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The Affairs of Ladies: Interdimensional Magical Girl Service [Closed]

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i have to adapt her to he new format and the new background, but here is Phoenix Knight

Name: Asakura Aurora, nee Aurora LaSalle De Montfort. /Former Magical Girl Name: Crimson Crusader Phoenix Aurora. / Current Designtion : Phoenix Knight

Description


A 16 to 17 year old willowy and athletic pale-skinned Eurasian young lady , leggy and relatively small-breasted. Her dark reddish hair is long and braided, and she has reddish brown eyes under arched eyebrows. She has graceful and quick movements, and her voice is sonorous and deeper than expected. She prefers reds and whites in her clothesas a phoenix 'tattoo'in brilliant colors between her breasts.

Her personality is best summarised as 'a somewhat cracked idealist, full of desperate hope, holding to her ideals in the face of all adversity. '...

While by now Aurora is very, very aware of the fact that heroes die, good intent is not enough, happy endings are not guaranteed and betrayal happens ( and she can snark about it with the most cynical ).... In the end she doggedly and with great zeal pursues her ideals of honor, duty and compassion.
Something as gauche as "Hero of Justice" would never pass her lips, that is what she aspires to with all the passion and burning zeal she has.

In her interactions with others she comes across as a friendly, helpful person... who can and does explode into hot, burning anger at injustice and cruelty.
Bitter (and not so bitter) laughter staves of the tears, she has found, and does act on that when needed.
She is not one to easily compromise her ideals, and is militant in defending them.

Aurora is also quite willing to cooperate with others, but heaven help traitors. Especially after the power gem fiasco...

In school, in her homeworld, she wais neither a star pupil nor a slouch, excelling in social sciences, language studies and P.E.
She wass in the fencing club... vice president, actually.

She misses her little cousin Sakura (''best kohai ever'') and her nerdy best friend Momoko badly.
On the other hand, if she never sees her baka cousin again, it will be one time too much...

Bio:
Born to a mixed Eurasian couple (her father was Alexandre Henri Lasalle de Montfort, a French medical doctor and relief worker, her mother Asakura Hinako, a Japanese multilingual translator), Aurora grew up partially on the road and partially in the Lorraine home of her father (actually better described as an estate) .
The couple had always had problems with her maternal family (her fathers branch of the Montforts being near extinct), but other than that... well, she had a happy early childhood.
Her father was a great fan of chivaleric romance and she grew up with the legends of Roland, King Arthur, Godefroy de Bouillion and Bayard... with the chivaleric ideal.. and the burning wish to be like the knights of old.
Quite unlike the damsels in the tales.
Perhaps the illness her mother contracted during charity work in a third world country made her identify more with male role-models like her active and vigorous father. Not with her ailing and three years hospitalized mother. Who knows?

After her mother died, her formidable Grandmother managed to pressure her father over the course of three years to give her over to the rest of the Asakura Clan, where she has lived for almost four years now. She had remained close to her father, managing to write and mail him constantly...
Until he died this spring, when a clinic he worked in got taken by the Taliban and then forcibly retaken by Coalition forces...

This made her jump at the chance a magic creature calling itself a Tsukaime and appearing in the shape of a speaking white cat going by the name of Yuki explained to her that she was special, born with the potential to wield magic power , which if she used it to fight forces of destruction called the yoma, could be used to eventually, after thirteen magic gem heartstones of Yoma were gathered, could be used to make a Wish .Any wish.
It would not have taken an ulterior motive like that, truth to be told, but that sealed the deal, made her accept it immediatly and set her on the adventurous path of a modern magical Knight-errant.

It also was a weave of half-truths, evasions and omission with betrayal plotted from the start.

The Tsukaime (read :local Incubator variants, Fay creatures ) were basically doing the Meguca thing, awakening magical powers and using the girls sheer existence as a catalyst to sort of mine magical energy from the Earth (the gems) with the Yoma being a kind of antibodies of the ley line network blindly lashing out.

While the wish was real enough, it would have been moot because the Tsukaime were going to use the same power to unlock Earths ley lines.... which would have had devastating consequences, up to resetting/destroying the entire universe.

Due to a unforseen series of events partially caused by her "'evil 'twin cousin " Sadako, who had become a Dark Magical Girl Calling herself Lady Moon, she liberated an ''phoenix egg'' from a ceazy magican and collector.The hatched lesser phoenix which became a pet, Aria, hailed from an earlier world fallen to the Tsukaime and told her of them as soon as it started to remember...

Our Heroine was having none of it.

She managed to use her power to stop the Tsukaime (and restore her parents?) , but would have killed herself in the process... had not the Miracle Wings stepped in when she lay dying and taken her aboard of the Arbalest, where their technomagic was able to save her and restore most of her magic.
She was still a bit wary, but being an incurable optimist despite all.... agreed to join the war.

Especially since she suspects that her near death, like those of other Mahou Shoujo, triggered a mind magic wiping all trace of her from the mind of mundanes...
  1. Traits [ with sincere thanks to @UbeOne ] :

    5d- "The Flames of the phoenix empower me"

    Her main magic trait, which is based around flames, the phoenix imagery and healing/restoration magic with a fiery look to it.
    Includes flight, fire immunity, the speech of birds.. can be used by concentration, but attack phrases , especially if sung, do help.
    Either as a summon or a familliar, this includes Aria the lesser phoenix..

