Level 1: 3/10 Location: Lumbridge, Great Pon Tu Inn, interacting with Joker ---> Searching for Ryu in Lumbridge Word Count: 659 Points Gained: 1 New EXP Balance--- Level 1: 4/10
Sakura blinked once, apparently in shock that she had just discovered a new clue as to the whereabouts of this person. A big smile came across her face and she clapped her now bare hands together in rapid succession. "Arigato! Domo arigato!" Sakura exclaimed. Having thanked Joker she began to do a sort of jog-walk out the door. Only at the last second to turn around and retrieve the fighting gloves she had left at the bar. Her turn around was unusually quick and dextrous. All of her forward momentum was cancelled immediately and she did a 180 turn back to the counter top with the big red gloves.
As she did, she took the opportunity to expound on the directional advice she had given. Though Joker was right in that there wasn't much left for her to say that woud be particularly useful."And, and, if you see a big scary city, go arooound it? I didn't go in. I went on the mountains to the- east? Then you just keep going it's- up there- I'm sure there's signs, someone probably knows more okaythankyouverymuchI'mgonna---" She frantically was reattatching the gloves and hesitating between leaving and staying to offer her not particularly useful advice. Eventually this conflict ended with the young woman cutting herself off as she sped out the door. They already seemed to be formulating a plan to find their friend anyway. "Good luck!" She shouted behind her, vanishing with the outdoors light of the heavy wooden door that closed shut with a light thunk.
Sakura thought to herself: I can't believe it! After all this time I found another clue! He could be in this very town! He could be over there, or over there? Man that was such a long walk. I don't even know what I'm gonna do when I find him. Fight him and...then what? Will I win this time? Maybe! Who knows!? Only one way to find out. It's been too long since I had a good old fashioned Street Fight. The tournaments in the Forbidden Kingdom are great and all, but after a while they get a bit stale. They're very sanitized and organized. Maybe that's why Ryu left? Was he ever there? So many questions. Gotta find him, first!
Meditating under a tree across the river. That's him, alright. Gotta be! Now I just gotta find him. Lumbridge can't be that big, right? The young woman turned a corner.
Sakura was running through the streets at this point, her dull-red sneakers clacking on cobblestone, dirt and wood. Where was the river? River, river, river. She saw a river from outside of town but now that she was inside of town she would need to gain her perspective again. Sakura spotted a nearby wooden wall with an overhanging roof. Turning her momentum toward it, she ran up against the wall and scampered a few feet up it before pushing off with a poof of dust. Jumping backwards she reached up to grab the roof and effortlessly pulled herself upward and bounced onto the rooftop. Once she was there she excitedly looked for a river, or if she couldn't see the river, a taller building to get an even greater perspective on the town of Lumbridge. All in the effort of spotting the tree Joker told him he often sat under. If Ryu was there now, great, if he wasn't, then she planned on going there and waiting for him. If this was a dead end, she would keep asking around town to find out where he went. Finding him was her only goal and only direction right now.
I'll figure out what to do after I find him...after I find him. I guess I don't really have a gameplan right now besides finding Ryu. The only thing I know for sure is that I need to get a bicycle again. Now, where are you?
Dareen chuckled quietly and thought about the boy, and the brothers relationship with Faeril. It was certainly an interesting dynamic. Nothing like Dareen had ever seen before in her apparently limited world experience. Meanwhile, Fatima and Jandar had given her answers about being nobles and having servants. She didn't know what she expected. Basically they just got to have people do whatever they wanted no problem. Saying that aloud would probably offend them and Dareen didn't really feel comfortable pressing either of the about it. Genuine offense would probably occur, which wasn't what she intended. They probably weren't at place where teasing and ribbing were appropriate. Plus, it would be a cheap shot as they didn't really know much about her and she had just asked them to open up about something. Was she overthinking this? Maybe.
"Right, right." She said absentmindedly, responding to them and the brothers ponderings about the boy and just kind of establishing that she was very vaguely 'present' at the table.
Either way, this round of poker had heated up.
"Guess it's just you and me now, Denvar." She commented, raising an eyebrow. He had a killer poker face. If he really was that good at poker, he could probably guess that Dareen's cards were average at best, supbar, even. Really, Dareen was just raising and calling because folding was boring and gambling was fun. Dareen blinked as Faeril gave her a respectful nod. Or maybe that was just a respectful nod towards the table in general? Or just Denvar? Maybe there was somebody more respectable behind Dareen that she somehow hadn't noticed? Dareen quickly raised her hand and then let it fall in an awkward return of the nod. Underneath her face wrapping she smiled nervously. She would have to talk with that woman soon. They had an unfinished conversation and she hadn't had a moment alone with the Black Widow since- literally ever.
Dareen would find one and confront her about some things very soon. Definitely. She would definitely, definitely, do it. She was just waiting for the right time. Once the opportunity presented itself, it would for sure happen. Definitely. One hundred percent, for sure, definite- Gah! She was not looking for to that conversation at all.
Dareen sunk into her shoulders a bit and tried to focus on the game. "I, uh, I raise again. Two of these...these thingies. Chips. In the pot, there we go." The word for chips in common very briefly escaped her and the slightly flustered woman sat back in her seat and glanced around at the others at the table.
Level 1: 2/10 Location: Lumbridge, Great Pon Tu Inn, interacting with Joker Word Count: 630 Points Gained: 1 New EXP Balance--- Level 1: 3/10
Sakura liked the innkeep.
He's big, bearded, and friendly. Kinda like Zangief! Only nicer, probably, and this guy has never thrown me across the room before. And, I have zenny! I'm glad we figured out an exchange rate that's fair.
Sakura had organized a place for herself to stay. Already she felt a bit safer. Travelling was her thing, but unlike Ryu she needed somewhere to go back too every once in a while to regroup and compose herself. This place would do! As she gathered up the new currency into her school bag, a very likeable person asked for her attention. He looked like some kind of suave super thief that steals from the rich and gives to the poor. It was very good looking. She had seen some flamboyantly dressed people in her time as a Street Fighter, and usually they made her feel kind of tasteless. Really she was just dressed as a school girl because she was a school girl. Represent? Maybe?
I have a bandana? That's cool, right? And gloves? I should probably take the gloves off now that I'm somewhere safe. She thought to herself, holding the student bag infront of her with both arms. Either way, she spent a little bit too long taking in Joker's outfit before she blinked and looked him in the eyes with a welcoming smile. This person was easy to read and kind to strangers, so Joker had found the right person to ask if he wanted trustworthy information.
As Sakura answered Joker's question, she began to pull the fighting gloves from her hands. "Sure, no problem! I came from this place called the Forbidden Kingdom." Sakura explained, setting the gloves on the table. Her tapped the counter. "Now, uh, don't let the name fool you. Everyone's pretty nice there, and there's lots of friendly fights, with tournaments and TV. Lots of familiar faces from the World Warriors league back home." Turning to the side, Sakura mimed a few punches at the open air as she explained the part about fighting.
"And, it has cell phone service! But, it's a pretty long walk. About...that way. Way, way that way. " Sakura concluded, waving her arm in the general direction she had entered Lumbridge from. Yup. Almost everyone she knew was there...except the one she really wanted to see. Ryu, the eternal nomad, always seeking truth in battle. Maybe he got bored of the staged fights and left for greater challenge?
She quirked her to the side, looking a little disappointed about something. She perked up though and quickly asked a question. "But, ē to...have you seen a japanese guy named Ryu? He's about this tall, he wears a karetegi with the arms torn off that show his really big muscles, he's got short black hair, and he's got a headband like this one but it's red instead of white?" She flattened her hand a little under a foot above her own head, pointed at her own biceps, tussled her own hair and then tapped her headband in quick succession as she rapidly described Ryu. Clearly this was a person she cared about a lot, like a friend of hers. Her left index finger was frozen over her headband as she waited for Joker's answer. Her back was straight and her other hand was by her side, suddenly it looked like she was doing some kind of bizarre salute. In reality, she was in total anticipation of whatever Joker's answer was going to be in regards to the whereabouts of Ryu. She had come in here expecting to take it slow and explore a little bit, but she couldn't help herself that an opportunity for information had presented itself in the form of a friendly interaction with a stranger.
Starfire was nodding along to Robin's debrief, information courtesy of Cyborg. Weapons shipments? Trade in unmarked firearms is nothing to be taken lightly. The destructive capabilities they could grant any single individual was immense. Back on her homeworld, weapons were much rarer, but if they did exist they would have to be lethal enough to damage a Tamaranean, which meant the few illegal weapons that did exist were truly dangerous. Humans, unfortunately, were much more fragile than Tamaraneans, and could be seriously injured by tragically mundane occurances, let alone the weapons they made to harm each other. It was up to empowered individuals like the Titans to look out for those who could be caught in the crossfire or be the targets of malicious attacks.
A look of interest and mild surprise came across her features though, as reports of a new crime came in. Watercraft robbery in progress! Time to move! When they returned, Starfire stood with her hands behind her back, eagerly awaiting Robin's plan. He was so good at doing plans. He could rattle off orders as if it were nobody's business! When he was in leadership mode, he was extremely handsome.
Starfire nodded at his order and was subconsciously bending her elbows and knees and raising her clenched fists, looking as if she were about to burst. He said the thing! With a little giggle, she turned around and zoomed down the hallway. Expertly navigating the corridors of the tower until she zoomed out a window that was open just for her. She knew where she was going. Contact the coast guard and tell them the Titans are on the case!
Her fists outstretched infront of her, a faint green trail signified the propulsion that kept the woman in flight. The trail was emitted from her feet and long hair, and it's glow brightened the faster she was going. The light of Starfire's flight was hard to miss, even at day time. It was because of this that she stayed relatively low as she approached the sight of the robbery. It took a lot of courage to initiate crimes in Jump City. Everyone knew that this place was under the Teen Titan's protection. It was a propserous place, though, full of potential ill-gotten gains and treasures for those of criminal intent. High risk, high reward. It attracted only the most dangerous individuals.
The bright green, orange, and purple girl flew spotted the oncoming Coast Guard boats. Their courage was admirable. Working as law enforcement in Jump City meant engaging with superpowered individuals. They could be heading into attempt to arrest literally anything. Supervillains were extremely creative.
Nonetheless, she flew to their boat with a little wave. Hopefully the cheerful green light of Starfire was recognizable to the people of Jump City by now. Gently she came to a stop, hovering a few feet over the deck of their ship, looking for the highest ranking individual among them.
"Greetings, friends! It is I, Starfire, of the Teen Titans. I am here to inform you to maintain a safe distance. The Teen Titans are about to bring this situation to a peaceful conclusion. Please do not throw yourselves into unnecessary harms way, as your safety could be used as leverage in favor of the criminals." She said. One knee was slightly bent, the other straight. Starfire cut quite the striking figure as she kept pace with the Coast Guard, slightly leaning into whichever direction she wanted to float in. Every once in a while she cast a look towards the targeted ship, trying to see if anything supernatural was occuring. If everything went well on this Coast Guard boat, Starfire would spread the word to the other ships. As she did so, she would also be creating a perimeter around the targeted ship to cut off any potential escape routes or even enemy reinforcements. Usually villains did not have reinforcements, but stranger things had happened.
i'm just gonna drop a message here that I'm down to collab 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I have literally nothing to do. No job, no school. Just sitting in my room all day in lockdown. Roleplaying is one of my favorite hobbies. So I'm here...
You can come to me but just know that when the opportunity presents itself I will come bug you and ask if I can do it too because i love collabing, and this RP has lots of collabs in it so that is pretty great. I mean obviously when the time is right. My character just entered the RP, and no one is even nearby, but whenever the time is right don't even hesitate to shoot me a message. thanks!
