1. - Top - End - #12
    Bugbear in the Playground
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    A2
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Grief In the Shell: Madokapunk FFRP Interest Check/Recruitment

    I have a few different character ideas, but this is a start. I went ahead and worked the Magic War into the character's backstory since it's become an important piece of the concept, but if there are still objections after that I can try to work around it. As always, criticisms are welcome.

    Update Complete
    Leysa Shinsato, the Strongest Mashou
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    Age: 79 (Contract made at age 14, physical development is closer to 17-18).
    Gender: Female.
    Height: 5' 11".
    Weight: Classified.
    Faction: Wishcraft Foundation.
    Rank/Station: Consultant.
    Theme Song: Fireflight - Unbreakable
    Address: Leysa is universally known by her first name and largely dislikes the use of her last name. She accepts it only in extremely formal situations.

    Description
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    Leysa is a uniquely striking individual, standing abnormally tall for her gender and substantially taller than most inhabitants of Neo-Mitakihara. Her facial features are soft, an impression heightened by a constantly languid expression. Her green eyes are the only part of her face that is particularly memorable. Leysa has brown hair hanging past her waist, which is almost always kept in an extremely tight braid. Leysa favors loose, comfortable clothing, most often pants, a tank top or t-shirt, and one of her many jackets. Leysa always wears a pair of fingerless gloves over her hands all the way up her forearms, and will usually roll up her sleeves to her elbows. It's rare to see Leysa without the Wishcraft Foundation's logo somewhere on her clothes.

    History
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    There is no public knowledge of Leysa's life prior to her enlistment on the side of order during the Magic War of 2031. Leysa quickly gained recognition after repeatedly taking on extremely dangerous missions and enemies, fighting at a pace that would have been suicidal for almost anyone else. While many of the Magical Girls that fought in the war did so reluctantly, Leysa seemed to revel in the violence and danger, remaining upbeat and acting as a pillar of moral support for her fellows. Her reputation was heavily different between the two sides of the war. The side of order saw her as a tireless, unwavering champion. The rebellion knew her as a brutal monster who left only rubble and pieces of her victims in her wake. Leysa was particularly infamous for leaving the body of mashous destroyed beyond recovery, condemning them to tortured existences trapped in their Soul Gems barring euthanization. In the modern era, however, this has been almost entirely forgotten over her reputation as a hero, due to the end results of the war and Leysa's subsequent activities.

    Following the war's conclusion, Leysa vanished entirely; she was gone before the declaration of surrender had been publicly announced. While it was commonly believed that she had been killed just before the war's end, Leysa reappeared in late 2041 working for the Wishcraft Foundation.

    Although technically classified as a consultant, Leysa was and is one of the Foundation's most senior members and generally works directly with the leaders of the organization. Leysa is the first choice for the Foundation's hand when they need to take action in a dangerous area, such as retrieving new magical girls from areas of violence or assisting with locations that have seen increased Wraith activity. Leysa also acts as a trainer and mentor for younger magical girls, generally ones with particularly dangerous or uncontrolled powers or serious attitude problems.

    When not active working for the Wishcraft Foundation, Leysa acted as a contractor, both in disaster relief and for various military actions around the world. She was very picky about accepting jobs, choosing only to assist with situations that she saw as unambiguously morally justified. Leysa worked most commonly with Big Boss and FOXHOUND, periodically with the United Nations, and very rarely for any other group. Leysa, already a known face from the war, developed into a globally recognized hero over the next 40 years.

    As far as personal life goes, Leysa met Shinsato Runa in the wake of the Desolation of Mitakihara while both were assisting survivors. The two became very close during the relief efforts and entered into a romantic relationship within the year. They were informally married in 2049. Five years later, they would adopt an orphaned baby named Michiko, an action driven more by Leysa than Runa.

    The next decade was spent in relative happiness, but starting around 2065, Leysa's increasing absences began to take a heavy toll on her relationships with both members of her family. Leysa didn't want to be away as much as she was, but her extraordinary level of effectiveness meant that she was the best candidate for dealing with many problems, and she felt a duty to help as many people as possible. Ultimately, saving lives won out over her family. In 2067 Runa divorced Leysa and became the primary caretaker for the 13 year old Michiko. Shattered, Leysa threw herself even more heavily into her work, spending very little time in Neo-Mitakihara unless she was training other Mashou. She made some effort to maintain contact with Michiko, but their relationship became increasingly strained.