    4d -''A modern Knight errant"

    Aurora is versed in the practice and theory of the knights of old- a swordfighter, a rider, courteous and elegant as befits a daughter of two noble lines.
    She also knows some relevant modern skills, like motorbiking...
    This and the fact that following her mothers tragic illness she has become quite a health nut (no experimenting with drugs, healthy diet, regular exercise and only alcohol being vine at mealtimes) has done wonders for her physical fitness.
    She also can summon magical girl armor and of course her magic sword....

    FLAMBERGE

    An absurdly large sword with a golden heft, a ruby-red pommel and wavy blade.
    Just how absurdly large it can get depends... it seems to slowly shift from "just a big longsword '' over "full two-handed" to " Possible in a Manga-only stupid WTF uberblade" according to Aurora's needs.
    In any form, she is perfectly at ease wielding it.

    4d "My voice will resound from Heaven and be heard on Earth"

    "Simply said, Auora has a marvelous voice that can be used and is trained for many purposes.
    Both its volumen and beauty is nearing enchanted levels and she can indeed use it to soothe or enrage like a bard....
    Needless to say that she is well versed in quite a number of song styles from different genres and cultures- and that her early experience abroad and the Example of her mother has made her polyglot in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, Swahili, and of coure French and Japanese

    1d Flaw "The binding Code of Knightnood"

    Yes , Aurora holds herself as close to the knightly code as she can. She is not willing to let go of her ideals for personal gain or ease.
 
Last edited:
Sailor Midgard said:
i have to adapt her to he new format and the new background, but here is Phoenix Knight

Name: Asakura Aurora, nee Aurora LaSalle De Montfort. /Former Magical Girl Name: Crimson Crusader Phoenix Aurora. / Current Designtion : Phoenix Knight

Description


A 16 to 17 year old willowy and athletic pale-skinned Eurasian young lady , leggy and relatively small-breasted. Her dark reddish hair is long and braided, and she has reddish brown eyes under arched eyebrows. She has graceful and quick movements, and her voice is sonorous and deeper than expected. She prefers reds and whites in her clothesas a phoenix 'tattoo'in brilliant colors between her breasts.

Her personality is best summarised as 'a somewhat cracked idealist, full of desperate hope, holding to her ideals in the face of all adversity. '...

While by now Aurora is very, very aware of the fact that heroes die, good intent is not enough, happy endings are not guaranteed and betrayal happens ( and she can snark about it with the most cynical ).... In the end she doggedly and with great zeal pursues her ideals of honor, duty and compassion.
Something as gauche as "Hero of Justice" would never pass her lips, that is what she aspires to with all the passion and burning zeal she has.

In her interactions with others she comes across as a friendly, helpful person... who can and does explode into hot, burning anger at injustice and cruelty.
Bitter (and not so bitter) laughter staves of the tears, she has found, and does act on that when needed.
She is not one to easily compromise her ideals, and is militant in defending them.

Aurora is also quite willing to cooperate with others, but heaven help traitors. Especially after the power gem fiasco...

In school, in her homeworld, she wais neither a star pupil nor a slouch, excelling in social sciences, language studies and P.E.
She wass in the fencing club... vice president, actually.

She misses her little cousin Sakura (''best kohai ever'') and her nerdy best friend Momoko badly.
On the other hand, if she never sees her baka cousin again, it will be one time too much...

Bio:
Born to a mixed Eurasian couple (her father was Alexandre Henri Lasalle de Montfort, a French medical doctor and relief worker, her mother Asakura Hinako, a Japanese multilingual translator), Aurora grew up partially on the road and partially in the Lorraine home of her father (actually better described as an estate) .
The couple had always had problems with her maternal family (her fathers branch of the Montforts being near extinct), but other than that... well, she had a happy early childhood.
Her father was a great fan of chivaleric romance and she grew up with the legends of Roland, King Arthur, Godefroy de Bouillion and Bayard... with the chivaleric ideal.. and the burning wish to be like the knights of old.
Quite unlike the damsels in the tales.
Perhaps the illness her mother contracted during charity work in a third world country made her identify more with male role-models like her active and vigorous father. Not with her ailing and three years hospitalized mother. Who knows?

After her mother died, her formidable Grandmother managed to pressure her father over the course of three years to give her over to the rest of the Asakura Clan, where she has lived for almost four years now. She had remained close to her father, managing to write and mail him constantly...
Until he died this spring, when a clinic he worked in got taken by the Taliban and then forcibly retaken by Coalition forces...

This made her jump at the chance a magic creature calling itself a Tsukaime and appearing in the shape of a speaking white cat going by the name of Yuki explained to her that she was special, born with the potential to wield magic power , which if she used it to fight forces of destruction called the yoma, could be used to eventually, after thirteen magic gem heartstones of Yoma were gathered, could be used to make a Wish .Any wish.
It would not have taken an ulterior motive like that, truth to be told, but that sealed the deal, made her accept it immediatly and set her on the adventurous path of a modern magical Knight-errant.

It also was a weave of half-truths, evasions and omission with betrayal plotted from the start.

The Tsukaime (read :local Incubator variants, Fay creatures ) were basically doing the Meguca thing, awakening magical powers and using the girls sheer existence as a catalyst to sort of mine magical energy from the Earth (the gems) with the Yoma being a kind of antibodies of the ley line network blindly lashing out.

While the wish was real enough, it would have been moot because the Tsukaime were going to use the same power to unlock Earths ley lines.... which would have had devastating consequences, up to resetting/destroying the entire universe.

