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does whatever he wants.
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Atop a hill of words.
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In Light of all the Lights posted thus far, I have decided we need a little DARKNESS around here.
Thus, I have decided to push forward the posting of my OC by a few days.
Not so much a new one, but a reworking of an ancient idea to better crack less brains.
So...
presenting...
Spoiler for OC - Arcadia Souran, the Twilight Dancer, Remixed and Rematched:
Arcadia Souran
Callsign – Twilight Dancer
Age: ??
Height: 170cm
Weight: 47kg
Hair: Grey-black, usually held in place by 3 gold clips.
Eyes: Blue
Status: Unknown
Military Rank: Major
Mage Rank: AAA ~ ???
Threat Ranking: Alternating wildly between ‘Benign’ and ‘Bakemono ( NB: monster)’
Spoiler for Social Traits:
Social/Character Traits:
Verbal Nail Gun: She has an uncanny ability to cut to the core of what people are trying to say, no matter how superfluous and convoluted it may get. (On the other hand, her ability at self-expression is so bad that it would take another Arkady to understand what she wants to bring across beyond the realms of the bare necessities and battle tactics.)
A Selective Lack of Awareness: When absorbed in doing something of a more mundane and slice-of-life nature than stomping the hell out of people, such as reading a book, or watching the hubbub of the day go by on some bench somewhere, Arkady becomes oblivious to her environment, and as a result may become so still that birds have been known to settle on her head and shoulders.
I Feel Like A Walking Anachronism… Sorely unaware of cultural, economic, political, military and fashion developments due to being nearly two decades behind the times, and finds modern societal trends such as co-opting work relationships, consumerism and cosplay to be utterly befuddling. This renders her somewhat susceptible to various actions of that order, as they either fly under her radar or way over her head.
Worthy Rival Radar Overdrive: In the presence of anyone above mage levels of AA+, her killing intent naturally increases, seemingly without any observable change in behaviour or expression for that matter. It doesn’t boil over, of course – that can wait till they get into the sparring arena. This trait is very much reduced when she is physically unwell for more than obvious reasons, and fluctuates depending on her existing relationship with the person.
Closet Lolicon: Has an inexplicable attachment to girls with looks, height and chest sizes that transcend age, puberty and characterization. Reactions upon sighting include picking said person up, scrutinizing them to corroborate the observable facts, and once a semi-working to working relationship is settled upon, petting, all with a relatively passive look on her face. Special: Physical Presence while doing aforementioned actions is capable of subduing almost any loli, no matter how dangerous she normally is. Well, almost.
Shutter Eye: Arcadia has photographic memory/eidetic memory – she forgets nothing she sees, including but not exclusive to, spells, actions, locations, words and maybe even What You Did Last Summer.
Passive Impassivity: Possesses a small range of facial expressions, ranging from Vaguely Unconcerned to Abject Apathy. Rare expressions include Pleasantly Perplexed, Pretty in Pink and Sinful, Indulgent Rage.
Half-Split Personality: Professionalism taken to unhealthy extremes results in clinical finishes and brutal efficiency seemingly impossible with her normal behavior set. Either that, or she’s definitely well trained. Maybe both.
Looks Like An Emo Goth: With her looks, look, outlook and her wearing her Barrier Jacket in public, who could think otherwise?
Would Make A Bad Housewife: Poor homemaking skills all-around – she has a lot to learn from certain people…But what the hell do you expect from someone who’s spent half her life in temporary holding areas anyway?
Rating: It’s…I don’t know. Overall, Arcadia is sparingly equipped to deal with life in society outside of battle, for reasons she cannot explain. Or cannot remember. Or both. That makes a great number of things that for which she can’t do either.
Spoiler for Combat Traits:
Combat Traits:
God, She’s Fast…! Arkady should never be expected to stand still. After all, a close range styled fighter without the usual shields and Panzergeist would be pretty much dead if they so much as drop their pace for an instant. Aiding her in this is her control of movement enhancement: she can shift the nature of the boosts by supplying the more refined and Resonance-capable Aether to a specific body part, allowing it to temporarily exceed by far the likes of Sonic Move and Flash Step in speed using the additional burst provided by the resulting Mana Resonance. A combination of such modifications allows her to pull off a string of attacks at a nigh unstoppable pace, to the point where standing within two meters of her is practically suicide even for skilled fighters.
