyond their waters.
Finally, it was her turn. After waiting for 16 long years, Nyssa had become of age and was ready to set out. Roughly a month ago, she was dropped off and parted ways with her guide. In the time since, she has found her way to Magnolia Town, but her funds and tradable commodities are now running scarce, and she has yet to figure out what to do about it.
Personality: Chipper, naive, and inquisitive are just a few of the basic things that one picks up on when talking to her. Nyssa is smart as far as the ways of the Kitsune people, but still has much to learn about the larger world out there. She hasn’t experienced problems with theft or lying or even mean heartedness, and can be quite trusting. But these things can be misleading as the young Kitsune also can be quite shrewd and cunning when it comes to self-preservation once she realizes the danger she’s in. It’s not what she likes to do, though, and would much rather laugh, and enjoy being around all the strange new beings, and make friends or learn, than get into any kind of fights.
Like many Kitsune, her inquisitive nature does tend to have her set up little pranks. It’s never meant to be malicious, but some may find them to be such. She just enjoys studying how others react and how they interact with the world around them. These reactions tend to be different from how those back home go about things and finds it quite fascinating to watch in practice.
Guild and guild mark location: Team Members:
Three Strengths:
Kitsune Heritage: Being a Kitsune gives a lot of inherited natural abilities that make her quite the formidable adversary even without her dance movements utilizing nature to enhance her combat skills. Some of these abilities are above human sense of sight, smell, and hearing; the ability to shapeshift into and out of a fox form; the ability to hide her inhuman features to better blend with the crowd around her; above human strength, agility, and jumping ability; nails that are razor sharp and strong as steel; the ability to communicate and understand certain animals; telepathy in fox form; and a heightened magical resistance.
Contortionist: Not just nimble, but able skilled enough to move in ways most could practice their whole lives and not be able to manage. This is from extensive practice on her dancing craft and becoming extremely limber and more nimble than other Kitsune. It helps her to manage to squeeze out of tight situations, get into and out of places she may need to, and just generally perform more flashy movements.
Friendly/Kind Heart: Nyssa doesn’t really understand there are evils in the world; she’s heard there are but has yet to experience any. She’d much rather make friends and be nice than acknowledge there are some out there that might mean her harm. If she sees someone that looks angry, she’d prefer to try to calm them down. If someone looks sad, she wants to cheer them up.
Three Weaknesses:
Trusting: Due to being raised in isolation, and despite trying to learn as much as she can about the wider world before stepping foot on the mainland, Nyssa tends to take people at their word so long as they are being nice.
Strange New World: There are a lot of nuances to human interactions that Nyssa just doesn’t understand. Between the idea of owning things, and paying money for things instead of trading or even just providing food because someone else provided a service, are strange to her. She’s still getting used to a lot of things, which does include lacrima devices and mundane equipment not truly seen on the island.
Touchy-Touchy: Nyssa has a very bad habit of touching stuff before thinking about it. She likes to hold and examine objects, especially lacrima powered/magical objects and shiny things, and will generally reach out and grab something before the thought that it might be dangerous ever crosses her mind.
Greatest Love: Freedom Motivation: To explore and learn the world beyond the waters of Kitahmasune Island.
Additional Details:
Like most Kitsune, Nyssa has put no effort into learning to transform her clothing with the rest of her body when she shifts between humanoid and fox forms. Because of this, when she transforms into a humanoid after being in fox form, she appears naked.
Nyssa has, in the past month, put more time into her transformation ability that all Kitsune share. She can hide her ears and tails in humanoid form - though her eyes remain a lilac purple color - and can hide the fact she has multiple tails when in fox form.
Nyssa is a skilled fighter, using her dance finesse to dodge and counter strikes. While she may not look like much in the way of hand to hand combat, she is quick and strong and unafraid to unleash when necessary.
Name: Astoria “Ria” Ocenade Age: 19 Birthday: June 9th
Magic: Water and Water-Make Magic Level: A
- Water Bubble: The user creates bubbles of water with oxygen trapped inside that enable those who put their heads in the bubbles to breathe underwater.
- Water-Make (structure): This is mostly used as an unnamed spell. User is able to create structures out of water, the top layer of which is condensed to be solid enough to support weight.
- Rejuvenating Waters: The user conjures a ball of water into their hand and offers it to the recipient. The person that drinks it will feel their magic restored like they rested, as well as minor injuries will be completely healed and they’ll feel generally well rested and relaxed; moderate to severe injuries are also healed to a degree, becoming less severe than previously, but it is not healed much. The amount of healing done by this spell is dependent on how much magic the caster directs into the water. This cannot be used on the caster.
- Rainstorm: Unnamed magic, that allows the user to summon up rainstorms. The duration, size, and strength depend on a lot of factors, not the least of which are caster's magical capabilities and intent. It generally syphons - though if nature decides to keep the storm going, it can linger for longer naturally - from the user's magic and can allow for it to be shaped in size and power. Casters that aren't well versed in controlling the storm can only summon smaller ones that are barely useful for watering plants. The more practice that goes into it, the larger and more powerful the storm can be.
- Water Lock The user creates a large sphere of water that can be used to attack their target while they are trapped inside it.
- Water-Make Decoy: User generates realistic looking facsimiles of a person/persons out of water. Decoy(s) cannot move or make sound, but can be generated in any pose. If physically interacted with, Decoy(s) will disperse into a puddle of water.
- Undertow Water thickens the air and pulls at the target(s) making it more difficult for the target(s) to move and stay upright. This can even affect the ability to cast magic, and at the very least slows the target(s) down.
- Water-Make Barrier: Whereas Water Dome is for camouflage, this spell creates a barrier out of water that remains in place and carries an extreme current. The current is strong enough to prevent weak magical attacks from penetrating it, and makes it extremely difficult for things to cross the barrier. It is not impossible to break through, and it requires dedicated magical energy to maintain. If the caster falls unconscious or runs out of magical energy, the barrier will fall. Barrier can be made into many different forms, but generally seen as a wall or dome.
- Obscuring Mist: Through concentrated focus on condensing the water molecules in the air, the caster creates a fog cover to obscure vision around them and their allies. Range grows with practice, use, and magical force applied and can vary from a 20 foot radius to a 50 foot radius. With effort, the caster can allow individuals the ability to see through the mist clearly, but it is extremely strenuous and exhausting to do so. Mostly used as a diversion to escape dangers.
- Water-Make Cage: User creates a cage out of water sized to trap the target(s). The bars are extremely high current water cycling around the structure, making it difficult to break out and can lead to injury if one tries to escape.
- Neptune’s Dance: Two or more waves of water rotate around each other and form a helix that blast the opponent into the air with tremendous force.
- Water-Make (weapon): User concentrates water into the form of a weapon. Water weapon can deal damage like a normal weapon of that type, but only for as long as user has hold of the weapon (in the case of bow/arrows, user must continue contact on the bow). If contact is lost, weapon disperses.
- Geyser: User shoots boiling hot water from hands at target, which can hit to cause blunt damage and potentially scold the target.
- Water Slicer: By swiping their arm, the user sends scythe-like blades of water at their intended target, which are powerful enough to cleanly slice through solid rock. It can also be used as a form of defense to intercept an attack.
- Cyclone: The user forms a circular torrent of water in front of their hands and uses the cyclone of water to attack their target. The size and power of the cyclone is dependent on how much magical energy the user puts into the attack. Attack can knock the target off their feet, but is mostly aimed to do blunt damage.
- Tsunami: The user curls in on themselves, drawing water from the area around them, or just simply creating it themselves. After a few seconds, they unfurl, raising their arms up high. A wall of water rises before them and moves forward in a massive wave of destruction, knocking over and washing away anything in its path. This spell consumes a lot of magical energy and has the potential to level small towns.
History: Ria didn’t just grow up with a family, or in a village. The village was populated by a single clan - the Ocenades. Everyone had a role to play in the village - from farmers and bakers to guardsmen that took shifts patrolling to make sure the village was safe. Those of the clan not born with magic were relegated to menial tasks such as being the farmers or seamstresses or craftsmen or educators of the clan, but everyone had a purpose. Children went to school and learned, and they helped their families with tasks when schoolwork was complete.
Her father was the head, the direct descendent of the original founding father of the clan generations ago. As such, it was expected his children would take over and lead when it was time. Born the older of two, it wasn’t a surprise that her brother was the one expected to fill this role. He was strong, smart, charismatic, and an ice mage like their father and mother - just like pretty much every other mage in the clan. Except her.
Ria wasn’t just the female - and would have been passed over for leadership of the clan should her brother have been born second anyway - but she also couldn’t use Ice magic. While being gifted with water magic should have still been fine - she was still born a mage after all - her father was disappointed, and thus her mother was too. She was raised to be prim and proper - the best thing she could do for the clan was to learn all she could about being a good wife and mother after all - in hopes she would marry another strong line of the clan and bear powerful offspring. Regardless of what the task was, she never performed it right as far as her parents were concerned. No matter how skilled she was at her magic, she would never be as capable as one of the others. She tried and tried to do better, to be what they wanted her to be, and every time kept coming up short. Never good enough no matter how much better at her lessons or her trials than the other children she was.
She struggled with a lot of issues as a child, and clung to validation wherever she found it. One of those places was an older boy. She was 12 and he was 15. He made her feel special, made her feel like she was actually worth something more than just someone to marry off. Moments she could steal away from her lessons were spent going out to their meeting spot and hoping to find him, letting him whisk her away to other towns and helping in tasks. Was it wrong to make keys to open doors when he said he had misplaced his? Yes, in hindsight she should have asked some questions. But he was nice and she was happy when around him. She had confidence in her magic when around him.
So it went, helping with petty crimes while naively believing they weren’t just that (or, as her mind tells her in her dreams, refusing to admit it was wrong to just do as he asked.) The older they got, the more she wanted to believe these worse and worse things were okay. She let herself get swept up in the feeling of someone actually giving a crap about her. He encouraged her to grow stronger with her magic, practiced with her and gave her the motivation to improve. He trained with her to be able to fight - showing her all the things others in the clan might be learning to fight and defend themselves and others - helped make her a fierce combatant. She never realized in all his encouragement, her friend was shaping her into a weapon that he could wield with little effort. And wield her he did, with Ria willingly helping with worse and worse things; burglary stepped up to actual larceny which stepped up further to assault and worse.
Until it all came to a head when she was 16. Unbenounced to her, her brother followed her on one of her rendezvous with her friend. When they realized she’d been followed and had been found out, she followed her brother as he went back to the village. She needed to explain, to try to make things right at least with him, but by the time she got there she saw him already talking to their father. It was when her friend suggested it was time to completely cut ties. She’d never gone so far as to what he suggested next - to completely rid herself of the judgement once and for all. Torn, conflicted, confronted...She didn’t realize what she was about to do until she saw the aftermath. The village destroyed, bodies - including that of her father, her brother, and her only friend - scattered among the debris as she had unleashed a tsunami upon the village that leveled it as far as she could see.
Ria had lost - no, destroyed - everything, everyone, she ever cared about, and that ever cared about her. She was aimless for a while, until she was found by an elderly woman. The woman took her in; kind, gentle, the woman didn’t question what had happened to leave the girl so destitute. All the woman seemed to care about was helping her out. And she wanted to do the same in return. She helped with chores, ran errands, and learned to garden with the woman. The woman was getting on in years, and appreciated the help - especially when it came to gardening. Ria’s water magic was a great help, and cut the labor in half from what it used to take her. The two lived in mutual happiness.
A few months ago, her elderly friend passed. Ria hasn’t figured out what to do with herself yet. Minerva had left her home to the girl she took in, her entire estate left to the girl she’d only known for a few short years. For now, Ria continues the routine - gardening, tending to the house, talking to Minerva’s urn about things she’d read or learned or heard in the local market just as she would before. She isn’t sure what else to do, but she’s sure she’ll figure out eventually. For now, selling the produce at market like she had started once Minerva couldn’t make the trips, and just keeping up the house seems best.