Level 1: 0/10 Location: Lumbridge Word Count: 1,014 Points Gained: 2 New EXP Balance--- Level 1: 2/10
Kasugano Sakura was on the trail. The young woman who looked to be 18 years of age was wearing her school uniform. It was clean, properly maintained even after all this time due to regular washings. It was her look, her aesthetic, she always fought in it. Maybe not this particular sailor's outfit, but one of them. A white bandada was tied around her head, slightly covered up by her short brown hair. Underneath her uniform there was a simple pair of gym wear. A red sports bra and a red bottom, as if she was going on a jog. Everything else ontop of that, from the yellow neck-tie to her red and white sneakers, was just extra cosmetic flair. Otherwise she would look boring. Sakura liked reminding others of her youth, and reminding herself of what she has accomplished before even graduating high school. Normally she was supposed to wear a shirt underneath the top, but she often didn't, choosing instead to show off her killer abs. That's what fighters did, right? Show off their big muscles?
Only her outfit wasn't as colorful, and her friendly brown eyes had turned an unnatural shade of crimson. Over her shoulder was her student bag, carrying what little of her belongings she had with her from...wherever she got them from. Despite the fact that clearly something was wrong, and that Sakura should be on Earth, at home, sleeping, she didn't seem worried at all. Those thoughts never crossed her mind, and the brunette was keen on exploring her new environment.
Now she had travelled into the Land of Adventure. The inhabitants of this land were friendly enough. They all had red eyes like her and were occasionally violent but nothing she couldn't handle. Normally she didn't kill anything, or anyone, but it just felt right. No biggie.
Sakura, however, was looking for someone. Her hero and almost mentor, Hoshi Ryu, or just Ryu. He must be out here, somewhere, in this land. Probably not in the middle of nowhere, though, he had to have past through a town at some point. So, she asked one of the locals where she could find a nearby town, and they pointed her in the direction of Lumbridge. Hefting her student bag over her shoulder, she lightly jogged along a cobblestone path, breathing in the beauty of this wonderful place she had found herself in. Quiet, still...Sakura was happier then she had been in a long time. Often, she had longed for purpose and peace. But when she was hear, she found it. Within her heart she knew she had found the truest purpose she'd ever get. She didn't even miss her family anymore. If anything, she just felt bad for them if they weren't here with her.
Cresting a hill, she knew she was on the outskirts of the Land of Adventure. Before her, nestled up against the beginnings of the mountains was Lumbridge. If Ryu wasn't here, then there was somebody who knew where he was. She wanted to fight him. With her new confidence and inner peace, she wouldn't be surprised if she had that Power of Nothingness he so often described. She could probably beat him, now, in a real fight. What would happen then? She would probably still have a lot of respect for Ryu, but for some reason it felt best just to end his life once he lost. It was an unexpected thought, but maybe this was the Power of Nothingness. Well, she'd figure it out. She usually followed her heart, and right now her heart was telling her to find and fight Ryu and then figure it out from there.
Smiling, satisfied she had found her destination, she did a little skip and continued along the path. Even if Ryu wasn't there, Lumbridge was a beautiful town. It looked like something right out of an American fantasy movie. Picturesque!
Several minutes later, she arrived at the gates. This place seemed pretty safe. No violence here, just a quiet town. Sakura could easily see herself spending a great deal of time here, had she not the nomad's spirit. Still, this would be a nice place to operate out of. Without the Kasugano Residence with her family inside to be a safe place to return too, she was in need of something else. This place would do. Somewhere, there was a place she could stay. As she wandered the streets, there were places that looked out of place. Neon signs that looked like they were from her time mixed in with the heavy wooden signs and stone bricks of Feudalistic Europe. Strange, but in a way it just added to Lumbridge's charm. If anything it just meant there were so many new things to experience, just in this one town.
But before she found a place where someone could help her, she was hungry. It had been a while since she had eaten some hot food. Foraging was fun, and rabbits cooked with Hadoken were actually pretty delicious, but she really wanted someone else to prepare food for her. Problem is, she didn't have much in the way of money. Only ¥4000 worth of spare paper notes that she kept in her student bag in case of emergency. Maybe they took it, here? To be honest the merchants of this town looked like they only traded in big, thick gold coins like in her younger brother's video games.
Inns, hotels, motels, apartments. Condos? Anywhere she could take shelter would be great. The Great Ton Pu inn, it was called. Looked like a cute place, very rustic and self-made. Just like Sakura! Taking a few steps toward it, she opened up the heavy wooden door and peaked her brown-haired head inside. "Moshi moshi? Anyone home?" She asked politely with a small smile on her face. Her voice was light, high, and comfortable. There was a very slight accent in her English, making it apparent it was her second language, but she spoke it well and understood many of the more nuanced phrases of the language.
Name: Kasugano Sakura Game Origin: Street Fighter IV Appearance:
Personality:
Kasugano Sakura is a friendly, respectful go-getter who thrives for self improvement. She thinks fighting is fun, as long as the stakes are low. The heroine business hasn't really been for her, and Sakura has trying to find her place in the world.
Sakura tries to maintain a level of self-awareness as to not lose herself in ego or to make too much of a fool of herself, but she is a very excitable person. Excitable sometimes to the form of detriment, and this excitement can sometimes be born of frustration and anger, resulting in the young woman occasionally having flashes of temper if something particularly annoying doesn't go her way.
Sakura has a surprising amount of willpower for someone her age and has successfully taught herself (with some "help") the martial art of Ki. With the right amount of focus she could pull off all that hokey 'enlightment' and 'meditation' stuff. If she really wanted too. Some people take it a little too far. She truly is a good, kind person at heart, and while normally she fights only to protect her family and friends, every once in a while she can be pushed into the whole 'greater good' business. Save the world, protect the innocent, blah blah blah, you know how it is. Truth be told she never quite felt cut out for that kind of thing and while she projects a level of confidence bordering on brashness, it's hiding a somewhat insecure young woman trying to find her place in the world. Who is she to try to save anyone, right? Sakura doesn't see herself as a hero, and sometimes doesn't see herself as much of a fighter, either.
Background:
Sakura is the definition of humble beginnings. Infact, you could probably tack on a humble middle and a humble ending, too, because from the looks of it she wasn't cut out to be much of anything. If anything, she was to inherit her parent's family business- a sushi restaurant. Kasugano Eats. She had cooking lessons from her mom and dad and she's actually pretty good at it. Her younger brother and her have a good, friendly relationship, even if he can be a little brat sometimes. And he's way too good at videogames. Still, if he's also a better cook and seems to fit in pretty good with her friends.
Martial arts was something that caught Sakura's eye pretty quick. She casually trained as a kid, though it mostly manifested as making stupid poses in the mirror and making makeshift headbands. She didn't really get into it until she found her hero, Ryu, on TV. His warrior's philosophy, skill, power, and as much as Sakura doesn't want to admit it, good lucks, had an effect on the middle schoolers soul. Now she understand that if she really wanted to find out what she was going to do with her life, she would have to find the answer in the heart of battle. It was at this point she announced her intentions to everyone important in her life, from her family to her childhood bestfriend Kei. Kei is wise beyond her years and a bit of a shut in, but the two make a great pair and Sakura admits that she would probably be a real goober had she never met Kei.
So when she was 14 she began her training regiment, and it was far more brutal and demanding then she let on. Then even she herself realised. Years running around the block. Hoping one day, in some distant dream, to earn the approval of her her hero, Ryu. If she could earn his respect, then everything she was doing would be validated. Her training earned the suspicion of her parents as her grades began to falter and she regularly skipped school. But it didn't matter. There were arguments over it, and Sakura began to worry if she was doing the right thing. However a brief encounter with a bully of Kei proved to everyone that she was making real improvement, as she easily defeated the boy two years her senior and seemingly twice her size. This was her first street fight, and it was a prelude of things to come. She trained, watching Ryu and his best friend Ken on TV almost every day, and using duct-tape and elbow grease, constructed her own fighting style heavily based on Ryu's.
It was at this point, when she was 15, where she met a martial artist naed Dan, someone who claimed to be even more powerful then Ryu. The young girl was almost duped by him when she realised he was just a wannabe like her, though he would never admit it. Still, his experience was helpful even though she took everything he said with a grain of salt. Indeed her regimine was still self taught, though if you asked Dan he would say that Sakura is actually his star pupil. Nonetheless, the pair became friends and he helped her come in contact with the world of Street Fighter. No matter how many 'exaggerations' Dan made, there was still undeniable proof that he had fought and actually put up a challenge to her hero, Ryu. Therefore, she was only one degree away from knowing Ryu personally. Or, something like that.
When she was 16, she finally was able to project her energy in the form of Hadoken. Overjoyed, she left her home to travel the world in search of Ryu and to enter a Street Fighter tournament. Unfortunately, the first person she met was Sagat, a rival of Ryu's. He saw her fighting style and assumed her to be a pupil of his, and demanded to know where he was. This was her first real street fight, but Sagat called it off when he realised he had both underestimated her, and realised that he was attempting to beat up a literal child for information and felt bad. So that was a bust for Sakura when he refused to fight no matter how many times she insisted she was okay with getting beat up.
Things escalated from there. She participated in a tournament, and actually beat up some very talented fighters. She even got to get knocked out herself and learned something from it! It really was a dream come true. Sakura was knocked head over heels when she actually met Ken in a tournament and after expressing her appreciation to the two of them (though Ken knew it was mostly Ryu she was after), Ken agreed to help organize a meet up between Ryu and his number one fan.
Unfortunately, the two came across a plot that was in motion. Some evil fascist guy named M. Bison was trying to take over the world and had brainwashed her hero, Ryu. It really was a deeply unsettling sight. Ken and Sakura teamed up to battle M. Bison, and that Sagat guy from earlier probably tailed them to find Ryu and ended up battling the brainwashed hero. They all succeeded, and everyone seemed to be pretty blase that a 16 year old just got into a fight to the death with a genuine super-villain. But in the end, she actually got to meet Ryu himself and it was really enlightening. Moreover he disagreed to help her, because apparently he still had much to learn himself given his defeat at M. Bison's hands. One day, though, they would meet again, both of them being stronger. Ryu agreed to train extra hard if he knew that somewhere out there, Sakura was doing the same.
One year later, Dan, wanting to impress his star student, claimed that he knew where Ryu had gone. They entered a fighting tournament together, but things were confusing. It was during this time that while on a visit back home, Dan's friend Jimmy/Blanka sought him out, but met Sakura first. Eventually the Dan and Jimmy reunited and Jimmy became one of Sakura's best friends.
It was during this tournament that the trio succeeded much in their fights. Sakura even managed to defeat Zangief, a legendary Russian wrestler, though it was a close one. However she learned that being a Street Fighter has a tendency to drag one into conflicts beyond what she expected. She didn't realise it, but she was actually one of the most physically capable people in the entire world at this point. Now, all of the sudden she had some sort of responsibility as a guardian of Earth!? She immediately wanted to back out, but Dan and Blanka expressed their intentions to help fight. Some bad guys named S.I.N and an evil robot were trying to take over the world, and Ryu and Ken were leading the fight to stop them. Even M. Bison was getting involved to fight the evil robot guy named Seth, which proved how bad news it really was. Not wanting to let her friends go in by themselves, and wanting to prove herself to Ryu, she agreed to help.
During the battle, she helped their team push deeper into the compound, and she had to admit it was actually kind of fun punching robots in the face. Things weren't as fun though when they encountered the final battle, and the robot named Seth easily swatted her aside. It was the hardest hit she had ever taken and she was knocked unconscious in a massive explosion. When she woke up, she saw that Ryu had actually protected her, and though was unable to stand she witessed Ryu and Seth's epic battle. Eventually, Ryu emerged victorious. He was a strikingly heroic figure and her admiration for him had never been so strong. They have another chat, and as much as both of them would like to engage in a friendly spar, Sakura's injuries were too great. This time, Ryu promised that he would seek out Sakura again at some point in the future.
