The Super Aiko Cave

Major cities for imrp in Rubato

2011-10-17T18:58:00.001-04:00

Blancwood: The beautiful, prosperous royal capital. It has one of only two national hospitals, as well as the only secondary school and university in the country, the Blancwood Academy. The academy is private, and tuition is very costly, but those who can get an education there from primary to university are very fortunate and become successful indeed. The nobles live mainly in this town, and it's very posh to live near the Blancwood Palace, where the current King Ferdinand Leon Olmo II resides. The castle courtyard is filled with statues of past kings, and some have been broken by disgruntled citizens in the past in revolutions. A grand fountain is also directly across from the palace gates. The Royal Mall is located in this city, as well as many boutiques and other stores. Farms are around the city limits, which are marked by a ring of white birch trees for which the city gets its name. The highway connects to this city.

The city, which is practically the size of a city-state in itself, has its own standing army. It once engaged in war with Cernilia when the emperor made a second attempt to claim it. Without Blancwood, Rubato's economy and population would come crashing down. Cadenza once went to school here, and her first husband Paris Valentia, who was long-believed to have died from war, resides here. The police station here is the center of the Rubatoian Police Department, and is headed by Chief Moreno. The police force here employs a Cernilian citizen, by the name of Inspector Daniela Cruz, and is also rumored to employ a vampire, named Otto von Blod.

Residents: Greene, Ernesto, Hunter, Louis, Celia, Selene, Arina, Yosha, Ms. Silva, King Olmo, Larena, Ace

Agra: Surrounded by canyons and jutting rock formations, it's one of the largest cities further north in Rubato, where the deserts turn to rockier mesas. Much of the soil is reddish in color. Agra is split up into various districts because of its sheer size, including the Western District, which is filled with many pubs, and conveniently the Agra Police Station, the Northern district, which is a bit more lawful than most of the others, and has some immigrants living there, and then the oh-so-infamous "Black Smog" District, which is the hub of the illegal drug trade in Rubato, as well as prostitution, and the black market. It was named for the black smog and smoke that seems to hang perpetually about the streets there. Agra in general is one of the more wild and lawless areas, and has a been of a spaghetti western feel to the bars and architecture. Outside the city limits, but grouped by many as still being part of Agra, is the "Pedra Roja" (literally "red rock") district, which is a community of hermit-like or reclusive mages and magical-drug dealers (who tend to call their shops "apothecaries") with an occult-like and seedy reputation throughout the country. These are seen as the weirdos among even the mages. The highway connects to Agra.

There is much gang and mafia activity throughout Agra, which once was controlled by the Madrigal and Dionne families, until Vivace Madrigal-Dionne's death (my character Cadenza's oldest sister.) Cadenza still has some dealings in this town with its drug trade, especially in Pedra Roja. The Madrigal family name is very well-respected here, as it is throughout most other cities.

Residents: Domingo Vargas

Allegre: Not a town I have written as much about, but Allegre is a border town with the nation of Cernilia. It was once half of a larger city with Denadoro (which is now part of Cernilia), but after the war when the emperor split the nation, the large city was also split. It's very hilly and has some sparse grass, and some of the few scattered nobles in Rubato live here, if they do not live in Blancwood. Their manors are occasionally the victim of higher-scale robberies. A primary school is located here.

Residents: Cindy, formerly Carla, on the outskirts of Denadoro

Pe del Fuego desert: The hottest desert in Rubato, and also the largest. The name translates literally to the "Foot of Fire" desert, because it is said that if you stepped onto the sand with your bare feet, they would be burned immediately.

Isla do Noir: Literally, the "Isle of Black", the Isla do Noir is a craggy, high-cliffed island in the blue-green, churning waters of the Miradic Ocean (think the Pacific) off the western coast of Rubato. It is covered with some grass, but its land is mainly taken up by the very large federal prison, which holds the nation's worst criminals.

Saguaro: A small town that was destroyed in a massive fight between Zorolo's character Monroe, and Mikey's character Cain.

Ceguera que Quema desert: The second hottest desert in Rubato. The name translates literally to "The Blindness that Burns", and it was named because the sun shines down so harshly and brightly that it is said staying there too long would blind you.

Santa Mariela: A growing town in southern Rubato, surrounded on all sides by desert. A river, called the Rio Primavera ("Spring River"), once flowed through the city, but it has dried up scores of years ago. It is connected to Rubato's system of sparse highways, and has one of the country's primary schools. It also has one of the larger bazaars in the nation, outside of Blancwood and Sereia. This city is heavily under the influence of the Madrigal family, as it is where they have lived for generations. Their reputation there is mixed, with the positive deeds of Galliard Madrigal, the inventor and patriarch, and the negative deeds of the mafia, once led by Vivace. But they are highly-respected for providing leadership in the town of whatever kind, and thwarting the police, who are widely believed to be corrupt by many of the poor who do not get such equal treatment. Cadenza Madrigal lives here with her boyfriend and adopted daughter, as do her three remaining sisters and father. It has its own police station, run by the strict Captain Romero.

Residents: Cadenza, Luminari, Arietta, Galliard, Ruin, Leo, Zach, Tyran

Rancha Rosa: One of the biggest cities in Rubato, and the location of one of the two national hospitals, as well as a large police station that is headed by Captain Buffon. Tracey de Carlo works primarily at this police station, and lives in this city with her husband Monroe. The highway connects to this city.

Residents: Con, Damien, Will, Linda, Tracey, Alex, Monroe

Sereia: Rubato's only functioning port town. The culture is somewhat different here, as fishing and seafaring are a part of every day life. The bazaar is down by the docks, and remnants and traces of mermaid statues and sailor life can be found all throughout the city. Many bars are pirate-themed, like the Buccaneer's Boot, and temples are devoted to the Spirit of Water. Sea-vines can be found clinging to some buildings. The genius blacksmith Omar Vargas keeps his forge by the docks, and is a dear family friend of the Madrigal's. The town's name, Sereia, literally means "Mermaid", and it was named by the first settlers there, who believed they had seen mermaids off the coast of the town. The highway's southern most part comes to Sereia.

Residents: Algretta, Omar

Forest of Renewal residents: Gaia, Morticus, Erik, Tierra, Suena

Selma Village (Rameses’ village) residents: Rameses, Malcolm, Magda, Eulie, Adrianne, Pauline, Hyde, other former purifiers

Citta residents (in Cernilia) – Dorian and family

Cadenza's Musing on Gypsies (snippet, possibly for later use in something?)

2011-08-24T00:16:00.002-04:00

When someone needs to be cursed in a movie or some TV show, that’s where you’ll see us. When someone needs to run afoul of some old mystic, my people will be there, as a widely accepted plot device, a little rabbit out of a hat, a tired but trusty trick up a sleeve to stand in as the spell-slinging substitute for the fairytale witches of old. Often we’re made out to be spiteful, stuck in the past, or just plain weird, dressed in exotic rags and waving around skulls and wooden staffs and things that reek of voodoo stereotypes we have nothing to do with. Except, of course, in the Hollywood-glazed eyes of the public. We get mystified, romanticized, knocked back several centuries in progress in their stories. When someone gets “gypped”, that’s a knock at us—and yes, even our current name, “gypsy”, was once a slur. No one’s going to take the time to call us the People of Arganthonios, or Children of Spirit, or any of the other names we once were known by. We’re the strange, the unknown, the cast-offs.

Except in Rubato. There, where so many, nearly all of us are gypsies or the descendants of gypsies, we are finally home.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arganthonios

The Races of Earth -- DRAFT

2011-08-16T02:36:00.016-04:00

“Race” is an imprecise word to use on the planet of Earth, and the means by which one is determined to belong to one race or another are rather inaccurate, existing instead in a fine gray area. The living beings do not fit into neat little pigeon-holes, “human” or “elf” or what have you, and each being’s make-up seems different. They have a mixture of traits and affinities and other little overlapping aspects that happen to tend in one direction or any myriad of others. But for the sake of labels, of tools to define their world, living creatures have always grouped themselves in some way. Below are many of the known “races” on this earth guided by the Spirit of Gaia.

-Dreamers are the creators of the world, the pure, imaginative, vibrant souls from whom wishes and hopes take form. A Dreamer by nature animates the world around them; when they are young, living things spring forth from their most ardent dreams and hopes. However, their powers do not know how to distinguish from good or bad on their own, and a youthful Dreamer often conjures up a few horrible beasts from a nightmare, or changes inanimate things into living creatures without intending to, until they learn to control their vast powers. They can, by shaping in their mind, create things from pure force of energy—each new thing is granted a little piece of the Dreamer’s self, should they wish for it to last. The larger the creation, the more they must invest. Their energy can regrow, but it does take time and cultivation.

Youthful Dreamers must also face another worry; should they give of themselves sexually to another without love, many often find that they lose their gifts. Dreamers therefore must be very judicious in how they choose to share themselves, in both romance and creation. Older Dreamers are wise and powerful, the kind of beings that could change the very world itself if they truly believed in a cause. All of their kind possess great powers for healing illnesses and wounds, and the elder or more gifted can even raise the dead with a Kiss of Life. Dreamers can also change the natural landscape of the world around them, reviving a barren desert, or purifying a dead sea. Their imaginations are the limit. They are often known, for many of these reasons, as the First Children of Gaia. When classed as mages, they are almost always enchanters, and their powers always lie within the use of life magic.

-Those Who Can Alter the Nature of Bodies, whom have never existed in large enough numbers to have been given a proper name in any time period. They can change the very building blocks that physically compose themselves and often others; they can steal, copy, or swap appearances, powers, and/or genetics. Whether delving into genotypes or just the phenotypes, they deal with one’s DNA.

Some are not born gifted enough to do so consciously. These people will instead focus instinctively on one aspect of themselves, their strength, their looks, their smarts, or otherwise, and their energy will go towards bolstering this attribute; they will continue to develop and develop, even after going well beyond predictable human limits for such traits. Dangerous and unknown side-effects can arise from such growth. Those who can consciously control their gifts often live to long ages; but their kind is known to deceive, and often run across trouble.

Their powers do not derive from a single kind of magic; instead, they drawn upon the energies of life, beauty, strength, and potentially others to do their workings. Their powers often come the closest to science of any of the other kinds known, and indeed, biologists and doctors have often desired to know more of their kind in the rare times when they have crossed paths. It is often said that you can never truly know when you might be staring into the face of one of their kind, unless you are to witness them use their powers firsthand. They often run in long lines of families, one of which is the family of the Felujas (now the bloodline has run to the Dionnes.)

-Humans are the cloth from which many of the other kinds are cut, the basic pattern that all of the intelligent races have followed on the earth. In their way, they have many gifts some may take for granted; they are mortal, and do not have to endure the hardships of longer lives, nor the passing of many loved ones; they do not have powers with which to struggle to learn or control; they are free to believe and live as they wish, without ever so much as a concern of running afoul of the Spirits or other rules or issues of magic. They are the most widespread and populous race on the earth. Even two parents who possess powers may not pass on their abilities to a child, and can sometimes instead have human offspring. How rare this is differs amongst many groups. Humanity is the thread that binds these many races together as a species.

They are called various things by the other races, such as “vanillas”, “mortals”, “plains”, “normals”, and others. All humans, and by extension, all their living races of earth have at least a small amount of life magic within their souls. They are comprised of flesh, a soul, and at least this little bit of magic from Gaia. Normal humans are often seen as defenseless “sheep” to supernatural predators.

-Mages are humans that have been gifted with greater magic within their souls, beyond that which is needed solely for their own life force. They possess enough energy that, with talent, they can manipulate and control the energy that springs from them to perform spells and other feats. Often their specialty lies in one kind of magic, such as water or fire, that they possess an abundance of energy in, but they can also possess other types in conjunction with this, often life or strength magic. Dreamers are often viewed as a kind of special mage, highly gifted in the magic of life. Mages can have children that are simply human, or children that inherit magical abilities, following varying lines of inheritance amongst many groups (gypsies, for example, tend to pass magic from mothers to daughters, etc.) Children do not necessarily inherit the same type of magic as their parents (a water-mage mother could have a fire-mage son, and so on, depending on the various kinds of magic that may run in their bloodline.) Even a Dreamer may not have a Dreamer child (but they do more often than a mage would, should they retain their powers after losing their virginity.)

Some doubt the abilities of mages, but they are the second most widespread race on the earth, after humans, and have a governing body, the International Council of Mages, that regulates against the misuse of magic in the modern day. Mages who travel to other worlds are attractive to magical energies, and may grow greatly in raw power from such absorption. Many are able to heal physical injuries and some degrees of illness. They often make very powerful offensive and defensive foes. Their magic bends to the power of their will and experience. The strongest of their kind can shape and affect the very elemental forces of nature on earth.

Because of their greater numbers, humans have been more aware of their kind than any of the others amongst them. At different times throughout history, humankind has revered and feared the mages; two of these worst times were the Witch Trials and the Gypsy Purge of the 1600s and 1700s. They have been venerated as shamans by the Yavin, as seers by Remulans (Romans), and as respected advisors and protectors in the modern age. The monks of Zhenghe and the gypsies of Rubato are two large groups of mages that show the vastly different traditions and attitudes various societies of mages live and practice under. There is always much to learn for a mage.

Amongst themselves, mages are occasionally classified by their level of skill, potential, and power in using magic. Highest amongst these are enchanters; lowest are mere magicians, and between are sorcerers and wizards (between which, differences are more so based on their application of magic, rather than much difference in skill; sorcerers use it in a more raw form, while wizards are more scholarly, less practical, both of them wielding the energies at a mid-level. Enchanters masterfully apply magic in both ways, and more.) “Witch” has become a derogatory term against mages, taking on an especially negative association during the Witch Trial years. Countries in the modern day have taken to appointing Royal and/or National Mages to serve on the International Council of Mages (ICoM) and advise and work with their nation's rulers concerning all magical matters within their land and otherwise. Often times, these respected and powerful Mages are called upon in times of war and other crises. The individual traditions and practices of this post varies from nation to nation and ruler to ruler, but they most commonly are a position for life, and one of the highest callings for a mortal user of magic.

Most of the Spirits were once mages in life. Depending on their magic level, mages are often sensitive to supernatural and magical presences, powers, and influences that humans are not, and can detect and guard against these things better than a normal mortal could. Since their magic relies upon their willpower to be used, mages of strong wills can possess formidable defenses against the abilities of supernatural predators. Mages can specialize in nearly any kind of magic, from the major kinds represented by the Spirits (life, death, time, justice, love, sleep, beauty, fire, water, lightning, shadow, darkness, light, ice, wind, earth, or strength), or lesser-known kinds such as emotion and music/sound. Some kinds of magic are more prevalent in some areas of the world than others.

-Healers are a special kind of mage, with great gifts not only in the area of healing physical injuries and illnesses, but even more. It is said that they can repair damage done to souls gradually, making them invaluable allies against fae and wraiths. The older and more powerful the healer, the more quickly and more fully this damage is repaired. Many mages do not, in fact, know they are healers, instead believing themselves just to be light magic-wielding mages. They often cannot manipulate their powers in these cases, and will instead simply give off an aura of healing that affects all those around them, but never is consciously focused on the repair of any one specific person. It is not until they become aware of their gifts that they can use them to more precise effect.

Their kind are often a dreamy, detached sort, with greater sensitivity to malicious spirits. Some have an affinity for the spiritual world and can communicate with departed souls, or see brief visions of the future. Meditation helps them even more than mages and Dreamers, and can center them and help them grow in awareness of their powers. Happiness and calm are aids in their healing. The stronger healers are a powerful deterrent against malicious spiritual predators.

Damien (updated)

2011-08-05T21:17:00.008-04:00

[B]Name:[/b] Damien

[B]Age:[/B] 19

[B]Sex:[/B] Male

[B]Race:[/B] Angel

[B]Height:[/B] 6'1"

[B]Weight:[/B] 151 lbs, or thereabouts since he last was weighed.

[B]Eye Color:[/B] A muddy, turbid brown color that's rather unremarkable, but often look friendly if they give off any impression.

[B]Hair Color/Style:[/B] Skunky blonde and slightly wavy, cut in a rather messy, shaggy style in short layers, the bottom-most reaching to his jawline. Has a cowlick in the front that never seems to want to stay down, no matter how much he wills (and excessively gels) it to.

[B]Skin Color/Complexion:[/B] A fair, peachy, healthy tone, with blemishes now and then. He has slight acne that is thankfully lessening as he gets older. It sunburns slower than most. Much of his skin is rather smooth, and he has never been able to grow much more facial hair than boyish peach fuzz.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/sailormichiru/1damienprof.png[/img] [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/sailormichiru/2damienprof.png[/img]
[URL="http://superaiko.deviantart.com/gallery/765176"]-More pictures of my characters, including Damien, on my DA account-[/URL]

[B]General Appearance:[/B]
[U][i]Face:[/i][/U] His face is neither handsome nor particularly unattractive--the best way you could really describe it would be to say it's "average", amiable, and still rather youthful. He gives off the appearance of having yet to grow into his features, and has a slightly bigger than normal nose, thin lips, and eyes set a little wider apart. He has a somewhat strong brow with decently trimmed eyebrows, and his face is longer than it is wide. His chin and jaw are a bit weak and not particularly overtly masculine or mature looking.

[U][i]Body:[/i][/U] Damien is neither cherub nor like an Adonis from a classical Michelangelo canvas, and cuts a rather gangling, tall, lanky figure that would seem more likely belong to a lazy college freshman majoring in general studies with a nickname like "Pizza Face" than an angel. He has large, skinny feet and hands, a long neck, and average-sized shoulders, with some slight muscle definition in his torso and limbs. His legs are his most toned and strong feature.

[u][i]Wings[/i][/u]: His first set of wings were stubby, pathetic, irregular-shaped things too flimsy to support flight and too embarrassing to pull out in front of the other fledglings--they have grown since then into more functional things, but are still not the perfectly plumed kind that one would expect from an angel (at least they're white, he often says.) Sometimes they make his back itch when he retracts them. He most often keeps them withdrawn, until needed.

[U][i]Clothing:[/i][/U] While in Heaven, Damien sticks to wearing the standard toga, leather belt, golden sandals, and laurels behind each ear. On earth, he likes to sport old, comfortable, worn-in t-shirts (often band t-shirts, thrift store, or rummage sale items), similarly old and battered jeans, brown leather sandals or well-worn white sneakers, and a blue South Carolina Tar Heels college windbreaker he feels helps him blend in more. He carries an off-brand backpack with his few possessions, covered in buttons and stickers of various places he's been, with the straps loose so its weight sags comfortably on his shoulders.

[U][i]Mannerisms and Movement:[/i][/U] He tends to slouch a bit, finding it more comfortable than standing upright, and walks with his hands in his pockets much of his time. He rarely keeps Floyd on a leash unless the local laws require him to, and even then it seems more like the dog is leading him around, than vice versa.

His smiles are a bit self-conscious and uncertain, but often genuine and good-natured. He smells of the open road, his dog Floyd, and occasionally fast food or the inn where he last slept.

[b]Theme Songs:[/b]
[LIST]
[*][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwkJfkl-clw"]Can’t Stop[/url] (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
[*][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUaw0b8U6OE"]Last Train Home[/url] (The Lost Prophets)
[/LIST]

[b]Known Family:[/b] None.

[B]Familiars/Nonhuman Companions:[/B] His dog [url= http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/npc-repository/122187-dog.html]Floyd[/url], a strong and stolid Caucasian Ovcharka cross-breed.

[b]Homeplace:[/b] Heaven

[b]Current Residence:[/b] None. He is always on the road.

[b]Languages:[/b]
[LIST]
[*][i]The Angelic Language[/i], spoken in Heaven
[*][i]Any earthly language[/i], old or new, although he seems to be the most comfortable with English
[/LIST]

[B]Occupation:[/B] No fixed occupation, tends to pick up odd jobs as he wanders from city to city but is rather unskilled. Sometimes he does jobs for the Church, in return for food and shelter.

[B]Weapons:[/B] A slingshot, which he feels is rather pathetic and not worth pulling out, made of oak. The pellets are simply old, hard acorns. He's attempted to purchase a gun, but has always been too afraid to follow through and hasn't got an ID to prove his age.

[B]Armor:[/B] None but his cloth kneepads and a helmet he occasionally wears when skateboarding, but feels is too dorky to be seen in.

[B]Carried Possessions:[/B] Inside his backpack (described in appearance), Damien has a scuffed old red Walkman, repaired countless times with duct-tape, with a skip button that tends to stick; an assortment of CDs collected from yard sales all over the United States; a thermos with a slight leak, some pens, a spiral-bound notebook he sometimes likes to jot down thoughts or notes in, covered in band stickers; and a few changes of clothes which, when lucky, he scrounges up enough change to wash at local laundromats. He also carries a travel toothbrush, toothpaste, and cheap soap whenever he can get them, but doesn't have quite the same need for the items that humans do.

He also carries a threadbare, fabric fold-up wallet with a few useless membership cards, whatever cash he may have on him, and a library card that is the only proof of his identity.

Buried underneath his spare clothes is an old gray Gameboy Advance he picked up at, yes, a yard sale, and he has a small collection of games in cheap plastic cases to go with it. He carries a blue, mesh-and-fabric South Carolina Tar Heels ballcap for the days when he simply can't tolerate his cowlick any longer. If he's got some extra cash, he tries to keep at least one package of batteries in his backpack, but has always been afraid of them getting damaged and leaking acid all over his things. His backpack often smells of half-finished food.

[B]Powers/Magic/Skills:[/B] As an angel, Damien has decently serviceable wings that can fly for short distances (a few miles at a time) and/or medium altitudes. He also possesses a few holy talents. If he visits a church or other holy location, he is able to return to Heaven with God's permission.

[I][U]~Holy skills:[/U][/I]

[i]Blessing[/i]- Damien possesses the power to heal small wounds, minor illnesses, and injuries, by using a specific prayer. He needs to focus to perform this, and then clasp his hands together, speaking the words earnestly and with genuine and selfless care for the person, plant, or animal he wishes to heal. The prayer takes about a minute to recite, and he cannot perform it repeatedly without tiring himself in the process.

[i]Sanctify[/i]- With a different prayer, Damien is able to bless a certain area or building (or if he wishes, a person), and make it holy for a limited period of time (at most, two days.) This blessing protects the area or person from any manner of dark or sinful magic or power. It can also purge an evil or demonic spirit from a person or place. Depending on how long the blessing lasts, this skill will consume more of his energy.

[B]Battle Strengths:[/B] Being a holy being, Damien is unharmed by gunshots and most mortal wounds that would kill a human, as well as lesser dark magics and curses. He can fly for short periods of time, and his wiry body possesses some strength, but not much. He may be immortal, and even if he dies eventually (not of age, but of serious injury), it is believed he would be reborn again as an angel after some time.

[B]Battle Weaknesses:[/B] He's awkward and often clumsy on his feet when under pressure, and does not possess much in the way of offensive magic or physical dexterity or power. He's not really very sure how to fight; his punches are sloppy, and he sometimes does not know where he should hit to make an effective blow. This leads him to waste a lot of energy punching someone in their sturdy shoulder when he should have gone for, say, the vulnerable Adam's Apple of their throat. More powerful dark or sinful magic can harm him and require him to flee or return to Heaven injured.

[B]Personality:[/B] Damien is not your typical angel. He can't carry a tune when singing, and harps and bows have never agreed with him well--he'd always hurt a finger on either. He goes through life feeling as though he's the butt of most jokes, and therefore has become rather mellow, jaded, and skeptical of any luck that comes his way. He has low expectations and takes little seriously. He's awkward around girls, but tries to pretend he's not. He feels most at home around earth, because people are more "average", he thinks, and he can fit in better. After about seven years on earth he's fairly well assimilated into the culture, especially the teenage culture, but still finds some habits and other things about humans strange or incomprehensible.

He's unused to kindness and can be easily flustered, but often tries to hide it and play things "cool" by not looking too eager. Damien speaks slang to even the most dignified of audiences and when he gets excited, he has trouble controlling how quickly or loudly he speaks. He gives off the impression of a grungy teenager slacker, and is well-aware of this perception others hold of him. Someone can easily endear themselves to him by not judging him in this way right off the bat. He doubts his own merits and has low self-confidence, despite the image he tries to project of a more laid-back, socially competent young man. He likes to sometimes try to act older or more mature and manly than he is.

At heart, however, he is kind, faithful, and loyal, and has respect for all kinds of people who try to get by and do good deeds in their own ways. He is caring and compassionate towards animals, children, the poor and the ill, and otherwise disabled, and tolerant and forgiving towards even some of the most sinful humans. He believes in love and hopes to someday find a girl who will like and accept him for what he is. He sometimes dreams of what it’s like to have a home, but he also has a love for the open road. He is a huge fan of music. The angel is a bit cowardly, but he tries to never abandon someone in need. Fights intimidate him a bit. All in all, while he has his flaws, Damien is a good friend to have on your side.

[LIST]
[*][I]Likes:[/I] Video games, rock music, inns, food, television, skateboards, girls, cars (despite never learning how to drive), movies, magazines, thriller novels, Dance Dance Revolution, thrift stores, dogs, cities, sleeping in a real bed.

[*]Food likes: Burgers, fries, cocoa, sugar, tea, chicken, pizza, Chinese food, sandwiches, steak, hot dogs, onion rings, pie, chocolate, fast food, chips, junk food, water, soda, milkshakes, he’ll eat just about any kind of food

[*][I]Dislikes:[/I] Bullies, snobs, demons, feeling dumb, feeling dorky, making a fool of himself in front of girls, his wings itching or tiring, violence, over-priced things, trains, elevators, car horns, car alarms, socks, harps, bows.

[*]Food dislikes: Artificial sweeteners, broccoli, beets

[*][I]Fears:[/I] Being rejected (especially by girls), being judged, being the worst, demons and other devilish creatures, fire, any harm befalling his dog Floyd

[*][I]Virtues:[/I] Modest, honest (except when trying to look cool for girls, but even then he often admits it later), kind, compassionate, loyal, faithful, trustworthy, a good friend

[*][I]Vices:[/I] Over-eats, can be a bit lazy and cowardly, doubts himself too much
[/LIST]

[B]History:[/B] He was an angel named Damien, and he had always felt there had been rather a mix-up between babies when he was being named. He was an ineffectual angel, been told he would never amount to much, and had been that way from the very start; when all the other fledgling angels had been practicing their hymns and stringing their harps, he was getting his fingers tangled and squeaking off-key, and tripping over his own sandals (just learning to strap those things had been a monumental chore--like shoe-tying, but with pointy metal buckles.) Something about him just always "screamed" average, and in a world of flawless divine beings, he always stood out like an awkward sore thumb. For many of his childhood years, he tried to ignore this--ignore it even though it stared him in the face each day, thwarted him in nearly every effort, followed him around like a tiny, personal stormcloud. He grew miserable and yet tried to stay positive for as long as he could manage, until finally, someone noticed.

Damien did not, actually, get an audience with God when the day came. But he was assured that the big man upstairs was very sympathetic to his plight, and yadda yadda, some heartening jabber they put together for his sake. But he at least got a brief sit-down with an Archangel, and a decently comfy cloud to sit on during it. The blonde, chiseled superior angel sat across from him, pulled out some impeccably clean reading glasses, and a file that materialized out of thin air. He spent some minutes skimming it, with the occasional half-interested "hrrm".

"I see that, perhaps, you have not been particularly happy here in Heaven, Damien, my boy," he said, without much feeling. "This seems somewhat contradictory, seeing as how this is... well, Heaven, the eternal paradise and all. Even if this place is meant for humans, angels are normally quite content here as well. Most don't know much else beyond this place."

"B-beyooond, sir?" his twelve-year old voice cracked.

"Yes, Damien, beyond--Earth, the living world, inhabited by humans and all of God's other creatures. Some angels have spent time there. We believe... perhaps you would like to spend some time there."

"M... me? You'd let me go...? Even though only a couple angels get to...?"

The archangel gave him a small smile. "Yes, Damien, we will let you go. He has decided it."

Damien was not sure what he could expect on earth, but even so, for the first time he could remember, he was thrilled. He was getting a chance to start somewhere new, where he could possibly fit in, and a chance to see a world few of his kind had seen and experienced in person. That made him different... and in a good way. He couldn't wait. He had no belongings aside from the clothes on his back, and after some further discussion with Michael, the archangel who had first talked with him, he soon learned that his clothing would not be well-suited for earth life anyway. He was given a small wad of bills, and directions to seek out some kind of place called a "thrift shop". They would become his new favorite sight, more welcome than a fluffy cloud or a bright patch of sun. They guided him and left him in a small city in South Carolina, where he would start his first day, as an angel on earth.

He has seldom wanted to go back to Heaven since.

He's recently adopted a [url= http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/npc-repository/122187-dog.html]stray dog[/url], a Caucasian Ovcharka cross-breed he has named "Floyd", after the band Pink Floyd. He has also met a girl he likes, by the name of [url= http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/characters-and-resources/103318-character-marissa.html#post3226467]Marissa[/url].

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[B]RPs:[/B]
[url]http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/120558-demon-banishment-for-dummies-aikomira.html[/url]
[url]http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/102644-in-over-his-head-stryder-aedernis.html[/url]
[url]http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/126921-heathens-heroes-and-hellfire.html[/url]

Tracey (Updated)

2011-08-05T18:05:00.010-04:00

[B]Name[/b] [i](and title)[/i]: Inspector Tracey Alice de Carlo

[B]Nicknames[/b]: “Red” and “Redlock Holmes” by the Madrigal family and their friends, “Inspector Bulldog” from some of her colleagues at the police station.

[B]Age:[/B] 22

[B]Sex:[/B] Female

[B]Race:[/B] Human, of English and Irish origin. (She possesses no magical ability, explained a bit more in the terms of her world [URL="http://aikies.blogspot.com/2011/08/races-of-earth.html"]here[/URL]. Just scroll down to the section for "humans".)

[B]Height:[/B] 5’6”

[B]Weight:[/B] 118 pounds

[B]Eye Color:[/B] A strikingly bright green.

[B]Hair Color/Style:[/B] Short, vivid red-orange hair cut into wavy, varied layers, ending at just around her jaw line. Her natural hair texture is a bit poofy and airy. She has wavy, full bangs that cover her forehead.

[B]Skin Color/Complexion:[/B] A fair, pinkish peach tone with freckles, especially over her nose and cheeks, with a slight bit of rosiness in her cheeks as well. It’s smooth and doesn’t show much of her lightly-colored hair.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/sailormichiru/1profiletracey.png[/img]
[URL="http://superaiko.deviantart.com/gallery/765176"]-More pictures of my characters, including Tracey, on my DA account-[/URL]

[B]General Appearance:[/B]
[U][i]Face:[/i][/U] Tracey is a cute, comely young woman, with a charming face and eyes. Her fair skin is speckled with light brown freckles, which gives her a natural and down-to-earth quality. Her eyes are of a slightly almond-like shape, but upturned at the corners, and very bright and keen, often looking amiable behind her reddish lashes. Her eyebrows are neat, as is her bright, white little smile. Her lips are a bit thin and pinkish, with a pronounced cupid’s bow. They are framed on either side when she smiles by noticeable dimples. Her upturned, perky little nose adds character to her face and adds to a sprightly rather than mature look. Her face is somewhat of an upside-down triangular shape, but with a more rounded chin. Her red locks often overtake much of her forehead, and some jokingly refer to it as her “carrot-colored cloud” of hair.

[U][i]Body:[/i][/U] Tracey is slender and of average height, with a thin waist and average-sized shoulders, and slim hips. Her bottom and legs are a bit more shapely, thanks to toning and training from police work, and her arms are also slender but toned. She has modest but pert bosoms, and proportionately-sized hands and feet for her height. Her smooth skin is lightly-to-moderately freckled along her shoulders, neck, and limbs, and more lightly along her back.

[U][i]Clothing:[/i][/U] Her most common outfit is her khaki-colored police uniform, with darker tan slacks, a black tie, a sandy-colored button-up shirt, black shoes, and a tan and black cap with a golden police badge emblazoned on it. Over this, she sometimes wears a long, loose-fitting tan trenchcoat covered with faded red patches where the fabric has worn.

Her favorite outfit from home is a burgundy turtleneck sweater with a pair of brown trousers, tucked into ankle-high, tan leather boots, but this often proves too hot for Rubato, and so she often opts for button-up short sleeved shirts or polos when not in uniform, along with khakis or other slacks, and Converse sneakers or flat, short boots. She favors red, green, and brown hues in her clothing, and tends to wear her police hat or other hats even when off duty.

Whether in street clothes or her uniform, she wears a brown or black leather belt at her waist, to which her pistol’s holster, radio, and sometimes a magnifying glass in a case are attached. On her back, she carries a brown leather duffle bag, which contains her prized silver watch, among other things. As far as jewelry goes, she prefers to keep things simple, often only wearing a set of small pearl earrings.

[U][i]Mannerisms and Movement:[/i][/U] Her green eyes become even more keen and bright whenever she discovers a new clue or important detail in a case—and at these moments, she could not seem any happier. Her smiles are brightest when she’s making progress in a mystery. Those who know her most personal goals believe that each time she solves a mystery, she feels a little closer to finding her family, and this is the reason for such glee to show in her expressions.

She often looks distracted when she walks, as if lost in thought or analysis. She’ll stroke her chin or rest her chin upon her hand if she’s sitting and considering something. Otherwise she strides with a cop’s easy pace, covering ground. She’s a bit of a wild driver in a chase. Tracey often smells of clean, fresh soap, and a laundered uniform.

[b]Theme Songs:[/b]
[LIST]
[*][url="httphttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml62aEbQISo"]Sorakara Koboreta Story [/url] (Sherlock Hound)
[*][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6tV11acSRk"]Here Comes the Sun[/url] (The Beatles)
[/LIST]

[b]Known Family: [/b]
Chief of Police, Captain Truman de Carlo – paternal grandfather
Morgan de Carlo – father (missing)
April de Carlo – mother (missing)
Alessandra “Alex” Zaniah Dionne (Vossler) – adoptive daughter

[b]Homeplace:[/b] Montebelle City, [url="http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/2637/gaiamap3.png"]Rochester Republic[/url], Airopa, Earth [I](city, country, continent, world)[/I]

[b]Current Residence:[/b] A sizeable townhouse in Rancha Rosa, Rubato, only a block away from the city’s police station. It doesn’t have much of a yard.

[b]Languages:[/b]
[LIST]
[*][i]Gaian[/i] (English, her world's global language, and her own native language) spoken with a clipped British accent, she would say she speaks proper Rochesterian English[/LIST]

[b]Vehicles:[/b] A black [url=http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_images/3/2183/1361/30455680011_large.jpg]Crown Victoria Police Interceptor[/url], with a police siren on top when on the job. As a detective, she drives her own unmarked Crown Vic rather than a squad car in most situations.

[B]Occupation:[/B] A police detective for the Rancha Rosa police department of Rubato, transferred from the Rochester Republic.

[B]Weapons:[/B] A [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glock_pistol]Glock 17[/url] semi-automatic pistol, issued by the police, is her most tried and true weapon. She more recently has been given other weapons, designed for her by her boyfriend [url=http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/2090495-post3.html]Monroe Vossler[/url]. She also carries a police baton and a canister of [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mace_%28spray%29]Mace[/url] to subdue suspects in less violent ways.

[list][*][u]Electro-gun[/u]: A gun that fires a shockwave that functions much like a strong [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taser]Taser[/url], but still at a non-lethal voltage. Unlike a Taser, the gun does not need to attach electrodes to its target, instead being capable of firing the energy over a short distance of a foot and a half at maximum, up to point-blank range. The gun is metallic silver, black, and green in color, and not much larger than a normal handgun, but with a more cylindrical shape for the body and a spherical section at the back (where it generates its power.) The user is protected from the electricity by the special rubberized grip. The electro-gun has been deemed legal by the police department for use against magically or otherwise specially-gifted and dangerous suspects.

[*][u]Net-launcher gun attachment[/u]: When affixed to the mouth of her Glock or her electro-gun, this device deploys a large net of strong, yet flexible fibers to trap a target in its path.

[*][u]Grappling gauntlet (with smoke grenade launcher)[/u]: Affixed to her nano-armor, this gauntlet can launch metallic wires to grasp onto targets or give Tracey a hold when climbing. The gauntlet can also launch smoke grenades, which begin to act as soon as released, to cloud vision and help escapes and diminish visibility for foes (therefore making them less likely to want to shoot and waste ammo.)

[*][u]Energy knife[/u]: A blade of thrumming, low-powered energy that can cut through bonds and ropes.[/list]

[B]Armor:[/B] Her standard issue armor as a police officer is a small, black bulletproof Kevlar vest worn underneath her clothes. More recently, Monroe Vossler has upgraded her armor to a suit worn underneath her clothing that harnesses nano-technology to improve her resistance to bullets, physical blows, electricity, fire, and some magical damage (more info found in “Battle Weaknesses” section.) The bodysuit is slim-fitting, with a metallic look to it, segmented along her limbs and other areas for flexibility. Tracey is still very new to using most of its features, and mainly wears it for her most dangerous cases.

The nano-armor has some features built into the wrist gaunlets, detailed above in “Weapons”.

[B]Carried Possessions:[/B] Her wallet, keys, police badge, police radio, a small black leather notebook, pens, and her green and black Blackberry Curve smartphone. When on the job, she also carries a set of police-issue handcuffs to apprehend suspects, and a forensic kit. She always has her grandfather’s silver pocket watch with her, as her most prized possession. It was his gift to her when she transferred well across the Seria Ocean to Rubato.

[list][*][u]Communicator watch (with tripwire mechanism)[/u]: A silver watch crafted by Monroe, with different frequencies and channels with which she can communicate to the police station, their home, the police radio line, and other lines of communication. A compass is built into the watch, along with a black button that fires a thin, barely visible fiber with high-tensile strength to act as a tripwire.

[*][u]Electromagnetic handcuffs[/u]: Powered with the force of electromagnets, these handcuffs are stronger than the standard police issue, and are bound to one another by the unseen force of magnets, making them far harder to break apart. They are most often stored in Tracey’s bag.

[*][u]Multi-function goggles[/u]: These silver and green goggles, equipped with numerous settings, help enhance Tracey’s normal human vision in many ways. Available for use are settings for night-vision, infrared, ultra-violet, x-ray, and thaumaturgical (magical energy-detecting) vision.

Many of these settings can be very disorienting to Tracey, and she struggles and fumbles a bit when using them and trying to move or otherwise act while processing what she’s seeing. She’s most accustomed to the night-vision and infrared settings. When not in use, she wears these goggles on top of her head, or keeps them in her bag.[/list]

[B]Powers/Magic/Skills:[/B] Tracey’s greatest skill is her observational prowess. She is also a decently skilled marksman when her focus and nerves are under control.

[B]Battle Strengths:[/B] Tracey has respectable aim with her pistol, and is not startled by the recoil of it, as some may be. She has no reservations about shooting to stop or subdue a criminal, and isn’t frightened by the idea of being shot at or attacked herself in most situations. She also has decent strength and speed for a girl of her age, and remarkable observational skills. Her cleverness and keen eye for detail are her greatest assets in any conflict. She is very dogged in any pursuit of a suspect or criminal, earning her the nickname “Inspector Bulldog”—and her own grandfather Truman, chief of police back in her home country, is known as “The Bulldog of Rochester”—so it seems to be a family trait.

[B]Battle Weaknesses:[/B] The young detective is very easily distracted by clues and other interesting oddities she spots, and is terrified by magic and most other abilities that can’t be explained by science or logic. Her lack of physical strength has prevented her from winning several skirmishes, and she’s also somewhat on the clumsy side, but that trait is often diminished when the adrenaline and reality of a serious situation kicks in, her police training coming to her aid. She can have a tendency to gloat or declare victory too soon on some occasions.

While she can usually maintain a level-head, adrenaline can get the better of her for more extended or heated conflicts. She is not a natural fighter, and her first instinct will always be to disarm and arrest, not to brawl. When it does come to a hostile confrontation, she often will fall back to a range where she can take a shot, rather than getting in the foe’s face. She does not have the nerves or cold resolve to intentionally cause serious harm to another human being, but she will shoot to stop or subdue a criminal, often aiming for extremities that will slow them down but not be life-threatening. She has not yet had to kill.

Without her nano-armor, she is as vulnerable as any normal human to countless threats, and even when wearing it, her head, neck, feet, and hands are exposed. The armor cannot stand up against the force of stronger magical attacks, some of which can short out the nano-technology in the armor until it can be repaired.

[B]Personality:[/B] While Tracey tries her hardest to come off as elegant and coldly analytical, she’s truly a somewhat bumbling but friendly young gumshoe who’s a little accident-prone. The girl is extremely observant, and will sometimes get distracted by an interesting detail and begin to go off on a spiel about its significance or novelty. She’s been known to bluff and over-exaggerate in some instances to try and seem like a more astute and deeper-thinking detective. While highly intelligent, she is known to only show interest in subjects that either stimulate her intellectually or have a bearing on her work as a police detective, such as science and the history of crime. Therefore, in this single-mindedness, she might know the shoe size of every single member of a mafia group, but not realize that a man was trying to flirt with her at a café. She is not aware that she appears to ignore these details, and sometimes this can cause her social difficulties she does not intend.

Tracey is very ambitious and goal and career-oriented, and sometimes can get overly proud or boastful about her detective skills, especially when she has solved a difficult case. She wishes to get all the credit and recognition she can—much of this, however, is to further get her name out there in the world, in case her missing parents are searching for her. But over years of working towards her goal in this way, this behavior has slowly become part of her personality, just as much as her desire to further sharpen of her skills, in the effort to search for them, has become a constant aspect of her. These are the traits that seem to define her in the public eye.

At home, she can still be oblivious to some social cues, but she tries to take her time to slow down and appreciate things when she can. She cares very much about her adopted daughter Alex and her future, and loves Monroe for putting up with her long work hours and all her quirks. She is a bit awkward when it comes to affection, but her care shows in other ways. She’s not very handy with cooking, but does all right with other household tasks. She has been taking care of herself, essentially, all her life while her grandfather worked.

If in a conflict with one she knows to be stronger or quicker, Tracey may get nervous initially, but pushes herself to regain her composure as soon as she can. Insults to her detective abilities tend to faze the quirky girl more than wounds.

Like her idol Sherlock, she craves mysteries and intellectual stimulation—but unlike him, she also pursues detective work because of her firm belief in the letter and spirit of the law. Justice is one of the highest virtues in her eyes.

[LIST]
[*][I]Likes:[/I] Mysteries, riddles, puzzles, Sherlock Holmes novels, mystery movies and books, Agatha Christie novels, word searches, car chases, making arrests, fame, recognition, showing off her police badge, that moment when she gets to turn on her police car siren, Beatles music, watching TV (Top Chef, BBC Sherlock), making deductions, playing her daughter’s DS (Professor Layton), newspapers, reading, food, math, science (especially forensics and chemistry), running, writing

[*]Food likes: Tea, Chinese takeout, burgers, eggs, cereal, muffins, meat pies, fish and chips, scones, pizza, tacos, burritos, salad, potatoes, roast beef, pot roast, meatloaf, Yorkshire pudding, Marmite on toast, tapioca pudding, ice cream, banana bread, walnuts, sandwiches, turkey, chicken, pears, bacon and cabbage, bangers and mash, prawns, fish, crab, lobster, sushi, clams, cheese, milk, yogurt, Indian food, coffee, peanut butter

[*][I]Dislikes:[/I] Being stumped, being disrespected, traffic, very hot weather, misplacing something, having a thought just on the tip of her tongue, criminals, rugby, uncomfortable shoes, being distracted by hunger when on a case, insubordinate officers, being teased or made fun of, working with someone who slows her down, having her sleep interrupted, being interrupted when thinking about a case or solution, losing her case files

[*]Food dislikes: Liver, onions, guacamole, tofu, wasabi, beets, undercooked/rare meats, and greasy doughnuts

[*][I]Fears:[/I] Losing his family or friends, failing to protect someone, being faced with a supernatural or magical threat he cannot defend innocents against, and the fears that come with living a Christian life

[*][I]Virtues:[/I] Intelligent, observant, honest, hard-working, morally upstanding, lawful, trustworthy, kind to children and the poor, can think outside the box sometimes

[*][I]Vices:[/I] Can be single-minded, a workaholic, bad cook, impatient with interruptions or questions when absorbed in thought or close to a solution, a bit egotistical when it comes to taking credit for solutions, bad at noticing some social cues or takes jokes seriously, can be suspicious of people too quickly, can be a little snobbish but is slowly getting over this as she lives more in Rubato, is slow to learn other languages and cultures, pride
[/LIST]

[B]History:[/B] Tracey de Carlo was born to April and Morgan de Carlo, in Montebelle City of the Rochester Republic on a rainy day. She was the couple’s pride and joy, their first and only child, and they wished for her to have everything. But that joy was short-lived. When the girl was only two, on a stormy night, far more intense than the rainy day she was born on, something happened and the girl was left alone, parentless and too young to remember how or why. Her grandfather Truman, the chief of police in Montebelle, took her in to raise her in her parents’ stead. He was a strict man, rarely at home, and Tracey had to learn quickly under his care. She would come home to study and eat TV dinners while he worked long nights. As she grew older, she vowed to become a great detective and learn what had happened to her parents. And as she did, she hoped she would grow famous with her cases and spread her name, so that they might find her, if they were still out there, searching too.