Personality: The first thing most people notice about her is that Ria tries to always be courteous and cheerful, loving to be around people almost as much as she likes wide open spaces and anything shiny or brightly colored. A fan of anything upbeat, she can often be seen dancing or heard singing to herself as she goes about her business, and generally moves with a skip in her step. She’s generally reliable, cares about the wellbeing of others regardless of whether she knows them or not, and is willing to do anything for her friends. She doesn't like to see people upset and will often go out of her way to try to cheer someone up.
She often seems like a bit of a ditz - forgetful, aloof, and perhaps even a bit naive. There are still simple things that are common sense to others she often overlooks - like privacy and personal space; some see it as her ditzy ways, but it’s more the childish naivety of not understanding other people may have different comfort levels than her, and her desperate desire to be around others. While not everyone gains automatic trust, Ria seeks to find the good in people and will often trust those that are shown kindness/trust from those she is friends with. She tends to give chances to people that many don’t believe should get chances, and has been led astray by kind words and gestures even if they are given with ill-intent.
Guild and guild mark location: NA currently Team Members: --
Strengths: Hydromancer: Her water magic allows her to manipulate water around her as well as magically generate water. That is not the sum of it though. There are a few water spells that come naturally to her, casted like flexing a muscle. Spells of note for this are mostly just self-impacting ones, that help her swim deeper and stay under for extended periods of time. Water responds a bit more fluidly to her than other water casters, and with a bit of studying of the mage’s spells she can eventually manipulate water cast by others too; she hasn’t had the opportunity to see if she can manipulate Celestial’s or Dragon’s water magic, but she’s interested to see if that’s the case too.
Friendly: Ria loves to make friends, and just generally be around others. Whether it’s seeing someone looking down and wanting to cheer them up, or just giving them a person to be with, she doesn’t like seeing others alone. She likes to do things for others, and generally enjoys participating in whatever activity friends or those she chooses to associate with at the moment are doing.
Supportive/Helpful: She likes to help others, whether it be with supporting them in difficult decisions or sticking to getting better with spells. Despite her ditzy/aloof appearance, she understands a lot about the core concept of how different types of magic work, and techniques to make a particular type of magic work better. She’s not as effective at teaching, say, a wook-maker mage at casting as another wood-maker mage might, but she certainly knows enough to help the other wizard improve. She also just generally likes helping out and working with others, whether it’s just dealing with day to day things or a job or whatever. She feels it’s everyone’s job as part of the guild to help one another out, and it’s just being a good citizen to help when help is needed.
Upbeat/Positive/Cheerful: Believe it or not, like it or not, Ria is a metaphorical ray of sunshine. It isn’t just being friendly. She rarely is seen without a smile on her face or a bounce in her step. She always tries to look on the bright side of things even in the most dire of circumstances. This energy she does try to share with others, and is ever willing to help with figuring out what’s good about a bad experience.
Skilled Combatant: Trained for many years to fight alongside her family, Ria is just as skilled in hand to hand as she is with weapons and magic. She can improvise weapons based on her environment, use the terrain to her advantage, and is quite skilled in using her lithe and agile figure to her advantage. This skill allows her to strike fast, in vulnerable locations, and use her opponent’s attacks and mass against them in her own attacks, dodges, and counterattacks. As a molding mage, she’s developed upon this further to create a fighting style mostly unique to her and her creative style of magic.
Weaknesses: Ditzy/Trouble Focusing: She appears to be an airhead. She generally has a lot of things going on in her head, that she can be a bit forgetful. She means well, and definitely doesn’t want to forget important things, but some things just slip through the cracks. Not just dates and times of important things, but maybe not paying attention to her surroundings (not necessarily to trip, but not notice someone flirting, or being uncomfortable because she got too close, etc). She usually apologizes, but it doesn’t keep it from happening again. So she leaves notes to herself, and - while there is an organizational system for everything she writes down - it kinda looks just as chaotic as her thoughts. While she does know a lot about a lot of topics given how much she reads, it’s not always reliable for her to relay the information she has stored in her head. Most of the time it just seems like she’s full of useless or unrelated information when she offers up things that come to mind during a particular topic she didn’t realize people had moved on from - or connected in her own head without when it apparently didn’t seem to connect to anyone else. When she’s on a roll with a topic that she’s interested in, if no one keeps the conversation focused, there’s a chance she’ll lead whomever she’s talking to on several different tangents before getting back on topic. Then there’s times where it seems like she can’t pull a thought from her head, despite having talked about something with a person already.
Insomnia/Nightmares: She doesn’t like to talk about it, to the point of refusal if someone won’t allow her to just brush off the concern, but she has trouble sleeping. She’s always had trouble sleeping ever since she was little, and while it got worse since she destroyed her home, Ria avoids dealing with it given when she does manage to sleep it is generally plagued with nightmares from her past.
Repress the Bad: Negative emotions and misbehaving wasn’t acceptable from her; she had to be the good child, the quiet one, the one that no one had to think about twice. Good wasn’t because people were looking at her, good was because the focus was somewhere else and there wasn’t time to deal with a child being a child. So she suppressed sadness. She made herself believe that she was happy. She won’t let herself dwell on the negative and buries anything that makes her feel anything but happy beneath layers of telling herself it’s fine. It’s second nature to her at this point, to shrug off a wrong done against her with a smile and a carefree “don’t worry about it”; what’s one more thing buried deep down? Because of this, she doesn’t allow herself to cope with her own negative feelings. Whenever something starts to creep up, feeling angry or sad, she shoves those feelings down into the “doesn’t bother me” zone. There, all the bad feelings go to - well most would hope - die, but really they just fester. Sure, one day they may break through the carefully crafted cage, but for now - it’s holding strong so no need to try to process the bad.
Workaholic: Perhaps workaholic isn’t the proper term, but Ria doesn’t like to sit idle. She constantly pushes herself to stay busy, whether it’s helping a neighbor or friend, gardening, drawing, reading, cleaning...she tries to always be doing something.
Selfless/Low Self-Worth: While some would find being Selfless a strength, she understands it’s not. She puts others before herself, and sometimes (okay, most times) neglects her own wellbeing while being concerned over how someone else is doing. Whether it’s making sure everyone else has eaten before she finally serves herself, or helping someone even if she really should probably sit and rest, or pushing herself beyond her limits to stop someone else from getting hurt. Some of this reckless behavior could be mitigated from others noticing what she’s doing and convincing her to think of herself first, but it’s been a long time since anyone’s noticed. But if she smiles, it means she’s fine, right?
The Yips: For as skilled as she is, all her other weaknesses tend to creep up on her and as the stress builds up, she starts to lose touch with her ability to function in combat. This is most common when she is fighting in front of a group, particularly if she knows that the fight isn’t a matter of life or death - that there are no stakes aside from winning and losing. Even if it’s a matter of life and death, there’s still a chance she’ll freeze up and not be able to perform.
Appearance: 5’3 She prefers skirts and dresses to pants; in fact, she only has two pairs of pants and two pairs of shorts in her entire wardrobe. Everything else is skirts, dresses, and nice blouses/tops to go with them. She generally avoids dark colors, but not to the point of exclusion.
Additional Details: She collects shiny stones, and enjoys gardening.
Her favorite food is strawberries.
She likes to paint and draw, and enjoys reading even if it’s not to avoid dealing with her insomnia.
She's originally from Iceberg.
Name: Anthony Forrest Age: 22 Birthday: January 24th
Magic: Air magic and Card Magic, Witch of Shu Magic Level: A
Shu is a god of air, wind, lions, the protector of the sun and a god of light, a judge of souls, and a keeper of peace; acknowledged as a creator god, it is said his support of the heavens to hold the sky from the earth and his breath gave life to living creatures on earth.
As part of his pact, Anthony has found his Air magic has been amplified with effects lasting longer or being more powerful.
The pact requires Anthony to attempt to overcome his nurturing and strive to maintain a balance of peace and protection in his life and the world around him. If he intentionally seeks to sow strife or animosity with others, or enacts vengeance rather than seeking to protect the natural order, he stands to lose both his magic gifted by Shu as well as his Air magic. Thus far, Anthony has done well at maintaining peace in his life in the form of calm breathing meditation with Kyros each day, even when traveling for jobs or to investigate claims of wayward spirits.
His patron has tasked him with sending wayward souls off to judgement, as well as the souls of any that may die at his hand, in a ritual that involves touching the spirit with a blessed ostrich feather - which will cause both feather and soul to vanish.
Calming Breeze: Summons up a gentle, cooling breeze (reminiscent of a perfect breeze for a warm day) into a large space (about 100 meter diameter) to help calm tempers of those within it. It is a subtle effect that does not happen instantaneously. The longer one is within the area, the more calm and reasonable they may become. This does not make anyone open to being friends, but at least no longer hostile and looking to act on their anger. The area of effect lasts for 10 minutes longer than the caster maintains concentration on the spell; the breeze will gradually fade away in that time, and the cooling effect may fade as well.
Breath of Serenity: Blowing air over one’s hand directly at another’s face while in close (arm’s reach) proximity can set the target in a mild daze, sapping strength and anger away in mere seconds. Effects can last for up to 10 minutes, but also have the potential of leaving the target with the desire to no longer pursue a fight if they were not particularly hostile in the first place.
Air Barrier: Thrusting forth a hand with a blessed ostrich feather, air takes shape into the form of whatever the caster desires at the time of creation. Lasting for as long as the caster can concentrate on holding it, each time the barrier is hit, it has a chance of breaking the caster’s concentration. The larger the barrier, the more concentration it takes to maintain and the easier it is to break.
Divination: While Anthony has lost his ability to magically divine with his cards, he has found he can make predictions on a broader scale, levels that can affect a group of people instead of individuals.
Lions (Favored Animal): Anthony can communicate with them, but has no control over them. While he has an affinity for the beasts, he hasn’t met many and needs to build a relationship with them in order to properly make use of their abilities. Through this connection, though, he has developed a roar much akin to Kyros’s - used to help act as both a way to scare off threats and a warning signal to guildmates.
Kyros (familiar): A white lion of standard size, he is Anthony’s companion and, until recently, mentor on how to utilize his new craft. He can communicate his feelings to Anthony, and they have limited ability to communicate telepathically by doing this. Mostly, Anthony talks to him, and Kyros responds with varying vocal responses.
Lion’s Might: Channelling the strength of lions into his body, Anthony can land faster, and more powerful, strikes than he previously could - especially if they involve leaping to cover distance. This can be used in combination with Lion’s Leap to gain most effect of the two, but it is not necessarily exclusively used for it.
Lion’s Leap: The distance able to be covered by jumping is greatly increased by channelling a lion’s pouncing ability. This can be used in combination with Lion’s Might to gain the most effect of the two, but is not necessarily exclusively used for it.
Mist Body: The caster transforms their body into mist allowing them to roam around freely at high speed and teleport. While in this state, all physical and magical attacks are negated; caster cannot attack while in this form.
Aeria Dome: The caster creates a dome, lowering the oxygen within the affected area and as a result, suffocating all inside due to the lack of oxygen in the environment; as the pressure has been altered inside the dome, those within it experience a sharp pain in their ears.
Piercing Blast: Caster points their hand in a direction and closes it into a fist, then points like a finger-gun at a target. Upon dropping their thumb, a blast of air shoots forth from their finger tip in a straight line. It has the piercing capacity of a 9mm bullet, and will travel until it comes into contact with an object; it will disperse after impact.
Concussive Blast: Caster forms a hand into a fist and then thrusts the hand out, sending a large blast of air at the target. Can cause bruising, and even break bones, upon impact - depending on how close the target is to the caster. Has the ability to break apart large rocks if targeted correctly.
Aerial Bomber: The caster fires a series of blasts toward a target, which detonate around the target to inflict moderate sonic damage. Can also be fired at multiple targets, but does not have the same damage power as a single target.