Eyes From Hell: One stare from her is quite sufficient to give her opponents a rough idea of what’s she’s capable of, and if she only stares at you, she’s probably dropping a really big hint. Failure to comply will result promptly in a live demonstration, and another stare at whoever’s left. The advised course of action following this point is unclear, although shitting one’s pants, running screaming or half-assedly trying to draw and shoot at her have been proven to be non-negotiable bad ends.
Is Not Amused By Your Bullshit: Toying with her is not a good career extension option – full seriousness upon commencement of combat is strongly recommended should one desire survival. Preferring herself to cut straight to the chase, she frowns upon time-wasting, flashy attacks, or ‘that-wasn’t-my-true-form’ boasts: either way, she will kill you as many times as is necessary for you to shut the hell up. Abjectly brutal efficiency of said ignominious deaths can and will be enhanced by the aforementioned stupidities.
Has Seen It All: Being stuck in desperate corners, facing disproportionately skewed odds, slogging through blood and guts, and unspeakable whatnot else has made overpowered opponents, and formidable presences as dated as the reason why the chicken crossed the road.
Idiots Die First: As an adept tactician and strategist, Arkady has a keen sense of where exactly the points of weakness are in an enemy formation or strategy. Any obvious weakness or letting up in combat, or a stupid move, will almost certainly result in a mauling if you’re lucky, and a one way trip to the afterlife if you’re not.
Ruthless Serial Curbstomper: Do not expect any mercy when you’re on the ground half dead following her rampage; do not expect to survive the next few nanoseconds following your hitting the deck either – chances are she’ll step on your head – hard– while you’re down, or use you as a springboard to reach her next opponent: both mean that you’re probably going to need a cosmetic facial makeover, preferably based on your latest ID photo, before they can bear looking at you in the morgue, much less embalm you.
So What If That Was Low? As a member of the Black Mavs, her combat credo is practically devoid of any rules. That means examples of dirty fighting and sneak attacks, from the brilliant to the ridiculous (but all effective nonetheless), are all well and sundry for usage – so everything from low-blows to throwing hot sand in her opponent’s eyes (with the temperature upped some by a little magic) is a valid manoeuvre. So God Help Your Balls.
Rating: “…B-B-Bakemon-KEHK!!” On the battlefield, Arcadia is a completely different person from the mild-mannered, absent minded, air-headed if somewhat detached and icy NEET that she is in real life. She practically lives, eats and breathes ‘war’, far more so than anyone Nanoha and Co have met before, to the point where it is hard to say if she morphs into a brutal machine of death on the battlefield, or if she simply retreats into a safety zone outside of it. The only two ways to prevent a bloodbath in a battle she is involved in are probably to give her a fairly specific set of orders with various conditions to limit direct combat engagements – or simply to give her the opponent’s Ace to eat alive. That’ll do fine for afternoon tea. Maybe.
This duality of character is quite easily the primary reason for her complete loss as to what to do with even the fleeting peace that she enjoys at the Yagami residence…
…Hell if I know how they’re going to deal with her.
…Oh shit. Did I just say Yagami Residence?
 
YOU GUYS HEARD NOTHING!
*runs*
Spoiler for Unique Skill:
Unique Skill: The Souran-Gables-Archer Effect
Arcadia’s Unique Skill has its roots in what is known as the Gables-Archer Effect, presumably named for the two people who originally thought the idea up. An offshoot of Lyrical Magic, the essence of the theory was that if mana, which was normally harvested by and outputted from linker cores in only minimally purified and synchronized forms through crude processes such as shaping, condensation, or at a higher level have its basic elemental properties changed, could reach a higher level of both, then like voices in perfect harmony each would be capable of resonating with one another, greatly boosting their real-time strength when utilized.
Arcadia’s ability takes the theory to the next step: by harmonizing mana in this fashion, but rather than projecting it outwards, keeping it within one’s body and increasing the resonance level, she is able to create an ‘Phantom Song’: free mana in the atmosphere, excited into a radical and ‘semi-refined’ state by the resonance, create a constantly self-replenishing vortex of mana with her as the epicentre as mana is scattered and re-absorbed into her field. And while she does not normally exercise any active control over them, they display the general signs of being under her power, and respond to her actions and resultant changes in the Resonance Field: for example, when she prepares to slash with her cross-spear, the resulting Resonance Field shifts due to her placing more emphasis (magic wise) on her swinging arm and spear, to favour the spear’s tip as its focal point with the extraneous mana follows suit.
