Grief In the Shell: Madokapunk FFRP OOC/Recruitment

[Kuroimaken]

Seems like this is evolving into more than an interest check thread at this point.

I'm sure we'll get rolling fairly soon.

I'll probably write in my two character profiles tomorrow, or after at the latest.

[KnightDisciple]

Cybernetics are definitely a thing, and a fairly common one at that, to varying extents. Power armor is not exactly stand issue, but it does exist, and the NMSF gets fair mileage out of it when cracking more dangerous nuts. The organization honestly blurs the line between police force and a full-blown military, due in part to the jobs it has to tackle. Neo-Mitakihara has a public surveillance system that borders on the outright Orwellian, making small-time crime almost a nonissue... all while the modern technological revolution has led to a massive wave of contraband technology, leaving genuinely dangerous criminal elements equipped with fiendishly advanced technology. When a yakuza bust might put officers toe-to-toe with an honorbound lunatic capable of outrunning a squad car with cybernetic legs or cleaving one in half with a nano-edged katana, rolling in with tanks and power armor doesn't sound so unreasonable. Whatever it takes to keep the peace.

True 'magical technology' almost universally runs off of power supplies that require grief cubes to maintain. It does exist, but the immense value of grief cubes (they both fuel the city's power plants and keep magical girls from dying horribly) caused the NMSF to phase out production and supply decades ago, as magical girls became a more trusted part of the city's fabric. Nobody can deny that magical weapons and armor are effective - they can actually hurt wraiths, and conventional defenses offer vastly diminished protection against a blast of magic compared to a bullet or missile - but economic realities just make armaments an inefficient use of grief cubes. Leave the wraith-hunting to the magical girls, goes the thought process. Some musty stockpiles still exist, but the force has come to favor the much more economically sustainable doctrine of gee-wiz gadgetry and overwhelming firepower in the face of assorted criminal elements.

Okay, cool. That helps me give a bit more focus to his gear, expertise, and so on. I'll try to get a draft of his character entry up later today.

[KnightDisciple]

One crazy Scottish cop, coming right up!

Duncan Turnbull The Third

Spoiler: I'm With Tha Polis!

Show

Full Name Duncan Roddy Angus Turnbull III of the Clan Turnbull, but to his neebur's he's just Dunny!
Age: 30, so he's the bigyin a' his family!
Gender: Male; he's a laddie and no mistake!
Height: 6'4"; he ain't no wee bairn!
Weight: 350 pounds; ain't no fat here but he's still worth a few yockers!
Speech Color: B22222, aka Fire Brick.
Faction: Neo-Mitakihara Security Force; Turnbull's been bobbies for yonks now!
Rank/Station: Special Detective; he's a hoora brilliant investigator and arse-kicker!
Description:

Spoiler: What Does The Daft Fool Look And Act Like?

Show

Duncan's a big guy. Not as big as his weight on the scale might say, but still big. He looks to be solid muscle, but is also almost absurdly pale, assuming he hasn't gotten sunburned again. If not for the fact that he often wears a helmet (and the rest of a suit of power armor), his fiery red hair would be longer; as it is, he tends to keep his hair and beard trimmed fairly short, though they are no less striking for their lack of length.
His daily detective wear (when at the office, examining a crime scene, interviewing witnesses, and so on) typically consists of: a rugged white button-up shirt with no tie; a dark blue waiscoat (which actually incorporates a high-rated stab vest/bulletproof vest combo, courtesy of the latest in protective fabrics); a matching dark blue overcoat that is cut similar to the one worn by beat officers, but which incorporates a few extra pockets, and more of the same miracle protective fabrics; sturdy black boots; knee-high white wool socks; and (unless explicitly ordered not to by his commanding officer with specific reasons as to why) a day kilt in the colors of the Scottish Royal Regiment Black Watch; and a belt with various tools of the trade (detailed below) stored on it. For the sake of general propriety, he deviates from "traditional" wearing of his kilt and makes sure he has some sort of sports shorts on underneath (albeit not very long ones!).
His light combat gear (when anticipating a raid on someone with fairly low-tech gear, or otherwise a "minor" incident) swaps the waistcoat and overcoat for a waterproof jacket with plenty of storage, and a heavy duty protective vest over the top of that. The kilt stays, though he'll often throw some sort of utility pants on underneath them. The utility belt stays, and he often wears a helmet with a clear faceplate if he's really expecting a scrap.
Heavy combat gear detailed below.
For formal dress occasions, he wears a traditional full plaid outfit in the Black Watch colors.

Duncan nearly always has a half-manic smile on his lips, and is surprisingly friendly and approachable for a gigantic kilt-wearing cyborg Scotsman. He might be boisterous with his coworkers, a bit of a force of nature with obstructive bureaucrats or stuffy higher-ups, a veritable typhoon against criminals, but with the average citizens of Neo-Mitakihara, especially the young and elderly, he's basically a giant teddy bear of a man. In a kilt. Who sometimes plays bagpipes.

History:

Spoiler: Where In Blazes Did He Come From And What In Blazes Has He Been Doing?

Show

The Turnbulls have been members of the military and/or law enforcement for some three centuries or so. Duncan Roddy Angus Turnbull II of the Clan Turnbull is a retired Captain in the Scottish police force. He raised Duncan III and his 5 other brothers and sisters to be responsible, law-abiding citizens. Well. As responsible and law-abiding as any rowdy Scottish clan ever is, really. Growing up the oldest made Dunny a wee bit more responsible, but he still raised plenty of mischief in his days.
Duncan decided to do both, and at the youngest possible age signed up with the Scottish military. It was during a "brush" conflict with some rather unruly guerrillas that he lost his right hand and wrist, leading to him being "a bit of a tin man". That time in the military, which included a near-meteoric rise to membership in The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, fast-tracked him for being placed in the NMSF. There, he took to law enforcement like a fish to water, quickly finding himself enjoying the slightly calmer work. If nothing else, he got to sleep on a bed almost every night, instead of a sandy cot.
He's made a bit of a reputation as someone who thinks outside the box. Or occasionally thinks about how to blow the box up. It depends on who you ask. Either way, he's an unmistakable force for good and order (well, more good than "order" but law at least!). He's certainly eager to protect and serve, even after a few years on the "beat".

Skills and Abilities:

Spoiler: What Can He Bloody Well Do And What Does He Know?

Show

Dunny's been given the standard military gene-boost package, meaning he's exceptionally fast, strong, tough, and hard to keep down. He can see slightly into ultraviolet and infrared, enough to get by with minimal lighting, and can hear a bit above and below baseline human. Combine this with his years of training and experience in hand-to-hand, swordsmanship, and marksmanship, and he's a force to be reckoned with.
Thanks to his military training, he has a good grasp of tactics, a basic grounding in strategy and logistics, and solid field medicine/first aid knowledge and experience.
He keeps up with SWAT training courses (meaning he can accompany any such team on a mission with no red tape in his way), and has taken a few CSI courses, enough to be able to understand what the dedicated CSI techs are saying and doing, though not enough to truly do their job. He's adequately skilled with computers and most general technology (that is, not weaponry, protective gear, or automobiles), so long as he's not really angry (then somehow the part of his brain that deals with such things seems to just shut off until he calms down, which leads to hilarious scenes that may or may not involve streams of invective combined with too-careful pecking at a computer keyboard, but may culminate in yet another keyboard flying across the bullpen).
He has a Bachelor of Criminal Justice with a Minor in Psychology with high marks. Currently he's working on his Master of Criminal Justice with emphases in Crime Analysis and Prevention and Control.
Duncan speaks English, Scottish Gaelic, Japanese, and French (the lassies love French!).
He's an excellent driver of cars and similar sized vehicles, and adequate at buses, large trucks, and the like.
He can sing remarkably well, his voice a smooth bass, and can read music or follow by ear. His bagpipe skills are, as expected of the heir of Clan Turnbull, superb.

Augmentations:

Spoiler: What Got Done To His Fool Self?

Show

Genetic: Dunny has the full Military Grade Genetic Enhancement package. This means his body is not just at the peak of human potential, but actually a bit past it. Sometimes called the "Super Soldier Package", it means he can lift several hundred pounds with little real effort, run at speeds that approach that of a cheetah, but with notably more endurance than said animals (albeit with high nutritional requirements to keep himself going), move about with much greater agility than normal, resist major injuries more easily, and recover from wounds both large and small in delightfully less time than normal. His hearing distance is about 50% greater than baseline, and he's able to hear about 10% above and below the normal pitch range of baseline humans. His eyesight is similarly enhanced, giving fantastic distance, clarity, precision, and the ability to see about 5% into ultraviolet and 7% into infrared; while he can't see if there's no light at all, he can see well enough in low light conditions, and many sets of night vision equipment work better for him than almost anyone else.
Cybernetic: Dunny has minimal cybernetics outside of his artificial right hand; mostly there are a few basic nerve implants and enhancements to make sure his flesh-and-blood body keeps up with the hand, a few interfaces specifically for his powered armor, and some low-level semi-organic fiber enhancements to his muscles and skeleton to further up his survivability.
His right hand and wrist are fully cybernetic, with the next few inches of forearm being something of a melding of cybernetic and original. He has about 85% of the tactile sensation in the cybernetic that he did in his original hand, and the exterior skin of it is a semi-organic sheath that can repair light damage to itself by interfacing with his body for nutrients to provide raw materials. The interior structure of the hand renders it a bit more robust than his notably-enhanced body, as well as providing a greater range of flexibility. The power source for the hand is advanced enough to essentially never need recharging. Perhaps the most incredible aspect of the hand is that it is capable of folding in on itself (by way of several discreet, specialized seams and joints) to allow better interfacing with his power armor, particularly the configuration of the armor's own right arm (which is as much due to his request for said configuration as the armor's base design).

Gear/Equipment:

Spoiler: What Darn Fool Gizmos Does He Carry Aboot?