Destructive Vortex: Caster sweeps an outstretched arm toward themselves, pulling their target towards them, before enveloping themselves in a sphere like cyclone to inflict damage to their target as well as destroy any surrounding obstacles.
Expelling Vortex: Caster creates a tornado of wind that pushes out from their palm. Lasts for only a few moments but has enough force to launch someone a few dozen feet into the air or just send them tumbling backwards.
Levitate: Spell allows caster to adjust the density of the air to either lift something up or slow the falling speed of a number of targets. The larger something is or the more targets there are, the more energy is needed to lift or slow the object(s) in question. Spell will last for as long as energy is directed into it, or until the target has reached its destination. Spell ends immediately should the caster fall unconscious, or run out of magical energy. *Anthony has found since making his pact with Shu that he is able to maintain his levitation abilities for longer if he does a small ritual or prayer to his patron before casting the spell. If done in a reaction to protect others, he can also do it for longer as gifted by Shu, but will lose some potency from his other air spells for up to a week if he does not pay tribute (meditate and pray) after all are safe.
Compriseds of a multitude of cards, Anthony’s main deck has become more of a supportive tool than a main weapon. Cards that call upon elements of fire, air, and light channel into stronger abilities, while those that oppose them are weaker; he attributes this to the pact he made and the domains that the god controls.
Anthony also has a standard tarot deck he drew all the artwork for himself. He can use these to do standard fortune telling if he so chooses. Trying to use his cards to divine magically hasn’t worked out since making his pact.
Cloak: Allows user cast a spell that makes a target invisible for up to an half an hour, or until the target uses magic - holder or caster - or comes into contact with another living being or (magical source not present at the time of the casting.)
Mirage: Allows user to cast a spell that creates an illusion. Illusion does not hold up to much investigation, and is just a temporary visual trick typically used as a distraction.
Summoning Series: (not listing out all the cards, so here’s just a quick overview) Allows user to call forth an item imaged on the card. Examples: sword, shield, pen, pitcher of water, feathers. Items summoned in such a manner share standard durability with items of that nature (i.e. a metal shield will hold up like a standard steel shield. A pen will snap as easy as any standard pen. So on.) and will last indefinitely unless placed back into the card. Summoning cards are called Holding Cards, and are interdimensional space like Card Conversion but can only hold inanimate objects.
History: Few things are so instrumental in setting one down a bad path as being the cause of a parent’s death. Much is how it was for Anthony, who grew up resented by his father and older brothers for the fact that his mother died as a result of complications from his birth. The doctors had done everything they could to save her, but their efforts weren’t enough. That stigma is a weight on his shoulders Anthony was forced to bear.
His father led a cult of fanatical dark mages working in the shadows and accumulating power in any ways they could in order to bring about the end of times. From an early age, failure wasn’t acceptable and weakness was not an option. You either were strong enough to survive, or you were dead. For him, the trials and tribulations of the group were worse than his brothers - something he saw as punishment for something he couldn’t have prevented. He grew and adapted with each shift to how they tested him, both resentful of his family and their followers and ambitious to be greater than they could handle.
When he was old enough, he started venturing off to see what else he could learn. Time away from the family helped temper him away from the bloodthirsty path they were setting him on. On one such excursion, he met a girl - innocent and sweet and oh so damaged like him. That first time, they sat and talked - it was all superficial but she seemed excited to share when he asked things about her and the way she talked made him realize he could have nice things in his life that weren’t about power or destruction. So he made a plan to meet with her again and gave her a card to reach out to him when she was available.
And so it went, little trysts to meet with a girl as broken as he but so full of life he wanted to keep her with him. Her magic was beautiful, and powerful, and could surely change the way the world for him was shaped. He used it - he used her - but he told himself it was to build something better for the two of them. But the more he thought of ways to secure the future he wanted for them, the more they needed; that, in turn, meant taking more and it led to hurting people. He was okay with it, and it seemed she was too.
It was the final time they met up, he’d made arrangements to get them both away from there. Everything they stole had been sold, and he had the jewels to pay for them to get anywhere and remake themselves to whatever they wanted. He hadn’t counted on her being nervous about the prospect; her family made her miserable just like his did, they abused her just as much as his - he had trouble understanding why she wouldn’t want to run. It had taken time, and he’d nearly convinced her, until she spotted an eavesdropper. Her brother had overheard and took off to get others to help stop them.
The two of them raced off to catch up with him, hoping to convince her brother to let them just leave. They didn’t catch up in time. What happened next was chaos in his mind. Her father and brother argued to make him leave and never see her again, while he refused to abandon her to their torment. He refocused his attention to the only thing in his life that mattered - trying to convince her to cut them off from her life and just escape with him. She seemed so torn, all he wanted was for her to focus on him and cut out the noise around them so he could make her realize what was best.
Then she let out a magic attack in her confused frustration. One minute he was shoved back through the air by a powerful tidal wave, the next he was plunged into complete and utter darkness. It was entirely surreal floating in nothingness - stretching on for eternity and yet not existing at all. A voice spoke out to him, everywhere and nowhere at once, and offered him a second chance at life if he were to agree to serve. What he saw wasn’t a bent knee in service to a patron, but the state of the village around him and the souls lingering - of his father and the others continuing their plot to obtain more power unimpeded - people that needed to be sent to the other side for judgement and their own eternal trials.
There wasn’t even a second thought to this offer.
Anthony’s eyes shot open and air pressed into his lungs as if he’d forgotten how to take a breath himself. As he sat up, gasping lustfully for air, the world finally came into focus. Eerie silence, save for the way the wind moving ice shards over an icy landscape sounded like chimes, greeted him. His eyes took in the damage. Bodies strewn in unnatural ways, homes demolished and hiding others. As he got to his feet he finally could see the haunting visions of spectres walking the village. That was when he noticed a white lion watching him. It was almost as if on eye contact with the beast, he knew what he needed to do, and set about sending the spirits off to be judged.
It felt weird, once the village had been cleared. He had lost signs of where his friend had gone - she wasn’t among the dead so she had to have survived - but now he was left torn. He’d survived, her family and everyone else in her life was now sent to judgement, and he felt both empty and full of purpose. After sitting for a bit with the lion, he finally found his bearings. He knew what he needed to do next - the path cut out for him that was not entirely what he planned when the day began.
Kyros - the lion - and Anthony traveled back to his home to set things right for his path. His father and the others had already turned him into an effective weapon, and he used that against them. Each new death sent another ill fated soul to be judged, and removed one more dark mage from the world. But these were just the ones he was set to judge. It felt like they walked aimlessly for a long time, but every time he started to think that - he would find more spectres needing help being sent along for judgement.
Eventually, he found his way into Fiore and further to the Silverbranch Glade. In the months - going just over two years - since he had started on this new path, he had grown in understanding of how his magic tied with the gifts he’d been given alongside his original magic, but not in how the gifts of Shu could be used to their full potential. He waited with Kyros for a short time - mindful to not do more than make the patrolling wolves aware of their presence - while seeing what his cards had to tell of the new undertaking. Eventually, he ensured it was safe to meet with the guild within the glade - or, rather, the master of the guild - to discuss joining to gain better understanding of his gifts and the proper way to utilize them and this chance.
Personality: He prefers to wear a smile like a mask, and has turned it into an unreadable one at that. Anthony strives to be a calm, neutral, almost care-free presence for most things, but that sometimes fails; when it does, he will - sometimes without communicating - attempt to remove himself from a situation where he may lose his calm persona. He never shows outright signs of hostility unless someone is insulting/hurting a friend; if that happens he’ll jump in to defend the friend and end the confrontation - in whatever manner will get it to end. When it comes to protecting someone, he has been seen to be ruthless in how he fights - willing to do whatever it takes to eliminate the threat and keep his charge safe.
Extremely intelligent, Anthony is generally able to see how things connect together and details others may miss. He tends to use these kinds of things to his advantage, something he was taught from an early age and never broke out of. His manipulative charisma is something he tries to avoid, and does that by trying to seem apathetic at this point, but some things will never change. Years of manipulating odds into his favor and people to what he needed aren’t easily pushed aside.
For as much as he likes to figure things out and try to come up with plans, he also has little issue reacting on instinct and impulse. Plans, then, are generally fluid and made much like one might play chess - with several ideas of how things can go depending on how others might react so he is rarely left at a disadvantage. It makes it hard for him to wrap his brain around working with someone else that he doesn’t know very well, and he has a dislike for working in teams in general, but he will manage if necessary. When it does come to teamwork, he prefers it best to not take the lead, but instead let someone else take the forefront on that and make it known he will end up doing his own thing.
Guild and guild mark location: Wolven Pyre - right bicep, light sky blue Team Members: --
Strengths: Charismatic:
Calculating/Cunning:
Perceptive:
Intuitive:
Skilled Combatant:
High Endurance to Pain, Tireless, Deceptively Strong and Agile:
Energetic:
Weaknesses: Impulsive:
Manipulative:
Moral Ambiguity/Pragmatist:
Fearless/Daredevil:
Over Protective:
Ruthless:
Confined Spaces/Trapped:
Appearance: 6’ and has multiple scars all over his body. Has a branding on his left shoulder blade of the sigil used by his father’s cult.
Additional Details: Anthony has some issues with reality - in that there are times when he’s not entirely sure if what he is seeing is real or just in his head. Since making the pact, it has only gotten worse with being able to see lingering dead when others cannot.
He is fond of drawing and playing standard card games. If required to sit around, he will likely play a solo game or start sketching.
Name: Markovis Penderghast Age: 19 Birthday: August 6th
Magic: Thermodynamic Conversion & Abyssal Body Magic Level: A+
A magic that is designed to affect the temperature of targeted things - be it an area, a person, or an object. Because of this, there’s a neutral balance in the air directly around those that are skilled users and makes them immune to hot and cold weather. Those that use this magic tend to make do using only a handful of spells with varying degrees of precise applications to utilize it to its highest degree.
Chilling Touch: This spell removes all heat from the area around the caster’s hand. When the caster touches an object, this spell acts as a vacuum for the heat in that object, pulling it into the space around the caster’s hand to instill a “chilling” factor. When used on an item, it runs the risk of freezing the object. When used on a living being, it lowers the body temperature to potentially dangerous levels; living beings tend to reach with much the same way as being out in freezing temperatures - feeling sluggish, sleepy, with reduction in strength and mobility from muscles condensing from the cold. This feeling will last until the body is brought back up to proper temperature, either by the addition of heat or over the course of time in a warmer environment.
Encompassing Freeze: Caster extends their hand toward a target, and encompasses them in a nearly invisible sphere of air in which all heat has been removed. Those that do become trapped in it will instantly experience a reaction to the extreme cold environment and suffer from the usual effects of the lack of heat the longer they are in there, ultimately putting the target into a stasis like state that can be reversed by warming the target back up to standard temperature. This spell has a natural limit of a few minutes when cast, but can last longer if the caster maintains concentration on it.
Burning Touch: The opposite of Chilling Touch, this spell increases the amount of heat in the area around the caster’s hand. When the caster touches an object, this spell causes the object to act as the vacuum for the heat, pulling the heat from around the caster’s hand to cause a “super heated” factor. When used on an item, it will leave a burn mark and runs the risk of setting the object on fire. When used on a living being, it raises the body temperature to dangerous levels; living beings tend to react with much the same way as if they had spiked a fever - sweating, potential delirium, and trouble concentrating. This feeling will last until the body is brought back down to proper temperature, either by the removal of heat or over the course of time in a cooler environment.
Encompassing Heat: Caster extends their hand toward a target, and encompasses them in a nearly invisible sphere of air in which heat has been increased drastically. Those that do become trapped in it will instantly experience a reaction to the extremely hot environment and suffer from the usual effects of being in excessive heat the longer they are in there, ultimately causing the target’s organs to start shutting down. This is a far deadlier version of Encompassing Freeze as the actual effects can only truly be reversed with healing magic, though can be lessened by removing the target(s) from the extreme heat. This spell has a natural limit of a few minutes when cast, which will not inherently do much more damage than making someone experience heat exhaustion, but can last longer if the caster maintains concentration on it and thus will cause worse effects.