There were many conflicting emotions, but Sakura was happy to know that she had something to look forward too after her recovery. Eventually, Ryu did come to her house and he actually taught her a lesson and she earned his respect and it was great and it was everything she had ever wanted, and, and, and, and then he was gone again. Back overseas to embark on some other great adventure. And...now what? Wasn't that it? That everything she had worked towards. Why wasn't she...happy? Was she just supposed to...do what?
For half a year after wards she continued her training, constantly improving, spending time with her family. A little sabatacle from the nonsense that had ensued earlier. But now what? What was she going to do with her life? She had so much more time to spend.
She sitting next to her friend Kei, discussing their futures on a swingset at a nearby park. That was when the light came for her. The last thing she remembers was screaming in surprise as she pushed aside her best friend only for that streak of light to consume her instead.
Specialty: Mobile, Close-Ranged Offense. Level: 9
Powers:
EX(tra) Special Attacks: Dealing and taking damage allows Sakura to channel additional strength, power, and speed into an attack. Redirecting the punishment she recieves and the energy of the strikes she deals out into further, more impressive hits.
V-Triggers: Through dealing and taking damage, a secondary resource allows her to power herself up. This state lasts for about thirty seconds, and dissipates quicker if she does the advanced techniques granted to her by the V-Trigger.
Haru Arashi: Sakura's palms to begin to glow bright blue. Her Ki based projectile attacks hit harder, dealing more damage and becoming more difficult to block, with greater knockbock. She also gains greater control over her Ki, allowing her access to moves like the "Hogosho" a short range concentrated blast of Ki energy. Sakura Senpu: Sakura's fist and feet become enveloped in blue flame. Her strikes heat up, dealing more damage and becoming more difficult to overcome. Her melee and special moves become more lethal and unpredictable, letting her defence flow quicker into her offense
Focus Attacks- Sakura generates swirling ink energy that absorbs blows and can be used for an unblockable, armor piercing melee attack. Sakura must assume a still, grounded stance in order to charge attack. Upsetting this stance cancels Focus Attack. (Cannot absorb grapples or throws. Extremely powerful or armor piercing hits will also interrupt.)
Two Levels- Black and Red. Both take one second to charge, "super armor" or absorption ability begins immediately. Black Focus can absorb one hit, Red Focus can absorb infinite hits. Red Focus costs V-trigger resource to use, Black Focus is free.
Absorbed damage can be released if she is struck while not blocking or absorbing, causing her to take the damage she previously absorbed. This window is a few seconds, and she is usually safe from this if she actually hits the opponent with her attack. If she misses a Focus Attack she is locked into high recovery.
Can use EX to start a Focus during recovery or when she is otherwise compromised position.
V-shift:
After accruing a bar of V-Meter, instead of saving it for a V-Trigger or expending it on a powerful defensive move, Sakura can instead do a high risk, high reward maneuver called a V-Shift. A V-Shift is an evasive dash that grants "invincibility frames" to Sakura. This makes her immune to most damage, acting like a super dodge. If mis-timed, Sakura will be vulnerable for a second, any attack done on her being a crushing strike that leaves her open for further damage. If properly timed, this doesn't happen. Sakura gains half a V-meter back and can either peform a normal attack that might miss, or a fast, high pushback attack called a V-Shift Break, launching the opponent backwards and giving her room.
In order to time the counter properly and safely, Sakura needs to be sure what her opponent is going to do next. She could gamble and make an educated or uneducated guess, but doing so could leave her open to damage. She can also use it in safer situations like, against predictable projectiles in order to more safely close the distance or find cover.
Round Two: When Sakura takes too much damage and defeated, she falls unconscious. Round Two activates after ten seconds, rousing her and letting her continue fighting at full health. Critical injuries are not undone, so while she can ignore and fight through grievous injuries, they are still weakened areas.
The Round Two timer is reset if Sakura takes any damage while unconscious. If she takes too much damage while unconscious, Round Two will fail and she will remain comatose as she would have normally. Round Two also activates after ten seconds if Sakura is still awake but pain and shock have rendered her incapacitated.
Round Two is useable once per encounter or battle. Once this second health bar is depleted, she will react to injuries as she would have otherwise. If Sakura is healed before Round Two activates, it will still activate, but she will be back into the fight without any wounds vulnerable to increased damage.
Tag-Out Sakura can spend a bar of V-Trigger of EX Meter for a new special move that applies to one ally at a time. Sakura ‘Tags-Out’ a willing ally, swapping places with them. The Tagged Out ally gains a short burst of speed, and a bonus to their health and stamina regeneration. The effect lasts until they have regained all of the health they most recently lost, or until they begin attacking their enemies. Sakura can Tag-Out one ally at a time. Upon Tagging Out an ally, Sakura gains access to a single ‘Tag-In’ attack that has high knock back and stagger. The Tag-In attack's purpose is used to cover the allies temporary retreat.
Revenge Gauge: Sakura gains access to one more gauge: The Revenge Gauge. This is an independant gauge that fills up when Sakura takes damage. When Sakura is at 50% health, she can now perform a powerful Ultra Combo. The lower her health is, the more damage the Ultra Combo does.
The 50% health applies to her health separately before and after Round Two activates. GUTS scaling is also not taken into account. In other words, she can perform these moves while sparring, so she doesn't need to be truly injured for her to qualify for Revenge Gauge. But if she is wounded, the attack will be exceptionally powerful.
This allows her to spend her EX meter more freely without having to worry about saving up for a big special attack for the end of the fight. With Revenge Gauge, if a fight extends for too long she will now be able to turn the tide or finish the fight with an Ultra Combo attack.
Strengths:
Mobile: Sakura is light on her feet. Exceptionally so- able to start and stop her momentum on a dime and run faster then most humans can. She is agile and knows how to fall. With her enhanced human characteristics there are few things that can stop Sakura from zipping around the battlefield and scaling climbable surfaces and falling great heights.
Tough: Despite her civilian appearance, Sakura knows how to get hit. Techniques have hardened her body to be a regular taker of damage. While things can still hurt and kill her, she can deflect sharp blades with her bare arms if she has time to react or predict her opponents moves. Even thrown knives, energy projectiles, and fire arms can be thwarted by the young woman's defensive measures. The fighter can be struck many times before she gets knocked down, and she can take more before she stays down.
Ki: Sakura is a self-taught student of Ki. This grants her access to the aforementioned benefits. It is a mastery over one's body, granting one access to almost supernatural powers- but make no mistake, all of these abilities are drawn from nowhere but within herself. Using this ability, she can jump great distances and keep herself floating in the air. With the right breathing and movements her very energy itself can be projected into the environment and strike enemies as a hard hitting, fast moving projectile. Her fists and legs strike hard and true, with power far beyond a woman her size should be capable of. This is the power of Ki, and it requires balance, focus, and determination.
Advanced Hado Practitioner: Sakura's fireballs fly farther, do more damage, and have more accuracy at longer ranges. She can change their speed easier, from extremely slow, to max speed. When fully charged, they explode on impact, causing AOE damage.
They are even more effective in V-Trigger Haru Arashi. She can fire up to three with one Hadoken motion.
Hogasho, Sakura's short ranged, defensive blast, can be used outside of Haru Arashi. If she does use it while in Haru Arashi, it can last up to three seconds and be used while moving.
Street Fighter Strength: Sakura's super strength is in full force. Such that her spin kicks create forceful gusts of wind and the impact of her Shouokens can break nearby objects, and her throwing someone to ground can knock down bystanders. Her melee attacks are faster and deal more damage. When she successfully lands attacks, particularly heavy ones, the stagger (or 'hitstun') inflicted on an enemy allows her to continue landing attacks in a continuous combo chain without giving her foe the chance to fight back. Certain combos require her precise strength and timing, and hitstun decays the longer the string goes on, allowing the opponent to recover if the combo drops or the hitstun bottoms out. Combos aren't feasible against all opponents or many opponents, and are susceptible to interruption.
Maw Strength- GUTS Scaling: Being on the Maw has reinforced her belief that she should never give up, no matter what. The less health Sakura has, the less damage she takes. She's got the guts to keep fighting!
Rival Schools Crossover- Sakura can now do multiple normals, and all of her special attacks, in the air. Gains access to a one handed fireball which she can shoot in the air or on the ground. Some attacks will knock both her and her opponent upwards, allowing her to do extended aerial combos.
Her Chin Buster Kick can launch large sized enemies in the air, and Sakura Drop can slam them into the ground. Her jumping ability is increased, and her ability to control her momentum in the air is made more precise.
Weaknesses: Self-Taught: It was an extremely difficult and taxing journey for Sakura to learn Ki, but she still has a long way to go. When distracted or tired her more active abilities can fade, becoming inconsistent and weaker. Even by default, her fireballs have an electric tinge to them that speak to her as of yet untapped potential, but as a result travel with less accuracy and with less range then they should.
Short Range: Besides her more focused projection attacks, Sakura struggles to deal with people who can consistently keep her out of her range. Zoners! (Edit: As of level 4, the zonee has become the zoner.)
Honest: This may seem like more of a character trait, but in actually it is a weakness of hers. Sakura is an honest fighter; too honest. Practiced warriors can see that she is predictable and susceptible to mind-games and tricks. In a fight, Sakura is readable. Often, in her attempts to become unpredictable she becomes even more so. It is a frustrating loop, and Sakura is as of yet unable to truly surpass herself.
Stun: If Sakura takes too much damage in a short amount of time, she becomes Stunned. She becomes defenceless and disoriented, unable to register her surroundings. This damage can be from any source, regardless of what part of her body is being targetted. Electric, frost, and blunt attacks tend to deal more Stun. When blocking an attack, or taking Damage Over Time, Sakura's Stun bar does not decrease. Stun can be decreased over a short period of time, or by using V-Reversal.
When Sakura is Stunned, she'll become unstunned after about five seconds. If Sakura is Stunned shortly before or during trying to use Round Two, the amount of time she is trying to recover is increased by five seconds.
Maw Weakness- Cleithrophobia: At the same time, she can't fight if she's been captured or isolated from her teammates. Sakura has a fear of being trapped or made helpless. Examples include being tied up with bonds she cannot break, being extremely debuffed, being hypnotized, or otherwise restricted. She will want to avoid fighting enemies who she suspects have these kinds of abilities. Sakura is also more vulnerable to these types of attacks, her strength, composure, or willpower failing her when going up against them. Supernaturally terrified, she will also experience extreme symptoms of panic when she is, or percieves to be, made helpless. These enhanced symptoms include hyperventilation and ramp up to full-on syncope.
Spirits: >list>
New Striker Spiritbound: Overdrive Ostrich A tall, large-bodied reploid with a short cooldown time. His moves are Sprint (which sends him charging in a direction headfirst), Step (which sends him hopping in a direction repeatedly), Sonic Slicer (like Sonic Boom, but can be shot at an angle and while jumping), and High Jump (he leaps into the air and drops down on a chosen spot). He has some resistance to slashing and poison damage
Notable Spirit Consumed: Arashio Sakura has gotten shorter and lost some muscle tone, but gained some mass elsewhere. Her uniform fits better, although the collar is now off-the-shoulder and the sleeves are full-length. A lavender bow around her waist matches a smaller one in her hair, which is shoulder-length and darker. She also has functional cat ears in addition to her human ears, and a cat tail. Her sneakers are more pointed, shaped somewhat like the keels of ships. She's become a touch more composed and modest. This spirit confers the Power Ship Shape, giving her rigging that extends from her back. This rigging is a sleek dark gray, smoothly curved, equipped with a mini-cannon arm on the right, mini-torpedo arm on the left, two super-mini-turrets, and a comms antennae. The rigging functions as an extension of her body, and while it can be taken off, she can't part from it and damage to it is shared with her. As long as its active, rigging allows her to skate across any water surface. This spirit also confers the Weakness Bantamweight, decreasing the host's defense, raw striking power, and stability by 15%
The host has grown two inches taller and her frame has became somewhat less hourglass like. Her hair is a darker shade of brown and has green highlights, and is now asymmetrical on the left side, shaved to show some of her left ear. Her skin is also a little more tan. Her tracksuit is now sleeveless, instead of the sleeves just being rolled up to the elbow. Instead of white and red with blue highlights, it’s now white, red, with black highlights instead, with her sneakers being black. Her bandana is still white and her gloves are still red, however. The host is now more bold and braggadocious, and overall less polite, like she was when she was younger. This Spirit confers the power Mental Connection an ability that allows her to move herself or a target like a psychic grappling hook, as long as she has thoughts (either stray thoughts or an ally's thoughts) to latch onto. It confers the weakness Harsh Reality. Others can now sense her presence from a distance and will hunt her down for her brain. She can now be Brain Crushed and is susceptible to PR.