Thus, by the time she takes her swing, the huge body of mana would have been focused around the immediate surroundings of the spear, thus ramming her opponents in the front into much more than just the point of a magically enhanced spear; rather, they are about to be hit by a dense wall of highly excited mana first, and nanoseconds later the spear itself. This makes the field a passive boost in close-quarters combat, both in terms of attack and defence. It may also take on an active form should she so choose, manipulating the resonance levels to create anything from additional, precise vectors of attack for her spear rather than a crude wave of blunt-force pain to creating that sinister tornado of pure arcane energy that is the Unholy Spiral, even to isolating many different resonance fields at a time a la her personal specialty, Code: Artificer.
However, this is less of a stick-on advantage than it is her only choice: one of the immediately apparent things about Arcadia is that the results from this particular attempt to make reality out of theory veered way off what the original plan would have produced. Impure mana is within her body a deadly poison, and to her Linker Core a highly unstable, uncontrollable substance –that which is required to generate a Divine Buster would probably kill Arcadia before she manages to fire it– ; to add to that weakness, the refined version is not completely harmless either (though the effect is admittedly, sufficiently diluted to be negligible), and is time-consuming and no small strain to create. And given the sorely inadequate amount of it that can be produced at any given time, ranged attacks are practically out of the question until much later in a battle given other important concerns in battle, since they project mana away from the body and causes dispersal following use. Hence, her spells are limited to melee skills for most battles – ranged spells are to be used at hazard to health and safety in the combat zone, even late in the game where they are theoretically usable: while the movement of refined mana in her body is all well and sundry due to the body’s ability to continuously keep it in that refined state, and with whatever minimal dispersal there is absorbed into her Field, projecting any amount of magic outside that safety net renders it susceptible to the natural weakness of being more unstable than its lower form when outside the body, and since her body that lacks natural affinity for lower mana cannot control it well enough either without prohibitively great effort of will, she generally has no choice but to have to keep it in its refined form, or at least a semi-refined form, in order to use it. By this time, though, the battle would have already dragged out quite a bit, so usually Arcadia prefers to waste as little time as possible. Thumbs down, fellow gladiators.
Reflecting those disadvantages, she is normally reliant on her combat skills, as well as the free mana she gathers using the Resonance Field, of which a smaller version may be produced from the outset of battle, since her body is in fact capable of creating a permanently storing a basal amount of refined mana passively. Against the toughest of opponents, though, she may have no choice but to throw down with them temporarily while she generates enough energy to completely blow them away. This marks a rather major difference between her and normal mages: while normal mages get weaker as the battle drags on, she gets potentially stronger and stronger as the same thing happens – thus, in a battle, she starts off with a handicap as compared to other combatants, but if given sufficient time and space (and considering she doesn’t already lose or die by then) progressively comes out stronger and stronger, until she completely overwhelms her opponents with terrifying strength. This is usually, but certainly not always, when the amount of mana in her body has reached a saturation point, or critical mass if one prefers the term, and when continuing the accumulation of it has thereby become a non-option, and the only option available, is, of course, to let at least some part of it out to make space.
An unaccounted-for side effect of her ability is that due to the Resonance state being always ‘on’ technically at a low basal level, Arcadia gives off an ironically serene aura, which has often attracted stray animals, even leashed ones, to her. She appears to enjoy their company, at least somewhat. However, in combat her aura, as though reflecting the seeming change in her nature if not her emotional/mental state for the worse, begins a descent into a nightmarish amalgamation of darkness, with red, violet and black lightning screaming all around it, their jagged edges and wild dancing painting an altogether ethereal, but sinister scene, and becoming more so proportionately to the growth of her Resonance Field. While this may or may not be due to her emotional state; the change in the aura’s basic composition altogether is a fairly rare occurrence – more often than not, at least the Gables-Archer Theory argues in its premise, a magic aura is affected volume-wise; only the person’s presence is affected nature-wise: for example, if a fire mage is seriously pissed off, their aura of flame grows larger by far, and his or her personal presence will most certainly by appear more intimidating, but that will not constitute a change of elements from, say, fire to wind; the only real difference is that a medium-sized flame became a large one. The reason, hence, is not yet explained.
Also, as of now, due to the unknown circumstances under which Arcadia obtained this ability (indeed, that she herself would remember even the gist of it is highly unlikely; as such it may not even have been an experiment in that strictest sense that gave her this power from the first), little is in fact known about the methodology of recreating the Gables-Archer effect, since Linker Cores do not naturally possess such a powerful refining function, and the accuracy even of modern devices is practically eons off from even being able to perform such a function in the first place, thus causing there to be little space for further research into the theory.