Thermal Blast: The caster increases the heat around one hand, and decreases the heat around their other hand. After they’ve reached a proper imbalance between the two temperatures, they slam their hands together to create a sudden vacuum of negative pressure that ultimately will create a shockwave out away from the caster. Shockwave will travel for up to 20 feet before fully dissipating, getting weaker the further from the caster it travels; within a foot or two it is strong enough to send someone flying back away from him.
Thermal Shift: This spell allows the caster to either increase or decrease the temperature of the area surrounding them, up to a 100’ radius from the caster. How hot or cold depends on the caster’s target, but is generally used as a utility spell to help negate negative effects from being stranded in extreme conditions.
Thermal Reaction: The caster reactively adjusts the how much heat, or the lack thereof, is in a 5’ radius of them in order to stave off an attack. The heat increase is generally done to an extreme, which is likely to cause 3rd degree burns if the attacker tries to get closer; conversely the heat decrease is generally to an extreme, making the attacker feel sluggish and start to freeze up to not be able to press the attack further. It’s an innate defense practitioners of Thermodynamic Conversion have, as this magic doesn’t lend itself to defense very well.
Thermal Activation: Supercharging the heat property of the air around an object will drive the heat into the object, thus causing it to glow - or, in the case of flammable objects, catch fire - from the thermal radiation.
Abyssal Body draws on the properties of Dark Matter, a corrosive substance that is visible to the naked eye as a mass of swirling black and indigo, as well as powers from an extradimensional realm known as the Abyss. This magic is not just an unnatural magic, drawing on dark powers thought to be beyond the reach of Earthland - or it’s sister dimensions - reach, but is one that is thought to be a lost magic forgotten for its potentially dangerous and uncontrollable properties.
Abyssal Sight: A body enchantment, this allows the caster to allow others to see in pitch darkness. It can be cast on multiple people at once, with each additional person costing more energy to cast. Requires the caster to physically touch the target’s forehead. Enchantment lasts for an hour, unless dedicated focus is to holding it longer. Exposure to bright light while this enchantment is in place will temporarily blind the users.
Consuming Abyss: Caster raises a hand - palm flat - toward a target, and summons up a sphere of total dark matter, snuffing out all light and holding the target immobile. The air within the sphere gains weight, to feel a bit oppressive and give a sense of claustrophobia, dread, and abandonment to the target by shutting out all ability to sense the world outside the sphere. This spell can be held for longer than the normal end time, which can cause the corrosive nature of the dark matter to start eating away at clothing and organic matter within the sphere. Will last for up to 5 minutes (unless held longer by the caster), though it can be dismissed by the caster, or overpowered either from the target trapped within the sphere (via magically attacking the sphere) or a magical light strike against the sphere from an exterior source. (An exterior force attacking the sphere will not damage the target trapped within. Simply dissipate the sphere itself.)
Abyssal Reach: Caster thrusts a hand toward the target. Tendrils of dark matter shoot out at the target, and despite their apparent weightlessness and translucency they are quite tangible; these tendrils can be cut and otherwise blocked by solid objects. They can be used to attack a target, striking an opponent with fast and powerful strikes over the course of several minutes - or for however long the spell is concentrated on - and delivering painful caustic burns in addition to any blunt damage when they come into contact with bare skin. These tendrils can also be manipulated to be used to pick up and move objects out of reach. They can squeeze into small spaces and be used to manipulate objects - such as slipping under a door and disengaging a lock - so long as the user knows where the tendrils are moving unseen. The tendrils can only lift and move things that the caster would be able to move - so objects the caster could not lift cannot be lifted, but could be pushed - similar to other forms of interaction with objects. In any capacity, the tendrils have a maximum distance they can reach, which is roughly 100 feet.
Abyssal Imprisonment: Caster summons up several tendrils of dark matter, shooting up from the ground - or from behind - to wrap around the target (depending on if they are standing on the ground or flying). These tendrils shoot up and latch around the limbs and body of the target, restricting movement and restraining the target. They can be cut, or destroyed with the application of magic. They also will cause caustic burns that will slowly start to eat away at the person should any of the tendrils touch bare skin.
Leeching Abyss: Caster extends their hand toward the target. A multitude of dark matter tentacles race forth, forming hands that attempt to grasp the intended target. These tentacles will attempt to restrain the target, and should any make a solid grasp against the target’s bare skin or a source of magic (lacrima infused item and/or holder item) will slowly drain the ethernano from the target and transfer to the caster. While they may seem intangible due to the translucent nature, much like other Abyssal Body spells they can be deflected with weapons and other solid objects, as well as destroyed. The more skill the user has, the faster the tentacles move and respond to adjustments in target’s position, as well as the more tentacles are summoned.
Abyssal Destruction: Caster forms a sphere of dark matter in their hand that is then released at the target in the form of a large beam, or thrown as a destructive orb that explodes upon contact. The destructive capability depends on how long it is charged up for - a few seconds is weak compared to ten minutes which could level a mountain - and the longer it charges, the larger the diameter of the attack (beam or sphere) is.
Into the Void: Caster becomes intangible to magical and physical attacks, disappearing from sight and able to reappear at a different location, or in the same location after the attack being avoided is finished. Unable to spam this attack, as it wears on the caster the more it is used.
Fury of the Abyss: Caster gains a swirling haze of a black and indigo glow. While using this spell, caster is able to move at incredible speeds that allow the user to land powerful melee attacks. The speeds are generally fast enough that it can be difficult to trace his trajectory and thus difficult to defend against. There are traces of heat left in the wake of the caster’s movements, heating up the area more and more. User cannot cast other spells while this is enabled.
Hex of the Abyss: Caster thrusts a hand out toward a magical source. An invisible force pulses out from the thrust hand forward toward the source, dispelling any spells that may be in effect by the target. This attack is typically used to target an opponent in battle, and can dispel magically equipped armor/weapons that are summoned up from Requip, or temporarily nullify the magical properties of holder items; when dispelling caster magic it is instantaneous, but items unequipped in this manner - as well as holder items that are nullified - cannot be reequipped or have that magical property reactivated again for a few minutes. This spell can also be used against static magical effects, such as magical barriers or traps, to dispel the magic in place. Against sentient magical items, it acts more or less like a stun attack, temporarily causing the item to be in a semi-conscious state and partially unresponsive. **Special Notes: this is going to be the next spell he learns, not one already in his kit. He'll be actively working on getting the functions of it proper at the start of the RP but not actually be able to utilize it in any capacity.**
History: One would expect someone like Markovis to have some isolated and gloomy upbringing to create such an emotionally void individual. That was not the case. While, yes, he was an only child, his parents were neither too busy to bother with him nor overbearing. They supported him in whatever interests he wanted to pursue when younger, gave him his freedom to pursue them at his own pace, and even never pushed him to do better than he wished. But he wasn’t happy with just being mediocre when it bored him. He skipped grades and was seen as a bit of a prodigy in his youth - gaining a great understanding of Thermodynamic Conversion magic quicker than many believe would be possible to match his intelligence - and graduated at a young age.
The drive for it was all his own. It wasn’t exactly an external force from his parents, but the accolades of the achievements from those around him - relatives, teachers, the ire of fellow students that were older and placing lower in the class than him. He pushed himself to keep achieving bigger and better, looking into various other magics that eventually led to finding an ancient tomb from which he learned Abyssal Body, as a way of distracting from others around himself. This led to him also entering university on full scholarship at age 14. But upon completing his first year, he found he was losing his drive, despite focusing on theoretical magics and magical applications. He was very capable of exploring the new magic and still making time for his studies, but ultimately found he had no clue what he wanted to do with himself, and professions that require a degree were starting to seem more and more like just attempts to continue receiving accolades instead of something that interested him.
Halfway through his second year, he finally decided it wasn’t worth it. The only thing he did enjoy in all of it was magic and figured that was the better pursuit. He dropped out and decided to focus entirely on developing his magic. Neil helped support him for this year he took off, far more kind and understanding than Markovis actually understood and felt incapable of expressing his gratitude properly for doing such, the younger mage decided joining a guild would help him best - both to find a purpose in life and to put the only thing he considers a passion (magic) to use in being able to start repaying his friend for supporting him the past year. While choosing wasn’t easy, he figured going with the well rounded Phoenix Wing guild would give him a chance at taking a wide range of jobs and he could decide what to do from there.
Personality: Generally stoic and impassive, Markovis doesn’t generally rise to the occasion for most things. It’s not an easy task to incite anger or sadness, or even a smile, out of the man. He prefers being task oriented, focusing on work and keeping to himself when there isn’t a job of interest on the board. While he may not train to become stronger, he does enjoy challenges and often takes jobs that can be difficult for a single person to do by himself. Deep within this mask of impassiveness is someone that does care. But he doesn’t quite understand how to show it. So, he doesn’t bother. It’s far easier to work if you don’t have the bothersome voice of compassion whispering in your ear. This causes him to not try to pursue close connections with anyone, and generally views anyone as an associate or an acquaintance with no real feelings of familiarity toward any one individual beyond that.
Guild and guild mark location: Phoenix Wing, Right pectoral - dark gray Team Members: Smokin’ Bottle: Neil Yoska & Trinity Stratos Three Strengths:
Large Magical Reserves: Markovis started training his magic young, and has learned to build up even larger reserves for his magic to cast more spells or continue casting after using a high consumption spell. He tends to recover his energy faster being in darkened conditions, and benefits from the fact that he acts with restraint that prevents him from expending power he doesn’t need to.
Fearless: That’s not to say he doesn’t have anything he’s afraid of, but when faced with death or torture, or even the same of his allies, he is unyielding and unblinking in his position. He’s not looking to sacrifice himself or others, but he will not bend his position or even break just to see no suffering befalls anyone. The same is said for his pursuit to complete a job, willing to push himself past the limit and risk his very life to ensure the task is completed.
Intelligent: Let it not be said that one who holds their tongue be proven ignorant. It is clear from the look in his eyes and the words he chooses when he speaks that he is far more intelligent than many give him credit for. He understands finer nuances of conversations even if he lacks the emotional wisdom to feel their impact, and can be quite manipulative if he desires; it usually isn’t the case as he sees most interactions with others as a means to an end. Most jobs end up as simple games of chess to him, mapping out the moves of himself (and often able to predict the moves of partners he chooses to accept) and the opposition before the job is even underway.
Three Weaknesses:
Dispassionate / Emotionally Inept: While there is a part of Markovis that does care about others, he has difficulty not only showing it but also acknowledging it in himself. This especially is seen in the middle of dangerous jobs, should someone get hurt - they should have thought better about what to do to prevent it, or not come on the job to begin with, because an injured partner isn’t something he can allow to interfere with completing a job. He also appears a bit listless and with no true preference over what job type he takes. Though he can be found reading and fond of it, it’s not like there’s a particular focus to anything he does and it shows through with generally a very vacant expression and distant tone. This all mostly comes from a fact he doesn’t quite grasp emotions. Either his own or others. They aren’t tools, they aren’t generally helpful, and - more specifically - they generally get in the way. He often doesn’t understand humor of others, which generally either kills the joke or fails to deliver on the perceived outcome (not to say humor being made at his expense to laugh at how he failed to grasp it is not the desired outcome) which ultimately will result in him disengaging from the conversation in lue of better prospects.
Task Oriented: When it comes to taking a job or doing work, he doesn’t allow himself to get distracted. It also tends to mean he has trouble switching gears if necessary. The job comes first, and he will see it through whether it means his partner is injured and he must continue on alone or not. While he does take in information from his surroundings, and will weigh someone’s advice or thoughts on a topic, he generally will demand they follow the most efficient means of completion rather than let the job potentially get botched because of using a plan that may reduce risk of injury.