The puzzles, thrills, and glory involved in the fighting of crimes and unraveling of mysteries has always enticed Tracey de Carlo. Motivated by this passion and her goal of finding her parents, the girl worked for years studying old crimes and deduction methods in order to become the best detective imaginable. When the fledgling young gumshoe attained the age of eighteen, her services were requested by the local branch of the police, and she accepted the job offer with great joy and gratitude. She was the youngest officer they had hired in many generations. This was finally her chance.

Throughout her three years on the Montebelle City police force, Tracey always believed she had risen up the ranks as quickly as she did because of her own skill as an officer and a detective. In her innocence, she never fathomed a guess as to the true nature of her success: the deplorable practice of nepotism. “Never in the police force,” had she asserted to those who suggested the theory to her; “Never would the lives and properties of the good people of Rochester Republic be jeopardized just because someone’s uncle or father wanted to stick their little relative in a position of high esteem.” Upon her premature promotion to inspector status, however, she had to face the grim possibility that her grandfather, chief of police, had in fact hired her and given her the new position without a single consideration of her merits as an officer. She began to doubt her abilities. Was she really good enough to find her mother and father?

Deeply disillusioned, Tracey seemed to change in her habits at work, and her zealousness for mysteries waned for several months. No longer did she proudly proclaim herself “The Detective Prodigy”, as she had dubbed herself at the beginning of her tenure on the force, and no longer did she carry herself with an air of importance and confidence. When the offer of a world-round trip came, on which the representative of Rochester Republic would meet with sister police institutions around the globe, rallying for anti-crime reforms, Tracey eagerly accepted the opportunity to leave home, hoping to reestablish herself as an inspector somewhere where she would be solely judged on her own worth, and perhaps find new leads on her own personal case.

Her travels brought her to South Cordelia, where the broiling, rugged, and wretched deserts of Rubato and the wild, tangled, unruly rainforests of Florheim were overflowing with crime. There, an endless cat-and-mouse game seemed to persist between the thinly spread forces of the law and the myriad and elusive criminals. Urged on by her ambition, Tracey offered her services to police stations across the two nations, advising them to save her special talents for only the extraordinary and the dire. A case the girl had specifically shown interest in becoming involved with in the future was the case of the Madrigals of Santa Mariela, in Rubato. At the time, she did not quite realize the full gravity of their case—the family, led by Vivace Madrigal-Dionne, Cassandra Dionne, and Anton Dionne, ran the criminal underground that ruled over Rubato and Florheim, as well as the nation of Cernilia. These and other players were working behind the scenes, keeping their names from the public eye.

After arriving in Rubato, Tracey was assigned a new partner from Cernilia who was a part of the same program she participated in. The twenty-seven year old woman was a fellow inspector by the name of Daniela Cruz. She was temporarily replaced as Tracey’s partner by Johnny Bones, who wormed his way onto the force mostly for the irony, but demonstrated keen mental abilities and provided invaluable physical back-up against criminals on cases. Tracey and Johnny clashed numerous times over his drug use, borderline criminal activities, and his suspected protection of the Madrigal family’s dealings from police knowledge. Tracey was outraged to later learn that he was dating Cadenza, whom she considered the worst of the Madrigals after Vivace Madrigal-Dionne’s death. But when Johnny passed away, the detective came to look back upon him as a friend, in their own strange, bickering way.

During that time, Tracey would finally meet many of the Madrigals face to face, including her first encounter with the elusive Cadenza. But things didn’t exactly go as she had hoped, and she often found herself on the losing side of each encounter, outclassed by the family’s cunning and magical talents. When Tracey met and began dating Monroe Vossler, a superhumanly strong man with a gift for technology, he began upgrading many of her weapons and gadgets in the hopes that they would help balance the scales between Tracey and her foes. But the Madrigals continued to elude and defeat her, until eventually the King of Rubato pardoned Cadenza Madrigal in a deal they struck. Badly disappointed and upset, the detective realized she would have to give up on chasing her biggest case yet for now. But she still retains her suspicions and distrust towards the family to this day.

Some of those feelings, however, are mitigated by the adoption of her new daughter, Alessandra “Alex” Dionne. Tracey and Monroe discovered the orphan hiding in the Temple of the Sun on an excursion of their own, and took her in so that she would have food and shelter while they searched for her parents. Tracey discovered in the national records that Alex was an orphan—but her biological parents had been none other than the crime lords Vivace Madrigal-Dionne and her husband Anton Dionne. Shocked, the detective and her boyfriend were unsure of what to do with the girl. She was a nice enough child, spunky and clever and full of energy like many eight year olds. She had a big appetite and an apparent untrained talent for lightning magic that neither knew much about handling. Eventually, they decided to become her legal guardians and let her stay with them, hoping to guide her onto the right path her parents never followed. Tracey did not know much about raising children, but she resolved to try her best with Alex. The girl has since then met her aunts, the Madrigal sisters, and began studying magic with her aunt Cadenza. This relationship has made Tracey have to reconsider some of her feelings about the family, but she still has her misgivings.

The detective has now turned her sights on finding what happened to her parents, all those years ago. She lives with her boyfriend, Monroe Vossler, and their adopted daughter, Alex Dionne, in a townhouse in Rancha Rosa.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Awards:
The Person Award (Awarded to the Most Developed Character) - EH Summer 2008

Best Character Name - Spring BA Awards 2010

[B]RPs:[/B]
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/battle-arena/82560-settling-score-altamira.html"]Settling the Score[/url] (complete)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/crossroads/67901-strange-development-altamira.html"]A Strange Development[/url] (dropped)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/crossroads/68319-unloading-chamber-two-before-job-altamira.html"]Unloading a Chamber or Two Before a Job[/url] (complete)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/crossroads/68753-unsolved-murder-marks-manor.html"]Unsolved Murder: Mark's Manor[/url] (dropped)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/crossroads/73085-farewells-all-those-who-wish-join.html"]Farewells.[/url] (complete)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/crossroads/73772-winter-comes-desert-altamira.html"]Winter Comes to the Desert[/url] (complete)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/crossroads/80781-first-turnabout-sista-luff.html"]The First Turnabout[/url] (in progress)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/crossroads/81035-temple-sun-altamira.html"]Temple of the Sun[/url] (complete)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/crossroads/82901-land-down-under-altamira.html"]The Land Down Under[/url] (dropped)
[URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/crossroads/89333-meet-dionnes-zorolo-wispy.html"]Meet the Dionnes[/URL] (dropped, but conclusion decided)
[url]http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/87151-lets-start-anew-altamira.html[/url]
[url]http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/110739-man-and-wife-insaney-and-all-those-invited-many-cameos.html[/url]
[url]http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/104864-the-nineteen-year-mystery-insaney-possibly-z-later.html[/url]

[B]Character Fiction:[/B]
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/character-fiction/61441-test-merit-locked-room-mystery.html#post1379266"]A Test of Merit: The Locked Room Mystery[/url] (dropped)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/character-fiction/71082-chain-pursuit.html"]The Chain of Pursuit[/url] (complete)

Louis (Updated)

2011-08-04T22:13:00.006-04:00

[B]Name:[/b] Louis Alan Fritz

[B]Age:[/B] 41

[B]Sex:[/B] Male

[B]Race:[/B] Human, of mixed medieval Western European origin.

[B]Height:[/B] 6’0”, rather tall for his era.

[B]Weight:[/B] 183 pounds, much of it in muscle from his days as a farmer.

[B]Eye Color:[/B] An earthy brown with a grayish tint.

[B]Hair Color/Style:[/B] Messy, dirty blonde-colored hair he keeps cut short, with somewhat neatly trimmed sideburns, thick stubble, and a small, newly graying goatee. He’s also going slightly gray at the temples.

[B]Skin Color/Complexion:[/B] A fair, healthy, peachy tone that has over the years acquired a farmer’s deep golden tan.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/sailormichiru/louisprofile-1.png[/img]
[URL="http://superaiko.deviantart.com/gallery/765176"]-More pictures of my characters, including Louis, on my DA account-[/URL]

[B]General Appearance:[/B]
[U][i]Face:[/i][/U] Louis is attractive in a rugged way, with sharp, pronounced features, reflecting a possibly mixed German-and-Scandinavian heritage somewhere further back in his family. He has wise, fatherly brown eyes of an average size, and a straight, long nose that suits the long, lean lines of his face. His facial structure could almost considered an oval, were it not for the angular lines of his cheeks, and the strength of his jaw, which is more squarish than round, but still lean. Louis has slightly bushy, more masculine eyebrows, but they’re not wild or overwhelming, instead adding character to his expressions. They’re a dirty blond color that matches his hair, but slightly darker, tending toward a light goldenrod hue. His smiles are warm and expansive, his teeth clean but yellowing some due to his smoking, age, and the hygiene of the middle ages. Since coming to live in a modern world, his teeth have improved. His chin is rough with stubble, and covered with a small beard, almost small enough to be called a goatee. The area around his eyes show the most signs of his age, where he has light wrinkles and crows’ feet. When he laughs, his laugh lines show more deeply, beginning to wrinkle. His ears are on the slightly larger side.

[U][i]Body:[/i][/U] His body is tall and lean, but with dense, whipcord like muscles earned over years of hard farm work and travels through rugged terrain. His shoulders are a bit broader than average, giving his frame a sturdiness, like a tall oak tree that has weathered many storms. His legs and arms are a bit hairy, as is his chest, covered with hairs the color of straw. All his body is tough and tanned, his hands and feet on the rougher side and scarred, with calluses on his fingers from work and playing instruments. He has large hands and feet, befitting his tall frame. He has put on a bit more weight as he has gotten older, but still maintains his toned muscles and natural tall 'n' lean build. He looks every bit the picture of an old farm hand.

[U][i]Clothing:[/i][/U] His favorite travelling outfit consists of loose, dark brown slacks fastened at the waist with a tan leather belt, and tan boots on his feet, along with an old white shirt (although it's now yellowing at the edges) with wooden buttons open down to his hairy chest, and a loose-fitting, dark red vest over top. Otherwise, he wears rather similar, casual outfits in his day-to-day life, but more modern and clean, often a button-up shirt of any neutral or earthy color, and blue jeans or slacks in various shades of brown. He prefers boots over other footwear, preferring brown leather over other kinds.

People have grown to recognize him by the floppy, tall, brown hat with a wide brim he has taken a liking to wearing since becoming a minstrel and leaving Brantmill.

On his back, he occasionally carries a tan suede bag for supplies, and both his small, oaken clarinet case, and larger, brown, hard leather fiddle case. The straps of the bag and cases are worn across his chest.

[U][i]Mannerisms and Movement:[/i][/U] Louis walks with relaxed, long strides, often taking his time to see the sights and smell the roses, so to speak. He often walks with his hands in his pockets, in a casual posture, and enjoys chewing on a sprig of hay when he can (it serves as a healthier alternative to his pipe.) It's rare to see him standing perfectly upright and at attention, but if he does, you can expect that there's danger or something else grave going on.

He'll remove his hat when in church, at meals, or meeting a lady, and occasionally when he's indoors otherwise. He usually smells of faint pipe smoke, hay, and the outdoors.

[b]Theme Songs:[/b]
[LIST]
[*][url=" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPjRTvMAptg"]Secret of the Forest[/url] (Chrono Trigger)
[*][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmVAWKfJ4Go"]Hurt[/url] (Johnny Cash)
[*][url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDm_ZHyYTrg]Devil Went Down to Georgia[/url] (The Charlie Daniels Band)
[*][url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svuyjzfjpjU]Dandelion[/url] (Audioslave)
[*][url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9IfHDi-2EA]The Man Comes Around[/url] (Johnny Cash)
[*][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J28KhdB8kE&feature=related"]Ixtapa[/url] (Rodrigo y Gabriela) - song for him and his best friend Cadenza, the guitar for Cadenza and the violin for him
[/LIST]

[b]Known Family: [/b]
Julianne Fritz – ex-wife
Melinda Fritz – eldest daughter (deceased)
Caroline Fritz – youngest daughter (deceased)
[URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/characters-and-resources/70881-sakumes-friends-of-mental-instabilities.html"]Katherine "Kate" Anne Seraph[/url] – adoptive daughter

[B]Familiars/Nonhuman Companions:[/B] A male, tan, beige-speckled pony, Eram, who was born to Mannie (Hunter Merridale’s mare) and a strong stallion. The young horse belongs to Louis’ daughter Kate, but since the minstrel’s home is better suited to the animals’ needs than the girl’s home with her mother in the desert, Louis looks after Eram much of the time. The pony lives in the grassy meadow of his Dome room, grazing free and drinking from clear, clean streams.

[b]Homeplace:[/b] Brantmill, Choras, Guardia, Medina [I](city, country, continent, world)[/I]

[b]Current Residence:[/b] His room at the Dome, described below, is his main residence:
“Beyond the plain oak door is a grassy meadow, with stars perpetually twinkling overhead and trees interlocked in a sort of natural border before the simple dark brown walls. If one looks closely enough at the trees, they may find doors in a few of them. These doors are said to lead to a kitchenette, a bedroom, a full bathroom, and a few locations scattered throughout the Dome complex.

Despite all the shifting of the Dome halls, Melody Ferrier’s former room is always right beside Louis’ quarters, and joins with it by a door that runs between the two of them. The lilac-colored door opens to a lavender-hued room that is very easy on the eyes, and consists of a soft bed covered with sheets that have musical notes printed on them, a small white writing desk, and a dresser of the same tone. Kate has since taken the room as her own, and repainted it pink and decorated it for herself. The two doors at the east end of the dorm lead to a full bathroom and a music studio.”

Besides his dorm, Louis also owns a small townhouse with a garage in the residential side of Blancwood, Rubato, on Earth.

[b]Languages:[/b]
[LIST]
[*][I]English[/I], spoken with less medieval flourishes than noblemen because of his upbringing on a farm
[*]Some [I]German[/I], mostly learned from music
[*]A few words in [I]Rubatoian[/I] (a mix of Spanish, Italian, and Brazilian Portuguese), learned from time spent around his friend Cadenza Madrigal
[/LIST]

[b]Vehicles:[/b] A tan [url=http://images.usedcheapcars.org/used-ford/1994-ford-taurus-station-wagon-ford-3-8l-6-cylinder-ffs-4-speed-automatic/thumbs/ford_taurus_sho_silver_lights_1994-ucc.jpg]Ford Taurus[/url] station wagon he uses often, and an old, white [url=http://images02.olx.com/ui/1/24/67/f_901767_1_1170101286.jpg]Ford pickup[/url] truck he keeps at the townhouse.

[B]Occupation:[/B] Minstrel and song-writer, occasional tutor at the Dome

[B]Weapons:[/B] He favors a short, lightweight sword made of titanium steel with an onyx-colored hilt, which he keeps hidden in a thick cloth inside his clarinet within its case. A custom-forged, medieval-style steel halberd, which he has had reinforced with diamond-hard adamant, is similarly hidden within his deceptively large fiddle case.

[B]Armor:[/B] Louis wears a byrnie (down to the waist) shirt of chainmail crafted of mythril rings underneath his clothing, which can protect against any mundane metals (such as steel, bronze, etc.), and against all but the strongest force from magic or mythical metals.

[B]Carried Possessions:[/B] His wallet, keys, Zippo lighter, some tobacco, a wooden pipe, and a simple cell phone to keep in touch with his daughter and friends.

[B]Powers/Magic/Skills:[/B] Louis possesses no magical skills of his own, but he is a former soldier, and a warrior to be reckoned with in combat with swords, axes, knives, spears, and other forms of fighting. He specializes in armed combat over unarmed, but is a formidable boxer and wrestler in his own right. Thanks to his friend and protégé Melody Ferrier (a newly awakened Muse of music), he has a few abilities that can manipulate sound or that draw upon the girl's own mysterious energies.

[LIST]
[*][I]Dome doors[/I]: As a privilege granted to him as a former Teacher of the Dome, Louis is capable of summoning up Dome doors at will, by visualizing the place or person he wishes to find. Destinations he is already familiar with are far easier to summon doors to than new, unfamiliar destinations. With the former, he can call a door by with just the will to do so. With the latter, it often helps to imagine many sensory details or other known information about the place or person, such as looks, smells, sounds, etc.
[/LIST]

[i][u]~Special battle skills:[/u][/i]
[I]
Sonic Whistle[/I]- A special technique taught to Louis by his protégé, the musical prodigy Melody Ferrier, where Louis emits a high, shrill, whooping whistle. It makes all metal or metal-like weapons vibrate, and causes his own sword or halberd to let out a sonic-wave that can harm opponents. The attack is powerful enough to knock a human male onto the ground, but its main purpose is to surprise a foe. Louis first used the skill against Zachary Leos in "Misadventures of the Minstrel - Northern Dojo".
[I]
Sound Barrier[/I]- A special technique taught to Louis by his protégé, the musical prodigy Melody Ferrier. By playing a tune with special qualities on his harmonica, which he composed together with the girl, he can generate a clear, rectangular barrier around his body, which can last for a duration of 10 minutes.
[I]
Healing Sonata[/I]- Louis begins this spell by playing the first few measures of a song with magical qualities, which was specially composed for him and Cadenza Madrigal by the minstrel’s own protégé, Melody Ferrier. As the melody flows, energy gathers at the man’s feet, and rises in bright rings until it has traversed his whole body, healing any non-lethal injuries, internal or external, as it goes. Melody’s flute can be heard echoing in unison with the song when the spell is cast.

[I]Sonic Strike[/I]- Using his impressive strength, Louis can produce a strike with his blade that can cut through the sound barrier and is powerful enough to sever a human's arm if they are without armor. The strike can be performed with both his sword and halberd, but is more effective with the latter. Because of the speed of the attack, the minstrel needs more energy to use this attack than to slash normally, and the more he uses it, the more it tires him out.

[B]Battle Strengths:[/B] Louis is a very versatile fighter who is proficient with a number of weapons and fighting styles. He is patient, able to wait for the right opportunity to make a strike, and knows how to roll with the punches. He is quick-thinking, and has a great degree of physical power and stamina beyond that of normal humans, thanks to Melody’s blessings.

[B]Battle Weaknesses:[/B] Louis lacks magical abilities of his own and is somewhat slow on his feet. He refuses to harm women or animals, and is still new to guns and some other modern weapons. In the areas unprotected by his armor, he is as vulnerable as any normal human to bullets, fire, poison, etc. He is more of a close range or sword or spear range fighter than a long-range one.

[B]Personality:[/B] Louis is an eccentric and puzzling character to many; he respects lofty ambition in one person and down-to-earth realism in the other. With age, wisdom and a sense of gentle humor have come to him; he’s not bothered by callousness, especially if he believes it’s justified. Often his motives confuse younger people, only for them to learn he has greatly helped them in some way later. He retains his fatherly side from when his daughters Melinda and Caroline were alive, and is kind and protective towards children and others weaker than himself. Underneath all of this placidity, however, is the side of him that’s pained by his grave losses, and it shows itself in his dislike and distrust of the Merridale monarchy, and in quiet moments when he’s reflecting on his own.

In battle, he’s always willing to fight a formidable opponent, and always gives the match his all if he thinks his foe is worthy—seeing it as a sign of disrespect not to. He’ll only become gravely serious if his life or the life of one he cares about is in great danger. Occasionally, he’ll play a song after a victory in honor of his defeated foe’s efforts.

Since adopting Kate, Louis has become even warmer and more fatherly in his manner. He jokes more often, shows pride in his daughter whenever he can, and seeks to always do what is in her best interest. He is protective and affectionate toward her, and very patient; his experience as a father in the past helps him now, even though it also brings with it old, sometimes bittersweet memories. He tries to look upon these memories from a distance, appreciating them for what they were, and cherishing what he has now. He is not afraid to be strict with her, but often goes about teaching her lessons in more fun ways, and being a father again means the world to him. He tends to put others before himself and rarely thinks anything of it. He makes self-deprecating jokes about his age, but the concern is sometimes present in his mind. The minstrel has tried to lessen his smoking since adopting his daughter, but finds it hard to quit. His pipe has often accompanied him while he has been relaxing or thinking.

Louis loves music and storytelling. He can play virtually any instrument, and when introduced to a new one, takes the time to appreciate its qualities and to try and understand how to play it to its best. He has adapted well to the modern world, embracing it with open arms, and while he still finds some technology challenging, he has assimilated impressively into modern culture. However, there will always be something of the country boy in him, and his sometimes old-fashioned or more rural metaphors or turns of phrase sometimes reflect this. He loves breakfast foods, a holdover from his days as a boy on the farm, and gets along well with animals. Since adopting Kate, he is open to telling stories about his younger days more readily. He fondly remembers his family and their home of the past. You can take the minstrel out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the minstrel.

[LIST]
[*][I]Likes:[/I] Loves all kinds of music, especially country, big band, blues, and classical (Johnny Cash is a favorite, along with Mozart and Beethoven), food (especially breakfast foods), spending time with family and friends, comedy, good conversation, the outdoors, fishing, taking walks, playing his fiddle and other instruments, singing, animals, especially dogs, horses, sleeping, people who can take a joke, people who can laugh at themselves, telling stories, writing songs, poetry, a good laugh, history, farming, smoking a good pipe, baseball, hockey, women

[*]Food likes: Any kind of breakfast food, honey, ale, steak, eggs, bread, baked goods, potatoes, chicken, pork, corn, venison, mutton, raisins, apples, pears, cherries, peaches, crackers, nuts, sausage, bratwurst, fish, home-cooked meals, milk, cool water, ice cream, cake (especially chocolate), pie (especially cherry, apple, pecan), tea, coffee (three sugars, sometimes milk), butterscotch, he’ll eat just about any kind of food.

[*][I]Dislikes:[/I] Bigots, people who mistreat women, children, or the poor or otherwise unfortunate or defenseless, negligent or otherwise unfair monarchs, ignorant nobles, being cooped up indoors for too long, people who mistreat animals, heavy snowstorms, violent drunks, airplanes, war and the losses that come with it, being woken up in the middle of a good nap, wasting food

[*]Food dislikes: Brussel sprouts, asparagus, pigs’ feet

[*][I]Fears:[/I] Losing his family or friends, failing to protect someone, being faced with a supernatural or magical threat he cannot defend innocents against, and the fears that come with living a Christian life

[*][I]Virtues:[/I] Understanding, faithful, kind, good sense of humor, wise, a good father, a good friend, reliable, trustworthy, loyal, knows the value of hard work, doesn’t judge too quickly

[*][I]Vices:[/I] Smoking, can hold some grudges too long
[/LIST]

[B]History:[/B] Louis Fritz the minstrel hails from the imperial-minded Choras, land ruled by the royal family of Merridale. He once lived peacefully in the farming village of Brantmill, several miles from the tragedies and bloodshed of the ongoing wars. But when the latest conflict brought the battling to Bartholomew, merely ten miles away from quaint Brantmill, panic began to brew in the village. Men from Brantmill volunteered to join the ranks of the army to defend their home and way of life, and Louis Fritz was among them.

The small auxiliary force of Brantmill was called upon as the fighting progressed to Bartholomew Fields, between the city and the farming village. When the day was over, Louis and his comrades believed they were successful in holding off the enemy’s army from penetrating Brantmill, but when they returned home, they found that their foes had razed the farming community to the ground. The grief was almost too much for the men to bear. Foremost among the mourners was Louis Fritz: a single father raising two daughters his disloyal wife Julianne had left him with twelve years prior. Now both of those children were gone.

Louis could feel his sanity slipping in the following months. Efforts were made to rebuild Brantmill, but he refused to participate. He needed to leave. He needed a fresh start.

Taking what supplies he had left from the packs the army had provided, Louis set off to travel the world of Medina, singing songs and telling stories of Brantmill, the Choras wars, and his life. He made money doing odd jobs, going on journeys and protecting people or small towns. But the bard’s main quest remained the same: to find a new purpose in life.

Louis has, since leaving Choras, traveled to the mysterious Dome and become both a teacher and student. On his way there, he met a young girl named Melody Ferrier, who he discovered was a musical prodigy, and who was heading to the Dome for some unknown reason as well. He and Melody later encountered an orphaned girl named Kate who was being cruelly mistreated by her guardian Pyralis at a music festival. Melody tried her best to help, but her awakening as a Muse of Music drew her away. She could only contact Louis’ friend Cadenza to come to their aid before she was gone. Louis and his friend rescued Kate, but soon learned that Pyralis was only an employee for an even more powerful man named Marcus, who considered the girl his. In order to adopt Kate and save her from more cruelty, Louis and Cadenza had to enter into a contract with this man, and were later subject to occasional visits from his other employee, a man called Ruin.

Louis has since retired from the Dome, but occasionally still tutors students and takes part in other Dome activities. He's taken a liking to a baker named [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/npc-repository/102893-sakumes-many-npcs.html"]Celia Everfields[/URL] and the two have since begun dating. The former farmer now writes music for country artists and other musicians, and plays his own music on the side as well. He still considers himself a minstrel and spreads his stories and songs.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[B]RPs:[/B]
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/showthread.php?t=59276"]Misadventures of the Minstrel - Northern Dojo[/url] (complete)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/battle-arena/77282-knockin-heaven-s-door.html"]Knockin' on Heaven's Door[/url] (in progress)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/battle-arena/75912-shadows-mourn-puck-altamira-insaney.html"]Shadows of Mourn[/url] (in progress)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/crossroads/67018-excitement-operahouse-southern-belle.html"]Excitement at the Operahouse[/url] (postponed)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/crossroads/69223-misadventures-minstrel-away-sea-hurripen.html"]Misadventures of the Minstrel - Away at Sea[/url] (postponed)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/crossroads/71016-forgotten-lore-altamira-sabbo-vn.html"]Forgotten Lore[/url] (postponed)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/crossroads/73085-farewells-all-those-who-wish-join.html"]Farewells.[/url] (complete)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/crossroads/81646-send-me-friend-sakume.html"]Send Me a Friend[/url] (complete)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/crossroads/81726-winning-end-altamira.html"]Winning In The End[/url] (dropped)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/crossroads/82650-its-easier-hate-mikey-mike.html"]It's Easier to Hate[/url] (in progress)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/crossroads/87105-spell-gone-awry-sakume.html"]A Spell Gone Awry[/url] (in progress)
[url]http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/89898-whos-your-daddy-kiri-alti.html[/url]
[url]http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/88679-a-place-in-my-heart-insaney-sakume.html[/url]
[url]http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/101411-fashion-police-sakume-alti.html[/url]
[url]http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/107203-blackbird-altamira.html[/url]
[url]http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/109843-mommys-little-girl-sakume.html[/url]
[url]http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/110010-daughter-dearest-mikey-b-kiri-kraze.html[/url]
[url]http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/110739-man-and-wife-insaney-and-all-those-invited-many-cameos.html[/url]
[url]http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/113593-until-death-do-we-part-those-invited.html[/url]
[url]http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/121875-just-another-day-altamira.html[/url]
[url]http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/127196-hay-and-honey-alti.html[/url]

[B]Character Fiction:[/B]
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/character-fiction/70585-common-cause-work-progress-everything-still-entirely-subject-change.html#post1789099"]A Common Cause (tentative title)[/url] (dropped)

Ancia (Updated)

2011-08-02T18:20:00.007-04:00

[B]Name:[/b] Ancia Asterling

[B]Age:[/B] Unknown

[B]Sex:[/B] Female

[B]Race:[/B] Water nymph ([url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naiad]naiad[/url]), her body is formed of water, but her organs cannot be seen through it, nor is she entirely transparent. Warmth and cold can affect her people greatly. She lives better in freshwater than salt water, but can survive in both, as well as breathe underwater. She mostly survives on a diet of seafood and nectar.

[B]Height:[/B] 4’11”

[B]Weight:[/B] 98 pounds

[B]Eye Color:[/B] Deep green that appears to swirl like water.

[B]Hair Color/Style:[/B] Long, wavy, turquoise tresses that fall loosely to her mid-back, flowing beautifully like water, with a simple, golden headband engraved with Grecian symbols worn around her head. She has long, wavy bangs that frame her face on either side, unbound by the headband. Ancia sometimes likes to braid her hair and weave fresh flowers into it.

[B]Skin Color/Complexion:[/B] A light blue color, not actually skin, but a surface of clean water that covers her body and allows some sunlight to pass through. It is cool and ripples at the touch, but maintains surface tension and cohesion even greater than water, and is no more permeable than human skin. In the presence of great heat, it may produce some vapor; similarly, in great cold, it may develop a layer of frost. The watery surface replenishes itself regularly from Ancia’s magical energy and unique biological systems to remain clean and at the proper temperature.

[img] http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/sailormichiru/1profileancia.png[/img]
[URL="http://superaiko.deviantart.com/gallery/765176"]-More pictures of my characters, including Ancia, on my DA account-[/URL]

[B]General Appearance:[/B]
[U][i]Face:[/i][/U] Ancia has an ethereally lovely, innocent look, with wide, gentle, curious eyes, a small, rounded nose, and a small, but full-lipped mouth of a slightly darker blue than her watery complexion. Her chin is soft and rounded, and her cheekbones are as well, giving her a more round than heart-shaped face. Her eyelids are a little heavy, giving her a sleepy or more doe-eyed appeal. Her ears are pointed, but not elongated like those of some elves. She has bright white teeth, and long, black eyelashes to complement her pretty features.

[U][i]Body:[/i][/U] Light and petite, Ancia is of a healthy but somewhat waif-like frame, with small bosoms, a round bottom, and shapely, yet not very muscular legs. She has a very gentle figure, soft and graceful, with slender arms and legs, and a thin waist. Her hips give her shape some curve, but her shoulders are narrow and gently-rounded. High up on her left arm, she bears a tattoo-like marking of an intricate and aquatic-looking symbol, vaguely fish-like in shape, with swirls inside the outer lines. She recalls having this mark ever since she was very young, but does not fully understand its meaning.

[U][i]Clothing:[/i][/U] She most commonly wears a cerulean blue halter top with broad, golden lining around the neckline and straps, and a pair of loose-fitting, blue-green clamdigger trousers fastened at the waist with a golden belt. Both the belt and halter top’s straps and neckline are embroidered with Grecian symbols. On her right arm, she wears a thick golden armband adorned with similar designs. She walks barefoot, and when in water her feet will meld with the depths so that the water appears to be flowing into her from toe to head.

On the rare occasion that she changes her clothing, she enjoys wearing flowing robes and hand-woven gowns of blues and greens.

[U][i]Mannerisms and Movement:[/i][/U] Ancia has light and graceful steps, and often wanders about, almost seeming aimless to others in her curiosity-lead steps and dreamy drifting. She is very expressive and finds it difficult not to show her emotions at all times.

The water nymph smells of clean rivers, with a subtle hint of fragrant water lily.

[b]Theme Songs:[/b]
[LIST]
[*][url=" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qw3m94NZPQ"]Water Symphony (Luin Theme)[/url] (Tales of Symphonia)
[*][url=" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCy23-IvGRQ"]Izoold Theme[/url] (Tales of Symphonia)
[*][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj58GZLJKKI&feature=related"]Torent Forest[/url] (Tales of Symphonia)
[/LIST]

[b]Known Family: [/b]
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poseidon]Poseidon[/url] – father
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muse]Muse[/url] of the arts (name unknown, thought to be Artemesia) – mother
Keldar - cousin
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hades]Hades[/url] - uncle
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeus]Zeus[/url] – uncle
[url=http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/characters-and-resources/70881-sakumes-friends-of-mental-instabilities.html]Arlen Drago Asterling – husband[/url]

[B]Familiars/Nonhuman Companions:[/B] Her husband Arlen’s bird friend, Chimeree, is her most constant animal companion. He is described below:
“A cheeky little fellow related to the bird of paradise family, used to tropical climate more than forestation, but he likes humid places so the water where Arlen often is suits him. He's quick to run his mouth even though he knows humans can't understand him and very protective of Arlen and Ancia as his two best mates. He speaks in a cockney accent as he was originally imprisoned as a chick and brought up in a market where people spoke broken languages. He's an adventurous sort, but he does not like to get dirty or have comments made about him negatively.”

[size=1](Thanks to Sakume for the description.)[/size]

Ancia is also friends with Arlen’s other animal companions, as listed in his profile.

[b]Homeplace:[/b] Phaedorna River, Phaedorna, Grecia, Panthea [i](river, country, continent, world)[/i]

[b]Current Residence:[/b] Her ceremonial residence is at the Shrine of the Guardian, behind a waterfall in the small fishing village of Phaedorna that borders the river of the same name, in the land of Grecia. However, she and her husband Arlen sleep and go about their daily lives in their hut in the village, not far from the shrine.

[b]Languages:[/b]
[LIST]
[*][i]The Common Language[/i] (English), spoken with a Greek accent
[*][i]Ancient Grecian[/i] (Greek), her native tongue, spoken amongst the gods and other nymphs
[*]The [i]language of sea creatures[/i], which is not entirely verbal, and mostly made up of sounds and motions and other qualities of water
[/LIST]

[B]Occupation:[/B] Guardian of the River of Phaedorna

[B]Weapons:[/B] An enchanted paintbrush approximately half her height capable of painting illusions and channeling water magic. Its handle is crafted of white stone and the bristles of strong, tan-colored equine hair. The “paint” is made of an unknown substance, and is renewed when dipped in a body of water or rained on. Ancia believes the paintbrush to have been a gift from her parents, and always keeps it with her or safe at her home.

[B]Armor:[/B] None

[B]Powers/Magic/Skills:[/B] Ancia can quickly paint illusions and uses some water spells with her paintbrush. She can also use a few other magical abilities inherited from her father, Poseidon. By coming into contact with water, she can sense impurities, currents, and other information about that body of water and the local, recent weather.

[I][U]~Spells and magical skills:[/U][/I]
[I]
Duplicate[/I]- Ancia paints multiple illusionary copies of herself, which fan out around attackers and are capable of movement. A maximum of twelve copies can be created before paint supply must be renewed. Illusions last up to ten minutes.

[I]Mirage[/I]- Ancia creates an illusion of another person, item, or place, which appear entirely real to her foe, but are not capable of actual physical contact with them. Illusions of people are capable of speech. Time each mirage takes to create depends on the size of desired illusion. Illusions of people and items may last as long as twenty minutes, illusions of places last for as much as ten. Paint supply must be renewed after this spell.

[I]Geyser[/I]- A hot jet of water and steam is blasted at the foe from the bristles of the paintbrush. Steam obscures vision, heated water jet can scald, and is intense enough to push an average-sized human male. Paint supply must be replenished after attack.

[I]Blessed Rain[/I]- A skill granted to Ancia as a water nymph, she may recite an incantation to call for rain. The rain recharges her paint supply, and will keep it from depleting for as long as the downpour lasts. Incantation takes 8-10 minutes, storms last 3-5 minutes in most conditions.

[I]Storm[/I]- When greatly angered, Ancia goes into a temper tantrum and can conjure up a mild storm using her abilities as a water nymph. Often these storms consist of heavy rain and startling thunderclaps, but no lighting has ever been created. Storm lasts from 3-5 minutes. Ancia is severely drained after storm subsides. Milder emotional distress can sometimes cause lighter rains or storms, especially if she is made to cry.

[I]Beckoning of the Tides[/I]- Without any conscious effort aside from the will to perform the act, Ancia can summon surging columns and blasts from any nearby body of water. The attack often drags in foes with strong tides down into the drowning depths afterwards.

[I]Groundquake[/I]- Ancia takes this ability of hers as further proof that she is the daughter of Poseidon--when angered, she is capable of creating mild tremors and quakes by will alone that can be devastating to singular foes.

[B]Battle Strengths:[/B] Ancia is skilled at evading and eluding foes, and can blend in with her surroundings easily in watery areas. As a water nymph, she is also capable of breathing underwater, and bending liquids to her will. She is very gifted with water magic, and can have strong effects on local weather. With Arlen to guide and calm her, she performs her magic and skills better, even under stress. She heals quickly, especially when in temperate and/or humid conditions, or in water. Bullets, arrows, and metallic weapons (such as swords) pass through her, with their speed and force greatly dispersed by her watery body. They only cause harm if they manage to strike an important organ, all of which are protected magically and with membranes of mystical water.

[B]Battle Weaknesses:[/B] Ancia is very weak physically, and not much of a natural tactician or fighter. She’s naïve and innocent, and easily tricked in trusting her enemies and letting down her defenses. Often, she chooses to flee rather than fight, and only engages in combat when she must in self-defense, or to aid a friend or Phaedornan villager. She also has some difficulty controlling some of her more offensive magic, especially when her emotions are running high. Extreme heat and extreme cold (above boiling and below freezing point respectively) can have an effect on her well-being, as she is primarily composed of water.

[B]Personality:[/B] Unlike her fellow nymphs, Ancia is neither seductive nor mischievous. She has been known to be very innocent and naïve, and has a very cheerful disposition. She is kind to both enemies and allies, and will try to make friends with most peoples she meets. She is also highly curious, and loves to explore and learn new things. When feeling threatened, she often tries to flee or withdraw, and is not very good at hiding her fear. She is gentle and responds well to tenderness and understanding in kind.

However, when pushed over the edge and under stress, Ancia becomes very emotional, and occasionally throws temper tantrums. The nymph is accustomed to getting her way and being treated with the utmost courtesy—this is not snobbery or selfishness, but purely the way that her culture has taught her about the role of her kind. She is pleasant and generous to her servants, but depends heavily on them, in more of the manner of an innocent princess who does not know any other life, rather than a bossy, spoiled, or domineering noble.

Ancia is very devoted and dependant on her beloved husband, Arlen, who is viewed as her king in their small village. She dotes upon him, and relies on his guidance and wisdom, and in return showers him with deep affection and respect. She loves to braid his hair and sing to him, and waits his return with a longing heart every time he must travel far away. The nymph is also very fond of his animal friends, and cares for them as if they were almost part of their family. Serving as the guardian of the Phaedornan river and shrine gives her a sense of purpose and belonging that she had lacked for a long time, after being abandoned by her parents.

[LIST]
[*][I]Likes:[/I] Flowers, singing, music, fish, nectar, butterflies, animals, water, swimming, diving, dancing, celebrations, spending time with Arlen, watching the sunset and sunrise, stargazing, exploring, braiding Arlen’s hair, getting dressed up for festivals, listening to stories, talking to Chimeree

[*]Food likes: Fish, shrimp, crawfish, crabs, lobsters, nectar, ambrosia, honey, sweet and juicy fruits, cool and clean water

[*][I]Dislikes:[/I] People who disrespect her father, people who threaten her husband or village, thunder, fire, ice, temperature extremes, being alone, being lost

[*]Food dislikes: More or less anything not listed in her “likes”, dry food, bitter food

[*][I]Fears:[/I] Being lost, having no family or loved ones, not belonging, savage storms, intense fire, never knowing her mother, rejection, weapons, war, losing control of her abilities

[*][I]Virtues:[/I] Loving, gentle, and always eager to learn. Accepting, forgiving, and friendly, cares about her friends and the villagers she protects, and is often willing to help others.

[*][I]Vices:[/I] Naïve, spoiled without realizing it, quick to tears, sometimes too dependent
[/LIST]

[B]History:[/B] Ancia has long been believed to be an illegitimate daughter of Poseidon and one of the nine muses of the arts. She was gifted her enchanted paintbrush by her mother, and her weapon was granted powers over water by her father, but neither endeavored to teach her the proper use of the item. She herself believes in the tales of her birth, and takes great pride in being the supposed offspring of a god. Thanks to the help of the elf Arlen, whom she would later marry, she has reunited with Poseidon and learned that he, indeed, is her father. But her mother’s full identity and whereabouts still remain a mystery.

Ancia was left at a river when she was young, and when found by people in a nearby village, she was hailed as the goddess of the body of water. Unsure of what else to do, she accepted her position, and interacted with the villagers often as a sign of her goodwill towards them. They became like a family to her. The people brought her offerings of food and fine clothing, and one of the village’s artisans took it upon himself to teach her to paint with her--unbeknownst to him--magical paintbrush. During each session of the tutoring, the nymph’s artwork would transform into very realistic illusions after each piece was finished, and this convinced the villagers even more so that she was a deity. They called upon her from time to time to protect the river from nymphs and lesser gods who came to conquer their life-giving source of water and use it for their own purposes. These envious creatures are often held back by the ocean when they try to mount an attack, making it seem as if the sea god Poseidon himself were protecting Ancia.

Ancia served as the guardian nymph, revered almost like a goddess, throughout several generations, and still continues to guard her river to this day. Briefly, she was removed from this post by a stronger, more cunning nymph, who easily defeated her for control and pushed her into the river to wash away to sea. She found herself in a port when she washed ashore, and there befriended a strange bear-like creature known as Jhans Frenn. The bear was on a quest, and requested her assistance—but it was Ancia who instead found the guidance and help she needed from Jhans. With his aid, she returned home, and encountered the elf Arlen in the forest on her way to seek her father’s temple. His silver hair awed her—never once had she come so close to one of the elves. He believed her to be an enemy, until she drew nearer innocently, not understanding the threat of his bow aimed at her. Arlen quickly lowered his weapon to ask her who she was. Her gentleness and kind, almost childlike manner endeared her to him on that first meeting. From then on, he agreed to protect her on her way to her father’s temple. But he had not counted on what Poseidon would request of him next.