Show

Standard Patrol Gear: When going about his day-to-day business, Duncan carries an array of fairly small and comparatively (well, for Dunny) discrete tools. Typically, alongside the really boring stuff (a few pencils, pens, writing pads, a couple of flashlights, a couple pairs of high-end high-strength handcuffs, a bundle of high-strength zip ties, a high-end pocket multitool, basic first aid supplies), he carries a Scottish dirk (with a blade made from the latest high-end metal alloys and a carbon fiber handle wrapped in high-strength faux leather polymer material), an extendable baton with a built-in less-than-lethal electrical stun generator (helps with crowd control), a pistol loaded with miniature pepper spray pellets that disperse 5-foot clouds, and the standard-issue police energy pistol (with both less-than-lethal stun pulses and full-power bolts that can pierce steel), along with a couple of extra battery magazines for said pistol.
Optional Extra: Dunny got his hands on a set of bagpipes that not only sound like the finest artisan work from the Highlands themselves, but can fold themselves up into a pack that looks like one of those messenger bags. Or, alternatively, can shoot flame from the pipes out to about 4 feet. Normally he just uses this to wow the kiddos and adults alike, but on occasion he's needed to use it to help dissuade a rowdy criminal. Chief Leon has given a lecture about its use but in Dunny's defense he had a headache that day.
Light Combat Gear: Same as SPG, plus a claymore that has a module that coats it in an electrical field that can either be set to blunt the edge (cover it with a blunt energy field, basically) and shock/stun the target, or enhance the cutting power with focused energy field. As well, he arms himself with an assault rifle that has similar settings to his pistol, just more range, more lethal power (stun setting power is the same), and larger energy battery capacity. His combat vest will carry additional battery magazines for the rifle.
Heavy Combat Gear: Only broken out when he knows he's going up against heavily augmented criminals, or criminals utilizing high-end (probably stolen) military-grade gear. Or when he wants to make them soil themselves in abject fear, whichever strikes his fancy at the time. This gear is actually "just" a suit of powered armor, one whose armor and paint is stylized to Dunny's peculiar tastes.
Besides having its tartan pattern using the Black Watch colors, much of the rest of the armor is done up in the dark blue Dunny tends to favor, with a few splashes of silver here and there, while the visor is a somewhat malevolent red.
The armor's shell is made of high-end alloys layered with advanced carbon nanotube meshes, to provide the maximum protection with the minimum weight and space taken. To help make sure Dunny isn't slowed down, the inner frame (made of similar layered alloys and meshes) is laced with actuators and strands of electroreactive polymers and shaped-memory alloys, giving high-end performance no matter the exterior (or interior) temperature. The system is kept cool by advanced thermal management heat sinks that manage to keep up with even the heaviest use. Short-range jump jets allow mobility even in difficult terrain; while the suit itself is capable of run speeds at around 40mph, the lack of one hand and all the extra bulk of its gear and weaponry means it needs a bit of a boost to help it keep up with uncooperative suspects.
The right arm is equipped with a high-end energy cannon, essentially a scaled-up version of the pistol and assault rifle that Dunny uses out of the armor. It is capable of rapid fire with bolts of a similar power to his rifle, or a slower fire rate with shots that approach those thrown out by APC-level weaponry.
The left arm is equipped with a dedicated stun cannon, capable of slightly slower but more powerful shots (for larger or more stubborn targets), or a rapid-fire flurry of stun bolts to assist in crowd control.
The right shoulder bears an equipment pod that can be swapped depending on the mission, but that typically has a few extra sensors and a fair bit of tactical communications and coordination gear (sensors, communication itself, extra computer processing, etc.).
The left shoulder bears a micro-missile pod. Dunny's typical load out is an even mix between general explosive rounds, a few HEAT rounds, a couple of flare rounds (that go in the air and pop a flare to give extra light for the rest of the squad), several flash-bang rounds, and several rounds filled with containment foam (a high-strength foam that expands rapidly but is formulated to allow normal breathing, and is strong enough to hold most baseline humans in place given sufficient coverage).
The whole thing is powered by a small microfusion reactor, paired with an array of high-capacitance batteries (for when he's in actual combat, in case the reactor lags behind on power generation, as it occasionally does with heavy use).

[Selinia]

We seem to be picking up quite a nice roster of interest, so I'm going to go ahead and formally say this is no longer an interest check thread! I'll also be working out something for a character registry shortly. In the meantime...

IC Thread Is Up!

Anyone with an approved character, feel free to kick things off. Anyone still working on theirs, get a submission template up so I can approve it!

One crazy Scottish cop, coming right up!

Duncan Turnbull The Third

Spoiler: I'm With Tha Polis!

Show

Full Name Duncan Roddy Angus Turnbull III of the Clan Turnbull, but to his neebur's he's just Dunny!
Age: 30, so he's the bigyin a' his family!
Gender: Male; he's a laddie and no mistake!
Height: 6'4"; he ain't no wee bairn!
Weight: 350 pounds; ain't no fat here but he's still worth a few yockers!
Speech Color: B22222, aka Fire Brick.
Faction: Neo-Mitakihara Security Force; Turnbull's been bobbies for yonks now!
Rank/Station: Special Detective; he's a hoora brilliant investigator and arse-kicker!
Description:

Spoiler: What Does The Daft Fool Look And Act Like?

Show

Duncan's a big guy. Not as big as his weight on the scale might say, but still big. He looks to be solid muscle, but is also almost absurdly pale, assuming he hasn't gotten sunburned again. If not for the fact that he often wears a helmet (and the rest of a suit of power armor), his fiery red hair would be longer; as it is, he tends to keep his hair and beard trimmed fairly short, though they are no less striking for their lack of length.
His daily detective wear (when at the office, examining a crime scene, interviewing witnesses, and so on) typically consists of: a rugged white button-up shirt with no tie; a dark blue waiscoat (which actually incorporates a high-rated stab vest/bulletproof vest combo, courtesy of the latest in protective fabrics); a matching dark blue overcoat that is cut similar to the one worn by beat officers, but which incorporates a few extra pockets, and more of the same miracle protective fabrics; sturdy black boots; knee-high white wool socks; and (unless explicitly ordered not to by his commanding officer with specific reasons as to why) a day kilt in the colors of the Scottish Royal Regiment Black Watch; and a belt with various tools of the trade (detailed below) stored on it. For the sake of general propriety, he deviates from "traditional" wearing of his kilt and makes sure he has some sort of sports shorts on underneath (albeit not very long ones!).
His light combat gear (when anticipating a raid on someone with fairly low-tech gear, or otherwise a "minor" incident) swaps the waistcoat and overcoat for a waterproof jacket with plenty of storage, and a heavy duty protective vest over the top of that. The kilt stays, though he'll often throw some sort of utility pants on underneath them. The utility belt stays, and he often wears a helmet with a clear faceplate if he's really expecting a scrap.
Heavy combat gear detailed below.
For formal dress occasions, he wears a traditional full plaid outfit in the Black Watch colors.

Duncan nearly always has a half-manic smile on his lips, and is surprisingly friendly and approachable for a gigantic kilt-wearing cyborg Scotsman. He might be boisterous with his coworkers, a bit of a force of nature with obstructive bureaucrats or stuffy higher-ups, a veritable typhoon against criminals, but with the average citizens of Neo-Mitakihara, especially the young and elderly, he's basically a giant teddy bear of a man. In a kilt. Who sometimes plays bagpipes.

History:

Spoiler: Where In Blazes Did He Come From And What In Blazes Has He Been Doing?

Show

The Turnbulls have been members of the military and/or law enforcement for some three centuries or so. Duncan Roddy Angus Turnbull II of the Clan Turnbull is a retired Captain in the Scottish police force. He raised Duncan III and his 5 other brothers and sisters to be responsible, law-abiding citizens. Well. As responsible and law-abiding as any rowdy Scottish clan ever is, really. Growing up the oldest made Dunny a wee bit more responsible, but he still raised plenty of mischief in his days.
Duncan decided to do both, and at the youngest possible age signed up with the Scottish military. It was during a "brush" conflict with some rather unruly guerrillas that he lost his right hand and wrist, leading to him being "a bit of a tin man". That time in the military, which included a near-meteoric rise to membership in The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, fast-tracked him for being placed in the NMSF. There, he took to law enforcement like a fish to water, quickly finding himself enjoying the slightly calmer work. If nothing else, he got to sleep on a bed almost every night, instead of a sandy cot.
He's made a bit of a reputation as someone who thinks outside the box. Or occasionally thinks about how to blow the box up. It depends on who you ask. Either way, he's an unmistakable force for good and order (well, more good than "order" but law at least!). He's certainly eager to protect and serve, even after a few years on the "beat".

Skills and Abilities:

Spoiler: What Can He Bloody Well Do And What Does He Know?

Show

Dunny's been given the standard military gene-boost package, meaning he's exceptionally fast, strong, tough, and hard to keep down. He can see slightly into ultraviolet and infrared, enough to get by with minimal lighting, and can hear a bit above and below baseline human. Combine this with his years of training and experience in hand-to-hand, swordsmanship, and marksmanship, and he's a force to be reckoned with.
Thanks to his military training, he has a good grasp of tactics, a basic grounding in strategy and logistics, and solid field medicine/first aid knowledge and experience.
He keeps up with SWAT training courses (meaning he can accompany any such team on a mission with no red tape in his way), and has taken a few CSI courses, enough to be able to understand what the dedicated CSI techs are saying and doing, though not enough to truly do their job. He's adequately skilled with computers and most general technology (that is, not weaponry, protective gear, or automobiles), so long as he's not really angry (then somehow the part of his brain that deals with such things seems to just shut off until he calms down, which leads to hilarious scenes that may or may not involve streams of invective combined with too-careful pecking at a computer keyboard, but may culminate in yet another keyboard flying across the bullpen).
He has a Bachelor of Criminal Justice with a Minor in Psychology with high marks. Currently he's working on his Master of Criminal Justice with emphases in Crime Analysis and Prevention and Control.
He's an excellent driver of cars and similar sized vehicles, and adequate at buses, large trucks, and the like.
He can sing remarkably well, his voice a smooth bass, and can read music or follow by ear. His bagpipe skills are, as expected of the heir of Clan Turnbull, superb.

Augmentations:

Spoiler: What Got Done To His Fool Self?

