Paracelsus Application
May. 27th, 2014 08:52 pmPlayer Information
Name: Jack/Yoiko
Pronoun: she
E-mail: inkskies at gmail dot com
Other Contact: Just email, please! I will probably miss PMs.
Character Information
Name: Rhys Elena
House: Trenton Corporation
Birthplace: Colwyn Bay, Wales (Raised in North Carolina, USA)
Birthdate: January 27, 1979
Age: 17
Gender: Male
Physical Details
Hair Color: Dark Blond
Eye Color: Yellow
Height: 5'11"
Body Type: Mesomorphic, trapezoid-y, and conventionally masculine. Rhys has broad shoulders and visible definition to his muscles.
Appearance Notes: His eyes are a definite unnatural (for a human) yellow-gold, and can gleam if they catch the light right. His right arm is a covered in black scales from the shoulder down and ends in a monstrous claw. He keeps it gloved and wrapped up, even if it forces asymmetry.
He was right handed, but has been learning to (sloppily) use his left because using a gloved claw to take notes yields poor results.
PB: Yuri Arbatov from CODA (recolor)
[shifted!Rhys played by Kaiser from Breath of Fire IV(also recolor)(and only the head)]
Life Details
Background:
Before the fall of House Almagoras, the young Elena Llewelyn Almagoras was courted quietly by a Castillo. When Patisse and Castillo made their deadly plans, he cut the romance short, guilty over the information he had provided his house and his soon to be direct involvement in the massacre. Elena was killed at the feast, but left behind a son who was taken in by Trenton Corporation with other Almagoras survivors. His father never knew.
Rhys was too young to remember much of his mother and Trenton Corporation became his home. However, that his father was Castillo was not an unknown, and it was something some of his peers didn't let him forget in many a petty brawl. The quarrels died down as the program expanded, but Rhys never had many friends.
In the earlier experiments, Rhys assisted the program with studying spirits. The staff was woefully unprepared for these tests, lacking House Castillo's knowledge, and when Rhys used his Empathy to make contact, it was not without consequence. A spirit bound itself to Rhys rather forcibly. Most of the trauma healed, but Rhys' voice was lost forever, perhaps unmendable after the accident, perhaps taken as payment. Without invoking, Rhys' spirit existed only as an undeniable presence. At first Rhys was disturbed by the constant loom, but in time, its subtle guidance made it a kind of mentor.
But it was not the last, or worst, of the incidents Rhys experienced. Years later, during shifting practice, something went wrong. Rhys violently took the form of a monstrous beast, and in his pained convulsions, he had to be confined for others' safety-- and his own. Eventually, the staff was able to help Rhys shift back, but not all of his humanity made it with him. His eyes had turned a feral kind of gold, and his right arm remained scaled and clawed. The spirit was very, very pleased, and again Rhys was afraid.
He blamed his own poor skills for the accidents and was pleasantly surprised to find Trenton Corporation was still willing to send him to Paracelsus Academy. Part of him wonders if it wasn't to give the facility some distance from the fear he inspired, but Rhys is dedicated to his education and has no intentions of wasting the opportunity.
House Politics:
Rhys is still struggling to understand House politics. He knows his mother was murdered, and that he carries the blood of those responsible. The thought of being grouped with Castillo makes him ill, but he also feels rejected by other Almagoras survivors, and isn't unaware of their dark history.
He doesn't want to judge based on House, because others doing it have caused him grief. Yet, he can't help being a little bitter against Castillo... and more curious. The more he learns, the more questions he has with even less answers, and the only thing he knows for sure is that he doesn't know anything at all.
Well, except that mass murder is never the right solution to anything. So there's that.
Rhys is indebted to Trenton Corporation, however, and thinks he has a lot to make up for. He's grateful to be taken in and looks to them for political guidance, but he also assumes they aren't planning anything grim.
