I should note that you're not a god of theatre. You are a god whose power is to drag other people into your kind of theater antics; different things. Basically, a Deceiver goes along their own thing instead of something already existing in the world. That said, yes, Deceivers tend to prefer sublety to outright violence. The name's not for show. But if violence they need, they can be quite capable.
You smile to yourself, slowly. You turn around, almost casually, take the nearest corner at a brisk pace, and walk slowly down the street. The staging must be just right for this. If your instincts are right, they won't immediately attack you. They would probably have done so already if that seemed to be the case, so likely they want to take you alive. This is just speculation on your part, but it doesn't seem all that unlikely. As the group approaches, you hear them spread out in a semi-circle behind you. Some of them call out to you.
"There they are!" "Had enough of running, have ya?" "You will not evade us any longer."
They took the bait. You stop, eyes closed. You bring your right hand up to your face while moving your head slightly to the left, looking over your shoulder without revealing your eyes. It's important to leave an impression - the audience needs a strong first image of a character to become attached to them. Some people call this an 'establishing character moment'. In these circumstances, it's best to call it a hook.
"Pray tell, why is it that you follow me? If I have wronged you in some way, I would wish to know how." If innocence had a sound, your voice would appear to be much like it.
Your pursuers take turns to speak. Internally, you note that they can't possibly be Cammora - they'd go right for the kill without bothering with the niceties if that was the case. Not Anchors, probably, or a Noble would be acting through them. So at worst, miraculously-enhanced servants, possibly with magic.
"Don't play the fool, you know well what you did." "You thief, your greed couldn't simply be satisfied, could it?" "You knew it was wrong, so why'd you do it, eh? I feel sorry for you. You know what the Domina decreed. That play was off-limits." One of them laughs a bit. "So you got played, so what? We are each of us servants of our lords. Sometimes we get lucky. Sometimes we don't. You'd have lived. A bit of embarrassment is nothing compared to actual punishment." At these words, the group seems more serious, reminded of their purpose here.
You say nothing, processing all this. The big picture of things starts to form in front of you. Insatisfaction that couldn't be fulfilled. A deadly play. A Noble of the world. Betrayal, and your choice. Now the purpose of these people seemed clear - they wanted to take you... Take that person that you used to be, alive, back for punishment for whomever you betrayed. But there's still something missing. Even as the suited men and women draw closer, you open your mouth to continue.
"All crimes are relative. You could hardly call what I did something harmful."
Your words appear to sting one of the men, for he rises to your taunt. You can hear restrained anger in his voice. "Oh, indeed. No one was physically at harm except yourself, but leaking that play into public knowledge threw a wrench into our Domina's plans. I heard even the Grim King, who was visiting, had to suddenly retire from his visit. Well, whatever you tried to accomplish with that, it won't take. What's in store for you won't be fast or merciful, you, whatsyourname-"
He pauses. He frowns deeply. Who wouldn't be confused over not being able to remember a name that no longer exists in the world? So there it is - your acts have become at least a bit clearer. And now that you have a wonderful lead-in, you couldn't possibly help but take advantage of it.
"Really?" you say, "Then, tell me, how does one who loves the world seek to change it?" You fully turn around, slowly. You lower your hand from your face.
"What do you mea-" The woman on your furthest right is the first to see your eyes, and when she does, she stops, fear in her eyes. The rest follow fairly quickly.
"What happens when you wish to change the world? Without power, you are at its mercy. If you do not have power, do you try to gain power from the world for your own sake? Or do you pray for a miracle to save you, even if it means surrendering yourself to it?
"In my case, because I love it, I choose to make my own power, to break the world!" You proclaim this, and you know it to be true. For you have power, don't you? What does it include?
[] Plan [Username] 1.0
Allow me to explain. It's probably for the best to get Character Point distribution finished in one go, or it'll be awkwardly split over several votes. To that end, we're doing a 'plan format' vote. For those who don't know, just label your vote as above, "[] Plan [Username] 1.0", and then choose how to spread out Character Points in a spoiler block. Aside from this it's a normal vote.