Due to a unforseen series of events partially caused by her "'evil 'twin cousin " Sadako, who had become a Dark Magical Girl Calling herself Lady Moon, she liberated an ''phoenix egg'' from a ceazy magican and collector.The hatched lesser phoenix which became a pet, Aria, hailed from an earlier world fallen to the Tsukaime and told her of them as soon as it started to remember...

Our Heroine was having none of it.

She managed to use her power to stop the Tsukaime (and restore her parents?) , but would have killed herself in the process... had not the Miracle Wings stepped in when she lay dying and taken her aboard of the Arbalest, where their technomagic was able to save her and restore most of her magic.
She was still a bit wary, but being an incurable optimist despite all.... agreed to join the war.

Especially since she suspects that her near death, like those of other Mahou Shoujo, triggered a mind magic wiping all trace of her from the mind of mundanes...
  1. Traits [ with sincere thanks to @UbeOne ] :

    5d- "The Flames of the phoenix empower me"

    Her main magic trait, which is based around flames, the phoenix imagery and healing/restoration magic with a fiery look to it.
    Includes flight, fire immunity, the speech of birds.. can be used by concentration, but attack phrases , especially if sung, do help.
    Either as a summon or a familliar, this includes Aria the lesser phoenix..

    4d -''A modern Knight errant"

    Aurora is versed in the practice and theory of the knights of old- a swordfighter, a rider, courteous and elegant as befits a daughter of two noble lines.
    She also knows some relevant modern skills, like motorbiking...
    This and the fact that following her mothers tragic illness she has become quite a health nut (no experimenting with drugs, healthy diet, regular exercise and only alcohol being vine at mealtimes) has done wonders for her physical fitness.
    She also can summon magical girl armor and of course her magic sword....

    FLAMBERGE

    An absurdly large sword with a golden heft, a ruby-red pommel and wavy blade.
    Just how absurdly large it can get depends... it seems to slowly shift from "just a big longsword '' over "full two-handed" to " Possible in a Manga-only stupid WTF uberblade" according to Aurora's needs.
    In any form, she is perfectly at ease wielding it.

    4d "My voice will resound from Heaven and be heard on Earth"

    "Simply said, Auora has a marvelous voice that can be used and is trained for many purposes.
    Both its volumen and beauty is nearing enchanted levels and she can indeed use it to soothe or enrage like a bard....
    Needless to say that she is well versed in quite a number of song styles from different genres and cultures- and that her early experience abroad and the Example of her mother has made her polyglot in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, Swahili, and of coure French and Japanese

    1d Flaw "The binding Code of Knightnood"

    Yes , Aurora holds herself as close to the knightly code as she can. She is not willing to let go of her ideals for personal gain or ease.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Your traits don't have the numbers, and you need edges. Did you use the character sheet to make this?
 
I believe the idea was to have a WIP posted, though I'd honestly have understood if you needed some time to get things together first before posting. I wouldn't have jumped down anyone's throat about any claims or whatever.

Now, since we have a very healthy group now, I was going to offer to turn my normal opener on its head when it comes to the IC thread, when I do it, which will be when everyone's sheets are ready. Then I'll be willing to accept them and we can get underway.

To give you some advance notice in case you wanted a little time to work on this, my idea was to tell you that our story will properly begin with each of you getting a feel for how rolling under this system should work by each being threatend in some way with a quick, maybe five successes each sort of problem. If you're struggling to figure out how the Benefactors may have some connections to your own threats, this may be a nice place to build that beef.
 
Given the other characters I'd almost say I'm getting the same vibe as, I dunno...Sailor Moon. Like, we're primed to have our dramatic moments, but at the end of the day our characters are gonna screw around like a group of girls with colorful personalities are wont to do, saving the day because we're the only ones who can.
 
Hoshino Yumemi said:
Given the other characters I'd almost say I'm getting the same vibe as, I dunno...Sailor Moon. Like, we're primed to have our dramatic moments, but at the end of the day our characters are gonna screw around like a group of girls with colorful personalities are wont to do, saving the day because we're the only ones who can.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Which is fine with me. Now, I am going to have to think of edges appropriate to the already formed character. Help appreciated.
@Hoshino, can I use the backstory and sort of insert the kinghtly group for the Acherans? Or do I better do a semi tragic Sailor moon reset?
 
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Our Heroes: Shizukane Tsunako, Atta Girl
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    • Name (last name first): Shizukane Tsunako (Atta Girl)

    Picture the most back of back alleys you can possibly imagine.

    Darken its shade in your mind - not merely its colors but also its shadows. Magnify its absence of light until only the parts of yourself that you're disgusted with can begin to see. Give it a brick wall so imposing you'd have to travel to China to meet its match. Drown that wall in vicious, violent graffiti, the same way you'd drown a bumblebee in a teaspoon of honey. Pile it high with trash, debris, and suspicion. Make this place you're making in your mind the dark alley you wouldn't want to meet anyone in.

    Now put a perfectly ordinary Japanese high-school student in the middle of that alleyway, as calm and collected as you please.