Kindred Spirits:
Setsuki from Fantasy Strike: A japanese teenager/ ninja-in-training with a smart mouth and a mean streak. A member of the school of the fox, she specializes in mobility and lethal strikes. Like Sakura she strives for self-improvement and enjoys a good fight, but usually only when she wins. Cheats and tricks are her specialty, closing the gap and dazzling them with star light.
Kei: Sakura's childhood best friend who ended up helping her during her training, setting up various things. Kei supporting Sakura during her training became a favored hobby of theirs, and the two spent many hours training together. Though Kei isn't much of a fighter herself, she did take pleasure in seeing Sakura improve. Kei is balanced, calm, and wise beyond her years while being introverted. In other words, it's the eight miracle of the world that she ever ended up friends with someone like Sakura. But they are, and it's a bond that will probably last for the rest of their leaves, even if as Sakura grew into a young adult she visited her home town less and less often.
Blanka: A big green guy with zappy powers who somehow ended up in the arcade that Sakura works part time at. The two became fast friends. They have sparred with each other and have helped each other when things got more serious. She calls him his true name, Jimmy. Normally people judge him for his unusual appearance, and it's true that he has quite the temper and in battle can really fight like a wild animal, making him seem unreasonable. But in reality he is kind and gentle-hearted, and it is this part that Sakura respects the most and helps to bring out.
Dan: Jimmy's original best friend who knew him before he became Blanka. Dan is, well, other people see him has arrogant, overconfident, bafoonish, oafish, stupid, egomaniac, failure- well, okay, back up a second. While it's true his Dojo isn't the most popular, and his personality can be...boistrous, Dan is good at heart. He sees himself as a father and mentor figure to Sakura, and has genuinely helped Sakura along in her training. The two of fought alongside each other many times and he is simply a fun person to be around as long as you don't take his 'insults' too seriously. Only people with big, easily bruised egos can be offended by Dan, which is unfortunately a lot of fighters. Still, Sakura knows he gets a bad rep that he doesn't deserve, even if he could really learn to cool it once in a while.
Inventory:A Scorcher Bicycle!
A plastic bag full of six radios
For who among us has touched the foundations of this world and deemed them solid?
Name: Jesse Faden Game Origin: CONTROL Appearance:
A very red haired woman in her late twenties. Wears an all black outfit. A leather jacket over a t-shirt for tops, jeans tucked into boots for bottoms. She has fair, almost pale skin, and blue eyes. Calloused hands. She has a strong jaw and striking facial features.
Personality: A strange young woman in her late twenties, Jesse is a little off-kilter, but bright and friendly enough. With recent self-actualization, Jesse had finally found a solid purpose. That is, being Director of the FBC. As such she is trying to open up and be less stand-offish and strange. The results can be varying, but she's clearly trying to be earnest in this endeavor. Having lived a life-time in the shadow of the trauma of her entire family being ripped away from her hasn't done her any favors. Until recently she was very introverted and emotionally withdrawn.
Because of traumatic events in her past, Jesse hates being gaslit. When people accuse her of lying or say she didn't see what she thought she saw it really gets under her skin. This and Polaris being attacked are the two things that can get a rise of out of the level-headed Director.
Abnormal is Jesse's element. She is relentlessly curious. She constantly asks herself if she wants to know, but the answer is always yes. Or rather, she finds out anyway. Jesse is not driven to explain things, but rather experience them. To know about them and overcome them. Bizarre circumstances are where she feels most at home. It feels sane. Or, as she would describe it, the right kind of insane.
Jesse has a good heart and decent head on her shoulders. She wants to protect those who cannot protect themselves. She is a utilitarian. Both of the moral and parantural kind. In the face of the irrational it is important to act rationally. While she's not necessarily the best with people, she is a team player. She can rely on others and expect them to rely on her. Honesty is something she admires, as well as being...interesting. People with quirks, like her, and who won't judge her for being so unusual.
Jesse believes herself to be a good person, and her actions would show that she is. However, rarely a cold and sinister side reveals itself. Though she is a heroic person, someone dangerous lurks beneath. This is reflected in how quickly and easily she slipped into the immensely violent and horrific situation that caused her to become Director. Violence, gore, and the insane don't bother her at all. Disconcertingly, this is the abnormal reality she is most comfortable with.
Background:
Jesse Faden first encountered the Parantural with her brother, Dylan, as a child. A mysterious Slide Projector allowed the two of them to open up portals to other dimensions. Due to the misuse of this power, and the discovery of it by other, crueler children, the situation spiralled out of control. In a few days the entire adult population of Ordinary, their home town, had vanished. The only reason Jesse and Dylan survived was due to the intervention of a benevolent being Jesse calls Polaris.
A mysterious organization arrived and covered up the entire thing. Jesse abandoned her brother and fled whilst he was captured. She spent the rest of her life on the run, scraping by an existence under the guidance of Polaris. Nobody believed what Jesse said, her mental health very often falling into question. It was all she could think about, paranoia and guilt gripping her entire existence.
Eventually Polaris found and led Jesse to her brother. He was in the Oldest House, a reality bending place that was the HQ of the Federal Bureau of Control. It was under attack from an inter-dimensional mind virus, or Resonance, known as the Hiss. Jesse found herself inheriting the Service Weapon, a powerful item that marked her as Director of the FBC.
After finding her brother and defeating the Hiss, Jesse embraced her role as Director. Now she has reclaimed control over her life and is fully immersed in that world society tried to convinced her hadn't existed. She wouldn't have it any other way.
A year into being Director, the Dimensional Research deparment picked up the largest anomaly in Bureau history. A Threshold the likes of which had never been seen before. The entirety of the Oldest House was shifted into an unfamiliar place, and the memory of the entire staff of this event, including Jesse's, was wiped. But being prepared for the unexpected, the Bureau could tell something was amiss, concluding their own cognitive functions to have been damaged some how.
Due to incredibly hostile conditions outside the Oldest House, progress and research for the first month was slow. They picked up communications from actual civilization from other communities. That was how the Director first heard about the Seekers. Polaris began to indicate that she should travel south, far south, to meet them. It seemed like whatever bizarre stasis the world had been pulled into, the Seekers were the only things making waves. Being uniquely equipped to deal with the enemy outside, the Director ordered the Bureau to maintain lockdown. Then, she made her escape. She travelled a great distance, first by foot, then by car. The rest of the trip was made easier when she hitched a ride on a helicopter afte reaching a populated city. Now she's searching the Sandswept Sky, hoping to find the answers she's looking for. Wouldn't be the first time she did something like this, and she doubted it would be the last.
Specialty: Generalist Level: 7
Powers:
Health Elements: A protective force shields Jesse from harm. Damage still hurts but it allows her to withold much more than a regular person. When she damages enemies, they drop blue crystals that only Jesse can see. If she picks them up, her health bar is restored.
Launch: Jesse can telekinetically pick up and throw inanimate objects that weigh up to 5000 pounds. She can do this three times every fifteen seconds. Each use takes 5 seconds to recharge. The range is 50 yards.
This also grants her a precise, low level telekinesis. She can also just release the energy in a short range blast, or melee attack.
-Jesse Level Up: Launch Expanded
Jesse can now hold up to three objects at a time with Launch. She can also grab projectiles out of the air and use them. If a target is on very low health or unconscious, Jesse can use them as Launch objects.
Material Acquisition Jesse Faden needs Materials in order to upgrade and create new forms for her Service Weapon. Now she can find them again after defeating enemies. Materials and Modifications can be found relative to the strength of the enemy. Enough Materials and Jesse can create new Forms, and Modifications can add extra bonuses to all Forms. Materials and Modifications exist only within Jesse's mind and cannot be percieved nor collected by others, and they do not have weight.
Evade: Jesse uses a relatively small amount of Energy to dash in a chosen horizontal direction. She can do this while jumping or falling. The dash is very fast, to the point where Jesse becomes a blur to the naked eye. She can dash through inanimate objects, but cannot push through living creatures.
Shield: Jesse summons a powerful defensive barrier infront of her using 50% of her Energy. It is bolstered with chunks of the ground and nearby objects, but does not require them to function. Upon destruction or release, physical fragments within the shield are shotgunned outward at high speed. She can use Shield in combination with Evade to push past, through, or damage enemies.
Both Shield and Evade activate as soon as Jesse commands them too- there is no start up. Thus they can be used as fast as her reactions allow.
Levitate
Jesse gains the ability to jump up to twenty feet in the air and float around at a running pace. She can use all of her Abilities while in the air, and Levitate can be activated and deactivated any time during a fall or jump. It costs no Energy to use, but she can only float for 60 seconds before beginning to slowly drift downwards and needing to touch a solid surface again.
You have acquired: Saturnus When faced with combat, a dim ring of light appears around Jesse. Seven small chunks of debris are torn from the environment to orbit around her, moving slowly along this ringed path. They can be used to hit targets, which destroys them, be pulled from orbit to be thrown, or potentially block shots. Slow-moving projectiles that aren’t too strong can also be caught or deposited in the orbit if they touch the ring, making them Jesse’s
Unlocked Forms:
Shatter: A high damage, short range, shotgun like Form capable of close quarters devastation. High recoil, slow recoil and firing rate. Best used in near close quarters combat.
Spin: A new Form for Jesse's Service Weapon. Six floating rotating plates revolve around the barrel of the Service Weapon. This fully automatic form has a high rate of fire and surpressive spread. Most effective at a medium range, where the damage is still high by the bullets can still strike multiple enemies.
Pierce: The Service Weapon’s barrel recollects into a large, lethal X shape. It now fires a single shot that must be charged several seconds before firing. The weapon is perfectly accurate, relying only on Jesse’s aiming skills. The weapon has high penetration, useful against shields and armor, physical and magical alike. It can blow through most conventional cover. On shot, it has a cool down, and Jesse must hold the weapon steady to charge up a shot.
Strengths:
GUIDING LIGHT: Jesse is linked with a benevolent, otherwordly entity she called Polaris. Polaris cannot communicate with Jesse verbally, however their bond is very close. Polaris can silently indicate things Jesse can see. Polaris posseses great knowledge of space, and often helps Jesse find where she needs to go, no matter the distance. She also can point out safe places or objects of interest for Jesse.
CHOOSE TO BE CHOSEN: Jesse is qualified to be the Director of the Federal Bureau of Control. This implies a certain level of strength and potential. She is immune to most attacks on her psyche and mind, including mind control, hypnosis, fear, etc. A stillness of mind that cannot be broken.
This also means she is a Parautilitarian. Objects of Power can be bent to her will, their abilities transferred onto her. This process is facilitated by the Board, a group of beings living in the Astral Plane.
PRETTY DECENT SHOT: Not as fancy as her other Strengths but just as important in her line of work.
Weaknesses:
Energy: Jesse's powers are somewhat limited by her own Energy. If she expends all of her energy, she has to wait five to ten seconds for it to recharge again. It is not linked to her stamina: Using powers will not exhaust Jesse physically or mentally. Nonetheless Jesse's damage comes in bursts. If she mistimes a use of her power she can be susceptible to reprisal.
Basic Physiology: Beneath her thin layer of Resonance armoring Jesse is a human as fragile as any other person. If the enemy can focus down on her or prevent her mobility and damage from coming through, she is quite vulnerable to damage.