Worried for his daughter’s safety should she try to retake her shrine, Poseidon saw to it that the elf would agree to become Ancia’s defender. Arlen was hesitant, but he was beginning to develop feelings for the naïve but sweet nymph, and eventually agreed. Ancia could not have regained her shrine or her home without him. Some time after, the two were married in an elven ceremony under the stars, where they pledged their love to one another. They live now in the village of Phaedorna.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[b]Awards:[/b]
Coolest Character Power (“Storm”) - Fall BA 2009

[B]RPs:[/B]
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/battle-arena/74036-new-alston-aviators-altamira.html"]The New Alston Aviators[/url] (dropped)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/showthread.php?t=51051"]Lingering Time[/url] (complete)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/crossroads/67753-grecian-family-reunion-altamira.html"]A Grecian Family Reunion[/url] (dropped)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/crossroads/86682-water-oil-mix-alti.html"]Water and Oil Mix[/url] (dropped, but results of the ending confirmed)
[url]http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/107918-dirty-lies-in-phaedorna-altamira-4.html[/url]
[url]http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/117137-learning-curves-altamira.html[/url]

Updated Timeline - Cadenza

2011-08-01T23:13:00.007-04:00

[SIZE="5"][B]Cadenza’s Rough RP Timeline[/B][/SIZE]
[size=1](Thanks to Tiroth for asking me to do this in the first place. x3 Otherwise I'd never have found the motivation.)[/size]

•[URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/character-fiction/43675-bittersweet.html"] Bittersweet[/URL] (complete) fic, early backstory, her father’s imprisonment, her working in her sister Vivace’s mafia, her marriage to Paris Valentia
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/43185-accidents-shouldnt-happen-awbri.html"]Accidents Shouldn't Happen[/URL] (dropped) RP, Cadenza meets Hashem
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-archives/42052-lea-cadenza-madrigals-training.html"]Dome training[/URL] with Sileya fits somewhere in here, as does becoming an assistant to Hashem Kiyumars, gaining Avello the dragon
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/44388-field-trip-awkin-doc-altamira.html"]Field Trip![/URL] (complete) RP, Cadenza takes out her first three students, Kellson, Jhans, and TDC on a quest
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/44461-reasons-and-motives-graceful-and-altamira.html"]Reasons and Motives[/URL] (complete) RP, Cadenza tries to save her first husband
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/character-fiction/50977-a-kindred-spirit.html"]A Kindred Spirit[/URL] (complete) fic, Cadenza meets Hunter
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/60604-on-the-sandy-streets-hyrulian-hero.html"]On the Sandy Streets[/URL] (dropped) battle, meeting Kashet
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/60733-an-unexpected-reunion-duke-of-clubs.html"]An Unexpected Reunion[/URL] (complete) battle, Cadenza fights Kellson
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/56747-her-rebellion-awkin.html"]Her Rebellion[/URL] (complete) RP, Cadenza freeing herself from her sisters’ control

• Cadenza becomes a Dome teacher, meets Louis and Melody
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/66491-grudging-respect-kiriyama.html"]Grudging Respect[/URL] (dropped) RP, meeting Cain, hiring him
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/68296-the-shadows-favored-puck.html"]The Shadows' Favored[/URL] (dropped) battle, meeting Tsuukai, learning of her conflict with the Spirit of Shadow, gaining her cutlass
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/68366-chinatown-rush-anyone-and-everyone.html"]Chinatown Rush[/URL] (dropped) battle, Cadenza usurps the Spirit of Shadow inadvertently after their struggle is decided
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-archives/67011-altamira-ic-homeroom.html"]IC Homeroom[/URL] stuff here, Cadenza and Johnny begin dating
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/71068-what-fate-had-in-store-duke-altamira-sakume.html"]What Fate had in Store[/URL] (dropped) RP, dropped when Duke died, meeting Selene
• More [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-archives/67011-altamira-ic-homeroom.html"]IC Homeroom[/url] stuff here, Johnny and Cadenza becoming more serious
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/character-fiction/71082-the-chain-of-pursuit.html"]The Chain of Pursuit[/URL] (complete) fic, must reeead! Cadenza’s father is freed, deal with the King of Rubato is struck, Tracey meets Cadenza
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/73085-farewells-for-all-those-who-wish-to-join.html"]Farewells[/URL] (complete) RP tribute to Duke and Johnny, Johnny’s funeral

• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/73772-winter-comes-to-the-desert-altamira.html"]Winter Comes to the Desert[/URL] (complete) RP, cameo, Arietta and Zach meet
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/82116-out-of-the-shadows-altamira.html"]Out of the Shadows[/URL] (in progress) RP, Cadenza meets Arin and Will
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/77826-damned-drunks-altamira.html"]Damned Drunks[/URL] (dropped) battle, barfight with Kichaa
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/81646-send-me-a-friend-sakume.html"]Send Me a Friend[/URL] (complete) RP. Cadenza and Louis meet and adopt Kate, and meet Marcus and Ruin, the contract with Marcus is signed
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/87105-a-spell-gone-awry-sakume.html"]A Spell Gone Awry[/URL] (complete) RP (one of my personal favorites :3) Louis and Cadenza take Kate to see Louis’ home world
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/80805-sun-surf-and-demons-insaney.html"]Sun, Surf, and Demons[/URL] (complete) -- debatable which comes first, this or KoHD, because KoHD took so long that I think we retconned it in later posts so that Rain and Cadenza knew each other and were dating. Cadenza quits the Dome, Cadenza and Rain begin dating
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/77282-knockin-on-heavens-door.html"]Knockin' on Heaven's Door[/URL] (complete) – see above, Z’s and Selene’s wedding
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/84244-vanishings-aiko.html"]Vanishings[/URL] (dropped) battle, Cadenza meets Taen
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/82269-eye-for-an-eye-zorolo.html"]Eye for an Eye[/URL] (complete) RP, Cadenza helping her dragon Avello, with Z’s assistance
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/82650-its-easier-to-hate-mikey-mike.html"]It's Easier to Hate[/URL] (complete) RP, reuniting with Cain, from Grudging Respect and from the Dome where he was her assistant, after Johnny’s death, he’s unaware of her rebounding with Rain. Cadenza meets Havok
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/82560-settling-the-score-altamira.html"]Settling the Score[/URL] (complete) battle, meeting her niece Alex
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/87151-lets-start-anew-altamira.html"]Let's Start Anew[/URL] (complete) RP, encounter with the Spirits of Ice and Light

• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/92147-ghosts-of-the-past-altamira.html"]Ghosts of the Past[/URL] (dropped) RP, was supposed to be some of Rain’s past
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/89898-whos-your-daddy-kiri-alti.html"]Who's Your Daddy?[/URL] (dropped) RP, was supposed to be Cadenza discovering Havok was Kate’s dad
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/89333-meet-the-dionnes-zorolo-and-wispy.html"]Meet the Dionnes[/URL] (incomplete) RP, Alex’s and Anton’s family surfaces, Fabi is found
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/88679-a-place-in-my-heart-insaney-sakume.html"]A Place in My Heart[/URL] (incomplete) RP, Rain meets Kate, Cadenza meets Jessi
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/101897-the-cleverness-of-wizards-altamira.html"]The Cleverness of Wizards[/URL] (complete) RP, Cadenza meets Kichaa’s ghost and Aleksandr Sokoll
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/101908-magic-has-many-faces-sabbo.html"]Magic Has Many Faces[/URL] (complete) battle, Cadenza defends Alex from anti-mage Tatek
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/101411-fashion-police-sakume-alti.html"]Fashion Police[/URL] (complete) RP, Rain and Cadenza are engaged, a younger Marcus is met, Cadenza and Louis meet Celia, Ruin’s shack is seen
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/103814-dont-interpret-dreams-interpret-fists-altamira.html"]Don't Interpret Dreams, Interpret Fists![/URL] (complete) battle, Cadenza and Monroe have a street fight

• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/101597-can-i-really-help-anyone-sakume-alti.html"]Can I Really Help Anyone?[/URL] (complete) RP, Cadenza consoling Selene after Z’s return
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/107809-fire-island-sakume-aiko.html"]Fire Island[/URL] (complete) RP, Kichaa returns, Cadenza and Selene meet him as Michael
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/107842-heart-to-heart-zorolo.html"]Heart to Heart[/URL] (complete) RP, Cadenza consoling Zorlo and giving him advice on his marriage
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/107801-snow-white-mischief-altamira.html"]Snow White Mischief[/URL] (in progress) RP, Cadenza meets Omen and he slips her the blood of a nature goddess
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/107203-blackbird-altamira.html"]Blackbird[/URL] (dropped) battle, Louis and Zach meet again, Cadenza announces her engagement to her family
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/103193-bloody-italians-aikies.html"]Bloody Italians[/URL] (complete) RP, Cadenza meets and befriends Leona
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/125001-le-ardeur-the-tale-of-eliza-dupree-cookie.html"]Le Ardeur: The Tale of Eliza Dupree[/URL] (in progress) RP, Cadenza meets Descartes and saves Eliza
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/common-rooms/121175-dont-talk-to-strangers-altamira-and-sakume.html"]Don't Talk to Strangers[/URL] (in progress) RP, Cadenza and Kate meet Adrien and Brax
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/109694-m-bius-shrub-and-altamira.html"]Mobius[/URL] (complete) RP, Cadenza helps Michael and meets Kira and friends
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/110409-you-smell-altamira.html"]You Smell[/URL] (complete) battle, Cadenza and Michael spar, meet Gideon
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/109854-a-scaly-situation-altamira.html"]A Scaly Situation[/URL] (complete) RP, Cadenza and Avello meet Laurana the dragon, and Cadenza adopts her
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/109924-make-a-change-zorolo.html"]Make a Change[/URL] (complete) battle, Cadenza and Zorlo sparring match
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/common-rooms/113522-hit-the-books-altamira.html"]Hit the Books![/URL] (incomplete) RP, Cadenza meets Mael

• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/109843-mommys-little-girl-sakume.html"]Mommy's Little Girl[/URL] (complete) RP, Cadenza and Kate
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/110010-daughter-dearest-mikey-b-kiri-kraze.html"]Daughter Dearest[/URL] (in progress) RP, Havok and Cadenza
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/109169-gypsy-mischief-aiko.html"]Gypsy Mischief[/URL] (in progress) RP, Cadenza meeting/remeeting Kestrel
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/110092-truth-only-smiles-in-the-dark-hussie-and-altamira.html"]Truth Only Smiles in the Dark[/URL] (dropped) RP, Sokoll and Khaz/Takai--due to Honor's departure, it had to be agreed upon and concluded that Sokoll was punished and executed for his crimes by Takai and Cadenza, even though we could not finish showing it
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/117137-learning-curves-altamira.html"]Learning Curves[/URL] (in progress) RP, Cadenza revisits and helps Roery with her new problem
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/107902-one-last-hurrah-sakume-cookie.html"]One Last Hurrah![/URL] (complete) RP, Cadenza’s bachelorette party, more info about Marcus discovered

• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/110739-man-and-wife-insaney-and-all-those-invited-many-cameos.html"]Man and Wife[/URL] (in progress) RP, Cadenza's and Rain's wedding, Light's attack on Cadenza
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/common-rooms/115491-twilight-tea-the-new-ic-thread-open-to-all.html"]Twilight Tea IC Thread[/URL] (dropped out), Cadenza meets Aurora, Leonna, and Kyralie, as well as a few others
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/115791-friendship-altamira-2.html"]Friendship[/URL] (complete) RP, Cadenza and Nikudemon
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/117010-disney-devils-altamira.html"]Disney Devils[/URL] (in progress) RP, Raisha and Cadenza work together to investigate a haunted shopping mall
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/113593-until-death-do-we-part-those-invited.html"]Until Death Do We Part[/URL] (dropped) RP, Selene and Michael's engagement party, Selene goes into labor
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/118386-labor-pains-altamira.html"]Labor Pains[/URL] (complete) RP, Selene gives birth to twins

• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/115859-a-birthday-wish-tiroth.html"]A Birthday Wish[/URL] (in progress) RP, Cadenza tries to catch the unicorn Ilyena for Kate's birthday
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/common-rooms/120639-out-in-the-grass-altamira.html"]Out in the Grass[/URL] (complete) RP, Cadenza and Hunter encounter Leonna Fallenstar again, along with her companion Padme at the Dome
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/124746-is-this-a-dream-or-reality-altamira.html"]Is This A Dream Or Reality?[/URL] (in progress) RP, Marcus messes with Cadenza's mind
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/131913-sun-surf-and-honeymooners-insaney.html"]Sun, Surf, and Honeymooners[/URL] (dropped, agreed upon conclusion) RP, Rain's and Cadenza's honeymoon on the Sevidla Islands that leads to their break-up after the events of Man and Wife resurface

• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/134326-aftermath-and-new-beginnings-sakume-and-fairess.html"]Aftermath and New Beginnings[/URL] (in progress) RP, the aftermath following Cadenza's and Rain's divorce, Cadenza learns she's pregnant with Rain's child
• [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/135958-humans-and-dragons-stryder.html"]Humans and Dragons[/URL] (in progress) RP, Royal Mage of Rubato, Carla della Fonce, falls ill and Cadenza and Avello seek out an older dragon to help cure her magical ailment

Hunter (Updated)

2011-08-01T16:29:00.026-04:00

[B]Name[/b] [i](and title)[/i]: Prince Hunter Levine Merridale

[B]Age:[/B] 25

[B]Sex:[/B] Male

[B]Race:[/B] Human, of mixed medieval Western European origin.

[B]Height:[/B] 5’10”, fairly tall for his era.

[B]Weight:[/B] 164 pounds, much in lean muscle.

[B]Eye Color:[/B] A warm, golden hazel.

[B]Hair Color/Style:[/B] Straight, airy, and soft, light chestnut brown locks that are often tastefully ruffled, sometimes with a bit of a gel-like product or just water. Hunter’s hair goes down a little past his ears, but is not long enough to be considered effeminate, making him instead look a bit boyish yet gentle.

[B]Skin Color/Complexion:[/B] A fair, peachy tone with some light tan to it from time spent outdoors. It’s blemish-free and smooth, even on his face, where he doesn’t grow much in the way of a beard. His hands are a bit more worn from work and combat, but no inch of him is coarse or rough. He doesn’t have much body hair, but still has more than a female or young boy would.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/sailormichiru/hunterprofile-1.png [/img]
[URL="http://superaiko.deviantart.com/gallery/765176"]-More pictures of my characters, including Hunter, on my DA account-[/URL]

[B]General Appearance:[/B]
[U][i]Face:[/i][/U] Hunter has a boyish, honest, and charming face, with wholesome, noble good-looks and a kindness about his eyes that sets others at ease. His eyes are friendly and earnest, almost honey-like in color, and regard others with attention and warmth whenever he listens or speaks. His neat, natural eyebrows above them add a bit of maturity, and give his face a sense of responsibility befitting an army commander. His smiles are gentle and genuine, and his lips are neither too thin nor too full. He has rather healthy and clean teeth for a man of his era, and they are even better after he has been introducing to modern practices in other worlds. His nose is straight and well-shaped, of a size proportionate and pleasing with respect to his other features. He has somewhat high cheekbones and a squarish, more masculine jaw that helps offset the boyish tenderness of his eyes and ruffled brown hair. Some call him the very picture of a charming, quintessential prince.

[U][i]Body:[/i][/U] Neither overly thin, nor bulky, Hunter is fit and toned, and in the prime of his life in terms of shape. He has lean, denser-packed muscles, more befitting a horseback rider, and stands at a considerable height, especially for his era. He has strong shoulders, well-defined arms and legs, and a good deal of strength in all of his limbs, as well as his core. His stomach is flat and defined by abs, which have served him in battle and in sport. He has little to no chest hair on his toned pectorals, and only some on his legs and arms. His hands and feet are of an average size, and despite all his combat training, often manage to be gentle and warm, like a true prince.

[U][i]Clothing:[/i][/U] Hunter most often dresses in the armor of his homeland, which includes a steel [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuirass]cuirass[/url] emblazoned with the spade-shaped insignia of the kingdom of Choras, greaves, and more (further described in armor.) Underneath this, he wears the traditional green and black clothing of his kingdom, and over top, a forest green cloak edged with gold embroidery.

At other times, Hunter still dresses in a very medieval style, favoring tunics, shirts, and trousers in nature-themed or neutral colors, such as greens, grays, and browns. His favorite color is the forest green of Choras. He is still very baffled by modern zippers and prefers buttoned shirts and slacks. He also favors sturdy brown or black leather boots over any other modern footwear.

[U][i]Mannerisms and Movement:[/i][/U] Hunter walks with a stately, upright stance, and an even pace, his shoulders always set and his chin held up. His strides have a purpose and a grace to them, an effortless kind of natural elegance that seems to come to nobility. When standing still, he lets his hands drop to his sides, in the at-ease pose of a career soldier. He is every bit a knight in his motions, and his body language is full of bows and other such polite gestures, especially in the presence of a lady. He smiles easily.

Hunter often has a clean scent of pine, open air, and the woods about him.

[b]Theme Songs:[/b]
[LIST]
[*][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqZaFDA7PXY&feature=related"]600 AD Theme – Yearnings of Wind[/url] (Chrono Trigger)
[*][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TykpyrHAZpw"]Guardia Castle Theme[/url] (Chrono Trigger)
[*][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLVNUF3KkIg&feature=related"]The Coronation of King Arthur[/url] (Camelot)
[/LIST]

[b]Known Family: [/b]
King Levine Merridale – father
Queen Sandra Merridale – mother
Hannah Vilene – former, arranged fiancée
[url=http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/npc-repository/102893-sakumes-many-npcs.html]Christopher “Chris” Isaac Merridale – adoptive son[/url]

[B]Familiars/Nonhuman Companions:[/B] His tan, beige-speckled warhorse, Mannie. She is a stately, still fairly young mare, who boasts a beautiful cream-colored mane, tail, and hooves. For riding, she wears a brown leather saddle, embroidered with the crest of the Merridale family. The sturdy reins are of the same color, and are fashioned of a thick rope-like material. Mannie has become the symbol for Hunter, and whenever any Chorastrian soldier sees her in the distance, the troops’ morale is said to rise. Mannie resides in the yard of the Merridale home in Blancwood, Rubato. She is brave and well-trained, curious in times of leisure and peace, and loyal. She is motivated more easily by treats and petting.

He also recently caught Chris a pet frog, whom the boy named “Hopper”. The frog lives in a tank in Chris’ room.

[b]Homeplace:[/b] Renamor City, Choras, Guardia, Medina [I](city, country, continent, world)[/I]

[b]Current Residence:[/b] A neat, nice townhouse in Blancwood, Rubato, of Earth. It has a decently-sized, grassy yard, and isn’t far from the local school or the royal palace.

[b]Languages:[/b]
[LIST]
[*][i]English[/i], spoken with some medieval flourishes as characteristic of nobility and knighthood of his nation
[*]Some [i]Danish[/i], as Choras has some Danish roots
[*]Some [i]French[/i], as expected in some noble social circles and politics
[*]Some [i]Latin[/i], as also expected in some politics and scholarly settings, as well as for some religious texts still yet untranslated
[*]A bit of [i]German[/i]
[/LIST]

[b]Vehicles:[/b] None yet, but he thinks he should purchase one soon for Chris’ sake.

[B]Occupation:[/B] Commander in the Choras army, horseback riding tutor

[B]Weapons:[/B] A custom-made spear, with a finely-crafted steel spearhead and a black shaft made of a durable metal alloy. The Merridale royal crest is etched upon the spearhead. He also has a slingshot, but he does not use it much, and a pocket knife.

[B]Armor:[/B] A full suit of steel plate armor, with some mythril reinforcements under the cuirass and greaves, as pictured [url=http://holywars2010.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/plate-armor.jpg]here[/url]. Hunter does not always wear the entire suit, sometimes only opting for the cuirass, greaves, and gauntlets unless otherwise needed.

In battle, Hunter also carries a circular shield, with his royal crest etched onto the face, and a sturdy leather strap on the back. When not in use, he often keeps his shield on his back, strapped onto his spear’s specially-made sheathe. His boots are also plated in steel, and provide some protection.

[B]Carried Possessions:[/B] His wallet, keys, and the simple cell phone that baffles him so much. When travelling, he also carries a waterskin, and some jerky or trail mix, along with treats for Mannie.

[B]Powers/Magic/Skills:[/B] Hunter is skilled with jousting, horseback riding, hand-to-hand combat, as well as armed combat with spears, lances, halberds, and short swords. He excels at defending with a shield, and also fighting on horseback. He also has considerable skill with commanding troops and devising strategies.

[list][*][I]Dome doors[/I]: As a privilege granted to him as a former Teacher of the Dome, Hunter is capable of summoning up Dome doors at will, by visualizing the place or person he wishes to find. Destinations he is already familiar with are far easier to summon doors to than new, unfamiliar destinations. With the former, he can call a door by with just the will to do so. With the latter, it often helps to imagine many sensory details or other known information about the place or person, such as looks, smells, sounds, etc. He sometimes struggles with locating unfamiliar places, but is steadily working to practice and improve.[/list]

[B]Battle Strengths:[/B] With over a decade of training as knight, and experience in war, Hunter is a talented and formidable soldier with a wealth of practical training and skill in both armed and unarmed combat. The prince is also a quick, young man and fairly muscular. He has considerable physical strength, and his defense is bolstered greatly by his armor. His impressive skills with defensive and counter techniques rival his offensive skills with the spear.

[B]Battle Weaknesses:[/B] Despite all of his training, Hunter is only a normal human, with no magic or special skills beyond his natural abilities, and can die just like any other human can, by numerous causes. He is unfamiliar with modern weaponry and that makes him even more vulnerable to wounds from guns and other such weapons. He cannot bring himself to ever harm a lady, and even if she is quite clearly a malevolent creature, he would have trouble overcoming this chivalrous instinct ingrained within him. He also can be a bit naïve in some ways, and therefore easier to deceive by some, because he always tries to assume the best of people.

[B]Personality:[/B] Good-natured and charming, Hunter is an ideal prince in many respects. He has a humbleness and sense of virtue about him, and upholds the traditions of chivalry unwaveringly when possible. He displays greater pride in his rank of commander than his title of prince, and will only speak of the latter if questioned or if it becomes otherwise called for. He is a little bashful about his royal titles when others insist on using them. He has learned that many people judge him too soon because he is a prince, and prefers to instead earn their respect on his own merits.

Despite his strong sense of duty to his army and country, he is entirely capable of relaxing and joking around with good friends. He is quick to trust and give respect, and eager to earn both; coldness doesn’t daunt him in the least. He considers it important to build rapport with one’s comrades and subordinates, and will never fail to try and do so with his own. He has a strong faith in Christianity, and tries to live his left as best he can in accordance with its teachings. This makes him often seem very forgiving and perhaps old-fashioned, but he sees no other way to be. He is especially kind towards women, children, and the downtrodden.

He speaks almost poetically, in a manner befitting a noble of his home era. Some may find his speech archaic, his compliments too abundant, but to Hunter, it is natural and the only way he has ever known to speak. His lessons as a page and a young knight and prince have been ingrained in him by his teachers and governesses, and he is a steady, constant source of warmth and stability because of this, like a beacon in changing times.

He has many troubles with his family; he feels guilt for disappointing his father and mother, and yet some resentment towards his mother for seeking to marry him off to a vain and mean-spirited noblegirl. He is a bit of a romantic, and certainly an idealist, and believes in true love. As a father to Chris, he is a bit bumbling as he is still learning, but he means well, and hopes to be the father to him that he never quite had himself. He greatly wishes to be close to him, and to nurture him to learn.

The prince, however, is not without flaws; many, especially those of more modern times, find him long-winded and close-minded, ignorant of magic and bogged down with his medieval beliefs. The man tries to overcome this close-mindedness from his culture and era, but his naiveté still persists in many ways.

In a fight, he's level-headed and serious, and quickly tries to take charge of the situation. Often he will try to avoid a fight with a more diplomatic solution, but when battle is inevitable, he responds as a soldier. He will always step in to assist a lady whenever possible.

[LIST]
[*][I]Likes:[/I] Horseback riding, reading, going to church, eating, spending time with friends and loved ones, good conversation, jousting, climbing trees, animals, history, politics, art, music (mostly classical), laughing, kind people, women

[*]Food likes: Tea, ale, coffee, bread, milk, honey, mutton, beef, potatoes, turnips, apples, puddings, cakes, pies, other baked goods, other meats, hearty stews, soups, beets, other root veggies, burgers, fries, ice cream, he’ll eat most foods.

[*][I]Dislikes:[/I] Bigots, people who mistreat women, children, or the poor or otherwise unfortunate or defenseless, vain people, those who are callous and cruel for no reason, those who try to harm his friends

[*]Food dislikes: He has trouble handling some very spicy foods. After trying it, he also is not a big fan of sour cream or other very sour things.

[*][I]Fears:[/I] Losing his family or friends, failing to protect someone, being faced with a supernatural or magical threat he cannot defend innocents against, and the fears that come with living a Christian life

[*][I]Virtues:[/I] Honest, caring, morally-upstanding, responsible, chivalrous and respectful of women, sincere, candid, a good listener, forgiving, faithful, and warm.

[*][I]Vices:[/I] Naïve in some areas, and a bit old-fashioned. Tends to speak too much.
[/LIST]

[B]History:[/B] Hunter Merridale is the sole heir to the Merridale throne. He was born to King Levine Merridale and his wife Queen Sandra in the rich country of Choras, and was destined for a comfortable, luxurious life. Choras had amassed its great wealth through its many war victories and conquests, and at the time of Hunter’s birth, had decided that after all of the success in war, it should reform its foreign policy to that of imperialism.

And so when Hunter was of age, his father Levine enrolled him in the training program of a knight. His son would become the poster boy of the growing empire’s military, and the kingdom would gain even more public support because of the amiable young soldier. Hunter trained night and day to fulfill his duty to his father, and learned how to wield his custom-made spear under some of the greatest officers in Choras’ army. He made many of his childhood friends training as a page, and together they would often use their off-time to sneak out and play as boys did, catching forest critters and having mock-battles. At the castle, the prince was mainly raised by his governesses, who tutored him and went over his academic lessons. Hunter soon rose through the ranks of the military, and took his position as the youngest commander the nation had ever seen in ages.

A military career was not all that was predetermined for Hunter however. His mother Sandra, who was amorous with the very idea of weddings, arranged a marriage for her son not long after his birth. The girl to whom Hunter was betrothed, Hannah Vilene, had the largest dowry of all the noble girls in Choras, and that was the sole reason she had won Sandra’s favor. Hunter met his future bride during his schooling, and developed a strong dislike for her. She was vain and confrontational, and was only interested in becoming wealthier and having a glorified title. They never quite saw eye to eye, and Hunter’s friends often would help him avoid her or escape their meetings.

Hunter fled the royal city of Renamor, Choras, to escape his wedding when he reached the age of twenty-one. Out of respect, his soldiers still considered him their commander, and so Hunter felt as if he still had not let down his father or country as far as the army went. With that knowledge in mind, he traveled the nation, coming to his military’s aid in the battles he came across. He had a way of rallying the troops and boosting morale that no other commander had. The army was victorious in every battle Hunter fought in.

Things continued this way until, after his twenty-fourth birthday, the prince stumbled upon a gypsy traveller who would change his life thereafter. Her name was Cadenza Madrigal, and she claimed to be lost, and searching for her dance troupe. Hunter took her to his army’s camp, after informing her that the entire area was a danger zone, in the middle of a war. There she met his childhood friends and comrades, Lieutenant Lesley Hildegard, his brother Clark Neville (who had been taken in by another family when the Hildegard boys had lost their parents), and officers Peter Warren and Borrof “Bo” Slovsky. But when trouble erupted on the front lines, Hunter had to leave the gypsy to go and help his troops.

Their foe, the formidable Augustan army, had changed the tides of battle with an unexpected assault. Things seemed grim for the Chorastians, and the fight took both armies into the forest. That was when the very darkness itself seemed to come to their aid. It was unlike anything Hunter had ever seen. The shadows themselves struck down the Augustans and drove them back, and eventually into surrender. The day and the battle were won for Choras. And he had no idea how.

He would not learn until later that the gypsy, Cadenza, had saved them all with her magic. He sought to find her after she had fled the camp, and finally found her standing before a door to some otherworldly realm. She called it the “Dome”, and warned him of what he might find should he choose to follow her. On that day, the prince was too stunned to try, but later, upon meeting a man named Louis Fritz, he would enter the Dome, and eventually join the ranks of its Teachers. He served for some time as Cadenza’s assistant, upon their reunion, before becoming a full-fledged Teacher himself. When she left, he and Louis Fritz also quit out of solidarity with her, but both often visit and help tutor new students even still.

Hunter now lives with his adopted son Chris and his horse Mannie in Cadenza's modern world of Earth, in Rubato's capital city of Blancwood, where the weather is kindest in the country, and the town is the most prosperous in the nation.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[B]Awards:[/B]
Character Most Deserving of the Official Power Shot Seal of Approval - EH Summer 2008

Most Charismatic - Spring BA 2010

[B]RPs:[/B]
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/showthread.php?p=1031666#post1031666"]The Witch and the Unsuspecting Wormhole[/url] (dropped)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/battle-arena/63760-lost-treasure-castle.html"]The Lost Treasure of the Castle[/url] (dropped)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/battle-arena/69143-beating-drum-death-altamira.html"]Beating the Drum of Death[/url] (dropped)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/battle-arena/73844-tower-ibica-altamira.html"]Tower of Ibica[/url] (dropped)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/battle-arena/77282-knockin-heaven-s-door.html"]Knockin' on Heaven's Door[/url] (complete)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/showthread.php?t=60943"]Persona Non Grata: Stopping a War[/url] (complete)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/crossroads/66446-hidden-truths.html"]Hidden Truths[/url] (dropped)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/crossroads/73085-farewells-all-those-who-wish-join.html"]Farewells.[/url] (complete)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/crossroads/82572-myth-moors-wisp-quill.html"]Myth on the Moors[/url] (complete)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/crossroads/86192-persistent-stalkers-aiko.html"]Persistent Stalkers[/url] (in progress)
[url]http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/108208-more-harm-than-good-quarky.html[/url]
[url]http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/common-rooms/120639-out-in-the-grass-altamira.html[/url]
[url]http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/110739-man-and-wife-insaney-and-all-those-invited-many-cameos.html[/url]
[url]http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/common-rooms/126977-pie-and-company-altamira.html[/url]

[B]Character Fiction:[/B]
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/showthread.php?t=50977"]A Kindred Spirit[/url] (complete)
[url="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/character-fiction/70585-common-cause-work-progress-everything-still-entirely-subject-change.html#post1789099"]A Common Cause (tentative title)[/url] (dropped)

Cadenza (Updated)

2011-08-01T01:10:00.108-04:00

[B]Name:[/B] Cadenza Vega Madrigal

[B]Nicknames/Aliases:[/B] “Denza” or less commonly “Denz” by some friends and family.
[SIZE="1"](There is an incomplete list being compiled by the Blancwood Police Department of all the aliases she has used in crime in the past. It may never be complete. Inspector Tracey de Carlo also has such a list in the works, slightly more complete, but missing several aliases of hers in use on other worlds.)[/SIZE]

[B]Age:[/B] 30

[B]Sex:[/B] Female

[B]Race:[/B] Human, of mixed Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and South American origin. Slight hint of Romani, despite her [URL="http://aikies.blogspot.com/2011/08/cadenzas-musing-on-gypsies-snippet.html"]gypsy[/URL] roots being more akin to the Andalusian gypsies of our world. Possesses magic, believed to spring forth from the soul, and run in her blood. More specifically, she is considered a "mage" of an "enchanter" distinction (explained in terms of her world [URL="http://aikies.blogspot.com/2011/08/races-of-earth.html"]here[/URL], just scroll down to the section for "mages".)

More recent events have left her changed, and responsible for the balance of shadow magic in her homeworld, as explained in the following:
[espoiler=Spirit of Shadow]She also unintentionally gained the position of the current [url="http://aikies.blogspot.com/2011/01/spirits-history.html"]Spirit of Shadow[/url] for her world as a result of a conflict with the former one, but she cannot fully take on the role unless she surrenders and accepts the ultimate requirement for it--death. [URL="http://aikies.blogspot.com/2011/03/zu-present-lessons-from-forklore-draft.html"]Spirits[/URL] are the souls of particularly magically-gifted humans who have passed on, and have the duty of governing the balance of the various kinds of magic in the world. Each type (such as light, water, fire, etc.) has its own singular Spirit. The first two original Spirits, Gaia, the Spirit of Life, and Morticus, the Spirit of Death, were the first two living beings left to care for the planet by the gods who created the world. Other Spirits have come and gone in the following millennia.[/espoiler]

[B]Height:[/B] 5’5”, petite and well aware of it. Somewhat grudging of it.

[B]Weight:[/B] 123 pounds, in lean, dancer’s muscle and womanly curves.

[B]Eye Color:[/B] Deep, dark, midnight blue.

[B]Hair Color/Style:[/B] A true raven black, that tends more towards blue-black than brown-black, and long and lustrous, flowing into loose, soft, natural curls down to her mid-back. She has long, sideswept bangs that cover part of her forehead, but stay out of her eyes. Cadenza doesn’t fuss over them too much, leaving her hair tastefully taken care of but not overworked or overstyled. A woman’s hair in gypsy culture is a source of pride and a sign of her maturity and fertility as a woman. Cadenza keeps hers long and beautifully healthy and strong for just such a reason.

She often wears it down, but chooses different styles for different occasions. Three violet peacock feathers, as part of a gypsy charm, are always worn in some way in her hair, unless she’s sleeping or showering.

[B]Skin Color/Complexion:[/B] Tanned olive skin with a warm tone, that tends towards a deep caramel or bronze color, and is free of blemishes.

It’s rougher on her worn and battle-scarred hands, but smooth elsewhere, and she has to work to keep the impurities and harsh sunlight of living in a sandy, arid climate from damaging her skin. She takes good care of herself, and while not flawless, possesses a natural beauty that needs little enhancements from make-up. In order to save time, money, and effort, Cadenza has used the aid of a spell to magically and permanently remove all unwanted hair from her body, leaving her legs and other areas as smooth as if she was just waxed and her eyebrows neat and groomed, but not overly.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/sailormichiru/3profilecadenza.png[/img]
[URL="http://superaiko.deviantart.com/gallery/765176"]-More pictures of my characters, including Cadenza, on my DA account-[/URL]

[B]General Appearance:[/B]
[U][i]Face:[/i][/U] Cadenza has a beautiful heart-shaped face with gentle, feminine, and sultry features that reflect her mixed Latina and Italian heritage. Her eyes, dark in color and with a mystique to them, are almond-shaped, expressive when she allows them to be, and somewhat large, but not wide-eyed, giving her a more mature rather than innocent look. They’re unnervingly good at giving sharp glares. They are framed by a set of long, black, and full eyelashes, and are set slightly wider apart than average. This is further complemented by her high, defined cheekbones, and gently curved, narrow jaw, ending in a rounded chin to complete the "heart-shape" of her facial bone structure. Her nose is small and delicate, slightly upturned and rounded, with a straight, gently inward-curving bridge and small nostrils. Her lips are full, of a faintly wine-kissed color, and soft, often curved into a small smirk or sarcastic scowl, and they form alluring shapes when forming her musical words. She has a reputation for saying some rude or nasty things that one would not expect from such lips. Her teeth are straight and brilliantly white, and kept clean.

She values good hygiene and takes care in instilling the same value in her daughter Kate. She wears make-up when she has the time, often just a light dusting of radiant peach blush, light, natural bronzy eyeshadow to add a hint of glamour, waterproof black mascara, and lipstick and/or lipgloss.

[U][i]Body:[/i][/U] The two best words to describe Cadenza would be petite and curvaceous—-she is a tanned, toned, lithe woman who stands proudly at 5’5” in height, an average or even tall height for her heritage, albeit once she’s increasingly finding is more on the short side in other countries and even worlds. She has an hourglass frame, with well-shaped, ample bosoms that measure somewhere between either a C or D cup in size, and a shapely, toned bottom to balance it out, along with wide, womanly hips, shapely, curved, and strong thighs, a trim, slender waist, and average-sized shoulders that even her out and make her natural proportions appear more balanced, if not very curvy.

Her legs and thighs have strong, toned muscles, fit to jump, kick, and dance, and her stomach is flat and abdominals capable of taking a punch. Her upper arms are also strong, lean, and toned, able to perform pull-ups or climb a rope with ease. At age thirty, she has been described as being “still young enough to be flawless, but old enough to be all woman.”

Cadenza has petite feet and hands, and often wears various rings on her fingers, most often of gold or bronze and sometimes with gemstones. The recent absence of her ruby wedding ring to those that know her is rather noticeable. She wears feathered gypsy charm earrings, although she will occasionally switch for other ones. The charms can be used as protective talismans or as catalysts in spells (detailed further in both the possessions and skills sections.) While she likes necklaces, she finds them a bit impractical for many occasions, believing they are too easily turned into a weapon that could be used to choke her.

[U][i]Scars:[/i][/U] The area where you can find the most signs of her rough past are in her hands and forearms. Left scarred as a reminder by her sister, her hands are a patchwork of knotted, dexterous muscle under scarred skin, covered in burns, welts from whips, cuts and slashes and stabs from edged weapons, a series of bite marks, a gunpowder burn and wound, and a particularly curious coin-shaped burn on the palm of her right hand. Her forearms bear similar scars, but less of them.

She keeps both her hands and forearms bandaged up until the knuckles at all times, changing the bandages each time after she showers with fresh ones. Often they are also covered by fingerless leather, mythril-reinforced gloves with studded knuckles, and her forearms by gauntlets of the same. She has made attempts to heal many of the wounds, but some are stubborn or too old to go away or heal. Now she accepts them as old reminders to be more careful. There are a few scars elsewhere on her body, but none severe or of much note. Her fingertips have thickened, slightly rough skin, accustomed to years of playing guitar and other musical instruments.

[U][i]Clothing:[/i][/U] Cadenza dresses practically, but enjoys putting feminine, flirty, and gypsy flair and style into her clothing choices, often favoring dresses and skirts when possible. She detests pink, and tends towards warmer colors, such as reds and golds, or darker bluish hues, like navy or deep purple, for her colors. She is not averse to patterns but can be picky about the ones she wears, most of them being ones that she currently likes in fashion, an animal print, tastefully done flowers, or a more exotic, ethnic print. She likes wearing handmade or traditional jewelry, especially in gold.

She loves wearing jeans and feels comfortable in slim-fit, hip-hugging styles that highlight her curves, usually in dark washes. She also favors feminine, soft, and flowy blouses, like peasant blouses, or embroidered tanktops. She’ll wear shorts in warm enough weather, particularly tailored shorts, and when relaxing in Rubato, prefers sandals to any other footwear. She’ll avoid socks whenever possible. Cadenza loves high heels and walks gracefully in stilettos. Most often when traveling, she’ll opt for well-made, reliable leather boots with a slight heel. Underneath her clothing, if expecting trouble, she’ll wear her mythril bodysuit (detailed in the "Armor" section.) She sometimes carries a purse or bag with her to carry her belongings.

[U][i]Mannerisms and Movement:[/i][/U] She walks with a leisurely, casual pace, always ready to break out into a run or pivot with momentum into a punch without much warning needed. Her strides have a salsa dancer’s grace, flair, and smoothness to them, and her hips sway alluringly with each step. She tends to rest her hands on her hips, or when defensive or angered, cross her arms over her chest. She holds her tension and anger in the palms of her hands, and is prone to making fists, sometimes even until the knuckles are white. When walking she lets them rest naturally at her sides, or shoves them in her pockets when more relaxed, holding an iPod or just at the ready. When fighting, she is almost never still, always pacing or keeping on the move, ready to act.

A smile is rare from her, and even more so a genuine one. But if you do manage one from her, it is good-humored, unabashed, and warm, and often carries a great deal of meaning, affection, or acceptance. Cadenza most often smells subtly of lavender and sweet prickly pear fruit, along with a slightly salty, mild, earthy hint of sand.

[b]Theme Songs:[/b]
[LIST]
[*][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DSFyA7t4_EK"]Kelas (Let's Dance)[/url] (Fullmetal Alchemist)
[*][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f9GmkBZvr8&feature=related"]Requiem[/url] (Fullmetal Alchemist)
[*][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cucFfpsqf8&feature=related"]This Night[/url] (Black Lab)
[*][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-qgum7hFXk"]Tamacun[/url] (Rodrigo y Gabriela)
[*][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqLkhuopUYk&feature=related"]Diem[/url] (Rodrigo y Gabriela)
[*][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4Q9zngV52U"]Got Nuffin'[/url] (Spoon)
[*][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2DjNqXim6Y"]Dirty Dancer[/url] (Enrique Iglesias)
[*][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J28KhdB8kE&feature=related"]Ixtapa[/url] (Rodrigo y Gabriela) - song for her and her best friend Louis, the guitar for her and the violin for Louis
[/LIST]

[b]Known Family: [/b]
Paris Santiago Valentia – first ex-husband (only legally deceased)

[URL="http://aikies.blogspot.com/2009/09/short-story-eve-on-la-isla-past.html"]Galliard Vinicius Madrigal – father[/URL]
Sonya Deneb Navarre-Madrigal – mother (deceased)

Clara Madrigal-Souza – paternal aunt, Galliard’s younger sister
Domenico Souza – paternal, younger cousin, Clara’s son
Aline Navarre-Ramirez – maternal, older cousin

[post=4185860]Vivace Altair Madrigal-Dionne[/post] – eldest sister (deceased)
Anton Lorenzo Dionne – brother-in-law (deceased)
Fabricia “Fabi” Muscida Dionne (Leos) – niece
Alessandra “Alex” Zaniah Dionne (Vossler) - niece

[URL="http://aikies.blogspot.com/2009/04/madrigal-and-avello-mini-profiles.html"]Algretta Gatria Madrigal[/URL] – second eldest sister
Luminari Maia Madrigal – third eldest sister
Arietta Mira Madrigal – fourth eldest sister

[URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/characters-and-resources/70881-sakumes-friends-of-mental-instabilities.html"]Katherine “Kate” Anne Seraph[/URL] – adoptive daughter
[URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/2210194-post2.html"]Rain Seraph[/URL] – second ex-husband
[URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/2210194-post2.html"]Jessica “Jessi” Seraphim-Black[/URL] – adoptive daughter (unofficially)
[URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/2210198-post3.html"]Raisha Seraph[/URL] - sister-in-law
Lahash – father-in-law

[B]Familiars/Nonhuman Companions:[/B] A violet-colored dragon [URL="http://aikies.blogspot.com/2009/04/madrigal-and-avello-mini-profiles.html"]Avello[/URL], and his adoptive "sister", the green dragon [URL="http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/771252-post573.html"]Laurana[/URL]. Both live in the extensive yard around Cadenza's home, and do not often leave her homeland unless she travels with them or calls them elsewhere. Laurana is more prone to travelling around than Avello, who often doesn't wander unless with her or Cadenza.

Both see the human woman as their mother and treat her entire family as their own. They are trained to follow her guidance and drink the water and eat the food she provides them (although Laurana also occasionally hunts in places Cadenza takes her via the Dome.) Avello has been with Cadenza since he hatched from his egg, and is accustomed to her slightly tougher demeanor towards him, knowing underneath it lies affection, care, and trust. Laurana is also quickly learning to trust and rely upon her. Both dragons are curious, young, and do not react with violence towards neutral or kind humans.

[b]Homeplace:[/b] Santa Mariela, [url="http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/2637/gaiamap3.png"]Rubato[/url], South Cordelia, Earth [I](city, country, continent, world)[/I]

[b]Current Residence:[/b] A very large, upscale single-family home with a garage in Santa Mariela, Rubato, with sandy, expansive side and back yards. Thanks to her late boyfriend Johnny's buyout of the surrounding area when the house had belonged to him, the neighboring lots also belong to the property, making up much of the yard.

Cadenza also has a dorm at the Dome, but rarely stays there nowadays. It is described below:
[espoiler=Dome room][I]Room at the Dome[/I]: A dark violet door leads to a room that is hexagonal, and deceptively small. Strange incense placed there by unknown forces burns in each of the six corners, and is rumored to incite hallucinations of one’s worst fears. These visions are said to be seen playing across the six mirror walls. The only person known to be immune to the incense is the room’s occupant, teacher Cadenza Madrigal, who has adapted to the smoke since first moving in. Some believe that she developed the resistance as a result of the Dome considering her to have coped with all of her fears—or at least, those which it feels it would be wise to interfere with. This implies that the Dome placed the incense in the room in order to help Madrigal overcome her fears. Nowadays the smoke more so functions as a security measure to keep intruders out of the teacher’s quarters.

In the main room, aside from the mirrors and incense, there is a wooden bar that one might use for ballet stretches, which runs the length of the wall opposite the door. In the center of the antechamber, there also lies an oval-shaped bed with a curved headboard and footboard, which is generally made up with lavish purple sheets and pillows with silver tassels, and a small cherry wood bureau that is often locked. On the floor, near the foot of the bed, there’s a plush violet pillow on which the dragon Avello slumbers.