Show

Genetic: Dunny has the full Military Grade Genetic Enhancement package. This means his body is not just at the peak of human potential, but actually a bit past it. Sometimes called the "Super Soldier Package", it means he can lift several hundred pounds with little real effort, run at speeds that approach that of a cheetah, but with notably more endurance than said animals (albeit with high nutritional requirements to keep himself going), move about with much greater agility than normal, resist major injuries more easily, and recover from wounds both large and small in delightfully less time than normal. His hearing distance is about 50% greater than baseline, and he's able to hear about 10% above and below the normal pitch range of baseline humans. His eyesight is similarly enhanced, giving fantastic distance, clarity, precision, and the ability to see about 5% into ultraviolet and 7% into infrared; while he can't see if there's no light at all, he can see well enough in low light conditions, and many sets of night vision equipment work better for him than almost anyone else.
Cybernetic: Dunny has minimal cybernetics outside of his artificial right hand; mostly there are a few basic nerve implants and enhancements to make sure his flesh-and-blood body keeps up with the hand, a few interfaces specifically for his powered armor, and some low-level semi-organic fiber enhancements to his muscles and skeleton to further up his survivability.
His right hand and wrist are fully cybernetic, with the next few inches of forearm being something of a melding of cybernetic and original. He has about 85% of the tactile sensation in the cybernetic that he did in his original hand, and the exterior skin of it is a semi-organic sheath that can repair light damage to itself by interfacing with his body for nutrients to provide raw materials. The interior structure of the hand renders it a bit more robust than his notably-enhanced body, as well as providing a greater range of flexibility. The power source for the hand is advanced enough to essentially never need recharging. Perhaps the most incredible aspect of the hand is that it is capable of folding in on itself (by way of several discreet, specialized seams and joints) to allow better interfacing with his power armor, particularly the configuration of the armor's own right arm (which is as much due to his request for said configuration as the armor's base design).

Gear/Equipment:

Spoiler: What Darn Fool Gizmos Does He Carry Aboot?

Show

Standard Patrol Gear: When going about his day-to-day business, Duncan carries an array of fairly small and comparatively (well, for Dunny) discrete tools. Typically, alongside the really boring stuff (a few pencils, pens, writing pads, a couple of flashlights, a couple pairs of high-end high-strength handcuffs, a bundle of high-strength zip ties, a high-end pocket multitool, basic first aid supplies), he carries a Scottish dirk (with a blade made from the latest high-end metal alloys and a carbon fiber handle wrapped in high-strength faux leather polymer material), an extendable baton with a built-in less-than-lethal electrical stun generator (helps with crowd control), a pistol loaded with miniature pepper spray pellets that disperse 5-foot clouds, and the standard-issue police energy pistol (with both less-than-lethal stun pulses and full-power bolts that can pierce steel), along with a couple of extra battery magazines for said pistol.
Optional Extra: Dunny got his hands on a set of bagpipes that not only sound like the finest artisan work from the Highlands themselves, but can fold themselves up into a pack that looks like one of those messenger bags. Or, alternatively, can shoot flame from the pipes out to about 4 feet. Normally he just uses this to wow the kiddos and adults alike, but on occasion he's needed to use it to help dissuade a rowdy criminal. Chief Leon has given a lecture about its use but in Dunny's defense he had a headache that day.
Light Combat Gear: Same as SPG, plus a claymore that has a module that coats it in an electrical field that can either be set to blunt the edge (cover it with a blunt energy field, basically) and shock/stun the target, or enhance the cutting power with focused energy field. As well, he arms himself with an assault rifle that has similar settings to his pistol, just more range, more lethal power (stun setting power is the same), and larger energy battery capacity. His combat vest will carry additional battery magazines for the rifle.
Heavy Combat Gear: Only broken out when he knows he's going up against heavily augmented criminals, or criminals utilizing high-end (probably stolen) military-grade gear. Or when he wants to make them soil themselves in abject fear, whichever strikes his fancy at the time. This gear is actually "just" a suit of powered armor, one whose armor and paint is stylized to Dunny's peculiar tastes.
Besides having its tartan pattern using the Black Watch colors, much of the rest of the armor is done up in the dark blue Dunny tends to favor, with a few splashes of silver here and there, while the visor is a somewhat malevolent red.
The armor's shell is made of high-end alloys layered with advanced carbon nanotube meshes, to provide the maximum protection with the minimum weight and space taken. To help make sure Dunny isn't slowed down, the inner frame (made of similar layered alloys and meshes) is laced with actuators and strands of electroreactive polymers and shaped-memory alloys, giving high-end performance no matter the exterior (or interior) temperature. The system is kept cool by advanced thermal management heat sinks that manage to keep up with even the heaviest use. Short-range jump jets allow mobility even in difficult terrain; while the suit itself is capable of run speeds at around 40mph, the lack of one hand and all the extra bulk of its gear and weaponry means it needs a bit of a boost to help it keep up with uncooperative suspects.
The right arm is equipped with a high-end energy cannon, essentially a scaled-up version of the pistol and assault rifle that Dunny uses out of the armor. It is capable of rapid fire with bolts of a similar power to his rifle, or a slower fire rate with shots that approach those thrown out by APC-level weaponry.
The left arm is equipped with a dedicated stun cannon, capable of slightly slower but more powerful shots (for larger or more stubborn targets), or a rapid-fire flurry of stun bolts to assist in crowd control.
The right shoulder bears an equipment pod that can be swapped depending on the mission, but that typically has a few extra sensors and a fair bit of tactical communications and coordination gear (sensors, communication itself, extra computer processing, etc.).
The left shoulder bears a micro-missile pod. Dunny's typical load out is an even mix between general explosive rounds, a few HEAT rounds, a couple of flare rounds (that go in the air and pop a flare to give extra light for the rest of the squad), several flash-bang rounds, and several rounds filled with containment foam (a high-strength foam that expands rapidly but is formulated to allow normal breathing, and is strong enough to hold most baseline humans in place given sufficient coverage).
The whole thing is powered by a small microfusion reactor, paired with an array of high-capacitance batteries (for when he's in actual combat, in case the reactor lags behind on power generation, as it occasionally does with heavy use).

This all looks bloody ridiculous. Which is to say, it works in my book! Consider Dunny approved.

[KnightDisciple]

We seem to be picking up quite a nice roster of interest, so I'm going to go ahead and formally say this is no longer an interest check thread! I'll also be working out something for a character registry shortly. In the meantime...

IC Thread Is Up!

Anyone with an approved character, feel free to kick things off. Anyone still working on theirs, get a submission template up so I can approve it!

This all looks bloody ridiculous. Which is to say, it works in my book! Consider Dunny approved.

"Bloody ridiculous" is kind of the idea, yes.

Also, I apparently seem to have picked a good game to be a police-aligned character!

That's not to say I'll jump right in; I'll wait to see what shakes out here, and any further posting will be tomorrow, or possibly later, we'll see.

[Selinia]

And while we're here...

The Desolation of Mitakihara

Spoiler

Show

In the early twenty-first century, Mitakihara gained worldwide fame (some might say infamy) as one of the boom towns of the millenium's turning. Built on a thriving industry of high-tech manufacturing and research that drew comparisons to Silicon Valley, Mitakihara took advantage of a shifting global economy to explode in wealth and almost unheard-of prosperity. So glutted were the city's coffers that its skyline became an almost surreal collage of architectural marvels, perhaps most famously in the cathedral-like middle school that was probably commissioned by a government official on some sort of drugs. This prosperity only multiplied when magical girls abandoned their veil of secrecy, egged on by Tomoe Mami - a charismatic early leader in the magical girl community, and one of the most renowned mashou of all time.

Many historians also point to this era as the the point when the Goddess Cult, a sect of magical girls (and eventually humans) that reveres a personified form of the Law of Cycles as a benevolent deity, took root in the general consciousness. For the faithful and historically curious alike, sleuthing out evidence of the cult's originator has become something of an academic holy grail... but all signs point to that secret being lost in the rubble of Mitakihara for good. Should anyone find it, the theological implications for over a billion followers of the cult worldwide could be enormous.

Despite several close calls in the magic war, the city remained largely untouched by fighting, making its ultimate fate, if anything, even crueler. With study of magica and wraiths still young, the possibility of an anomalous gathering of the malignant entities - an event now granted the popular moniker of a Wraithstorm (and several scientific ones that never caught on) - was still unknown. Modern historians now pin the Mitakihara Wraithstorm as the likely the fourth in recorded history, but the fate met by the city on that day in the summer of 2045 was something utterly alien to those who experienced it. Without warning or discernible cause, the city and its guardian mashou were overrun by an inhuman swarm. Magical girls faced a choice of death in battle against impossible odds or abandoning their homes and loved ones to a grisly fate. Humans, meanwhile, were faced with no choice at all. They simply died in droves.

Were it not for the actions of a handful of valiant mashou at the hour of truth, the Wraithstorm would have no doubt dispersed into the surrounding countryside, slaughtering indiscriminately through towns and cities until its components could eventually be hunted down. Such was the case in the storms attributed to history, most chillingly in the European die-off that was once attributed to the bubonic plague. The heroes who staved off this fate - the Mitakihara Seven - sacrificed their collective soul gems in a blast of magic powerful enough to not only cleanse the city, but shatter the leves that had held the ocean at bay, burying the Shining City beneath the waves.

This act - and the image of the shattered husk of Mitakihara, free of wraiths - were seared into the minds of the next generation of magical girls, and into the people of Japan and the wider world. More than any before it, it helped to break down the barriers between humans and magical girls, and to shift the public perception of mashou from 'threat' to 'protector'. Mitakihara had fallen, but Neo-Mitakihara was on the rise, wielding its legacy to anchor itself firmly as the hub of magic in the world.

Sato Arata (Deceased)

Spoiler

Show

Considering his lofty position as the mayor of Japan's second-ranked city in population (and first in per-capita income, not to mention being ranked first worldwide in resident magical girls), Mr. Sato began his political career at a late age. With an early life that traced a path from a medical student to a combat medic on the Chinese front of the Magic War to a volunteer for the Wishcraft foundation's humanitarian programs, Arata spent a large portion of his time away from Japan entirely, let alone Japanese politics. He returned to his home city of Mitakihara in 2043, at the age of thirty-three, where he lived for a time working to help establish the Wishcraft headquarters. Headquarters that would - it was hoped - provide a safe haven for magical girls from around the world.

The wraithstorm stripped Arata of home and family, and very nearly of life and limb - he was saved by sheer dumb luck, having taken a train to a neighboring city for a two-day business trip. On his return, all seemed lost. The once-soldier offered what expertise he had to the relief effort. While a political position was out of the question for someone with such close ties to the Wishcraft foundation, Arata gained some prominence as a community leader over the next two decades. His time was spent promoting cooperation with magica and allaying public fears over security policies (viewed as invasive or totalitarian by many at the time) designed to protect the population from wraiths and the deadly new breed of techno-criminals slowly rising to prominence.

It was not until 2067, with attitudes towards magical girls softened somewhat and his background as a Wishcraft volunteer more distant, that Sato Arata first ran for a local office in one of Neo-Mitakihara's (then fourteen) districts. What followed was a steady but unhurried rise through the city's power structure, culminating in election as mayor in 2085. With a history of experience combined with a wry smile and easy charisma, Arata served for eleven years as one of Neo-Mitakihara's most popular mayors, seemingly disinclined to rise beyond that station. Under his management, the past decade has seen the city push towards bringing magical girls and humans closer together than ever before, and generous economic incentives have helped drive the city's researchers in unflinching pursuit of knowledge on the nature and capabilities of magic in all its forms.