Poor People Skills: While self-evident, despite an intelligence to help him get through difficult tasks, the one thing he cannot always work out is how to be delicate about someone’s feelings. He prefers succinct conversations that end quickly to be able to continue on his day, and can oftentimes curt to ensure the interaction ends if necessary.
Greatest Love: His grey tabby cat, Penelope Motivation: To find an actual passion in life.
Additional Details: He dislikes nicknames, but not enough to complain should someone insist on using one for him. He will correct once and then just ignore any future improprieties should they arise.
He prefers his personal space, and has issues with people being within arm’s reach. He gets very defensive about being touched, and is only comfortable being by Neil, or when he is injured.
Markovis is quite fond of animals and plants. He has led him to foster several stray cats and even nurse a pigeon back to health, though he only kept the one cat. He also has several houseplants - all of which are pet safe should his cat decides to eat them - which he tends to as well. He can name many plants without more than a single glance, and is quite content for long strolls in the park to see the flowers cultivated in the gardens.
Theoretical magic and magical theory, as well as other intellectual ventures of all kinds spark an interest even if he may not seem like it does. Even in college, he enjoyed his classes regarding magical research and theoretical application of lost or ancient magics.
While he isn’t exactly going to always accept a drink, Markovis is also rarely seen without something alcoholic nearby to sip on when in the guildhall. He doesn’t usually pound drinks, or even drink enough there is a notable change in his personality or perception, so he would argue against being called an alcoholic per say. That doesn’t mean it isn’t apparent there may be a problem there or developing; he just doesn’t see it.
Markovis’s love of consumables isn’t just limited to liquor, and is quite fond of cooking as well. While it is easier to simply use the appliances provided to cook, there are times he uses his Thermodynamic Conversion magic to cook.
While he may not look like much, or even really rise to the occasion often, Markovis is a skilled fighter both with weapons and without. He doesn’t “fist fight” per say but does have a great deal of skill in countering opponents attacks by using their momentum and strength against them. He is a talented swordsman, knowing how to utilize multiple different sized blades from daggers to long swords and even glaives in various sword fighting styles; it seems his most comfortable form is a glaive fighting which he uses both at full length and choked up to utilize as a sword. All his movements tend to be much more fluid than strength based with a focus on dodges, counterstrikes, and feints that have him moving like a dancer.
Markovis lives with Neil in a townhouse Neil owns in Magnolia Town. He hasn't seen much point to moving out and pays his share of the utilities, food, etc. - at least ever since joining Phoenix Wing and generating his own income.
The concept of power scale for Nyssa is that as a B level, she can only call elements that naturally occur to use for her dances. As she gains more control and power, she will be able to create elements to use for her dances. She also has very little knowledge in Sand and Ice/Snow, so she can't call or use them. Yet.
Name: Nyssa Age: 16 Birthday: November 20th
Magic: Elemental Dancer Magic Level: B
Elemental Dancer is a rare magic that allows certain movements to be combined with magical properties to summon up elements. These are able to be combined in different ways - some acting as buffs, others as debuffs, and some as attack spells of their own. Users of this magic have the ability to manipulate existing forms of their element, or create the element of desire on their own. This ability grows with practice and power, first starting as only able to manipulate existing (natural) elements of that type before being able to summon up that element without any existing around them to eventually being able to utilize elemental attacks of that type and return the attacks toward the original caster.
Elemental dancers are skilled at using their movements and dances to fight whether they’ve used these dances to increase their natural speed or strength or not. Many elemental dancers fight with only their body, using no weapons, though some have adapted these movements to include physical weapons which they lace their magic into the weapon to have it become an extension of themselves.
Call the Flame: A very basic spell, this consists of mostly hand movements to summon up fire to the caster. The spell can create fire if there is no natural fire present, so long as the caster is skilled enough to do so. It can also be used to manipulate natural fire (say from a campfire) to be under the caster’s control. It is generally used to start the fire dance, but can be used for such simple means as starting a campfire should one need it and the dancer be able to create fire.
Fire’s Tale: Another basic spell, using existing fire typically from a small campfire or larger, allows the dancer to perform movements to draw out fire and help illustrate a story through their dance. Talented Elemental Dancers are capable of using smaller motions and flames to be able to do the same thing. The fire cannot affect anything, and loses the potential to set flammable material on fire during the dance. Upon completion of the dance, the flames dissipate harmlessly if not returned to the original source.
Fire’s Reach: As the dancer moves, more fire builds up around them, coiling like snakes around them and their arms. This eventually starts to take the form of a large whip or chain as they move, and can be used to lash out at opponents as a slightly long range. This spell will last as long as the dancer maintains the ability to continue their movements; should they be restricted, the flames will dissipate harmlessly.
Life of the Wildfire: As the dancer moves through the area, their movements become faster and grow more unreadable. This eventually coats the dancer in fire, and adds fire/heat damage to attacks. As the fire swells, the attacks can land harder than before and flammable material runs a chance of catching fire. If left unimpeded from movement, the fire will grow until the dance culminates in an explosive burst of flames - shooting out with the dancer at the epicenter - to blind and knock objects back like a shock wave from the pressure; this can injure objects and beings based on how close they are to the center, with heat burns and or potentially catching fire. Any fires burn naturally, though the flames directly from the dance dissipate naturally in a puff of energy.
Call the Water: A very basic spell, this consists of mostly hand movements to summon up water to the caster. The spell can create water if there is no natural water present, so long as the caster is skilled enough to do so. It can also be used to manipulate natural water to be under the caster’s control. It is generally used to start the water dance, but can be used for such simple means of getting fresh water to drink should one need it and the dancer be able to create water.
Serenity’s Sway: A dance that will build up to make vague humanoid figures out of water, Serenity’s Sway is generally used as a sort of mass hypnosis dance. Calm movements, and subtle shifts that can be considered hypnotic, are used to lull watchers into a sense of peace. To calm angers, wash away sadness, lighten burdens - dancers use this as a form of entertainment more than not as it takes time for the dance to lure the viewer into lowering their guard.
Flow Like Water: This dance causes water to influence their allies like other buffing magic. As the dancer performs, the water charges with energy to help their allies deliver their own attacks more swiftly as well as react to incoming attacks faster. When the dance finishes, it sends the water to the dancer’s allies to be absorbed by them through their skin/clothes - almost like magic circles. The effects of this spell can last for upward of an hour, depending on how strong the dancer is.
Soothing Waters: A dance that is more movement of arms than of the whole body, this can be converted into full body movements for effecting masses. Traditionally, it is a series of movements over an individual that empowers the water they manipulate to have healing properties, and sculpts the water into the same general size and shape as the individual it is being performed for; en masse, the motions lead the water to spread out from the dancer to climb up the targets to shape around them. This does not do much to heal serious - or even moderate - injuries, but can wash away minor scratches and abrasions - ones that are likely to heal and go unnoticed by the next day. The main property to this dance is to grace the water with properties to ease pain and help ease exhaustion after a fight.
Dance of the Rapids: A dance that causes the water swirling around the dancer to froth, it contains a lot of rapid and almost erratic movements that appear both chaotic and controlled at the same time. Dancer tends to stay close to a target of the move, channeling the speed and power of water flowing through rapids and uses it to hit the target in rapid succession with increasing power and ferocity. Under-trained dancers tend to be tired afterward.
Call the Wind: A very basic spell, this consists of mostly hand movements to summon up wind to the caster. The spell can create wind if there is no natural wind present, so long as the caster is skilled enough to do so. It can also be used to manipulate natural wind to be under the caster’s control. It is generally used to start the wind dance, but can be used for such simple means of calling wind to help do things like put wind in their sails.
Leaf on the Wind: As the dancer moves, they don’t do so seemingly quickly, but they appear to float through the space they’re in. It isn’t meant for speed, but pure mobility - the moves guiding the dancer though their surroundings to avoid injury from traps, attacks, and other injury. This will last so long as the dancer is able to continue moving.
Strike of the Whirlwind: The dance summons up wind around the dancer as they move, and it grows in intensity throughout the course of the dance. The dancer delivers this dance as part of a series of attacks. While the attacks gain no extra power or swiftness, the wind around them has chances of blowing things away from the dancer, starting at small and light objects and growing in how large or heavy an object is until even the target of the attacks has the potential of getting blowing away from the small tornado built around the dancer.
Pull of the Zephyr: Much like Strike of the Whirlwind, the dance summons up wind, which grows in intensity throughout the course of the dance. The dancer builds up the winds in front of themself, then launches the wind in the direction of a target when it is a moderate tornado roughly 60 feet high. The whirlwind attack will travel in a straight line, pulling items and/or people toward and into it as it travels across land, and will dissipate either if it strikes a surface taller than it, is struck with a magical attack directly targeting it, or has traveled a distance of up to 600 feet. People and items sucked into the swirling vortex could be injured or destroyed (respectively) by other items within it, but can be pulled upward while inside. When the twister does disperse, things and people within it fall back to the ground - which can destroy or kill depending on how high up it is.
Call the Lightning: A very basic spell, this consists of mostly hand movements to summon up lightning to the caster. The spell can create lightning if there is no natural lightning present, so long as the caster is skilled enough to do so. It can also be used to manipulate natural lightning to be under the caster’s control. It is generally used to start the lightning dance, but can possibly be used to help restore lost electricity/energy from devices or generators.
Jolting Dance: While channeling lightning around the dancer, they can move in sporadic bolts from one target to another, or simply bounce from place to place around the target, to make an attack. While the movements are classified as sporadic and may seem chaotic, there is still a beat and a very clear rhythm to how and when and where the dancer will move. The more skill a dancer has with this dance, the faster these movements can become, from first just being quick like bolts of lighting moving from one place to another to ultimately moving like the blink of an eye. This dance does take a lot out of even a skilled dancer, but can last as long as the dancer keeps up the dance.
Chaining Lightning: For this dance, the dancer moves across the field, with every step leaving an imprinted path of sparking electricity. Motions of the arms help control the flow of electricity, with quick touches helping lock targets of the spell. By the time the dance culminates, the lightning built up over the time shoots from the dancer and strikes against the targets touched during the dance; this strike feels like a standard jolt of lightning entering at the point of the contact.
Call the Air: A very basic spell, this consists of mostly hand movements to summon up unpolluted air to the caster. The spell can create air if there is no unpolluted air present, so long as the caster is skilled enough to do so. It can also be used to manipulate unpolluted air to be under the caster’s control. It is generally used to start the air dance, but can be used for such simple means of summoning unpolluted air to allow those within a room (or space of up to 20 feet) to breathe normally.
Dance of the Copycat: The dancer uses hand and arm motions to send the called air toward a number of targets relevant to their skill - dancers just starting out generally can only target 1 or 2 individuals, while masters of the dance could potentially control up to 10. Targets of this spell will find a bit of pressure from the space around them as the air condenses against them, before their motions are taken over by needing to mimic that of the dancer’s. This spell can last for as long as the dancer is able to move, but can be broken should the target overcome the air around them. The difficulty of this also varies by the dancer’s skill, being easy for beginner Elemental Dancers, to nearly impossible for masters of this particular dance.
Hiding in the Veil: This dance allows more skilled dancers to be able to hide up to 10 people in a coating of air that will make them invisible to the naked eye. Those that can see through illusions or other magical effects can see the targets without impediment. From simple movements of the hands and arms to sways of the body, the dancer manipulates their summoned air to cloak each target individually. They are still able to manipulate objects and move without breaking the magic; however, this does not mean they do not make noise and can still be tracked by sounds of them interacting with the environment around them. This can be used to target the user as well. This invisibility will end should the target of the spell cast magic, or after an hour. The dancer can dismiss the effect as well, but calling the air back to themselves.