Spoiler for Miscellanous Spells:
Miscellaneous Spells, Non-combat and Combat:
Void Walker:
Transportation/Teleportation Spell (Distance Unlimited, Conditional)
“So, is it far, or isn’t it?”
Arcadia is implanted with micro-temporal displacement enhancers in order to facilitate rapid drop-ins and extractions. In fact, they were normally fitted with limiters that kept 20% of their overall magic strength reserved for extraction via teleportation, hence allowing for silent and largely traceless departures. Over time, some of them found ways to modify the effects of the enhancer based on their own style, and Arcadia is one-such: Instead of merely teleporting back to a fixed set of coordinates from a list of rendezvous points, she is also able to perform a teleportation to practically any location on a few conditions:
1. She must have the ‘co-ordinates’ of the place: address, whatever; but it has to be fairly specific.
2. She must have an image of said place in her mind: either the inside or the outside will do.
3. She must touch someone who has actually been to that place, hence or otherwise retrieving memories of that place through a Mind Resonance: using magic to surface memories of whatever Arcadia herself is concentrating on, i.e. the location she wants to teleport to. With that, a fairly accurate guess may be made as to the location, and hence a fairly accurate teleportation. Of course, receiving the exact official coordinates would be better, but she’ll make do.
A more specific version of this spell is Level Zero – Code: Guardian. Used at a shorter distance as compared to Void Walker, it allows her to teleport straight to where her allies are. The ally in question must be specified, and where required Arcadia will teleport straight to that person’s side, like a human ‘summon’ of sorts. Almost instant, but does not work cross-planets/dimensions. Orbital transport is possible, though, over a certain distance.
Ringgeister No. I: Zwielicht Tänzer:
Spell Resonance
Artifact-Enhanced Spell
Arcadia is in a possession of a ring on her index finger that identifies her as a member of Class 1A (Top Class), Officer Cadets of MC 52. Made by Arcadia herself, each of them was custom made for one of the eleven people in their class, not only as a memento of their time together, but also as artifacts designed to enhance their own unique brands of magic to the maximum. They also identify another member of the Class from a range of 3km radius away from the user when activated. It is not yet known what Arcadia’s invocation is, and what its effects are.
Spoiler for Melee Combat Spells:
Melee Combat Spells:
Paradox Lance:
Close-quarters Combat Spell (Spear)
Weapon Drawing (Storage Device)
With years of training, Arcadia is just about as quick on the draw as she is on the trigger, if not even faster. Her transformation is customized to be just as swift: the time it takes for her to launch Paradox from its fast draw rig within her sleeve and for her to draw the weapon out in its active form is sufficient for her Barrier Jacket to be fully formed and ready for battle.
Paradox may be also activated by telepathic command from a distance off such that her Barrier Jacket may be activated remotely via an extraneous magic sigil imprinted on the inside face of Arcadia’s uniform. It takes on the Active Form of a long black yari, a cross-spear if you will, with violet engravings.
Paradox Lance – Dual Skylark:
Close-quarters Combat Spell (Spear)
Weapon Duplication (Mana Doubling)
By increasing the resonance frequency, more mana particles surrounding her may be excited into a semi-refined state that Arcadia can actually viably control without major drawbacks. Using this trait of her ability, she is able to create a Mana Double of Paradox on her free hand; all the better to dual wield with, Little Red Riding Hood. This is her standard issue mode in mass combat a.k.a. Master Chief Mode, when she isn’t going one on one with the enemy Ace, since it favours mass destruction over precision strikes – after all, spears are always better wielded in two hands.
Void Cleaver:
Close-quarters Combat Spell (Spear)
First-order Weapon Enhancement
Normally performed using her solid spear, and not the mana double, Void Cleaver is a technique built for smashing through defences such as Barriers, Shields or AMFs with a deadly combination of physical force and magic enhancement. Basically, by running refined mana through Paradox, she shifts the field’s concentration gradient to be greatest around the spear itself. At greater levels of control, she can isolate the spear as an independent field, and thus deal a far more precise and focused strike, aimed at overloading whatever defence may be in the way.
Cloud-dream Gauntlet.
Close-quarters Combat Spell (Unarmed)
First-order Weapon Enhancement
“No…you may only parley with your sword, Knight, and nothing else.”
