Stern Algorithm — Roleplayer Guild

Hey, I saw @NarcissisticPotato's recruitment thread and have been lurking for a while. Here is my character, please let me know if it works. My character is essentially a control mage who has made herself too much trouble to be worth killing.

@Gowi

E I L E E N /// T E S S A

“They say if you bring science into a fantasy setting, God kills a catgirl. I hate catgirls.”

O V E R V I E W

N A M EEileen Fang

A V A T A RAilanthus Altissima

A G E32

G E N D E RFemale

V I S A G EUnder a dark suit of magical armor is the small, frail frame of Ailanthus Altissima. Though she could have been her ideal self, her PARIAH appearance is (other than being free of blemishes) unremarkable, normal, and bland. That is how she sees herself. She appears slightly younger than she actually is because society reminds her constantly that she hasn't matured because she's not married and still plays games. Her glasses form a very core part of her identity and followed her into PARIAH. When out of armor, she wears a white robe that acts as a closest approximation to a lab coat. She has no desire to 'stay in-character' or preserve 'immersion' for others, intentionally commissioning crafters to make her scientific- and futuristic-looking gear.

Below is her face, 90% of the time:

P E R S O N A L I T YTessa is a single, middle-aged woman whose work- and social-life has her stressed to breaking point, causing her to indulge in escapist behavior with the aid of electronic media. In some circles, she might be called an 'otaku', which would be true; while others might call her a 'fujoshi', which would be technically incorrect. High-strung and irritable, Tessa has difficulty keeping her stress from flowing into her leisure activities, and is often accused of 'spoiling the mood'. Some question why she even plays games as she has a tendency to become frustrated easily, a trait that stems from performance anxiety.

Though Tessa has difficulty enjoying a game if things don't go her way, she is addicted to the rush of things going right. Despite her thorny and at-times belligerent behavior, Tessa has a deep sense of responsibility, a need to not only pull her own weight, but to go above and beyond. However, she not only holds herself to this level of perfectionism, she expects the same from anyone unfortunate enough to be her teammate.

B A C K G R O U N DUrban China was all Eileen ever knew, from the robotic and highly-competitive educational system to the robotic and highly-competitive high-tech industrial work environment. She never stood out when it came to academic excellence, but she did stick her neck out just far enough to warrant being bullied and socially sabotaged by her peers. She went through life with jaded bitterness and social awkwardness.

She retreated daily to social media, illegally downloaded anime, manga, and games, becoming addicted to MMO's in particular. She was known as a rage gamer, logging on alone, joining teams of people she didn't know to participate in dungeons and other party activities. She even attempted forum RP once but only ended up arguing with others, pissing people off, and finally, rage-quitting for good.

Living in the high-tech center of ShenZhen, Eileen is an engineer in a bloated company that produces and sells cheap, barely-functional healthcare devices. Her life is a wreck and she was so caught up in securing her place in the world that her nearer relatives are now suddenly concerned that she will never get married and have kids. Her daily routine has not changed since school: wake up, wash up, commute, attend class/work, commute home, eat, leisure, sleep, repeat.

One day, the company's R&D division wanted to play with the idea of therapeutic VR, and got several PARIAH headsets for the researchers to toy around with. But due to lack of a perceivable market, the project was dropped and the headsets were put in permanent storage. Eileen asked to take one home and the lax inventory manager gave her the OK. She wasn't that interested in VR, but figured she'd give it a go. She figured that the worst that could happen was that she'd lose interest and leave it in a corner to gather dust, which it would have done anyways if she didn't take it.

A T T R I B U T E S

R O L EControl Mage

A F F I L A T I O NQueon

P R O F E S S I O NEnchanter

W E A P O N   O F   C H O I C EChains

B E N C H M A R K S
Exile's Burden – While Tessa has always veered towards the massive damage and control effects of mages, her poor gaming skills has had her lament her chosen characters' 'squishiness' on more than one occasion. As someone who is easily abandoned by her party members, Tessa decided, for survival reasons, to wear armor that is uncharacteristic of mages. This habit, combined with her tendency to hoard loot alone and overburden her backpack at the end of missions, has led to her being surprisingly strong at carrying heavy weight. On top of that, she has enchanted her armor to feel less heavy, allowing her to move freely in heavy armor despite being a mage who is otherwise not physically strong.

Tough it out – Tessa has pretty severe body dysphoria and believes that the body is the slave of the mind. If the body fails to obey the mind, then the body must be punished/forced until it complies. In PARIAH, she is even more dissociated from her body because it's virtual. As such, she is much more willing to put herself in harms way or try to force her body beyond its limits, such as climbing and jumping over an impassable mountain because she doesn't want to walk around it (who hasn't tried to do this in a free-roam RPG?). This has given her an innate toughness, especially when it comes to taking blows.

Artisanal Precision – As an enchanter and a perfectionist, (and Gunpla aficionado) Tessa is good at working with minute, tiny details, whether it's inserting magical gems or carving runes. She can thus enhance equipment with high-quality enchantments thanks to her constant practice of the art, and is herself completely decked out in gear she has enchanted.

Paranoid Perception – Having been abandoned and betrayed by her party members on more than one occasion, Tessa is understandably paranoid. Because of this, she has a strong awareness of escape routes, dead ends, and good ambush spots. Initially her paranoia resulted in a million false alarms, but over time she began to recognize the signs better and better. This benchmark makes it very difficult to sneak up on her or ambush her and her party.