Call the Smoke: A very basic spell, this consists of mostly hand movements to summon up smoke to the caster. The spell can create smoke if there is no natural smoke present, so long as the caster is skilled enough to do so. It can also be used to manipulate naturally occurring smoke to be under the caster’s control. It is generally used to start the smoke dance, but can be used for simply pulling smoke out of location and directing it to disperse elsewhere.
The Smoke Maiden: Another basic spell, using existing smoke typically that billowing from a recently doused flame, allows the dancer to perform movements to draw out smoke into the rough shape of a humanoid female; skilled dancers are able to pull out more humanoid forms to a maximum of 5. Talented Elemental Dancers are capable of using smaller motions and sources of smoke, even smoke that is not from a recently extinguished fire, to be able to do the same thing. Upon completion of the dance, the smoke releases it’s form to dissipate naturally.
Covering the Grounds: As the dancer moves, they slowly leave trails of the smoke behind. The movements are fluid, but slow and methodical to help cover as much space as possible. By the end of it, up to a 20 foot square space may end up concealed in smoke. This is helpful to hide individuals and things, and impair fights, but even Elemental Dancers cannot naturally see through the smoke. The cloud of smoke will dissipate naturally if given a way to escape if in an enclosed space, or if significant wind blows it from the area in an open air environment. If neither of these occur, it will begin to fade after 5 minutes in an open air environment or 30 minutes if in an enclosed space.
Call the Rainstorm: A very basic spell used to summon up storm clouds in the sky. As the dancer moves, clouds will move together or form in the sky, darkening to a light grey until the spell culminates in a gentle rain storm. The spell can create storm clouds that will produce rain if there are no natural clouds present, so long as the caster is skilled enough to do so. It can also be used to manipulate naturally occurring clouds overhead to condense and produce the storm.
Call the Monsoon: A slightly more advanced spell than Call the Rainstorm used to summon up storm clouds in the sky. As the dancer moves, clouds will move together or form in the sky, darkening to a dark grey until the spell culminates in a soaking thunderstorm with clashes of thunder overhead. The spell can create storm clouds that will produce rain if there are no natural clouds present, so long as the caster is skilled enough to do so. It can also be used to manipulate naturally occurring clouds overhead to condense and produce the storm.
Call the Thunderstorm: A slightly more advanced spell than Call the Rainstorm used to summon up storm clouds in the sky. As the dancer moves, clouds will move together or form in the sky, darkening to a near black until the spell culminates in a torrential downpour with boisterous thunder and clashes of lightning overhead. Skilled dancers can use this to summon up hail instead of rain.
Call the Earth: A very basic spell, this consists of mostly hand movements to summon up rocks and dirt to the caster. The spell can create rocks and dirt if there are no natural rocks or dirt present, so long as the caster is skilled enough to do so. It can also be used to manipulate naturally occurring rocks or dirt to be under the caster’s control. It is generally used to start the earth dance, but can be used to coat an area in solid earth for stability and support.
The Warrior’s Preparation: A spell that can be cast over multiple targets based on dancer’s skill, this can affect up to 5 people. As the dancer moves, they pull more earth to them, and can push it toward their target(s) to mold a fortification layer around the target(s). When the dance culminates, the fortification is completed and grants the target(s) physical armor that will chip away but protect from physical attacks. Powerful physical attacks could shatter the fortification away in a single blow, while it may take a series of minor attacks to fully break away the armor - exposing the body beneath bit by bit. The target(s) can still maintain full mobility while the fortification is in place, and will have their senses or ability to talk impaired. This fortification will only last for 10 minutes even with a skilled dancer, though the skill of the dancer will allow for either faster casting, fortification that is capable of withstanding more powerful hits, or both. Strictly magic only attacks will bypass this armor as if it weren’t present.
Mudwalker’s Prance: A dance of odd but still rhythmic movements, this dance alters the terrain around the dancer. Each step spreads the called earth around the foot of the dancer, spreading out in a 2 foot diameter, as the dancer moves; if done in an area that naturally has dirt, each movement spreads out more to touch other mud pockets. Each location then becomes a 12 inch deep pocket of mud that can cause whatever places weight on it to sink in and get stuck. It takes significant effort to pull free from it, as the mud creates a suction like lock on whatever sinks into it. This dance can continue for as long as the dancer continues the movements. The effects of this dance can last for up to 20 minutes after the dancer has completed the dance, fading back to whatever surface it was before the dance, or the dancer may dismiss the effects at any time.
Call the Plant: A very basic spell, this consists of mostly hand movements to summon up plants to the caster. The spell can create plants if there is no natural plantlife present, so long as the caster is skilled enough to do so. It can also be used to manipulate naturally occurring plants to be under the caster’s control. It is generally used to start the Plant dance, but can be used for simply encouraging plantlife to flourish around the dancer.
Constrictions of Vines: As the dancer moves, vines move along the ground out away from the dancer. While many would believe the dancer might trip with the vines, their careful steps allow them to avoid the vines that are quick to latch onto and restrain any that they do touch. For as long as the dancer moves, the vines will latch around feet first, then climb up along bodies until an entire thing is constricted. These vines will only stop movement when the dance is performed by an inexperienced dancer, but masters can use this constriction to cause physical harm to those encased in the vines. While the dance could possibly continue for as long as the dancer moves, the dancer can only truly continue moving so long as there is a safe place to step; once the space reaches a certain point, the dancer will no longer have space to move and the constricting will stop. Those entangled in the vines will need to be cut free, or wait until the plants wither and fall away after 5 minutes of the end of the dance. Magical and physical attacks can slow or stop vines from approaching individuals.
History: Like all other true Kitsune, Nyssa was born on Kitahmasune. She never came to know who her biological parents were, born to a couple that had not settled on becoming permanent mates, and was raised like many other children in the communal children’s hut. Life for her wasn’t so different from other Kitsune. She spent her days playing with the other Kitsune or listening to the history and lessons from the high elders - Kitsune that were well past their 750th cycle and held knowledge of times of old. As she grew older, she cycled through the jobs on the island as others did, getting a feel for what role she would like to play in the community. Nothing at all different from many of the others.
But when other children of two or three were summoning up elements, or casting illusions, or manipulating the plant life around them, Nyssa felt pulled in all directions at once but could never harness those powers on her own. It wasn’t until she was seven that she realized why. While she had an affinity for magic, it wasn’t simply something she could summon up like other children could do. The advice the high elders gave her was to listen to within, and her magic would speak. She didn’t hear words when she listened within; she heard music, and found that when she danced to the rhythm, she could manipulate the elements around her. A magic unlike what many had witnessed before; the high elders called it a lost art.
While others had teachers to help them cultivate their magic, Nyssa had tried to learn from other dancers, but none offered advice that fit the music she heard within. They were far more rigid than the water needed, too flexible for the earth, too grounded for air, and too smooth for fire. The free time she had from her chores were spent at different locations on the island, locations she could better feel the elements and learn to call them, then further develop her dances.
With the difficulty she faced at getting an instructor, none found her whimsical ponderings odd. Many of her peers may have mused over what they might do during a visit to the mainland, Nyssa truly dreamed of what the mainland would be like. In her eyes, the wider world was not simply a place to visit but to explore. She wanted to see what there was and learn more about other magics that might be waiting out there. None of the adults minded her questions, but none of the answers sated her appetite for knowledge of the world beyond their waters.
Finally, it was her turn. After waiting for 16 long years, Nyssa had become of age and was ready to set out. Roughly a month ago, she was dropped off and parted ways with her guide. In the time since, she has found her way to Magnolia Town, but her funds and tradable commodities are now running scarce, and she has yet to figure out what to do about it.
Personality: Chipper, naive, and inquisitive are just a few of the basic things that one picks up on when talking to her. Nyssa is smart as far as the ways of the Kitsune people, but still has much to learn about the larger world out there. She hasn’t experienced problems with theft or lying or even mean heartedness, and can be quite trusting. But these things can be misleading as the young Kitsune also can be quite shrewd and cunning when it comes to self-preservation once she realizes the danger she’s in. It’s not what she likes to do, though, and would much rather laugh, and enjoy being around all the strange new beings, and make friends or learn, than get into any kind of fights.
Like many Kitsune, her inquisitive nature does tend to have her set up little pranks. It’s never meant to be malicious, but some may find them to be such. She just enjoys studying how others react and how they interact with the world around them. These reactions tend to be different from how those back home go about things and finds it quite fascinating to watch in practice.
Guild and guild mark location: Team Members:
Three Strengths:
Kitsune Heritage: Being a Kitsune gives a lot of inherited natural abilities that make her quite the formidable adversary even without her dance movements utilizing nature to enhance her combat skills. Some of these abilities are above human sense of sight, smell, and hearing; the ability to shapeshift into and out of a fox form; the ability to hide her inhuman features to better blend with the crowd around her; above human strength, agility, and jumping ability; nails that are razor sharp and strong as steel; the ability to communicate and understand certain animals; telepathy in fox form; and a heightened magical resistance.
Contortionist: Not just nimble, but able skilled enough to move in ways most could practice their whole lives and not be able to manage. This is from extensive practice on her dancing craft and becoming extremely limber and more nimble than other Kitsune. It helps her to manage to squeeze out of tight situations, get into and out of places she may need to, and just generally perform more flashy movements.
Friendly/Kind Heart: Nyssa doesn’t really understand there are evils in the world; she’s heard there are but has yet to experience any. She’d much rather make friends and be nice than acknowledge there are some out there that might mean her harm. If she sees someone that looks angry, she’d prefer to try to calm them down. If someone looks sad, she wants to cheer them up.
Three Weaknesses:
Trusting: Due to being raised in isolation, and despite trying to learn as much as she can about the wider world before stepping foot on the mainland, Nyssa tends to take people at their word so long as they are being nice.
Strange New World: There are a lot of nuances to human interactions that Nyssa just doesn’t understand. Between the idea of owning things, and paying money for things instead of trading or even just providing food because someone else provided a service, are strange to her. She’s still getting used to a lot of things, which does include lacrima devices and mundane equipment not truly seen on the island.
Touchy-Touchy: Nyssa has a very bad habit of touching stuff before thinking about it. She likes to hold and examine objects, especially lacrima powered/magical objects and shiny things, and will generally reach out and grab something before the thought that it might be dangerous ever crosses her mind.
Greatest Love: Freedom Motivation: To explore and learn the world beyond the waters of Kitahmasune Island.
Additional Details:
Like most Kitsune, Nyssa has put no effort into learning to transform her clothing with the rest of her body when she shifts between humanoid and fox forms. Because of this, when she transforms into a humanoid after being in fox form, she appears naked.
Nyssa has, in the past month, put more time into her transformation ability that all Kitsune share. She can hide her ears and tails in humanoid form - though her eyes remain a lilac purple color - and can hide the fact she has multiple tails when in fox form.
Nyssa is a skilled fighter, using her dance finesse to dodge and counter strikes. While she may not look like much in the way of hand to hand combat, she is quick and strong and unafraid to unleash when necessary.
Carver's face went from a mask of politeness to lit up with barely contained excitement after Jessica introduced them as the mages here to take on his job. His posture straightened up and he suddenly was very aware of how much of a state he must look, inspecting and patting at his clothes to get them to settle and adjust properly. "Oh, yes, Fenixtear, wonderful. You're just in t-"
His words caught in his throat as something cloth landed on his head and face. Catching a glimpse of skin from beyond the clothing he pulled from his face, Carver's gaze immediately shot toward the ceiling and his entire body went rigid. His cheeks flushed a nearly glowing pink. He cleared his throat several times. It took another few to find his voice. "I - um - no, yes, I think...Well...madam, I would suspect...If it - perhaps...clothing. Is, uh. Well, quite necessary. Not that - you - not entirely...appropriate...to be in such a state..." A shaking hand held out the articles of clothing Gwen had discarded onto his face while he did everything he could to not look in her direction.