Ranged Only: Besides knowing how to throw a punch, Jesse has no martial arts skill. She wants to keep her enemies out of arms reach.
Spirits:
New Striker connected: Uncle Sven A zany old soul who blends chemistry with chaos. He’s forgotten more about alchemy than you will ever know – and maybe more than he remembers. Able to toss out a few offensive or supportive vials whenever he appears, he offers Fire Flasks for burst of up-front damage, Acid Flasks for lingering pools of corrosion, Elastic Ooze to make a super jump puddle, Healing Waters for a zone of continuous restoration, and once things have really gotten mixed up, Chaos Quaff to polymorph all targets in the area into harmless animals for about six seconds
Kindred Spirits: None Inventory:
- Shrunken Car That Looks like a Box
- Shrunken Winter Clothes
THE SERVICE WEAPON: Every Director's pride and joy. A handgun psychically linked to Jesse. It will improve in power as she re-establishes her bond with it. It's borderline sentient, reacting to Jesse's presence. Only the Director can wield it. If anyone attempts to use this weapon other than Jesse Faden, they will experience severe pyschic damage until they put the gun to their own head and pull the trigger.
The Service Weapon is a long barreled, sleek black hand gun. It is made of smooth black pieces of an unknown mineral. It twitches and shifts, made of many disparate pieces, held together by it's own power. It has infinite ammo, only needing to be recharged if fired too often.
Right now it has been reduced to it's basic form, Grip, a versatile and powerful semi-automatic form. It has high accuracy, good range, and good damage. Able to drop an average human in two-three shots, or a single headshot. It fires as fast as Jesse can pull the trigger, which is actually pretty fast. In Grip, it "holds" 15 rounds. As Jesse levels up, more specialized and unique forms will become available to her once again.
When not being used, the weapon vanishes and exists only in the Astral Plane. She can summon and unsummon it at will.
You have Acquired: Tool Gun A strange, cobbled-together revolver, modified so drastically with various replacements and attachments that it cannot fire bullets. Instead it just zaps whatever it’s pointed at, but what the zap does depends on which function is selected. Five of fourteen are currently available. Selecting a function in the list on the left opens a box on the right with available options (various inputs and/or toggles) and controls. The Tool Gun does not require ammunition but does have 100 Charge that is depleted by 2 per action and recharged at a rate of 1 per minute. There’s an ‘undo’ button at the top right that will undo the changes made by the gun in reverse order, but it can only remember up to fourteen changes. The Tool Gun doesn’t deal damage and can break if treated poorly enough, which will release a cascade of randomly-selected functions over an area.
Weld - Adheres two targets as long as they’re touching. Once adhered, the targets are absolutely stuck together at the weld point, a circle 1.5 inches in diameter. The area of the targets around the weld point can, however, be damaged to ‘remove’ the welded location and free the rest
No-Collide - makes target intangible. Only works on discrete, non living objects. Objects with their collision removed are not affected by any physical force, including gravity
Inflator - resizes target. Options include scale (-200% to 200%) and range (toggle between Part and Whole)
Thruster - creates a thruster attached to the target. Options include strength, size, appearance (all assorted roughly cylindrical household objects like buckets and lampshades) and channel. Up to four channels can be made and each fired separately. If no channel is provided, the thruster will be on until it runs out of power
Balloon - creates a balloon attached to the target by a rope. Options include balloon size, lift, rope length, and color
Wheel
Elastic
Color
Material
Dynamite
Emitter
Poser
Duplicator
Remover
edited Jesse's personality to better reflect who I'm going to be playing.
Name: Karin Kanzuki Game Origin: Street Fighter Alpha 3 Appearance: Personality: The most accurate word to describe Karin Kanzuki is proud. Proud of her skills, her power, of herself. But there are a few other words that might also do the trick. Arrogant, haughty, and elitist, Karin Kanzuki is the richest rich girl you could possibly fathom. Karin believes that she can be the best at anything she puts her mind too. Snobby and condescending to almost everyone around her, she believes that she is better than 'commoners'. Most attempts to attack her she sees as laughable, which is probably why she laughs so much. Karin enjoys winning more than anything, and it used to be she would win at any cost.
She has her own code of honor, and understands that winning the right way is more important than victory in and of itself. She has a dry, sardonic sense of humor. And despite having quite the big head herself, it is difficult for her to find more joy than destroying the fragile egos of people with lesser spirits and hearts. Nowhere can there be found more cloying, desperate egos then amongst evil. A decent amount of the reason she battles evil is just witness the third act villain break down.
Karin, while she is used to an enormous amount of luxury, is a very hard worker. All her life she has strived for perfection in all things. This has resulted in very high expectations on herself, and she is constantly pushing herself to be better than before. Everything she does has to be just right. Contrary to one might belief, she has a critical, demanding inner voice.
Karin struggles with showing compassion. Beneath it all, she has a very kind heart, but for the large majority of her life she was taught that kindness was weakness. While she has moved on past this way of thinking, the Strength Above All mentality has deep roots in her heart and soul that are hard to shake.
Background:
All you need is victory. Be the winner in everything. The worst we'll ever be is the best. Victorious: Therefore Supreme. She is Karin Kanzuki! And these mottos were the pillars of her childhood.
Her father was a strict man who in many ways resented her for not being a son. He needed an heir, and believed a girl couldn't be up to the task. From a very young age, Karin was trained and molded to be the perfect canditate to run the powerful Kanzuki Zaibatsu- one of the most powerful business conglomerate in the world.
Karin rose to the challenge. She bested her father in all of the same trials he was put through as a child, not to mention solving them in innovative ways he had never considered. High wires over waterfalls, sheer mountain cliffs, searching for targets underwater, surviving in the woods for two weeks. Defeat a lion in mortal combat. (Note: all of these things were done in the Karin Estate wildlife sanctuary in the middle of Japan) Instead of defeating the lion, she dominated it mentally with a hard stare, and then befriended it. Karin has had an affinity for large mammals ever since.
But her father never believed in her. Instilling in her a deep distaste for all other 'commoners', the only 'friends' Karin ever had were her servants. Servants, maids, and her personal army of ninjas, all of whom revered her as a goddess. But she never had an equal. She never had someone she could view as a peer, or even look up too. Not even her own father. Whom she destroyed, backstabbing him by sneakily purchasing the majority shares of his own company. He challenged her to a duel, and she swiftly defeated him. Under the 15 year old's direction, the Kanzuki Zaibatsu became THE most powerful legal conglomerate in the world.
During this time, Karin turned her attention to street fighting. While becoming a martial arts master was always a part of her training, she had only ever fought in the official, sterile fighting competitions of the world. But she learned that the real challengers, the real passion for fighting and perfection, were found in the unorthodox places. That was when she learned of a young girl named Sakura Kasugano, who everyone was claiming was the youngest, yet most promising, female fighter in all of Japan.
This, obviously, would not do, for Karin was clearly the filler of this spot. Long story short, she challenged Sakura to a fight and...lost. For the first time in her life, Karin Kanzuki lost. Defeated by some commoner 'prodigy', who trained by watching VHS tapes and jumping through dirty old rubber tires with her dullard best friend.
Nonetheless, despite the indignation, something changed in Karin that day. A fire was lit in her heart and she trained harder than she ever had before. She challenged Sakura again, and this time, defeated her. though she pondered if perhaps Sakura truly was the better fighter of the two. But she could not deny that in that moment, Karin truly 'wanted' to win. Was there a difference between needing to win, and wanting to win? And which one was more powerful? She wasn't certain. But all she knew was that a worthy rival was needed in order to truly push oneself to perfection. Karin elected Sakura to be her rival. Their friendship has grown over time, and slowly the cut-throat knife's edge of Karin's harsh personality has softened. Somewhat. A little. Tell anyone of this, and she will destroy you.
Specialty: Duelist Level: 6 Powers:
V-Meter: Karin's two barred V-Meter gives her access to two powerful defensive options. She builds V-Meter by blocking, dodging, getting hit by, and countering attacks. Both defensive options deal Gray Damage, a special type of damage that fades over time and is only made permanent if Karin lands a true attack.
V-Reversal: Spend a bar to push through the enemies attack with unflappable strength, knocking them and all enemies around back and away from Karin. Very easy to execute, and difficult to avoid. Though skillful enemies could counter it if she overuses it.
V-Shift: A perfectly timed dodge on an opponent Karin has read. She becomes immune for a momentary window of time if executed correctly. Time seems to slow for Karin and she can counter and punish her enemy for their insolence. Upon a successful V-Shift, she regains half a bar.
Super Gauge Karin gains access to her Super Gauge. Gained by dealing, taking damage, and avoiding or dodging attacks, this three barred meter gives Karin access to enhanced special moves. At level 3 Super Gauge, she gains access to her Super Combo, a powerful finishing move that deals high damage to a singular target.
V-Trigger When Karin’s V-Gauge is full, she gains access to two modes of higher power. The “Kanzuki-Ryu Guren No Kata”, and the “Tenha no Kata.” One is geared towards offense, the other defense.
Guren gives Karin access to dodge moves, advancing palm strike moves, and powerful grappling attacks that cannot be blocked. Her footwork becomes even more immaculate, allowing her to outmaneuver several opponents at a time instead of just single enemies.
Tenha no Kata gives Karin access to a powerful parry attack. If she reads her opponents correctly, she can counter extremely powerful attacks, even beyond those that would normally break her guard. Upon a counter she can perform a series of follow ups. Such as crumpling her enemy to their knees for a combo, sending them up into the air for a juggle for either her or a teammate, or simply sending them flying to create distance or make use of her environment.
EX-Meter Transfer to Super Meter
Karin Kanzuki's gauge system changes with this power up. Now, she has three bars that can be filled up once. Every time she fills up one bar, she can do a powerful Super Move, which is a more powerful version of one of her techniques. At three Super Gauges filled up, she can do the most powerful Super Combo, or, alternatively, a Critical Art.
She can still use EX-moves using her Critical Gauge, but EX-Moves will drain one third of a Super meter, preventing her from using Super combos for longer despite being separate gauges. However, overall, this will allow Karin to do more powerful bursts of damage more often to help change the tide in her favor.
V-ISM: Karin Kanzuki gains access to a new fighting style. With a brief moment of meditation, usually before or after a fight, she refocuses her Ki and gains access to new abilities, with some trade offs.
She loses access to specific and powerful Super Combos, and instead gains access to the versatile Custom Combo. Entering this state will allow Karin to chain her special attacks together instantly, and give her advanced speed. This will allow her to do very long combos, trapping opponents (such as Sakura) in an infinite combo until the duration of the move is over. Each Super gauge now charges faster, and gives access to two seconds of Custom Combo for a maximum of six.
Unlike Super Combos, The Custom Combo state will be interrupted when Karin takes damage, draining the rest of the gauge she would have spent on attacks. It is a state of intense offensive focus. Blocking is not possible, and walking backwards ends the state.
It also grants Karin the ability to block and recover from getting knocked down mid-air.
There are a few draw backs. Her guard is less durable, meaning focused or sustained attacks will break her guard. V-Trigger becomes unavailable, and V-Reversal can only be spent using 50% of a Super bar. Her attacks also do less damage in general.
Strengths:
Footsies: Karin always knows where to stand. Simple adjustments of her stance and foot position allow her to outmaneuver and outplay even the most skilled melee combatants. A centimeter can be the difference between victory and defeat, and Karin always knows where that centimeter is.
Kanzuki-Ryu: Karin's fighting style allows her to endure large amounts of damage, perform incredible athletic feats, and send people five times her size flying into the air with a simple well placed palm thrust. She can also dash with incredible bursts of speed, moving in and out of combat range at her leisure. Much like any Street Fighter, she can use her arms to block attacks, blades, bullets, and bursts of energy and plasma. As long as she isn't walking forward. While she has no long ranged attacks, she is an expert at surpassing the defenses of those who would rather keep her out. She is no slow moving grappler- zoners fear HER.