As a Deceiver PC, you have 15 Character Points (CP) to play around with. Your Second Skin comes free. More on that later.
Attributes
You have a minimum of 0 in the three main Attributes (Aspect, Persona, Treasure), and they all go from 0 to 5. Each point in an Attribute costs 3 CP. So say, giving yourself Persona 5 right off the bat is possible if you decide to blow all your CPs on it, but you won't be able to get anything else.
Gifts
Gifts are miscellaneous miraculous abilities not related to your main attributes. They tend to cover some obvious utility you think might be missing from your character concept. I'm sure you'll want to put at least a few points here, but remember that it's not strictly necessary. I'm only including common options that would make sense for a Deceiver to have.
[] Shapeshifting (2-3 CP) - 1 point of Shapeshifting means you have a single alternate shape - you can, for instance, turn into a wolf or any variation between human and wolf, like werewolves. This option denotes this Gift's upgrades:
2 CP Shapeshifting is 'almost anything' shapeshifting, like for instance, being able to turn into any human shape you can think of.
3 CP Shapeshifting is 'anything' - you could turn into literally anything you can think of, like the sea or the moon or maybe God if you really wanted to, not that you'd know what they look like. Shapeshifting doesn't give any particular power - it just changes what's possible with your shape. You'll still have to do stuff with your own abilities to accomplish stuff.
[] Unblemished Guise (1 CP) - You can hide your miraculous nature, making it possible to seem like you're not an Excrucian to powers like the Sight. Things like blatantly doing miraculous feats or being unable to change how your eyes look can still give you away, though.
[] Glorious (2 CP) - You are capable of generating some incredibly intense emotion in many people - maybe you're fearsome enough to scare away an army, or invoke beauty so much that an Angel might not want to hurt you. With this option, you'll most likely choose something like 'subtle awesomeness' to win people's respect or admiration.
[] Durant (1 CP) - You are physically tough - only severe physical attacks can overcome your defense. You'll heal quickly from such wounds even if you are hurt.
[] Elusive (1 CP) - You're difficult to pin down with enchantments or emotional attacks - even big miracles or whatever get mitigated. Essentially Durant, but for attacks that try to transform or enthrall you.
[] Immutable (1 CP) - You don't need much to survive. You can probably live without eating or drinking for several days without inconvenience. You don't need to breathe for hours, likely. You age slowly. Essentially Durant but for attacks that try to run you out of resources.
[] Immortal (6 CP) - The ultimate defense, the big brother to Durant, Elusive and Immutable put together. You're automatically protected from literally any kind of damage. You'll never age or need to eat or drink unless you want to. Nukes might inconvenience your day. Only the greatest of enchantments will slow you down. The list goes on. This power is for wanting to live life without having to worry about dying, plain and simple. Death is a lie, is it not?
The steep CP cost is the only point against Immortality. Particularly considering you only have 15 to spend, it's a big trade-off and will heavily influence how Thea will play.
It might be possible to shift your CPs at some later point, with some effort, so don't be too nervous about deciding what to choose. I'd personally suggest getting at least 2 levels in Persona, and at least 2-3 CPs worth of Gifts, but you're free to be the weird Deceiver with high-Aspect or only Gifts, if you want. And this is overall a simplification of things, so just ask if you're confused about anything or want clarification on Gifts or whatever.
If it helps, imagine that Thea has the voice of Jun Fukuyama when he's being Lelouch.
This requires some thought. I really like Immortality and Aspect in general, and I'd normally never even consider Shapeshifting, but we are playing someone theatrical.
Basic idea is to simply avoid getting into fights entirely, PLAY as anyone, and anything, drag everything into a maelstrom of theater...and then change masks and bow out while everyone else is still stuck in the final act.
