[PG-16] Brave New World: Return of the Magi (SU/OOC)

[Delta Hunter]

Name: Halt Gao
Age: 18
Gender: Male
Weapon: Amber Hammer

Appearance: Halt has had a painful time growing up, and only measures, at most, a short 5’2” and weighs in around 100 pounds maximum. He keeps his head down a lot though, so he seems shorter. His hair is a shade between black and violent, appearing black unless looked at from the sides, as the dye he used wasn’t that strong. The tips of his ears are slightly pink from the dye at times, but mostly are normal shades of pale. His nose and ears are button quality, and Halt is constantly reminded of this from women. His eyes are a soft cyan, though with his low head posture, it’s uncertain when one will be able to see his eyes.

For clothing, this is one of the few things that Halt tries to keep himself. His normal shirt is modeled after his favorite game, Monster Hunter, with the trace design of the in game Rathien icon across the back. The black shirt is short sleeved. His pants are long and black, with a blue stripe down the outside, and they cover the tops of his white and blue sneakers. However, despite that he enjoys it so much; he prefers to wear his favorite sweatshirt over it. It was imported from Japan, and its black that reaches about two inches below Halt’s waist. In the center of the back, right between his shoulder blades, is a large white star. Along the hood, right where it reaches to his left eye is the design of a cyan flame.

Personality: Halt is a very sensitive and shy kid, and will often run away from others that try to talk to him, or flinch when hugged or touched. When hugged, Halt brings his arms in front of his face to protect himself from getting hit, which he expects after any kind of contact he has with people. Bullies and an abusive mother have left their mark on the poor kid, but they also changed him a bit for good. Halt can feel empathy for anyone in a bad situation. Despite his dislike of physical contact, he’ll still hug someone after they break down, or just need someone nearby.

Halt is also bashful, often blushing when someone tries to compliment him on anything, which always results in him pulling down the hood of his Black Rock Shooter sweatshirt over his eyes and face to hide the blush. He’s an avid fan of anything kawaii and cute, often squeeing at the sight of a MLP plush of a filly. He also adores the Nendoroid style, a style of figures that makes possibly tough characters into adorable chibis of Japanese figures, wanting to collect them. As a guilty pleasure, he likes figma figures too, though they are often more risqué than other styles, with the females having accented chests and butts, or straight up nude. These he keeps hidden in his small room, just in case someone could see them.

Halt’s father, unlike his mother, was a great mentor, and gave Halt lessons on how to defend himself and other as well as teach him about the ‘right to live’. Similar to the Bill of Rights that was passed by congress, the right to live is a universal right given to all living creatures, and is universally understood. Cows have the right to live, but this same right gives humans the chance to kill them for meat, a favorite food of Halt’s. However, to kill something of your own species not for the sake of living is unacceptable. Halt embraces this idealology, and it becomes his berserk button. To see someone forsake the right to live from someone else is the same as forsaken the killer’s own right to live. Halt becomes dark at these moments, and will beat the killer into the ground, till they are on their last legs.

History: Halt was born along the East Coast, up in Maine, to what appeared to be a normal family of a mother and a father. However, behind the closed doors of the large house they inhabited, Halt was the outlet for his mother’s frustrations at the world and workplace. Even as a little child, at age three, Halt was subjected to beatings. In order to keep moving every day, Halt began to talk to imaginary friends, and when he did, he found himself being the cause of the punishment, and that his friends told him that he shouldn’t fight it. Halt had no other choice, so he simply accepted every beat to his face from the bottle or fist of his mother. Halt’s father wasn’t affected as such, but merely bandaged Halt’s wounds and told Harry about the ‘right of life’.