    A girl. A black-haired girl, maybe about fifteen or sixteen years old. She's slouching slighty, but if she applied her spine she'd likely top out at 5'5", maximum. She's dressed up her generation nicely: a light blue beanie, rectangular reading spectacles, a white tank top with a starry design, skintight black shorts, black and white sneakers, and a light pink fanny pack slung to her hip. There's a very soft smile on her lips, and you feel like maybe there's rarely anything but. She's holding something in each hand - in her left, it's a can. A can of apple juice, opened, and you sense it's about half-full. In her right hand, the girl is holding a leash - a thin red thing. And the leash isn't on the ground, it's instead floating in the air, stetching nearly taut, connecting to a red, ancient, jagged rune floating in the middle of the air ...and then flowing out of another red rune just like it.

    But it's not the only thing coming out of this rune.

    There's this horrible, nightmarish monster about half-emerged from the other red rune, growling softly, eyes glowing somehow black even in this splotch of nightmare you've stumbled into. Only its upper half is visible - if, indeed, it even has a lower half - but what can be seen is already taller than most men It's a red thing, like somebody painted a steam engine crimson and then took a knife to it before grafting whatever metal was left over to a demon they'd bound. Its fangs are like impossibly long needles. Its fists are the size of a car's tires. Its eyes are hungry and vicious.

    The other end of the leash is connected to its neck.

    And whatever this demon is, it is also holding a can of apple juice in its left hand.
    Let's get something straight, right off the bat.

    Shizukane Tsunako is NOT a magical girl.

    That would be her older sister - Yuki - that you're thinking of. You know, the world famous Icicle Medley? Idol sensation, part-time savior of galaxies, Snowman-creating champ of the universe three years running? The bubbly member of the world(s) famous Magicka Quartet. That's the one. She's a magical girl! Transformation sequence, love and friendship, yuri undertones and everything!

    Or! Alternatively. You might have been thinking of her mother, Aegis. It's not likely though, since mom - magical though she might have been - wasn't exactly super-famous.

    Also, she's dead now.

    It was ... a rough battle. Considering her late-stage pregnancy, she shouldn't have even been a part of it, but the forces of evil and darkness didn't tend to leave much choice in the matter. But she fought valiantly, and protected every innocent person on that battlefield, despite her condition and her injuries. Excruciating injuries - the kind that even magic can't help recover from. A slash that cut down to her very soul.

    She held on long enough to hold her just-born child - to give Tsunako a name and tell her that she loved her - before she fell into the endless night.

    Their father loved both his children very much, and did his best to raise the girls, even as a single dad. And for the most part, he succeeded. Though always busy with work, he always made time for dinner each evening, and to come and see the girls at their various special occasions whenever, say, the school put on a play. He wasn't the best cook, but he made sure to get better. He listened to his daughters' problems, no matter how big or small, and did his best to teach them the best ways that they, themselves, could solve them. And if you look at footage of any of the Magicka Quartet's concerts taking place in Japan, you're likely to see a nearly bald salaryman in the front row, smiling, screaming his heart out, and wearing a homemade t-shirt that reads That's My Girl.

    And he never played favorites, either. Even though his first daughter showed signs of her mothers' magic and his second daughter never did (and magic is purely a matter of genetics, in this world), he never drew closer to the first, nor shunned her, for being more like her mother. Even though his second daughter could sometimes seem emotionless, and even cruel, as she made her way through puberty, he never loved her less. And he never made either of the girls feel guilty about anything - not his financial difficulties, nor their mother's death, and certainly not their existence.

    Tsunako never felt guilty about her mom. She never resented her sister. She never harbored hatred for her father in her heart.

    What she felt bad about was that sometimes, when she woke up in the middle of the night and went to get a glass of water, if she stopped by her dad's room, she could hear him gently crying over her mother.

    What she felt bad about was that sometimes, her sister would come home, and the bleeding would keep going into her secret identity, and she would go up to her room and lock her door and scream her universe-spanning heart out.

    What she felt bad about was that sometimes, she didn't have any idea what she was supposed to do.

    Like the night the Benefactors came.

    Not in person. That would have been insurmountable, she would later be given to understand. But some of their most powerful and cruel henchmen, evil things from beyond the boundaries of the world - monsters. Waling blotches of darkness and crystal and blackened blood.

    They were targeting her house specifically, and the Magicka Quartet was barely holding them at a stalemate. And that would have been bad enough - the wind, the pain, the debris of what their life once was swirling around them like pieces of a broken mental state. All that was bad enough, but it got so much worse.

    They took her dad for themselves. They sank into his mind and made him like them - obsidian, cruel, and beyond mere strength.

    Tsunako had no idea what she was supposed to do.

    But maybe her mother would have. Dad was always tight-lipped about their past, to the point that there was a room in their house that no one, not even he, ever entered. If there was any place their mother would have kept anything - anyplace that would give answers as to what these creatures were looking for - anyplace that might have a way out -

    It was surprisingly easy to pick the lock. Tsunako would wonder, after everything was over, if maybe the whole point was that she was always supposed to try on her own.

    What happened in that room was a long, strange, and eerie story, that took maybe all of two minutes from beginning to revelation to twist ending. Its details are maybe best kept in that room, not because they are too frightening, but simply because they are too private. The room was a family matter, one might say.

    Suffice to say that magic is a matter of genetics, but ritual is not, possibly because ritual requires sacrifice. Blood, work, soul, cash, dignity, or status. Something worth giving up.

    Tsunako chose to give up everything. She would invite something into herself. Something dark, but not the same dark as the evil outside her door. Something cruel and oft emotionless - something that had been inside of her all along.

    Drawing the rune on the ground with her own blood, she summoned her own personal demon.