Ria had lost track of where they were going while she tried to think up ways that maybe she could help Damian figure out what was going on with his power. The guild now had quite an extensive library, one that finally put hers to shame, so perhaps she could find something. If not in her books or the guild's, then she at least had some ideas as to what shops would be the best to go visit to see if they could find sources. Plans were swirling through her head enough that she blinked and realized just where they were and how she'd accidentally started leading him toward one of the better magical book stores in the city.
Only to then realize that Damian had mentioned a fight and she certainly heard a scuffle. It wasn't really something they should get involved with, given if it was a fight they were just an indie guild, but she certainly couldn't deny wanting to make sure it didn't end up involving innocent bystanders or cause property damage to the shops around it. Of course, the people they came across when moving to check it out certainly was neither a surprise nor something she was pleased to see. She blinked and looked at Damian, putting up a hand as he walked into the fray. "Damian, wait I -" but her words came too late.
Teague growled lightly. Cracks formed in the ground again, before he swiped at Kaden once more, but with rocks forming claws around his fingers. Kaden swept the hit to the side and returned with an uppercut.
Salvis had wound up to hit while Kaden wasn't looking but was stopped. He glanced over his shoulder at the newcomer when his arm was pinned behind his back. "Well, you'd be wrong, bud, considering your guildmate did ask for it. Nothing like a fight between friends. Bit of bad form though, jumping in without the details." His eyes narrowed, but the smirk grew into a smile. He flattened his hand against his back - palm toward Damian - and sent a powerful blast of wind entwined with lighting toward the new combatant. He followed that up by immediately pulling sharply toward the same side as the arm he had pinned to try to work Damian off him.
Kaden punched Teague squarely with a right hook, sending the other mage to the ground, as he looked toward Salvis and Damian. "Really?" He glanced the opposite way, considering he'd seen the two near each other before he left the field, and managed to find Ria. "Hey, what are you up to tomorrow?" He jumped over a sweep kick the other guy tried to send him. "Because maybe tomorrow you and I can get some training done, yeah?" He leaned back away from another punch, slapping the strike away, as he grinned crookedly.
Ria's brows rose. "You're asking me? And you're asking now?"
The mage Kaden focused on growled again before sucking in a deep breath. "Earth Dragon Roar" and shot a breath of rocks and dust toward Kaden. Kaden caught the attack with his shield, hitting it toward the side.
Only for it to slam into and dissipate after hitting a barrier of water. Another wall swirled into place to isolate the four mages from allowing any of their spells to get beyond them, with an opening leading toward Ria. "Kaden, collateral damage is unacceptable. Please take more care, least you draw negative attention toward the guild. Now finish up the fight quickly, boys, before someone calls authorities to break it up."
Name: Neil “The Alchemist” Yoska Age: 23 Birthday: April 20th
Magic: Requip: The Alchemist (plus 2 magic weapons) Magic Level: B
Requip “The Alchemist”: He stores a lot of various pre-mixed concoctions using this spatial magic. He also stores two weapons and three “battle outfits” in this space as well. The holographic inventory is specially formulated to properly track the shelf life of his concoctions to make sure none hit volatile states left unused. Some of these are manufactured into special bullets that are preserved to not allow the concoction to expire; these are all loaded into quick load clips in his requip space and each has their own pocket. His skill with his requip is quite immense, able to change between loaded clips or pull out his premixed alchemy vials in the middle of a fight without needing to withdraw to do it.
As far as other magic goes, it’s all from either his dirk - Staken - that is enchanted with a single permanent spell that keeps the edge eternally sharp, and his pistol - Bullseye - that is enchanted with a few spells that require activation from the user.
Keen Edge: Resharpens edge of blade without use of whetstone. Can be activated by command, but does so automatically after being returned to storage after use.
Farshot: Enables the user to shoot with precision even over large distances. Doubles the average range of the shot’s accuracy tragection. Tracer: Trick shot that allows the user to hit a target no matter the distance or partial coverage. Complete coverage or barriers block the bullet. Bullets can be deflected if the target is able to see the bullet considering it continues moving at the same speed it is launched from the barrel at. Tracer cannot be used to target vital organs, and is more adept at targeting appendages or joints. Dead Shot: Once per day - user is able to hit a target perfectly in a vital organ provided there is no complete coverage or barrier to block the bullet. Dead Shot is designed to hit the target as a lethal blow, but can be blocked if the target is able to block a speeding bullet.
Alchemy Wares: Neil has made a breakthrough on a century old academic endeavor to scientifically design concoctions that have properties that mimic magic. Through extensive research and tedious efforts, he managed to enfuse chemical components with ethernano - and occasionally combine concoctions of such together - to make a variety of magical effects. He has further managed to convert them into special bullets for use in his gun, as well as quick application wipes for his blade, and AOE like effects as well.
These are produced en masse as they are easy enough for others to assist in the crafting of. These are produced in his factory, and distributed through stores contracted with him. The only form sold in stores is the vial form. Blade coatings and Bullet format are exclusive sales sold only in his own store, which he tracks information on who purchased such items and has strict sale rates for how many can be purchased at one time.
Entangle: When this potion comes into contact with a surface, it immediately binds to both the surface and anything within a 5 foot reach of the puddle of goop left in its wake. Things stuck in such a manner would need moderate effort to be removed from it. This same issue remains for up to 30 minutes before it will dissolve. Comes in just a vial or as a bullet.
Enbrittle: This potion will cause metal to which it is applied to become brittle and easily destroyed with very little effort. This effect is permanent on the metal it is applied to. Comes in a vial or bullet.
Fireball: Also known as Searing Flame, and Blaze Juice, depending on what form it comes in. This potion does much of what the name indicates - creates a fireball that has the potential to ignite flammable material along with harming living things it touches like normal fire does. As a bullet, it creates the same effect on a smaller scale against the target the bullet hits, providing blunt impact damage to the fire damage. As a coating on a sword, it gives the sword the ability to cause heat/fire damage to the target, as well as sear wounds closed if one is sliced open by it.
Caustic Bath: This potion can be used as a bullet, a vial, or a coating for a weapon. As a vial, it will create a pool of acid that will eat through organic material it comes into contact with in a matter of minutes - where the liquid lands. As a coating on a blade, it eats away at organic material sliced, but also can cause infections to exposed skin it slices and be much harder to stop bleeding wounds caused by it. As a bullet, it deals blunt damage from the impact, but also splashes the liquid against the target, causing organic matter to be coated in the liquid and receive chemical burns from it.
Knock Out: Used as a vial or a bullet, this potion does what the name implies - acts as a sedative to knock someone out from the vapors released when the liquid is exposed to oxygen. The effects last anywhere from 5 minutes to 1 hour depending on the target’s fortitude and size. The larger the target, the shorter the time. The unconscious state generally leaves the target feeling a bit groggy and confused when they first wake up, and can leave a feeling of being a bit drained though it doesn’t actually have any draining effects.
Flash Freeze: Used as a vial, a bullet, or a coating for a blade, this potion can cause a location to freeze or become super chilled depending on the method of delivery. Thrown as a vial, it will coat a surface the liquid touches in ice that can penetrate into a surface about an inch deep; size of the iced surface depends on the size of the vial. Items frozen in this means may stay frozen up to an hour, depending on the ambient heat of the area and As a bullet, it will deal blunt damage upon impact and either freeze the location the liquid within the bullet hits upon explosion or completely freeze the target (Flash Freeze 2.0); targets with weak constitutions generally feel chilled to the bone even if they are hit with a single location freezer, though limbs and body locations frozen in such a manner are simply transformed to ice crystal, and while not ideal and unusable, there is no ill effects on the location after the location thaws (usually 5-10 minutes after the target was hit depending on the target’s fortitude.) As a coating for his blade, the air around the blade chills, and causes locations cut by the blade suffers from frostbite; the frostbite doesn’t spread but can cause permanent damage if the target has a weak constitution and is not treated for the injury.
Lightning in a Bottle: As a vial or a bullet, this potion administers electric shock equivalent of a lightning bolt strike to the person it hits; if smashed against the ground it creates an electrified puddle that has the potential to electrify anything conductive that touches it.The puddle will last for about an hour. As a coating for a blade, it gives slash damage electricity damage as well, searing the edge of the wounds and with the potential to transfer an electric shock via contact near metal objects on the target.
Black Out: Comes as a vial or a bullet. This is meant to create a bubble of temporary darkness into an area. The bullet makes for a smaller bubble of darkness but can be created further than throwing the vial. The bubble lasts for 15 to 30 minutes depending on if it is the bullet or the vial, and can be dispersed by a bright flash of light (from a light source, fire, etc.) Bullet may not do much other damage to a target, but can still hurt when hit due to blunt force damage.
Flash Bang: Both a vial and a bullet, this creates an instant auditory and visual distortion of blinding light and singular intense noise meant to temporary blind and deafen people within a 10 or 20 foot radius (bullet vs vial). Can hurt if hitting a living target due to blunt damage.
Fog Bank: Vial only potion that generates a cloud of thick fog originating from where the vial is broken and spreading out for about a 20 foot diameter. Fog naturally dissipates in about 10 minutes.
Douser: Both a bullet and a vial, this potion generates a source of water to put out a source of fire - either small fire (single object), or a larger fire (up to a 20’ diameter), depending on if it’s a bullet or a vial. Can hurt if hitting a living target due to blunt damage.
Date Night Pick-Me-Up: This one is for the guys, comes in a pill. It’s little, and blue. You get the drift.
Hair of the Dog: A hot seller once he went mass-production, this potion is marketed as a remedy for hangovers. Comes as a pill or a potion, though the potion takes effect much faster than the pill.
Good Night’s Sleep: Currently only available in a vial, this potion is what Neil based his thesis on for being able to make breakthroughs on combining Ethernano and chemistry. It doesn’t properly replace the effects of having a good night’s sleep, but it certainly helps someone feel as though they managed to. A favorite among college students, this tonic will leave someone feeling refreshed for 12 hours regardless of how little sleep they got the night before; after those 12 hours, the weight of the sleepless night before and whatever activities of the day will crash down on the person and certainly help ensure they get the much needed rest the next day.
While these are not only exclusive used by Neil, he is the sole crafter of these potions. He is also the only one that is allowed to sell them, so while they are on a list of available potions to be sold within his shop, he maintains full discretion over who is allowed to purchase said potions. Like with Bullet and Blade coating versions of the above, he maintains detailed records of all that he sells these potions to. Example: only certified Locksmiths within Fiore are allowed to purchase Alchemist's Lockpick, and a single farm is allowed to buy Growth Boost as part of testing effects on how its effects from being used on produce may transition into those that eat it (so far there is no negative or observable impact reported from the community.)
Alchemist’s Lockpick: A drop of this potion into a lock will cause the internal mechanisms to release. Effects last for only 1 minute, so if multiple locks need to be disengaged, it needs to be done quickly.
Growth Boost: Can be a vial or a bullet, this allows for either a single target (bullet) or multiple targets (vial) to be instantly grow in size. Growth Boost works on organic and inorganic matter. Comes in several size increases - Growth Boost, Growth Boost 2 and Growth Boost 3 - which increases the target(s) 2 times, 5 times, and 10 times the size depending on what formula is used. Currently the only effects on organic material have been on plants, so the extent of growth and how long it lasts haven’t fully been studied on sentient life (i.e. Neil hasn’t tried it on an enemy and hasn’t asked for any volunteers). Inorganic life, and plant life, do not have a set amount of time they remain enlarged because of this formula; currently the only way to shrink something back down is through the use of Shrink Spray.
Shrink Spray: Can be a vial or a bullet, much unlike the name suggests of being a spray. When the liquid comes into contact, the target (bullet) or targets (vial) instantly shrink in size. Like Growth Boost, works on organic and inorganic matter as well as coming in multiple sizes that decrease the target(s) in size based on which formula is used. Currently it has only been tested on targets that have had the Growth Boost used on them, and some test objects; none of the test objects have shown signs of growing back to size after a set amount of time.