Unfortunately, he died.

[KnightDisciple]

@Selinia, those are some very nice entries. Informative without being too wordy or the like.
The 1st IC post is a great setup, too. Gives a good idea of our game tone.

How much more set-up should we expect before we jump in?

[Kuroimaken]

Alright, keep in mind this is mostly supposed to be a work in progress. I'll tweak any real important details as they come up!

First off, let's go with my not-so-nice character!

Kujoh Makoto

Age: 16
Gender: Male (and not just because he's a major ****)
Height: 158 cm (sorry guys, I don't do inches)
Weight: Scrawny!
Faction: Wishcraft Foundation (but with an agenda!)
Rank/Station: Technically not really applicable (see background)

Description:

Spoiler

Show

Makoto is a scrawny, short teen. He has waist-long, fiery red hair that he likes to style in a topknot much of the time, and his lack of muscle tone gives him a mildly androgynous feel right up until he opens his mouth, having a much too baritone voice for someone his size. His features are soft, in some ways almost child-like, with sharp green eyes and lightly tanned skin. He changes wardrobe often, but seems to have a preference for late 19th century wear, both Western and Japanese. "Modern male Haute Couture is for suckers", he claims, and has in fact created his own clothing line.

History:

Spoiler

Show

Makoto was, simply put, born with a silver spoon in his mouth. The Kujoh family controls the like-named Kujoh Zaibatsu, an international conglomerate whose economic ascension was almost directly tied to the Wishcraft Foundation and the adoption of magical technology. They are arguably responsible for one of the first fuel-efficient grief cube generators, and seven out of every ten inventions that employ magic energy in some fashion. Having been raised in an absolutely ruthless psychological environment, completely divested of the simplest notion of morals, and thoroughly neglected in respect to the smallest gesture of love and appreciation, in addition to having his genetics heavily tampered with, Makoto became the most rotten, twisted little psycho you'll ever meet. He became a mashou, like many, for the wish it granted - but not out of selflessness in any respect.

Augmentations:

Spoiler

Show

If genetics were a chapter of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, whoever messed with Makoto's wanted to make Kars. Everything from his health to his complexion was improved. The mildest trace of genetic components leading to disease? Erased. Intellect? Amplified by God only knows how much. Even his otherwise short build had a purpose - mostly to improve his longevity and avoid diseases associated with greater demands later in life. His bones and muscles were also artificially enhanced to be almost on par with a low-level mashou BEFORE he became one. All of his augmentations are biochemical, however - which places a definite limit against cybernetic augmentations of the same type.

Mashou info:

Spoiler

Show

Wish: Makoto desired to be able to read and manipulate the hearts and minds of people. In so many words, he's a telepath. He can both read and implant information onto a subject's mind - and erase or overwrite it, as well. This power has two levels, which essentially depend on the resistance of the victim's mind. At level 1, the victim is unaware that anything is amiss even on a failed attempt to read or influence the mind. At level 2, resistance is not just noticeable, but painful and immediate, and the victim can instinctively pinpoint its source. It also requires greater effort on Makoto's part, and can result in him "breaking" a part of the victim's mind if he goes too far. For both of those reasons, he prefers not to use level 2, due to how tasteless it is. Mashou are neither particularly resistant nor susceptible to this power. As far as he's been able to ascertain, there is a certain level of correlation between the fear his victim has of him and the ease with which he can establish use of his power - and he can tell how far he can go without forcing the use of level 2. He doesn't know how other emotions relate to his power, though he supposes negative emotions in general lower one's resistance. Memories "stolen" or control established in this fashion can both be restored to their former states through a combination of therapy, epiphanies and psychological trauma (in other words, moments of growth for the character under the effect). The power requires that Makoto make live visual contact at least once with his victim, so a photograph, a still from a camera or a recording doesn't work, but a live camera or direct observation does. (In meta terms, anyone can feel free to volunteer information he should be able to gather through use of this ability at their leisure, or it can be used as a plot device. Thus, any reason can be used to resist it, even passively, if the target player so desires. It is a consent-only ability.)

Costume/thematics: Red. Leather. Chains. Lots of exposed skin. Bulging speedos. Need I really say more, or should I draw it so you can all be traumatized forever?

Abilities: Aside from the usual physical boosts (added on top of his genetic manipulation), Makoto has discovered that many wraiths are particularly susceptible to broadcasting their thoughts in the middle of battle, which often translates into what appears to be low-level precognition. His knack for fighting is also amplified by the speed at which his brain normally works, making him a highly tactical fighter. As such, it is no surprise that his greatest skill lies with a weapon that is capable of multiple configurations.

He calls it Alice's Treasure Box, as a direct shout-out to a doujinshi circle from the early 21st century he really likes. Essentially, the weapon changes shape in many different ways, adapting to the situation as required. It can be of any size from a dagger to roughly twice Makoto's admittedly small size, shifting into anything from lances to swords to daggers to armor to miniature wave motion cannons. All of them share certain characteristics, however.

1- The bigger they are, the less durable they are. Thus, the biggest guns he can make up are good for one shot only before they must shift into something much smaller.
2- All of his weapons have a hit limit, which he counts in "bullets". This is because each direct hit causes an impact that consumes one "bullet", which is then ejected. Parries and near-misses cause no direct expenditure, but the weapon may overheat if used in this fashion for long, forcing him to eject a bullet in any case. (This is the case even for shields, but those have a higher ammo limit as they are not used for attacking)
3- When a weapon is out of bullets, it cannot be accessed until it "reloads". This also happens when a weapon overheats, but the "cooldown" period is much longer. The more weapons in a reload cycle, the least bullets he has available for the remaining weapons. Therefore, using the big guns in rapid succession will cause him to run out of options very soon.

In addition to this, Makoto has a main elemental power: heat control. Most of his magic shots have either a hot or cold variant, but he doesn't need to shoot necessarily in order to use this - he can control heat remotely up to one mile, provided he has a clear line of sight to the location. His most common use of this ability consists in rapidly supercooling an impact point shortly before smashing it in with a heat-infused strike, thus amplifying the damage from thermal shock. Hot or cold variants do not count as separate "bullets" for his weapons.

[Selinia]

@Selinia, those are some very nice entries. Informative without being too wordy or the like.
The 1st IC post is a great setup, too. Gives a good idea of our game tone.

How much more set-up should we expect before we jump in?

You can jump in essentially anywhere, at any time you feel ready. Arato's assassination is a possible plot hook (pretty much every faction is going to experience some manner of ripple from it - he was a highly respected and very well-connected man), but you can feel free to come up with your own responses and plots, and more stuff will doubtless be happening over the course of the game.

Alright, keep in mind this is mostly supposed to be a work in progress. I'll tweak any real important details as they come up!

First off, let's go with my not-so-nice character!

Kujoh Makoto

Age: 16
Gender: Male (and not just because he's a major ****)
Height: 158 cm (sorry guys, I don't do inches)
Weight: Scrawny!
Faction: Wishcraft Foundation (but with an agenda!)
Rank/Station: Technically not really applicable (see background)

Description:

Spoiler

Show

Makoto is a scrawny, short teen. He has waist-long, fiery red hair that he likes to style in a topknot much of the time, and his lack of muscle tone gives him a mildly androgynous feel right up until he opens his mouth, having a much too baritone voice for someone his size. His features are soft, in some ways almost child-like, with sharp green eyes and lightly tanned skin. He changes wardrobe often, but seems to have a preference for late 19th century wear, both Western and Japanese. "Modern male Haute Couture is for suckers", he claims, and has in fact created his own clothing line.

History:

Spoiler

Show

Makoto was, simply put, born with a silver spoon in his mouth. The Kujoh family controls the like-named Kujoh Zaibatsu, an international conglomerate whose economic ascension was almost directly tied to the Wishcraft Foundation and the adoption of magical technology. They are arguably responsible for one of the first fuel-efficient grief cube generators, and seven out of every ten inventions that employ magic energy in some fashion. Having been raised in an absolutely ruthless psychological environment, completely divested of the simplest notion of morals, and thoroughly neglected in respect to the smallest gesture of love and appreciation, in addition to having his genetics heavily tampered with, Makoto became the most rotten, twisted little psycho you'll ever meet. He became a mashou, like many, for the wish it granted - but not out of selflessness in any respect.

Augmentations:

Spoiler

Show

If genetics were a chapter of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, whoever messed with Makoto's wanted to make Kars. Everything from his health to his complexion was improved. The mildest trace of genetic components leading to disease? Erased. Intellect? Amplified by God only knows how much. Even his otherwise short build had a purpose - mostly to improve his longevity and avoid diseases associated with greater demands later in life. His bones and muscles were also artificially enhanced to be almost on par with a low-level mashou BEFORE he became one. All of his augmentations are biochemical, however - which places a definite limit against cybernetic augmentations of the same type.

Mashou info:

Spoiler

Show

Wish: Makoto desired to be able to read and manipulate the hearts and minds of people. In so many words, he's a telepath. He can both read and implant information onto a subject's mind - and erase or overwrite it, as well. This power has two levels, which essentially depend on the resistance of the victim's mind. At level 1, the victim is unaware that anything is amiss even on a failed attempt to read or influence the mind. At level 2, resistance is not just noticeable, but painful and immediate, and the victim can instinctively pinpoint its source. It also requires greater effort on Makoto's part, and can result in him "breaking" a part of the victim's mind if he goes too far. For both of those reasons, he prefers not to use level 2, due to how tasteless it is. Mashou are neither particularly resistant nor susceptible to this power. As far as he's been able to ascertain, there is a certain level of correlation between the fear his victim has of him and the ease with which he can establish use of his power - and he can tell how far he can go without forcing the use of level 2. He doesn't know how other emotions relate to his power, though he supposes negative emotions in general lower one's resistance. Memories "stolen" or control established in this fashion can both be restored to their former states through a combination of therapy, epiphanies and psychological trauma (in other words, moments of growth for the character under the effect). The power requires that Makoto make live visual contact at least once with his victim, so a photograph, a still from a camera or a recording doesn't work, but a live camera or direct observation does. (In meta terms, anyone can feel free to volunteer information he should be able to gather through use of this ability at their leisure, or it can be used as a plot device. Thus, any reason can be used to resist it, even passively, if the target player so desires. It is a consent-only ability.)