Forceful Personality: The heart of a lion beats within Karin's chest. (Not literally, though she could have that arranged). Karin is difficult to dominate or intimidate. Indeed, she is capable of doing these things herself. Once per fight, simple minded beasts can be pacified with a glare, and enemies of weak willpower tremble before her. As if they know their foolish arrogance will only waste Karin's time- as if they know their blood is not worthy of getting stuck under her perfectly manicured fingernails.
Victory In All Things: Karin embodies the Kanzuki motto by regaining full access to her many learned skills. She is good at miscellaneous tasks that can be learned on Earth, and will be smug about it.
Weaknesses: Hordes of Plebians: Karin is incredibly difficult to beat one on one. However with her reliance on deliberate, powerful strikes, she doesn't have much in the way of crowd control. While she can maneuver out of situations, if she is overwhelmed her skill won't matter. (Fortunately her intimidating matter will prevent weaker minded commoners from having the confidence to gang up on her- for at least ONE of them will be totally destroyed. But if they can push past that, she might be in trouble.)
Monsters: While Karin's powerful strikes and durable body will no doubt prove useful against monsters, her skillset is not made to fight unfamiliar creatures from strange worlds. How do you do 'footsies' against a tentacle monster?
Stun: If Karin takes too much damage in a short amount of time, she becomes Stunned. She becomes defenceless and disoriented, unable to register her surroundings. This damage can be from any source, regardless of what part of her body is being targetted. Electric, frost, and blunt attacks tend to deal more Stun. When blocking an attack, or taking Damage Over Time, Karin's Stun bar does not decrease. Stun can be decreased over a short period of time, or by using V-Reversal.
When Karin is stunned, she'll become unstunned after about five seconds. Karin is less resistant to Stun than Sakura.
Discount Shoto Ripoffs, Apparently: Hey! Who put this one here? This is libel.
Spirits:
None yet.
Guest List: Ishikazi: Karin's loyal, faithful, engaging butler who is a talent in his own right.
Birdie: Karin's new bodyguard. A hulking brute of a man who loves food, is nasty with a chain, and is cleverer than people give him credit for.
Inventory: Training Ribbon: The ribbon in Karin's hair weighs twenty five pounds.
edit: Money: A lot of money. Too much money.
Beach Estate: Her own private beach estate! On Earth, this was her summer home.
@Lugubrious Sweet, awesome, very cool. Yeah no worries, I can wait, or do...whatever you think is best. No problemo, boss. Lumbridge it is.
I see about the whole Kindred Spirit thing. In which case, I will probably change them. As much as I like there dynamic I'm not sure I want to roleplay a trio of goofballs. Kei though, I might want to keep in. Maybe a civilian character for Sakura to bounce off of could be fun, like a hub character for her to talk with. Someone who can't actually help in fights and needs protecting.
That would be great, thanks so much. I'll try to make my character fun to roleplay with, lol. I'll move her over!
I thought I mention you since I got my CS done earlier than I thought I would. Here she is. Let me know if there's anything I should add, or change, or anything, really. I had a lot of fun and I liked reading about Sakura's backstory and adding a bit more flair then what is normally in a fighting game's Arcade mode, lol. So yeah let me know what you think! Is she gonna start out brainwashed, or? I saw Link just got added to the crew. So, I'm down for anything. It looks like you guys do lots of collabs, which I adore because I love collabs.
Name: Kasugano Sakura Game Origin: Street Fighter IV Appearance:
Personality:
Kasugano Sakura is a friendly, respectful go-getter who thrives for self improvement. She thinks fighting is fun, as long as the stakes are low. The heroine business hasn't really been for her, and Sakura has trying to find her place in the world.
Sakura tries to maintain a level of self-awareness as to not lose herself in ego or to make too much of a fool of herself, but she is a very excitable person. Excitable sometimes to the form of detriment, and this excitement can sometimes be born of frustration and anger, resulting in the young woman occasionally having flashes of temper if something particularly annoying doesn't go her way.
Sakura has a surprising amount of willpower for someone her age and has successfully taught herself (with some "help") the martial art of Ki. With the right amount of focus she could pull off all that hokey 'enlightment' and 'meditation' stuff. If she really wanted too. Some people take it a little too far. She truly is a good, kind person at heart, and while normally she fights only to protect her family and friends, every once in a while she can be pushed into the whole 'greater good' business. Save the world, protect the innocent, blah blah blah, you know how it is. Truth be told she never quite felt cut out for that kind of thing and while she projects a level of confidence bordering on brashness, it's hiding a somewhat insecure young woman trying to find her place in the world. Who is she to try to save anyone, right? Sakura doesn't see herself as a hero, and sometimes doesn't see herself as much of a fighter, either.
Background: Sakura is the definition of humble beginnings. Infact, you could probably tack on a humble middle and a humble ending, too, because from the looks of it she wasn't cut out to be much of anything. If anything, she was to inherit her parent's family business- a sushi restaurant. Kasugano Eats. She had cooking lessons from her mom and dad and she's actually pretty good at it. Her younger brother and her have a good, friendly relationship, even if he can be a little brat sometimes. And he's way too good at videogames. Still, if he's also a better cook and seems to fit in pretty good with her friends.
Martial arts was something that caught Sakura's eye pretty quick. She casually trained as a kid, though it mostly manifested as making stupid poses in the mirror and making makeshift headbands. She didn't really get into it until she found her hero, Ryu, on TV. His warrior's philosophy, skill, power, and as much as Sakura doesn't want to admit it, good lucks, had an effect on the middle schoolers soul. Now she understand that if she really wanted to find out what she was going to do with her life, she would have to find the answer in the heart of battle. It was at this point she announced her intentions to everyone important in her life, from her family to her childhood bestfriend Kei. Kei is wise beyond her years and a bit of a shut in, but the two make a great pair and Sakura admits that she would probably be a real goober had she never met Kei.
So when she was 14 she began her training regiment, and it was far more brutal and demanding then she let on. Then even she herself realised. Years running around the block. Hoping one day, in some distant dream, to earn the approval of her her hero, Ryu. If she could earn his respect, then everything she was doing would be validated. Her training earned the suspicion of her parents as her grades began to falter and she regularly skipped school. But it didn't matter. There were arguments over it, and Sakura began to worry if she was doing the right thing. However a brief encounter with a bully of Kei proved to everyone that she was making real improvement, as she easily defeated the boy two years her senior and seemingly twice her size. This was her first street fight, and it was a prelude of things to come. She trained, watching Ryu and his best friend Ken on TV almost every day, and using duct-tape and elbow grease, constructed her own fighting style heavily based on Ryu's.
It was at this point, when she was 15, where she met a martial artist naed Dan, someone who claimed to be even more powerful then Ryu. The young girl was almost duped by him when she realised he was just a wannabe like her, though he would never admit it. Still, his experience was helpful even though she took everything he said with a grain of salt. Indeed her regimine was still self taught, though if you asked Dan he would say that Sakura is actually his star pupil. Nonetheless, the pair became friends and he helped her come in contact with the world of Street Fighter. No matter how many 'exaggerations' Dan made, there was still undeniable proof that he had fought and actually put up a challenge to her hero, Ryu. Therefore, she was only one degree away from knowing Ryu personally. Or, something like that.
When she was 16, she finally was able to project her energy in the form of Hadoken. Overjoyed, she left her home to travel the world in search of Ryu and to enter a Street Fighter tournament. Unfortunately, the first person she met was Sagat, a rival of Ryu's. He saw her fighting style and assumed her to be a pupil of his, and demanded to know where he was. This was her first real street fight, but Sagat called it off when he realised he had both underestimated her, and realised that he was attempting to beat up a literal child for information and felt bad. So that was a bust for Sakura when he refused to fight no matter how many times she insisted she was okay with getting beat up.
Things escalated from there. She participated in a tournament, and actually beat up some very talented fighters. She even got to get knocked out herself and learned something from it! It really was a dream come true. Sakura was knocked head over heels when she actually met Ken in a tournament and after expressing her appreciation to the two of them (though Ken knew it was mostly Ryu she was after), Ken agreed to help organize a meet up between Ryu and his number one fan.
Unfortunately, the two came across a plot that was in motion. Some evil fascist guy named M. Bison was trying to take over the world and had brainwashed her hero, Ryu. It really was a deeply unsettling sight. Ken and Sakura teamed up to battle M. Bison, and that Sagat guy from earlier probably tailed them to find Ryu and ended up battling the brainwashed hero. They all succeeded, and everyone seemed to be pretty blase that a 16 year old just got into a fight to the death with a genuine super-villain. But in the end, she actually got to meet Ryu himself and it was really enlightening. Moreover he disagreed to help her, because apparently he still had much to learn himself given his defeat at M. Bison's hands. One day, though, they would meet again, both of them being stronger. Ryu agreed to train extra hard if he knew that somewhere out there, Sakura was doing the same.
One year later, Dan, wanting to impress his star student, claimed that he knew where Ryu had gone. They entered a fighting tournament together, but things were confusing. It was during this time that while on a visit back home, Dan's friend Jimmy/Blanka sought him out, but met Sakura first. Eventually the Dan and Jimmy reunited and Jimmy became one of Sakura's best friends.
It was during this tournament that the trio succeeded much in their fights. Sakura even managed to defeat Zangief, a legendary Russian wrestler, though it was a close one. However she learned that being a Street Fighter has a tendency to drag one into conflicts beyond what she expected. She didn't realise it, but she was actually one of the most physically capable people in the entire world at this point. Now, all of the sudden she had some sort of responsibility as a guardian of Earth!? She immediately wanted to back out, but Dan and Blanka expressed their intentions to help fight. Some bad guys named S.I.N and an evil robot were trying to take over the world, and Ryu and Ken were leading the fight to stop them. Even M. Bison was getting involved to fight the evil robot guy named Seth, which proved how bad news it really was. Not wanting to let her friends go in by themselves, and wanting to prove herself to Ryu, she agreed to help.
During the battle, she helped their team push deeper into the compound, and she had to admit it was actually kind of fun punching robots in the face. Things weren't as fun though when they encountered the final battle, and the robot named Seth easily swatted her aside. It was the hardest hit she had ever taken and she was knocked unconscious in a massive explosion. When she woke up, she saw that Ryu had actually protected her, and though was unable to stand she witessed Ryu and Seth's epic battle. Eventually, Ryu emerged victorious. He was a strikingly heroic figure and her admiration for him had never been so strong. They have another chat, and as much as both of them would like to engage in a friendly spar, Sakura's injuries were too great. This time, Ryu promised that he would seek out Sakura again at some point in the future.
There were many conflicting emotions, but Sakura was happy to know that she had something to look forward too after her recovery. Eventually, Ryu did come to her house and he actually taught her a lesson and she earned his respect and it was great and it was everything she had ever wanted, and, and, and, and then he was gone again. Back overseas to embark on some other great adventure. And...now what? Wasn't that it? That everything she had worked towards. Why wasn't she...happy? Was she just supposed to...do what?
For half a year after wards she continued her training, constantly improving, spending time with her family. A little sabatacle from the nonsense that had ensued earlier. But now what? What was she going to do with her life? She had so much more time to spend.
She sitting next to her friend Kei, discussing their futures on a swingset at a nearby park. That was when the light came for her. The last thing she remembers was screaming in surprise as she pushed aside her best friend only for that streak of light to consume her instead.
EX Meter: Dealing and taking damage allows Sakura to channel additional strength, power, and speed into an attack. Redirecting the punishment she recieves and the energy of the strikes she deals out into further, more impressive hits.
Strengths:
Mobile: Sakura is light on her feet. Exceptionally so- able to start and stop her momentum on a dime and run faster then most humans can. She is agile and knows how to fall. With her enhanced human characteristics there are few things that can stop Sakura from zipping around the battlefield and scaling climbable surfaces and falling great heights.
