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( a forest dark ) permissions
ABOUT Appearance: In human form, Kiri is a small, slight girl—thinly built and just shy of five feet tall. She appears to be about fifteen or sixteen years old and of Japanese descent, with large dark eyes and straight black hair that tends to float messily around her shoulders. Cute, but not inherently remarkable. Rather, her most defining features are her facial scars: an older one that goes across her cheeks and nose with an evenness and symmetry that implies scarification, and a newer one—thin, distinctively dark (as though still healing), and jagged like shattered pottery, going from the top left of her face to the lower right. She typically wears a knee-length hemp cloth shift dress tied with a sash (currently in team colors), and two necklaces: one of round jade beads, and another that's a simple brass tag on a leather thong, mysteriously empty of text. In sword form, she is a tachi (somewhat longer and more "old-fashioned" than the classic katana look) with a simple wrapped hilt from which dangle a collection of jade beads and a brass tag (like her two necklaces). The blade itself looks like it has been badly shattered and put back together again, though the lines of the past break are perfectly clean, rather than looking like any sort of metalwork has been done to manage the repair. In magical sight, the cracks have a golden quality to them (think kintsugi). Abilities: As the Power of Scars, Kiri can do all sorts of crazy stuff with both physical and emotional scars. She is is mainly talented in an ability termed Persona, which allows her to make herself and others more or less "scar-like." Notably, this includes personifying others' physical or emotional scars (which allows her to learn their "scarring" experiences, at the cost of living through them herself), but she can also apply or remove qualities of scars (see journal side panel) to herself and others—though advanced stuff costs her miraculous energy, which isn't easily regenerated. As one of the Nobilis, Kiri also naturally has the ability to see into the mythic (see spirits and some magical effects, though she must consciously choose to do so), use botany-based magic (not that she's any good at it), "guise" (minor shapeshifting/illusions that allow her to "fit in" with her environment), and speak/understand all languages. Her most individually powerful ability is called the World Breaker's Hand, which lets her selectively delete elements of reality. This is a very rare, but not unique, power in her world. Here is something resembling an explanation of how World Breaker's Hand functions, by the author of Nobilis (though she's talking about it in the context of Nobilis' sister game, Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, and it's kind of an obtuse explanation, since Jenna Moran wrote it so of course it is). Other powers of the Nobilis that she can use if she spends Miraculous Energy: Domain (creating and controlling scars), Treasure (empowering objects and people with a connection to her), and Aspect (taking human abilities to superhuman levels). She is not inherently skilled in any of these though, so actually tapping into any of those powers is exclusively a special occasion thing requiring miraculous energy. Sufficiently strong Miracles involve speaking a Word and potentially fundamentally rewriting the universe, but this is both magically costly and capital W-Wounds her, so it's not something to do casually. Finally, Kiri is Eternal—the variety of immortal that removes her need for food/drink/breathing/aging and dying, but doesn't make her less susceptible to damage—and Elusive—resistant (but not immune) to magical effects that would alter her mind or body. Also, Kiri is literally a sword, and a supremely sharp one at that. She can wield herself only with middling effectiveness (she's able to cut things, even in human form, but has no knowledge of how to fight on her own). In the hands of another, though, she can be used to soulcarve—that is, to cut through the miracles/magic of someone else, canceling it out for as long as the "cut" continues. This explicitly includes things like "cut away someone's immortality while everyone else whales on them." Notably, Kiri has no personal power to stop someone from wielding her against her will. However, she is also a cursed sword, who brings out the most violent/murderous urges of anyone wielding her. (This can have greater or lesser effect on people as per player comfort level. But it's a thing.) In terms of weaknesses, an existential crisis is about as damaging to Kiri as being stabbed through the heart, which is to say, "a serious wound, but it won't kill her." That said, while in human form, she doesn't naturally have any special strength/resilience/resistance. About the worst thing you could do to her would be to undermine the essential nature of "what is a scar." Doing so wounds her on a spiritual level and threatens to ummake her entirely. Skills, Passions, and Superior Attributes Superior Attribute: Cutting (5) Passion: Warriors are the most interesting people. (3) Negative skill: prudence (-1) Negative skill: temperance (-2) Bonds: I read the pain carved in your flesh. (3) I am full of vim and wickedness. (2) I sing for Hell! (1) I know how to wield the Abhorrence in my cracks. (5) Afflictions: I am a soul-carving sword of Muramasa. (5) I have a conscience now. (2) Leli(el?) is always with me. (5) About: To those with the capacity to tell these things, Kiri pings as on some level a spirit—she was a "dryad" of a sword before she was a girl. Being the Power of Scars means she has a shard of reality (or at least her home universe's reality?) in her, which may ping as being like a god or demigod depending on a character's interpretation. A more careful analysis may also note a holy flame quality to her. Also, significantly, when she uses World-Breaker's Hand (or someone else uses her as a soulcarving sword), she trails blue flame (visible only to magical senses), which pings as something fundamentally wrong and outside reality. PERMISSIONS
Although technically Kiri is over 500 (a veritable antique!), because in just about every other way she's just a kid, I'm going to be very hesitant to involve her in sexual scenarios, and may request fading to black. (tbh I'm not even sure if she's a character who will do sexual attraction, but I don't want to write it off entirely.) For "torture/gross" stuff, I have no real squicks, but especially love body horror and psychological torment. I use slack (@degen) for a lot of different groups I'm involved in, so it's another great way to contact me besides plurk/discord/journal PM, especially if I'm away from my computer. |