Personality:
Rhys is a hard working student that tends to have his assignments in early. Though he'd be hesitant to admit it, Rhys loves a challenge and feels more satisfied when he's getting thrashed and making average/poor marks than when he's acing his assignments. His favorite subjects are those involving action rather than written tests, but he's particularly interested in bestiary studies regardless of any paperwork.
Grades themselves aren't important to him as a score, and he's exactly the kind of person to be late to class helping someone with a spilled bag or miss class entirely to carry someone to the infirmary. For the most part, he is self-assured enough to not worry what others think of him, and hopes that over time his actions will speak for themselves and dispel rumors. Paradoxically, praise makes him nervous and he tries to brush it off. When Rhys gets flustered, he turns bright red. It is not his favorite quality.
He has an optimistic attitude tempered with patience, but is prone to making light of what bothers him to avoid talking about it. He'll be all right, he thinks, if he can just keep putting one foot in front of the other. He's survived this long, right? Rhys is skilled in the art of, "shut up and do it," knowing pain-- emotional or physical-- is temporary. Rhys can will himself to go through with unpleasant actions and put up with the consequences, whether an embarrassing social display or physical impact.
Rhys genuinely cares for the well being of others. He tries to look out for those around them, and seeks to understand before being understood. Intention is key with Rhys, and he can be forgiving as long as someone meant well, or means well now. Even if his skills in empathy pick up on darker intentions, he hopes the act of trusting someone might give them second thoughts. He's an idealist that way-- or naive, depending on who you ask.
Despite this, he has failed to be social in his previous year at the academy. Underneath it all, Rhys is confused about his place in the world, worried about his monstrous scarring, frightened of his spirit contract, and, well, shy. It isn't difficult to read his past behavior as aloof instead of timid. Now that he's adjusted to school life, he hopes to have better luck reaching out. This is a place of learning, and everything that concerns him must have its answers if he keeps trying.
Flaws:
Recklessness. Rhys dives into dangerous situations without a second thought, and does not like to quit even when loss is a clear inevitability-- especially when. Part pride, part not wanting to burden others, Rhys rarely asks for help. He doesn't realize this can be more of a burden until it's too late.
When called out, Rhys has a terrible habit of apologizing for things he plans to keep doing. Repeatedly. Until the end of time. This is not how apologies are meant to work.
Rhys can be tolerant of anyone who gives him the time of day, sometimes accepting unhealthy treatment. In other cases, he'll bury the fact that he's been forgiving slight after slight, then withdraw hard once the last line is crossed. Rhys' anger is cold and dismissive, and when a relationship goes sour, rarely will he make the first move.
Rhys is more comfortable with the concept of dishonesty than many people. He thinks it's a reasonable way to preserve privacy, and values his own privacy (especially when it comes to what's bothering him). While he wants to believe he would never be dishonest or secretive in a hurtful way, that's a subjective slippery slope. And in truth, if it ever came down to deceptive tactics, Rhys is of the school of thought that to fool his enemies, he must first fool his friends.
Magic and Skill Details
Magic and Skills:
Rhys first school of magic is empathy.
Empathy, a minor school of magic, is the ability to sense and share emotions, sensations, and perceptions. This includes tricks such as seeing a hidden layer of emotion behind someone's stoic mask, or literally seeing the world through someone else's eyes. Advanced empaths can read the lingering feelings from locations or objects. Empaths are limited by their own state when sharing, only able to send what they currently experience (cherry picking optional). In reading, intense feelings are easier to sense, but can also be disorienting.
Because Trenton Corporation lacked the summoner background of House Castillo, they experimented with empathy as a way to help Rhys communicate with spirits. It also helps Rhys communicate with people despite his muteness. He cannot manipulate the feelings of others (and would reject trying), but he can grant awareness of his own emotions so that every twitch of his body language and facial expressions are supernaturally easier to understand. It can also be used in communicating with creatures that don't understand spoken language. In his Tower exam last year, Rhys helped his team by convincing a powerful monster not to fight them. (The range on this is about speaking distance, and he can "yell" further by exerting himself.)