In contrast to earlier days, each of the six mirror walls has now been split up, with two mirrors making up each wall instead of just one. Behind every mirror is a hallway that leads either to a newer room of Cadenza’s, or to somewhere else in the Dome. Of the twelve doors, it is known that one leads to a luxuriant full bathroom, one to a kitchenette, one to a guest bedroom, one to a library, one to a training room, and one to a sauna. At least one door leads to the outside of the Dome, but it’s only accessible from inside the gypsy’s quarters, and not from the outside. Another’s ultimate destination is said to shift about, following the nature of the Dome. And the last that anything is known about is said to lead to a place directly adjacent to the door to Florheim, the main connection between the Dome and Madrigal’s Earth.[/espoiler]

[b]Languages:[/b]
[LIST]
[*][i]Gaian[/i] (English, her world's global language) spoken with a mixed Hispanic/Italian/Portuguese accent, tending more towards the first two
[*][i]Rubatoian[/i] (a mix of Spanish, Italian, and Brazilian Portuguese, formed over generations of gypsy and other immigrants settling in Rubato and making up much of the population, and their native languages blending), her native language
[*][i]Gardenian[/i] (Italian), learned from her aunt and the rest of her father's side of the family
[*][i]Castilian[/i] (Spanish), her mother's native language
[*][i]Magellan[/i] (Portuguese)
[*]A few words of [i]Stuttgartian[/i] (German, very broken and with a strong accent), learned from Louis Fritz and from travel
[*]A bit of [i]Zhenghese[/i] (Mandarin Chinese, also very broken and with a strong accent), learned from training and travel in Zhenghe
[*][i]Romani[/i] (can speak it better than she can read or write it)
[/LIST]

[b]Vehicles:[/b] Cadenza drives a dark gray, custom-modified [url= http://2011-lamborghini-today.info/images/2012-lamborghini-reventon-price-2.jpg]Lamborghini Reventón[/url], and a red [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vespa]Vespa scooter[/url]. She also inherited a silver [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawasaki_ZX-6R]Kawasaki Ninja ZX-64[/url] sports motorbike when Johnny Bones passed away, but rarely uses it, finding it has too many memories attached to it for her to bear.

More recently, William Nira gave her a black [url=http://image.motortrend.com/f/government/mercedes-benz-e-guard-armored-e-class-sedan-stops-44-magnum-rounds-costs-58k/17699784+w750/black-34.jpg]Mercedes Benz sedan[/url] as a wedding gift, equipped with many gadgets and weapons, and suped up with custom options, like a red undercarriage, and tinted headlights.

[B]Occupation:[/B] Demon huntress, magical tutor

[B]Weapons:[/B] Cadenza carries a concealed [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M9_pistol"]Beretta M9[/URL] semi-automatic pistol with ammo and a number of knives, but her most notable weapons are listed below.

[LIST]
[*][u]Bow and arrows[/u]: Retired save for the simplest, most ordinary jobs is Cadenza’s old lightweight, purple-colored bow. It’s made of a carbon material half the length of the gypsy’s arm-span and its inner curve is reinforced with steel. The durable bowstring is made from the whiskers of tigers, and the grip with fine, black leather. Compared to her other weapons, the bow’s more so kept around for sentimental purposes than anything else, as it was handmade for her by her very own dad—but nevertheless, the thing’s seen her out of many a tight situation in the past. Steel-tipped arrows with white wooden shafts and purple and black guide-feathers are carried in a silver-rimmed, black leather quiver for whenever the bow might be needed. If Cadenza ever runs out of arrows, she may use the peacock feathers in her hair as a sort of makeshift ammunition.

[*][u]Daggers[/u]: For the quick and dirty jobs, Cadenza has a small, steel dagger that she uses when simple punches are not quite enough—some people need a blade in their gut to take the hint. It’s said that the dagger she favors is a trophy she won off some pirates in Bellavista before she had much in the way of magical strength—and the silver handle, encrusted with priceless rubies and sapphires, seems to prove the weapon came from someone with wealth, whether it be stolen or earned.

When a simple kick doesn’t seem to suffice, the gypsy has two smaller, retractable daggers hidden in the heels of her boots. They flare out when she gives a forceful kick and give her foes a nice, pointy surprise. They also serve her well in climbing and other tasks. They have been painted with a special mixture of a matte black coating by Omar Vargas to avoid being detected by a gleam in light, while still not dulling the cutting edge or piercing tip of the blades.

Other daggers are rumored to be hidden in various places on the shadows of the mage’s body, which she can draw out without much conscious effort through magic and use to attack surreptitiously. This has not, as one can imagine, helped improve her image of being… less than cuddly. These daggers are treated with Vargas’ matte black blend as well.

[*][u]Conquistatore da Luz[/u] [i](Conqueror of the Light)[/i]: A purely black cutlass, made of some substance as hard as adamant, with a basket-shaped crossguard for protecting the wielder’s hand. It glows darkly, like a shine but in reverse, gleaming with a black sort of energy that only those with magical awareness can see. Light doesn’t affect it as one might think—instead, the sword absorbs it, eats it up without being harmed in the least. It can break down barriers and penetrate force fields with considerable ease.

When not in use, the sword melds into the shadows on the gypsy’s dagger sheathe—it helps if you think of those as very deep magical pockets, of a sort. It can only be drawn out of the shadows and wielded by Cadenza herself.

[i]More details, skills, and backstory:[/i]
[espoiler]From the moment the Conquistatore da Luz appeared to Cadenza, moments before her encounter with shadow master Tsuukai Ita in “The Shadows' Favored”, it was clear that this sword was not just another chunk of metal. This weapon had abilities, and an agenda—there was something more that made this blade up. As she’d find later, this sword was a sort of tangible form the gypsy Spirit of Shadow took on, all in order to siphon magic away from Cadenza and reassume control of the shadow element in their world. But, in “Chinatown Rush”, she would prove to have too much power for the Spirit to absorb—a side effect of her exposure to the Dome and its many worlds, from which shadow magic was drawn to her—and with some help, she trounced the Spirit and the sword was left to her as a sign of her victory and her new position as her world’s reigning Spirit of Shadow.

Presently, the sword’s capacity for containing shadow magic seems to be equal to that of the old Spirit of Shadow before Cadenza—put simply, this basically means that it cannot hold all the power that flows into it when Cadenza uses it. The excess magic therefore rides off the blade in waves (see “Blade Wave” under “Other special skills” for more description.)[/espoiler]

[*][u]Gunblade[/u]: The gunblade crafted by the metalsmith Omar Vargas is a marvel; adamant-hard, and dark blue in color, it is, at face value, similar to an arming sword in that it has a straight blade, is double-edged, and can be wielded using just one hand. ([URL="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/sailormichiru/gunblade2.png"]Very rough MS Paint sketch of the gunblade found here[/URL], which should be helpful in understanding the following description.) Trace your hand down from the tip of the blade, however, and you’ll find there is a thin line in the metalwork—merely a sliver—where the blade is divided from cutting edge-to-edge but bonded together by a force stronger than the most powerful magnetic or gravitational attraction. It is when this opens, and tip/the half of the blade further from the hilt swings away as if on a hinge, an action that is controlled by magic or the grip Cadenza takes on the hilt, that the gun-part is revealed within the other half and is brought to bear. The trigger extends from the crossguard to the handle, and the safety catch is on whenever the mouth of the gunblade is shut, or if Cadenza turns it on otherwise. The kind of bullets the gunblade takes are unknown, and are provided by a special supplier in the Dome.

When not in use, the gunblade is kept in a burgundy sheathe carried on Cadenza’s back.

[i]More details and backstory:[/i]
[espoiler]It started off as a sketch in chalk by the eccentric metalsmith Omar Vargas, on a lazy afternoon where he was, as usual, pondering over the feasibility of combining a long-range weapon with the shorter range of a sword. There were a lot of problems in the design—finding a force strong enough to maintain the integrity of the blade while still allowing it to be hollow for the gun’s barrel, finding a material strong enough to do the same, and perhaps the most worrying of all for him… finding someone who could use it effectively and responsibly. There was, he thought, no point in forging a weapon of this caliber just to let it lay forgotten and unused in his “finished” heaps. It’d be boring, for one. And people would talk about the wasted potential too, he figured.

Then his friend, Cadenza Madrigal, happened upon his sketch. She smiled, and made some small, jokingly disparaging comment about how Omar’s mind worked, but Vargas knew his friend well enough to see that she was interested. The next day, two tons of fine adamant, some notes from technological experts of other worlds, and some strange bullets, marked only by a label bearing the seal of the Dome, were all piled up in a giant, packaged heap outside of his workshop on the Sereia docks. He didn’t need to read the note to know who they were from, or why they were there. The man just grinned, and got to work on the gunblade before the red morning sun crested the last sand dune on the Rubato horizon.

Finally, his work came to fruition in "The Chain of Pursuit". He handed the finished weapon over to the gypsy proudly, and even after seeing all of his amazing accomplishments over the years, she felt he had outdone himself this time.[/espoiler][/LIST]

[B]Armor:[/B] Cadenza wears a suit of white mythril full-body armor underneath her clothing (see "Battle Weaknesses" for details on its defensive strength.) There’s a layer of insulation underneath the mythril now that prevents the metal from chafing the skin or conducting any electrical attacks aimed at the woman, but still keeps the lightweight quality to the armor and does not restrict motion.

She wears gauntlet-like cuffs of black leather padding strapped around her forearms, with light mythril between the layers. On her hands, she wears black, fingerless leather gloves with a layer of very light mythril between the leather, sometimes with studded knuckles.

[B]Carried Possessions:[/B] A red iPod nano, her black Motorola Razr smartphone, keys, wallet, make-up, other personal items, and some magical herbs and charms (used for various purposes, often for healing and other workings.)

The peacock feathers and earrings she wears are magical catalysts used in her spells and to strengthen her magic in general. The earrings have some protective properties, mostly helping to guard her against hostile spells, enchantments, and other outside influences that might try to affect her mind, magic, or body.

[list][*][u]The Amulet of Choros[/u]: Once it slumbered deep within the Altari Mountains, but it was found by Cadenza, Kellson, Jhans Frenn, and TDC on a Dome assignment, and until Kellson’s death, belonged to him. His friend Spiny Norman passed it on to the gypsy when Johnny Bones ascended to Heaven.

The amulet was described in the ancient books of the Dome’s main library as, “An amulet that bestows upon its wearer unlimited energy so long as they wear it, destroying the need for sleep or rest.” It’s a source of seemingly limitless stamina; but the wear and tear on the human body as it’s pushed through its energy limits and out the other side make extended, continual use without a break dangerous to one’s health. Pain still takes its toll. Cadenza once wore it frequently to forgo her need to eat or sleep, and to nullify the effects of alcohol on her liver, so that she could be ever-alert, despite the fact that such frequent use could be somewhat self-destructive. She has taken to wearing it less since adopting Kate and marrying Rain Seraph.

As far as looks go, the Amulet of Choros is an icy blue, with a small but nicely cut sapphire set in the middle. It hangs from a finely-wrought golden chain, which, despite its age, still gleams brilliantly in the sun.

[*][u]Totem and Rings[/u]: Crafted in “[url=http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/107801-snow-white-mischief-altamira.html]Snow White Mischief[/url]” as a part of a deal with [url=http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/characters-and-resources/86461-omentus-anima.html]Omentus Anima[/url], these artifacts contain energy from some of the goddess Arienna’s blood (more info on her found in Omen’s profile.) When the numerous rings and the totem (which is worn on a string) are all used together, with a conscious choice on Cadenza’s part to tap into their energies, the gypsy’s magical abilities change to reflect the goddess’ control over nature, animals, and healing.

As such, her healing abilities grow more potent, her shadow senses become instead attuned to nature and manipulating flora and nature in general, and she gains the ability to speak to animals and glean information from her natural surroundings. Cadenza finds the rush of sensory stimulation, information, and change that comes with these effects to be rather overwhelming, especially within the first few moments of use. She is still learning much about using these new abilities and their overall effect on her magic. Her first use of the totem and rings came when she was pursuing a unicorn in “[url=http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/115859-a-birthday-wish-tiroth.html]A Birthday Wish[/url]”.

She cannot use her shadow magic again without first removing the totem and rings and therefore ceasing use of their powers. Without every last ring and the totem all worn together, the powers will also not work. As far as appearance goes, they are crafted of wood, with an antique look to them, and their cores contain amethyst, which is fused to the wood of the rings themselves. Some of Arienna’s blood is visible in the wood, as though a tree had absorbed it through its roots.

A description of her first time purposely using the powers is detailed below, from “A Birthday Wish”:
[espoiler=Using the totem and rings] One by one, she began to tap into the rings on her fingers, feeling their energy link and grow together. A warmth began to surge in her, unfamiliar power, power outside herself, quite unlike the gypsy magic that ran in her veins naturally--and then once she called upon the energy of the totem, the chain was complete, and the goddess' blood powering the artifacts flooded her with its power, from the very tips of her toes to her fingertips, and up through to the top of her head, filling her petite body with the vitality of a long-dead goddess. Ironic, that, but the effect wasn't lessened in the least by the fact that the original source of the powers was long gone. Suddenly, awareness of the whole forest rushed into her senses, and Cadenza staggered back, dizzied and overpowered by it all.

[i]A dewdrop trickles down a wide maple leaf, and then... --bright sunlight cascades down on a thicket of orchids-- a butterfly settles on a golden petal, little feet tasting, a tiny tingling sweetness--the heartbeat of a red fox, beating, small, but steady, the beat of a tracking predator--the scent of wet grass, by a gurgling stream--

F***ing gravity...![/i]

The world hurled upside down and Cadenza fell flat on her back. Ugh...! The canopy of trees and sky swirled in her vision as blood pounded in her ears, and off somewhere, a dryad giggled. Her head ached. She'd caught her foot on a large tree root, and as soon as she'd hit the ground, she was jolted out of her rush of forest sensations as unceremoniously as a car wreck throws an unbelted passenger out of the windshield.[/espoiler][/list]

[B]Powers/Magic/Skills:[/B] Cadenza is an example of an otherwise plain vanilla human with the one strength her world has granted to them--magic, and the ability to attract magical energy from other worlds. This was one of the causes for her power-up after so much time at the Dome--people of her world are attractive to magic. Others, had they not been afraid of the worlds beyond, or had not forgotten of the Dome door in their world, would be strong as well if they left. The gypsy was not aware of this phenomenon when she was first made to go to the Dome by her sister Vivace years ago. The two kinds of magical energies she has amassed the most of are shadow magic and strength/vitality magic, the latter of which accounts for her increased physical abilities. (Physical skills detailed in "Battle Strengths".)

Cadenza can sense things through various qualities and fluctuations and disturbances in shadow, as a tactile or visual sensation to her. She often uses these deductions and sensations to make judgments or estimates on the spur of the moment. Her supernatural sensitivity is great and the shapes of shadows often allow her to see the natures of things even when they try to hide their real forms. The depth and darkness of shadows also are informative. Her willpower and mental and psychological defenses are strong.

[LIST]
[*][I]Dome doors[/I]: As a privilege granted to her as a former Teacher of the Dome, Cadenza is capable of summoning up Dome doors at will, by visualizing the place or person she wishes to find. Destinations she is already familiar with are far easier to summon doors to than new, unfamiliar destinations. With the former, she can call a door with just the will to do so. With the latter, it often helps to imagine many sensory details or other known information about the place or person, such as looks, smells, sounds, etc. By adding a magical touch of her own will, she helps the summoning be more successful than it would be normally.

[*][I]Gypsy charm-crafting[/I]: While not as skilled in the craftsmanship of charms as her mother was or her sister Arietta is, Cadenza is capable of creating protective charms out of various materials, most commonly wood, gold, silver, and jewels, as well as channeling charms, by hand with the use of a few tools. Protective charms can vary in range, particular uses, and strength, and the time each requires to make depends on these attributes. Channeling charms are often simple, and strengthen the effects of other charms or magical spells. Some are only for a single use, and others can be used multiple times, but are more complicated to make. Cadenza practices her skills in this art whenever she can find time, building upon the things she has learned from her mother and others.

[*][I]Curses:[/I] Using a artifact from a person (hair, blood, a personal belonging, etc.), and/or their full and true name, Cadenza is capable of laying various curses on a target. While educated in curses by her mother when she was younger, she has always been one to prefer a direct approach to confronting those she has problems with, and therefore has not studied curses much further than these earlier lessons. As such, most of her curses are nowhere near lethal, and instead do things like cause hair to fall out, or have a target erupt in hives, etc.

[*][I]Spell-writing:[/I] Cadenza can devise new spells through research, study, and the act of putting will into the words upon paper. She often writes her spells on parchment paper, with a special quill pen, and in her native Rubatoian language. A great deal of practice and refinement must follow the creation of a new spell to ensure its success. Both the words and intent are important.

[*][I]Remedies and brews:[/I] Thanks to her mother's lessons, Cadenza can concoct a few simple herbal medicines and teas to aid such ailments as the common cold, a sore throat, a stomachache, sleeplessness, and various minor bodily aches and pains. These often begin with an herbal tea base, and then other ingredients and a touch of magic are added to multiply the effects.

[*][I]Exorcism:[/I] Time spent working with Raisha and Rain has taught Cadenza how to exorcise both ghosts and demons from people and places, using a number of ordinary tools, such as mirrors, and techniques, such as spell circles and binds. Candles, crystals, charms, and other objects are also helpful in these efforts. Cats seem to have a particular effect on many demons.[/LIST]

[U][i]~Spells:[/i][/U] (Long section, click spoiler to view)

[espoiler][I]Enchantment[/I]- Cadenza removes the trio of peacock feathers from her hair and spreads them out like a fan, as she begins an incantation. The sounds of the chant, when filtered through her mystic feathers, appear to be a beautiful melody, lulling foes into a false sense of peace. Once Cadenza finishes, she swings the fan at her opponent with a flourish, putting them under her spell, which paralyzes most enemies for upwards to 5 minutes when successful. Spell takes 1-2 minutes to complete.

[I]Mesmerize[/I]- Mesmerize is a stronger version of Enchantment, and is executed in the same fashion. The spell, however, requires a longer incantation, and drains far more energy. The incantation takes 5-7 minutes to complete and necessitates complete concentration. Most enemies are paralyzed up to 20 minutes when successful. Cadenza is often severely drained after finishing the spell, unless she is in peak condition and has expended very little of her energy beforehand.

[I]Premonition[/I]- Cadenza begins a different incantation, often closing her eyes to concentrate. A purple aura appears around her as the chant draws to a close, shielding her as she views a glimpse of the future. Shield lasts upwards to 2 minutes when successful, length of visions vary. Spell takes 1-2 minutes to complete.

[I]Crescendo[/I]- A shroud of shadow magic engulfs an enemy or enemies, gradually increasing the pressure underneath the shroud at Cadenza’s will, or just naturally if she leaves it to take its course. If trapped underneath for a certain length of time (generally 5-8 minutes for a human) the pressure can reach lethal levels. If not trapped long enough to be killed, the pressure may damage eardrums and other sensitive membranes. Incantation takes 3-5 minutes to complete. Spell lasts until Cadenza is sapped of energy, calls off the spell, or the foe breaks out of the shroud (using extremely intense light or similar means.)

[I]Void[/I]- Discs of shadow magic nullify light (both magic and regular light waves) and can redirect it back elsewhere (at an opponent, or simply a different location.) Effectiveness of spell and the amount of Cadenza’s energy consumed depends on the intensity of the light. Discs are shot from the palm of the hands or the fingertips. No incantation needed.

[i]Staccato Burst Shadow[/i]- Hurls short, intensified bursts of pure shadow magic at an enemy, requiring no chant or preparation time. Blasts may be fired until Cadenza is completely drained of energy. Blasts are fired from the palm of the hand or fingertips.

[list][*][I]Shade Fist[/I]- Developed while training with both magic and martial arts, this technique allows Cadenza to use the pure and potent shadow magic energy of her Staccato Burst Shadow spell to back a punch with raw magical power. She merely needs to summon the magic for Staccato Burst, creating an orb in the palm of her hand, and then focus it to surround her fist--all of this takes less than seconds, occurring automatically without any real conscious effort from Cadenza aside from the will to punch something. The resulting blow is countless times more powerful than her normal punches, but saps a bit more energy than a normal Staccato Burst attack. This same concept can be applied to kicks, and other strikes, at will.

[*][I]Sharpshooter[/I]- This technique allows Cadenza to shoot dart-shaped projectiles of pure shadow magic that can pierce an enemy’s flesh and ravage their insides with magic or damage armor. Similar to her Shade Fist attack, the gypsy first needs to summon the magic for Staccato Burst, but instead she then creates orbs upon her fingertips, focusing to form them into needle-sharp darts--all of this takes less than seconds, occurring automatically without any real conscious effort from Cadenza aside from the will to perform the attack. The spell is stronger than a Staccato Burst, but saps a bit more energy than the normal attack itself.[/list]

[I]Dark Shield[/I]- Around Cadenza forms a domed shield constructed of shadow magic that lasts for as long as Cadenza has energy, or until she willingly calls the spell off on her own. A short incantation taking 1-2 minutes is required to incite the spell.

[list][*][I]Dark Shield Mobile[/I]- Cadenza casts her regular Dark Shield spell, but with a slightly longer incantation that allows her to create a mobile, circular barrier of the same strength as the original spell around her body. Like Dark Shield, this technique lasts for as long as Cadenza has energy, or until she willingly calls the spell off on her own. The incantation takes 2-3 minutes to complete.[/list]

[I]Noir Armor[/I]- As the name suggests, this skill allows Cadenza to form a suit of full-body, ebony-hued armor constructed of pure shadow magic to guard herself. The armor disperses any and all forms of energy used to attack her, scattering the particles harmlessly off its surface, and it can absorb magical energy in order to replenish the gypsy’s own reserves. The armor lasts for upwards to 10 minutes, or until she willingly calls the spell off herself, and requires an incantation of 2-3 minutes to create. It drains significantly more energy than either form of her Dark Shield skill.

[I]Dance of the Shadows[/I]- Cadenza begins this attack by singing the first few measures of a song with magical qualities, which was specially composed for her by Louis Fritz's protégé and musical prodigy, Melody Ferrier. As the last few notes ring out, human-sized figures of pure shadow magic appear on all sides of an enemy, and collide erratically and forcefully into the foe as they dance and careen around. The masses of energy move to keep up with their target, so they can't miss. The attack ends when Cadenza calls it off or is sapped of energy. The spell has sometimes been nicknamed the “Bloody Ballet” by those who have seen it in action.

[I]Revoada das Sombras[/I] (lit: “Flight of a Flock of Shadows”)- Literally called “flight of a flock of shadows”, this spell begins when Cadenza sings the first few measures of a song with magical qualities; but unlike the tune of Dance of the Shadows composed for her by Melody Ferrier, the lyrics are entirely in the old Rubatoian language, and draw upon the gypsy’s own, more potent magical energies rather than a bond with the girl prodigy. As the last few words are sung, pure shadow magic materializes in the form of a flock of beastly dragons, who divebomb at their target in wild, unpredictable patterns and mind-boggling speeds. Like in the Dance, the masses of energy move to keep up with their target, so they can never miss—but unlike the Dance, the dragon-sized figures can attack aerial foes with greater ease, and have a far more intense and destructive concentration of magical power behind their attacks. The spell, which drains more energy than the Dance, concludes when Cadenza calls it off or is sapped of energy.

[I]Silhouette of Stealth[/I]- Learned during training with shadow magic-user contacts in Rubato (after "Her Rebellion"), this spell allows Cadenza to meld into any nearby shadows (or shadow magic), disappearing into them completely without a trace. She can freely move through any space where the shadows or spells themselves are cast--along walls, through windows, etc. for as long as she has energy. No incantation is needed--the spell only necessitates energy and shadows within range.

[list][*][I]Drain[/I]- When Silhouette of Stealth is in effect, the gypsy may use a short incantation to grant herself the ability to drag a foe or foes down into the shadows with her—gradually draining them of their energy and giving it to Cadenza every second they are in the gloomy depths. The incantation takes 15-20 seconds to complete, and the attack lasts until Cadenza calls it off or the opponent manages to break away.

[*][I]Saber[/I]- When Silhouette of Stealth is in effect, Cadenza may create a short sword constructed of shadow magic to attack persons and objects outside of the depths of the shadows she travels in. The blade cuts much like metal, but can be formed or dispelled like magic. The sword disappears when Cadenza calls it off or is sapped of energy.

[*][I]Missile[/I]- When Silhouette of Stealth is in effect, Cadenza may send an attack or other weapon/person/object through the shadows rather than herself. A predetermined destination point can be chosen before the item/attack enters the shadows, or it may be chosen while the item/attack is still in transit. The destination is flexible and can be changed as long as Cadenza can see the travel path of the item/attack.

[*][I]Breakaway[/I]- Gained after overcoming the former gypsy Spirit of Shadow. When Silhouette of Stealth is in effect, Cadenza travel outside of the shadows, appearing as a circular silhouette on the surface where she goes; this allows her to slide through even in direct light. This skill, however, drains more energy, unless shadows are used as a starting-off point.

[*][I]Cast[/I]- Upon becoming the Spirit of Shadow, Cadenza gained the ability to create shadows, or “cast” them, so to speak, wherever she needs them to jump into or to drop something else into. This ability is linked to “Breakaway”, in that it makes it much easier.

[*][I]Shade Touch[/I]- With Silhouette of Stealth in effect, Cadenza may send force through the shadows, instead of sending herself. The skill, as described to King Olmo in "The Chain of Pursuit", works as follows: "a new way to send force—to send kinetic energy—through shadows. Using this, I could just tap the armrest here…' and Cadenza drummed lightly on the crimson padding to illustrate, '..and by touching the shadows there, I could poke out your eye, by sending the force through the shadows on your eyeball. It would be as if had I just jammed my thumb into your eye—only from a comfortable distance here, where I don’t need to avoid any flailing, defensive arms, or gnashing teeth that could bite my arm before I got the chance. All I have to do is see what I want to touch or harm—and use the shadows near me to do so.' "

This skill allows the woman to punch people from a distance (by, for example, punching a shadow in the palm of her hand), redirect bullets, move things even when her hands are restrained, and much more. She’s yet to fully explore all the possibilities of this ability.[/list]

[I]Healing Sonata[/I]- Cadenza starts this spell by singing the first few measures of a song with magical qualities, which was specially composed for her and Louis Fritz by the minstrel’s own protégé, Melody Ferrier. As the melody flows, energy gathers at the gypsy’s feet, and rises in bright rings until it has traversed her whole body, healing any non-lethal injuries, internal or external, as it goes. Melody’s flute can be heard echoing in unison with the song when the spell is cast. This can also be used on other people or creatures.

[list][*][I]Inner Melody[/I]- If ever impaired vocally or otherwise not in a state to sing, Cadenza may merely think the melody of Healing Sonata to herself, holding her hand over a specific wound to heal it with the same effects.[/list]

[I]Gloom Tornado[/I]- By surrounding herself with a veil of pure shadow magic to draw upon, Cadenza can run on pure magical energy, increasing her already impressive speed fivefold and creating twisters of shadow power in her wake. These twisters trail after her, engulfing any foe she passes and damaging them with both forceful shadow magic and fierce winds. The technique requires no incantation, but consumes a considerable amount of magical energy, leaving Cadenza somewhat drained afterwards.

Weaker tornadoes of the same kind may follow after the gypsy when she runs at certain speeds, similar to the waves in “Blade Wave” (see “other skills” for details.)

[I]Razorfeathers[/I]- By enchanting one of the peacock feathers in her hair with magic, Cadenza can toss the feather into the air to incite an attack quicker than the eye. Once the tossed feather dissolves, a downpour of razor-sharp feathers made of dark magic flutter down, unable to be deflected, and then all at once, they abruptly slash in countless different places on their target, cutting deeper than a knife without warning. The attack causes both great blood loss and significant magical damage. As Cadenza only carries three feathers that can serve this purpose, this attack can only be used three times; once for each feather. Mysteriously, the feathers she uses rematerialize after a day.

[I]Shadow Golem[/I]- After an incantation of 6-8 minutes, a great deal of the shadow energy from within Cadenza rises to the surface in a visible form, and manifests itself around the woman’s body in a destructively powerful giant of pure magic. In this form, Cadenza retains her impressive speed, but commands far greater physical and magical power and defense (increased by at least 15-fold, depending on how much magic is used to form the giant) within the golem’s dark, semi-transparent form. Her Void ability, Dark Shield (and related skills), Staccato Burst Shadow (and related skills), and Silhouette of Stealth (and related skills) can all still be used when in this form. The spell lasts for as long as Cadenza has energy, or until she willingly calls it off herself. The energy used will absorb back into her afterwards, but she is still considerably drained after the spell in most cases (just how much depending on how long she maintained the golem form.)

[I]Shadow’s Blessing[/I]- Gained after overcoming the gypsy spirit of shadow. Cadenza may grant one shadow spell of her own (not removing the ability to perform the spell from herself) to any living being for a single day.

[I]Harmony[/I]- After years of being excluded from its circle, this spell has finally been granted to Cadenza, as it has been to her sisters. She simply chants an incantation taking 1-2 minutes, and then, through a bond of gypsy magic, is allowed to call upon a spell from one of her sisters. Unlike when they use the spell, however, the proximity of the other women is irrelevant to the skill’s strength, thanks to the Cadenza’s own intense training. (See sisters’ profiles for list of possible spells.)

[I]Soul’s Flare[/I]- Learning Harmony has opened upon the world of Rubatoian magics to the gypsy, where the spells draw upon not only the user’s own energies, but other sources like emotion, the soul, or bonds with others. Cadenza began learning these skills under the tutelage of various mages countrywide, and this training has come to fruition in the first of the gypsy’s spells in this vein of magic.

By focusing these newly-tapped energies, she’s able to release invisible shockwaves of magical energy whose effect differ depending on her emotions. Anger brings a devastating magical attack that can bypass barriers of any kind; happiness a burst of energy that restores her reserves and heals her wounds; sadness a crippling blow that paralyzes targets until they’re released or can break free from the extremely strong grip of the spell. Other, more complex emotions have yet to be explored, but many are thought to fall under the three broader categories. The attacks can be charged with her own innate shadow element by will.

[list][*][I]Holy Blast[/I]- Through her old bond with Johnny Bones, the holy magic for this attack has been left to Cadenza. She feels as though the energy is radiating from the man’s amulet when she uses it, but even without wearing it, the spell still functions. All it requires is that she draw a quick cross in the air, before whatever her target is, and a blast of whiteish-gold energy emerges from the center, with the cross image still shimmering faintly in leftover magical light.

The blast is typically a short-range attack, since the need to draw a cross makes aiming a little tricky from longer distances.[/list]

[I]Fumo de Crepuscolo[/I] (lit: “Smoke of Dusk”)- After an incantation of 1-2 minutes, this spell will fill the area with dark, thick smoke which emits from all shadows within a certain radius. The smoke will continue to be produced unless Cadenza willingly calls off the spell, or is several miles away from the point where she cast it.

[I]Pendants of the Setting Sun[/I]- Learned while training in Zhenghe, this spell sends a pocket of Cadenza’s innate shadow magic, or if she wills it, multiple pockets, enough to fill the target’s entire body, into the deepest parts of their body, behind the bones, and underneath the flesh. At first, they will only feel a twinge of unexplained pain—the pockets are not seen or perceived otherwise—but as time goes on, the pockets expand, and the pain grows more and more severe. It’s almost like a tumor—because this grows, and expands, the shadows getting deeper and darker. The target’s strength starts to go first—then, their consciousness. Left in long enough, the “pendant” or pendants brings death. Healing magic does not affect them—it cannot even detect them. Holes are slowly bored into the target’s bones and organs.

This spell is slow in nature—and drains Cadenza more and more, depending on how many “pendants” she uses. Because the spell is, as a rule, based on the setting and rising of the sun, its effects will be stronger and quicker at night then during the day.

[I]Phantasmagoria[/I]- Loosely related to “Enchantment” and “Mesmerize”, this spell uses the same type of magical energies to intoxicate its target(s), numbing their senses and reaction time, and causing them to see hallucinations, such as this dancing before their eyes. How long the effects lasts for depends mainly on the person targeted themselves, but it typically lasts for upwards to 20 minutes when successful.

[I]Ritmo Globale[/I] (lit: “Global Rhythm”)- This spell will change Cadenza’s surroundings, depending on how the song that acts as an incantation is sung—if she sings it quickly, her surroundings will speed up in response, making them move faster as she moves through them at normal pace. If she sings it slowly, the surrounding area is also slowed, so that she moves through them as if time has almost stopped, a blur amongst all the sluggishly moving world. Whether the spell can have other effects if sung in other ways, the gypsy has yet to discover.

[I]Song of the Madrigal[/I]- A lyrical song written in Old Rubatoian for Cadenza and her four sisters by their mother Sonya, the song of the Madrigal is a chant that allows one sister in a desperate situation to bind the magic of another sister, or send her own power to that sister, whichever she chooses. Each sister has another that is their contrast, and is the one they have the power to bind; for Vivace with her fire, there is Algretta with water; for Luminari with light, there is Cadenza with shadow. Arietta with wind is their mother's contrast, for earth, and serves as a balance; when she sings the spell, whatever the other sisters may have changed is returned to normal, and powers are restored.

The spell has only been used once so far, by Cadenza, in Let's Start Anew, when she sang it to bind her sister Luminari's powers in order to purge the Spirit of Light from her. Cadenza's lyrics begin as:

[I]"Esta é a canção do Madrigal;
Uma canção cantada por muitos, cantado agora por uma.
Eu sou a cadência; o ritmo;
Esse que mantem a canção unida."

("This is the song of the Madrigal;
A song sung by many, now sung by one.
I am the cadence; the rhythm;
The one that holds the song together.")
[/I]
It is unknown what might have happened had all five sisters ever sung the song together, but with Vivace's death, it will never be learned.[/espoiler]

[U][i]~Other special skills:[/i][/U] (Click spoiler to view)

[espoiler][I]Worldly Exchange[/I]- Gained after overcoming the gypsy spirit of shadow. Cadenza is able to draw shadow magic energy from any nearby shadows when her own natural magical resources are depleted to a certain extent.

[I]Blade Wave[/I]- As of "Between Darkness and Light", whenever Cadenza slashes or moves her cutlass, the Conquistatore da Luz, waves of shadow energy will ride off the cutting edge and crash into anything they touch. This takes no conscious thought on Cadenza's part--it's simply a result of her shadow power flowing into the blade, and being more than the sword can contain within itself. Thusly, to give off the excess energy, it releases these devastating waves. This consumes no more energy than a normal swing of a sword would--it's just the product of a transfer of magic like blood flowing through a body.

Further description of the waves from their first appearance can be found here:
"The room was filled with a series of clanging noises for a long while, like the working chambers of a blacksmith, blades striking blades with sounds just like hammers beating metal into shape. But then, a wobbly, wave-like sound, like thin cardboard being moved like ocean tides from hand to hand (poor children have few things to entertain themselves with, okay?) entered the ears--and I blinked, and Zorlo blinked, and we looked at the Conquistatore da Luz as the weird little noise came again. Shadows seemed to rise off the blade, like steam, and formed this wave, like a shock wave, or an ocean current, that rode off from the edge and ran out in the direction the sword's cutting side was pointed in until it crashed into something. Like thin, wavering, bending walls of energy, they rushed out. Considering the battle from a bird's eye-view, it might have looked as if I were dancing, and these giant ribbons of shadow were flying out from the cutting edge of my blade."

[I]Luisa’s Arrow[/I]- This is a another skill of the Conquistatore da Luz that Cadenza has only just learned of--its power comes from the fact that the former Spirit of Shadow, once a human named Luisa, still has her soul entwined in a way with the blade. Even though her spirit is dormant, she lends the ability to fire magical, arrow-shaped energy blasts to the blade, which can curve and travel through solid objects at Cadenza's will. The blasts are fired from the tip of the curved sword, but so far, the woman has only been able to call upon them in desperate situations.

[I]Dead of Night[/I]- By shrouding herself in shadows, Cadenza can become invisible to the eyes, to technological devices, and to the senses of even those able to trace people through magic, aura, or other energies. This skill makes a cloak, of sorts, appear around her, so that she seems to have just become a black blur, and fades into the background, out of sight and attention. It can last for as long as Cadenza has energy.

[I]Shadow Skip[/I]- A movement skill where Cadenza manipulates the magic within her to accelerate her body and sprint, leap, etc. so quickly that she will appear to vanish and then flicker into existence briefly again as a faint shadow before once again disappearing.

[I]Extrasensory[/I]- With the aid of magic, this skill heightens Cadenza's perceptions, allowing her to sense magical presences and other disturbances and oddities more clearly and accurately.

[I]Steel Crows[/I]- Like the spell Razorfeathers, this attack moves quicker than the eye--but there's no enchantment or prep time necessary. Cadenza needs to simply summon up all the daggers hidden in the shadows on her--which is as easy as deciding to clear out your pockets, and focus to arrange them in a circle, like a flock of crows or vultures hovering before their prey. This takes less than a second of effort, being done by mostly will. Then, without warning, all the daggers will dart towards their target, like diving birds, to pierce into them, often leaving very bloody results.[/espoiler]

[B]Battle Strengths:[/B] Honed specifically to be a weapon starting from the age of sixteen, Cadenza possesses superhuman speed, strength, and stamina, and a wealth of magical power and knowledge. She is agile and flexible, and trained in many forms of martial arts and other combat, skilled at wrestling holds, boxing, improvising, the use of knives, swords, daggers, guns, bows, and other weapons, and has the instincts and tenacity of a true brawler. The magic of strength and vitality from her world, with energy attracted from other worlds, powers her body and pushes it far beyond human capabilities and limits.

She has especially become very knowledgeable about vampires over the years, and highly proficient in combating them, along with other supernatural threats, partially thanks to Rain and Raisha's tutelage. This has earned her a certain reputation in many communities that creates fear in preternatural creatures before she even is seen by their kind in person. She has a strong, instinctual understanding of predators, and understands how to communicate and interact with them to her advantage. Upon encountering a person for the first time, especially one that appears to be a potential foe, she analyzes and ultimately sizes up the amount of threat they may pose to her. She does this so habitually in any new meeting that the mental calculations have almost become second nature.

Cadenza also has acrobatic abilities to put a gymnast to shame, capable of flips, leaps, and dives, and such daring moves as a huracanrana when practical or advantageous. Her greatest natural attribute is her speed, which is helped by her petite size, and nimbleness. But she is no fragile speedster. Her strikes carry power and physicality, real brute force and weight that belies her appearance. She can break through walls and more than knock a strong man down with her blows. She runs fast enough to blur and vanish from human vision.

One of her greatest strengths is her ability to adapt, and devise new strategies in a split second, rolling with the punches until new avenues of opportunity open up. She is shrewd and decisive, not easily led into ruses, but capable of devising her own. She heals fast, and with the aid of magic, can heal otherwise grievous injuries if she has the energy. Her magic supplements her skills, but can also serve as a deadly and overwhelming weapon of its own. She uses her magical spells with precision, cool nerve, and strong will, and sometimes emotion can provide additional energies. Her resistance to mental and psychological-altering magics is strong. She takes a punch expertly and can shrug off many physical strikes. Her tolerance for pain is remarkably high. One man who gained strength from feeling others' pain once said this made her an ideal target for his abilities.

Cadenza has a dangerous and sometimes dark temper that certain threats to her family, other loved ones, or innocents can bring out. (More on her magical skills in the section above.)

[B]Battle Weaknesses:[/B] Without her trademark array of peacock feathers, the gypsy’s left without any back-up ammo should she choose to use her bow, and she’s also out of luck when it comes to casting some of her spells. Attempts to use other items as catalysts for her magic have resulted in explosions and the transforming of people and things into pure shadows—only the feathers seem able to handle the level of energy being used.

Her mythril armor, crafted and refined again and again by Omar Vargas, is able to repel bullets, the brunt of the force--if not all of the force--from most magic, attacks from all earthly metals (steel, bronze, titanium, etc.), and hits from most magical metals as well, but it can eventually be damaged by repeated, powerful blows from some of the strongest magical metals known. Taking Cadenza’s speed into consideration, however, this is often a nigh-impossible feat. The only other shortcoming of the armor is that it does not offer protection to the woman’s head, neck, feet, or hands. Unprotected, she is as vulnerable as any normal human to bullets, fire, poison, etc. unless she gets a chance to shield with magic. She does, however, heal much quicker than normal humans, and can take nonlethal blows far better for this reason, coupled with the benefits of her magically-enhanced strength.

While it doesn’t actually harm her any more than a normal human, Cadenza intensely dislikes cold and humidity and prefers to leave those conditions as soon as she can. Intense, unfettered light, especially of an otherworldly nature, can give her a headache or migraines when exposed to it for long enough. She prefers being in the shade, or natural sun, where shadows can be present, but isn’t necessarily weak to most light magic, as she is no kind of dark or malevolent creature. She tends to act more impulsively and recklessly whenever the safety of children, especially her daughter Kate, is concerned, putting their well-being before her own. She is quick to anger, and sometimes her temper can be played upon, and she can be distracted or pushed too far by it.

[B]Personality:[/B] Cadenza can be a difficult and often complex woman; she adapts well to new situations, but her natural stubbornness and her strong sense of humor and sarcasm are almost always present. She is also a very physical and impatient person, can act curt or cold towards strangers, and prefers to take action rather than sitting and complaining about things that she wants or that cannot be changed. She would define herself as shrewd and resourceful, as well as a realist. Others might consider her more pessimistic.

The gypsy often gives off the impression that she does not care what others think of her, and makes jokes or evades questions at their expense, simply to get a chuckle herself or a reaction out of them. Often there are also other motives at play under this behavior, but sometimes she simply gets some amusement out of being contrary or irritating particular personality types. She never quite grew out of being the wisecracking troublemaker she came to be under her sister's employment in the mafia. She approaches the more authoritative and strict Spirits of her world in the present day in much the same way, where an even greater hint of fear is hidden beneath her outward disrespect toward them. She personally expects to be respected and perhaps even feared. Cadenza will often not say with a word what she could say better with a punch, letting her actions speak louder than her words.

Humor, dance, and music are her best methods of coping with what life has thrown at her. Alcohol is the crutch that used to fill that place. She has now been sober for a year, thanks to her daughter Kate giving her the motivation and reason to quit and take better care of herself.

She is a bit of a thrill-seeker, and loves fast cars, poker, soccer, flamenco and salsa dancing, playing guitar, and making love. She doesn't mind flying, by plane or one of her dragons, but she can't stomach boat rides well and is pretty wary of the sea in general. Trying to get her to eat seafood is nigh-impossible--she's taken to calling shrimp "sea-leeches". But besides seafood, she'll eat almost any kind of food, and even likes many of the less conventionally appetizing things she grew up eating in the desert for sustenance--like camel meat, scorpions, and the pads and fruit of the prickly pear. These foods and other traditional recipes have become comfort foods to her, and remind her of her mother. She also enjoys Italian, Spanish, and Argentine cooking, and most foods with lots of flavor and spice. She doesn't have a big sweet tooth, mostly preferring dark chocolate and fruits instead of other deserts. Cadenza has a tendency to turn competitions into opportunities to make bets.

While fairly intelligent, with a good grounding in languages, music, magic, and geography, she is more gifted with a natural cleverness and skill for observation, especially when concerning people. She's a bit sensitive about the fact that she never got to finish her schooling, but she jokes that it's a better thing to be [I]clever[/I] than smart. She is full of guile and street smarts, not above using lies whenever advantageous, or obscuring the truth with jokes or half-truths. Sometimes she feels she can express herself better in her native language of Rubatoian, and finds her own English a bit clumsy or lacking for what she feels or wishes to say.

She tries her best to recognize her own flaws and does not delude herself about them, often making jokes about them herself. She fears her darker moments and her temper, and their possible impact on her family. Cadenza does not particularly like herself, but tries to be content with how she is at the present time. She believes there’s always a chance to change, and she is sure as heck trying more than ever now that she has her daughter Kate. The young girl is her hope. Recent events with the Spirits and Marcus have made her a bit more wary and paranoid than usual, adding to her already careful and mistrustful nature. She can often be cynical and forms strong first impressions of people, although some do manage to earn the benefit of her doubt. Cadenza often also thinks the worst of her impression on others, but jokes about this. She knows she can be a tough and frustrating woman at times.

