Alys

Names, Appearance, Reputations
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Wyvern
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Alys

Post by Wyvern »

Lady Alystrakos Obsidia Sybaris is a solidly built woman with dark skin, shoulder-length white hair, and green cat-like eyes. Not exceptionally attractive in a still image, but she moves with the grace of a dancer - or rather, as those with at least chaos rank warfare would recognise - the grace of a master warrior who always has enough balance to turn and parry an unexpected attack.

While Alys has no qualms about dressing up in a variety of fancy styles, it's a safe bet that anything that would actually limit her movement is either easily removable or not actually as constraining as it looks. Or, more likely, both.
For casual clothing, she favors a set of red sashes, anchored to golden jewelry (torc, bracelets, belt, etc). It's not exactly armor - for one thing, it's far too skimpy - but the materials used are notably more durable than conventional cloth or actual gold would be. She often adds a heavy cloak, especially if she expects to be outdoors at all; it's easily removable, can be used as a makeshift shield, and keeps the cold out and the rain off.

Stats:
Psyche: Unknown - nobody has tested her here yet.
Strength: Casually superhuman. (At least Mid Rank; strong enough to throw an ogre.)
Endurance: At least Amber Rank; she's been active for over 24 hours with no signs of fatigue.
Warfare: Dangerously competent, if you at all know what sorts of tells to look for. (At least Mid Ranked.)

Powers:
Shapeshifting, including the ability to transform into what looks suspiciously like living flame - and pull off tricks based on that, like heating a metal item to the point where it glows just by touch.

Minions:
Tinder, hell-hound. A large black dog with streaks of red around his muzzle and paws; has a tendency to curl up and nap in fires. Generally seems quite good-natured and friendly. Basic build is similar to this, and tends towards vocalisations like those of a basenji. (Seriously, go youtube "basenji"; they are... distinctive.)
Known powers include immunity to fire, teleportation (generally involving corners or fire), and the ability to establish mental contact by touch & deliver messages. As to whether or not he's sentient... it can be hard to tell; at a minimum he's as "sentient" as a particularly smart dolphin / raven / gorilla or the like (i.e. in that category of very smart animals that people wonder about) - but even with active mental contact, he doesn't think in terms of words or language; it's all smells and temperature and geometry. (Think, Hound of Tindalos, but with slightly less eldritch abomination, slightly more fire.)

Talents:
  • To start fires - even stone can burn if you know what you're doing... or have a bit of shadow magic on your side.
  • To make actions look easy or graceful - Alystrakos moves with all the grace of a hunting cat, and makes about as much noise as one, too.
  • To see the unseen - to the less perceptive, this might seem like a quirk when Alys occasionally stares off at nothing visible. But there's always something there, even if it might be just an abstract construct of non-corporeal energies.
  • To act like royalty - sometimes this counts as a talent: she's very good at remembering names, faces, and political affiliations; tends to command instant obedience from servants, courtiers, and officials; and so on and so forth.
Quirks:
  • Acts like royalty - and sometimes this counts as a quirk: she tends to stand out in a crowd of commoners, is polite even to people who'd take that as a sign of weakness, can be excessively condescending, etc.
  • Green cat-like eyes - a shapeshifting tell; it's unclear if she can't alter her eyes... or just really really doesn't like to. Regardless, sunglasses (or the like) form a key component of any comprehensive disguise.
  • Dislikes water - given the choice, she'll stay out of rain, snow, swimming pools, fords, etc. And reacts to a simple flick of water as if it were an attack. (...Ok, so that last bit shouldn't really be common knowledge yet. But it amused me too much to keep it out of her publicly visible character sheet. Take advantage of it at your own risk.)
  • Obviously dangerous - unless she puts serious effort into suppressing it, she moves like the aforementioned hunting cat - which tends to put normal people on edge, even if they don't have enough warfare to consciously recognize the danger signs.
Passive-Agressive Paranoia: It's not that Alys assumes the world is out to get her... she just assumes it could be. Sure, the man that bumps into her in a crowded market might be just a clumsy merchant instead of a master pickpocket. And odds are that the exotic dancers are just performers, not assassins. But sooner or later you will run into the exceptions, and if you make the mistake of assuming that your closest allies won't suddenly sprout spines and try to kill you... well, it may take centuries for that mistake to catch up to you. But when you're immortal, mere centuries is kinda pocket change. Trust... but verify.
This counts as a talent (anticipating conspiracies, reacting to the pickpocket before he even sticks his hand into the bear trap that's in your backpack, etc.), and as a quirk (spending time searching for conspiracies that aren't actually there, annoy the honest merchant by detaining him long enough to verify that he isn't actually a thief, having a bear trap in your backpack in the first place, etc.) - though even in the latter case, Alys is quick enough to note that, why yes she is paranoid, and no, she's not actually expecting to find that you're trying to summon dark gods in your basement... but that certainly doesn't stop her from checking.
Last edited by Wyvern on Tue Mar 12, 2013 6:10 pm, edited 13 times in total.
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colomon
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Re: Alys

Post by colomon »

You say recent -- would Alys have been in town four months ago?
Wyvern
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Re: Alys

Post by Wyvern »

Sadly, "recent" appears to have been translated to "two days ago" (as of game start) - so, no. Oh, well.
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colomon
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Re: Alys

Post by colomon »

Well, crap. I was hoping we could avoid the whole introduction thing (as the conversation flow has gotten a little messy for it), but if Alys has only been around for two days, then certainly Renny and Alys have not met before.
Wyvern
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Re: Alys

Post by Wyvern »

Oh, right. Introductions. Gah, I keep forgetting those. (I also have been assuming that Alys has asked enough questions of the local staff to actually know people's names, if maybe not much more than that.)

Hm. Maybe best to go back and edit in to my post back at the refreshments thread?
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colomon
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Re: Alys

Post by colomon »

That would be the most graceful, I guess. I sometimes forget these aren't just well-organized e-mail posts. :)
Wyvern
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Re: Alys

Post by Wyvern »

Edited introduction into this post.

Interesting note: this forum isn't set up to see edits as new posts. I wonder if I should make a new post at the end, pointing out that it's been edited?
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colomon
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Re: Alys

Post by colomon »

In this case, I don't think so... it's pretty trivial, we just edited history a tad to catch what we missed the first time around. :)
Wyvern
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Re: Alys

Post by Wyvern »

Alys has two primary non-human forms (as of this writing, she's planning on constructing another two, but hasn't yet had time).

Chaos form is a humanoid dragon-y critter, black scales, white hair, and the same green eyes. The best reference image I've found for this form is this, though it's obviously the wrong gender (yes, yes, lizards and boobs - but Alys is, even in her non-human forms, morphologically mammalian), has the wrong color eyes, and has fins as head decoration instead of hair.
Also worth noting: in this form, Alys' proportions are actually quite close to classical definitions of beauty - the reason her human form is bulkier is simply that, well, changing mass is prohibitively finicky, and there's only so much room to muck around with density before you start having problems there too, and, as a result, folding wings + tail into your body just doesn't lend itself to svelte lines. For reference, we're talking Classical Beauty (that's two links), not modern anorexic hourglass.

Avatar form (or, as Alys would put it True Form) is almost identical to her chaos form. The difference is that, instead of black scales, you're looking at obsidian plates encasing a body composed of white fire. Her eyes are almost the same, still - though in this form they look more like green catseye gems than anything made of flesh and blood.
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