When it comes to sensing, Rhys doesn't use it casually in social situations (that's rude!), but utilizes it in combat to get a feel on what his opponent may do next (violent feelings toward a specific part of his body are telling, for example) to give him an edge on reaction time. If emotions are strong enough, sensing can function as a radar, but Rhys wouldn't be able to "see" people who are feeling generally chill. (The range on this is a fuzzy human hearing range loosely based on if emotions are "whispers" or "shouts" and so on.)
* People experience emotions uniquely! It's possible Rhys would be less or more able to understand certain people if he tried to dig deeper. (aka, handwaving away his ability to do much if a player isn't comfortable with it.)
Rhys is only starting to get into sharing sensations and, unlike emotions, he must be touching someone to do so. Mostly, he's only done this to share his pain in a fight, but it would work in reverse, possibly useful in helping a mender or, if Rhys is feeling risky, locating a weakened spot.
His second school is shifting. Rhys can shift into a muscular, quadruped beast about the size of a horse. His body is covered in rough scales and looks like some awful ursine/canine hybrid with a reptilian head. Rhys is capable of shifting in pieces (gaining claws, a tail, just horns, etc), but cannot make shifts outside of this single beast. Rhys focuses his shifting studies on becoming comfortable with and improving the base form.
[Rhys' spirit can only be seen (sometimes) during casting. For lesser spells, it may only be an ethereal aura of ghostly chains and smoke, but on bigger castings, a phantom of the beast can be seen, often superimposed over Rhys' body. It looks much like his beast form. The spirit does not have a known name as it's only been able to communicate with Rhys through empathy.]
Rhys' mundane skill is hand-to-hand combat. It started out with childhood fights, and evolved during the Trenton Corporation program with formal self-defense training. It's been adjusted to account for the fact that Rhys has claws, not just fists, as natural weapons, and many basic brawling principles still apply in beast form.
Name: Jack/Yoiko
Pronoun: she
E-mail: inkskies at gmail dot com
Other Contact: Just email, please! I will probably miss PMs.
Character Information
Name: Rhys Elena
House: Trenton Corporation
Birthplace: Colwyn Bay, Wales (Raised in North Carolina, USA)
Birthdate: January 27, 1979
Age: 17
Gender: Male
Physical Details
Hair Color: Dark Blond
Eye Color: Yellow
Height: 5'11"
Body Type: Mesomorphic, trapezoid-y, and conventionally masculine. Rhys has broad shoulders and visible definition to his muscles.
Appearance Notes: His eyes are a definite unnatural (for a human) yellow-gold, and can gleam if they catch the light right. His right arm is a covered in black scales from the shoulder down and ends in a monstrous claw. He keeps it gloved and wrapped up, even if it forces asymmetry.
He was right handed, but has been learning to (sloppily) use his left because using a gloved claw to take notes yields poor results.
PB: Yuri Arbatov from CODA (recolor)
[shifted!Rhys played by Kaiser from Breath of Fire IV(also recolor)(and only the head)]
Life Details
Background:
Before the fall of House Almagoras, the young Elena Llewelyn Almagoras was courted quietly by a Castillo. When Patisse and Castillo made their deadly plans, he cut the romance short, guilty over the information he had provided his house and his soon to be direct involvement in the massacre. Elena was killed at the feast, but left behind a son who was taken in by Trenton Corporation with other Almagoras survivors. His father never knew.
Rhys was too young to remember much of his mother and Trenton Corporation became his home. However, that his father was Castillo was not an unknown, and it was something some of his peers didn't let him forget in many a petty brawl. The quarrels died down as the program expanded, but Rhys never had many friends.