Tough: Despite her civilian appearance, Sakura knows how to get hit. Techniques have hardened her body to be a regular taker of damage. While things can still hurt and kill her, she can deflect sharp blades with her bare arms if she has time to react or predict her opponents moves. Even thrown knives, energy projectiles, and fire arms can be thwarted by the young woman's defensive measures. The fighter can be struck many times before she gets knocked down, and she can take more before she stays down.
Ki: Sakura is a self-taught student of Ki. This grants her access to the aforementioned benefits. It is a mastery over one's body, granting one access to almost supernatural powers- but make no mistake, all of these abilities are drawn from nowhere but within herself. Using this ability, she can jump great distances and keep herself floating in the air. With the right breathing and movements her very energy itself can be projected into the environment and strike enemies as a hard hitting, fast moving projectile. Her fists and legs strike hard and true, with power far beyond a woman her size should be capable of. This is the power of Ki, and it requires balance, focus, and determination.
Weaknesses: Self-Taught: It was an extremely difficult and taxing journey for Sakura to learn Ki, but she still has a long way to go. When distracted or tired her more active abilities can fade, becoming inconsistent and weaker. Even by default, her fireballs have an electric tinge to them that speak to her as of yet untapped potential, but as a result travel with less accuracy and with less range then they should. Short Range: Besides her more focused projection attacks, Sakura struggles to deal with people who can consistently keep her out of her range. Zoners! Honest: This may seem like more of a character trait, but in actually it is a weakness of hers. Sakura is an honest fighter, too honest. Practiced warriors can see that she is predictable and susceptible to mind-games and tricks. In a fight, Sakura is readable. Often, in her attempts to become unpredictable she becomes even more so. It is a frustrating loop, and Sakura is as of yet unable to truly surpass herself. Human: Despite her fantastical abilities, beneath it all Sakura remains an 18 year old high schooler. She is capable of great feats of strength, endurance, durability, and power. But all of these things require focus. Were her consciousness or focus to be greatly disrupted some how, her powers would vanish. If something every disrupted her from channeling her Ki, or if something truly took her by surprise, she would have to respond to it how any athletically built 18 year old girl would. Spirits:
None, for now.
Kindred Spirits:
Kei: Sakura's childhood best friend who ended up helping her during her training, setting up various things. Kei supporting Sakura during her training became a favored hobby of theirs, and the two spent many hours training together. Though Kei isn't much of a fighter herself, she did take pleasure in seeing Sakura improve. Kei is balanced, calm, and wise beyond her years while being introverted. In other words, it's the eight miracle of the world that she ever ended up friends with someone like Sakura. But they are, and it's a bond that will probably last for the rest of their leaves, even if as Sakura grew into a young adult she visited her home town less and less often.
Blanka: A big green guy with zappy powers who somehow ended up in the arcade that Sakura works part time at. The two became fast friends. They have sparred with each other and have helped each other when things got more serious. She calls him his true name, Jimmy. Normally people judge him for his unusual appearance, and it's true that he has quite the temper and in battle can really fight like a wild animal, making him seem unreasonable. But in reality he is kind and gentle-hearted, and it is this part that Sakura respects the most and helps to bring out.
Dan: Jimmy's original best friend who knew him before he became Blanka. Dan is, well, other people see him has arrogant, overconfident, bafoonish, oafish, stupid, egomaniac, failure- well, okay, back up a second. While it's true his Dojo isn't the most popular, and his personality can be...boistrous, Dan is good at heart. He sees himself as a father and mentor figure to Sakura, and has genuinely helped Sakura along in her training. The two of fought alongside each other many times and he is simply a fun person to be around as long as you don't take his 'insults' too seriously. Only people with big, easily bruised egos can be offended by Dan, which is unfortunately a lot of fighters. Still, Sakura knows he gets a bad rep that he doesn't deserve, even if he could really learn to cool it once in a while.
Inventory: Student handbag full of school supplies and an extra pair of gym clothes and fighting equipment. Also, a metal water bottle tucked into the fold at the top. Clink!
Name: Kasugano Sakura Game Origin: Street Fighter IV Appearance:
Personality:
Kasugano Sakura is a friendly, respectful go-getter who thrives for self improvement. She thinks fighting is fun, as long as the stakes are low. The heroine business hasn't really been for her, and Sakura has trying to find her place in the world.
Sakura tries to maintain a level of self-awareness as to not lose herself in ego or to make too much of a fool of herself, but she is a very excitable person. Excitable sometimes to the form of detriment, and this excitement can sometimes be born of frustration and anger, resulting in the young woman occasionally having flashes of temper if something particularly annoying doesn't go her way.
Sakura has a surprising amount of willpower for someone her age and has successfully taught herself (with some "help") the martial art of Ki. With the right amount of focus she could pull off all that hokey 'enlightment' and 'meditation' stuff. If she really wanted too. Some people take it a little too far. She truly is a good, kind person at heart, and while normally she fights only to protect her family and friends, every once in a while she can be pushed into the whole 'greater good' business. Save the world, protect the innocent, blah blah blah, you know how it is. Truth be told she never quite felt cut out for that kind of thing and while she projects a level of confidence bordering on brashness, it's hiding a somewhat insecure young woman trying to find her place in the world. Who is she to try to save anyone, right? Sakura doesn't see herself as a hero, and sometimes doesn't see herself as much of a fighter, either.
Background: Sakura is the definition of humble beginnings. Infact, you could probably tack on a humble middle and a humble ending, too, because from the looks of it she wasn't cut out to be much of anything. If anything, she was to inherit her parent's family business- a sushi restaurant. Kasugano Eats. She had cooking lessons from her mom and dad and she's actually pretty good at it. Her younger brother and her have a good, friendly relationship, even if he can be a little brat sometimes. And he's way too good at videogames. Still, if he's also a better cook and seems to fit in pretty good with her friends.
Martial arts was something that caught Sakura's eye pretty quick. She casually trained as a kid, though it mostly manifested as making stupid poses in the mirror and making makeshift headbands. She didn't really get into it until she found her hero, Ryu, on TV. His warrior's philosophy, skill, power, and as much as Sakura doesn't want to admit it, good lucks, had an effect on the middle schoolers soul. Now she understand that if she really wanted to find out what she was going to do with her life, she would have to find the answer in the heart of battle. It was at this point she announced her intentions to everyone important in her life, from her family to her childhood bestfriend Kei. Kei is wise beyond her years and a bit of a shut in, but the two make a great pair and Sakura admits that she would probably be a real goober had she never met Kei.
So when she was 14 she began her training regiment, and it was far more brutal and demanding then she let on. Then even she herself realised. Years running around the block. Hoping one day, in some distant dream, to earn the approval of her her hero, Ryu. If she could earn his respect, then everything she was doing would be validated. Her training earned the suspicion of her parents as her grades began to falter and she regularly skipped school. But it didn't matter. There were arguments over it, and Sakura began to worry if she was doing the right thing. However a brief encounter with a bully of Kei proved to everyone that she was making real improvement, as she easily defeated the boy two years her senior and seemingly twice her size. This was her first street fight, and it was a prelude of things to come. She trained, watching Ryu and his best friend Ken on TV almost every day, and using duct-tape and elbow grease, constructed her own fighting style heavily based on Ryu's.
It was at this point, when she was 15, where she met a martial artist naed Dan, someone who claimed to be even more powerful then Ryu. The young girl was almost duped by him when she realised he was just a wannabe like her, though he would never admit it. Still, his experience was helpful even though she took everything he said with a grain of salt. Indeed her regimine was still self taught, though if you asked Dan he would say that Sakura is actually his star pupil. Nonetheless, the pair became friends and he helped her come in contact with the world of Street Fighter. No matter how many 'exaggerations' Dan made, there was still undeniable proof that he had fought and actually put up a challenge to her hero, Ryu. Therefore, she was only one degree away from knowing Ryu personally. Or, something like that.
When she was 16, she finally was able to project her energy in the form of Hadoken. Overjoyed, she left her home to travel the world in search of Ryu and to enter a Street Fighter tournament. Unfortunately, the first person she met was Sagat, a rival of Ryu's. He saw her fighting style and assumed her to be a pupil of his, and demanded to know where he was. This was her first real street fight, but Sagat called it off when he realised he had both underestimated her, and realised that he was attempting to beat up a literal child for information and felt bad. So that was a bust for Sakura when he refused to fight no matter how many times she insisted she was okay with getting beat up.
Things escalated from there. She participated in a tournament, and actually beat up some very talented fighters. She even got to get knocked out herself and learned something from it! It really was a dream come true. Sakura was knocked head over heels when she actually met Ken in a tournament and after expressing her appreciation to the two of them (though Ken knew it was mostly Ryu she was after), Ken agreed to help organize a meet up between Ryu and his number one fan.
Unfortunately, the two came across a plot that was in motion. Some evil fascist guy named M. Bison was trying to take over the world and had brainwashed her hero, Ryu. It really was a deeply unsettling sight. Ken and Sakura teamed up to battle M. Bison, and that Sagat guy from earlier probably tailed them to find Ryu and ended up battling the brainwashed hero. They all succeeded, and everyone seemed to be pretty blase that a 16 year old just got into a fight to the death with a genuine super-villain. But in the end, she actually got to meet Ryu himself and it was really enlightening. Moreover he disagreed to help her, because apparently he still had much to learn himself given his defeat at M. Bison's hands. One day, though, they would meet again, both of them being stronger. Ryu agreed to train extra hard if he knew that somewhere out there, Sakura was doing the same.
One year later, Dan, wanting to impress his star student, claimed that he knew where Ryu had gone. They entered a fighting tournament together, but things were confusing. It was during this time that while on a visit back home, Dan's friend Jimmy/Blanka sought him out, but met Sakura first. Eventually the Dan and Jimmy reunited and Jimmy became one of Sakura's best friends.
It was during this tournament that the trio succeeded much in their fights. Sakura even managed to defeat Zangief, a legendary Russian wrestler, though it was a close one. However she learned that being a Street Fighter has a tendency to drag one into conflicts beyond what she expected. She didn't realise it, but she was actually one of the most physically capable people in the entire world at this point. Now, all of the sudden she had some sort of responsibility as a guardian of Earth!? She immediately wanted to back out, but Dan and Blanka expressed their intentions to help fight. Some bad guys named S.I.N and an evil robot were trying to take over the world, and Ryu and Ken were leading the fight to stop them. Even M. Bison was getting involved to fight the evil robot guy named Seth, which proved how bad news it really was. Not wanting to let her friends go in by themselves, and wanting to prove herself to Ryu, she agreed to help.
During the battle, she helped their team push deeper into the compound, and she had to admit it was actually kind of fun punching robots in the face. Things weren't as fun though when they encountered the final battle, and the robot named Seth easily swatted her aside. It was the hardest hit she had ever taken and she was knocked unconscious in a massive explosion. When she woke up, she saw that Ryu had actually protected her, and though was unable to stand she witessed Ryu and Seth's epic battle. Eventually, Ryu emerged victorious. He was a strikingly heroic figure and her admiration for him had never been so strong. They have another chat, and as much as both of them would like to engage in a friendly spar, Sakura's injuries were too great. This time, Ryu promised that he would seek out Sakura again at some point in the future.
There were many conflicting emotions, but Sakura was happy to know that she had something to look forward too after her recovery. Eventually, Ryu did come to her house and he actually taught her a lesson and she earned his respect and it was great and it was everything she had ever wanted, and, and, and, and then he was gone again. Back overseas to embark on some other great adventure. And...now what? Wasn't that it? That everything she had worked towards. Why wasn't she...happy? Was she just supposed to...do what?
For half a year after wards she continued her training, constantly improving, spending time with her family. A little sabatacle from the nonsense that had ensued earlier. But now what? What was she going to do with her life? She had so much more time to spend.
She sitting next to her friend Kei, discussing their futures on a swingset at a nearby park. That was when the light came for her. The last thing she remembers was screaming in surprise as she pushed aside her best friend only for that streak of light to consume her instead.
