Character: Sabressa

Actors on a Stage of Shadows...

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kitsunenotsume
Missing Some Marbles
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Character: Sabressa

Post by kitsunenotsume »

Sabressa 'Breeze' (Emilia Nicollette) Aureselise

Description
Sabressa is a slight lass, somewhat shorter than average, and built like the faint gust that follows her could knock her over. While her silvery-blonde hair (with a sky-blue sheen in sunlight) stretches to her lower-back, the first foot is often wrapped to keep it easily tucked beneath a shawl and from fluttering in the way. She attires practically, preferring either light fatigues or loose and non-restrictive clothing similar to that of the local messengers, and is almost always found with an ash-grey shawl (or sash if more appropriate) bearing three cyan tassels on the shoulder and a matching canvas satchel covered in enamel pins.
Sample Pins (In no particular order): A dark-silver running hound; A fouled anchor; A flaming ginger rhizome; A small iridescent geometric scarab; A winged boot on a cloud; A troll skull with curving horns; A blue laughing face with a baseball cap; A kite quartering various terrains; A castle backed by labyrinth; A snowboard in front of an avalanche, An anvil with a carved glyph; A glider below a floating castle (and another below a lightning-struck tower, and a third below an airship, and ....).

High Concept: Fastest Courier in the Duskhound Dispatch
The Duskhound Dispatch and Delivery Network does brisk business, head-quartered in Down-town Amber and offering service within both the local area and to the multitude of shadows unreachable by Iron Dragon. A respectable portion of the employees are Pathfinders, who work with partners more attuned to the destination. While most Duskhounds work in teams or pairs necessitated to train their routes, the Couriers who specialize in expeditious messages operate light and solo, and Sabressa takes pride in having bested her peers in every run they have challenged (with rumours that she could see one of them off on an Iron Dragon in the Empire of Jade, and be waiting at the station in Balcone to help with their luggage). Despite her qualified record and capabilities, Breeze is still only listed as a Third-Class Shadow-capable Runner - although her status and assignments suggest a much higher prestige.
Invokes:
To enter/leave a scene when convenient
To have connections in Amber and across Shadow (which could conceivably include other PCs)
To have 'been there before'
To recognize a wide variety of Shadow environments
To be quicker than the competition
To get into events above her station

Compels:
To be 'on-call' against her preference
To be socially outclassed
To accept a race - of any variety
To have packed light
To be 'Just the messenger'
To be constantly snacking for calories.
Trouble: Adrenaline Junkie
Swan-dived from the mainmast during a thunderstorm? Check. Outran an avalanche (that the team may have started)? Done that. Jumped from an ephemeral floating castle in the middle of the night with only a rickshaw glider? Started the club and made the t-shirts. About the only thing Sabressa won’t do willingly is variations of sitting still in a peaceful environment - an activity she equates to a slow death by monotony when there are clearly far more interesting ways to die. While less a fan of more ‘brutish’ competitions, she will eagerly participate in or instigate thrill-seeking with minimal regard for legality, provisions, equipment, or safety. This has, obviously, left occasional disagreement with the Rangers and nearby inhabitants, but sometimes the same methods are called upon for dangerous rescue and recovery.
Invokes:
To disregard the odds - as long as they are attractively low enough
To be comfortable and confident in dangerous situations
To know what equipment is needed for an 'extreme' activity, and how to procure it
To make the death-defying look routine
To spin a suicidal activity as 'perfectly safe'
To be fearless

Compels:
To take the first viable means out of a 'boring' situation
To take . . . precautions? WHAT precautions?
To see inanimate objects as an obstacle course
To be a suspect for 'trespassing and reckless endangerment'
To perform 'community-service' that no sensible personnel will do
When there are very, very good reasons to fear the consequences
Aspect: Running from the Lilac Ghost
Few people have a spotless history, and Breeze is no exception. In this case, the spots take the form of infrequent black redactions upon the messenger's service record, though far less since Sabressa's employment with the Duskhounds. Discrete inquiries at well-connected sources turn up rumors of a nondescript assassin, who struck a number of her recent clients and close acquaintances before being found much further afield. The victims were often declared either dead of natural causes, or by virulent subtle poisons by those who investigate the out-of-place sprig of flowers at each scene. For her part, Breeze tends to become terse and defensive when rumors of the Lilac Ghost arise, all too willing to let such things fall forgotten in the past.
Invokes:
To be familiar with exotic toxins and poisons
To be evasive, both socially and when threatened
To be privy to esoteric and confidential information
To act outside official record

Compels:
To be detained or 'disappeared' on hearsay
To have notoriety with suitably informed personalities
To be blackmailed by her past
What is a lilac doing here?
[+] Previous Suggestions
Invokes:
"I am not paranoid, this is just due caution" - and other instances where identifying potential assassination vectors is a boon
To identify poisons: "I'm telling you, someone laced the wine with iocaine powder!"
To mask her feelings: "... No, I'm just concerned about people getting hurt ..."
To know when to bolt the scene: "I, erm, need to get a new drink"