In the earlier experiments, Rhys assisted the program with studying spirits. The staff was woefully unprepared for these tests, lacking House Castillo's knowledge, and when Rhys used his Empathy to make contact, it was not without consequence. A spirit bound itself to Rhys rather forcibly. Most of the trauma healed, but Rhys' voice was lost forever, perhaps unmendable after the accident, perhaps taken as payment. Without invoking, Rhys' spirit existed only as an undeniable presence. At first Rhys was disturbed by the constant loom, but in time, its subtle guidance made it a kind of mentor.
But it was not the last, or worst, of the incidents Rhys experienced. Years later, during shifting practice, something went wrong. Rhys violently took the form of a monstrous beast, and in his pained convulsions, he had to be confined for others' safety-- and his own. Eventually, the staff was able to help Rhys shift back, but not all of his humanity made it with him. His eyes had turned a feral kind of gold, and his right arm remained scaled and clawed. The spirit was very, very pleased, and again Rhys was afraid.
He blamed his own poor skills for the accidents and was pleasantly surprised to find Trenton Corporation was still willing to send him to Paracelsus Academy. Part of him wonders if it wasn't to give the facility some distance from the fear he inspired, but Rhys is dedicated to his education and has no intentions of wasting the opportunity.
House Politics:
Rhys is still struggling to understand House politics. He knows his mother was murdered, and that he carries the blood of those responsible. The thought of being grouped with Castillo makes him ill, but he also feels rejected by other Almagoras survivors, and isn't unaware of their dark history.
He doesn't want to judge based on House, because others doing it have caused him grief. Yet, he can't help being a little bitter against Castillo... and more curious. The more he learns, the more questions he has with even less answers, and the only thing he knows for sure is that he doesn't know anything at all.
Well, except that mass murder is never the right solution to anything. So there's that.
Rhys is indebted to Trenton Corporation, however, and thinks he has a lot to make up for. He's grateful to be taken in and looks to them for political guidance, but he also assumes they aren't planning anything grim.
Personality:
Rhys is a hard working student that tends to have his assignments in early. Though he'd be hesitant to admit it, Rhys loves a challenge and feels more satisfied when he's getting thrashed and making average/poor marks than when he's acing his assignments. His favorite subjects are those involving action rather than written tests, but he's particularly interested in bestiary studies regardless of any paperwork.
Grades themselves aren't important to him as a score, and he's exactly the kind of person to be late to class helping someone with a spilled bag or miss class entirely to carry someone to the infirmary. For the most part, he is self-assured enough to not worry what others think of him, and hopes that over time his actions will speak for themselves and dispel rumors. Paradoxically, praise makes him nervous and he tries to brush it off. When Rhys gets flustered, he turns bright red. It is not his favorite quality.
He has an optimistic attitude tempered with patience, but is prone to making light of what bothers him to avoid talking about it. He'll be all right, he thinks, if he can just keep putting one foot in front of the other. He's survived this long, right? Rhys is skilled in the art of, "shut up and do it," knowing pain-- emotional or physical-- is temporary. Rhys can will himself to go through with unpleasant actions and put up with the consequences, whether an embarrassing social display or physical impact.
Rhys genuinely cares for the well being of others. He tries to look out for those around them, and seeks to understand before being understood. Intention is key with Rhys, and he can be forgiving as long as someone meant well, or means well now. Even if his skills in empathy pick up on darker intentions, he hopes the act of trusting someone might give them second thoughts. He's an idealist that way-- or naive, depending on who you ask.
Despite this, he has failed to be social in his previous year at the academy. Underneath it all, Rhys is confused about his place in the world, worried about his monstrous scarring, frightened of his spirit contract, and, well, shy. It isn't difficult to read his past behavior as aloof instead of timid. Now that he's adjusted to school life, he hopes to have better luck reaching out. This is a place of learning, and everything that concerns him must have its answers if he keeps trying.
Flaws:
Recklessness. Rhys dives into dangerous situations without a second thought, and does not like to quit even when loss is a clear inevitability-- especially when. Part pride, part not wanting to burden others, Rhys rarely asks for help. He doesn't realize this can be more of a burden until it's too late.