Flash Shielding: Technically two vials combined, this is a byproduct of when two separate chemicals are combined together and shaped by the user. It tends to be best served by behind shaped into a dome, but can be spread quickly to become a small wall to shield. While it initially is a goop, it turns into a rubbery substance quickly which requires quick shaping to maintain proper shielding shape. It can withstand simple strikes for about 5 minutes before it will start to shatter. Powerful magic and bullets and other stronger strikes can be blocked once but it will destroy the shielding immediately after. If it gets onto clothes it tends to bond with the fabric and turn it brittle and easily shattered by even the slightest swift shift of the body, and when applied directly to the skin it tends to turn the person purple for a number of days while providing no actual protection against even the slightest hit; thus is unadvised as a barrier coating of an individual.
Strength Enhancement: Currently only a vial, when consumed it grants a 25% temporary increase to the user’s strength. Effects only last for 15 minutes, and most have reported feeling a bit drained after, though Neil has yet to determine if it is because of the potion itself or because people take it to then do very physically demanding tasks; he has yet to feel drained after simply taking it and allowing the potion to work its way out of his system.
Agility Enhancement: Currently only a vial, when consumed it grants a 25% temporary increase to the user’s agility. Effects only last for 15 minutes, and most have reported feeling a bit drained after, though Neil has yet to determine if it is because of the potion itself or because people take it to then do very physically demanding tasks; he has yet to feel drained after simply taking it and allowing the potion to work its way out of his system.
Beauty is Fleeting: Currently only a vial, when consumed it can alter someone’s appearance to remove defects - scars, crooked teeth, acne - based on what the consumer envisions. The effects are temporary, lasting for up to 10 hours depending on how much of the consumer’s body is modified and how intense the modification is - completely changing one’s appearance to be someone else lasts for only about 10 minutes, where as just clearing blemishes for a date can last up to 10 hours depending on how much skin needs to be cleared. He’s been working on developing it into a cream for a beauty product line.
Scratch Away: Weird name for a nifty potion, but this is the first miracle breakthrough Neil had in his experimentation beyond any of the other things. Developed roughly three years ago, this allows the consumer to heal any minor scrape or scratch instantly. If poured directly into a serious injury, it will heal it a little bit - easing pain for a few minutes and at least helping encourage the blood to clot. It is not meant to help stop the bleeding of severe injury or stave off death even if poured into such a wound.
Pocket Surgeon: The step up from Scratch Away, this potion is meant to help with severe injury or to stave off death. Finished with the tweeks to get the desired effects roughly two years ago and designed specifically to be poured directly onto the location of the serious injury, this potion will help instantly clot severed arteries. It is not meant to take the place of getting a proper stitchup by a proper professional, but it at least will save someone from dying of a near fatal injury, or completely going into shock from - say - a severed limb. It works as a localized anesthetic, helping block pain receptors from transmitting those signals. The anesthetic aspect only lasts for an hour, but should give enough time to get the injured somewhere that can properly help them.
Second Wind: A miracle potion if any there was one. This is the real prize on Neil’s shelf and the most recent addition to his wares as of a year ago. Only in a vial, this potion helps make a mage recover about 25% of their magical energy again. It’s not going to let them do big flashy tricks, or even restore them to full strength, but it’ll help clear their head of the fog of ache and pain and help them get back into fighting if they have no more energy left. As artificial as this second wind is, it doesn’t make someone feel more tired than they would after they’re finished with the fight, and while it can be piggybacked to recover that much energy and feel good a second time once they’re depleted again, prolonged use has not fully been studied and is highly advised against. It will not work to restore more than 25% of their magic at a time, and only works when a mage is empty, or close to empty, of magical reserves.
History: Neil is the middle child of three, and the only boy; not just of his own family but out of all 15 grandchildren on his mother’s side. He’d argue he wasn’t spoiled rotten for it, but he was, and he does know it. Given all the best stuff, privileges, and priority in the family just because he was the only boy, he grew up a little...spoiled. Except Neil never really thought about it. He loved his sisters and cousins and always enjoyed playing tea time, and house, and dressing up with them far more than when his parents tried to force him into liking sports or building stuff - because the others weren’t playing that way. Until his sisters began to take an interest in sports because he had to, then it became fun.
Then, for his 6th birthday, he got a science kit. That sparked an instant enjoyment of being able to create things, combining different chemicals and making things work. From there on, that was his focus - studying science and chemicals, and started excelling at his academics because of it. For his thirteenth birthday, he got a starter chemistry kit, and the rest is pretty history from here. During his junior year, he found through all his research notes academics had left behind of experiments trying to replicate magic using chemistry. It peaked and interest and Neil dove headlong into more information on such ventures. It helped him get a scholarship into college where he had more resources on hand to investigate these theories and further develop upon them. He started making a breakthrough his second year, and by the start of his third, he’d already developed Good Night’s Sleep. It was certainly turning out to be a very profitable venture, just on that one potion. It became his final thesis for his chemistry class and earned him a publication in a scientific magazine regarding his accomplishment, though he kept the exact method of the Ethernano conversion patented.
Though that is all the academic side. His sisters, for all his diving into his interest in science, still wanted their brother that they could play dress up and sports and everything with. Neil’s time was divided between them and his love of science, but it was always in good balance. He learned to be a great listener and never lost himself too far into the rabbithole of craft, and learned the careful art of carrying on a conversation regardless the topic and person from a sister that wasn’t just a self-proclaimed popular student but based her academic career on being the student council president and ensuring she had an easy rapport with all the students.
And thus, when he was in his final year of school and met a student struggling to not simply stare too long into the abyss, he found an odd attraction there and it stuck. Neil opened a small shop, and the two became roommates in the apartment above - allowing Neil to continue working on his concoctions and create new and interesting combinations of his potions, while his friend could simply try to rediscover something to be passionate about in life. About a year and a half to two years ago, the pair decided a perfect change of pace would be to actually try to explore what the magical world had to offer, and joined up with Phoenix Wing to hopefully help Markovis find a passion in life, and so Neil could witness other magics and see if he could expand further into a market aimed at what mages might need.
Personality: Spunky, outgoing, friendly, charismatic - these are just a few of the things people describe Neil as. He is energetic, enjoys being around others, and generally thrives off interacting with pretty much anyone. He loves to laugh and smile, and is always up for some harmless pranks and jokes. He cares about those around him - sometimes to a fault - and is quick to form friendships even if they aren’t as apparent to others. For as energetic as he can be and for as ready as he is to enjoy a party and being as rambunctious as others around him, Neil is just as happy sharing quiet moments one on one as well. Neil is also an equal opportunity flirter. Most times it’s simply just being friendly and not realizing he could be perceived as flirting. There are times where he is intentionally flirting with someone, and doesn't really care if it is mistaken as him just being nice. He isn’t entirely looking for a relationship, after all, but a little flirting never hurt, right?
Guild and guild mark location: Phoenix Wing, Left inner forearm - pink Team Members: Team: Smokin’ Bottle - Markovis Pendergast, Trinity Stratos
Three Strengths:
Silver-Tongue: Ever the smooth talker, Neil prefers to use his words to deal with potentially dangerous situations when possible. He enjoys it, really. Negotiations, diplomatic affairs, and a variety of other applications including helping him talk his way into better deals and advancements.
Marksman: He’s quite skilled with a gun, and on his own prefers to go for limbs over central hits when shooting at a living target. He’s good enough that he can usually hit someone while shooting on the run, though his aim is far better if he’s standing still. Even without a magic enhanced gun, Neil is capable of extremely difficult shots - even moreso when he is using rifles.
Kind Hearted: Neil could be a rich person, but he’s not. He spends most of his profits on helping others, whether it’s taking a lot of the weight off his friend to help him find something to want again, or lending money to his family, to even just helping a friend out with some rent if they’re short on cash this month - he’s more likely to squander his money on charitable acts than make sure he saves up a nest egg for when he’s old or if he ever gets into a fight he can’t recover from. He’ll dedicate time away from his own interests to help others with their own ventures and pursuits, finding their success to be just as fulfilling as his own.
Three Weaknesses:
Lover, not a fighter: He definitely prefers talking things out rather than getting into a fight. He would prefer to diffuse a situation over escalating one. Whether it’s just a bar room brawl because someone spilt another’s drink or a job going south, he will always try to de-escalate a fight. He will never be the first one to swing, but may be the first one sprawled on his back from a hit. It can sometimes take him a bit to get his head in the game and actually get on with the fight though, as he will continue to try to talk a person out of fighting even as he’s being slammed through a table.
Wandering Mind: Neil would love to say he’s hyper focused when it comes to his work - being on a job, creating new potions, helping friends out. That’s not always the case. Working on a new idea for a potion may either lead him down a path to a second, third, or fourth chemical just from trying to figure out the first and need to be redirected, or it may result in hyperfocusing on a single potion and go a day without even taking a break until he’s made the breakthrough. In conversations, he’s easily distracted and on the battlefield he’s trying to take in everything at once and not focusing on the main task at hand. While he can be extremely intelligent, he makes foolish decisions because he wasn’t paying attention to the right thing - occasionally to disastrous results.
Social Snafu: Now Neil is pretty good at almost all social situations, but the fact he is just a natural flirt sometimes gets in the way. Situations he thinks he’s just being friendly in occasionally end up with a punch or slap to the face from a significant other that he inadvertently was flirting with. He does try to de-escalate those situations, but it still doesn’t save him the pain of making the same mistakes over and over by just being himself.
Greatest Love: His family Motivation: Continue developing his alchemy capabilities - short term to help Trinity find a solution to her magical problem.
Additional Details: Neil has an appreciation for every body type, preference, and just about everything about a person. He has little issues making friends with just about anyone, and is pansexual - not just not having a preference between genders, but also very little preference in what the person looks like as far as what attracts him.
He stays in good touch with his family, and sends his parents a portion of his profits so his mother could stop working when she hurt her back.
Not just inventive, but he started his business while in college and finished a degree in chemistry and business. With all his formulas patented, he’s made plenty of money maintaining exclusive rights to produce his potions, and has built up enough capital that by the time he joined Phoenix Wing, he had already opened a manufacturing facility for producing some of the wares he sells; anything in the exclusives are things he makes in small batches himself and only sells to select few.
Neil owns the building his main store is in; the first floor is a fully functioning store. An outside staircase grants access to the upper floors, which is a 4 bedroom townhouse for Markovis and Neil. Both this building and his factory reside in Magnolia Town.
While Neil is familiar with blades, and even occasionally fights with them, his main practice has been in training with Markovis. He’s not as good with his blade as he is with his guns, and prefers any combat he has to get into to be done at a distance rather than up close. Still, he’s handy enough with one that he has it as a backup in case an enemy closes, as it is far more formidable a fighting style for him than using his fists.
I'm an adult with a family and responsibilities that take priority, as well as mental health issues that can cause me to not get on this site for periods of time. Just know I will get back to you within a few days. If I had something going with you at some point, and you're interested in either starting it back up or starting something fresh, just reach out.
I recently started working on getting published, and have self published one story so far. Check it out on Amazon - Into the Night by Alexia Wynd.
You can also check out more of my work - short stories and the like - at my recently started Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/storiestocaptivate
Also found on Twitter: @AlexiaWynd
<div style="white-space:pre-wrap;">I'm an adult with a family and responsibilities that take priority, as well as mental health issues that can cause me to not get on this site for periods of time. Just know I will get back to you within a few days. If I had something going with you at some point, and you're interested in either starting it back up or starting something fresh, just reach out.<br><br>I recently started working on getting published, and have self published one story so far. Check it out on Amazon - Into the Night by Alexia Wynd. <br><br>You can also check out more of my work - short stories and the like - at my recently started Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/storiestocaptivate" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">patreon.com/storiestocaptivate</a><br><br>Also found on Twitter: @AlexiaWynd</div>
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