    And the next step of the ritual was supposed to go like, "You offer up your own body and soul in service to your darkest self" or somesuch that basically meant that Shizukane Tsunako was about to be replaced with an actual demon which would inhabit her flesh, but ...

    "You wanna just sit and chill for a bit? I've got snacks."

    ...five minutes. Five minutes and two cans of soda, and she'd made a new friend.

    Together, Tsunako and Suriyorimasu tore havoc into the battlefield, she shouting commands and he following without fail or misinterpretation. He could appear anywhere, or punch multiple places at once, or cause his entire being to grow to an enormous size - and he was strong, and fast, and powerful besides.

    He turned the tide between the monsters and her sisters' clique, and she stood nearby, watching the battle, and spoke to her father.

    It was a dumb idea. Not once in the history of their entire world had the darkness been driven out from someone without magical interference. People infected by the shadow were the worst versions of themselves possible, given superpowers and a reason to hate. The more they loved you before, the more they would hate you as the inverse of themselves.

    "...can you forgive me for not always being the best daughter?"

    It took eight minutes for Tsunako's words to drive the darkness from her father's mind.

    Eventually, the battle was won, certain rooms of their house destroyed but their family more intact than ever - with an additional, red-skinned, monstrous new mouth to feed, to boot - and the Shizukane household celebrated long into the night. Once the darkness was driven from a soul's mind, it could never come near again, so at this point the only thing left ... were the insurance claims.

    These days, Shizukane Tsunako and her ... pet?... Suriyorimasu are a common enough sight around their hometown that people are pretty much used to them. In some ways, this new setup is less scary than what used to be. Tsunako's a lot more mellow, now that her demons aren't within her and she's got a good leash on them. Literally. Plus the delinquency level in the area's sure gone down with the two of them making sure everything's safe - and the little kids seem to love Suriyorimasu, for some reason.

    As for fighting the forces of evil - the two mostly leave the protection of their own personal world, galaxy, universe, to Tsunako's sister and her friends, tackling small incidents as they come across them and occasionally lending an extra pair of hands whenever they're needed. They're not running away from the fighting, by any means, but they're more interested in what they found, are finding, and will continue to find as they research further and further into Aegis, her past, what she knew, and why that made her a target.

    The Benefactors.

    These, apparently, are the people they really need to "talk" to.

    ...but hey. Multiversal threats are big and bad and wolfy and all, but they can't be all you think about or you'll go insane. Howzabout we all go get a snow cone? Tsunako's treat.
    Suriyorimasu (9): As the representation of both Tsunako's personal demons and her newfound control of them, this Stand-looking train of a creature is very powerful and very versatile. Though beholden to time like most everything else, he seems almost unbound to space, able to increase in size, throw multiple punches from multiple directions at once, move faster than the eye can perceive, and create runes to disappear in and out of to extend his range. He can even act autonomously (though not intelligently) for Tsunako's benefit if she happens to be unconscious, mind-controlled, slow to react, or otherwise indisposed. His only limit seems to be that he cannot remove himself from the leash Tsunako carries, which is a paltry six or seven feet long, and can only extend his range maybe another four or five by using a rune.

    A Silver Tongue, a Golden Heart (9): There's a promise of peace in Shizukane Tsunako's manner - as though one is watching a man meditate beneath a waterfall. There are many pastors, preachers, monks and teachers, scattered across the world, but there are so few people who seem to have truly lived through what they are saying, that have truly found peace, that ... you can't help but stop and listen for a while. Tsunako can't convince everyone of everything, but she is adept at understand the person she is talking to, and perhaps just as adept at helping them understand themselves. If there is a way for the person she stands across from to find some measure of peace, then it is almost guaranteed that the girl at the end of the demon's leash can help them find it.

    Blisteringly Ordinary, Brilliantly Odd (6): So mellow and casual, despite (almost) any situation. Possibly her least complicated ability; Tsunako is simply ... good at making friends. Whereas most people might start talking to someone else on neutral terms, it happens a little more frequently than it should that the people Tsunako talks to start off with a positive - if slightly bemused - attitude towards her.

    Aim for the Glowing Red Eyeball, I Think (7): An ability honed by necessity through standing on the close sidelines of various battles and telling a proxy what they need to do - and also by years of playing action RPGs - Tsunako is becoming something of an expert at spotting enemy weaknesses, ammo caches, range limits, tricks and traps, and other assorted bits and bobs that make up what one might collectively call "the current tactical situation". It's a knack.

    Rocks, then Pebbles, then Water (5): No matter how much world-saving she has to do, Tsunako always manages to finish her homework on time. It simply isn't fair.

    I am Definitely NOT a Magical Girl (1): Magical girls are more durable than your average continent, at most baselines. Tsunako is not only not a magical girl, but a below-average human when it comes to durability. Her own personal pet abomination might make it difficult for most things (magical or otherwise) to even think about harming her, but if something does manage it, it manages it very well.
    That's My Bag: Tricks --- The fanny pack at Tsunako's side is a recent addition to her fashion sense, but also a very important one. Besides being, of course, able to hold objects that she's prepared ahead of time or picks up along the way, it can also hold onto several objects that she's never explicitly been stated to be carrying. By spending an Edge, Tsunako can pull from her fanny pack any nonspecialized mundane (read: nonmagical) object that might realistically fit in a fanny pack that would be helpful in the current situation. (e.g., a spare mouse or empty USB drive, or a lighter and a rag, or a thermometer, or smoke pellets, or etc. etc. etc.)