When called out, Rhys has a terrible habit of apologizing for things he plans to keep doing. Repeatedly. Until the end of time. This is not how apologies are meant to work.
Rhys can be tolerant of anyone who gives him the time of day, sometimes accepting unhealthy treatment. In other cases, he'll bury the fact that he's been forgiving slight after slight, then withdraw hard once the last line is crossed. Rhys' anger is cold and dismissive, and when a relationship goes sour, rarely will he make the first move.
Rhys is more comfortable with the concept of dishonesty than many people. He thinks it's a reasonable way to preserve privacy, and values his own privacy (especially when it comes to what's bothering him). While he wants to believe he would never be dishonest or secretive in a hurtful way, that's a subjective slippery slope. And in truth, if it ever came down to deceptive tactics, Rhys is of the school of thought that to fool his enemies, he must first fool his friends.
Magic and Skill Details
Magic and Skills:
Rhys first school of magic is empathy.
Empathy, a minor school of magic, is the ability to sense and share emotions, sensations, and perceptions. This includes tricks such as seeing a hidden layer of emotion behind someone's stoic mask, or literally seeing the world through someone else's eyes. Advanced empaths can read the lingering feelings from locations or objects. Empaths are limited by their own state when sharing, only able to send what they currently experience (cherry picking optional). In reading, intense feelings are easier to sense, but can also be disorienting.
Because Trenton Corporation lacked the summoner background of House Castillo, they experimented with empathy as a way to help Rhys communicate with spirits. It also helps Rhys communicate with people despite his muteness. He cannot manipulate the feelings of others (and would reject trying), but he can grant awareness of his own emotions so that every twitch of his body language and facial expressions are supernaturally easier to understand. It can also be used in communicating with creatures that don't understand spoken language. In his Tower exam last year, Rhys helped his team by convincing a powerful monster not to fight them. (The range on this is about speaking distance, and he can "yell" further by exerting himself.)
When it comes to sensing, Rhys doesn't use it casually in social situations (that's rude!), but utilizes it in combat to get a feel on what his opponent may do next (violent feelings toward a specific part of his body are telling, for example) to give him an edge on reaction time. If emotions are strong enough, sensing can function as a radar, but Rhys wouldn't be able to "see" people who are feeling generally chill. (The range on this is a fuzzy human hearing range loosely based on if emotions are "whispers" or "shouts" and so on.)
* People experience emotions uniquely! It's possible Rhys would be less or more able to understand certain people if he tried to dig deeper. (aka, handwaving away his ability to do much if a player isn't comfortable with it.)
Rhys is only starting to get into sharing sensations and, unlike emotions, he must be touching someone to do so. Mostly, he's only done this to share his pain in a fight, but it would work in reverse, possibly useful in helping a mender or, if Rhys is feeling risky, locating a weakened spot.
His second school is shifting. Rhys can shift into a muscular, quadruped beast about the size of a horse. His body is covered in rough scales and looks like some awful ursine/canine hybrid with a reptilian head. Rhys is capable of shifting in pieces (gaining claws, a tail, just horns, etc), but cannot make shifts outside of this single beast. Rhys focuses his shifting studies on becoming comfortable with and improving the base form.
[Rhys' spirit can only be seen (sometimes) during casting. For lesser spells, it may only be an ethereal aura of ghostly chains and smoke, but on bigger castings, a phantom of the beast can be seen, often superimposed over Rhys' body. It looks much like his beast form. The spirit does not have a known name as it's only been able to communicate with Rhys through empathy.]
Rhys' mundane skill is hand-to-hand combat. It started out with childhood fights, and evolved during the Trenton Corporation program with formal self-defense training. It's been adjusted to account for the fact that Rhys has claws, not just fists, as natural weapons, and many basic brawling principles still apply in beast form.
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