Thursday, November 26, 2015

Kurlin Fubukinov (Observed Universe)

Kurlin Fubukinov has been several things, including freelance spy, professional dance instructor, handyman, and most recently, soldier. He has been a soldier for a very long time.
A blond immigrant, raised by loving but sickly parents, he had to support himself from a fairly early age and grew quite good at it. Unfortunately, he was just barely old enough to get caught in the last major military draft, and was forced into military service.
There, his build and stature would normally have gotten him a position as a heavy weapons specialist, if he hadn’t abruptly shown enough talent as a Connector before his final placement to justify retraining.

When he debuted in the field he attracted several Observers, and upon confirmation that he was the source of their interest, he was immediately promoted to Advanced Forces, where he served for nearly a decade before assignment to Akabane's experimental commando squad, alongside Vanka.

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Thousand Hand School (Prismatic Universe)

Hi. The author doesn't even know why he didn't post this earlier. Except that apparently, he did. He's edited it's replacement, so it is now a second draft, at least.

The Thousand Hand School of Darkshaping is a somewhat obscure school of martial arts. It was developed in the eleventh century as an offshoot of prosthetics research, and focuses on duplicating one’s limbs both on their body and in their environment.
Much of the reason for its obscurity is its difficulty, as it requires both precise casting of Darkness to mold one’s own limbs, and then a measured release that preserves the form both during release and in transit. Another reason is it is usually found to be unnerving, partly because Lightwielding is used to move the generated limbs.
The main reason it's survived is its speed. By relying so heavily on self-lensing their constructs (a technique where Light or Darkness is filtered through the caster's body before casting, greatly speeding formation at the cost of having a fixed point of origin and, in the case of Lightwielding, considerable risk), Thousand Hand techniques are extremely fast - and by using minimal amounts of Light to move one's constructs without actually reshaping them, it stays that way, while remaining surprisingly versatile.
More advanced Thousand Hand techniques involve varying the shape, size, and to a limited degree the materials of the generated limbs, and eventually grew to include modifying one's regular limbs on a temporary or permanent basis. As body-modification disciplines go it's quite limited, but remarkably safe.

Friday, November 13, 2015

Vaccine Williams

Hi. The author said it would be a later time zone, didn't he?
Kindly ignore the fact that on no time zone on Earth is it still Thursday.


Veronica Williams is one of the most widely known and feared mages on the planet. She was a medic, one of the first mages of the Fourth Timeline to truly attempt to test the boundaries of what magic could be used to heal, and was reasonably good at it, but she is far more widely known as Vaccine Williams, first Plaguemonger and creator of Windblight.

A rough timeline:
  1. Veronica secures government research grant to develop cures for cancer, among other things. Veronica has early success towards developing a spell that can manipulate biology.
  2. Other branch of government threatens to have her grant revoked unless she shares her work with their supersoldier project.
  3. Veronica refuses, other branch of government sends mage team to apprehend her and recover her notes.
  4. Veronica completes Windblight and uses it to kill retrieval team. Veronica decides that her work on biological manipulators is too dangerous to make public, destroys her notes, and flees.
  5. Veronica is labeled a terrorist, adopts the nickname Vaccine.
  6. Some time passes. Attempts to kill or apprehend her slowly peter out. Vaccine discovers that the supersoldier project that attempted to co-opt her research has used her blood as the base for several Artificial Nephilim.
  7. She attacks the project’s main facility, and decides to adopt her infant clones, Sorcery, Alchemy, and Larceny. There’s a fourth, seemingly empty growth tank, which she destroys with the others. Somewhere near this point she appears to have made the acquaintance of the being known as Trigger, and they have become friends.
  8. The failed fourth clone, little more than a piece of spine, is used as the basis for Ivory.

Sorcery, Alchemy, and Larceny are magically altered clones of Vaccine, technically classifying them as Artificial Nephilim. Alchemy’s modifications were based Omnicrafter Rings, but the other two’s origins are unknown. Sorcery’s powers seem to be based on complex effects, mostly blessings and curses, and Larceny’s powers appear to involve portals. Sorcery’s official name is Canum, and Alchemy’s is Solen. Larceny’s is unknown.

Thursday, November 5, 2015

First Episode Death Scene

As the author actually forgot to update last week, he's also finally updated the Links page. He's quite proud of this snippet, as well; it's the beginning to a Choose your Own Adventure-style story, that shall probably involve alchemy. And violence, lots of violence.
---

Ugh. I think there’s more shrapnel in my gut than intestine, at this point. The blood’s mostly stopped, that’s probably a bad sign.
The pillar behind me is hard, but not cold anymore. I should hope so, I’ve bled over it long enough. How long has it been, anyway? A minute? An hour? Not long enough for that guy to stop singing, at least. I keep hearing snatches, but it’s so hard to make out. “You are my sunshine… when thou art near me… thy Light has brought me… to~o this place...”
What is he singing? Why is he there? Does he know I’m alive?
Was he the one who tried to kill me?
Ow. I feel sick.


The viewpoint of a woman, running from some other figures. Blue uniforms? But blurry, I - she’s? running. Surrounded. She stops. She’s holding something. Stabs it into her wrist. Laughs. Her features start to change, hair grows longer, fanned out by gunfire. Gunfire? Hair fanned out by the gunfire, as it riddles her body.
My body. I’m standing, laughing. My clothes are shredded, but the blood’s obscuring that. I’m in a clearing - alleyway? Plaza? Somewhere small and circular, in the city. Around me, there are a bunch of people on the ground, riddled with bullets. There’s a lot of blood here. I’m still laughing. My mind is hazy, but laughing feels good. I feel good. Euphoric. Weirdly so, like there’s also nausea, or maybe hints of pain. Would those be bad? It seems like it, but I can’t tell.

[ ] Start investigating the people on the ground.
--[ ] You need clothes. You think you ought to feel cold.
--[ ] Make sure they don't get up again.
--[ ] They might need help.
--[ ] They’re just interesting. (Default)
[ ] Run. You might not be safe here. You remember being chased.
--[ ] There’s a path just a little to the right of where you’re facing. Were you going that direction?
--[ ] Up one of the walls. Could you do that, before? It feels obvious.
--[ ] Out the alley behind you. They won’t be expecting that.
[ ] Examine yourself.
--[ ] Start playing with your hair. Partway down, it changes color! Where it's not bloodstained, that is.