At the age of eight, Halt began to be trained by a few of his school friends that knew about his issues, in martial arts. He took to it fairly well, but three years later, his mother found out. He was forced to stay at home for schooling, and every time he asked for something, he got a swift and painful beating. It was his life for years, something Halt can never forget. Nor can he forget the mangas he began to read on the internet. Black Rock Shooter: Innocent Soul was the first manga he ever read, and the main character, Black Rock Shooter, became his first crush. She was always so brave and noble, and she believed in the innocence of every desire. Halt loved her, and that detail about her, which he tried to bring into his own being. His mother, finally having enough with Halt, sent him with his father to California, Santa Carina. This was a good idea for poor Halt’s wellbeing.

Halt began to have a normal life with his father in Santa Carina, and eventually started to go to high school again. He started off at the school as a freshman, but was kept back till now as his mental state seemed to fluctuate constantly, as the second someone tried to scold him or put him in a physical situation, he would break down and hide his face and body, scared. Because of this, he had to held back, as letting him go forward might have had very poor backlash. Halt clung to anything he could to make himself feel better and feel good, so he turned to the kawaii, which makes him feel nice and warm.

Does a few hours work for you? xD

[Lady Tanuki]

And here is not only my first RPG on these forums, but by first post overall in them as well. A fair warning: I can be prone to making really long signups and posts. Though both of you probably know that already.

Name: Zuri Watkinson
Age: 19
Gender: Female
Weapon: Amethyst Air Bow

Appearance: People like to call Zuri the "ghost", for she can be mistaken for one at first glance. Being an albino, her skin is very pale, and her eyes are such a light shade of blue that they look as if they are made of glass. Straight silvery-white hair flows halfway down her back, with slight hints of bangs on the sides. These like to blow back in a gust of wind, revealing earrings that look like inch-long amethyst spikes. Although her face is pale as everything else, it can easily turn a light pink at the sign of emotion. Otherwise her tendency to gaze off into the distance adds to the ghostly air about her.

There's nothing particularly special about Zuri's figure. Nobody's ever commented on it in any way. If anything, she looks a little on the fragile side, not being extremely skinny, but not having a whole lot of build either. She's anything but the athetic-type, that's for sure, given the only exercise she ever gets is carrying her books around school. One can easily guess that she spends a lot of time indoors, which makes sense because she's highly prone to sunburn.

Zuri has a somewhat picky fashion sense. She'll never wear anything that's yellow, brown, orange, or red (though dark red is okay), and she'll never wear shorts, tight jeans, or shoes with heels taller than two inches. Usually she considers comfort a priority in clothes, though for some reason she prefers skirts over pants. Nor does she ever style her hair differently. However, she almost always wears some sort of jewelry, always wearing at least a necklace and a pair of earrings, and maybe in rare cases a bracelet or something. She always wears a piece of jewelry that once belonged to her late mother or grandmother, in rememberance of what little she knew of the former and what little she cared about the latter.

As for Zuri's current and possibly favourite outfit, that would be a soft white blouse with a wispy pale blue ribbon tied into a bow on the chest, with sleeves that reach down to her elbows and end in frilly white lacy trim, with more light blue ribbon around the sleeve ends and the bottom. Below that would be a long skirt--one that is a bluish-grey in colour and ruffled on the bottom, with a long, silky, lavender sash tied around her hips. Below that, her legs would be coated with light gray stockings, and old-fashioned white boots that lace up down the middle. Around her neck is a pendant featuring a silver cross with lots of purple roses wrapped around it. And finally, she carries around a shoulder bag made of a misty purple cloth--this bag is just big enough to hold a textbook or two, and there's always some sort of large book in there.

Personality: Besides her appearance, one other reason why many people call Zuri the ghost is because of her relatively distant demeanour, and the solemn yet calm and mysterious vibe she gives off. She kind of drifts about the world, setting herself apart from it, a slight bit shy in terms of interacting with others, especially if they don't seem to have anything in common with her. But she is very good at remaining calm and relaxed, and she hardly ever panics in the face of danger (the most she'll do is complain about being weak). A ghost indeed--a living one, if that makes any sense.