    In 2072, Runa was killed by Wraiths during a regular patrol.

    Leysa, out of the country and on a no-outside-contact mission with FOXHOUND, didn't learn about this until after the funeral.

    When Leysa did return to Neo-Mitakihara and found Michiko, the teenager was irate. Venting all of her resentment and sadness, Michiko raged at Leysa for almost two hours, finally explaining that she had been accepted to an American legal school before disowning her surviving parent.

    The day after Michiko left Japan, Leysa disappeared. She left no contact information and gave no warning. Because of her frequent absences, it was almost a month before anyone realized that anything was out of place. It would be 14 more before Leysa was seen again. When she did return, Leysa had changed. Her personality had grown increasingly high-strung over the past years, and now she maintained a much more relaxed air. Leysa had had a great deal of time to disconnect from and reevaluate her life. She stopped taking jobs that weren't for the Wishcraft foundation, taking on a more active role in the organization as a leader rather than a weapon. She also adopted a strict personal policy against killing humans, something that had never given her pause before. As Leysa spent more time in Neo-Mitakihara, Leysa began reaching out more to the people around her, solidifying a number of real friends out of a large number of acquaintances and professional relationships.

    This is the state in which Leysa has lived her life for the past 24 years. While there are ups and downs as in any life, Leysa has been mostly content with her place. After a few years, she began sending periodic messages to Michiko talking about her life, hoping for but never expecting a response. Eight years ago, she received a surprise message from Michiko explaining that she would be in Japan on a business trip and wanted to meet in person. After a thoroughly awkward initial contact, Leysa and Michiko have slowly mended their relationship and are now active, if distant, parts of each others' lives.

    Contract
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    Wish: "I want to be strong. So strong that nothing, and nobody, will ever make me helpless again."
    Thematics: Force, Juggernaut, Unstoppable
    Soul Gem: A diamond in both shape and appearance, Leysa's Soul Gem is set into a simple red gold housing and is situated on the back of her right hand.
    Costume: Leysa's transformed costume is a grey jumpsuit at base. Red lines cover the suit, emanating from a raised circle on her chest, terminating at raised ornaments at the wrists, neck, and ankles. A pleated half-skirt with two long tassels hangs from the back of her waist.
    Abilities:
    Unique Capabilites: Leysa lacks, at first glance, the unique abilities present in most magical girls. What she does have is the standard physical modifications amped up to an insane degree. Leysa possesses immense physical strength far beyond that of ordinary augmentations; she has been observed lifting multiple tons of rubble and crushing diamonds with her bare hands. In addition to this, she is almost completely invulnerable to harm; heavy impacts and precise strikes alike simply bounce off her skin or fail to penetrate. Rather than a traditional weapon, Leysa possesses the ability to summon and throw large chunks of burning stone.
    Generic Mashou Abilities: Aside from her inherent powers, Leysa has done little to develop general skills as a magical girl, although she has learned how to magically suppress her sense of pain. She has a firm grasp on the fundamentals of common Mashou abilities, but hasn't made any effort to improve beyond that, instead choosing to focus on honing her skills in other areas.
    Military Training: Leysa is an experienced soldier, and has acquired a wide variety of appropriate skills on the battlefield. Stealth, weapons and demolitions training, wilderness survival, and battlefield tactics are a few examples.
    Hand to Hand Expert: Leysa is an unbelievably skilled fighter. A firm believer in the philosophy of Jeet Kune Do, Leysa has studied dozens of different combat styles and tempered her vast theoretical knowledge with almost unparalleled experience. Most of Leysa's fights end before the opponent has a chance to react. Even without the extra abilities of a Mashou, Leysa would easily be a contender for the most skilled close combat expert on the planet.
    Full Explanation (Spoilers)
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    Leysa's powers are actually a good deal more nuanced than they first appear, something that she has made efforts to conceal. While Leysa's brute strength is impressive, the true source of her power is extremely potent tactile kinesis.

    Unstoppable Force: Leysa can channel immense force into the manipulation of anything she touches. It also prevents large objects from breaking off in her grasp and ensures that she doesn't actually need to have a solid grip on an object to carry it. The upper limits of Leysa's strength are unknown; she hasn't ever been unable to lift or break an object, but she has never comprehensively tested her abilities. Leysa's kinesis can also be used to generate push for Leysa as well as affecting external targets.