Costume/thematics: Red. Leather. Chains. Lots of exposed skin. Bulging speedos. Need I really say more, or should I draw it so you can all be traumatized forever?

Abilities: Aside from the usual physical boosts (added on top of his genetic manipulation), Makoto has discovered that many wraiths are particularly susceptible to broadcasting their thoughts in the middle of battle, which often translates into what appears to be low-level precognition. His knack for fighting is also amplified by the speed at which his brain normally works, making him a highly tactical fighter. As such, it is no surprise that his greatest skill lies with a weapon that is capable of multiple configurations.

He calls it Alice's Treasure Box, as a direct shout-out to a doujinshi circle from the early 21st century he really likes. Essentially, the weapon changes shape in many different ways, adapting to the situation as required. It can be of any size from a dagger to roughly twice Makoto's admittedly small size, shifting into anything from lances to swords to daggers to armor to miniature wave motion cannons. All of them share certain characteristics, however.

1- The bigger they are, the less durable they are. Thus, the biggest guns he can make up are good for one shot only before they must shift into something much smaller.
2- All of his weapons have a hit limit, which he counts in "bullets". This is because each direct hit causes an impact that consumes one "bullet", which is then ejected. Parries and near-misses cause no direct expenditure, but the weapon may overheat if used in this fashion for long, forcing him to eject a bullet in any case. (This is the case even for shields, but those have a higher ammo limit as they are not used for attacking)
3- When a weapon is out of bullets, it cannot be accessed until it "reloads". This also happens when a weapon overheats, but the "cooldown" period is much longer. The more weapons in a reload cycle, the least bullets he has available for the remaining weapons. Therefore, using the big guns in rapid succession will cause him to run out of options very soon.

In addition to this, Makoto has a main elemental power: heat control. Most of his magic shots have either a hot or cold variant, but he doesn't need to shoot necessarily in order to use this - he can control heat remotely up to one mile, provided he has a clear line of sight to the location. His most common use of this ability consists in rapidly supercooling an impact point shortly before smashing it in with a heat-infused strike, thus amplifying the damage from thermal shock. Hot or cold variants do not count as separate "bullets" for his weapons.

This looks like a solid idea! It is worth noting, however, a few things Makoto might want to be wary of.

One, mind control is very, very, very illegal. Chemical or magical in nature doesn't really matter, it's a high profile crime. Mashou have a certain degree of... leniency when it comes to the law (actually doing anything about lawbreaking magical girls or boys is just such a pain), but mind control is one area where tolerances are likely to be lower than normal.

Two, on a similar note, minds controlled or modified by magic (and really, anything altered by magic) can be sniffed out pretty clearly by other mashou. A 'sixth sense' for magically-touched things is something pretty much any magical girl will possess, to a greater or lesser extent. At the very least, any mashou will almost certainly be aware that tampering has been done if it's targeted at them.

Aside from those, the only thing I might suggest, given his origins, is shifting his family's focus from magic-fueled technology to biotechnology. He seems spliced up enough that it'd make sense for his family to be pulling some strings with experimental serums and the like, and it'd set them up as more distinct entities from the magically-fueled and power/industry focused ZealTech. Or making them major players on the board of directors there. Or keeping them as-is, and giving a magitechnical rivalry running between the two groups, if you think that'd be more interesting. Just thoughts!

[Kuroimaken]

Mkay, let me mull over those a bit.

1) Oh, definitely. This isn't something he makes light of, and probably doesn't want others to find out. His primary use is for obtaining information, manipulating other people is for when all else fails! (I imagine his family can grease a few palms, but there's a limit to the effectiveness of that tactic.)

2) I can imagine that altering would definitely leave a trace. Would reading do the same, though? And perhaps more importantly, could it be traced to him, directly? Anyone can probably piece together with enough evidence, but does it leave a signature?

3) Nothing really prevents a mix-up. It could be that the Kujoh Zaibatsu was originally focused on technology specifically, but with ZealTech gaining more ground, they decided to branch into bioengineering. Stuff like studying the regeneration of magical girls to provide new health treatments and whatnot. They could still be rivals on some level, they're just not up to a point where they're equal to each other in their respective fields (i.e. the Kujohs in magitech and ZealTech in bioengineering). Basically, they could be Sony, except with no incompetent leaders in their entertainment divisions.

[Sucrose]

Hm. Been some time since I logged on. Still, I do have interest in this premise, and the cast of characters is looking rather interesting. So, suppose that I'll throw my hat into the ring.

Watanabe Satou/ “Reaper Satou”

Spoiler

Show

Age: 56
Gender: Male
Faction: Neo-Mitakihara Security Force
Rank: Detective
Height: 180 cm
Weight: 285 kg. (looks as though he weighs ~90)
Description:

Spoiler

Show

The first thing that most people notice when encountering Watanabe Satou is the almost palpable aura of weary cynicism that follows him like a stormcloud through the bright lanes of the city. The second would be the fact that he’s about half a head taller than most. The third would be his face, a weathered edifice with surprisingly piercing eyes, a seemingly permanent five-o’-clock shadow, and a roughly combed back silver mane of hair.

Remarkably, his absurd clothing comes in only a distant fourth. He is almost always found in a black trenchcoat, thick gloves, and combat boots. On those rare occasions that he removes the coat, revealing (usually) a buttoned-down office shirt and dress pants held up by suspenders, people generally understand why.

While Neo-Mitakihara could be charitably called a police state, in terms of surveillance and response to threats to public peace, its security forces still seek to project a friendly image toward the public. Even if his winning personality were capable of it, Watanabe Satou could never manage that. He has quite extreme augmentations, and is very obviously built as a war machine. (See Augmentations)

Augmentations:

Spoiler

Show

Watanabe Satou was designed as a titan of the battlefield, capable of facing wraiths with strength, speed, stamina, and toughness comparable to the most physically-inclined mashou. His limbs were replaced with Gundanium prosthetics, built with a magitech alloy designed by a rather ingenious otaku, which are several times stronger than most other materials, with servos powered by extremely high-capacity batteries, charged at fusion plants.

Within them are myriad self-sharpening monomolecular blades, capable of slicing through essentially anything that doesn’t outright require magic to destroy. The scything appearance of these blades was how he acquired the nickname of “Reaper Satou.” His entire remaining skeleton was likewise coated in Gundanium, and his brain protected by a sheath of biocompatible ballistic gel, in a rather painful (and likely lethal, without magical healing techniques) series of surgeries, allowing him to survive the forces that his new limbs could subject him to at maximum power. His skin was also implanted with Steelskin, a precursor to Duraskin, a military-grade augmentation that allows minimal damage from any purely physical attack up to an anti-tank rifle.

To allow his brain to keep up with the speed of his limbs, he was outfitted with an adrenal booster, capable of massively augmenting his perceptual speed.

In order to destroy the cores of wraiths, which are metaphysical, and thereby do require magic to finish off, he was outfitted with a revolver that he nicknamed “Betty,” capable of firing specialized ammunition made of grief cubes, creating bullets of pure magic, in a facsimile of a true mashou weapon.

He was also granted a lab module for his left hand, allowing state-of-the-art analyses of wraith attack sites.

All of this was thirty years ago.

Today, when operating to spec, Satou remains as terrifying a force as ever. However, his augmentations were not designed to last this long- he was expected to perish in the line of duty within twenty years. His limbs’ high-capacity batteries are now limited to five minutes of full-power service life between charges- maybe another minute if he’s okay with being paralyzed thereafter. His adrenal booster sometimes partially activates when it shouldn’t, granting him night terrors.

With the physical adjustments of aging, his Steelskin implants dig into a few of his organs, causing him continuous, low-grade pain. And his heart is weakened by overuse of his adrenaline. His augmentations, built so deeply into him that they could not be knocked offline by a wide variety of attacks, can also not be removed without surgery that, after several years of Satou’s cells growing over them, would have a decent chance of killing the old soldier.

Finally, grief cubes have become a very highly sought-after commodity. As such, the NMSF cannot justify the expense of creating new bullets for Betty. Thus, Reaper Satou is no longer tasked with hunting wraiths, except as a last resort.

Instead, he uses his lab module, and his decades of experience as a hunter of the most elusive magical prey, to protect the people of Neo-Mitakihara from other threats, such as the new class of magitech criminals who infest the city, or to begin the wraith hunt for the mashou who now work alongside the rest of the Security Force. The steps needed to track magitech crime have steadily beaten much of his idealism out of him, but Satou remains a devoted, if weary, protector of the city.

He is known to have other, classified duties. Those who play characters with very high clearance regarding the Neo-Mitakihara Security Force, or who are likewise upon the STR team, are welcome to read further.

Spoiler

Show

Reaper Satou’s nickname takes a darker meaning for those in the know. In addition to the publically acknowledged roles of investigators of unusual wraith incidents and hunters of magitech criminals, the STR team is also responsible for the quasi-legal execution of mashou deemed to be a public security hazard. This classification is not made lightly, but, once made, there are no checks on the STR team carrying out that duty, save their own conscience.

Reaper Satou, due to his long experience, and combination of duty to the public and sympathy for mashou, given the formative experience of having his life, among others, saved by the Mitakihara Seven, is one of the few tasked with deciding upon, and carrying out, these executions. For them, if he cannot carry out the task with more subtlety, he wields one of the more advanced rifles available to the NMSF- a gyrojet gun connected to the entire NMSF surveillance network, capable of making up to seven 90 degree turns, and locking on to a given target.

History:

Spoiler

Show

Watanabe Satou was one of the traumatized survivors of the desolation of Mitakihara, living largely thanks to the efforts of Mayor Sato and those like him. The rage and sorrow that he felt at the suffering of those around him were quite remarkable in a child, and he swore, when he could, that he would do whatever was necessary to protect people from such a tragedy ever repeating itself. To that end, when the opportunity came for normal humans to step up, and gain the power to protect their community from wraiths, he readily accepted it.

[Kuroimaken]

Sucrose! Long time, man.

Is Satou's name an intentional pun with your screen name?

[Sucrose]

Yo, Kuroimaken! It isn't, just a happy accident. Care to enlighten me?

[Kuroimaken]

Satou is homophonous with the Japanese word for sugar. Hence my question.

[Selinia]

Mkay, let me mull over those a bit.

1) Oh, definitely. This isn't something he makes light of, and probably doesn't want others to find out. His primary use is for obtaining information, manipulating other people is for when all else fails! (I imagine his family can grease a few palms, but there's a limit to the effectiveness of that tactic.)