    Don't Tell Me you Forgot About Me! --- Though not typically a direct combatant, Tsunako is not unafraid to take advantage of openings her friend creates for her - and the people she's fighting never see it coming. If Tsunako or Suriyorimasu roll an equal number of successes on their Yang dice as their opponent rolls on their Yin dice, the other of the pair may spend an Edge in order to treat the attack as though it was successful. This use of Edge causes the attack to ignore any armor or resistances.

    Chillax with Me for a Second --- She's ... a convincing girl. And harmless, right? By spending one Edge per entity (or, in certain cases, per group of like-minded people) who would not normally be open to diplomacy, Tsunako can cause that person or that group to become open to diplomacy. She does not automatically succeed at these diplomatic talks; she only causes diplomatic talks to happen.

    ??? --- [REDACTED]

    Chi: 3
    Current Edge Score: 0
    Edge Cap: 5
    Coolness: heckin' radical, dude
     
    Last edited:
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    • AProcrastinator said:
    Name (last name first): Shizukane Tsunako (Atta Girl)

    Picture the most back of back alleys you can possibly imagine.

    Darken its shade in your mind - not merely its colors but also its shadows. Magnify its absence of light until only the parts of yourself that you're disgusted with can begin to see. Give it a brick wall so imposing you'd have to travel to China to meet its match. Drown that wall in vicious, violent graffiti, the same way you'd drown a bumblebee in a teaspoon of honey. Pile it high with trash, debris, and suspicion. Make this place you're making in your mind the dark alley you wouldn't want to meet anyone in.

    Now put a perfectly ordinary Japanese high-school student in the middle of that alleyway, as calm and collected as you please.

    A girl. A black-haired girl, maybe about fifteen or sixteen years old. She's slouching slighty, but if she applied her spine she'd likely top out at 5'5", maximum. She's dressed up her generation nicely: a light blue beanie, rectangular reading spectacles, a white tank top with a starry design, skintight black shorts, black and white sneakers, and a light pink fanny pack slung to her hip. There's a very soft smile on her lips, and you feel like maybe there's rarely anything but. She's holding something in each hand - in her left, it's a can. A can of apple juice, opened, and you sense it's about half-full. In her right hand, the girl is holding a leash - a thin red thing. And the leash isn't on the ground, it's instead floating in the air, stetching nearly taut, connecting to a red, ancient, jagged rune floating in the middle of the air ...and then flowing out of another red rune just like it.

    But it's not the only thing coming out of this rune.

    There's this horrible, nightmarish monster about half-emerged from the other red rune, growling softly, eyes glowing somehow black even in this splotch of nightmare you've stumbled into. Only its upper half is visible - if, indeed, it even has a lower half - but what can be seen is already taller than most men It's a red thing, like somebody painted a steam engine crimson and then took a knife to it before grafting whatever metal was left over to a demon they'd bound. Its fangs are like impossibly long needles. Its fists are the size of a car's tires. Its eyes are hungry and vicious.

    The other end of the leash is connected to its neck.

    And whatever this demon is, it is also holding a can of apple juice in its left hand.
    Let's get something straight, right off the bat.

    Shizukane Tsunako is NOT a magical girl.

    That would be her older sister - Yuki - that you're thinking of. You know, the world famous Icicle Medley? Idol sensation, part-time savior of galaxies, Snowman-creating champ of the universe three years running? The bubbly member of the world(s) famous Magicka Quartet. That's the one. She's a magical girl! Transformation sequence, love and friendship, yuri undertones and everything!

    Or! Alternatively. You might have been thinking of her mother, Aegis. It's not likely though, since mom - magical though she might have been - wasn't exactly super-famous.

    Also, she's dead now.

    It was ... a rough battle. Considering her late-stage pregnancy, she shouldn't have even been a part of it, but the forces of evil and darkness didn't tend to leave much choice in the matter. But she fought valiantly, and protected every innocent person on that battlefield, despite her condition and her injuries. Excruciating injuries - the kind that even magic can't help recover from. A slash that cut down to her very soul.

    She held on long enough to hold her just-born child - to give Tsunako a name and tell her that she loved her - before she fell into the endless night.

    Their father loved both his children very much, and did his best to raise the girls, even as a single dad. And for the most part, he succeeded. Though always busy with work, he always made time for dinner each evening, and to come and see the girls at their various special occasions whenever, say, the school put on a play. He wasn't the best cook, but he made sure to get better. He listened to his daughters' problems, no matter how big or small, and did his best to teach them the best ways that they, themselves, could solve them. And if you look at footage of any of the Magicka Quartet's concerts taking place in Japan, you're likely to see a nearly bald salaryman in the front row, smiling, screaming his heart out, and wearing a homemade t-shirt that reads That's My Girl.

    And he never played favorites, either. Even though his first daughter showed signs of her mothers' magic and his second daughter never did (and magic is purely a matter of genetics, in this world), he never drew closer to the first, nor shunned her, for being more like her mother. Even though his second daughter could sometimes seem emotionless, and even cruel, as she made her way through puberty, he never loved her less. And he never made either of the girls feel guilty about anything - not his financial difficulties, nor their mother's death, and certainly not their existence.

    Tsunako never felt guilty about her mom. She never resented her sister. She never harbored hatred for her father in her heart.