One hallmark of Zuri is her interest in books. They are her most satisfying form of enjoyment, the one activity she can devote her focus and interest to. Zuri seems to like quiet, serene settings anyway--she hates noisy places and crowded gatherings. She likes to keep her mind in a hazy awareness, not exactly super focused, but not completely absent-minded--just a little in the clouds, with little or no worries to trouble their way through. This is almost the exact state she keeps her mind in while meditating, which she does quite often. With a highly spiritual nature, she keeps an open mind and accepts fate for what it is.

Yes, that is another hallmark of Zuri: her strong belief in magic. Some people have thought she was some sort of witch or mystic, and she considers that to be true, leaving many in mystery. Some religious people claim Zuri to have been "possessed" by the ghosts of her parents, which makes sense since they practiced witchcraft. It is true that the books Zuri most often reads are either books of shadows found in her parents' house, or fantasy novels. She believes that everyone is united by nature, and that the world has several dimensions (though she has no idea what those other dimensions are). In her everyday life, she makes quite a few spiritual affirmations, which are not so much prayers directed at herself, but blessings of various things and acknowledgements of fate.

That having been said, Zuri is thought to lead a rather depressing life otherwise. She is not one to try and fit in with other people, perhaps believing she lacks the power to do so. Indeed, though her outlook on life may overall be optimistic, the rains of sorrowful isolation have frequently caused her mind to just drift about in the wind, seeking the pursuit of her ideals and spiritual wisdom, blowing through the world rather than adapting to it. Just like a ghost wandering about the mortal realm.

Besides the above, one obvious weakness Zuri has is technology. Computers and electronic gadgets confuse her--she has no idea how to go about using any of them. She doesn't even carry a cell phone around, and can just barely handle typing up a report on her grandmother's old computer. Probably because she never watches TV or surfs the Internet, she's remarkably naive as far as news and current events and latest trends go. That or she just doesn't care about any of those things. She seeks wisdom, not necessarily knowledge.

History: The Watkinson family was not a city family--they preferred to live in the suburbs. They occupied two houses, one with Zuri and her parents, the other with her grandmother. Why separate houses? Because of religious differences--her grandmother was a devout Christian while her parents were Wiccan. Naturally, Grandma regarded Zuri's parents as sinners and devil-worshippers. Now, normally this wouldn't be important, as Zuri's parents could just ignore Grandma and move on with their lives. However, one day when Zuri was three, she went upstairs into her parents' special seance room, only to find them lying under a blanket, unmoving and cold to the touch.

This really came as a shock to Zuri, especially since it happened at a time when she didn't quite understand what death really meant. But it would remain in her mind for the rest of her life, especially given its suddenness. How did her parents die, and why? It didn't help that they had no wills either. The house remained empty, though there were many reports of the house being haunted, presumably by the ghosts of Zuri's parents. In her youth, Zuri visited this house often, but she never found her parents there. What she did find was the many books they had, which were mostly myths and old fantasy novels, and books on all sorts of magical topics. She had not quite understood what was going on whenever they performed a magic ritual (which was more like a ceremonial prayer, not involving anything too spectacular), and since her parents weren't bothering to contact her for some reason, reading these books was the only way she could get a clue as to what their spiritual practices and other aspects of their life were like.

From then on, Zuri lived with her grandmother. Grandma thought Zuri's parents got what they deserved for following such an "evil" faith, and was all too glad to take Zuri in. However, she was not at all pleased about her ventures into her parents' house, worried that they would have an evil influence on her. It was true that she found the spellbooks in their house particularly interesting. She even tried to use some of the spells on her classmates, threatening to put curses on them if they did anything bad to her. Grandma eventually found out about this, and carried out her standard punishment: saving her soul. Or at least attempting to.

But on the other hand, Grandma was a very kind and gentle person, though she did have her rules and a way of convincing others to follow them. A part of Zuri knew that Grandma really loved her, and she felt really guilty rebelling against a fragile old woman, especially by the time she was almost done with high school. It was also around this time that she realised the virtue of not harming others, that it was wrong to put curses on people and make magical threats, a concept universal to all religions it seemed. She learned about this virtue in church, of all places. Still, though she visited her parents' house on occasion, she still heard nothing from them despite continued claims of hauntings there. Sad, for she really liked the magical wisdom that came from their faith, as many of the concepts applied to nature and harmlessness.