Some level of Aspect is, I feel, necessary to let us enhance our actions in our area of focus. Shapeshifting is useful, sure, but it's really just a prop- it doesn't affect how good we are at our job. That's what Aspect is for. Umblemished Guise lets us infiltrate and deceive better, and Glorious is an excellent tool to our end. Besides, Aspect 2 at the very least would let us use guising to assume a form appropriate to our surroundings- and with Umblemished Guise, that form is Sight proof. Sure we don't have control over what the form is, but that just gives the QM more opportunities to do cool things.
I didn't put any points in treasure because we're fresh into this role, so the I don't think it's necessarily appropriate for us to have the cool gimmicky item yet. We can always steal or quest for one down the road.
^^
The roles you can successfully play, or make the world play however, is greatly limited by your ability to choose your form. We're the Deceiver. The subtle one. Indirect actions are greatly to our advantage, especially if someone else takes the flak while we switch roles freely, and without being detectable.
Yeah, I'd only support a plan with Aspect 2 at minimum. Otherwise there are mortals who are better actors than us, and we pretty much automatically lose to Powers whenever a contest of skill comes up.
[X] Plan SuperThespian
Aspect 3
Shapeshifting 2
Unblemished Guise
Persona 1
Aspect 3 (9 Points)
This makes being Batman (or rather, comicbook peak human) our default skill level at everything from martial arts to accounting, plus "absolute flawlessness" in execution. And it gives us the capacity to go to the ludicrous "infinite power" levels of skill without having to injure ourself.
Shapeshifting (2 Points)
Being able to take any humanoid form is satisfactory for our role as an overly dramatic Deceiver. We can switch archetypes, fulfilling any role possible (and we'll have the skill to make it convincing with Aspect 3).
Unblemished Guise (1 Point)
Being able to hide our nature is a must if we're going to the effort of purchasing Shapeshifting.
Persona 1 (3 Points)
This allows us to perform the basic utility tricks of our pState like enforcing its properties on others, and knowing whether and how others are related to it. Plus we can spend MP to get to the truly dramatic stuff.
Basic idea is to simply avoid getting into fights entirely, PLAY as anyone, and anything, drag everything into a maelstrom of theater...and then change masks and bow out while everyone else is still stuck in the final act.
Indeed, high Aspect could be of great use for an actor. Not necessary, but useful and incredibly flexible. Do remember, however, that you always have the Second Skin - in a sense the ultimate acting ability. It can happen that some powers between your original form and Skin could overlap or be counterproductive. Just something to keep in mind. Also, you two, remember to use the Plan format and put your choices in a spoiler block, so that it's easier to read.
[x] Plan All The World's A Stage Redux (All In Remix)
Persona 4 (12cp)
Shapeshifting (3cp)
The world is our stage, and how could we make such a claim could we not make it so with a wave of our hand? Anyone can throw a punch, but you get to change what that means. And with Shine, you fellow actors have reason to play along- your theatrics will destroy them, yes, but in the meantime their lives will be made better so long as they dance to your baleful tune. And Aspect is fearsome, yes, but we are a breaker of miracles with our Auctoritas Magister. Besides, you can always buy Cool with our remaining skill points, and we still have Bonds and Afflictions to assign.
Shapeshifting gives us the power to fulfill any role and develop any capability; our acting chops can cover holes in real competency- after all, our world is very stagelike, and our production values are frightfully good.
As for why I'm not opting for Glorious or Unblemished Guise- we own the spotlight, and make it our own. Everyone knows we're an actor- the question is what's our play?
I'm sorry I've been keeping radio silence for the past few weeks. Unfortunately, a matter of great urgency sidetracked me from being able to write anything, and will probably keep me like this for another week.
Truthfully, this is the worst situation for this quest. I have a terrible drive; when I lose the momentum of doing something, I tend to space out and become unable to focus. There's a good chance that if I declare a hiatus, we'll never restart. And looking back, my pacing has been abysmal. It might be for the best to just end this for all intents and purposes. I hate to do this, and moreso when we're just getting to some actual action, but it's best to do this outright instead of letting it slowly die without a word from me. Sorry.
If I start another Nobilis or Chuubo's quest at some later point, it shall be with more careful deliberation and a faster pace.