EX Meter: Dealing and taking damage allows Sakura to channel additional strength, power, and speed into an attack. Redirecting the punishment she recieves and the energy of the strikes she deals out into further, more impressive hits.
Strengths:
Mobile: Sakura is light on her feet. Exceptionally so- able to start and stop her momentum on a dime and run faster then most humans can. She is agile and knows how to fall. With her enhanced human characteristics there are few things that can stop Sakura from zipping around the battlefield and scaling climbable surfaces and falling great heights.
Tough: Despite her civilian appearance, Sakura knows how to get hit. Techniques have hardened her body to be a regular taker of damage. While things can still hurt and kill her, she can deflect sharp blades with her bare arms if she has time to react or predict her opponents moves. Even thrown knives, energy projectiles, and fire arms can be thwarted by the young woman's defensive measures. The fighter can be struck many times before she gets knocked down, and she can take more before she stays down.
Ki: Sakura is a self-taught student of Ki. This grants her access to the aforementioned benefits. It is a mastery over one's body, granting one access to almost supernatural powers- but make no mistake, all of these abilities are drawn from nowhere but within herself. Using this ability, she can jump great distances and keep herself floating in the air. With the right breathing and movements her very energy itself can be projected into the environment and strike enemies as a hard hitting, fast moving projectile. Her fists and legs strike hard and true, with power far beyond a woman her size should be capable of. This is the power of Ki, and it requires balance, focus, and determination.
Weaknesses: Self-Taught: It was an extremely difficult and taxing journey for Sakura to learn Ki, but she still has a long way to go. When distracted or tired her more active abilities can fade, becoming inconsistent and weaker. Even by default, her fireballs have an electric tinge to them that speak to her as of yet untapped potential, but as a result travel with less accuracy and with less range then they should. Short Range: Besides her more focused projection attacks, Sakura struggles to deal with people who can consistently keep her out of her range. Zoners! Honest: This may seem like more of a character trait, but in actually it is a weakness of hers. Sakura is an honest fighter, too honest. Practiced warriors can see that she is predictable and susceptible to mind-games and tricks. In a fight, Sakura is readable. Often, in her attempts to become unpredictable she becomes even more so. It is a frustrating loop, and Sakura is as of yet unable to truly surpass herself. Human: Despite her fantastical abilities, beneath it all Sakura remains an 18 year old high schooler. She is capable of great feats of strength, endurance, durability, and power. But all of these things require focus. Were her consciousness or focus to be greatly disrupted some how, her powers would vanish. If something every disrupted her from channeling her Ki, or if something truly took her by surprise, she would have to respond to it how any athletically built 18 year old girl would. Spirits:
None, for now.
Kindred Spirits:
Kei: Sakura's childhood best friend who ended up helping her during her training, setting up various things. Kei supporting Sakura during her training became a favored hobby of theirs, and the two spent many hours training together. Though Kei isn't much of a fighter herself, she did take pleasure in seeing Sakura improve. Kei is balanced, calm, and wise beyond her years while being introverted. In other words, it's the eight miracle of the world that she ever ended up friends with someone like Sakura. But they are, and it's a bond that will probably last for the rest of their leaves, even if as Sakura grew into a young adult she visited her home town less and less often.
Blanka: A big green guy with zappy powers who somehow ended up in the arcade that Sakura works part time at. The two became fast friends. They have sparred with each other and have helped each other when things got more serious. She calls him his true name, Jimmy. Normally people judge him for his unusual appearance, and it's true that he has quite the temper and in battle can really fight like a wild animal, making him seem unreasonable. But in reality he is kind and gentle-hearted, and it is this part that Sakura respects the most and helps to bring out.
Dan: Jimmy's original best friend who knew him before he became Blanka. Dan is, well, other people see him has arrogant, overconfident, bafoonish, oafish, stupid, egomaniac, failure- well, okay, back up a second. While it's true his Dojo isn't the most popular, and his personality can be...boistrous, Dan is good at heart. He sees himself as a father and mentor figure to Sakura, and has genuinely helped Sakura along in her training. The two of fought alongside each other many times and he is simply a fun person to be around as long as you don't take his 'insults' too seriously. Only people with big, easily bruised egos can be offended by Dan, which is unfortunately a lot of fighters. Still, Sakura knows he gets a bad rep that he doesn't deserve, even if he could really learn to cool it once in a while.
Inventory: Student handbag full of school supplies and an extra pair of gym clothes and fighting equipment. Also, a metal water bottle tucked into the fold at the top. Clink!
For who among us has touched the foundations of this world and deemed them solid?
Name: Jesse Faden Game Origin: CONTROL Appearance:
A very red haired woman in her late twenties. Wears an all black outfit. A leather jacket over a t-shirt for tops, jeans tucked into boots for bottoms. She has fair, almost pale skin, and blue eyes. Calloused hands. She has a strong jaw and striking facial features.
Personality: An awkward and weird young woman who's often caught up in her own head. Being a mostly humorless introvert Jesse is perfectly comfortable in her "own" company. Even though she is never truly alone: Her best friend in the world is an entity in her head that can't even talk. Conventional social interaction isn't exactly her strong suit. Jesse is a woman of action, not words. When she is talking to people, it's usually in the form of questions pertinent to the situation. She's someone who has to pretend to be normal. She's polite, humble, reliable, and steadfast. Doesn't have friends, but she has had very likable co-workers.
Abnormal is Jesse's element. She is relentlessly curious. She constantly asks herself if she wants to know, but the answer is always yes. Or rather, she finds out anyway. Jesse is not driven to explain things, but rather experience them. To know about them and overcome them. Bizarre circumstances are where she feels most at home. It feels sane. Or, the right kind of insane.
Jesse is a practical person accustomed to violence, gore, and otherwordly monsters. While she used to be an insecure person, recent self-actualization has bolstered her with confidence. Though she is still no less awkward or somewhat unnerving to be around. Expressing herself isn't something she does often. Especially since she is thoroughly unperturbed by most things.
Beneath it all, Jesse has a good heart and decent head on her shoulders. She wants to protect those who cannot protect themselves. She is a utilitarian. Both of the moral and parantural kind. In the face of the irrational it is important to act rationally. While she's not necessarily good with people she is a team player. She can rely on others and expect them to rely on her. She can trust people, in a professional sense, and she can grow to like people, too. Honesty is something she admires, as well as being...interesting. People with quirks, like her, and who won't judge her for being so unusual.
Because of traumatic events in her past, Jesse hates being gaslit. When people accuse her of lying or say she didn't see what she thought she saw it really gets under her skin. This and Polaris being attacked are the two things that can get a rise of out of the level-headed Director.
Background:
Jesse Faden first encountered the Parantural with her brother, Dylan, as a child. A mysterious Slide Projector allowed the two of them to open up portals to other dimensions. Due to the misuse of this power, and the discovery of it by other, crueler children, the situation spiralled out of control. In a few days the entire adult population of Ordinary, their home town, had vanished. The only reason Jesse and Dylan survived was due to the intervention of a benevolent being Jesse calls Polaris.
A mysterious organization arrived and covered up the entire thing. Jesse abandoned her brother and fled whilst he was captured. She spent the rest of her life on the run, scraping by an existence under the guidance of Polaris. Nobody believed what Jesse said, her mental health very often falling into question. It was all she could think about, paranoia and guilt gripping her entire existence.
Eventually Polaris found and led Jesse to her brother. He was in the Oldest House, a reality bending place that was the HQ of the Federal Bureau of Control. It was under attack from an inter-dimensional mind virus, or Resonance, known as the Hiss. Jesse found herself inheriting the Service Weapon, a powerful item that marked her as Director of the FBC.
After finding her brother and defeating the Hiss, Jesse embraced her role as Director. Now she has reclaimed control over her life and is fully immersed in that world society tried to convinced her hadn't existed. She wouldn't have it any other way.
A year into being Director, the Dimensional Research deparment picked up the largest anomaly in Bureau history. A Threshold the likes of which had never been seen before. The entirety of the Oldest House was shifted into an unfamiliar place, and the memory of the entire staff of this event, including Jesse's, was wiped. But being prepared for the unexpected, the Bureau could tell something was amiss, concluding their own cognitive functions to have been damaged some how.
Due to incredibly hostile conditions outside the Oldest House, progress and research for the first month was slow. They picked up communications from actual civilization from other communities. That was how the Director first heard about the Seekers. Polaris began to indicate that she should travel south, far south, to meet them. It seemed like whatever bizarre stasis the world had been pulled into, the Seekers were the only things making waves. Being uniquely equipped to deal with the enemy outside, the Director ordered the Bureau to maintain lockdown. Then, she made her escape. She travelled a great distance, first by foot, then by car. The rest of the trip was made easier when she hitched a ride on a helicopter afte reaching a populated city. Now she's searching the Sandswept Sky, hoping to find the answers she's looking for. Wouldn't be the first time she did something like this, and she doubted it would be the last.
Specialty: Generalist Level: 1 Experience: 0/10
Powers:
Health Elements: A protective force shields Jesse from harm. Damage still hurts but it allows her to withold much more than a regular person. When she damages enemies, they drop blue crystals that only Jesse can see. If she picks them up, her health bar is restored.
Strengths:
GUIDING LIGHT: Jesse is linked with a benevolent, otherwordly entity she called Polaris. Polaris cannot communicate with Jesse verbally, however their bond is very close. Polaris can silently indicate things Jesse can see. Polaris posseses great knowledge of space, and often helps Jesse find where she needs to go, no matter the distance. She also can point out safe places or objects of interest for Jesse.
CHOOSE TO BE CHOSEN: Jesse is qualified to be the Director of the Federal Bureau of Control. This implies a certain level of strength and potential. She is immune to most attacks on her psyche and mind, including mind control, hypnosis, fear, etc. A stillness of mind that cannot be broken.
This also means she is a Parautilitarian. Objects of Power can be bent to her will, their abilities transferred onto her. This process is facilitated by the Board, a group of beings living in the Astral Plane.
PRETTY DECENT SHOT: Not as fancy as her other Strengths but just as important in her line of work.
Weaknesses:
Energy: Jesse's powers are somewhat limited by her own Energy. If she expends all of her energy, she has to wait five to ten seconds for it to recharge again. It is not linked to her stamina: Using powers will not exhaust Jesse physically or mentally. Nonetheless Jesse's damage comes in bursts. If she mistimes a use of her power she can be susceptible to reprisal.
Basic Physiology: Beneath her thin layer of Resonance armoring Jesse is a human as fragile as any other person. If the enemy can focus down on her or prevent her mobility and damage from coming through, she is quite vulnerable to damage.
Ranged Only: Besides knowing how to throw a punch, Jesse has no martial arts skill. She wants to keep her enemies out of arms reach.
Spirits: None yet.
Kindred Spirits: None Inventory:
THE SERVICE WEAPON: Every Director's pride and joy. A handgun psychically linked to Jesse. It will improve in power as she re-establishes her bond with it. It's borderline sentient, reacting to Jesse's presence. Only the Director can wield it. If anyone attempts to use this weapon other than Jesse Faden, they will experience severe pyschic damage until they put the gun to their own head and pull the trigger.
The Service Weapon is a long barreled, sleek black hand gun. It is made of smooth black pieces of an unknown mineral. It twitches and shifts, made of many disparate pieces, held together by it's own power. It has infinite ammo, only needing to be recharged if fired too often.
Right now it has been reduced to it's basic form, Grip, a versatile and powerful semi-automatic form. It has high accuracy, good range, and good damage. Able to drop an average human in two-three shots, or a single headshot. It fires as fast as Jesse can pull the trigger, which is actually pretty fast. In Grip, it "holds" 15 rounds. As Jesse levels up, more specialized and unique forms will become available to her once again.
When not being used, the weapon vanishes and exists only in the Astral Plane. She can summon and unsummon it at will.
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