When around her family or close friends, Cadenza can be playful and more lighthearted, sometimes even silly. She’ll make more warm-hearted or teasing jokes, shoot off quotes or do impressions, and even sing. She’s not afraid to look foolish or humorous when she’s comfortable, especially if it will win a smile or laugh from a loved one. She is protective, and once a person is a part of the circle of people she cares about, she will not easily abandon them. She instinctively watches over them with tenderness and tries her best to always display consideration for their feelings. The gypsy often considers herself something like their guardian; this especially applies to her daughter Kate and the other children in her family, like her nieces Alex and Fabi. When danger comes, she is the first defense, and will take a bullet or worse for someone she loves. Family as a whole is the most important thing to Cadenza in the world. She regrets never having been able to grow up with a gypsy tribe, the way her mother or ancestors had in the past, before the gypsies came to settle in Rubato.

She has been close to her father Galliard since childhood, and even though she feels somewhat distanced from him and her sisters after her many odd, extraordinary, and hazardous experiences in other worlds, they still maintain that bond of communication, friendship, and trust. Her husband Rain is her closest confidant in recent times, and he often can win a smile from her when no one else but perhaps Kate otherwise could. She loves him for his kind and gentle heart and silly sense of humor. Her friend Louis Fritz is her next closest confidant, and she finds solace and comfort in his wisdom, good humor, and easygoing and understanding manner.

The person she is when she’s around her daughter Kate--a good mother, a gentle and loving woman, a moral, generous, and happy person--is the person she wants to be, but knows she never completely could be. Too much about herself holds her back.

In regards to her magic, Cadenza is often reticent and vague around most people who ask. It’s a topic she feels she must shield much of her family from, and her friends who do not quite understand the world of the supernatural and mystic. However she has strong pride in both her magic and her culture as a gypsy. As a fighter, she is ruthless and pragmatic, a brawler at heart, with techniques honed in many styles of martial arts and other methods of fighting, but instincts sharpened in the streets.

Cadenza has great respect for good parents, who self-sacrifice when needed and raise their children to behave well and grow, imagine freely, learn about their world and other people, have fun, and appreciate other cultures. A struggling parent’s plight resonates deeply with her, as does that of a widow, or abandoned or frightened child. She values education. She wants her children to have all the good things she never had, and to be there for all the times her parents never could for her. She is a hard-worker when motivated, and doesn't mind sewing, cooking, cleaning, and doing other household tasks for the benefit of her family and home. While she has a respect for religions and especially Christianity, she is somewhat jaded about her own moral outlook and future, and the closest thing she has to a faith are the gypsy beliefs, lore, and traditions of her heritage.

Kate can often charm her mother into spoiling her a bit, but when discipline is called for, Cadenza is firm. She knows herself not to be the best role model, and fears her magic and tendency to get into fights might frighten her daughter. She has to watch what she says (especially with swearing or more curt comments) and does (with her tendency to be flippant towards police and some other authority figures) around her daughter, who has become somewhat of a moral conscience for her. As a mother, she can sometimes be a bit of a worrier. All in all, she’s a woman who full well knows she strays towards the bad, and desperately tries to wander back closer to good.

[LIST][*][I]Likes:[/I] Music (more like LOVES music), Madonna, Michael Jackson, Maroon 5, The Offspring, Oasis, Ottmar Liebert, Lady Gaga and a myriad of other artists and groups of a number of different styles, she loves anything she can move to with a good beat, especially flamenco, rock, salsa, and samba music.
Also likes dancing, love-making, comedy, teasing friends, drag-racing, sports cars, playing guitar, singing, writing music, flowers, she dotes on babies and well-behaved children, enjoys fighting and exercising, especially running, gymnastics, soccer, and aerobics, cooking for loved ones, playing with her daughter and spending time with family, watching movies (crime, thriller, action, suspense, some comedies, film noir, especially foreign film noir), history, languages, culture, TV (House and a few others), fiction novels (especially action, mystery, and thrillers), crafting charms, poker, taking photos of her family's moments, being able to be herself without reservation, people who can laugh at themselves, people who can take a punch or a joke, a good laugh, men

[*]Food likes: Dark chocolate, Italian food, tomato sauces, cheeses, spicy flavors, foods with full-flavored seasonings and garlic, flank steak, chicken, Mexican food, Indian food, Brazilian food, Spanish food, Argentine food, salads, flan, vanilla or dolce de leite ice cream, cornbread, traditional gypsy dishes, nopales, eggs, edible cactus fruits, breads, citrus fruits, strawberries, cherries (she can tie their stems with her tongue, thanks to practice), lemonade, citrus juices, coffee (two sugars), teas, cool water, pineapple, whipped cream, guava, grapes, tequila, rum, wine, bread, bagels. After growing up poor, she’s not picky about most food.

[*][I]Dislikes:[/I] Snobs, prim or otherwise stuck-up people, bigots, those who are willfully ignorant, haters of magic, women without respect for themselves, police, Cernilians, vampires and other creatures who prey brutally on humans, necromancy, slow drivers, mornings, long-winded speakers, people who mistreat women, children, or the poor or otherwise unfortunate or defenseless, romantic comedies, minivans and other bulky cars, war and the losses that come with it, dogs, rats, snakes, being used, being tricked, having her family or culture insulted, cold weather, mud

[*]Food dislikes: Most white chocolate, overly sweet foods, fish and other seafood, cheap beer

[*][I]Fears:[/I] Deep water, fierce dogs, losing or failing to protect loved ones, having those that look up to her repeat her mistakes, repeating her mother’s mistakes, being helpless, being trapped, not having control over her own decisions/being at someone else’s mercy or under their forcible authority, losing control of her magic, any harm coming to her daughter, Death coming to claim her in her nightmares

[*][I]Virtues:[/I] She’s a natural mother, and caring and reliable to her loved ones, especially family. A protector and someone who can call out your bluffs and give you the straight, even if harsh, truth. A dependable friend and good listener and sympathizer. Proud of her culture and respectful of other cultures and faiths. Defends children and can't help but look out for a child in trouble. Observant of human behavior and often more understanding than she may seem when given the chance. She's also not afraid to laugh at herself.

[*][I]Vices:[/I] Alcohol, gambling, risk-taking, violence, lying, impatience with most, theft, swearing (mostly when angered), sharp sarcasm, occasional rudeness, and sometimes disrespectful or flippant behavior. Fights dirty and generally employs underhanded, albeit practical, methods to solving problems. She has trouble opening up to people, and often keeps many things from others, with few exceptions. She tends to keep a grudge (unless it's toward a loved one or friend) and sometimes judges others too quickly upon first meeting them.[/LIST]

[B]History:[/B] Much of her backstory is given in [url=http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/character-fiction/43675-bittersweet.html]Bittersweet[/url] and [url=http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/character-fiction/71082-the-chain-of-pursuit.html]The Chain of Pursuit[/url], as well as various other earlier [url=http://aikies.blogspot.com/2010/05/cadenzas-rough-zu-timeline.html]threads[/url], [url=http://aikies.blogspot.com/2009/04/cadenza-madrigal-valentia.html]profiles[/url] ([url=http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/characters-and-resources/41964-cadenza-madrigal.html]the first ever here[/url]), and [url=http://aikies.blogspot.com/search/label/Cadenza]stories.[/url] What follows here is a summary, but is by no means complete in its details or events.

A gypsy born to a large family of five daughters in Rubato, Cadenza has grown up facing the realities of crime, poverty, magic, and family struggles all throughout her life. In those days, her Rubatoian father, Galliard Madrigal, took what jobs he could as a gifted but underfunded inventor and engineer, and her Castilian gypsy mother, Sonya Madrigal-Navarre, worked as a seamstress, midwife, mage, housewife, and occassional fortune-teller. Both of them labored day in and day out to make ends meet for their beloved girls, who studied and helped out around the house. Their father helped them with their schoolwork whenever he could and built them little trinkets with scraps between jobs, and their mother taught them magic, music, and dance, immersing them in her native culture. But many things changed as the girls aged, and conflict came when Cadenza was sixteen, in an ongoing dispute between her eldest sister Vivace, Viv's fiancé Anton Dionne (a criminal in his native country of Cernilia), and the girls' father Galliard Madrigal, which Cadenza would not come to fully understand until over a decade later. But it was this conflict, along with all its many repercussions, that would shape her life for years to come.

After that day, when it all came to a head, she would lose her father to prison for thirteen years, and find herself manipulated into working under her sister Vivace in the crime empire she sought to build in Rubato. In the years that followed, her mother's illness, brought on by her addiction to smoking, would worsen, and her descent into crime went further and further, with no one to prevent or stop it. Her sense of morals became jaded and corrupt, as did her relationship with her eldest sister, and much of her family at home. At the hands of her abusive and controlling sister, her skills would be honed until she was a weapon for the Madrigal-Dionne mafia, and one of Rubato's most wanted criminals. These were dark years, in which Cadenza's only light was her highschool sweetheart, and later fiancé and husband, Paris Valentia. He remained with her throughout her troubles, without knowing the full extent of her burdens after she was forced to quit school. She wished to shield Paris from the harsh realities of her home life. The two were wed when the couple were both twenty-one years of age, and they lived happily for five years, as Paris worked as a soldier in the Rubatoian army and was away for training from time to time.

During their marriage, Cadenza resisted and rebelled against Vivace's control and orders more and more, as Paris' good influence spurred her on. The young couple planned to have a child together, but after an injury in a conflict with the police, the child was lost and Cadenza took to alcohol, as Paris needed to be away more and more to prepare for the growing conflict with the neighboring nation of Cernilia. They did not have a chance to try for another child before, at the age of 26, Paris Valentia was believed to have been killed in battle. Legally, he was declared so. His widow Cadenza would not learn what truly happened until three years later.

Her sister Vivace took advantage of this darker, more vulnerable time in her life, and pushed her to take part in her criminal duties more so than ever. These days were the Madrigal mafia's Reign of Terror, as the newspapers had called it. But Vivace eventually grew weary as Cadenza drew nearer and nearer to learning the true cause for their father's imprisonment--and thus sent her away to a mysterious, otherwordly place known as the "Dome", in order to distance her and yet still make use of her. Cadenza was told to learn more forms of combat there, and to steal from other worlds. Vivace did not count on her discovering more about what had transpired in the past, or regaining the will to defy her command. The gypsy would become first a teaching assistant, and then a full-fledged teacher at the Dome, and would make several new friends and allies, many of which she still is in contact with to this day, such as Prince Hunter Merridale and Louis Fritz. She was also given her trusted dragon, Avello, by her elven teacher Sileya, whom entrusted her with the care of the creature after it hatched from an egg the gypsy protected as part of a required lesson.

At the age of twenty-eight, Cadenza returned from the Dome to Rubato to take her final stand against Vivace, once and for all. In the ensuing struggle, Vivace was shot and killed by a man originally believed to be her own husband, Anton Dionne. But things turned out to be far more complicated than that. She travelled to other countries in her world, and began studying martial arts, magical lore, and other forms of magic more extensively than ever before.

Due to her exposure to greater magical energies at the Dome, and her growing collection of skills and spells, Cadenza would discover that she had disrupted the balance of shadow magic in her world, and furthermore, found herself entangled in a conflict with the Spirit of Shadow there because of it. The Spirit, Luisa Umbra, attempted to absorb the gypsy and her magic in order to restore things, but thanks to some of Cadenza's friends, her efforts were thwarted, and Luisa was overpowered in a struggle for both her and Cadenza's lives. Luisa's soul now rests dormant in the sword she had created as a trap for Cadenza. Meanwhile, the gypsy herself faces scorn and hostility from many of her new "colleagues", the Spirits. Reymundo Alvarez, the Spirit of Light, seeks revenge on her for usurping his wife Luisa's role and causing her to be locked away in the sword. Morticus, the Spirit of Death, simply wishes to do his duty and claim Cadenza's soul, so that she would finally have to fully embrace the job of a Spirit. The gypsy continues to resist both of their efforts and put off death. These experiences have left her more paranoid, and filled with nightmares of Morticus's coming for her in her weakest moments.

Sometime after her twenty-ninth birthday, the gypsy embarked on a mission to find Dionne and extract revenge on him, after having learned that he was involved in framing her father and getting him imprisoned, as well as believing him guilty of the murder of her sister. Even despite her resentment toward Vivace, she felt that in that instance blood was thicker than water, and Dionne had no right to interfere in their disputes. But what she found, however, was a far more thorny discovery. Due to a mishap with Dionne's unique powers during the war, her own husband Paris Valentia had been trapped in the man's appearance, and had lived that way for three years since, searching for a way to revert back to his real self. Cadenza aided him, but turned down his requests to rekindle their relationship. In that time, she had already become involved with a demi-angel man named Johnny Bones, a former student of hers at the Dome who had helped her to recover after the grief of losing Paris years before. She did, however, strike a deal with her country's king, and had her father Galliard freed from prison and the false charges, along with her own crimes pardoned. In exchange, she was expected to keep clean of any future criminal activities and attend sessions with a life coach, a bargain was she has only partly upheld.

Johnny himself had a deal for redemption with Heaven that meant his time on earth was limited. When he eventually had to leave, loneliness settled in with Cadenza again, who was reluctant to return to some of the more casual, detached relationships or flings she had rebounded with before Johnny. The money and possessions gained from his inheritance added to a more modest wealth she had amassed from crime. Not long after, her mother passed away, before she ever came to grips with her guilt and troubles with her. In an alcohol and grief-induced episode afterward, the gypsy quit her job at the Dome. After a night at the bar, she ended up in a situation that led to her choosing to help out some friends in trouble over another night drowning sorrows in drink, and she and her friend Louis Fritz rescued and adopted the needy orphan Kate Aleski from the clutches of a man named Pyralis, who worked for another, known only then as Marcus. In order to adopt Kate and save her from more cruelty, Cadenza and Louis had to enter into a contract with this man, and were later subject to occasional visits from his other employee, a man called Ruin.

Shortly after, the new, still grieving mother took a trip on a cruise ship with a ticket she received from a former colleague at the Dome. There she met her second husband Rain Seraph, a Grim Angel. She lived with Kate, Rain, his adopted daughter Jessi, and their dragons Avello and Laurana at the large house that Cadenza inherited from Johnny Bones, in her hometown of Santa Mariela, Rubato.

Her marriage to Rain was short-lived, however, and fell apart during their honeymoon due to issues of trust. Rain realized he could not come to terms with forgiving his new wife for an unwise kiss she shared with the womanizing vampire Descartes at their wedding, and despite her genuine attempts to change and repent for what happened, they could not resolve their issues. They filed for divorce and Rain left with Jessi, while Kate stayed with Cadenza. Yet there still seemed to be some hope left for an amicable relationship between Cadenza and both Jessi and Rain's sister Raisha in the future.

Some weeks after the divorce process began, Cadenza learned she was pregnant with Rain's child.

****

Cadenza has held numerous jobs in the past, amongst them a killer, saboteur, thief, representative, and all-purpose weapon for the Madrigal mafia as run by her eldest sister, and many others that she held as cover-jobs. Amongst these cover jobs that she held for short stints, some only for as much as a day, have been a dancer (back-up dancer, gogo dancer, exotic dancer, flamenco and salsa dancer, belly dancer), model (runway, lingerie catalogue for Victoria’s Secret, print ads), prize fighter, yoga instructor, fortune teller, fruit merchant, drag racer, guitarist, singer, weapons merchant, politician’s aide, and others.

She has worked as a teacher at the Dome, a magical consultant, a rebel organizer in Medina, a diplomat, and now currently freelances as a demon hunter and exorcist (after getting her start in the business with her ex-husband Rain and his sister Raisha, and occasionally as a combat and magic tutor. Learning to pose as many of these professions has given her a wealth of skills and experiences, and an ability to be a quick-change artist and actor with a great capacity to adapt to any situation, given the chance and sufficient resources.

Currently she is researching the [URL="http://aikies.blogspot.com/2009/07/short-story-gypsy-purge-of-airopa-parte.html"]Gypsy Purge of Airopa[/URL] (circa 1750, over 260 years ago), which was the cause for much of the gypsy immigration in exile to Rubato, as well as methods for restoring her dragon Laurana’s memory, whenever she can find the chance. Some of her research has brought her into greater contact with the Royal Mage of Rubato, Carla della Fonce, a friend of her late mother’s, and a midwife in Agra. Some have mistakenly begun to speculate that Carla is preparing Cadenza as her successor during these research visits. The International Council of Mages, or ICoM, has largely been following a policy of avoidance and non-recognition towards Cadenza, out of both wariness and disapproval of her and her outlaw status with the Spirits of the world.

In Rubato, her reputation still garners her fear, reverence, and loyalty from much of the country, especially outside Blancwood. Santa Mariela is still viewed as Madrigal turf, and rumor has it that Cadenza still employs and controls the remnants of their mafia. She has taken to neither denying nor confirming these rumors, instead enjoying the effects of the ambiguity on the police and the community at large. Many truly are still in service to the family, if not a criminal organization, and continue to do so for friendship, money, protection, or all three. Cadenza’s adoption of two dragons has gotten mixed reactions and feelings from many, and the increased connection and immigration from the Dome have slowly begun to alter the community and its feelings on the supernatural and much more. Rubato is going through changing times.

----------------------------------------

[B]Awards:[/B]
Most Powerful Character - Fall BA 2007
Most Attractive Female Character - Fall BA 2007
Best Battle (Chinatown Rush) - Fall BA 2007 and ZU Winter 2007-2008
Best BA Character - ZU Winter 2007-2008

Character with the Most Angsty Backstory - EH Summer 2008
Most Attractive Female Character - EH Summer 2008
Best Romance (with Johnny Bones) - EH Summer 2008

Best Battle (Knockin' on Heaven's Door) - Fall BA 2009
Best NPC character (Cadenza's family) - Fall BA 2009
Best Romance (with Rain) - Fall BA 2009
Most Mystically Strong Character - Fall BA 2009
The Person Award (Most Developed Character) - Fall BA 2009

Funniest Character - Spring BA 2010
Most Attractive Female Character - Spring BA 2010
Most Mystically Strong Character - Spring BA 2010
The Person Award (Most Developed Character) - Spring BA 2010
Best Quote: "You try to run again and I'm stapling your bloody trousers to a chair. Got that?" by Cadenza Madrigal to Zorlo, in "Can I Really Help Anyone?" - Spring BA 2010
Best RP: "Fashion Police" - Spring BA 2010
Best Romance (with Johnny Bones) - Spring BA 2010

The Stork’s Dilemma Award (Best Character Name) - Character Awards 2011
The Politician Award (Best Liar) - Character Awards 2011
The Pretty Woman Award (Hottest Female) - Character Awards 2011
The Person Award (Most Developed) - Character Awards 2011
The Archemage Award (Most Mystically Strong Character) - Character Awards 2011
The Popularity Award (Best Character) - Character Awards 2011

[B]RP Timeline located here[/B]: [post=4165554]Cadenza's Rough ZU Timeline[/post]

Spirits' Names, nicknames, groups/places of origin

2011-06-04T03:27:00.006-04:00

Gaia - Life -- Forest of Birth
Morticus – Death --- (Mort) -- Forest of Birth
Chrono – Time -- Forest of Birth
Ernesto Vertimiglia – Justice -- before Remula (Rome, Etruscans)
Rene Amare de las Rosas - Love -- Old Maximilia (France)
Marina Aque - Water -- Med. sea
Solomon “Sol” Rubaton - Fire -- Rubato, Altair (Egypt)
Ivana Petrova - Ice --- early Ivanova (Russia)
Tierra Cordelius - Earth -- gypsies
Leo Troy “Ryan Marrone” - Strength --- before Grecia (Greece)
Suena Dormio - Sleep -- Rubato
Zeppo Thoren - Lightning -- Thorland
Zefer Gallego - Wind -- Gardenia
Margarette Umbra – Darkness ---- (Margo, Moonless Night) -- Yavin people
Reymundo “Rey” Alvarez - Light -- Castile, age of colonists
Luisa Umbra-Alvarez – Shadow ---- (Forest Shadow) -- Yavin people
Bella Helena – Beauty - Grecia

ZU-present -- Lessons from Forklore: draft

2011-03-24T01:10:00.004-04:00

The gypsies say the world began with a woman who lived among the trees, and followed the messages of the stars. Her name was the name of the Earth, and she was the first life, sister of the planet. Her hair was the color of the golden leaves in the canopy that mingled with the sky. Her eyes were the green of the grass that cradled her steps upon the earth. Where she went, buds blossomed up from her path, and these buds grew to become flowers, then saplings, and then more trees for her home. This was the Forest of Birth. It was the beginning of nature.

Next there was a man, not long after the woman first appeared on the Earth. His name was something never before heard of, but oft repeated afterward. His hair was the dark of a deep crater that had never seen the light. His eyes seemed to engulf light itself, showing nothing but blackness. Where he went, things grew older and shriveled and fell to the earth. They were ground until they became nothing but dirt themselves, and their nutrients fed the living plants. He loved the woman, and together they lived for a long time, knowing nothing else but their young world. But the man grew old when the woman did not. And then, like the plants, he withered away. But he did not become part of a new life. He was a Spirit. This was the beginning of death.

Before the man had died, he and the woman had given birth to a child. This child aged as his father did, but never died. He could return to his earlier forms if he wished, or change into his more withered ones. There was a progression. He was the creation of time.

Time went on, but these three would always look to the stars for messages from those that created the earth. The gypsies still look to the stars. But much else is different. Completely different. The Forest of Birth is nothing but a folk myth now. And death and time are anything but new. I didn’t know all of these stories when a certain bud was planted in the rubble of a limestone cavern in the second hottest desert of my home country of Rubato, the Ceguera que Quema (“The Blindness that Burns”—do we know how to name things for tourists, or what?) in the 21st century, CE. But I did know that plant was going to be possibly the most important factor in Rubato’s future, and maybe even that of my world. Gaia is the woman of the myth. And when she plants golden buds for you to take care of, you’d damn well better take notice.

Now, you’d think a bud that is a potential fountain of life energy would be self-watering, but this one apparently still needs a little help to get a drink. And until they invent the extension cord long enough for me to set up a sprinkler system out there, somehow this task has fallen to me. There was no ceremony, or fancy title, or bestowing of an ulra-special, super-important watering chalice or something. Just the knowledge that if I cared at all about my homeland’s future… I was gonna see to it that this thing was taken care of. Every single day. I got the sense that it wasn’t just the water this bud needed; human care was a big part of it. And human selflessness. Devotion. Because contained within that single bud was nectar capable of restoring a life, of healing any disease, any injury, of bringing back anyone from the brink of death. It was unspeakably precious, beyond measurable value. And it was right at your fingertips—all you had to do to possess that nectar was simply pluck the bud from the ground, and that was that. But once it was used once, it was gone, and gone for good. You had to use all of the nectar to achieve the effect, and after it was gone, the bud would die. There would be no sapling. No tree. No forest. If you wanted to regenerate the land, you had to wait, and deny temptation, and care for the plant until it grew into the golden forest just like the myth. Then it would become the Forest of Renewal.

I’m a selfish woman by nature. I’m pretty damn sure Gaia leaving this task for me to take or leave on my own choice was a test. Just as raising this bud or plucking it is a test. Just as coming out to the bloody desert every single day, or at least finding someone else trustworthy enough to do so, is a test. A continuous test, almost like a habit, or a ritual, that runs you down and tests your dedication every single time. A wear on your patience. Denial of gratification. Every single day, you go out there, thinking, “isn’t this enough? When is this thing going to grow? Would it really be so bad if I plucked it now? Is it enough time?” and every single time, you find yourself wondering how many more days you can bear making the trek out there, just to water one stupid plant. How don’t birds eat it? Isn’t she testing animals too? Seems wrong that it’s just us humans that are being called out.

Spirits History

2011-01-20T17:04:00.000-05:00

[QUOTE=Sturs](what are these Spirits of which you speak?)[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Me]There's a lot to this answer so I may forget something/leave something out, I hope I can be [I]sorta[/I] concise but get the main idea across. x3 Remember, you asked for this. You poor soul. :P

The story goes that the world Earth (or "Gaia", just for our purposes of remembering it's an alternate one) was created by that universe's gods. Then they left their new creation with a system intact to ensure the balance of magic that filled the world--the Spirits. Namely, the first two beings who would become "Spirits", which are the deceased (more or less) human souls who had possessed enough power or enough of an affinity for a certain type of magic (say for example, fire) in life to be eligible to help control the balance of that type of magic after their passing. (Only three Spirits did not have to "die", those I will mention later.)

The first being created by the gods on this new earth was [B]Gaia[/B], who later on is often known as "the Mother", "the Mother of All", and so on. She, being the first being ever to live on this planet, became the Spirit of Life, and controlled life magic on the earth. All living things have at least a little bit of life magic in them. She made flora and fauna flourish and was to live eternally. She usually appears as an ethereally beautiful, almost elfish woman of indeterminate age, very tall, gentle and motherly, with white-blond hair with slight hints of greens and blues, green robes, and fair skin, and always wears a firefly pendant, her own personal symbol. She loves the creature for the radiance it brings to the world in its short life. She may also appear as an old, wise woman, also with the pendant, or a firefly when wanting to be at her most discreet. She has brilliant, lively green eyes that seem to peer deep into a viewer, but also soothe, creating sometimes a strange sensation--no Spirit (like in Discworld with their gods) can hide the true nature of their eyes.

The real world is one of her realms, as is a paradise-like place where fairies live, her own personal sanctuary when not on the mortal world. The Spirits seldom appear in person to handle mortal affairs, preferring more indirect and impersonal means for the most part. "Good" souls do not go to her paradise, but rather the Realm of Dreams, a joint haven looked out after by the Spirits of Life, Sleep, and Death together.

The second being ever to live, the last one the gods themselves created before they left, was [B]Morticus[/B]. He was Gaia's mate, and together they were parents to Chrono, a son. Morticus was the first being to die, and became the Spirit of Death, the Reaper. While a dark-skinned, somewhat elfish human to begin with, over time he would become more and more like the image of death itself, a skeletal specter. The longer one's soul is a Spirit, the more they become like the personification of their element (which often has some really sad results if others remember what they once were like as humans.) His eyes are coal black, almost lifeless.

Morticus and Gaia often disagreed and quarreled over souls, Gaia hating for her "children", as she thought of them as, to die, and Morticus insisting that it was a natural part of life and that all must go. They work together more peacefully as time goes on, but they always have that fundamental disagreement. His realm is a bleak place, his own personal sanctum. "Bad" souls do not go to his realm, but rather the Netherworld, a hellish, dark place, deathly cold, filled with torturous terrain and seas of bubbling acid and spikes. The gates are guarded by two Spirits at all times, currently Water and Fire (for punishment for their in-fighting and arguing. x3)

Their son, [B]Chrono[/B], as the offspring of Life and Death, becomes the Spirit of Time, and therefore exists outside of it, able to pass between ages as he pleases. He is the Keeper of Hourglasses, the measure of how much time on earth a soul has left, and keeps these hourglasses in his realm outside the passage of time (whee, more Discworld influences!) He most often appears as an ancient, wizened man with a long white beard, hair, and robes, and eyebrows that cover his oft-closed eyes. His eyes are a patient grayish hazel.

After these three, more Spirits were chosen as the need arose. As man as we know him began to hunt, one of these humans, Leo Troy, would become the Spirit of [B]Strength[/B]. The vitality he possessed as a result of his strength magic allowed him to live with nigh-immortality. His whereabouts at present are unknown to even the Spirits, as after a falling out with them, he took off to live among mortals for good, never to return to their realms. (More of this will be revealed on ZU later.) His eyes are a strong, warm brown.

The next prominent Spirit (probably the last I'll mention in detail) was chosen as a young boy, when man was first becoming civilized, long back in early civilizations before this world's closest equivalent to Rome (Remula.) His name was Ernesto Vertimiglia, and he was framed at the age of twelve for his father's murder, and convicted unjustly. The boy was the only one who could see the truth in the crisis. After he was executed, he was found to become the Spirit of [B]Justice[/B], and later grew into a strong, just, wise man who would judge the souls of the departed. In his realm, he reviews the lives of each deceased human, and ultimately makes the choice of whether they go to the Realm of Dreams or the Netherworld. His symbol are the scales of justice. His eyes are a earnest, intelligent hazel-brown.

Other Spirits to follow would also become very important in the world's functioning and history, many becoming the namesake for countries or continents altogether, (like the Spirit of Earth, Tierra Cordelius, who gives her name to the continents of South and North Cordelia, and who is one of the key ancestors of the many of the gypsy tribes), or ending disasters (such as Ivana Petrova, the Spirit of Ice, whose ascension prevented a possible Ice Age when the former Ice was weakened.) It is possible for Spirits to be replaced if they are weakened and wish for rest, but it happens [I]very[/I] rarely.

The gypsies of the world (largely settled now in Rubato but clinging to other traditions of their identity), as well as other magical groups (like the monks of Zhenghe), have created rules for their own communities in following with principles handed down by former Spirits to govern their use of magic. One of these is to not amass more spells than one can reasonably control (often two or three), especially if these spells are offensive skills. Those with more practical, everyday uses (like say a simple, small healing spell) are more leniently looked upon. If a mage from this earth goes outside their world, like via the Dome, they are like a magnet to magic of their kind, very attractive to the energies. A water magic-user, therefore, would attract otherworldly water magic energy to themselves, and possibly become more powerful if they can wield it. Not all magic users are created equal. "Enchanters" are considered to be the more capable and powerful human spellcasters. They are often frowned upon by many, seen as being greedy for power. The strongest mage in any one magic-practicing country (it is more mainstream/common in some countries more than others), is often the Royal Mage/Imperial Mage/National Mage (or whatever title they may give.)

Collecting too much magical power draws away that energy from other places in the world (like how water has been drawn away from Rubato, but there is also another reason to add to that one) and may cause shortages or natural crises, and also can weaken a Spirit's ability to prevent these problems, if one's influence becomes greater and greater (possibly even greater than the Spirit's.) Hence why Cadenza gets in such deep doo-doo when she goes to the Dome and starts attracting shadow power unawares, and gains too many spells during her quest for personal and familial revenge and emancipation during her early plots. The Spirit of Shadow seeks to... neutralize her. x33 Things go bad from there on.

(As mentioned before, Solomon "Sol" Rubaton, namesake for Rubato, and Spirit of Fire had a falling out with his constant bickering partner, Marina Aque, Spirit of Water. Because Marina saw Rubato as Sol's favored lands, she treats the place largely with disfavor. They are not above being petty like that. x3 Which makes the Spirits fun. They can be awfully human and flawed for governing magical beings.)

Piccy: [url=http://superaiko.deviantart.com/art/ZUBA-Spirits-of-Earth-174138592]ZUBA: Spirits of Earth by ~SuperAiko on deviantART[/url][/QUOTE]

Wheeee, infodump!

Quick Exercise: Counseling Session

2010-11-13T01:06:00.000-05:00

“It had been the most selfish choice of my life—and yet if I had to do it all over again, I would choose it just the same. Leaving Rain wasn’t the same as my leaving Paris for Johnny; back then I had finally moved on in a healthy way, a right way, after years of mourning his believed death, long after people thought I already should have stopped grieving and picked back up my life. I wish I could say the love between me and Rain had died too; that we had been on our last legs, that we were breaking up, things were falling to pieces, that we were going to go our separate ways anyway. But we weren’t. I simply had felt I loved Ruin more. And I made the selfish choice—not the choice for us, or for our girls to have their real father, but the choice for my own happiness—I chose the man I felt I knew I’d be happier with. And I was right. But I couldn’t have been crueler to Rain.

“I still see little traits and glimpses of him in the girls everyday, hints others wouldn’t pick up on—hints only I might see, as the one who knew him best in those years. But the girls love Ruin. I’m most vulnerable around him—his five thousand-some years of experience with women bring out some insecurities in me, make me worry how I measure up as a woman and a mother and a wife sometimes. I try to challenge us, make sure we don’t become complacent and take each other for granted. I figure after all that time, he needs something to help keep his head in the relationship and make things fresh.

“And I don’t regret my choice—not in the least. I don’t know what fundamentally bad thing about me must make me feel no doubt in that… what cruel or twisted, selfish trait must make me capable of feeling so right about leaving a man who loved me and I loved to risk a relationship just for a stronger feeling. But I’ve never had the connection I do with Ruin with anyone else—I think I might have been looking for a man like him all along. But no one’s ever been quite like him… I know I love him better than anyone I ever have. And… I don’t know if that exactly answers your questions, Doc, but… it helped me gets some things straight by speaking ‘em. So… thanks.”

Short Story: Future -- A Day at School for Aoko Madrigal

2010-10-17T13:12:00.011-04:00

It was time to go to school!

I ran down the stairs and yelled to Aiko and grabbed my lunch. She’s always busy doin’ her hair, she brushes it like she’s a pony or something! Hehee… So I passed Mamae and she handed me my lunchbox and gave me a kiss. It was hard for her to bend down, ‘cause her belly’s swelled up again! She and Pai are always havin’ babies… she’s like a doggie or somethin’. I thought Eva and Ty-Ty would be the last ones, but then a few months ‘go, Mae and Pai tell us there is another baby on the way! They won’t tell me where they come from yet, but I asked Teacher and she says they live in Mae’s tummy until it’s time to come out. I tried talkin’ to the baby once, but all I heard was Mae’s stomach grumblin’. Then she blushed and hurried me along to play and I think she got a snack. Mae’s always hungry when she’s got a baby in her. Babies must eat a lot!

Pai was gonna drive me to school, and he was already honkin’ the horn, so I grabbed a bread roll for breakfast with some jelly and ran! Waait Pai! He left one time too early and thought he had all of us when it was just Aiko and her dolly! I ran and ran and ran, and my shoelaces danced like snakes around my feet. Mae saw and made me stop to tie my shoes. I hate tyin’ shoes… I wish I could just leave ‘em tied and put them on. Kate does that sometimes, but Mae says that makes them too loose and messes the shoes up fast. Pai doesn’t like buying too many shoes when we got p… perfectly good ones at home. I wonder if that’s why sometimes he buys the shoes without laces. Mae wears a lot of those, with fancy decorations or big heels! Or sandals. But we can’t wear sandals with our uniforms…

Marcus and Nadi and Kate already beat me to the car, so I jumped up and slipped in next to Marcus. He was lookin’ in his lunchbox to see what he got today. Looked like… an apple, and fruit snacks, and a sandwich with the crusts off, and… and animal crackers, same as me! I buckled in like Pai says to and then opened mine to look. He asked me what kinda sandwich I got.

“Um… looks like… like jamon y queso!”

He got peanut butter and jelly and we decided to trade. I like puttin’ the peanut butter on my animal crackers! Looks like they walked through the mud, heehee. I took a big bite of my jelly roll and Aiko came runnin’ up to catch Pai just in time. It was her turn to sit in the front today and she slide right in, wearin’ her new purple butterfly sunglasses.

“Oi Pai!” she smiled and reached to pick the radio station. And then we were off! Another day of school!

We got there on time and Pai kissed us each and sent us off to classes so he could go to his office. Today was my second day of second grade and I was really excited! Our teacher said we were doin’ addin’ and subtractin’ today! Kate says they’re easy, but I think subtractin’ is kinda hard… I do really good in Rubatoian though! And Gaian… although sometimes I mix ‘em up. Me and Aiko went to go say hi to our friends Jessica and Lena at the cubbies and the four of us sat together and talked about the weekend, giggling as Lena told us a story about goin’ to see the monkeys at the zoo. Jessica’s cat had scratched up her mae’s sofa this mornin’ and she said she was still in trouble. Even if they got you in trouble, I’d kinda like a cat… we told them about the new trick Bandit learned! He can go down our slide in the yard!

Then the teacher asked us all to get quiet and be ready to learn, ‘cause class was gonna start. She counted to tres like she always did and clasped her hands together. It works most times. Some of the boys were still noisy, but boys are alwaaays noisy. I looked over at their table and one of the ones not talkin’ smiled at me. I smiled back. His name was Tiago and he was one of the nicest boys in the whole class. Sometimes he’d play tag with us at recess!

We did addin’ and subtractin’ and reviewed how to tell time on the clock like Teacher said, and then we did a little spelling and history too. Soon it was time for lunch! She lined us up like little duckies in a row and she the mommy ducky led us down to go eat. She even looked a little like a ducky ‘cause she waddles, hehee. Lunch was yummy like always. Mamae makes the beeestiest lunches!

Then recess came and we all got to go outside on the playground. Me and Aiko and some of our friends decided we’d play hide-and-seek. Tiago came over with a couple of boys and asked to play too, and Aiko told them if they did, one of them would have to be “it” primero. They did eenie meenie miney mo and picked Tiago. I felt a little bad for him, ‘cause he still has trouble countin’ to twenty sometimes, but he said it was okay. He went to go close his eyes and lean on a tree and we all ran off to hide. Better be quick, eeee!

Me and Lena ran and found a good spot behind the slides, under the biiiiggest one on the whole huge playground. It’s yellow and curves around slow until it lets you out at the bottom near the sandbox. We ducked under and tried not to giggle as Tiago got close to twenty, stumblin’ over some of the teen numbers. Those are hard.

“He’ll never find us!” she whispered, giggling as quiet as she could. I giggled too and nodded.

“Nunca!”

We heard lots of the first people gettin’ found and tryin’ to run for home base. That was when me and Lena decided to split up to make it harder to get caught. She ran over to the red slide and winked when she got there. No way he’d get us both now!

I could hear Tiago comin’ over with his sneakers crunchin’ on the wood chips and sand. “Come out, come out…” he called, pausin’, then walkin’ again. I tried to ‘member how to hide my shadow like Mamae showed me once. It was good for hidin’. I didn’t wanna cheat and hide inside the shadow though. Pai never liked that when we played at home.

He started to get really close and my heart went bump, bump, bump! I was gonna have to run! He came round the corner and right into my spot and stopped when he saw me, his cheeks goin’ all pink for some reason, and his smile came back. His eyes were lookin’ right at me and they were that really pretty hazel all the girls are always sayin’ they are.

“Oh, Aoko!”

“Eeeeee!” I turned on my foot to go and run, but he begged me to stop a second, “huh…?”

“Hold on… um… um… I… I wanted to ask you somethin’…” he looked down and his cheeks got pinker. Did he have a fever? Oh no, he was gonna have to go to the nurse and she would maybe give him a shot!

“Ask me somethin’…?” I blinked.

“S-si… um… um, I… I was wonderin’…” he scuffed his foot on the woodchips and looked back up—what was makin’ him act so funny? “I really like you… a-and… you’re… you’re nice, a… and… I was wonderin’… if you wanted to be my girlfriend? Y… you know… like Susie and Jose… they… they hold hands and sit together and stuff… so… so maybe… unless you like somebody else…”

Huh? Boys were so silly! Of course every girl wanted a boy to carry her books and sit with her and stuff! That’s all half the girls talked ‘bout! If Aiko knew, she’d be really jealous though… “U-um… y… you want to…?” I asked, not sure.

“S-si… yeah… if… if you want to…”

“I… I want to…”

“O-okay…” his smile came back, bigger than before. He reached out and took my hand and his was a little bigger than mine and warm and softer than some of the messier boys. I smiled back at him and he looked really happy. Lena squealed behind us and came runnin’ up, but we barely heard.

“Aoko, Aoko, you have a boyfriend!” she cried.

All the other kids started to crowd around but then the bell rang and it was time to go inside. What a busy recess! Me and Tiago held hands the whole way back and it was really nice. I think I was gonna like havin’ a boyfriend! I wondered what Mae and Pai and Abuelo were gonna say!

We went back inside and the whooole rest of the day Tiago was super nice and got me things and sharpened my crayons for me and pulled out my chair for me to sit. I never been’ treated like that before in my whole life, and I’m seven! I drew him a nice picture in art and he made me a paper flower and we took both home in our backpacks. When it came time to go home we agreed to sit together at lunch and he would play with my friends at recess. What a great day! I couldn’t wait to go home and tell everybody!

Pai came to pick me and Aiko up with Marcus and Kate already with him. We had to go get Nadia first before we went home. I wondered if I should tell him about Tiago yet… but then I thought no, I’d wait until I could tell him and Mae back home! He asked about our days and Kate did most of the talkin’ and Aiko went next, and by the time they finished we already got Nadia and were in Pai’s big car almost home. We pulled up in the garage and I grabbed my backpack and followed Marcus inside. I had addin’ homework to do! I’d tell Mae y Pai after snacktime.

I really like school!

Short Story: A Snippet of Life in Rubato (ZU-canon current)

2010-10-17T12:19:00.006-04:00

Where could they be?

It was a quiet Sunday, and she had checked the bazaar, all the bars, and a few neighbors’ houses down in the sleepier parts of Santa Mariela. The sun was just rising over the last house, gilding the little adobe in a wealth more rich and radiant than any earthly gold could give. Few people were about on the streets yet, but those who were around were bright and cheery, morning people, doing brisk business or greeting friends, bustling about in the mild dawn weather. Soon it would be hot, when the sun was high in the desert sky, and cast its stark shadows and broiling heat on the town, but for now, all was pleasant, and light, and calm. Cadenza Madrigal-Seraph wandered through the streets like a night owl lost at day, belonging to the culture at large and yet at the same time feeling out of place in the peaceful morning scene. Her dark blue mage cloak didn’t help matters, she realized.

“Friiitz! Hey, Merridale, prince, farmer boy, where ARE you…?” she called in to each crowd and store she passed, but all she got in reply were negative answers from friends and neighbors and shopkeepers who hadn’t seen either man that day. The two medieval transplants stuck out like sore thumbs in the country of gypsies and Latinos. The people would’ve remembered if they’d seen them.

“Friiitz! Quit puffin’ on your pipe and get out here!” Cadenza called as she walked by a bar. The place was mostly empty on a Sunday, only a few idlers hanging around drinking and shootin’ the breeze, the same cholos that were always there, the woman thought. They practically lived at the bar.

Her search soon brought her onto a deserted street—a street that she had always thought had a bizarre kind of name, taken after some kind of strange koan or adage. “The Path of the Wise Water Bird Who Walks”—something like that. It was hard to make heads or tails of the thing. It was home to the many small places of worship for various faiths in Santa Mariela, Christian, most of them Catholic, Gaianism, and others alike. Cadenza always felt a little uncomfortable here, but it was not untrue that she herself had sometimes found comfort on this little street of supposed holiness. Her father often dragged her along to the little Catholic chapel here where her mother had been buried in the churchyard.

Well I guess there’s as good a chance as any they coulda wandered over here…

She ducked her head into the first couple of little buildings she passed and found they were empty, being swept out or a service having already ended or not even yet begun. Her father’s own favored chapel was just setting up for a Mass in about an hour. Altar boys arranged candles and hung wreaths from the walls.

Not here…

The gypsy continued on, coming to another little brick-and-clay hovel that served as another modest Catholic church. It was adorned with wooden crosses and someone had taken pains to carve a simple tympanum above the portal door, adorning it with religious scenes and symbols. The woman shrugged to herself, figuring she should peer into this church like the last and give it a chance to bear the men she searched for, and quietly swung the door open to peer down the nave—if you could honor the little main hall of the shack with such a term.

Here, a service was already in session, with a Rubatoian priest and a small gathering of parishioners, all with their heads piously bowed, joined hand-in-hand as the sermon went on. And seated amongst all these tan and Latin faces were two fair-skinned men in feudal era garb—Hunter Merridale, in his knightly armor, and Louis Fritz, in the clothes of a medieval farmer. Louis’ hat was at his side, on the bench, and he sat shoulder-to-shoulder with the prince as if brothers in arms. The two, markedly gringos in that sea of bronzed faces and dark hair, to whom Rubatoian words should’ve fallen on deaf ears, had their heads bowed as all the rest did, and when a hymn began, their voices rose to join the others in song, Louis in his soulful baritone, Hunter in his stately tenor.

“In ev’ry age, O God, you are our refuuge… in ev’ry age, O God, you are our hope…” amidst the accented voices, theirs blended, joined by music to their brothers and sisters of faith, their words carrying the true ring of belief.

Cadenza could hardly believe it—these two, whom she could barely get to come together even when she asked as a friend, these two who had been so separated by class differences and wildly varying opinions on the war back in their homeland—these two had come together, by choice, to go to church and pray together. If the gypsy ever believed in a God, she would’ve taken this as a sign. Had she been one of those in the room with them, her head bowed in belief, she would’ve taken this as a sign of the real power of faith.