Cock Block – When she was younger, Tessa was very socially awkward (well, she still is), and had a tendency to get in people's way, literally and figuratively. As she matured(?), she actively learned a bit better where to stand and where to walk to provide the least resistance to the flow of foot traffic. But in games, and in PARIAH in particular, Tessa has learned to use what once was sheer cluelessness as a weapon. Identifying her opponents' goals and/or targets, Tessa knows to place herself squarely in between and actively body block them, using her natural tendency to be a hindrance and a physical barrier. To her enemies, she always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Short Spell List – Tessa has restricted herself to learning only a small handful of spells, choosing to go for quality instead of quantity. As such, her familiarity with these spells runs deep, shortening her cast time, increasing the efficacy, and making it more difficult for the casting to be interrupted.

Synergistic Specialization – Tessa's main spell is telekinesis, which she applies mainly to her weapon of choice: chains. The chain links have been inscribed with runes that increase their ability to be controlled and increase their magical affinity. Most of her other spells are conducted through the chains: electricity and vibrations. She has learned how these different spell effects work with one another, allowing unique synergy and a combat style that her opponents are unfamiliar with.

Stacked Auras –Tessa also has a handful of aura spells (areas of effect centered on herself). She learned over time how to cast and maintain multiple auras simultaneously, some offensive, some defensive, making her playstyle come out: area control. This makes her a veritable bunker; difficult to approach and a safe haven for party members.

Spider's Web – Tessa's chains are usually laid out radiating from her in all directions for several meters. She has learned to be extra vigilant of what goes on in her zone of control and can differentiate friend from foe with spells that would otherwise be indiscriminate.

Kick 'em while they're down – Tessa doesn't get along easily with people and has been bullied for much of her life. She takes a sadistic pleasure in lashing out, in having the tables turned by becoming the bully. Delighting in 'kicking her enemies while they are down', she focused so many spells on downed, incapacitated, or otherwise helpless targets that she has developed an interesting trait: her spells do higher damage to and ignore the magic resistance of targets who have been affected by any negative state, whether slowed, taunted, rooted, frozen, stunned, etc.

R O U G H   V I R T U A L   H I S T O R YAilanthus Altissima, the scientific name for a plant commonly called the 'tree of Heaven'. It is an invasive species with the ability to clone itself through its roots in a technique called 'suckering', and is, like the mythological hydra, difficult to exterminate. It is considered a noxious weed due to the foul-smelling odor it produces. The tree also resprouts vigorously when cut, making its eradication difficult and time-consuming. In many urban areas, it has acquired the derisive nicknames of "ghetto palm", "stink tree", and "tree of Hell".

No one knows, or cares, why Dr. Eileen Fang chose this name, and most refuse to say it in full, earning Eileen the nickname 'Tessa' from Altissima. Since logging on for the first time, Tessa has been like her namesake, invading parties and raising a stink. Her initial desire had been to party up and quest with others, but her belligerence always got in the way.

Eventually, she turned her focus to enchantments, seeing a need in the community for those who only had access to crafted gear to attain gear that could compete with rare drops. While her enchantments aren't that good, properly crafted and enchanted gear at least had a fighting chance against Rares and Epics, and sometimes, a fighting chance was all some adventurers needed. Tessa found her niche, but still needed to satisfy her urge to actually adventure, so she would take enchanting commissions, find out what materials she needed for her enchantments, and then demand the ones who commissioned her to take her with them when they went to farm said materials.

Due to forcing herself into parties in this way, Tessa adopted a flexible, albeit lazy, playstyle: a confusing, semi-immobile walking disaster area, essentially claiming a large portion of the battlefield as her own and manipulating the positions of her enemies, doing some status effects and some damage, while still survivable enough to hold her own.

Tessa has not achieved fame for her enchantments; she instead draws clients by under-sellng other enchanters, a practice that has gotten her in trouble with guilds on more than one occasion.

Also, @Xiro Zean, I was thinking, since Tessa doesn't farm her own materials, and Ochre not only farms his own materials but also crafts armor, maybe our two characters can have a working relationship? Her weird armor was crafted by him, and she enchanted it, while she occasionally procures materials from him.

@OppositionJ

Since he met Abigail, Charlie had treated her in a hot-and-cold manner; sometimes putting up with her doting, other times rejecting it. Neither reaction seemed to change her behavior, so he decided that this time, he would just play along. "I did good, didn't I, Abby?" Charlie said, flashing her a self-satisfied smile and making himself approachable. Of course, he knew very well that he was bullshitting; all he had done was wander out onto the streets and look at a car, but he wanted to play himself up, knowing that by encouraging Abigail, and by being an insufferable little prick and exaggerating his own contributions, the two of them would probably annoy the Hell out of the others, and that was Charlie's favorite pastime.

Flipping through the dossiers, he zeroed in on their current target that the others had chosen in his brief absence. The first thing he noticed was the age, and a look of disgust passed very quickly over his face. While he hated adults, he could stand teenagers and young adults even less. he saw them as hypocrites, wannabe adults who abandoned their honesty as children to become the liars that grownups were. Going through the rest, he noticed all of the them were more-or-less in their teens, with on being 21, but then the last one was his age; and there was no information on her. He smirked, and figured this case might be interesting after all.

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