Compels:
"Nope, that is definitely paranoia" - or other situations where passively considering how someone could commit murder and potential counters is considered suspect, or at least anomalous.
To be connected to rumors of a stalker-assassin: "Wait, Is this about that ghost? Is that what follows you?"
To come off as unfriendly: "If you want me to shove-off, at least say it directly."
To wrongly know when to bolt the scene: "Wait, what was that she said about iocaine?"
(This conversation just happened as I was writing it up >_>)
To take the 'Flight' option, when 'Fight' might be much more suited
Aspect: Steward In Service of the Seaspray
The Aureselise Family can trace their origins back to a shadow once rich with trade from Amber - before the Iron Dragons drove commerce away from the seas. While the impetus is less now, family tradition still insisted that each youth serve in the Amber Navy and Sabressa was no exception. Between her plentiful alacrity and natural talent as a Pathfinder, the young Steward was well received on all but the most insular crews. It was on these tours of duty she earned the nickname ‘Seabreeze’ and often just ‘Breeze’ for her pleasant manner, clean quarters, and ability to somehow always being above decks while the ships were underway. Even after she left for her current employment, her connections and nautical experience often earns her a welcoming bunk on vessels destined for the same shadows as her latest delivery.
Invokes:
To know nautical procedure
To get along with mariners
To be exemplary at cleaning and unit logistics
To be comfortable in turbulence and on unsteady ground
To be overlooked as a threat
To recognize a superior
To provide small-unit leadership

Compels:
To respond to "Chief [Steward] Aureselise" and orders from authority
To be at odds with deserters and mutineers
To be expected to perform menial tasks
To be unsettled by environmental stillness (doldrums, solid earth, 'dead' air)
To be 'an easy target'
Aspect: Anterior Ace of the Amber Amateur Aeronautical Association.
Some folk have their heads in the clouds merely metaphorically. More practical folk work on putting their noggins in the stratosphere literally. Initially a Hang-glider club, the group evolved somewhere between their (unfortunately) fearless leader's grand idea to start Amber's Air-force and the absconding of an airship from the docks of Irallith. While Amber itself is somewhat hostile to the physics of powered flying machines, a team of crack (and crackpot) Pathfinders can nonetheless find plenty of opportunity to refine the art of aviation.
Invokes:
To assess the particulars of Flight in a Shadow
When aboard the ARA (Amber Royal Aircraft) Ocypete ((Name still under consideration))
To pilot, repair, or jerry-rig a functional flying machine

Compels:
Did you know it's a crime in Irallith to steal an Airship?
Or that it is poor form to introduce yourself as "Captain" of a branch no-one approved?
And having a crew of questionably-sane volunteers has certain reliability issues.
Completely Unnecessary Aspect: Unreliable Narrator.
We're glad you decided to drop in and take a look at the lovely offerings we have here today. As you can see, we might be a few screws short of a milk-bucket, but when you need the news done right and now, and no-one else is willing to get the latest word directly from the source of the mouth of the screaming pyroclasmic crystal gyreroc, you can count on Thautyhu News. Right here: "One". That's right, we are the number one rated impromptu news-source in the immediate locality of our field-reporter, and that rating has been personally certified as Kp4-FE120 by the Amber Royal Air-force Terminal Logistics and Ballistics Division. You might hear from the competitions that we're off-topic or excessive, but it's a statement-of-fact that all our news is 100% technical and verified not-inaccurate, so we'll let these statistics speak for themselves:
Invokes:
To not inaccurately summarize the events of a scene.
To point out the obvious.
To provide a loquacious distraction - to everyone.

Compels:
Those summaries need not have been wrong, but nothing said they were right, brief, or lead to a correct conclusion.
'Unreliable' and 'Narrator' function both separately and conjoined.
Did anyone even ask for a new-reporter? and what the hell is she doing in the middle of that?

Approaches:
Power: While fit and capable, she isn’t very imposing either physically or socially - resulting on a few of her tours that being disciplined by the ship’s chief steward was known as “Weathering a stiff Breeze”.
Focus: Discipline is drilled into naval recruits early, particularly when patience and planning are needed to accommodate the tides. That said, just as often, the plan is “Shuck the plan and Carpe Diem”.
Crafty: Both Sea and Shadow have a tendency to require cunning and adaptation, and she has survived and thrived in both environments all her life.
Sneaky: Discretion and subtlety are valued traits in a courier, and Sabressa maintains the high expectations of the Duskhound Dispatch in that regard.
Flashy: While not overly flamboyant, she has a knack for making appropriately dramatic entrances and exits, as well as adding a touch of panache to competitive showmanship and military drill.
Quick: Did we mention that she considers *trains* to be her competition?

Refresh:
2 : (base 3, -1 Pathfinder)

Powers:
Pathfinder (-1), Thelressi Shroudstrider (-2)

Stunts:
Because I am an Experienced Shadow-Runner, I can Hellride at the cost of a Fate-Point.
Because I Move like the Wind, I get a +2 to Quickly Defend in a Moving Air.
[One unlisted stunt]
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