    Immovable Object: Leysa's skin is automatically protected by her kinetic abilities, which form a perfect shield over her skin. This is extremely effective against physical attacks, but has a lesser degree of use against less tangible assaults. Light is a notable Achilles heel of this ability, as it is completely unaffected by the shield. Leysa's shield has three "settings," which she can switch between after a short delay.
    Fudōshin: The setting that Leysa uses most frequently. In this mode, any physical attack that strikes Leysa is repelled with a counter-strike equal to the force put into the blow. Most weapons will shatter due to this effect, and bones will fare little better. Weaker strikes will simply be stopped cold.
    Zanshin: The most situational of the shields. While in this form, Leysa's shield no longer stops attacks cold; while she herself is still protected from injury, she can be thrown around by impacts. Every attack that strikes this shield funnels into a pool of kinetic energy that Leysa can release at any time, adding the extra power behind her already considerable strength.
    Mushin: While in Mushin, Leysa's shield possesses no unique effects. It has the highest defensive value of any of the shields, however, capable of blocking the few attacks that can harm Leysa through her guard as well as having a much higher effect on elemental or magical attacks such as heat or cold. This is the only setting that provides a noticeable defense against magic.

    The Hammer: not one for complex names or secret techniques, Leysa nonetheless has a highly impractical ace up her sleeve. The Hammer concentrates all of Leysa's kinetics, both shield and strength, into a single hit. The raw energy behind this attack is enough to pulverize buildings or cause tremors for kilometers around, but burns Leysa out for a week afterward, negating all of Leysa's kinetics in their entirety for that duration.

    Meteor Generation: Leysa's unique weapons are difficult to use effectively. When generated point blank, they move at relatively low speeds which reduces their usefulness despite substantial impact power. What makes Leysa's ability in this area unique, however, is her range. She can generate meteors up to 2 miles away if there is a free space large enough. She can use this to generate her meteors at sufficient height to allow them to gain speed. Additionally, smaller meteors can be easily accelerated and generated efficiently, but have lower overall power.

    Superhuman Strength: Because of her wish, Leysa's strength even when in human form is far above what it should be; she can deadlift just over 1200 pounds at base. This strength can rise under certain circumstances; specifically, when Leysa is being physically restrained in some way and isn't strong enough to resist.

    Mental Wall: Leysa possesses an inherent and absolute immunity to having her mental state altered in any way. She cannot be intoxicated, mind controlled, or hypnotized in any capacity.

    Healing Factor: Leysa's healing factor works differently than most Magical Girls. While it will infallibly repair any wound that Leysa survives, and Leysa herself can survive injures that would cripple or kill even a Mashou, it works very slowly. The process can take anywhere from three days to a week to heal anything beyond light cuts and bruises.

    Weaknesses: Although extremely powerful, Leysa's powers leave her with a number of exploitable vulnerabilities. First, Leysa is presently totally averse to killing other humans, even in self defense. Regulating her power output is extremely difficult, lowering her skill substantially when she won't go all out. This makes her vulnerable to both human assailants or being attacked in a space with many civilians. Leysa is also moderately vulnerable to attacks that alter the environment in some capacity, such as a vacuum or zero-gravity. Leysa's speed is mediocre. She can propel herself at high speeds, but can't change direction or maneuver when she does so, and her speed in hand-to-hand fighting is exceptional, but not above the ability of other Magical Girls to reach. Fourth, Leysa's barrier does have a limit to how much it can take. Sustained periods of high damage will wear down and eventually completely eliminate the barrier until she has had enough time to recharge, even in Mushin. Fifth, Leysa's use of magic consumes a large amount of energy and taints her Soul Gem abnormally fast. As a result, sustained combat is unfeasible. Finally, Leysa has few spontaneous, effective ways of dealing with opponents that can stay outside of her arm's reach.

    Perception: Leysa is a generally popular figure in the public eye. A war hero from a conflict sufficiently distant to have lost its horror, Leysa is well known for being friendly and approachable as well as for her humanitarian work. Leysa neither shuns nor courts media attention, taking it all in stride. While she doesn't maintain any long-term relationships, Leysa has kept herself well-off through a string of product endorsements.

    Last edited by Dorizzit; 2016-08-30 at 08:04 AM.
    Truly awesome Ark Tamaeus avatar by Bryn. Full size version here.