2) I can imagine that altering would definitely leave a trace. Would reading do the same, though? And perhaps more importantly, could it be traced to him, directly? Anyone can probably piece together with enough evidence, but does it leave a signature?

3) Nothing really prevents a mix-up. It could be that the Kujoh Zaibatsu was originally focused on technology specifically, but with ZealTech gaining more ground, they decided to branch into bioengineering. Stuff like studying the regeneration of magical girls to provide new health treatments and whatnot. They could still be rivals on some level, they're just not up to a point where they're equal to each other in their respective fields (i.e. the Kujohs in magitech and ZealTech in bioengineering). Basically, they could be Sony, except with no incompetent leaders in their entertainment divisions.

All of that is sounding good!

For 1), money helps, as does having actual friends in the Wishcraft foundation. Mashou have a tendency to protect their friends, much to the frustration of some investigators. While this is a noble sentiment, it often makes the job of tracking down toxic elements harder than it needs to be. Of course, this is less effective if nobody likes you.

To answer 2), reading doesn't leave traces if you don't shuffle things around, but it is still an active power, and a magic-sensitive person could tell you're using magic while you're doing it. Not necessarily what kind of magic, but the usage itself is noticeable.

And 3) seems reasonable - mixed portfolios with various specialties.

Solid enough to approve, overall!

Hm. Been some time since I logged on. Still, I do have interest in this premise, and the cast of characters is looking rather interesting. So, suppose that I'll throw my hat into the ring.

Watanabe Satou/ “Reaper Satou”

Spoiler

Show

Age: 56
Gender: Male
Faction: Neo-Mitakihara Security Force
Rank: Detective
Height: 180 cm
Weight: 285 kg. (looks as though he weighs ~90)
Description:

Spoiler

Show

The first thing that most people notice when encountering Watanabe Satou is the almost palpable aura of weary cynicism that follows him like a stormcloud through the bright lanes of the city. The second would be the fact that he’s about half a head taller than most. The third would be his face, a weathered edifice with surprisingly piercing eyes, a seemingly permanent five-o’-clock shadow, and a roughly combed back silver mane of hair.

Remarkably, his absurd clothing comes in only a distant fourth. He is almost always found in a black trenchcoat, thick gloves, and combat boots. On those rare occasions that he removes the coat, revealing (usually) a buttoned-down office shirt and dress pants held up by suspenders, people generally understand why.

While Neo-Mitakihara could be charitably called a police state, in terms of surveillance and response to threats to public peace, its security forces still seek to project a friendly image toward the public. Even if his winning personality were capable of it, Watanabe Satou could never manage that. He has quite extreme augmentations, and is very obviously built as a war machine. (See Augmentations)

Augmentations:

Spoiler

Show

Watanabe Satou was designed as a titan of the battlefield, capable of facing wraiths with strength, speed, stamina, and toughness comparable to the most physically-inclined mashou. His limbs were replaced with Gundanium prosthetics, built with a magitech alloy designed by a rather ingenious otaku, which are several times stronger than most other materials, with servos powered by extremely high-capacity batteries, charged at fusion plants.

Within them are myriad self-sharpening monomolecular blades, capable of slicing through essentially anything that doesn’t outright require magic to destroy. The scything appearance of these blades was how he acquired the nickname of “Reaper Satou.” His entire remaining skeleton was likewise coated in Gundanium, and his brain protected by a sheath of biocompatible ballistic gel, in a rather painful (and likely lethal, without magical healing techniques) series of surgeries, allowing him to survive the forces that his new limbs could subject him to at maximum power. His skin was also implanted with Steelskin, a precursor to Duraskin, a military-grade augmentation that allows minimal damage from any purely physical attack up to an anti-tank rifle.

To allow his brain to keep up with the speed of his limbs, he was outfitted with an adrenal booster, capable of massively augmenting his perceptual speed.

In order to destroy the cores of wraiths, which are metaphysical, and thereby do require magic to finish off, he was outfitted with a revolver that he nicknamed “Betty,” capable of firing specialized ammunition made of grief cubes, creating bullets of pure magic, in a facsimile of a true mashou weapon.

He was also granted a lab module for his left hand, allowing state-of-the-art analyses of wraith attack sites.

All of this was thirty years ago.

Today, when operating to spec, Satou remains as terrifying a force as ever. However, his augmentations were not designed to last this long- he was expected to perish in the line of duty within twenty years. His limbs’ high-capacity batteries are now limited to five minutes of full-power service life between charges- maybe another minute if he’s okay with being paralyzed thereafter. His adrenal booster sometimes partially activates when it shouldn’t, granting him night terrors.

With the physical adjustments of aging, his Steelskin implants dig into a few of his organs, causing him continuous, low-grade pain. And his heart is weakened by overuse of his adrenaline. His augmentations, built so deeply into him that they could not be knocked offline by a wide variety of attacks, can also not be removed without surgery that, after several years of Satou’s cells growing over them, would have a decent chance of killing the old soldier.

Finally, grief cubes have become a very highly sought-after commodity. As such, the NMSF cannot justify the expense of creating new bullets for Betty. Thus, Reaper Satou is no longer tasked with hunting wraiths, except as a last resort.

Instead, he uses his lab module, and his decades of experience as a hunter of the most elusive magical prey, to protect the people of Neo-Mitakihara from other threats, such as the new class of magitech criminals who infest the city, or to begin the wraith hunt for the mashou who now work alongside the rest of the Security Force. The steps needed to track magitech crime have steadily beaten much of his idealism out of him, but Satou remains a devoted, if weary, protector of the city.

He is known to have other, classified duties. Those who play characters with very high clearance regarding the Neo-Mitakihara Security Force, or who are likewise upon the STR team, are welcome to read further.

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Reaper Satou’s nickname takes a darker meaning for those in the know. In addition to the publically acknowledged roles of investigators of unusual wraith incidents and hunters of magitech criminals, the STR team is also responsible for the quasi-legal execution of mashou deemed to be a public security hazard. This classification is not made lightly, but, once made, there are no checks on the STR team carrying out that duty, save their own conscience.

Reaper Satou, due to his long experience, and combination of duty to the public and sympathy for mashou, given the formative experience of having his life, among others, saved by the Mitakihara Seven, is one of the few tasked with deciding upon, and carrying out, these executions. For them, if he cannot carry out the task with more subtlety, he wields one of the more advanced rifles available to the NMSF- a gyrojet gun connected to the entire NMSF surveillance network, capable of making up to seven 90 degree turns, and locking on to a given target.

History:

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Watanabe Satou was one of the traumatized survivors of the desolation of Mitakihara, living largely thanks to the efforts of Mayor Sato and those like him. The rage and sorrow that he felt at the suffering of those around him were quite remarkable in a child, and he swore, when he could, that he would do whatever was necessary to protect people from such a tragedy ever repeating itself. To that end, when the opportunity came for normal humans to step up, and gain the power to protect their community from wraiths, he readily accepted it.

All looking pretty great! Well and approved.

[Sucrose]

Satou is homophonous with the Japanese word for sugar. Hence my question.

Ah, I see.

[KnightDisciple]

SUCROSE! Buddy! Long time no see!

Liking the fellow cop character! I foresee more than a few hijinks between him and Dunny!

[Kuroimaken]

You just KNOW these two are going to be in a reality TV show at some point.

[Selinia]

You know what is nice? Information is nice.

Neo-Mitakihara Urban Layout

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While the twenty-first century did not bring about the cataclysmic overpopulation feared by some doomsayers, the human population has continued to creep upwards at an inexorable pace, particularly with breakthroughs in near-miraculous medicine. Neo-Mitakihara is a settlement of over twenty million people, growth fueled not only by raw population, but the urban migration that has accelerated since the revelation of the existence of magic. With most magical girls dwelling in the cities, by simple demography, suburbs and rural areas steadily acquired a (perhaps undeserved) reputation as easy hunting grounds for wraiths. Cities meant mashou nearby, standing at the ready, and mashou meant safety. Considering the general benefits to productivity, security, and ease of surveillance, few governments felt terribly inclined to halt this migration, and Japan was no different.

In order to facilitate management of such a vast city, Neo-Mitakihara is broken up into distinct administrative wards. Each ward possesses a small measure of autonomy within the general city structure, its own utilities, and a token police division for handling the sort of small-time crime generally trivialized by the city's surveillance network - strictly subordinate to the NMSF, sometimes to the chagrin of its officers. These wards are re-categorized and redrawn on a semi-annual basis, with additional wards being added to support the administrative structure of a growing city. Originally founded with six wards (Ward 1 being the administrative and literal center of the city), the demands of the city's rampant growth have since brought that number to 30, with legislation to finalize Ward 31 expected by the time of the next administrative cycle.

A far cry from the relatively flat cities of ages past, Neo-Mitakihara has dealt with issues of congestion and urban density in the most straightforward manner it can - building upwards. A step beyond conventional skyscrapers, the urban towers are practically miniature towns unto themselves, with each one containing a mixture of administrative, residential, commercial, and even industrial floors at various levels. If someone felt compelled to do so, it wouldn't be remotely difficult to live, work, shop, and find some sort of entertainment without ever leaving a single tower - at least, for many of the structures. Of course, that would be rather boring, so most people make use of the city's extensive network of skyways and trams to navigate around, with personal computing units such as Mikos or similar devices easily charting ideal courses to any destination.

The ground level itself, including the city's grid of roads, are not actually used very often by residential traffic. Despite being broad and cleaner than could reasonably be expected, these roads are generally the providence of industrial vehicles and heavy shipping. Even the city parks (of which there is at least one major one per district, by zoning law, and often numerous smaller ones by preference and popularity) are often elevated substantially, placed atop large structures like floating islands of green amid the white walls and mirrors of the city. The exceptions to this tend to be in the older wards nearer to the seawall and flooded Old Mitakihara, which had a somewhat more conventional layout with parks and the like remaining on solid ground. A handful of sites of interest, including Monument Point, are settled atop the seawall itself, but most people aren't terribly fond of the sight of the old city. The skeletal metropolis has a tendency to inflict cases of heebie-jeebies.

Economics and Employment

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Where does one work, in a world where even service industry jobs long thought to be the providence of humans alone can be performed with ease by a charming and resourceful simulated intelligence? Many worried that the rise of automation in all aspects of life would lead to a destitute underclass. While some parts of the world do struggle with precisely that issue (and the social unrest that accompanies it), the changing times found many other nations adapting with surprising grace and agility to the new economic order.