“ ‘God help the outcasts’…” she mused, the scene of these two medieval white men amongst the modern, Rubatoian crowd recalling to mind a song from one of Kate’s seemingly simple children’s movies, “us one and all…”

Cadenza's New Profile, first draft

2010-05-20T21:24:00.050-04:00

[B]Name:[/B] Cadenza Vega Madrigal-Seraph

[B]Nickname /Alias:[/B] Called “Denza” by some friends and family, and various others. There is an incomplete list being compiled by the Blancwood Police Department of all the aliases she has used in crime in the past. It may never be complete. Tracey de Carlo also has such a list in the works, slightly more complete, but missing several in use on other worlds.

[B]Occupation:[/B] Numerous held in the past, amongst them a killer, saboteur, thief, representative, and all-purpose weapon for the Madrigal mafia as run by her eldest sister, and many others that she held as cover-jobs. Amongst these cover jobs that she held for short stints, some only for as much as a day, have been a dancer (back-up dancer, gogo dancer, exotic dancer, flamenco and salsa dancer, belly dancer), model (runway, lingerie catalogue for Victoria’s Secret, print ads), prize fighter, yoga instructor, fortune teller, fruit merchant, drag racer, guitarist, singer, weapons merchant, politician’s aide, and others.

She has worked as a teacher at the Dome, a magical consultant, a rebel organizer in Medina, a diplomat, and now currently freelances as a demon hunter and exorcist with her husband Rain and his sister Raisha, and occasionally as a combat and magic tutor. Learning to pose as many of these professions has given her a wealth of skills and experiences, and an ability to be a quick-change artist and actor with a great capacity to adapt to any situation, given the chance and sufficient resources.

[B]Age/Birthdate:[/B] 30 --(just recently turned, her birthdate is given as some time in the late 1970s, in late November, most often said to be the 21st day of the month. It is unsure if she is a Sagittarius or a Scorpio, but most believe the latter.)

[B]Sex:[/B] Female, and markedly so.

[B]Race:[/B] Human, of Hispanic, Italian, Portuguese, and South American origin. Slight hint of Romani, despite her gypsy roots being more akin to the Andalusian gypsies of our world. Possesses magic, believed to spring forth from the soul, and run in her blood.

[B]Height:[/B] 5’5”, petite and well aware of it. Somewhat grudging of it.

[B]Weight:[/B] 122 pounds, in lean, dancer’s muscle and womanly curves

[B]Eye Color:[/B] Deep, dark blue. A mysterious color, they can be sharp, biting cold, or blaze in fierce anger, or go gentle and soft with love or sadness. Her eyes are very expressive of her moods, but can be hard to read when she wants them to be. Humor seems to bring a private life and light to them.

[B]Hair Color/Style:[/B]A true raven black, that tends more towards blue-black than brown-black, and long and lustrous, flowing into loose, soft, natural curls down to her mid-back. A woman’s hair in gypsy culture is a source of pride and a sign of her maturity and fertility as a woman. Cadenza keeps hers long and beautifully healthy and strong for just such a reason.

Often she ties it back partly, in a half-ponytail kind of style, to keep it out of her way while fighting or doing other physical tasks. When worn like this, some of her tresses are put up into a bun, along with gypsy beads, and the rest is left loose in curls that can easily be brushed aside away from her face to flow down her back. She pins her peacock feathers into this bun. She has straight, sideswept bangs that cover part of her forehead, but stay out of her eyes. Cadenza doesn’t fuss over them too much, leaving her hair tastefully taken care of but not overworked or overstyled.

She’s just as often seen wearing her hair all down, or tied into a ponytail, or woven into a braid, whichever style suits her activities and tastes at the time. She has long, lush, full black eyelashes and well-shaped brows with a bit of an arch that can help make her look seductive, sharp, or angry at times.

[b]Skin Color/Complexion:[/b] Tanned olive skin with a warm tone, that tends towards a deep caramel or bronze color. It’s rougher on her worn and battle-scarred hands, but smooth elsewhere, and she has to work to keep the impurities and harsh sunlight of living in a sandy, arid climate from damaging her skin. She takes good care of herself, and while not flawless, possesses a natural beauty that needs little enhancements from make-up.

She has no visible blemishes, but must try to keep her skin moisturized because of the dry environment in which she lives. In order to save time, money, and effort, Cadenza has used the aid of a spell to magically remove all unwanted hair from her body, leaving her legs and other areas as smooth as if she was just waxed and her brows neat and groomed, but not overly.

[B]General Appearance:[/B] The two most apt words to describe Cadenza would be petite and curvaceous—-she is a tanned, toned woman who stands proudly at 5’5” in height, an average or even tall height for her culture, albeit once she’s increasingly finding is more on the short side in other countries and even worlds. She has ample endowments in both her chest and her bottom, possessing an impressive bust that measures somewhere between either a C or D cup in size, generous and buxom for her frame, and a shapely, toned bottom to balance it out. Her voluptuous body is an hourglass shape, with wide, womanly hips, shapely, curved, and strong thighs, a trim, slender waist, and average size shoulders that balance her out and make her proportions appear more natural, if not very curvy. Her legs and thighs have strong, toned muscles, fit to jump, kick, and dance, and her stomach is flat and abdominals capable of taking a punch. Her upper arms are also strong, lean, and toned, able to perform pull-ups or climb a rope with ease. She is flexible and limber and can bend into many poses as needed for dances, fighting, and yoga, as well as crawl, sidle, or climb when needed. At age thirty, she has been described as being “still young enough to be flawless, but old enough to be all woman.”

She has a beautiful, heart-shaped face, with gentle, feminine, and sultry features that reflect her mixed Latina and Italian heritage. Her eyes, dark in color and with a mystique to them, are almond-shaped and somewhat large and expressive, but not wide-eyed, giving her a more mature rather than innocent look. They’re unnervingly good at giving sharp glares. They are framed by a set of dark, full lashes, and are set a little wider apart, giving her an exotic appearance, which is complimented by her high, defined cheekbones, and gently curved, narrow jaw. Her nose is small and delicate, slightly upturned and rounded, with a straight, gently inward-curving bridge and small nostrils. Her lips are full, of a faintly wine-kissed color, and soft, often curved into a small smirk or sarcastic scowl, and they form alluring shapes when forming her musical words. She has a reputation for saying some rude or nasty things that one would not expect from such lips. Her teeth are straight and brilliantly white, and kept clean. She values good hygiene and takes care in instilling the same value in her daughter Kate. She wears make-up when she has the time, often just a light dusting of radiant peach blush, light, natural bronzy eyeshadow to add a hint of glamour, waterproof black mascara, and lipgloss. She prefers to keep the look natural and fresh-faced, with one feature highlighted or bold. For evenings, she’ll go for a smokier eye and a bolder lip color. Her nails and toenails are kept clean and trimmed, and are sometimes painted, most often glossy red.

She has petite feet and hands, both deft and skilled in a wide range of motor skills and tricks. Her hands are proficient with a number of weapons and instincts and muscle memory are honed in various fighting styles. She often wears rings on her fingers, most notable being her ruby engagement ring, with a large ruby set in yellow gold, and surrounded by smaller diamonds on each side. She wears feathered, gypsy charm earrings, although she will occasionally switch for other ones.

The area where you can find the most signs of her rough past are in her hands and forearms. Left scarred as a reminder by her sister, her hands are a patchwork of knotted, dexterous muscle under scarred skin, covered in burns, welts from whips, cuts and slashes and stabs from edged weapons, a series of bite marks, a gunpowder burn and wound, and a particularly curious coin-shaped burn on the palm of her right hand. Her forearms bear similar scars, but less of them. She keeps both her hands and forearms bandaged up until the knuckles at all times, changing the bandages each time after she showers with fresh ones. Often they are also covered by fingerless leather, mythril-reinforced gloves with studded knuckles, and her forearms by gauntlets of the same. She has made attempts to heal many of the wounds, but some are stubborn or too old to go away or heal. Now she accepts them as old reminders to be more careful. There are a few scars elsewhere on her body, but none severe or of much note. Her fingertips have thickened, slightly rough skin, accustomed to years of playing guitar and other musical instruments.

Cadenza dresses practically, but enjoys putting feminine, flirty, and gypsy flair and style into her clothing choices, often favoring dresses and skirts when possible. She detests pink, and tends towards warmer colors, such as reds and golds, or darker bluish hues, like navy or deep purple, for her colors. She is not averse to patterns but can be picky about the ones she wears, most of them being ones that she currently likes in fashion, an animal print, tastefully done flowers, or a more exotic, cultural print.

She loves wearing jeans and feels comfortable in slim-fit, hip-hugging styles that highlight her curves, usually in dark washes. She also favors feminine, soft, and flowy blouses, like peasant blouses, or embroidered tanktops. She’ll wear shorts in warm enough weather, particularly tailored shorts, and when relaxing in Rubato, prefers sandals to any other footwear. She’ll avoid socks whenever possible. Cadenza loves high heels and walks gracefully in stilettos. Most often when traveling, she’ll opt for well-made, reliable leather boots with a slight heel. Underneath her clothing, if expecting trouble, she’ll wear her mythril bodysuit (detailed in the armor section.) She sometimes carries a purse or bag with her to carry her belongings.

She walks with a leisurely, casual pace, always ready to break out into a run or pivot with momentum into a punch without much warning needed. Her strides have a salsa dancer’s grace, flair, and smoothness to them, and her hips sway alluringly with each step. She tends to rest her hands on her hips, or when defensive or angered, cross her arms over her chest. She holds her tension and anger in the palms of her hands, and is prone to making fists, sometimes even until the knuckles are white. When walking she lets them rest naturally at her sides, or shoves them in her pockets when more relaxed, holding an iPod or just at the ready. When fighting, she is almost never still, always pacing or keeping on the move, ready to act.

A smile is rare from her, and even more so a genuine one. But if you do manage one from her, it is good-humored, unabashed, and warm, and often carries a great deal of meaning, affection, or acceptance. She smells subtly of lavender and sweet prickly pear fruit, along with a slightly salty, mild, earthy hint of sand.

[b]Known Family: [/b]
Paris Santiago Valentia – ex-husband (only legally deceased)

Galliard Vinicius Madrigal – father
Sonya Deneb Navarre-Madrigal – mother (deceased)
Clara Madrigal-Souza – paternal aunt, Galliard’s younger sister
Domenico Souza – paternal, younger cousin, Clara’s son
Aline Navarre-Ramirez – maternal, older cousin

Vivace Altair Madrigal-Dionne – eldest sister (deceased)
Anton Lorenzo Dionne – brother-in-law (deceased)
Fabricia “Fabi” Muscida Dionne (Leos) – niece
Alessandra “Alex” Zaniah Dionne (Vossler) - niece

Algretta Gatria Madrigal – second eldest sister
Luminari Maia Madrigal – third eldest sister
Arietta Mira Madrigal – fourth eldest sister

Katherine “Kate” Anne Seraph – adoptive daughter
Rain Seraph – husband
Jessica “Jessi” Seraphim-Black – adoptive daughter
Raisha Seraph - sister-in-law

[b]Homeplace:[/b] Santa Mariela, Rubato, South Cordelia, Earth (city, country, continent, world)

[b]Languages:[/b] Gaian (English, her world's global language) spoken with a mixed Hispanic/Italian/Portuguese accent, Old Rubatoian (a mix of Spanish, Italian, and Brazilian Portuguese), Gardenian (Italian), Castillian (Spanish), Magellan (Portuguese), a touch of Stuttgartian (German, very broken and with a strong accent), a touch of Zhenghese (Mandarin Chinese, also very broken and with a strong accent), Romani (can speak it better than she can read or write it)

[b]Theme Songs:[/b] Kelas (Let's Dance) (Fullmetal Alchemist), Requiem (Fullmetal Alchemist), This Night (Black Lab), Tamacun (Rodrigo y Gabriela), Got Nuffin' (Spoon), Diem (Rodrigo y Gabriela)

[b]Vehicles:[/b] Cadenza drives a dark gray, custom-modified [url=“ http://coolen007.deviantart.com/art/Reventon-of-lamborghini-106677625”]Lamborghini Reventón, and a red [url=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vespa”]Vespa scooter[/url]. She also inherited a silver [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawasaki_ZX-6R"]Kawasaki Ninja ZX-64[/url] sports motorbike when Johnny Bones passed away, but rarely uses it, finding it has too many memories attached to it for her to bear.

More recently, William Nira gave her a black [url="http://image.motortrend.com/f/government/mercedes-benz-e-guard-armored-e-class-sedan-stops-44-magnum-rounds-costs-58k/17699784+w750/black-34.jpg"]Mercedes Benz sedan[/url] as a wedding gift, equipped with many gadgets and weapons, and suped up with custom options, like a red undercarriage, and tinted headlights.

[B]Weapon(s):[/B] Cadenza carries a concealed simple semi-automatic pistol and a number of knives, but her most notable weapons are listed below.
- [u]Bow and arrows[/u]: Retired save for the simplest, most ordinary jobs is Cadenza’s old lightweight, purple-colored bow. It’s made of a carbon material half the length of the gypsy’s arm-span and its inner curve is reinforced with steel. The durable bowstring is made from the whiskers of tigers, and the grip with fine, black leather. Compared to her other weapons, the bow’s more so kept around for sentimental purposes than anything else, as it was handmade for her by her very own dad—but nevertheless, the thing’s seen her out of many a tight situation in the past. Steel-tipped arrows with white wooden shafts and purple and black guide-feathers are carried in a silver-rimmed, black leather quiver for whenever the bow might be needed. If Cadenza ever runs out of arrows, she may use the peacock feathers in her hair as a sort of makeshift ammunition.

-[u]Daggers[/u]: For the quick and dirty jobs, Cadenza has a small, steel dagger that she uses when simple punches are not quite enough—some people need a blade in their gut to take the hint. It’s said that the dagger she favors is a trophy she won off some pirates in Bellavista before she had much in the way of magical strength—and the silver handle, encrusted with priceless rubies and sapphires, seems to prove the weapon came from someone with wealth, whether it be stolen or earned.

When a simple kick doesn’t seem to suffice, the gypsy has two smaller, retractable daggers hidden in the heels of her boots. They flare out when she gives a forceful kick and give her foes a nice, pointy surprise. They also serve her well in climbing and other tasks. They have been painted with a special mixture of a matte black coating by Omar Vargas to avoid being detected by a gleam in light, while still not dulling the cutting edge or piercing tip of the blades.

Other daggers are rumored to be hidden in various places on the shadows of the mage’s body, which she can draw out without much conscious effort through magic and use to attack surreptitiously. This has not, as one can imagine, helped improve her image of being… less than cuddly. These daggers are treated with Vargas’ matte black blend as well.
-[u]Conquistatore da Luz[/u] [i](Conqueror of the Light)[/i]: From the moment the Conquistatore da Luz appeared to Cadenza, moments before her encounter with shadow master Tsuukai Ita in “The Shadows' Favored”, it was clear that this sword was not just another chunk of metal. This weapon had abilities, and an agenda—there was something more that made this blade up. As she’d find later, this sword was a sort of tangible form the gypsy Spirit of Shadow took on, all in order to siphon magic away from Cadenza and reassume control of the shadow element in their world. But, in “Chinatown Rush”, she would prove to have too much power for the Spirit to absorb—a side effect of her exposure to the Dome and its many worlds, from which shadow magic was drawn to her—and with some help, she trounced the Spirit and the sword was left to her as a sign of her victory and her new position as her world’s reigning Spirit of Shadow.

Enough of the spiritual, for a moment—step back for now and examine the sword as it is. It’s a purely black cutlass, made of some substance as hard as adamant, with a basket-shaped crossguard for protecting the wielder’s hand. It glows darkly, like a shine but in reverse, gleaming with a black sort of energy that only those with magical awareness can see. Light doesn’t affect it as one might think—instead, the sword absorbs it, eats it up without being harmed in the least. It can break down barriers and penetrate force fields with considerable ease. Presently, the sword’s capacity for containing shadow magic seems to be equal to that of the old Spirit of Shadow before Cadenza—put simply, this basically means that it cannot hold all the power that flows into it when Cadenza uses it. The excess magic therefore rides off the blade in waves (see “Blade Wave” under “Other skills” for more description.)

When not in use, the sword melds into the shadows on the gypsy’s dagger sheathe—it helps if you think of those as very deep magical pockets, of a sort. It can only be drawn out of the shadows and wielded by Cadenza herself.

-[u]Gunblade[/u]: It started off as a sketch in chalk by the blacksmith Omar Vargas, on a lazy afternoon where he was, as usual, pondering over the feasibility of combining a long-range weapon with the shorter range of a sword. There were a lot of problems in the design—finding a force strong enough to maintain the integrity of the blade while still allowing it to be hollow for the gun’s barrel, finding a material strong enough to do the same, and perhaps the most worrying of all for him…finding someone who could use it effectively and responsibly. There was, he thought, no point in forging a weapon of this caliber just to let it lay forgotten and unused in his “finished” heaps. It’d be boring, for one. And people would talk about the wasted potential too, he figured.

Then his friend, Cadenza Madrigal, happened upon his sketch. She smiled, and made some small, jokingly disparaging comment about how Omar’s mind worked, but Vargas knew his friend well enough to see that she was interested. The next day, two tons of fine adamant, some notes from technological experts of other worlds, and some strange bullets, marked only by a label bearing the seal of the Dome, were all piled up in a giant, packaged heap outside of his workshop on the Sereia docks. He didn’t need to read the note to know who they were from, or why they were there. The man just grinned, and got to work on the gunblade before the red morning sun crested the last sand dune on the Rubato horizon.

Finally, his work came to fruition in "The Chain of Pursuit". He handed the finished weapon over to the gypsy proudly, and even after seeing all of his amazing accomplishments over the years, she felt he had outdone himself this time.

The gunblade is a marvel; adamant-hard, and dark blue in color, it is, at face value, similar to an arming sword in that it has a straight blade, is double-edged, and can be wielded using just one hand. (Very rough MS Paint sketch of the gunblade found here, which should be helpful in understanding the following description.) Trace your hand down from the tip of the blade, however, and you’ll find there is a thin line in the metalwork—merely a sliver—where the blade is divided from cutting edge-to-edge but bonded together by a force stronger than the most powerful magnetic or gravitational attraction. It is when this opens, and tip/the half of the blade further from the hilt swings away as if on a hinge, an action that is controlled by magic or the grip Cadenza takes on the hilt, that the gun-part is revealed within the other half and is brought to bear. The trigger extends from the crossguard to the handle, and the safety catch is on whenever the mouth of the gunblade is shut, or if Cadenza turns it on otherwise. The kind of bullets the gunblade takes are unknown, and are provided by a special supplier in the Dome.

When not in use, the gunblade is kept in a burgundy sheathe carried on Cadenza’s back.

[B]Armor:[/B] She wears a suit of white mythril full-body armor underneath her clothing (see weaknesses for details on its defensive strength.) There’s a layer of insulation underneath the mythril now that prevents the metal from chafing the skin or conducting any electrical attacks aimed at the woman, but still keeps the lightweight quality to the armor and does not restrict motion. Gauntlet-like cuffs of black leather padding are strapped around her forearms, with light mythril between the layers. On her hands, she wears black, fingerless leather gloves with a layer of very light mythril between the leather.

[B]Carried Possessions: [/B] A red iPod nano, her red Motorolla Razr cell phone, Lamborghini car keys, house keys, wallet, a tube of lipgloss, and a few magical herbs and charms. Her peacock feathers and earrings are magical catalysts used in her spells and to strengthen her magic in general.
-The Amulet of Choros: Once it slumbered deep within the Altari Mountains, but it was found by Cadenza, Kellson, Jhans Frenn, and TDC on a Dome assignment, and until Kellson’s death, belonged to him. His friend Spiny Norman passed it on to the gypsy when Johnny Bones ascended to Heaven.

The amulet was described in the ancient books of the Dome’s main library as, “An amulet that bestows upon its wearer unlimited energy so long as they wear it, destroying the need for sleep or rest.” It’s a source of seemingly limitless stamina; but the wear and tear on the human body as it’s pushed through its energy limits and out the other side make extended, continual use without a break dangerous to one’s health. Pain still takes its toll. Cadenza wears it frequently to forgo her need to eat or sleep, and to nullify the effects of alcohol on her liver, so that she can be ever-alert. She’s aware that this much use can be slightly self-destructive…but continues on anyway, knowing that it’s keeping another threat at bay (see bio for details.)

As far as looks go, the Amulet of Choros is an icy blue, with a small but nicely cut sapphire set in the middle. It hangs from a finely-wrought golden chain, which, despite its age, still gleams brilliantly in the sun.

[B]Powers/Magic/Skills:[/B] Cadenza can sense things through various qualities and fluctuations and disturbances in shadow, as a tactile or visual sensation to her. She often uses these deductions and sensations to make judgments or estimates on the spur of the moment. Her sensitivity is great and the shapes of shadows often allow her to see the natures of things even when they try to hide their real forms. The depth and darkness of shadows also are informative.

Cadenza is an example of an otherwise plain vanilla human with the one strength her world has granted to them--magic, and the ability to attract magical energy from other worlds. This was one of the causes for her power-up after so much time at the Dome--people of her world are attractive to magic. Others, had they not been afraid of the worlds beyond, or had not forgotten of the Dome door in their world, would be strong as well if they left. The gypsy was not aware of this phenomenon when she was first made to go to the Dome by her sister Vivace years ago.

~Spells:

Enchantment- Cadenza removes the trio of peacock feathers from her hair and spreads them out like a fan, as she begins an incantation. The sounds of the chant, when filtered through her mystic feathers, appear to be a beautiful melody, lulling foes into a false sense of peace. Once Cadenza finishes, she swings the fan at her opponent with a flourish, putting them under her spell, which paralyzes most enemies for upwards to 5 minutes when successful. Spell takes 1-2 minutes to complete.

Mesmerize- Mesmerize is a stronger version of Enchantment, and is executed in the same fashion. The spell, however, requires a longer incantation, and drains far more energy. The incantation takes 5-7 minutes to complete and necessitates complete concentration. Most enemies are paralyzed up to 20 minutes when successful. Cadenza is often severely drained after finishing the spell, unless she is in peak condition and has expended very little of her energy beforehand.

Premonition- Cadenza begins a different incantation, often closing her eyes to concentrate. A purple aura appears around her as the chant draws to a close, shielding her as she views a glimpse of the future. Shield lasts upwards to 2 minutes when successful, length of visions vary. Spell takes 1-2 minutes to complete.

Crescendo- A shroud of shadow magic engulfs an enemy or enemies, gradually increasing the pressure underneath the shroud at Cadenza’s will, or just naturally if she leaves it to take its course. If trapped underneath for a certain length of time (generally 5-8 minutes for a human) the pressure can reach lethal levels. If not trapped long enough to be killed, the pressure may damage eardrums and other sensitive membranes. Incantation takes 3-5 minutes to complete. Spell lasts until Cadenza is sapped of energy, calls off the spell, or the foe breaks out of the shroud (using extremely intense light or similar means.)

Void- Discs of shadow magic nullify light (both magic and regular light waves) and can redirect it back elsewhere (at an opponent, or simply a different location.) Effectiveness of spell and the amount of Cadenza’s energy consumed depends on the intensity of the light. Discs are shot from the palm of the hands or the fingertips. No incantation needed.

Staccato Burst Shadow- Hurls short, intensified bursts of pure shadow magic at an enemy, requiring no chant or preparation time. Blasts may be fired until Cadenza is completely drained of energy. Blasts are fired from the palm of the hand or fingertips.

*Shade Fist- Developed while training with both magic and martial arts, this technique allows Cadenza to use the pure and potent shadow magic energy of her Staccato Burst Shadow spell to back a punch with raw magical power. She merely needs to summon the magic for Staccato Burst, creating an orb in the palm of her hand, and then focus it to surround her fist--all of this takes less than seconds, occurring automatically without any real conscious effort from Cadenza aside from the will to punch something. The resulting blow is countless times more powerful than her normal punches, but saps a bit more energy than a normal Staccato Burst attack.

This same concept can be applied to kicks, and other strikes, at will.

*Sharpshooter- This technique allows Cadenza to shoot dart-shaped projectiles of pure shadow magic that can pierce an enemy’s flesh and ravage their insides with magic or damage armor. Similar to her Shade Fist attack, the gypsy first needs to summon the magic for Staccato Burst, but instead she then creates orbs upon her fingertips, focusing to form them into needle-sharp darts--all of this takes less than seconds, occurring automatically without any real conscious effort from Cadenza aside from the will to perform the attack. The spell is stronger than a Staccato Burst, but saps a bit more energy than the normal attack itself.

Dark Shield- Around Cadenza forms a domed shield constructed of shadow magic that lasts for as long as Cadenza has energy, or until she willingly calls the spell off on her own. A short incantation taking 1-2 minutes is required to incite the spell.

*Dark Shield Mobile- Cadenza casts her regular Dark Shield spell, but with a slightly longer incantation that allows her to create a mobile, circular barrier of the same strength as the original spell around her body. Like Dark Shield, this technique lasts for as long as Cadenza has energy, or until she willingly calls the spell off on her own. The incantation takes 2-3 minutes to complete.

Noir Armor- As the name suggests, this skill allows Cadenza to form a suit of full-body, ebony-hued armor constructed of pure shadow magic to guard herself. The armor disperses any and all forms of energy used to attack her, scattering the particles harmlessly off its surface, and it can absorb magical energy in order to replenish the gypsy’s own reserves. The armor lasts for upwards to 10 minutes, or until she willingly calls the spell off herself, and requires an incantation of 2-3 minutes to create. It drains significantly more energy than either form of her Dark Shield skill.

Dance of the Shadows- Cadenza begins this attack by singing the first few measures of a song with magical qualities, which was specially composed for her by Louis Fritz's protégé and musical prodigy, Melody Ferrier. As the last few notes ring out, human-sized figures of pure shadow magic appear on all sides of an enemy, and collide erratically and forcefully into the foe as they dance and careen around. The masses of energy move to keep up with their target, so they can't miss. The attack ends when Cadenza calls it off or is sapped of energy. The spell has sometimes been nicknamed the “Bloody Ballet” by those who have seen it in action.

Revoada das Sombras (lit: “Flight of a Flock of Shadows”)- Literally called “flight of a flock of shadows”, this spell begins when Cadenza sings the first few measures of a song with magical qualities; but unlike the tune of Dance of the Shadows composed for her by Melody Ferrier, the lyrics are entirely in the old Rubatoian language, and draw upon the gypsy’s own, more potent magical energies rather than a bond with the girl prodigy. As the last few words are sung, pure shadow magic materializes in the form of a flock of beastly dragons, who divebomb at their target in wild, unpredictable patterns and mind-boggling speeds. Like in the Dance, the masses of energy move to keep up with their target, so they can never miss—but unlike the Dance, the dragon-sized figures can attack aerial foes with greater ease, and have a far more intense and destructive concentration of magical power behind their attacks. The spell, which drains more energy than the Dance, concludes when Cadenza calls it off or is sapped of energy.

Silhouette of Stealth- Learned during training with shadow magic-user contacts in Rubato (after "Her Rebellion"), this spell allows Cadenza to meld into any nearby shadows (or shadow magic), disappearing into them completely without a trace. She can freely move through any space where the shadows or spells themselves are cast--along walls, through windows, etc. for as long as she has energy. No incantation is needed--the spell only necessitates energy and shadows within range.

*Drain- When Silhouette of Stealth is in effect, the gypsy may use a short incantation to grant herself the ability to drag a foe or foes down into the shadows with her—gradually draining them of their energy and giving it to Cadenza every second they are in the gloomy depths. The incantation takes 15-20 seconds to complete, and the attack lasts until Cadenza calls it off or the opponent manages to break away.

*Saber- When Silhouette of Stealth is in effect, Cadenza may create a short sword constructed of shadow magic to attack persons and objects outside of the depths of the shadows she travels in. The blade cuts much like metal, but can be formed or dispelled like magic. The sword disappears when Cadenza calls it off or is sapped of energy.

*Missile- When Silhouette of Stealth is in effect, Cadenza may send an attack or other weapon/person/object through the shadows rather than herself. A predetermined destination point can be chosen before the item/attack enters the shadows, or it may be chosen while the item/attack is still in transit. The destination is flexible and can be changed as long as Cadenza can see the travel path of the item/attack.

*Breakaway- Gained after overcoming the former gypsy Spirit of Shadow. When Silhouette of Stealth is in effect, Cadenza travel outside of the shadows, appearing as a circular silhouette on the surface where she goes; this allows her to slide through even in direct light. This skill, however, drains more energy, unless shadows are used as a starting-off point.

*Cast- Upon becoming the Spirit of Shadow, Cadenza gained the ability to create shadows, or “cast” them, so to speak, wherever she needs them to jump into or to drop something else into. This ability is linked to “Breakaway”, in that it makes it much easier.

*Shade Touch- With Silhouette of Stealth in effect, Cadenza may send force through the shadows, instead of sending herself. The skill, as described to King Olmo in "The Chain of Pursuit", works as follows: "a new way to send force—to send kinetic energy—through shadows. Using this, I could just tap the armrest here…' and Cadenza drummed lightly on the crimson padding to illustrate, '..and by touching the shadows there, I could poke out your eye, by sending the force through the shadows on your eyeball. It would be as if had I just jammed my thumb into your eye—only from a comfortable distance here, where I don’t need to avoid any flailing, defensive arms, or gnashing teeth that could bite my arm before I got the chance. All I have to do is see what I want to touch or harm—and use the shadows near me to do so.'

This skill allows the woman to punch people from a distance (by, for example, punching a shadow in the palm of her hand), redirect bullets, move things even when her hands are restrained, and much more. She’s yet to fully explore all the possibilities of this ability.

Healing Sonata- Cadenza starts this spell by singing the first few measures of a song with magical qualities, which was specially composed for her and Louis Fritz by the minstrel’s own protégé, Melody Ferrier. As the melody flows, energy gathers at the gypsy’s feet, and rises in bright rings until it has traversed her whole body, healing any non-lethal injuries, internal or external, as it goes. Melody’s flute can be heard echoing in unison with the song when the spell is cast.

*Inner Melody- If ever impaired vocally or otherwise not in a state to sing, Cadenza may merely think the melody of Healing Sonata to herself, holding her hand over a specific wound to heal it with the same effects.

Gloom Tornado- By surrounding herself with a veil of pure shadow magic to draw upon, Cadenza can run on pure magical energy, increasing her already impressive speed fivefold and creating twisters of shadow power in her wake. These twisters trail after her, engulfing any foe she passes and damaging them with both forceful shadow magic and fierce winds. The technique requires no incantation, but consumes a considerable amount of magical energy, leaving Cadenza somewhat drained afterwards.

Weaker tornadoes of the same kind may follow after the gypsy when she runs at certain speeds, similar to the waves in “Blade Wave” (see “other skills” for details.)

Razorfeathers- By enchanting one of the peacock feathers in her hair with magic, Cadenza can toss the feather into the air to incite an attack quicker than the eye. Once the tossed feather dissolves, a downpour of razor-sharp feathers made of dark magic flutter down, unable to be deflected, and then all at once, they abruptly slash in countless different places on their target, cutting deeper than a knife without warning. The attack causes both great blood loss and significant magical damage. As Cadenza only carries three feathers that can serve this purpose, this attack can only be used three times; once for each feather. Mysteriously, the feathers she uses rematerialize after a day.

Shadow Golem- After an incantation of 6-8 minutes, a great deal of the shadow energy from within Cadenza rises to the surface in a visible form, and manifests itself around the woman’s body in a destructively powerful giant of pure magic. In this form, Cadenza retains her impressive speed, but commands far greater physical and magical power and defense (increased by at least 15-fold, depending on how much magic is used to form the giant) within the golem’s dark, semi-transparent form. Her Void ability, Dark Shield (and related skills), Staccato Burst Shadow (and related skills), and Silhouette of Stealth (and related skills) can all still be used when in this form. The spell lasts for as long as Cadenza has energy, or until she willingly calls it off herself. The energy used will absorb back into her afterwards, but she is still considerably drained after the spell in most cases (just how much depending on how long she maintained the golem form.)

Shadow’s Blessing- Gained after overcoming the gypsy spirit of shadow. Cadenza may grant one shadow spell of her own (not removing the ability to perform the spell from herself) to any living being for a single day.

Harmony- After years of being excluded from its circle, this spell has finally been granted to Cadenza, as it has been to her sisters. She simply chants an incantation taking 1-2 minutes, and then, through a bond of gypsy magic, is allowed to call upon a spell from one of her sisters. Unlike when they use the spell, however, the proximity of the other women is irrelevant to the skill’s strength, thanks to the Cadenza’s own intense training. (See sisters’ profiles for list of possible spells.)

Soul’s Flare- Learning Harmony has opened upon the world of Rubatoian magics to the gypsy, where the spells draw upon not only the user’s own energies, but other sources like emotion, the soul, or bonds with others. Cadenza began learning these skills under the tutelage of various mages countrywide, and this training has come to fruition in the first of the gypsy’s spells in this vein of magic.

By focusing these newly-tapped energies, she’s able to release invisible shockwaves of magical energy whose effect differ depending on her emotions. Anger brings a devastating magical attack that can bypass barriers of any kind; happiness a burst of energy that restores her reserves and heals her wounds; sadness a crippling blow that paralyzes targets until they’re released or can break free from the extremely strong grip of the spell. Other, more complex emotions have yet to be explored, but many are thought to fall under the three broader categories. The attacks can be charged with her own innate shadow element by will.

*Holy Blast- Through her old bond with Johnny Bones, the holy magic for this attack has been left to Cadenza. She feels as though the energy is radiating from the man’s amulet when she uses it, but even without wearing it, the spell still functions. All it requires is that she draw a quick cross in the air, before whatever her target is, and a blast of whiteish-gold energy emerges from the center, with the cross image still shimmering faintly in leftover magical light.

The blast is typically a short-range attack, since the need to draw a cross makes aiming a little tricky from longer distances.

Fumo de Crepuscolo (lit: “Smoke of Dusk”)- After an incantation of 1-2 minutes, this spell will fill the area with dark, thick smoke which emits from all shadows within a certain radius. The smoke will continue to be produced unless Cadenza willingly calls off the spell, or is several miles away from the point where she cast it.

Pendants of the Setting Sun- Learned while training in Zhenghe, this spell sends a pocket of Cadenza’s innate shadow magic, or if she wills it, multiple pockets, enough to fill the target’s entire body, into the deepest parts of their body, behind the bones, and underneath the flesh. At first, they will only feel a twinge of unexplained pain—the pockets are not seen or perceived otherwise—but as time goes on, the pockets expand, and the pain grows more and more severe. It’s almost like a tumor—because this grows, and expands, the shadows getting deeper and darker. The target’s strength starts to go first—then, their consciousness. Left in long enough, the “pendant” or pendants brings death. Healing magic does not affect them—it cannot even detect them. Holes are slowly bored into the target’s bones and organs.

This spell is slow in nature—and drains Cadenza more and more, depending on how many “pendants” she uses. Because the spell is, as a rule, based on the setting and rising of the sun, its effects will be stronger and quicker at night then during the day.

Phantasmagoria- Loosely related to “Enchantment” and “Mesmerize”, this spell uses the same type of magical energies to intoxicate its target(s), numbing their senses and reaction time, and causing them to see hallucinations, such as this dancing before their eyes. How long the effects lasts for depends mainly on the person targeted themselves, but it typically lasts for upwards to 20 minutes when successful.

Ritmo Globale (lit: “Global Rhythm”)- This spell will change Cadenza’s surroundings, depending on how the song that acts as an incantation is sung—if she sings it quickly, her surroundings will speed up in response, making them move faster as she moves through them at normal pace. If she sings it slowly, the surrounding area is also slowed, so that she moves through them as if time has almost stopped, a blur amongst all the sluggishly moving world. Whether the spell can have other effects if sung in other ways, the gypsy has yet to discover.

Song of the Madrigal- A lyrical song written in Old Rubatoian for Cadenza and her four sisters by their mother Sonya, the song of the Madrigal is a chant that allows one sister in a desperate situation to bind the magic of another sister, or send her own power to that sister, whichever she chooses. Each sister has another that is their contrast, and is the one they have the power to bind; for Vivace with her fire, there is Algretta with water; for Luminari with light, there is Cadenza with shadow. Arietta with wind is their mother's contrast, for earth, and serves as a balance; when she sings the spell, whatever the other sisters may have changed is returned to normal, and powers are restored.

The spell has only been used once so far, by Cadenza, in Let's Start Anew, when she sang it to bind her sister Luminari's powers in order to purge the Spirit of Light from her. Cadenza's lyrics begin as:

"Esta é a canção do Madrigal;
Uma canção cantada por muitos, cantado agora por uma.
Eu sou a cadência; o ritmo;
Esse que mantem a canção unida."

("This is the song of the Madrigal;
A song sung by many, now sung by one.
I am the cadence; the rhythm;
The one that holds the song together.")

It is unknown what might have happened had all five sisters ever sung the song together, but with Vivace's death, it will never be learned.

~Other skills:

Worldly Exchange- Gained after overcoming the gypsy spirit of shadow. Cadenza is able to draw shadow magic energy from any nearby shadows when her own natural magical resources are depleted to a certain extent.

Blade Wave- As of "Between Darkness and Light", whenever Cadenza slashes or moves her cutlass, the Conquistatore da Luz, waves of shadow energy will ride off the cutting edge and crash into anything they touch. This takes no conscious thought on Cadenza's part--it's simply a result of her shadow power flowing into the blade, and being more than the sword can contain within itself. Thusly, to give off the excess energy, it releases these devastating waves. This consumes no more energy than a normal swing of a sword would--it's just the product of a transfer of magic like blood flowing through a body.

Further description of the waves from their first appearance can be found here:
The room was filled with a series of clanging noises for a long while, like the working chambers of a blacksmith, blades striking blades with sounds just like hammers beating metal into shape. But then, a wobbly, wave-like sound, like thin cardboard being moved like ocean tides from hand to hand (poor children have few things to entertain themselves with, okay?) entered the ears--and I blinked, and Zorlo blinked, and we looked at the Conquistatore da Luz as the weird little noise came again. Shadows seemed to rise off the blade, like steam, and formed this wave, like a shock wave, or an ocean current, that rode off from the edge and ran out in the direction the sword's cutting side was pointed in until it crashed into something. Like thin, wavering, bending walls of energy, they rushed out. Considering the battle from a bird's eye-view, it might have looked as if I were dancing, and these giant ribbons of shadow were flying out from the cutting edge of my blade.

Luisa’s Arrow- This is a another skill of the Conquistatore da Luz that Cadenza has only just learned of--its power comes from the fact that the former Spirit of Shadow, once a human named Luisa, still has her soul entwined in a way with the blade. Even though her spirit is dormant, she lends the ability to fire magical, arrow-shaped energy blasts to the blade, which can curve and travel through solid objects at Cadenza's will. The blasts are fired from the tip of the curved sword, but so far, the woman has only been able to call upon them in desperate situations.

Dead of Night- By shrouding herself in shadows, Cadenza can become invisible to the eyes, to technological devices, and to the senses of even those able to trace people through magic, aura, or other energies. This skill makes a cloak, of sorts, appear around her, so that she seems to have just become a black blur, and fades into the background, out of sight and attention. It can last for as long as Cadenza has energy.

Shadow Skip- A movement skill where Cadenza manipulates the magic within her to accelerate her body and sprint, leap, etc. so quickly that she will appear to vanish and then flicker into existence briefly again as a faint shadow before once again disappearing.

Extrasensory- With the aid of magic, this skill heightens Cadenza's perceptions, allowing her to sense magical presences and other disturbances and oddities more clearly and accurately.

Steel Crows- Like the spell Razorfeathers, this attack moves quicker than the eye--but there's no enchantment or prep time necessary. Cadenza needs to simply summon up all the daggers hidden in the shadows on her--which is as easy as deciding to clear out your pockets, and focus to arrange them in a circle, like a flock of crows or vultures hovering before their prey. This takes less than a second of effort, being done by mostly will. Then, without warning, all the daggers will dart towards their target, like diving birds, to pierce into them, often leaving very bloody results.

[B]Battle Strengths:[/B] Cadenza possesses superhuman speed, strength, and stamina, and a wealth of magical power and knowledge. She is agile and flexible, and trained in many forms of martial arts and other combat, skilled at wrestling holds, improvising, the use of knives, swords, daggers, guns, bows, and other weapons, and has the instincts and tenacity of a true brawler to contend with. The magic of strength from her world powers her body and pushes it far beyond human capabilities and limits. She has acrobatic abilities to put a gymnast to shame, capable of flips, leaps, and dives, and such daring moves as a huracanrana when practical or advantageous. Her greatest natural attribute is her speed, which is helped by her petite size, and nimbleness. But she is no fragile speedster. Her strikes carry power and physicality, real brute force and weight that belies her appearance. She can break through walls and more than knock a strong man down with her blows. She runs fast enough to blur and vanish from human vision.

One of her greatest strengths is her ability to adapt, and devise new strategies in a split second, rolling with the punches until new avenues of opportunity open up. She is shrewd and decisive, not easily led into ruses, but capable of devising her own. She heals fast, and with the aid of magic, can heal otherwise grievous or life-threatening injuries if she has the energy. Her magic supplements her skills, but can also serve as a deadly and overwhelming weapon of its own. She uses her magical spells with precision, cool nerve, and strong will. Anger and other feelings only serve to strengthen her resolve.

[B]Battle Weaknesses:[/B] Without her trademark array of peacock feathers, the gypsy’s left without any back-up ammo should she choose to use her bow, and she’s also out of luck when it comes to casting some of her spells. Attempts to use other items as catalysts for her magic have resulted in explosions and the transforming of people and things into pure shadows—only the feathers seem able to handle the level of energy being used.

Her mythril armor, crafted and refined again and again by Omar Vargas, is able to repel bullets, the brunt of the force--if not all of the force--from most magic, attacks from all earthy metals, and hits from most magical metals as well, but it can eventually be damaged by repeated, powerful blows from some of the strongest magical metals known. Taking Cadenza’s speed into consideration, however, this is a nigh-impossible feat. The only other shortcoming of the armor is that it does not offer protection to the woman’s head, neck, feet, or hands.

While it doesn’t actually harm her any more than a normal human, Cadenza intensely dislikes cold and humidity and prefers to leave those conditions as soon as she can. Intense, unfettered light, especially of an otherworldly nature, can give her a headache or migraines when exposed to it for long enough. She prefers being in the shade, or natural sun, where shadows can be present, but isn’t necessarily weak to most light magic, as she is no kind of dark or malevolent creature.

[B]Other:[/B]

[B]Personality:[/B] Cadenza is a dynamic and complex woman, adaptive and sometimes stubborn and difficult, with a strong sense of humor and an even stronger sense of irony and sarcasm. She jokingly seems to believe in karma, sometimes taking it more seriously than others. She is very physical, and impatient, and likes to take action rather than sitting and complaining about things that she wants or that cannot be changed. She is practical, realistic, and some would say very cynical at times. She’s resourceful and often can think in the present and a number of steps ahead. While intelligent, most of her strength lies in natural cleverness and street smarts, and she is a woman who expects to be respected and perhaps even feared. She will often not say with a word what she could say better with a punch, letting her actions speak louder than her words. When she does let words accompany her actions, they’re often sharp or mocking. She’s prone to making jokes, both at the expense of others and herself. She recognizes her own flaws and does not delude herself about them. Cadenza does not particularly like herself, but tries to be content with how she is at the present time. There’s always a chance to change, and she is sure as hell trying, now that she has her daughter Kate. Her daughter is her hope.

When around close friends, Cadenza can be playful and more lighthearted, sometimes even silly. She’ll make jokes, shoot off quotes or do impressions, and even sing. She’s not afraid to look stupid or humorous when she’s comfortable, especially if it will win a smile or laugh from a loved one. She is protective, and once within the circle of people she cares for, she does not easily abandon someone. She will watch over them with tenderness and consideration for their feelings, and considers herself their guardian. This especially applies to her daughter and the other children in her family, like her nieces. When danger comes, she is the first defense, and will take a bullet or worse for someone she loves. The person she is when she’s around her daughter Kate--a good mother, a gentle and loving woman, a moral, generous, and happy person--is the person she wants to be, but knows she never completely could be. Too much about herself holds her back.