    What she felt bad about was that sometimes, when she woke up in the middle of the night and went to get a glass of water, if she stopped by her dad's room, she could hear him gently crying over her mother.

    What she felt bad about was that sometimes, her sister would come home, and the bleeding would keep going into her secret identity, and she would go up to her room and lock her door and scream her universe-spanning heart out.

    What she felt bad about was that sometimes, she didn't have any idea what she was supposed to do.

    Like the night the Benefactors came.

    Not in person. That would have been insurmountable, she would later be given to understand. But some of their most powerful and cruel henchmen, evil things from beyond the boundaries of the world - monsters. Waling blotches of darkness and crystal and blackened blood.

    They were targeting her house specifically, and the Magicka Quartet was barely holding them at a stalemate. And that would have been bad enough - the wind, the pain, the debris of what their life once was swirling around them like pieces of a broken mental state. All that was bad enough, but it got so much worse.

    They took her dad for themselves. They sank into his mind and made him like them - obsidian, cruel, and beyond mere strength.

    Tsunako had no idea what she was supposed to do.

    But maybe her mother would have. Dad would always tight-lipped about their past, to the point that there were a room in their house that no one, not even he, ever entered. If there was any place their mother would have kept anything - anyplace that would give answers as to what these creatures were looking for - anyplace that might have a way out -

    It was surprisingly easy to pick the lock. Tsunako would wonder, after everything was over, if maybe the whole point was that she was always supposed to try on her own.

    What happened in that room was a long, strange, and eerie story, that took maybe all of two minutes from beginning to revelation to twist ending. Its details are maybe best kept in that room, not because they are too frightening, but simply because they are too private. The room was a family matter, one might say.

    Suffice to say that magic is a matter of genetics, but ritual is not, possibly because ritual requires sacrifice. Blood, work, soul, cash, dignity, or status. Something worth giving up.

    Tsunako chose to give up everything. She would invite something into herself. Something dark, but not the same dark as the evil outside her door. Something cruel and oft emotionless - something that had been inside of her all along.

    Drawing the rune on the ground with her own blood, she summoned her own personal demon.

    And the next step of the ritual was supposed to go like, "You offer up your own body and soul in service to your darkest self" or somesuch that basically meant that Shizukane Tsunako was about to be replaced with an actual demon which would inhabit her flesh, but ...

    "You wanna just sit and chill for a bit? I've got snacks."

    ...five minutes. Five minutes and two cans of soda, and she'd made a new friend.

    Together, Tsunako and Suriyorimasu tore havoc into the battlefield, she shouting commands and he following without fail or misinterpretation. He could appear anywhere, or punch multiple places at once, or cause his entire being to grow to an enormous size - and he was strong, and fast, and powerful besides.

    He turned the tide between the monsters and her sisters' clique, and she stood nearby, watching the battle, and spoke to her father.

    It was a dumb idea. Not once in the history of their entire world had the darkness been driven out from someone without magical interference. People infected by the shadow were the worst versions of themselves possible, given superpowers and a reason to hate. The more they loved you before, the more they would hate you as the inverse of themselves.

    "...can you forgive me for not always being the best daughter?"

    It took eight minutes for Tsunako's words to drive the darkness from her father's mind.

    Eventually, the battle was won, certain rooms of their house destroyed but their family more intact than ever - with an additional, red-skinned, monstrous new mouth to feed, to boot - and the Shizukane household celebrated long into the night. Once the darkness was driven from a soul's mind, it could never come near again, so at this point the only thing left ... were the insurance claims.

    These days, Shizukane Tsunako and her ... pet?... Suriyorimasu are a common enough sight around their hometown that people are pretty much used to them. In some ways, this new setup is less scary than what used to be. Tsunako's a lot more mellow, now that her demons aren't within her and she's got a good leash on them. Literally. Plus the delinquency level in the area's sure gone down with the two of them making sure everything's safe - and the little kids seem to love Suriyorimasu, for some reason.

    As for fighting the forces of evil - the two mostly leave the protection of their own personal world, galaxy, universe, to Tsunako's sister and her friends, tackling small incidents as they come across them and occasionally lending an extra pair of hands whenever they're needed. They're not running away from the fighting, by any means, but they're more interested in what they found, are finding, and will continue to find as they research further and further into Aegis, her past, what she knew, and why that made her a target.

    The Benefactors.

    These, apparently, are the people they really need to "talk" to.

    ...but hey. Multiversal threats are big and bad and wolfy and all, but they can't be all you think about or you'll go insane. Howzabout we all go get a snow cone? Tsunako's treat.
    Suriyorimasu (9): As the representation of both Tsunako's personal demons and her newfound control of them, this Stand-looking train of a creature is very powerful and very versatile. Though beholden to time like most everything else, he seems almost unbound to space, able to increase in size, throw multiple punches from multiple directions at once, move faster than the eye can perceive, and create runes to disappear in and out of to extend his range. He can even act autonomously (though not intelligently) for Tsunako's benefit if she happens to be unconscious, mind-controlled, slow to react, or otherwise indisposed. His only limit seems to be that he cannot remove himself from the leash Tsunako carries, which is a paltry six or seven feet long, and can only extend his range maybe another four or five by using a rune.