As more rote professions found themselves losing ground to artificial laborers, there was a sudden scramble to ensure that new generations could compete on a global level with their peers in the diminishing areas where automation had yet to set foot. Not dissimilar to the engineering races of the cold war, nations found themselves wildly (and perhaps incredulously) waving the banners of creativity, resourcefulness, and abstract thought, hoping for an economic advantage in critical consumer fields.

Of course, despite the best efforts of educators, there is still a limit on how much creative output many people are even capable of. With economic tides continuing to turn, and an severely overeducated generation maturing into offices around the world, nations were faced with the pressing question once again, and all manner of approaches were taken. Japan opted for one of the simplest and most popular approaches to the issue - dismissing it entirely. One of the earliest adopters of such policies (though far from the last), the country earned the incredulous nickname of "The NEET Nation" from many detractors as officials worked their absolute hardest to avoid the issue of work altogether. "Why fight it?", went the reasoning.

In backroom deals and heated debates, a future was carved out in which the actual necessity of employment was a thing of the past. Jobs still exist, of course - anyone seeking to truly climb the economic ladder or afford the fullness of what the city's stores and services have to offer still needs one. But for countless citizens of Neo-Mitakihara and beyond, the miracles of the modern era allow for a comfortable (luxurious even, by the standards of even a century prior) lifestyle without lifting a finger. People drift between hobbies and education with little sense of urgency, and the idea of lacking basic necessities such as food, medicine, or housing are barbaric anachronisms of an older generation.

Of course, some - particularly the very older generation in question - are still less than enamored with this strange, too-clean system. With a world where authorities extend a finely-crafted hand of automation to guide the population like children across the road on the way to a day of school. To a child, the world must seem a utopia: everything provided by loving parents, with nothing more than obedience and good behavior expected in return. But... wasn't there supposed to, eventually, be something more?

[Dorizzit]

Two more characters for the public's reception. This is probably it for me on the character front, at least for now.

Asuna Hayami

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Age: 21 (Wish made at 16)
Gender: Female
Height: 5' 4"
Weight: 110 ibs.
Faction: Independent (Associated with Zeal Technologies and the Wishcraft Foundation)
Rank/Station: Idol
Theme Song: Halestorm - I am the Fire

Description

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Asuna Hayami is a stunningly gorgeous individual; she has often been compared to statues or paintings due to her absolute physical perfection. Even her movements are a display of flawless control and grace. Asuna is of Japanese descent. Her hair, which hangs down to her waist, bears no consistent color and is consistently dyed, sometimes in multiple colors. Asuna usually dresses in very intricate outfits.

History

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Asuna is somewhat notable for entering into the public eye before becoming a Magical Girl. She became an idol at the age of 15, achieving moderate but not outstanding success and maintaining her position without falling or advancing in popularity. All of this shifted a little over a year and a half after her initial debut. Asuna publicly announced that she had become a Magical Girl, immediately riding the surge of media attention to enhance her existing career. Since then, she has become one of the successful celebrities in Japan, hovering close to the top of the charts and consistently ranking high in popularity. There has been speculation that this was the end result of her wish, but the possibility of any foul play has not diminished her success.

At present, Asuna has reached a firm stability with her position in the world. She also acts as a paid celebrity representative for Zeal Technologies as a PR measure and a volunteer spokesperson for the Wishcraft Foundation out of her own volition.

Contract

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Wish:

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"Give me what I need to succeed. Not the success."

Thematics: Lightning, Extravagance, Flare
Soul Gem: A yellow gem in the shape of a lightning bolt, worn as a pendant.
Costume: Asuna's costume is fairly conventional, consisting of a uniform long shirt/vest/skirt/boots/stockings ensemble. Distinguishing it is a unique collar, from which twelve thin wires hang behind Asuna in a manner not unlike that of a cape, reaching down to her ankles. Asuna's uniform is predominantly yellow, with thin, jagged black lines crisscrossing the outfit to give the impression of thunderbolts.
Abilities: Asuna's primary power as a Magical Girl is her control of electricity; she can generate powerful electric currents from her body or call down bolts of lightning from the sky to strike with precision or indiscriminate destruction. Asuna's electricity is controlled mostly by her will, allowing her to ignore impediments such as lightning rods or maneuver her bolts around obstacles, but moving the lightning in unnatural ways reduces its power and takes up significant effort and focus.

Asuna's associated weapons are lightning rods, ranging in size from the length of batons to massive steel spears the size of telephone poles. Asuna can directly manipulate these rods to use as either projectiles or guides for her lightning. She has also trained in spear usage for situations where she is forced to fight in melee, but this is not her preferred form of combat at all.

The wires on Asuna's uniform are also a weapon in her arsenal. Asuna can mentally control and lengthen these wires, which are both highly conductive and extremely durable. This has both offensive and defensive applications, and Asuna can attach lightning rods to the tips of the wires to render them more dangerous as well.

Asuna is not immune to electricity, but can pass it harmlessly through her body with a minimal and almost instinctive effort of will. Despite this, a sudden and extreme disruption of her focus could potentially lead to her severely shocking herself.

Asuna has developed her mobility to the point where she has become quite adept at flight; although not excessively fast, she has very precise control of her position.

Asuna is moderately experienced, but makes up for any deficiencies with raw power and sheer ruthlessness; she is an aggressively dirty fighter, and doesn't hesitate at all in combat.

Spasm Waltz: By attaching one of her wires to a smaller lightning rod and jabbing it into the neck or other appropriate target of an opponent, Asuna can override the target's nervous system and exert control over their body. This is jerky, imprecise, and incredibly painful, and usually kills the target within a few minutes, but is effective on humans, Wraiths, and even some machines.

As a publicity measure, Asuna names many of her techniques, but most of those are some variant of "shoot lightning at them."
Perception: Asuna is, unsurprisingly, very popular. Unlike the most prominent Magical Girls, Asuna is not an international celebrity and is largely unknown outside of Japan, but is one of the best known Magical Girls within that country. People closer to her, however, note a ruthlessly focused and very distant personality quite at odds with her public image. As a result, Asuna has no close friends despite a large network of acquaintances.

[Selinia]

Two more characters for the public's reception. This is probably it for me on the character front, at least for now.

Asuna Hayami

Spoiler

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Age: 21 (Wish made at 16)
Gender: Female
Height: 5' 4"
Weight: 110 ibs.
Faction: Independent (Associated with Zeal Technologies and the Wishcraft Foundation)
Rank/Station: Idol

Description

Spoiler

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Asuna Hayami is a stunningly gorgeous individual; she has often been compared to statues or paintings due to her absolute physical perfection. Even her movements are a display of flawless control and grace. Asuna is of Japanese descent. Her hair, which hangs down to her waist, bears no consistent color and is consistently dyed, sometimes in multiple colors. Asuna usually dresses in very intricate outfits.

History

Spoiler

Show

Asuna is somewhat notable for entering into the public eye before becoming a Magical Girl. She became an idol at the age of 15, achieving moderate but not outstanding success and maintaining her position without falling or advancing in popularity. All of this shifted a little over a year and a half after her initial debut. Asuna publicly announced that she had become a Magical Girl, immediately riding the surge of media attention to enhance her existing career. Since then, she has become one of the successful celebrities in Japan, hovering close to the top of the charts and consistently ranking high in popularity. There has been speculation that this was the end result of her wish, but the possibility of any foul play has not diminished her success.

At present, Asuna has reached a firm stability with her position in the world. She also acts as a paid celebrity representative for Zeal Technologies as a PR measure and a volunteer spokesperson for the Wishcraft Foundation out of her own volition.

Contract

Spoiler

Show

Wish:

Spoiler

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"Give me what I need to succeed. Not the success."

Thematics: Lightning, Extravagance, Flare
Soul Gem: A yellow gem in the shape of a lightning bolt, worn as a pendant.
Costume: Asuna's costume is fairly conventional, consisting of a uniform long shirt/vest/skirt/boots/stockings ensemble. Distinguishing it is a unique collar, from which twelve thin wires hang behind Asuna in a manner not unlike that of a cape, reaching down to her ankles. Asuna's uniform is predominantly yellow, with thin, jagged black lines crisscrossing the outfit to give the impression of thunderbolts.
Abilities: Asuna's primary power as a Magical Girl is her control of electricity; she can generate powerful electric currents from her body or call down bolts of lightning from the sky to strike with precision or indiscriminate destruction. Asuna's electricity is controlled mostly by her will, allowing her to ignore impediments such as lightning rods or maneuver her bolts around obstacles, but moving the lightning in unnatural ways reduces its power and takes up significant effort and focus.

Asuna's associated weapons are lightning rods, ranging in size from the length of batons to massive steel spears the size of telephone poles. Asuna can directly manipulate these rods to use as either projectiles or guides for her lightning. She has also trained in spear usage for situations where she is forced to fight in melee, but this is not her preferred form of combat at all.

The wires on Asuna's uniform are also a weapon in her arsenal. Asuna can mentally control and lengthen these wires, which are both highly conductive and extremely durable. This has both offensive and defensive applications, and Asuna can attach lightning rods to the tips of the wires to render them more dangerous as well.

Asuna is not immune to electricity, but can pass it harmlessly through her body with a minimal and almost instinctive effort of will. Despite this, a sudden and extreme disruption of her focus could potentially lead to her severely shocking herself.

Asuna has developed her mobility to the point where she has become quite adept at flight; although not excessively fast, she has very precise control of her position.

Asuna is moderately experienced, but makes up for any deficiencies with raw power and sheer ruthlessness; she is an aggressively dirty fighter, and doesn't hesitate at all in combat.

Spasm Waltz: By attaching one of her wires to a smaller lightning rod and jabbing it into the neck or other appropriate target of an opponent, Asuna can override the target's nervous system and exert control over their body. This is jerky, imprecise, and incredibly painful, and usually kills the target within a few minutes, but is effective on humans, Wraiths, and even some machines.

As a publicity measure, Asuna names many of her techniques, but most of those are some variant of "shoot lightning at them."
Perception: Asuna is, unsurprisingly, very popular. Unlike the most prominent Magical Girls, Asuna is not an international celebrity and is largely unknown outside of Japan, but is one of the best known Magical Girls within that country. People closer to her, however, note a ruthlessly focused and very distant personality quite at odds with her public image. As a result, Asuna has no close friends despite a large network of acquaintances.

I like Asuna! Approved. Seems to have some fun abilities, and wanting to be in the spotlight should easily drive her towards various nonsense to deal with. Leysa is also welcome to post any time you're ready, though if you'd like something for her to respond to you can feel free to ask.

"Sol"

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Age: ???
Gender: ???
Height: ???
Weight: ???
Faction: ???
Rank/Station: ???