In regards to her magic, Cadenza is often reticent and vague around most people who ask. It’s a topic she feels she must shield much of her family from, and her friends who do not quite understand the world of the supernatural and mystic. She is respectful of magic and its powers, and although she has broken the laws of it in her world for the sake of family, she is a careful and well-trained user of it. She takes time to study new spells, charms, and other applications of magic, and is knowledgeable in even the fields in which she does not practice. Her current specialty is the use of magic, in her case shadow magic, in combat. She takes it upon herself to educate her younger family members, such as her nieces, in ways to use it more safely and responsibly than she has in the past.

As a fighter, Cadenza is ruthless and pragmatic, a brawler at heart, with techniques honed in many styles of martial arts and other methods of fighting, but instincts sharpened in the streets. Anything can be a weapon, a broken bottle, your own fist. Throw sand in the eyes, kick someone in the groin, throw a sucker punch. In her own words: “my first thought upon hearing the term ‘unarmed combat’ is the improvised, reckless fighting on the streets of Santa Mariela; and then comes the ‘unarmed combat’ from months of martial arts training in Zhenghe and Tokogawa, where concepts like ‘form’ and ‘discipline’, and ‘breathe this way before you pop that guy in the face’ apply.

Eventually, my unarmed fighting style became sort of a mix, where you can't really tell if I'm just a rumbler on the streets with a lot of technique, or a martial artist who skipped the days where we went over pacing or discipline. Usually, you didn't have enough time to try to distinguish between the two before you were lying on the pavement with a shattered nose.”

As a lover Cadenza can be rough or playful, sultry or coy, and passionate, depending on her mood. She’s often a mix, leaning towards one more than another at times, always finding a very happy medium. She considers kisses very personal. She knows very well how to please and satisfy a man using several different parts of the body, and is very comfortable in her own skin, and with her own curves. Many men lust after her and her figure, but most are met with a cold rebuke or sarcastic joke, and never see her flirty, affectionate, or seductive side.

She has great respect for good parents, who self-sacrifice when needed and raise their children to behave well and grow, imagine freely, learn about their world and other people, have fun, and appreciate other cultures such as her own. A struggling parent’s plight resonates deeply with her, as does that of a widow, or abandoned or frightened child. Cadenza values education. She wants her children to have all the good things she never had, and to be there for all the times her parents never could for her. Kate can often charm her mother into spoiling her a bit, but when discipline is called for, Cadenza is firm. She knows herself not to be the best role model, and fears her magic and tendency to get into fights might frighten her daughter. Her battle with alcoholism has been a struggle she has dealt with for over six years now and still struggles with to this day, making progress bit by little bit. She has to watch what she says and does around her daughter, who has become somewhat of a moral conscience for her. She’s a woman who full well knows she strays towards the bad, and desperately tries to wander back closer to good.

[B]Likes:[/B] Music (more like LOVES music), Madonna, Michael Jackson, Maroon 5, Offspring, Oasis, Ottmar Liebert, Lady Gaga and a myriad of other artists and groups of a number of different styles, she loves anything she can move to with a good beat. Dancing, love-making, comedy (some crude, some satire, some black and just irreverent, improv, some black/grim, and even some sillier things), teasing friends, dragracing, sports cars, playing, singing, and writing music, flowers, she dotes on babies and well-behaved children, enjoys fighting and exercising, especially running, gymnastics, soccer, and aerobics, cooking for loved ones, playing with her daughter and spending time with family, watching movies (crime, thriller, action, suspense, some comedies, film noir, especially foreign film noir), history, languages, culture, TV (House and a few others), fiction novels (especially action, mystery, and thrillers), crafting charms, being able to be herself without reservation, people who can laugh at themselves, people who can take a punch or a joke

Food likes: Dark chocolate, Italian foods, tomato sauces, cheeses, spicy flavors, foods with full-flavored seasonings and garlic, flank steak, chicken, Mexican food, Indian food, Brazilian food, Spanish food, salads, flan, vanilla or dolce de leite ice cream, cornbread, nopales, breads, citrus fruits, strawberries, cherries (she can tie their stems with her tongue, thanks to practice), lemonade, citrus juices, coffee (two sugars), teas, water, pineapple, whipped cream, guava, grapes, tequila, rum, wine, bread, bagels. After growing up poor, she’s not picky about most food.

[B]Dislikes:[/B] Snobs, prim or otherwise stuck-up people, bigots, those who are willfully ignorant, haters of magic, women without respect for themselves, police, Cernilians, vampires and other creatures who prey brutally on humans, necromancy, slow drivers, mornings, long-winded speakers, people who mistreat women, children, or the poor or otherwise unfortunate or defenseless, romantic comedies, minivans and other bulky cars, war and the losses that come with it, dogs, rats, snakes, being used, being tricked, having her family or culture insulted

Food dislikes: Papayas, most white chocolate, overly sweet foods, fish and other seafood, cheap beer

[B]Fears:[/B] Deep water, fierce dogs, losing or failing to protect loved ones, having those that look up to her repeat her mistakes, repeating her mother’s mistakes, being helpless, being trapped, not having control over her own decisions/being at someone else’s mercy or under their forcible authority

[B]Virtues:[/B] She’s a natural mother, and reliable to her loved ones. A protector and someone who can call out your bluffs and give you the straight, even if harsh, truth. A dependable friend and good listener and sympathizer.

[B]Vices:[/B] Alcohol, gambling, risk-taking, violence, lying, impatience with most, theft. Dirty fighting and generally underhanded, albeit practical, methods to solving problems.

[B]History:[/B] To be rewritten soon

----------------------------------------

Awards:
Most Powerful Character - Fall BA 2007
Most Attractive Female Character - Fall BA 2007
Best Battle (Chinatown Rush) - Fall BA 2007 and ZU Winter 2007-2008
Best BA Character - ZU Winter 2007-2008

Character with the Most Angsty Backstory - EH Summer 2008
Most Attractive Female Character - EH Summer 2008
Best Romance (with Johnny Bones) - EH Summer 2008

Best Battle (Knockin' on Heaven's Door) - Fall BA 2009
Best NPC character (Cadenza's family) - Fall BA 2009
Best Romance (with Rain) - Fall BA 2009
Most Mystically Strong Character - Fall BA 2009
The Person Award (Most Developed Character) - Fall BA 2009

Funniest Character - Spring BA 2010
Most Attractive Female Character - Spring BA 2010
Most Mystically Strong Character - Spring BA 2010
The Person Award (Most Developed Character) - Spring BA 2010
Best Quote: "You try to run again and I'm stapling your bloody trousers to a chair. Got that?" by Cadenza Madrigal to Zorlo, in "Can I Really Help Anyone?" - Spring BA 2010
Best RP: "Fashion Police" - Spring BA 2010
Best Romance (with Johnny Bones) - Spring BA 2010

The Stork’s Dilemma Award (Best Character Name) - Character Awards 2011
The Politician Award (Best Liar) - Character Awards 2011
The Pretty Woman Award (Hottest Female) - Character Awards 2011
The Person Award (Most Developed) - Character Awards 2011
The Archemage Award (Most Mystically Strong Character) - Character Awards 2011
The Popularity Award (Best Character) - Character Awards 2011

RP Timeline located here: http://aikies.blogspot.com/2010/05/cadenzas-rough-zu-timeline.html

Cadenza's Rough ZU Timeline

2010-05-05T19:43:00.026-04:00

Cadenza’s Rough Timeline

• Bittersweet (complete) fic, early backstory, her father’s imprisonment, her working in her sister Vivace’s mafia, her marriage to Paris Valentia
• Accidents Shouldn't Happen (dropped) RP, Cadenza meets Hashem
• Dome training with Sileya fits somewhere in here, as does becoming an assistant to Hashem Kiyumars, gaining Avello the dragon
• Field Trip! (complete) RP, Cadenza takes out her first three students, Kellson, Jhans, and TDC on a quest
• Reasons and Motives (complete) RP, Cadenza tries to save her first husband
• A Kindred Spirit (complete) fic, Cadenza meets Hunter
• On the Sandy Streets (dropped) battle, meeting Kashet
• An Unexpected Reunion (complete) battle, Cadenza fights Kellson
• Her Rebellion (complete) RP, Cadenza freeing herself from her sisters’ control

• Cadenza becomes a Dome teacher, meets Louis and Melody
• Grudging Respect (postponed) RP, meeting Cain, hiring him
• The Shadows' Favored (dropped) battle, meeting Tsuukai, learning of her conflict with the Spirit of Shadow, gaining her cutlass
• Chinatown Rush (dropped) battle, Cadenza usurps the Spirit of Shadow inadvertently after their struggle is decided
• IC Homeroom stuff here, Cadenza and Johnny begin dating
• What Fate had in Store (dropped) RP, dropped when Duke died, meeting Selene
• More IC Homeroom stuff here, Johnny and Cadenza becoming more serious
• The Chain of Pursuit (complete) fic, must reeead! Cadenza’s father is freed, deal with the King of Rubato is struck, Tracey meets Cadenza
• Farewells. (complete) RP tribute to Duke and Johnny, Johnny’s funeral

• Winter Comes to the Desert (complete) RP, cameo, Arietta and Zach meet
• Out of the Shadows (in progress) RP, Cadenza meets Arin and Will
• Damned Drunks (dropped) battle, barfight with Kichaa
• Send Me a Friend (complete) RP. Cadenza and Louis meet and adopt Kate, and meet Marcus and Ruin, the contract with Marcus is signed
• A Spell Gone Awry (complete) RP (one of my personal favorites :3) Louis and Cadenza take Kate to see Louis’ home world
• Sun, Surf, and Demons (complete) -- debatable which comes first, this or KoHD, because KoHD took so long that I think we retconned it in later posts so that Rain and Cadenza knew each other and were dating. Cadenza quits the Dome, Cadenza and Rain begin dating
• Knockin' on Heaven's Door (complete) – see above, Z’s and Selene’s wedding
• Vanishings (dropped) battle, Cadenza meets Taen
• Eye for an Eye (complete) RP, Cadenza helping her dragon Avello, with Z’s assistance
• It's Easier to Hate (complete) RP, reuniting with Cain, from Grudging Respect and from the Dome where he was her assistant, after Johnny’s death, he’s unaware of her rebounding with Rain. Cadenza meets Havok
• Settling the Score (complete) battle, meeting her niece Alex
• Let's Start Anew (complete) RP, encounter with the Spirits of Ice and Light

• Ghosts of the Past (dropped) RP, was supposed to be some of Rain’s past
• Who's Your Daddy? (dropped) RP, was supposed to be Cadenza discovering Havok was Kate’s dad
• Meet the Dionnes (incomplete) RP, Alex’s and Anton’s family surfaces, Fabi is found
• A Place in My Heart (incomplete) RP, Rain meets Kate, Cadenza meets Jessi
• The Cleverness of Wizards (complete) RP, Cadenza meets Kichaa’s ghost and Aleksandr Sokoll
• Magic Has Many Faces (complete) battle, Cadenza defends Alex from anti-mage Tatek
• Fashion Police (complete) RP, Rain and Cadenza are engaged, a younger Marcus is met, Cadenza and Louis meet Celia, Ruin’s shack is seen
• Don't Interpret Dreams, Interpret Fists! (complete) battle, Cadenza and Monroe have a street fight

• Can I Really Help Anyone? (complete) RP, Cadenza consoling Selene after Z’s return
• Fire Island (complete) RP, Kichaa returns, Cadenza and Selene meet him as Michael
• Heart to Heart (complete) RP, Cadenza consoling Zorlo and giving him advice on his marriage
• Snow White Mischief (in progress) RP, Cadenza meets Omen and he slips her the blood of a nature goddess
• Blackbird (dropped) battle, Louis and Zach meet again, Cadenza announces her engagement to her family
• Bloody Italians (complete) RP, Cadenza meets and befriends Leona
• Le Ardeur: The Tale of Eliza Dupree (in progress) RP, Cadenza meets Descartes and saves Eliza
• Don't Talk to Strangers (in progress) RP, Cadenza and Kate meet Adrien and Brax
• Mobius (complete) RP, Cadenza helps Michael and meets Kira and friends
• You Smell (complete) battle, Cadenza and Michael spar, meet Gideon
• A Scaly Situation (complete) RP, Cadenza and Avello meet Laurana the dragon, and Cadenza adopts her
• Make a Change (complete) battle, Cadenza and Zorlo sparring match

• Mommy's Little Girl (complete) RP, Cadenza and Kate
• Daughter Dearest (in progress) RP, Havok and Cadenza
• Don't Talk to Strangers (in progress) RP, Cadenza and Kate meet Adrien and Brax
• Gypsy Mischief (in progress) RP, Cadenza meeting/remeeting Kestrel
• Truth Only Smiles in the Dark (dropped) RP, Sokoll and Khaz/Takai--due to Honor's departure, it had to be agreed upon and concluded that Sokoll was punished and executed for his crimes by Takai and Cadenza, even though we could not finish showing it
• Learning Curves (in progress) RP, Cadenza revisits and helps Roery with her new problem
• One Last Hurrah! (complete) RP, Cadenza’s bachelorette party, more info about Marcus discovered

• Man and Wife (in progress) RP, Cadenza's and Rain's wedding, Light's attack on Cadenza
• Twilight Tea IC Thread (dropped out), Cadenza meets Aurora, Leonna, and Kyralie, as well as a few others
• Friendship (complete) RP, Cadenza and Nikudemon
• Disney Devils (in progress) RP, Raisha and Cadenza work together to investigate a haunted shopping mall
• Labor Pains (complete) RP, Selene gives birth to twins
• A Birthday Wish (in progress) RP, Cadenza tries to catch the unicorn Ilyena for Kate's birthday
• Is This A Dream Or Reality? (in progress) RP, Marcus messes with Cadenza's mind

Character Directory

2010-02-16T12:52:00.013-05:00

Cadenza Madrigal-Seraph
Madrigal sisters and Avello
Cadenza's new profile, in progress

Prince Hunter Merridale

Ancia

Louis Fritz

Inspector Tracey de Carlo

Damien

Flipside Characters

ZUBA: A New Acquaintance (short story draft, script)

2010-02-15T16:04:00.010-05:00

I: *appears out of the pot of soup, a dark-blue haired, little, scruffy, horned man with a stubbly chin, pointed ears, keen black eyes, and shabby brown and gray clothes, a pair of small, clear wings on his back and his feet bare* Hm... this is a strange bath you're making for your ferret... *tastes it* ...Pretty easy on the taste buds, though...

C: Aaagh! *drops the spoon in her surprise, stumbling back from the stove as it clatters to the ground and sends droplets of broth everywhere* W...what the hell!? WHO or WHAT are you? And...and how do you know about Bandit!? *stares accusingly*

I: Oh! *quits his sampling of the soup after a bite of carrot* Hey there! I've been waiting for you to boil some water for a spell, but you don't do that much, do ya? ^^

C: ...w...well, no, I guess not... but that didn't answer my question... *steps closer warily, recovering from her initial shock, now more on her usual guard* Get to explaining. What are you... and why are you so bloody short?

I: I'mmmm your fairy godmother! *jazz hands*

C: ...what? *raises an eyebrow, slightly sneering, hand resting on her hip* ...You've got to be f*cking kidding me... I'm no Cinderella.

I: *chuckles* Just kiddin'! Yooou, Missus, can think of me as a sorta... guardian... *floats up and pinches her cheek* heree to heelp yooou...

C: *swats at his hand* Sod off!

I: Ohohoo, I haven't heard that one since I was in England! ^^ Such a dirty mouth on ya... we're gonna get along just dandy.

C: Yeah, well... wait, what? You said England. Not Rochester. You're not from here...?

I: Ohh nooo, of course not! ^^ *giggles* I'm from waaaay... far away. *pulls out some kind of homemade-looking roll-up and lights it*

C: Hey hey, don't smoke in here! I've got kids! And you're on the STOVE! That shit can't be safe... *bats at him*

I: Eee...! *floats out of the soup and flutters over out of reach* Stop that, stop that! It's not really affecting anything here anyway! I'm not real like that!

C: ...hold on, you're... not...? *pauses in her shooing and swatting* So what, you're like a fairy...? Or only I can see you or something? Because my husband already thinks I'm crazy enough as it is.

I: Oh, don't worry about thaat, I'm not imaginary... or a fairy, thank you very much. Vain little buggers. No, I'm more like... an Imp. And children and anyone who is magically sensitive enough will be able to see me. So that means you and your kids, and... I'm not sure about your hubby. It's possible. *puffs on his little cigar, purple smoke curling*

C: Huh. So you're... some kind of guardian. But you're not from my world. So that means... you've got to be from somewhere else I've been that has magic. But that's a pretty open-ended question... almost better to ask where HAVEN'T I been with magic? Not exactly like I know where does and doesn't for sure...

I: Oooh... a riddle. ^^ Sounds fun.

C: ...You're not going to tell me, are you?

I: I like you. You answer your own questions. ^^ Most humans I've met are dumb.

C: ...I'm not sure if that was sarcastic or not but I'm going to pretend for my sake that it wasn't. Thanks. So uh... what do I call you?

I: Oh, you get to choose! My charge chooses the one name I am to be known by during my entire stay with them. Anything you want. My reeeal name is Imp, but those who prefer more "human" sounding names have gone with, oh say, Ignacio, or Ivan or... *cringes* ...Iggy, for short.

C: *smirks a little* I see... and which of these do you prefer, again?

I: Oh Imp, easily! ^^

C: Iggy it is, then.

I: Oh tha--heeeey! ...I should have seen that coming. You're not nice...

C: Eh, I have my moments. Anyway, nice to meet ya, Iggy or Eggy or whatever. Keep quiet and stay out of the way and maybe you won't get trodden under foot or chewed on.

I: W-what...?

C: Have you met Avello? *jerks a thumb outside*

I: O-oh yes... *shivers* ...your dragon, yes... he tried to eat me when I tried appearing out of your hot tub.

C: *grins slightly and makes a mental note to herself* Give Avello the biggest damn porkchop he's ever seen later. *ahem* Oh that's too bad. He means well.

I: Of course... so, when's this bath ready...? *looks again at the soup hopefully, wafting the savory smell*

C: Firstly, it's soup. You know, broth, veggies, meat, noodles, sometimes rice. Food. And it'll be ready in two minutes if you quit distracting me and hoverin' around.

I: All right... *puts out his cigar and tucks the leftover behind his ear, rubbing his stubbly little chin* ...maaybe I'll go check out the digs. Seems like a nice house. Is that okay...?

C: Fine... just don't spook anyone or upset my kids. We're talkin' this guardian thing out more later, though. I want details. And there WILL be rules.

I: Deal, lady! ^^

C: Good... *groans when he leaves and goes back to her cooking, the soup seemingly unaffected at all by his earlier wading, bathing, and eating*

--------------------

Savirox Fanaren (8:22:27 PM): ( erm... an imp? )
superaikies (8:23:08 PM): (like a mischievious little fantastical creature)
From Wiki: "An imp is a mythological being similar to a fairy or demon, frequently described in folklore and superstition. The word may perhaps derive from the term ympe, used to denote a young grafted tree.

"Imps are often described as mischievous more than seriously threatening, and as lesser beings rather than more important supernatural beings. The attendants of the devil are sometimes described as imps. They are usually described as lively and having small stature.

"To this end it came to be believed that imps were the familiar spirit servants of witches and warlocks, where the little demons served as spies and informants. During the time of the witch hunts, supernatural creatures such as imps were sought out as proof of witchcraft, though often the so called 'imp' was typically a black cat, lizard, toad or some other form of uncommon pet."

ZUBA: Eugenia - Draft in progress (past)

2009-12-13T00:08:00.001-05:00

The light Blancwood winter snow bowed with a series of crunches under the limousine's tires like a line of docile servants bending down for it to ride over. Slowly, deliberately it followed the girl trudging along in her rumpled school uniform until she became self-conscious enough to stop and wait for the car to pull up to her. The tinted window closest to the end rolled down, taking its time, as if it knew all the world would wait for it.

After her customary imperial glance around at her surroundings, Eugenia Valentia's eyes finally came to a rest on the young schoolgirl's timid face. This girl was afraid of her, and she knew it. Too afraid to open her mouth and deny anything that Eugenia wished to tell her to do. She would listen now.

"Dear, may I speak with you a moment?"

The question was merely a formality. The girl wouldn't dare refuse.

"...Si, Signora Valentia, I'm coming..." she stepped obediently up to the window, hefting her pile of books in her arms and attempting to look as though the prospect of standing around even longer with those heavy textbooks wasn't going to bother her immensely.

"Por favor, dear, we know one other quite well by now, do we not? Then you know you may call me Eugenia. Dona Eugenia, if you insist on a title."

"...Si, Dona Eugenia."

"Well, do not just stand out there, chiquita, it's like a freezer. Come, come, sit in the car with me."

At her command, her driver got out and came along to open the side door. Cadenza refrained from commenting on this--she'd never understood why Eugenia couldn't just reach her arm out a foot, if it was even that much, and nudge open the door herself. It seemed wrong to make the driver have to do it.

But, it wasn't her place to speak. Not when the woman concerned was Paris' stepmother, at least. She checked her watch, made peace with the realization that she would, most definitely, miss her bus and that Eugenia was not likely to give her a ride all the way to Santa Mariela, and got in with only the slightest bit of a sigh. This was not going to be pleasant, she could feel it.

"I do hope your shoes aren't too muddy. I was going to request that you wipe them off, but now whatever damage is already done, I suppose..." she gave Cadenza a look that suggested this was the greatest of transgressions and that she was being almost saintly in allowing it to be forgiven. When the girl didn't respond, she smiled a little. Of course, there was nothing to say. An "I didn't know" was never going to pass with Eugenia.

"But yes, onto other matters... Cadenza, I stopped you for this little chat because I wished to speak to you about my Paris..."

"My" Paris, yes, it was hard not to notice the emphasis there. It was going to be another one of those conversations. The girl sighed inwardly again and prepared herself for the worst. The only good things about this by the end were going to be that the seat was comfortable and the limo warm--she settled in for the long haul.

"Dear, I heard the other day that Paris was ditching class because of you... this is very unacceptable..."

"We... we didn't miss class... we were just late... he was showing me the snow. I'd never seen it before..."

"Yes, well, I believe he's getting far too serious about this relationship of yours far too fast. He's been speaking of marrying someday, even. Marriage, Cadenza. And children! And what do you have to offer him? Your beauty? Purity? Those things will be lost someday, dear, and you'll just be living off him, leeching off our family's money. The Valentias are expected to marry a certain kind of person."

Cadenza found herself sinking lower and lower in the limo's plush leather seats. Never mind that you were a waitress at some dive diner before Rogerio met you... you just picked him up after Claudia died and he was lonely... but now, you've completely turned around, and you're looking down on people who were just like you... how can you...

"...I... I have a dowry, ma'am," she tried.

Eugenia almost chuckled. "Oh yes, honey, I'm aware. A gold necklace and some earrings, is it? I have at least six times your little dowry in one drawer of one of my many jewelry boxes, dear."

"The... the necklace is made of rose gold..."

"Cadenza, please. Three of the six rings on my fingers just right this moment are rose gold."

The woman stretched out a hand adorned with the superb jewelry, gleaming a rich blush color. The light coming off them was so brilliant it would almost be blinding were it not for the tinted windows. There was, again, no reply that could be made. Eugenia went on.

"Also... you know, dear, that people say your father is... not quite mentally stable. And your poor, dear mother has that drug problem... there's also talk of your eldest sister being involved with a felon...? Obviously these are not people we could have associated with our family."

Colors (Writing exercise, Cadenza, past)

2009-11-20T15:04:00.002-05:00

It was like having synesthesia, and it was one of the most amazing experiences she'd ever had.

She could see her own music; see it like she'd never dreamed. The chords of her flamenco guitar were vibrating vermillion reds, with wailing, high, strident tones of yellow, and deep brownish ochres, almost mournful in their baritones. The castanets' clacks were dashes of Spanish orange and gold, sharp lines and brilliant neon yellow triangles that appeared and disappeared all within an instant. She could see her own voice, a lighter, richer red, see it go orange and bright and spread when it rose and crescendoed and go in curves and faint shapes of violet when it was softer and soulful.

She wanted to see more; she wanted to see the thrumming of a car engine running, see the sounds of love-making. She pulled Johnny close without a word, wanting to savor the colors, save them for the moment. With only the look in her eyes and her firm touches, she let her actions do the speaking as she pulled him into their bedroom and let the symphony of senses begin. Every pant and every moan was a new experience; his husky voice in her ear was a deep, robust, warm reddish brown, enveloping her and sending shivers through her body. Finally, when her last cries of passion came, they were pangs of the brightest reds and oranges she'd ever seen, with short green, softer gasps, and then the colors relaxed, and cooled, and she watched their soft bluish breathing together until she fell asleep.

Since that night, she'd kept the name of them tucked away in a little corner of her mind, for another day... the name of those magic little compounds; they were called, simply, "red caps".

Damien

2009-11-18T01:37:00.012-05:00

[B]Name:[/b] Damien

[B]Age:[/B] 19

[B]Sex:[/B] Male

[B]Race:[/B] Angel

[B]Height:[/B] 6'1"

[B]Weight:[/B] 150 lbs, or thereabouts since he last was weighed.

[B]Eye Color:[/B] A muddy, turbid brown color that's rather unremarkable, but often look friendly if they give off any impression.

[B]Hair Color/Style:[/B] Skunky blonde and slightly wavy, cut in a rather messy, shaggy style in short layers, the bottom-most reaching to his jawline. Has a cowlick in the front that never seems to want to stay down, no matter how much he wills (and excessively gels) it to.

[B]Skin Color/Complexion:[/B] A fair, peachy, healthy tone, with blemishes now and then. He has slight acne that is thankfully lessening as he gets older. It sunburns slower than most. Much of his skin is rather smooth, and he has never been able to grow much more facial hair than boyish peach fuzz.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/sailormichiru/1damienprof.png[/img] [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/sailormichiru/2damienprof.png[/img]
[URL="http://superaiko.deviantart.com/gallery/765176"]-More pictures of my characters, including Damien, on my DA account-[/URL]

[B]General Appearance:[/B]
[U][i]Face:[/i][/U] His face is neither handsome nor particularly unattractive--the best way you could really describe it would be to say it's "average", amiable, and still rather youthful. He gives off the appearance of having yet to grow into his features, and has a slightly bigger than normal nose, thin lips, and eyes set a little wider apart. He has a somewhat strong brow with decently trimmed eyebrows, and his face is longer than it is wide. His chin and jaw are a bit weak and not particularly overtly masculine or mature looking.

[U][i]Body:[/i][/U] Damien is neither cherub nor like an Adonis from a classical Michelangelo canvas, and cuts a rather gangling, tall, lanky figure that would seem more likely belong to a lazy college freshman majoring in general studies with a nickname like "Pizza Face" than an angel. He has large, skinny feet and hands, a long neck, and average-sized shoulders, with some slight muscle definition in his torso and limbs. His legs are his most toned and strong feature.

[u][i]Wings[/i][/u]: His first set of wings were stubby, pathetic, irregular-shaped things too flimsy to support flight and too embarrassing to pull out in front of the other fledglings--they have grown since then into more functional things, but are still not the perfectly plumed kind that one would expect from an angel (at least they're white, he often says.) Sometimes they make his back itch when he retracts them. He most often keeps them withdrawn, until needed.

[U][i]Clothing:[/i][/U] While in Heaven, Damien sticks to wearing the standard toga, leather belt, golden sandals, and laurels behind each ear. On earth, he likes to sport old, comfortable, worn-in t-shirts (often band t-shirts, thrift store, or rummage sale items), similarly old and battered jeans, brown leather sandals or well-worn white sneakers, and a blue South Carolina Tar Heels college windbreaker he feels helps him blend in more. He carries an off-brand backpack with his few possessions, covered in buttons and stickers of various places he's been, with the straps loose so its weight sags comfortably on his shoulders.

[U][i]Mannerisms and Movement:[/i][/U] He tends to slouch a bit, finding it more comfortable than standing upright, and walks with his hands in his pockets much of his time. He rarely keeps Floyd on a leash unless the local laws require him to, and even then it seems more like the dog is leading him around, than vice versa.

His smiles are a bit self-conscious and uncertain, but often genuine and good-natured. He smells of the open road, his dog Floyd, and occasionally fast food or the inn where he last slept.

[b]Theme Songs:[/b]
[LIST]
[*][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwkJfkl-clw"]Can’t Stop[/url] (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
[*][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUaw0b8U6OE"]Last Train Home[/url] (The Lost Prophets)
[/LIST]

[b]Known Family:[/b] None.

[B]Familiars/Nonhuman Companions:[/B] His dog [url= http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/npc-repository/122187-dog.html]Floyd[/url], a strong and stolid Caucasian Ovcharka cross-breed.

[b]Homeplace:[/b] Heaven

[b]Current Residence:[/b] None. He is always on the road.

[b]Languages:[/b]
[LIST]
[*][i]The Angelic Language[/i], spoken in Heaven
[*][i]Any earthly language[/i], old or new, although he seems to be the most comfortable with English
[/LIST]

[B]Occupation:[/B] No fixed occupation, tends to pick up odd jobs as he wanders from city to city but is rather unskilled. Sometimes he does jobs for the Church, in return for food and shelter.

[B]Weapons:[/B] A slingshot, which he feels is rather pathetic and not worth pulling out, made of oak. The pellets are simply old, hard acorns. He's attempted to purchase a gun, but has always been too afraid to follow through and hasn't got an ID to prove his age.

[B]Armor:[/B] None but his cloth kneepads and a helmet he occasionally wears when skateboarding, but feels is too dorky to be seen in.

[B]Carried Possessions:[/B] Inside his backpack (described in appearance), Damien has a scuffed old red Walkman, repaired countless times with duct-tape, with a skip button that tends to stick; an assortment of CDs collected from yard sales all over the United States; a thermos with a slight leak, some pens, a spiral-bound notebook he sometimes likes to jot down thoughts or notes in, covered in band stickers; and a few changes of clothes which, when lucky, he scrounges up enough change to wash at local laundromats. He also carries a travel toothbrush, toothpaste, and cheap soap whenever he can get them, but doesn't have quite the same need for the items that humans do.

He also carries a threadbare, fabric fold-up wallet with a few useless membership cards, whatever cash he may have on him, and a library card that is the only proof of his identity.

Buried underneath his spare clothes is an old gray Gameboy Advance he picked up at, yes, a yard sale, and he has a small collection of games in cheap plastic cases to go with it. He carries a blue, mesh-and-fabric South Carolina Tar Heels ballcap for the days when he simply can't tolerate his cowlick any longer. If he's got some extra cash, he tries to keep at least one package of batteries in his backpack, but has always been afraid of them getting damaged and leaking acid all over his things. His backpack often smells of half-finished food.

[B]Powers/Magic/Skills:[/B] As an angel, Damien has decently serviceable wings that can fly for short distances (a few miles at a time) and/or medium altitudes. He also possesses a few holy talents. If he visits a church or other holy location, he is able to return to Heaven with God's permission.

[I][U]~Holy skills:[/U][/I]

[i]Blessing[/i]- Damien possesses the power to heal small wounds, minor illnesses, and injuries, by using a specific prayer. He needs to focus to perform this, and then clasp his hands together, speaking the words earnestly and with genuine and selfless care for the person, plant, or animal he wishes to heal. The prayer takes about a minute to recite, and he cannot perform it repeatedly without tiring himself in the process.

[i]Sanctify[/i]- With a different prayer, Damien is able to bless a certain area or building (or if he wishes, a person), and make it holy for a limited period of time (at most, two days.) This blessing protects the area or person from any manner of dark or sinful magic or power. It can also purge an evil or demonic spirit from a person or place. Depending on how long the blessing lasts, this skill will consume more of his energy.

[B]Battle Strengths:[/B] Being a holy being, Damien is unharmed by gunshots and most mortal wounds that would kill a human, as well as lesser dark magics and curses. He can fly for short periods of time, and his wiry body possesses some strength, but not much. He may be immortal, and even if he dies eventually (not of age, but of serious injury), it is believed he would be reborn again as an angel after some time.

[B]Battle Weaknesses:[/B] He's awkward and often clumsy on his feet when under pressure, and does not possess much in the way of offensive magic or physical dexterity or power. He's not really very sure how to fight; his punches are sloppy, and he sometimes does not know where he should hit to make an effective blow. This leads him to waste a lot of energy punching someone in their sturdy shoulder when he should have gone for, say, the vulnerable Adam's Apple of their throat. More powerful dark or sinful magic can harm him and require him to flee or return to Heaven injured.

[B]Personality:[/B] Damien is not your typical angel. He can't carry a tune when singing, and harps and bows have never agreed with him well--he'd always hurt a finger on either. He goes through life feeling as though he's the butt of most jokes, and therefore has become rather mellow, jaded, and skeptical of any luck that comes his way. He has low expectations and takes little seriously. He's awkward around girls, but tries to pretend he's not. Feels most at home around earth, because people are more "average", he thinks, and he can fit in better. After about seven years on earth he's fairly well assimilated into the culture, especially the teenage culture, but still finds some habits and other things about humans strange or incomprehensible.

He's unused to kindness and can be easily flustered, but often tries to hide it and play things "cool" and not looking too eager. Damien speaks slang to even the most dignified of audiences and when he gets excited, he has trouble controlling how quickly or loudly he speaks. He gives off the impression of a grungy teenager slacker, and is well-aware of this perception others hold of him. Someone can easily endear themselves to him by not judging him in this way right off the bat. He doubts his own merits and has low self-confidence, despite the image he tries to project of a more laid-back, socially competent young man. He likes to sometimes try to act older or more mature and manly than he is.

At heart, however, he is kind, faithful, and loyal, and has respect for all kinds of people who try to get by and do good deeds in their own ways. He is caring and compassionate towards animals, children, the poor and the ill, and otherwise disabled, and tolerant and forgiving towards even some of the most sinful humans. He believes in love and hopes to someday find a girl who will like and accept him for what he is. He sometimes dreams of what it’s like to have a home, but he also has a love for the open road. He is a huge fan of music. The angel is a bit cowardly, but he tries to never abandon someone in need. Fights intimidate him a bit. All in all, while he has his flaws, Damien is a good friend to have on your side.

[LIST]
[*][I]Likes:[/I] Video games, rock music, television, skateboards, girls, cars (despite never learning how to drive), movies, magazines, thriller novels, Dance Dance Revolution, thrift stores, dogs, cities.

[*]Food likes: Burgers, fries, cocoa, sugar, tea, chicken, pizza, Chinese food, sandwiches, steak, hot dogs, onion rings, pie, chocolate, fast food, chips, junk food, water, soda, milkshakes, he’ll eat just about any kind of food

[*][I]Dislikes:[/I] Bullies, snobs, demons, feeling dumb, feeling dorky, making a fool of himself in front of girls, his wings itching or tiring, violence, over-priced things, trains, elevators, car horns, car alarms, socks, harps, bows.

[*]Food dislikes: Artificial sweeteners, broccoli, beets

[*][I]Fears:[/I] Being rejected (especially by girls), being judged, being the worst, demons and other devilish creatures, fire, any harm befalling his dog Floyd

[*][I]Virtues:[/I] Modest, honest (except when trying to look cool for girls, but even then he often admits it later), kind, compassionate, loyal, faithful, trustworthy, a good friend

[*][I]Vices:[/I] Over-eats, can be a bit lazy and cowardly, doubts himself too much
[/LIST]

[B]History:[/B] He was an angel named Damien, and he had always felt there had been rather a mix-up between babies when he was being named. He was an ineffectual angel, been told he would never amount to much, and had been that way from the very start; when all the other fledgling angels had been practicing their hymns and stringing their harps, he was getting his fingers tangled and squeaking off-key, and tripping over his own sandals (just learning to strap those things had been a monumental chore--like shoe-tying, but with pointy metal buckles.) Something about him just always "screamed" average, and in a world of flawless divine beings, he always stood out like an awkward sore thumb. For many of his childhood years, he tried to ignore this--ignore it even though it stared him in the face each day, thwarted him in nearly every effort, followed him around like a tiny, personal stormcloud. He grew miserable and yet tried to stay chipper for as long as he could manage, until finally, someone noticed.

Damien did not, actually, get an audience with God when the day came. But he was assured that the big man upstairs was very sympathetic to his plight, and yadda yadda, some heartening jabber they put together for his sake. But he at least got a brief sit-down with an Archangel, and a decently comfy cloud to sit on during it. The blonde, chiseled superior angel sat across from him, pulled out some impeccably clean reading glasses, and a file that materialized out of thin air. He spent some minutes skimming it, with the occasional half-interested "hrrm".

"I see that, perhaps, you have not been particularly happy here in Heaven, Damien, my boy," he said, without much feeling. "This seems somewhat contradictory, seeing as how this is... well, Heaven, the eternal paradise and all. Even if this place is meant for humans, angels are normally quite content here as well. Most don't know much else beyond this place."

"B-beyooond, sir?" his twelve-year old voice cracked.

"Yes, Damien, beyond--Earth, the living world, inhabited by humans and all of God's other creatures. Some angels have spent time there. We believe... perhaps you would like to spend some time there."

"M... me? You'd let me go...? Even though only a couple angels get to...?"

The archangel gave him a small smile. "Yes, Damien, we will let you go. He has decided it."

Damien was not sure what he could expect on earth, but even so, for the first time he could remember, he was thrilled. He was getting a chance to start somewhere new, where he could possibly fit in, and a chance to see a world few of his kind had seen and experienced in person. That made him different... and in a good way. He couldn't wait. He had no belongings aside from the clothes on his back, and after some further discussion with Michael, the archangel who had first talked with him, he soon learned that his clothing would not be well-suited for earth life anyway. He was given a small wad of bills, and directions to seek out some kind of place called a "thrift shop". They would become his new favorite sight, more welcome than a fluffy cloud or a bright patch of sun. They guided him and left him in a small city in South Carolina, where he would start his first day, as an angel on earth.

He has seldom wanted to go back to Heaven since.

He's recently adopted a [url= http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/npc-repository/122187-dog.html]stray dog[/url], a Caucasian Ovcharka cross-breed he has named "Floyd", after the band Pink Floyd. He has also met a girl he likes, by the name of [url= http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/characters-and-resources/103318-character-marissa.html#post3226467]Marissa[/url].

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[B]RPs:[/B]
[url]http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/120558-demon-banishment-for-dummies-aikomira.html[/url]
[url]http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/102644-in-over-his-head-stryder-aedernis.html[/url]
[url]http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/the-crossroads/126921-heathens-heroes-and-hellfire.html[/url]

Quick Fic: Magic Dialogue

2009-09-18T22:06:00.006-04:00

"Tia..." Greene began, "how does your magic work...? What makes you different from me...?"

"Well, to be honest, Greene... most of it works off just sheer, barefaced will," Cadenza said, chuckling as she added, "in other words, my strength is my stubbornness. I've got to demand it to work, or to exist, want it so badly that I pour all the energy I can spare into bullying whatever spell it is to work. Coax it, coerce it. It's harder the first time I do a spell... and you know like that songs says, 'You can't always get what you want.' It won't always work. Sure, it's focused magic, it's controlled magic... but it's limited magic. That's why... sometimes I need one of you dreamers. Those people who've got that creativity... that purity, that belief, that innocence I haven't.

"You can make life, wish it into being, hope, imagine... and it comes true. You have faith in things like miracles that I just don't buy--not when I've seen far too many people hurtin' for one and had their prayers, their pleas, and their cries go ignored. Instead, I've just got that want, that motivation to help 'em... help them in a realistic, immediate, practical kind of way... 'cause I'm too rooted down to earth to dream those big magical dreams you do... so keep on dreamin', Greenie. The world needs people like you."

Short Story: Eve on la Isla (past)

2009-09-12T20:09:00.013-04:00

The doors banged open in the middle of yet another Isla do Noir storm, on an otherwise clear December night. By the moonlight, Vice-Warden Collins, an employ from the States who often wondered how he’d ended up with this job, watched as a familiar lady strode in and shook the raindrops that clung to her cloak and long black hair. Considering the downpour outside, this took some time. Collins bustled up to her in mid-shake, hands already raised to usher her back out into the storm.

“Whoah, whoah, heeey,” he began, and then realized he wasn’t saying much of anything. He paused, and she looked up from her wringing out and drying off, “The day one of you all can waltz in here unannounced like this is the day hell freezes over. What are you up to, Madrigal? It’s Christmas Eve, we haven’t got the guards on duty to deal with you.”

The woman looked up at him with a look of injured innocence, her blue eyes wide and shining. Completely fake, Collins thought, trying to brush it off. Or at least mostly. He was prone to cut her some slack for being pretty.

“Tonight I’m just a lady visiting her dear old dad, warden,” Cadenza said, “Can't you respect that…? No tricks, honestly.”

Collins sucked his teeth. “Yeah, and I’m a camel’s uncle.” He’d been around long enough to know how a Madrigal operated. They were good actors, and even better liars when they needed to be.

The woman just shrugged, “Hey, I’m not knockin’ your family tree… if it swings the furry way.”

The vice-warden saw that he was outclassed. Perhaps his boss could have had the patience and willpower to quip back and forth with Cadenza Madrigal-Valentia on a Christmas Eve night, but he had to get home sometime soon. He figured the easiest way might just be to give in. “…Hn,” he grunted. “Well… all right. Scout’s honor, you’re not up to anything?”

“I don’t even know what that means, but sure. Who the hell around here is a scout?” She gave the warden a sardonic look, but it quickly faded and she waved the whole subject off. “Never mind. Just let me see my pai…”

Collins nodded and fetched the keys from by the desk, taking special care to obfuscate where he’d kept them from Madrigal’s sight. He dug in unnecessary desk drawers, opened small petty change vaults, pretended to leaf through the pages of a phone book. Somehow, when he’d finally fished them out, he felt the woman still had figured out where they had been hidden. Tomorrow I move them to the bottom of cup of pens, he thought, making a metal note. You could never be too safe… no one ever really used any of those pens to document things like they should anyway.

He unlocked the door, and led Cadenza down the corridor, past sneering prisoners and a number of wolf whistles, his thoughts filled with the image of a hot dinner waiting at home for him by the stove until he realized he’d nearly passed the cell he was headed to and stopped abruptly with a lurch. His belly wobbled under the gray uniform and again, he thought of pot roast and potatoes until the woman gave him a nudge, and one of her most impatient looks.

“Some privacy, yah? Personal family moment here, and all. Thanks.”

“Right right,” Collins grumbled, and hurried off, back to his desk, hoping he still had that corner of sandwich left in his lunchbox from earlier.

When his footsteps had finally faded off down the hall, Cadenza turned to the cell, wrapped her gloved hands around the bars, and peered in. On the dingy cot inside, Galliard Madrigal was slumbering fitfully in the hideous lime-green jumpsuit that was the prison uniform she so hated, his beard untrimmed and going gray at the ends, his hair bedraggled and matted to his head from heat. She sighed, and rattled on the bars with the metallic knuckles of her gloves.

“Moorning, sunshine…”

Galliard stirred but didn’t get up. She rattled again, louder this time, until some of the other prisoners complained in rather colorful language. Cadenza shot them all a glare, fingered a dagger hilt by her belt, and silence quickly reigned again on Death Row. “Bloody lot of rats, filthy little…” her grumbling trailed off as her father eased himself off the cot with a groan and glanced towards her.

“Hija…” he breathed, his deep fatherly voice ending in a parched rasp. The tired, saddened lines of his face and brow smoothed themselves out, reshaped into the laugh lines Cadenza knew so well. He managed a smile. “What are you doing here…?”

“I… brought you a little something, Pai.” She reached into her inner cloak pocket, pulled out a tall bottle of eggnog and two metal tumblers. “You always loved eggnog at this time of year… so… cheers.”