To say that any member of the Black Mavericks, ex or otherwise, is ‘no slouch’ in hand-to-hand combat is a joke in poor taste: in fact, they were chosen as much for their genius in the manipulation of their bodies and minds as they were in the manipulation of magic. This spell, the staple bread-and-butter of all members, combines the twin aspects of body and magic into one: in effect an Assault Mode form of the Panzergeist, it’s an all-in-one “stronger, harder, faster” buff, with less emphasis on harder, more on the rest, and none at all on the innuendo.
Spoiler for Special Spells:
Ceremonial/Special Combat Spells:
Ceremonial Release – Code: Artificer:
“Battle Duress Citation Class Three. Requesting Administration ID Change to Level 1, ‘Code: Arbiter’.”
[Battle Duress Confirmation Received – Administration ID Change Request Recognized. Administrator Guardian, Level 1 Arbiter Form Is On Standby.]
“Locked, Loaded and Confirmed. Initiate Level 1.”
[Initiating.]
Level 1: Field Control
Spellbinder:
First-order Field Control/Debuff
Pinching off anywhere from one to five resonance fields, Arcadia seals her opponent’s usage of spells by using the individual resonance fields to adversely affect the opponent’s ability to gather mana from the atmosphere (by competing with the opponent’s device and Core for it) and condense magic into a useable form (the net effect of multiple resonance fields around a single spell condensation point is that mana tends to exist in a dispersed ‘limbo’ state maintained by uniform pull in different directions by the various fields, much like dipole moments in molecules.) Useful against low to mid level magic users, it is not efficient against higher tier spellcasters due to the fact that they can just use superior strength to bulldoze their way through the field’s effects. So no, there’s no such thing as blocking Starlight Breaker before it even leaves the barrel. Not even Cradle-class AMF could achieve that, let alone just this.
Spellbender:
Second-order Field Control/Manipulation
Splitting her main field into clearly delineated three parts by manipulating the concentration of resonating mana in her body – one to her left, one to her right, and another covering the larger part of her body, Arcadia is able to create a repelling, rather than attractive force by an extension of the Gables-Archer Theory called the Archer Black Effect: the two weaker ‘outer bodies’ will attempt to attract a stronger ‘inner body’, which repels both, resulting in an state that overall repels magic, with a path of less resistance running along the far sides. The effect of this attack on spells is that magic attacks tend to ‘bend’ away from Arcadia, favouring the path of less resistance along the sides; this effect decreases with the strength of the spell. This same concept works against physical attacks as well, hence forming an extremely effective fusion shield – not requiring active mana usage like a normal head-on defence shield or barrier, and not having the physical attack weakness of the AMF. The drawback of this move, however, is that due to the overall mana repelling nature of the shield, Arcadia cannot increase the size of her Resonance Field as long as the shield is active.
Spellbreaker:
Third-order Field Control/Encroachment
Essentially a kamikaze attack with a resonance field, one or more resonance fields are fired off just as the opponent’s spell has reached a critical mass, straight into the body part/device that is about to let fly, and it explodes brilliantly into a huge dispersed mass of phase disruption mana particles – this is normally sufficient to completely dispel the attack, and run a stun gun-like shock through the opponent. This works by essentially tuning the resonance field such that it may be insinuated into the opponent’s ‘flow’ of mana, and once inside, to turn on them and show its true colors. Unlike Spellbinder, however, this sacrifices quite a large amount of refined mana, rather than simply the mass of semi-refined atmospheric mana that is otherwise used, and as such has a comparatively much higher energy cost.
Level 2, ‘Code: Arbalest’: Ranged Mode Unlocked.
“Come, darkest night – make known my twilight arrows under your deepening sky.”
[RANGED SPELLS UNDER COMPILATION.]
Reverse Bombardment: Solstrom Black:
Fourth-order Precision Spell/Bombardment
This spell has never really seen true action, although the concept of Reverse Bombardment is known – this is due to the lack of use of attacks that utilize said concept due to the seeming impracticality of its composition: instead of bombarding an opponent from far away, this attack draws the enemy in for direct bombardment, or something more dangerous of that order, which has the unfortunate drawback of the enemy never entering critical range. It is not known, therefore, how Arcadia has been able to surmount this limitation, or perhaps adapt to it.
Level 3, ‘Code: Artificer’: This is the Full Release Mode.
Maybe if I can, I'll draw a picture and place it when I eventually update this thing again.
Anyway, it's way past bedtime here...
...Xena, out.
Last edited by XenahortCharybdis; 2009-09-26 at 08:26.
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