    A Silver Tongue, a Golden Heart (9): There's a promise of peace in Shizukane Tsunako's manner - as though one is watching a man meditate beneath a waterfall. There are many pastors, preachers, monks and teachers, scattered across the world, but there are so few people who seem to have truly lived through what they are saying, that have truly found peace, that ... you can't help but stop and listen for a while. Tsunako can't convince everyone of everything, but she is adept at understand the person she is talking to, and perhaps just as adept at helping them understand themselves. If there is a way for the person she stands across from to find some measure of peace, then it is almost guaranteed that the girl at the end of the demon's leash can help them find it.

    Blisteringly Ordinary, Brilliantly Odd (6): So mellow and casual, despite (almost) any situation. Possibly her least complicated ability; Tsunako is simply ... good at making friends. Whereas most people might start talking to someone else on neutral terms, it happens a little more frequently than it should that the people Tsunako talks to start off with a positive - if slightly bemused - attitude towards her.

    Aim for the Glowing Red Eyeball, I Think (7): An ability honed by necessity through standing on the close sidelines of various battles and telling a proxy what they need to do - and also by years of playing action RPGs - Tsunako is becoming something of an expert at spotting enemy weaknesses, ammo caches, range limits, tricks and traps, and other assorted bits and bobs that make up what one might collectively call "the current tactical situation". It's a knack.

    Rocks, then Pebbles, then Water (5): No matter how much world-saving she has to do, Tsunako always manages to finish her homework on time. It simply isn't fair.

    I am Definitely NOT a Magical Girl (1): Magical girls are more durable than your average continent, at most baselines. Tsunako is not only not a magical girl, but a below-average human when it comes to durability. Her own personal pet abomination might make it difficult for most things (magical or otherwise) to even think about harming her, but if something does manage it, it manages it very well.
    That's My Bag: Tricks --- The fanny pack at Tsunako's side is a recent addition to her fashion sense, but also a very important one. Besides being, of course, able to hold objects that she's prepared ahead of time or picks up along the way, it can also hold onto several objects that she's never explicitly been stated to be carrying. By spending an Edge, Tsunako can pull from her fanny pack any nonspecialized mundane (read: nonmagical) object that might realistically fit in a fanny pack that would be helpful in the current situation. (e.g., a spare mouse or empty USB drive, or a lighter and a rag, or a thermometer, or smoke pellets, or etc. etc. etc.)

    Don't Tell Me you Forgot About Me! --- Though not typically a direct combatant, Tsunako is not unafraid to take advantage of openings her friend creates for her - and the people she's fighting never see it coming. If Tsunako or Suriyorimasu roll an equal number of successes on their Yang dice as their opponent rolls on their Yin dice, the other of the pair may spend an Edge in order to treat the attack as though it was successful. This use of Edge causes the attack to ignore any armor or resistances.

    Chillax with Me for a Second --- She's ... a convincing girl. And harmless, right? By spending one Edge per entity (or, in certain cases, per group of like-minded people) who would not normally be open to diplomacy, Tsunako can cause that person or that group to become open to diplomacy. She does not automatically succeed at these diplomatic talks; she only causes diplomatic talks to happen.

    ??? --- [REDACTED, PENDING GM APPROVAL MAY BE REVEALED, REMAIN REDACTED, OR DELETED OUTRIGHT]

    Chi: 3
    Current Edge Score: 0
    Edge Cap: 5
    Coolness: heckin' radical, dude
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    Oh GOD! Yes, yes, yes! She is going to confuse the hell out of Aurora, but in a good way....
     
    Hoshino Yumemi said:
    @Sailor Midgard

    Referencing the old Empire might be a good move, as we never did even scratch the surface as to what I had in mind concerning the Axis...
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    Could you please explain for us new people? I wouldn't want to go into a sequel without at least understanding what went down in the original.

    Also, could you please threadmark the character sheets, so that we don't have to hunt them down every time?
     
    Ah, that's simple enough.

    The last time I tried a setup like this the characters were heroes collected by a force called the Acheran Empire fighting against a massive evil force called the Chaos Axis.
     
    It was also a case of "heroes from multiple worlds working together VS. villains from multiple worlds working together".
     
    Last edited:
    Here are a few ideas:

    - Call a Friend: Spend an Edge point to summon your Phoenix familiar, who acts as an extra combatant/player with a trait value of 7.
    - Phoenix Down: Spend a Yang point to raise a fallen ally's Chi from 0 to 1.
    - Ring of Fire: Spend an Edge point to do an AoE attack, allowing your Yang points to affect multiple enemy targets at the same time.
    - Cure: Spend a Yang point to restore yours or an ally's Chi to its starting amount.
    - Solar Beam: Spend an Edge point to shoot a focused beam of Phoenix fire, which allows your attack to ignore the enemy target's Yin points.
    - Radiance: Spend a Yin point to cloak yourself in flames, which deals an extra 1 Yang to nearby enemies during that turn.
     
    I'm not really sure I'm comfortable with "spending Yang points" as a mechanic; that is, as a mechanic on par with spending Edge points. You get tons of those every turn. They're not at all rare.
     
    Yeah, for healing it does seem a little iffy, so...maybe for anybody looking for healing that way, what you'll have to do is "fight" the injury you're trying to heal, depending on how bad it is. A certain amount of successes past its own native Yin score, and bingo, you get the Chi back. If not, nothing doing.
     
    Honestly, spending Yin-Yang points on stuff other than the offense/defense split sounds like it'll make stuff more grainy and complicated.

    The system as presented was relatively simple and easy to get into. I would like it to stay that way.
     
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