Description

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The entity identified as Sol is a magical girl of some form. She has never been identified outside of her transformed state, described under costume below. Independent of that, the girl appears to be in her early to mid teens and of at least partially European descent, owing in large part to her blonde hair, which descends down to her ankles in an uncontrolled mass. With her face and most of her body concealed by her uniform, "Sol" has few other distinguishing physical traits apart from her chest: a single, perfect hole is struck completely through her chest where her heart should be. What is believed to be her Soul Gem hovers within this hole. Sol never emotes or speaks, moving with mechanical focus at all times.

History

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The Magical Girl known only as "Sol" first appeared in Mitakihara seven months ago. Working alone, the mashou attacked and destroyed wraiths on multiple occasions, harvesting their Grief Cubes before disappearing into thin air. Although mysterious, she was identified as a curious anomaly rather than a source of concern.

Three months after her first appearance, Sol appeared within the foundations of the (largely residential) Takenaka Skyscraper in Ward 23, and over the course of the next twelve minutes proceeded to sever the building's support columns. A quick response from the Neo-Mitakihara Security Force and a number of mashous allowed for a partial evacuation of the building and prevented the collapsing tower from colliding with any nearby structure, but the massacre still killed more than 7,000 people and created a political nightmare for the Security Force when they were forced to admit that their culprit had quite literally vanished into thin air after the attack.

Sol's crimes had only just begun, however. Within a few days, the rogue mashou attacked another magical girl, taking her by surprise. After disabling her opponent, Sol took her opponent's Soul Gem and proceeded drain all of the taint from her own into it, effectively using it as a Grief Cube. This horrific act caused the Gem to overload and kill its owner. There have been five more attacks since then, resulting in three additional deaths. The two survivors each had one limb severed before being left alone.

Attempts to pursue Sol have been completely unsuccessful, as the mashou has failed to respond to traps and has proved impossible to track.

Contract

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Wish:

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"I wish I had never been born."

Thematics: Emptiness, Reflection, Light
Soul Gem: A perfect sphere, devoid of any inherent color.
Costume: Sol's costume is a long, flowing gown, white in color and banded with alternating lines of silver and gold. In addition to this, she wears an ornate, white masquerade mask that covers the upper half of her face.
Abilities: Sol has demonstrated a diverse array of powers, and her full capabilities are not yet fully understood.
Levitation: Like many Magical Girls, Sol is capable of levitation and flight.
Light Manipulation: Sol appears to have the ability to control light. This is a brute force power; the weakest application of the ability seen has been a blinding beam of radiance, and most uses are instead powerful lasers. Sol's lasers are powerful enough to penetrate even the advanced metals of the modern era, although it generally takes her some time to burn through more heat-resistant materials. Sol's degree of precise control over her attacks is unknown.
Existence Erasure: Sol is capable of appearing and disappearing seemingly at will. No known method has been able to track or locate her after a disappearance; to all apparent views, she simply vanishes into thin air. This does not appear to be a combat ability, however, as she has never been observed using it to gain an advantage, only using it at the start and end of any observable action.
Perception: Sol has become something of a boogieman for both civilians and mashou alike. Solo operation for Magical Girls in Neo-Mitakihara has gone from being rare to almost unheard of in order to minimize risk.

I will admit I am not so sure about Sol. A character who doesn't talk or communicate is one thing, and then compounded with abilities that basically amount to "She only engages on her terms, ever, despite being actively hunted in a surveillance state", and then having a very odd setting-abnormal power of being able to vent corruption into other peoples' soul gems? I'm all for a good villain, but it's a specific combination that is... hard to interact with. Villains thrive on the ability of others to oppose them, which is hard when they focus on non-interactivity as a powerset and basically everything about them is a blank slate enigma with no good leads to follow.

"Mashou-hunting mashou" is not a bad idea by any means! But I feel like this particular one, without knowing anything more about her, is not one I can really approve at the moment.

[Draken]

Ok, character sheet.

Leonardo Gomes Inoue
Monikers: Captain Leon, Captain Gomes, Captain Inoue, Leon, Chief, Tin Can, Leonard.

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Age: 46
Gender: Male.
Height: A cylinder 50 cm high and 30 cm in diameter.
Weight: Around 30 kg including his cylinder.

Faction: NMSF. Minor ties to Zeal Industries.
Rank/Station: Captain of the NMSF. Small shareholder in Zeal Industries.

Description: Captain Inoue is, for lack of better wording, a brain in a jar. Said jar is a highly advanced magitech life support system powered by a Zeal Drive, with attachment ports for additional hardware, but shapewise, yeah, it is a jar.

Spoiler: A close-up of the face of his 'cerimonial' robotic unit.

Show

History:

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As public records go, captain Leonardo Gomes Inoue was born in the year 2050 to a couple working in the construction of Neo-Mitakihara's very first district, victim to an aggressive degenerative disease likely caused by insalubrity in his parent's work place. He spent his youth as a patient/lab rat to a Zeal Industries medical division and is credited as the first successful recipient of the life support system that he uses to this day. The records gloss over his education background, leaping directly from the aforementioned information to his early work as an officer of the NMSF, then as a detective, and finally to his promotion to captain of the force, a post he has occupied for ten years.

Augmentations:

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In some places of the world, people with more extensive cybernetic augmentations than Leon are no longer legally considered human. Of his original body, all that remains is an exposed central nervous system, other tissues long consumed by the disease that ravaged him in his youth or simply stripped outright during the surgery that put him in life support. That being said, few people without an engineering background in the world have the captain's expertise in driving robotic units and interfacing with the technology that makes modern society what it is.

His life support container is generally attached to an android unit that people generally associate with the captain himself. This body is, strictly speaking, inferior in strength and durability to the augmented officers of the NMSF and the life support container itself, but given its mostly ceremonial use, this is not really an issue.

In the event of the android's destruction, the container can move around on its own by means of a number of auxiliary limbs.

Equipment:

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As captain of the NMSF, there is scant little equipment that Leon has no access to. When deployed, he never uses anything lighter than a heavy combat unit and has been known to drive a heavily armed and armored spider tank to deal with certain issues of public order, some of which even warranted use of the military hardware.

[Kuroimaken]

Seeing all these cybernetic cops I just can't help but picture them all as this guy.

[Selinia]

Ok, character sheet.

Leonardo Gomes Inoue
Monikers: Captain Leon, Captain Gomes, Captain Inoue, Leon, Chief, Tin Can, Leonard.

Spoiler

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Age: 46
Gender: Male.
Height: A cylinder 50 cm high and 30 cm in diameter.
Weight: Around 30 kg including his cylinder.

Faction: NMSF. Minor ties to Zeal Industries.
Rank/Station: Captain of the NMSF. Small shareholder in Zeal Industries.

Description: Captain Inoue is, for lack of better wording, a brain in a jar. Said jar is a highly advanced magitech life support system powered by a Zeal Drive, with attachment ports for additional hardware, but shapewise, yeah, it is a jar.

History:

Spoiler

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As public records go, captain Leonardo Gomes Inoue was born in the year 2050 to a couple working in the construction of Neo-Mitakihara's very first district, victim to an aggressive degenerative disease likely caused by insalubrity in his parent's work place. He spent his youth as a patient/lab rat to a Zeal Industries medical division and is credited as the first successful recipient of the life support system that he uses to this day. The records gloss over his education background, leaping directly from the aforementioned information to his early work as an officer of the NMSF, then as a detective, and finally to his promotion to captain of the force, a post he has occupied for ten years.

Augmentations:

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In some places of the world, people with more extensive cybernetic augmentations than Leon are no longer legally considered human. Of his original body, all that remains is an exposed central nervous system, other tissues long consumed by the disease that ravaged him in his youth or simply stripped outright during the surgery that put him in life support. That being said, few people without an engineering background in the world have the captain's expertise in driving robotic units and interfacing with the technology that makes modern society what it is.

His life support container is generally attached to an android unit that people generally associate with the captain himself. This body is, strictly speaking, inferior in strength and durability to the augmented officers of the NMSF and the life support container itself, but given its mostly ceremonial use, this is not really an issue.

In the event of the android's destruction, the container can move around on its own by means of a number of auxiliary limbs.

Equipment:

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As captain of the NMSF, there is scant little equipment that Leon has no access to. When deployed, he never uses anything lighter than a heavy combat unit and has been known to drive a heavily armed and armored spider tank to deal with certain issues of public order, some of which even warranted use of the military hardware.

Aaaand the captain has approval! Who doesn't love a brain in a jar in an android in a tank in the police department?

Seeing all these cybernetic cops I just can't help but picture them all as this guy.

Neo-Mitakihara is a thriving, healthy democracy and is a wonderful place to live. The number of walking deathbots is for your own protection, citizen.

[Kuroimaken]

Just tell me he doesn't use McAfee.

[Dorizzit]

Spoiler

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I like Asuna! Approved. Seems to have some fun abilities, and wanting to be in the spotlight should easily drive her towards various nonsense to deal with. Leysa is also welcome to post any time you're ready, though if you'd like something for her to respond to you can feel free to ask.

I will admit I am not so sure about Sol. A character who doesn't talk or communicate is one thing, and then compounded with abilities that basically amount to "She only engages on her terms, ever, despite being actively hunted in a surveillance state", and then having a very odd setting-abnormal power of being able to vent corruption into other peoples' soul gems? I'm all for a good villain, but it's a specific combination that is... hard to interact with. Villains thrive on the ability of others to oppose them, which is hard when they focus on non-interactivity as a powerset and basically everything about them is a blank slate enigma with no good leads to follow.

"Mashou-hunting mashou" is not a bad idea by any means! But I feel like this particular one, without knowing anything more about her, is not one I can really approve at the moment.

More details incoming. Waiting for the WF to get involved in the plot before posting with Leysa. Will likely introduce Asuna soon.

[strawberryman]

I am a massive derp that can't pay attention, editing my post.

Nevermind, derpdy derp!

[Sucrose]

SUCROSE! Buddy! Long time no see!

Liking the fellow cop character! I foresee more than a few hijinks between him and Dunny!

Good to see you too! Sorry, forgot to respond to this yesterday. Looking forward to their interactions as well!

I do hope that at some point Kuroimaken's prediction comes true.

[KnightDisciple]

Will try to get responses up sometime tomorrow. Probably evening, maybe earlier.

[Kuroimaken]

Hey Selinia? Can you help me find something for Makoto to do as he uses the streets of Neo-Mitakihara as his personal racing circuit?