But then, just before she graduated from high school, her grandmother died. It was a peaceful death--she simply died of old age--but it was still sad, because at that point Zuri had no living family left. Nobody to take care of her anymore, no real company at all. By that time she was legally an adult, and thus didn't even have to have any foster parents to deal with. She was on her own then.

Though Zuri still had a house to live in--her grandmother left it to her--it was a sad and lonely summer. Even when she was in college, she still distanced herself from many of the other people there. Even though she was never on best terms with her grandmother, her loss created an empty space inside of her, one that longed for something in her wisdom and caring nature despite her religious views. In college, the people she interacted with the most (which still wasn't very much) were people at the library at which she worked as an assistant, and this young man named Diego who seemed to be very interested in her. She had known him ever since high school.

And still no successful conversation with her parents. Every Halloween night she performs a ritual to try to contact them, but nothing ever happens. She only saw but a brief vision of them, a vision of them standing on opposite sides of a bright blue flame, on the night when her grandmother died.

[IOTA]

Don't mind me, I'm just filling the ranks.

Name: Bethany (Beth) McNuggie
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Weapon: The Garnet Fire Sword

Appearance: Bethany, or Beth as she prefers to be called, is a sturdy young girl with fiery red hair, piercing green eyes and a face adorned with freckles. She stands at about 5'9" with a hearty portion on meat on her bones. Not overweight, mind you, but not exactly as lean and slender as the swimsuit ads say a woman should look. She doesn't let that get to her though, a lot of it is muscle anyway.

Beth is a bit of a tomboy when it comes to clothing, steering as far clear from dresses, skirts, and heels in favor of pants, shorts, and boots. Her wild red hair is kept trimmed rather short as it "gets in the way when its long" she says. Her current attire is a red plaid button up shirt, blue jean shorts, long socks, hiking boots, and a worn ragged backpack.

Personality: Beth is no girlie-girl as if that hasn't sunk in. She's a fighter. While the other girls were taking ballet, Beth was taking junior boxing; while the other girls are running track, Beth is taking weight training; while the other girls are taking cheerleading, Beth is taking highschool wrestling. To sum it up, Beth just loves a good fight and will go out of her way to find one whether its standing up to a bully, or in some cases, being the bully.

As a child Beth grew up in the country and became a very outdoorsy person. She loves every aspect of the outdoors and can't stand to be confined to a desk under pale artificial lights at school when she knows there's an open field with the sun beating down on it just outside. Because of this she has skipped a lot of school, time well spent she says, but naturally it has its drawbacks. Beth has a poor grasp of any advanced math, sciences, or literature. But ask her to pitch a tent or climb a tree? She's an ace.

Beth is set deep in her ways and doesn't take well to people trying to change her, but oddly enough won't hesitate to point out in others what she sees as flaws in need of a change. She's got a short temper and a hair pin fuse and she won't think twice (if she even thinks once) to beat you within an inch of your life.

History: Beth was born into a family of five brothers and one sister. Her tough girl attitude started there, fighting with a mess of older brothers over every little thing. Her mother and father didn't mind this at all, and only encouraged it. They wanted their little McNuggies to be something people would jealous of, true champions in a long line of champions. Beth took after her brothers as role models the same way all good siblings do, picking up their habits and mannerisms and using them for her own.

Life was rather quiet outside of school. When her brothers weren't a factor she was free to run through the fields, climb trees, and ride horses. In school, however, it was a constant struggle. Between bad conduct (her eagerness to start fights) and her low grades Beth had a hard time seeing school as a worthwhile endeavor. She's been putting up with it though, she just wants to make it through school like her brothers did and then spend her next few years working at home for her father's wood carving business. Because the only thing more relaxing than wood carving is cutting down the tree to be carved.