She poured until the two glasses were filled to the brim, and squeezed her slender arm through the bars to hand his to him. A tear glinted in his eye as he took the tumbler and drank, savoring the taste for many moments.

“It’s… perfeito. The sweetest thing I have tasted in some time… gracias, hija…”

“You needed a little pick-me-up… heh, yeah, that’s an understatement, I’m sure… but… I had to bring you something,” she looked down at her soaked boots, unsure of what else to say. It didn’t feel like enough.

“No, no… this is a great gift… my favorite holiday drink… a visit from my hija… I’m glad…”

“How… how can you be!? Here? In this place?” Cadenza tossed her arms in the air, believing the awfulness of the prison needed no description. It spoke for itself. “You shouldn’t be here, and we both know it!”

Every year she got like this, Galliard knew. Every year at Christmas, for the… past seven years now, it had been, she would come to visit quite calmly, albeit maybe sad, at first, and then the slightest thing would throw her into a fit. Her care for him, for his situation… it was always endearing, yes, he loved her greatly and felt comforted by the fact that at least one of his daughters missed him so. But… he knew there were other places she should be, other things she could be doing with her time… rather than visiting her condemned father.

He reached his hand out from the bars, and rested it on one of hers. “Hija… it’s all right… I’m all right… if I am truly innocent, God will see it that what should and must happen will. But right now… shouldn’t you be at home with Paris…? Where is he tonight…?”

Cadenza took on the slightly pouty look that he could remember seeing countless times during her childhood. Even now as an adult, when she tried to hide it, he always knew when she was deeply upset. “He’s at a party, for the soldiers. There’s an armistice declared for Christmas… a party is being thrown on a yacht somewhere in the Seria. It was too short notice, and… too far away, so… he couldn’t bring me.”

“Hija…”

She crossed her arms—the next step of her shutting herself off in anger. She looked away, voice even and cold as she said, “…Not like I care anyway. You know I hate being around stuffed shirts like that… they’re not… my kind of people. I wouldn’t know what to do or say at a party like that.”

The excuse, the defense, the reflection. Galliard knew all these so very well. Cadenza thought she was putting up a good front, but to him, it was as easy as peering through a clean glass window. He knew all that was inside to know. “Hija, I’m sure Paris would have been much happier with you there… he’s probably missing you right at this moment, miserable without his ‘gorgeous sunflower’ to brighten the event for him.”

“Heh… maybe,” she conceded, but it was half-hearted. She poured off another glass of eggnog and tossed it back like it was plain milk. This was the last part, her father knew… the drinking. Ever since that baby was lost, a year ago… she had taken to the bottle, and only gotten worse and worse. Only he even knew all the details of what had happened…

“Cadenza… how is your mother…? Have you visited her recently?” This was always a sensitive subject with Cadenza. Galliard knew he had to tread with care—he had even made sure he’d waited until she was at least on her third tumbler before he asked.

“…Went yesterday with Arietta and Luminari to take her something Ari’d knitted her. She seemed… okay. Same as always… you know, frail, coughing…”

“Ari knitted her a gift…? That was sweet of her…” his thoughts drifted to Sonya, to the smile he imagined must have lit up her beautiful face when she’d gotten a visit and a gift from their beloved daughters. How he wished he could have been there…

“Yeah, well… Ari’s the sweet one. I think she went back over to see Sonya today, took cookies or something like that. Some pretty good cookies, I’d have to say,” she gave a very small smile as she patted her stomach. Galliard could tell the alcohol was slowly loosening her up. It was both a nice and worrying thing. He did miss her smiles, too.

“How long did… the warden say you could stay?” he looked out of the window, at the moon amidst the clouds. He had gotten real good at guessing the time of day or night by the sky over the years. It could have almost been past midnight.

“As long as I damn well please, and I’d like to see him try to kick me out!” she nearly shouted back, voice echoing through the hall. She was getting to the point where she was forgetting to control her volume—a second bottle of eggnog appeared out of a cloak pocket and popped open to fill her glass. “Want more?” she held it out towards him.

“…All right, yes, thank you, hija…” he put his tumbler underneath the mouth of the bottle and let her pour generously. Then he sat down against the bars, on the dusty, cold flooring, and she did the same on the other side.

“…It should be me in there,” she whispered, almost to herself. “I’ve done… far worse things… it should be me…”

“Cadenza… don’t say that,” Galliard pet her shoulder gently, wished he could do more to comfort his daughter. Even though she was grown-up, this was a time when he knew she was really in need of support…

The young woman went on, stubbornly, as she always would, “…All the people I’ve killed… all the lives I’ve ruined, the things I’ve stolen… but I get to run around out here while you rot away in this cell and miss Sonya everyday…”

“You’re not going to turn yourself in, are you…?” each time, every year, Galliard answered with this same thing. It usually snapped her back to her old, tough self. He hoped it would now.

“…Hell no, of course not!” Yes, that was the answer he’d wanted. “I can’t… not… not at least until I’ve found a way to bust you out of here… something… I’ll figure out something, I have to…”

“I know you will,” he told her with a smile. That was his little girl for you… his caring, determined little girl. He felt relieved that she hadn’t changed so much in these past years he’d been gone that he still knew her better than she knew herself. Or at least could tell himself that he did. It helped him feel… like he was still someone’s father. He still had a life and identity beyond these bars that he could someday, one day, return to. It was what kept him going.

“I think I’ll come by again tomorrow, Pai… bring you some pictures from Paris and my trip to Sereia when he had a week’s leave… he went on some boats out with the fishermen and I stood on the docks very stubbornly and watched…” she gave a small chuckle, and then a slight hiccup. A third bottle of eggnog appeared like the rabbit out of a magician’s hat, from another cloak pocket, and began filling her tumbler. “It was a nice trip…”

“I’m sure… you… you pay a visit to your mae too tomorrow, all right?”

Another hiccup, and she drained another tumbler. “S… sure, Pai… I’ll visit ‘er. Tell ‘er ya love h… her…”

He was losing her now, he could tell. There was the faraway, glazed look in her dark blue eyes. Cadenza was elsewhere, and here, now, was the drunken parody of herself, slurring and jolly and stumbling about. It pained him to see it.

She was humming a little bawdy song to herself as she plunked down the bottle of eggnog by the bars and winked conspiratorially at him, “F…for ah… nightcap, for ya later… dun… don't tell the warden.”

Galliard just nodded a little sadly and watched as she staggered off towards the doors, guzzling another bottle now and then and singing her little song. Her footsteps clacked and echoed until she disappeared from sight and hearing, and with her, took his bit of joy for the night. God, he prayed, grant us a happy Christmas Eve…one of these years, please…

Short Story: Past Events Glimpse -- Erik

2009-09-07T23:01:00.005-04:00

"Get off. Get off me and get dressed."

"But sheila, I was so comfortable there... I don't think I could move..."

"I said get off. You understood this arrangement from the beginning. We're done here, so... go. Hurry up..."

Erik rolled away off the bed, finally grabbed his things. His eyes kept lingering on me as he buttoned up his shirt by the moonlight through the cheap blinds. If he thought I was going to return his lovey-dovey look, he was dead wrong. He bent down to retrieve his pants, then paused and said, "...You'll come to my show tomorrow night too, right? Same time, same club?"

As badly as I wanted to refuse, some part of me couldn't. I... needed this guy, for now. Maybe for a while... "Yeah, I'll be there. Nine sharp, right in time for the guitar solo. Keep those fingers nimble."

He grinned at the innuendo, but I didn't smile back at him. Already I was turning away onto my other side, onto the cool half of pillow. I felt I needed a shower. He came over to try to give me a kiss on the cheek and whisper into my ear, but I just brushed him away, covered my head with the sheets. "Night, Erik," I told him, faking a yawn.

"...Goodnight, Cadenza..."

I waited until the door shut behind him and then finally let out a sigh. How long could I keep this up? I kept asking myself, after nearly every night where this same situation repeated itself. How long could I stand the meaningless meetings after his shows, our tussles in the bed where my mind was never there along with my body, where I felt dirty and cheap after each time we finished? It was eating away at what feelings I had left... made the tequilas at the bars every evening that much more appealing. That was now all I looked forward to each day. It was bloody pathetic. I knew that, and yet... I couldn't stop it anyway. It was an endless, pathetic cycle.

It wasn't until I heard Erik's car drive away from the motel that I finally heaved myself out of bed and went over to the grimy little bathroom, with a clean towel I'd brought and unpacked myself. The cold water poured down from the tap, made me shiver as it washed away all the unclean things from that night. I stood under it for a while, my head bowed, goosebumps going up my back. Back in the room, I could hear the phone going off, another check-up call from Viv...

I dared to let it ring. And ring. She could kiss my ass. I was all the way in damn Camilla and there was no way she was gonna reach me anytime soon. I needed this break. She had been working me to the bone these past months, "travel to Castile," and "negotiate with this mob boss", and all this other bullshit that I knew for sure had nothing to do with helping out Pai. I didn't even care anymore... it'd been so long, twelve years now... it seemed hopeless. We definitely weren't going to succeed following Viv's orders. She had her own plans... I could finally see that. I just... didn't have the energy to go against her...

Someone was banging against the wall. It was the couple next door, complaining that I'd been in the shower too long. This amaaazing gem of an establishment here only had enough filtered water for each guest to shower for maybe four minutes. Guess that was why it only cost $40 a night. I didn't feel like complaining. I shut off the water, toweled off, got out. No idea what time it was, but I knew I needed a drink. So I went into my room, threw on some clothes, and went down to the motel's bar. It was, I thought, probably where all the funds for the place went to. They had a decent selection of stuff.

A few (and by that, I mean like a half dozen) shots of bourbon and a couple of tequilas later, and I was high on life. The room was spinnin' a little, the birds were singing, yah, at night, and I was happily mumbling a song to myself and the bar counter I was resting my head on. It was a real nice bar counter... polished oak, kinda cool, just the right height... I traced dizzy little circles along the wood grain on it. Someone started to talk to me, but their voice was just a whole lot of vibrations in the wood. I was long gone...

Tomorrow, I'd repeat the whole thing over again.

Short Story Follow-Up: Doctor's Visit (Draft, Still in Progress)

2009-09-06T03:17:00.001-04:00

"Ahh...! Gods, you couldn't give me a warning before you stabbed me in the ribs with that needle!?"

Doctor Rivers withdrew the needle full of fluid and gave it an experimental flick before adjusting his glasses and finally addressing me for the first time since he'd walked back in. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Madrigal, but this is just a routine test. One of many... so far, our results have been quite unfruitful--we expected some kind of irregularity... a unique, telling feature, but there has been nothing. Even your hands, albeit heavily scarred and rough in some places, proved to be normal... the skin chemistry was normal, your fingerprints were normal patterns, magic flowed from them in a regular way. We're baffled. You seem to have the body of a normal, and rather fit and healthy, young woman."

"I could have told you that, Doc."

"Even despite giving birth to... was it three kids? A boy and then twin girls...?"

"...Yes, three."

"...Even despite that, you seem to be in impeccable shape, with everything in its place. There isn't a sign of aging since your last regular physical at age twenty-nine... not a single wrinkle or even a gray hair. It's quite puzzling..."

His eyes lingered on me, questioning, pleading with me to give him some sort of lead or answer.

All I said was, "Huh... fancy that. Can I go home now?"

"Oh no, Mrs. Madrigal," he replied a little apologetically, but still managing to sound as if this was the silliest request in the world, "I'm afraid we have far more tests to perfom. You'll have to stay overnight. You will be permitted a phone call to notify your family."

"...Thanks," I muttered.

The young doctor murmured for a while over some color change in the vial of stuff he'd just gotten out of me, and then left me to my own devices. Which, sitting there in just a sports bra and shorts without even a purse with me, were considerably limited. I shifted a little on the examining table and waited impatiently for one of the orderlies to bring me my phone. I was getting more irritable by the second thanks to the antiseptic they'd put all over my arms and anywhere they'd stuck a needle. Someone had better get their ass here soon.

About ten minutes and several cursings and peeks into the hall later, some pasty-faced Rochesterian orderly came in and forked over my phone, offering only a half-sincere sounding "sorry" before rushing back out of the room. But that was well enough, because I didn't need them to be listening in on my calls, too. They'd already invaded my privacy enough with the physical. Then again, there always was the possibility they had cameras in the room...

Best not to think of that and start my only phone call home off angry, I told myself. I started to dial, waited through the rings. After the third one, Kate picked up, Bandit chittering and the TV going on in the background. Even ordinary, everyday sounds like that... ones I usually took for granted made me feel homesick. I wanted to be there just goofing off and relaxing with them...

"Hi Mommy! Are you doin' okay? Did they hit your knee with those triangle thingies? I hope you're not sick..."

I chuckled at her rush of questions and felt the pang of homesickness hit even harder. She had to be the sweetest little girl in the world... she worried even more than I did sometimes. "No, sweetie, Mommy's not sick... it's just a check-up, but there's a lot of things to test, so... I won't be home until tomorrow..."

"B-but why aren't you...? Who's gonna tuck me in? How long have you gotta stay?" her voice got sadder and sadder with each new concern and my heart was sinking.

Short Story: Mage Tribunal

2009-09-05T21:52:00.016-04:00

It's occurred to me that I always seem to be a in a perpetual state of "I hate my job"; every work day is a bloody horrendous Monday to me. The only thing that changes is how badly I'm feelin' it that day--today, I was liable to punch out the next person who looked at me funny. Or the next one to look at me at all.

I'd sent three errand boys to the nurse's before I even reached the main meeting hall. New record, I thought, with a slight grin. Humor was going to have to get me through this day--gods knew everything else was going to be against me.

I walked in and glanced around at the hanging flags like I always do, sparing a little sneer for Cernilia's. It was basically a bastardized Rubatoian flag--the same golden yellow and red-orange sunset on burgundy, but with an imperial crown above it, reigning the fact that Cernilia'd conquered our land over our heads. Even flags from that country managed to be real pricks. I passed on, giving a half-hearted wave to the mages from Minas Gerais, Gardenia, and the States. They weren't half bad people on a normal day, but today even they'd be on the council that voted on the way to punish me. I silently hoped they'd remember the help I'd given them with that nasty magical flu going around a few months back. But I didn't count on it. Anyone could be bribed or threatened somehow.

I took my seat at the center desk for the tribunal, and felt like the whole place had transformed into a courtroom. There was the semi-circular table on the dais, raised above me like a judge's bench, where in a few minutes my fellow mages would be playing Justice and jury. There were books of codes and statutes and laws on one end, full of precedents from past mage council cases, the resulting punishments and reasonings for them. I wondered if anyone had actually stolen magic from the Grand Mage with their bare hands before. Here was one for the history books.

The Prime Minister of Maximillia came in, escorted by various guards and advisors, and had a seat at the dais. I could hear out in the hall the hubbub of press reporters clamoring for the chance to follow him inside. This would be a real headline... I could only imagine poor Kate having kids rub her face in the article about her Mommy's crime. That, more than anything, made me feel lower than low. I sunk a little in my chair and tried to be inconspicuous as a few reporters and the rest of the mages filed in. Here it goes...

They all waited until each mage was standing beside his or her chair, and then sat, all as one, very formally. There was something kinda creepy, almost cult-like about all those adults thinking as one like that. Bad things tended to happen when people functioned on group-think. Things with torches and pitchforks, for instance. I tried my best to give them my most nonchalant, tough face and sat up in my chair to listen. This would be one helluva tribunal.

"This council will now convene for the hearing of Mage Cadenza Vega Madrigal, of Rubato," Mage Ronald Livingston of the Rochester Republic began. "The charges she is facing include the unethical theft of one Grand Mage Jean Pierre Denebola of Maximillia's magic, and assistance in the aforementioned man's murder. I also have come to understand that it was your husband and your ex-husband who ruthlessly killed Mage Denebola... is that not true?"

"Er... define what you'd consider 'ruthlessly'."

He gave me a severe look, shared by about half the others on the dais. I didn't relent.

"...Doesn't the fact that he practically tried to rape me, and that he wanted to exploit some poor, innocent young mage under my protection factor into this at all?"

Livingston's face was still fixed into that stern look with his bushy gray brows knitted together, completely unfazed. It was almost impressive. "Those are mitigating circumstances, Mage Madrigal, but there is nothing that excuses murder. You should have reported his actions to this Council and let us process him through the due course of the law."

I wanted to yell that if we hadn't taken his magic... if we hadn't killed or at least injured him beyond movement, I might not have even been sitting there to report this to them--that sitting around and waiting for the law to fix things wouldn't do shit. But they were such strict, by the book hardasses that I knew I'd just be wasting my breath. All I said was, "It was in self-defense."

"As we realize, Madrigal, but that does not eliminate the need to punish you for these actions. Otherwise, what is to stop mages from running around stripping one another of their powers? Where does it end?"

I'd expected this question. I'd expected it, and yet I still only had an answer I knew wouldn't fly. "...I didn't know I could do it... or that I was even doing it... it was... instinct."

"Instinct? Instinct!" this, from the prime minister of Maximillia, "Do you realize, Madame, that if we all just followed our instincts this world would be in utter chaos!? It is in controlling these urges that we can become civilized. I, frankly, say we revoke her of her position, if not sentence her to prison."

...Ouch. I was not on somebody's good side. Someone had better speak up for me or I was going to have to get out of this a messier way.

Thankfully, Mage Veronica Martinez of Castile chose that moment to chime in, "My country will not stand to see Mage Madrigal face such harsh punishment. She has an important partnership with our kingdom and is vital to the maintaining of the food supply for her nation. Put her in prison and the Charmed Fields project shall fail and thousands of people will be plunged back into starvation."

A murmur went through the crowd, and reporters started scribbling furiously away at this. The Council weighed her words, and Maximillia's minister shot me the dirtiest look I'd ever seen from a man with a manicure and wearing furs. His look was pure poison through a pair of pince-nez.

"Perhaps then..." Livingston began again, recapturing the crowd's attention with a sweeping glance and gesture, "...we must devise a less severe punishment, in the interest of the struggling nation of Rubato."

...Hey, ass, I thought, I'm sitting right here. I knew we were struggling, but did he have to say it to my face like it was an unquestionable fact of life? Condescending little...

Heads bobbed and nodded in agreement with his conclusion, while I grumbled over his word choice, Castile's Mage settling back in her chair with a relieved expression. She had definitely just earned her salary from the Queen for the day. She looked like a triumphant lawyer. And yet, I knew I had to be grateful to her. She might've just saved my ass--I couldn't phrase things in the same proper, diplomatic way she did and sound like I really believed it.

Since most people seemed to have concurred, Livingston sat down and folded his hands on the table as a sort of closing gesture, "Then we shall recess while the Council comes to a decision on the punishment. We shall reconvene in twenty minutes. Mage Madrigal, in that time, kindly do not leave the premises."

"...Course, sir."

He dismissed us and the group at the dais departed for a back room. The rest of us were left to chatter amongst ourselves and be hounded by reporters for comment. I decided to slip out to the restrooms before a particularly nosey-looking group of them started to approach me with pens at the ready.

When I'd slunk into the ladies' room and shut the door behind me, I gave the biggest sigh I'd breathed in a while. Somehow, the unimaginable amount of bad karma I'd racked up over the years hadn't come back to bite me this time. But I still didn't feel relieved. The Council might have thought that the only punishment I would face would be the one they doled out to me, but they didn't know about the voice... the voice of Jean that still crept into my head and made my eyes green and my stomach turn. The horrible dreams I had, the terrible, unsettling feeling of waking up to find my own hands had been wandering over my body as if controlled by another. I'd woken up yesterday to find one stroking my thigh and the other slipping aside one of my bra straps. I hated... I felt utterly sickened and disturbed to think how much worse it could get. This was far worse than any slap on the wrist or jailtime they might give me. It had to stop. I was half-ready to go visit one of the bloody insane spirit exorcists that lived around the canyons and dark hillsides in Agra. Anything to get this last trace of magic, of Jean, out of me.

There was still plenty of time left, so I pulled out my phone and started to call Ruin to bring him up to speed on the trial so far. He was not gonna be happy that they were punishing me at all after what Denebola did, but at least it didn't seem like things would turn out too badly. I didn't want to get him too worried or riled up. Maximillia had already been rumored to be considering war with us for a few days after the incident... we didn't need to add the pummeling of a whole room of mages to the list of reasons for it.

After I finished speaking to him, and saying hola to the kids... our sweet kids, I couldn't wait to go home to their smiling faces... I went and washed my face and stared for a moment into the mirror. Eyes were blue. I still had a trace of a smile on my face from listening to the twins happily babble through a song for me on the phone, and hearing Ruin's voice, and Marcus' excited cry of "Maeee!", and Kate's asking me when I'd get home. My little girl lookin' out for me... My reflection in the mirror looked normal. But I felt in my gut that nothing could be further from the truth. How had I gotten this screwed-up...? Nothing had made sense about me from the day Life first made me "half-gone" for the kids... had she done that for anyone ever before?

I didn't know the answer to that, but all it succeeded in reminding me of was that someday, soon hopefully, I had to find this "Ryan Marrone", Strength. I needed to know how to manage this.

Before I went back out, I conjured myself a shotglass of Vivianne's Finest tequila, "liquid courage", Pai would joke, and tossed it back in one gulp. I was gonna need it to face Livingston and his stern old schoolmaster face. That was a face that could've dispassionately driven gypsies into carts to be carried away during the purge. I resented a face like that.

Back in the hall, there were echoes of all the conversations going on in the meeting, and flashes of reporters' cameras. I snuck in as discreetly as I could between Stuttgart's giant of a mage and a swarthy guy in dark clothes I blended in with, Abdali's mage possibly, and took my seat. Things quieted down as Livingston and the others processed back in and took their seats on the dais.

"The Mage Council has reached a consensus," the old man said with finality. And so, again, a Rochesterian would pass judgment on a gypsy. History repeated itself in little ways. "Mage Madrigal, to repent for your crimes, you shall hereby be ordered to work providing spells for the nation of Maximillia until they can find a qualified new National Mage. You shall also pay the nation the sum of 200,000 zecca in return for the loss of precious magical heirlooms destroyed in the killing of Denebola, and cooperate with designated officials in experiments and investigations into this newfound ability you possess to steal magic. These decisions are final and cannot be appealed. This trial is now adjourned."

He slammed down a gavel and then rose to leave.

Around me, I was sure other people were getting up to leave too, but the sounds of chairs being pushed back and mages chattering as they were going were like distant noises to me. My head was still spinning around the idea of being at the beck and call of not only Olmo, but now Prime Minister Louboutin, and the... the experimenting. I could accept the fine for the money... but what were they going to do to me? There was no way they could hear the voice I heard, know the terrible way it made me felt. I worried they would only make things worse... or tip that delicate balance of living and not living as a half-gone woman into just... being gone.

Shorty Short Story Hodge Podge

2009-09-04T21:36:00.007-04:00

Short story 1:

Look at her. She always seems so bored, resting her chin in those graceful hands of hers... those delicate, wounded hands, how I'd love to just undo those bandages, give them a squeeze, hear her groan in that voice... Her gaze at me is forever the same, those dark eyes smouldering at me like blue flames whenever I speak and demand their attention... and those lips, ah, those lips I dream of, turned downwards in that permanent scowl she wears. Someday... oui, someday I shall make those lips open in surrender to mine, make that supple body, with its curves my eyes loves to dance upon, yield under me. Madrigal, Madrigal... the things you make me think... coming in to these meetings in those dresses, even with that cloak over you... curling your hair around those nimble fingers when you stare off into space... it makes me want to shudder in delight. Someday I will have you...

She replies to me, to my speech, and it's with her usual disgust and disdain, only very thinly-veiled. She does that purposefully, takes her refuge in audacity, says whatever she might think regardless of how she is later penalized. Such assertiveness... it only makes me want to conquer her more. To bend such a strong woman to my will, tame her, quiet her... it's such an intoxicating prospect... I can tell she knows what may be on my mind, her scowl deepening when my gaze lingers on her, her arms crossing in the defensive, tough way she has about her. Back down, back off, it says... but I only want to draw nearer. To challenge it.

I can't get her off my mind...

Crying erupted from down the hall, and the woman jerked out of her reverie, shaking her head and groaning. In the mirror, her eyes stared back at her, tired, tinged with green, even when she'd believed she'd ridded herself of all that magic weeks ago... this had been the fourth time she'd heard the voice, had zoned out and found herself being spoken to. But it was never in the present... always stream-of-consciousness, old thoughts from past times. Times that she could vaguely identify from the descriptions in the thoughts... it gave her a discomforting, out-of-body feeling to know what someone else had been thinking of at a time where she, too, had been. Especially these particular thoughts... these ones that would've made her outraged had she heard them. She felt like she wanted to hurl. Felt violated. This man had died but he was still in her head, and he wasn't leaving...

And it wasn't even his doing. Was it? She'd done this to herself, she felt sure... magic was of the soul. Taking it from someone like she had, albeit unknowingly, must also bring a trace of the soul with it... a trace of that person's life, adding it to her own. Could she get rid of it completely and truly? She couldn't wish more for that, but she hadn't the slightest idea. There wasn't a single person she could ask... it was something she was going to have to discover on her own. Something about what it meant to be "half-gone"... had some instinct kicked in to help her survive? To make her more fully alive...?

The tears and wailing were still going on, and she couldn't leave them be any longer--half-dead or not, her son's sobbing would always resonate deep in her, call her motherly side into action. Cadenza set aside her little projects, a few spells half-finished on her desk, and hurried down the hall, mind temporarily cleared of all but the need to comfort Marcus and attend to the cause for his crying. She pushed open the door and went to his side, sweeping him up into her arms, holding him close and gently and nuzzling him until the tears faded. She didn't notice that the green had left her eyes, that they were blue and pure once more. She only smiled as her little boy looked up at her with his own light ones and said, "Te amo Mae."

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Short story 2:

Excerpt from the Cataluna City Daily Tribune, September 28, 1754 edition:

Triunfo!

We have cleansed our lands of their wretched lot, and may all their survivors burn under the desert sun that is so very much like the hellfire they do not believe in and are inevitably bound for. All those that still resist are on their last legs and must surrender shortly.

estm. remaining in Airopa: 4,170

Cadenza's Playlist

2009-08-31T23:07:00.000-04:00

Cadenza's Playlist (got this idea from Sakume. x3 These would either be songs she likes/listens to, or that relate to her in some way, etc. I got lazy and stopped after a while otherwise there'd probably be a lot more. xP)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y4lYF3Ic_E&feature=related - "I'll Stand By You" by Carrie Underwood (favorite song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFDppHjfXPU - "Baby Mine" from Dumbo (lullaby for Kate)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZqEqypU4cs&feature=related - "Love Song" by 311 (song with Johnny)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWsfrHvUMZM - "Sunday Morning" by Maroon 5 (song with Johnny)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygctbqBijFk - "Hips Don't Lie" by Shakira (dance song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DSFyA7t4_E - "Kelas (Let's Dance)" from FMA (gypsy song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f9GmkBZvr8&feature=related - "Requiem" from FMA (flamenco/gypsy song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB4NVIfKNLI&feature=fvw - "Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves" by Cher
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkrwTfEBOvA&feature=channel - "Harder to Breathe" by Maroon 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWFxW9-9HSg - "Mercy" by One Republic (song to Life/Gaia)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvA7Ej9N_5Y&feature=related - "Come Home" by One Republic (song with Paris)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKHOX_yeU_c&feature=related - "Goodbye Apathy" by One Republic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96BAdNozO3M&feature=related - "Sleep" by One Republic (song with Death/Morticus)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD66A1_FVb8 - "Secret Smile" by Semisonic (song with Rain)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-4dWj4nfsU - "Into the Fire" by Thirteen Senses (song with Rain)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3CxhBIrBho - "All I Ever Wanted" by Basshunter (driving song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2Z56le7-H4& - "Ready for the Weekend" by Calvin Harris (driving song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J5o9aCSR84 - "Colours" by Calvin Harris (driving song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3iJUajDF58& - "Love You More" by Basshunter (closest to her voice but without Cadenza's accent)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=705LEH3j2g0 - "Jaded" by Aerosmith
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJGA3SCH8E8 - "Smooth Criminal" by Michael Jackson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdCfcjmxouo - "Be Yourself" by Audioslave (song played with Louis)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtyJbIOZjS8 - "Thriller" by Michael Jackson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhHEu3A6cjI - "Mas Que Nada" by Sergio Mendes (samba remix)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx__Cu9Oz1I - "Alem do Horizonte" by Roberto Carlos (traditional song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndLv3KosuQY - "More Than a Memory" by Hoobastank
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQcNiD0Z3MU - "Personal Jesus" by Johnny Cash (song with Cain)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dCMvZ4lBKI - "Snakecharmer" by Ottmar Liebert (Spanish guitar song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_qzLH3FgxM - "Solea" by Vicente Amigo (flamenco guitar as Cadenza would play)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWZpCJ_7ed4&feature=related - "Alegrias" by Vicente Amigo (other flamenco guitar song she'd play)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTI4igeoyBw - "Yummy" by Gwen Stefani (dance song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2poqYvWsyU - "Live Forever" by Oasis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hzrDeceEKc&feature=channel - "Wonderwall" by Oasis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuC4-BL3-bs - "If I Fell in Love with You" by the Beatles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COLbULs08EQ - "Yesterday" by the Beatles

Short Story: Lucid Dreamin' (Cadenza)

2009-07-14T23:40:00.004-04:00

My clothes were damp and smelled of salt, and I couldn't remember why. I was laying on something hard and lumpy. I dug my hands down into the ground by my sides, and up came cool, packed sand... was this the beach? When did I come here...? The sun was beating down on my shut eyelids, hot with the intensity of the afternoon, and after a point I started to see dots floating around, until finally I blinked and looked up...

"Hey sleepyhead, you wandered off again! Mommy and Daddy were worried!" this, from a little blonde girl who was beaming at me with two missing front teeth. The shadow the huge yellow bow she wore on her head cast on me felt like a giant bird gazing down at me.

I wasn't sure what to say to her. She seemed to know me. But another little kid, a chestnut-haired boy this time, loomed over me now and saved me from having to talk.

"You must really like this beach! You keep comin' here, lady. Come on and come back to the hut with us, it's lunchtime!" he, too, beamed at me, and held out a little sandy hand to help me up.

I took it, and shielding my eyes with a hand from the sun, managed to get up on my feet. I felt a little lightheaded, but my steps found their places evenly in the sand as I followed the girl and who I assumed was her older brother. They took me back towards a small clay hut with a grass-woven roof, surrounded by many huts of the same kind.

"Mommy's makin' shrimp today!" the boy announced to me, as if this was a great treat. "Have you ever eaten shrimp...?"

I shook my head and told him I didn't know. Where shrimp the little wriggly sea creatures with the tails...? Gods only knew. I seemed to vaguely remember asking that question before.

"Smell that tea!" the girl exclaimed as we went in, and I bent low to fit in the small doorway behind her. "I think Mommy's puttin' coconut milk in it...!"

"Sounds nice..." I murmured emptily. To be honest, I couldn't much remember what anything tasted like anymore, but the smell was sort of pleasant.

The boy led me to a stout wooden chair in front of a very herbal-smelling fire. I looked in and saw they were burning large plant leaves among the dry logs. A large tan woman in an apron turned round from cooking over the fire and gave me a warm smile, as if I were someone familiar. "You like the herbs we gathered today, lady...? Smell very good."

It struck me then that the whole time I'd been awake so far, the people had only called me "lady", as if they didn't know my name... I couldn't even think of it myself, but this seemed weird. I asked about it.

"You never told us your name, lady," the boy explained, "you just showed up one day on the shore like that other guy. He was kinda like you, too."

"Who was he...!?" I blurted out suddenly, with urgency. I don't know why the mention of the man clicked with me so strongly, but I desperately felt I wanted to know who he was. Maybe... maybe it'd help explain who I was.

"I dunno," the girl said, chuckling, "just some big man who washed up too. He didn't 'member his name either. We took care of him," she seemed proud of this last bit. She beamed her little open grin at me again.

"We liked him a lot, he played with us all the time, and he was really strong and could push us really fast on the tire swings!" the boy added.

I nodded a little lamely at them and settled back down in my chair. I felt disappointed. They hadn't told me very much. "I want to go home to my family," I found myself saying for some reason. Did I have a family away from here...? It sounded true...

"But we are your family!" the girl protested. "You were gonna be our big sister..."

"Big sister...?" I looked back towards the large woman cooking over the fire. Yes, she had a sort of... matronly way about her, but she didn't look anywhere near old enough to be my mother. I remembered my reflection in the water, a small memory from before... judging from that, the woman might only have been ten years my senior. She had scarcely a wrinkle on her broad, tan face. "I'm too old..."

Both boy and girl giggled at this. "Too old?" the girl chorused, "No way! You're really young! I only said 'big' 'cause you're taller!"

I looked at her blankly at this. The girl... Trisha, I think her name had been. She only looked maybe six years old, possibly seven. Her big brother... Shane, he had told me before... he might have been ten. How on earth was I "young" to these kids...?

"Don't you remember...?" Shane asked me, as if it were something obvious he was about to tell me, "We're hundreds of years old! Trisha's only one-hundred and seven this next month, really, but still. You're a baby compared to us!"

The mother at the hearth nodded to assure me this wasn't just some joke the kids were playing. "Aye," she said, "we all rich in years."

"But I'm young...?"

"Yeah!" Trisha piped up, "You're the first young person to come here in a looong time. The other guy was old, like us. 'Cept he looked young, too."

"Looked young... you all look young... and so... energetic... but I'm just tired." I slumped back in the little chair and tried to take this all in. As my eyes wandered around the room, and the kids took to playing a small chasing game, I noticed the patchwork rug hanging on the wall of the hut, with the name "BROWN" stitched in large, bold letters.

"Is that your name...? Your... last name...?"

"Aye," the woman grunted, bringing over the pan of sizzling shrimp. It smelled delicious and fresh, and the butter was still nice and yellow and melted at the bottom. "All here called Brown. Even man, he thought he was called Brown in another tongue."

"In another language... maybe mine...? Marrone... that could be it..."

The mother looked at me with widened eyes. "You remember language...?"

"I... yeah, I think so... I think I'm... starting to remember. But I still want to go home..."

She studied my face for a moment, as the kids scurried over and picked shrimp from the pan with sticks. Eventually, she gave a sigh, and seemed to reach some sort of tough decision. "Follow river by mountains," she told me plainly, "Should take to town."

"...To town. Yeah... thank you."

Trisha and Shane stopped their nibbling of shrimp and dribbling of warm butter and looked up at this with sad eyes. "You're leaving...?" both cried at once. "But we'll miss you...!"

"No," their mother cut in, "she not one of us, and she must go home. Not right to keep lady here when she want go. We give her food to take. Wish luck."

Trisha's eyes were watering. She rant to a large shiny pot on a table, and crying, thrust her hand deep into it, pulling out a small golden charm. "For strength...!" she told me, running back and clasping it in my hand. "It'll help you get to town! If you ever feel weak, just... just look at it and wish!"

"For strength...?"

"Yeah, for Strength...!"

I looked at the charm gleaming in my hands for a moment. The symbol etched into it seemed familiar, but I wasn't sure why. But somehow, I felt things would get better... only, I felt really tired now. I closed my eyes for a moment, and the smells of the hut seemed to slowly fade away, and along with it, Trisha and Shane's chattering voices, and the mother's terse grunts... there was the lumpiness of the hard, damp sand underneath me, and then... a soft bed.

So I was asleep, and I was home again. And that was a dream. At least, I think so... it had felt so real. I knew who I was again, but then... who was... who was Marrone? Could he really be the Spirit I was looking for...?

Short Story - The Gypsy Purge of Airopa: Parte Uno

2009-07-04T21:04:00.005-04:00

She had been expecting it to be a shack.

But instead, the place that stood before her, just outside of Denadoro, on the line between Cernilia and Rubato, was quite possibly the biggest house she had ever seen. It had balconies, and bay windows, and stories upon buttressed stories rising up towards the high afternoon sun. There was a long right wing that stretched along like the branch of a tree over to the cliffs on the east, and the corridors that could be seen through the windows were filled with countless shelves of yellowing books. The front door itself was a large wooden affair studded with gold, and an ornate doorknocker shaped like a whimsical fairy stared out at passersby with wings outstretched. Some people claimed that the house was haunted, but such houses like this always drew colorful rumors.

Cadenza shifted the heft of the bag hanging from her shoulder, checked her pocket for a charm, and stepped up to grasp the doorknocker. It banged against the door with a ringing, hollow sound that seemed to echo throughout the entire mansion. "Eerie," she thought, standing and waiting for some kind of response. "And we wonder why people think we're witches."

There were heavy, irritable footsteps, accompanied by a grumbling voice and lots of jangling metal jewelry. It approached the door and then there was a noise like a jar full of marbles tumbling to the ground as the door was swung open and an old, leathery tan face stared out from behind a beaded curtain that was still clacking and clattering with motion.

"Who are you?" the voice as wispy as a snake's hiss--ruined only by a bad smoker's cough--demanded.

"Gypsy," Cadenza shot back, pulling the charm from her pocket and holding it out as if it were some sort of badge, or maybe a mint to ward off bad nicotine breath.

The old woman's eyes fell on the little brass and copper sun, studying it curiously at length, stepping back a little into the house and making the bead curtain sway and clatter again. "Navarre tribe," she uttered finally in recognition, in a thoughtful tone that said she'd turned the name over several times in her mind and had dredged up all the history that came along with it. "Which generation?"

"Hell if I know, Signora. Certainly not one of the first. I'm not even from Castile--but anyway, that's not the sort of history lesson I quite came for. I'm told you have the most extensive library of gypsy records and diaries this side of the Seria Ocean. That true?"

The woman had undergone a perceptible change in mood at the mention of the library. Suddenly her eyes became suspicious, protective. "Why?" she rasped, erupting into an unpleasant cough. She paused for a moment to pop a foul-smelling lozenge on her tongue, then said, sucking as the throat drop clacked against gold teeth, "What must you research in my library?"

Oh yes, Cadenza had noticed it, despite all the distracting noises and smells. The stress on "my". This indeed was a woman who'd been troubled before for the controversial knowledge stored in her home, a woman who, if the stories were right, was of a family who'd been chased out of Airopa during the very purge and knew some of the darkest, seediest tales of it. The truth was always found in the blacker parts of history, Cadenza'd always thought. The parts people wanted to hide.

"The reason we're here in this desert, Signora. The purge. The reason why you saw that old Navarre charm and knew it was one of the last of its kind that'd ever be made. Because that tribe's been just about wiped out. As have most of the ones from that time."

The old withered gypsy seemed to consider this, stroking her drooping chins with a handful of large antique rings as she swallowed her throat drop. She ran another judgmental eye over Cadenza, as if seeing her for the first time, and then squinted hard in concentration, her furry brows knitting together. "You are... Sonya's child, yes? Girl I made earrings for...? And now... you've grown so very much... and come to learn your roots, is that it?"

"That's why I remembered you... Sonya always spoke of Signora Carla della Foncé as the most talented and knowledgable gypsy we had left in the community," Cadenza answered, trying to lay the compliments on thick. "I think she took me to you when I was four."

"Yes, I remember..." the thin red-lipsticked lips curled into a grin, "bright-eyed child, sort of curious, a little wary around strangers. Very excited to learn though. You stayed close to your mae the whole time. I think I frightened you a little," the old woman gave a hoarse cackle like a cat dislodging a stubborn hairball. "I thought I might see you again someday."

"Yeah, well... here I am. Now can I come in and have a look at that library?" the younger woman said impatiently, wanting to steer away from the drive further down memory lane.

Carla nodded and drew aside the curtain, taking a step back further into the dimly-lit interior of the house, "Come, come. I shall put a pot of herbal tea on. Good for the lungs."

"Yeah, heh, you would know."

The old woman seemed to ignore the wisecrack, taking Cadenza by the shoulder and leading her into the smoky kitchen full of burning incense and old pots and pans hanging from hooks on every flowery-wallpapered wall. She seemed to have enough cookware to serve an entire army.

"...Got grandchildren or something?"

"Oh, several. Half the town of Allegre must be related to me somehow, dear. And I served as midwife for the rest, I'm certain."

Cadenza stared at her for a moment, swearing that the old woman was grinning at her. "Er... good genes, I bet."

"You'd win that bet," the woman gave a wink that nearly upset Cadenza's stomach. Wrinkly old women should never wink when wearing false eyelashes like that, she thought--it looked like a spider was crawling over her eye. Carla didn't seem to realize.

The younger woman cleared her throat to bridge the awkward silence that followed. "So... that tea? And I'll just go have a peek at the books, sound good?"

"Sure, dear," Carla was busily wrestling with getting some herbs down from shelves in the pantry. Her skirts and veils billowed and rustled like they were in hurricane winds with her effort. "Start with the mauve book at the beginning of the first low shelf. I find it... sets up the feeling for the rest," she gave a labored cough and stumbled back triumphantly with a handful of green herbs, holding them in the air as if they were her trophy.

As she wheezed in the background and the tea kettle whistled softly, Cadenza strode on to the musty corridors that led to, and seemed to have been taken over by, the library. She strolled by, passing her hands over the dusty volumes, trying to judge what passed for a "low shelf" when she came to a small, two-tier wooden cabinet under a window that had a photo perched atop it. The picture inside the frame was sepia-toned and faded from age, but still very clearly seen was the happy couple looking back at the camera on what must have been their wedding day. The bride was a gypsy... that could be told from the golden bangles and earrings that she wore as her dowry on that day. The man... he seemed Airopan, possibly... from Maximilia? He had that dark hair but fair skin, and the moustaches that were all the fashion of the country at that time. There were names written at the bottom, but the paper had crumbled away and it was too difficult to read.

The gypsy searched through the books until she found a mauve-covered one tied shut with a chocolate-colored ribbon, and pulled it from the shelf. When she untied the ribbon and opened to the beginning, she saw that it had signed the name of Carla's great grandmother, Lupe Maneira della Foncé, and there was a clipping from an old research journal on the very next page...

"Sociological Research of Subject 'Gypsies' - Kingsborough University of Behavioral Sciences"

"...They are a superstitious, subhuman culture, with many strange and unreasonable ways. They do not raise livestock, nor grow crops. They have no doctors; instead, they believe "magic" can cure them. They do not have weapons; they believe, also, that "magic" can protect them. They claim not to reject science, but seem to think they can defy the laws of it. They do not trade their gold, but rather hoard it away from generation to generation and display it garishly on their brides. They are akin to witches, and have many scrolls of "spells" and odd talismans they believe to possess power. They travel from place to place, infecting it with their "traditions" and selling their beads and other worthless trinkets of illogical belief. They speak of "Spirits", and renounce any ideas of Heaven or Hell. They idle away their days and nights in dance and song and strange rituals, only further spreading the plague of their superstitions by having more and more children. They are a pox on this land. We must rid ourselves of them, as other great civilizations have done of their burdensome groups in the past...."

"--Friedrick Samuel Taylor, of Kingsborough, Rochester, 12 May 1750"

"...And she said this would set up the feeling for the rest," Cadenza thought, wanting to slam the book shut, wishing she could slam something else--like maybe a boulder--on the man who'd written these words over two-hundred and fifty years ago. "She was f*cking right, if the feeling she wants me to have is wanting to torch any book that says something like this."

But she didn't get up from where she sat, instead settling for turning the page and seeing what more there was. She had to remind herself that she had been expecting things like this. After the clipping, the actual diary seemed to start, written in Signora Lupe's own curly script.

"Dear Diary,

We have been kicked out of the forests of Osterreich this week. We had simply settled down there to tend to our ill after this recent bout of malaria, but the king declared us a health risk to the neighboring farms and ordered us to be cleared out before dawn, lest we face military action. I don't understand this sudden hostility... we had always been welcome to camp in the Weisse lushlands, in the forests and lakes so long as we didn't disturb the farmers kilometers from them. But now... King Bayern has been facing pressure from other nations, our elders have said... pressure to banish us from his kingdom, and... he must be folding under that pressure. We have now been driven out of Ivanova and Osterreich... what will be next? I fear, soon, we may not even be able to return home to Castile... things are beginning to go very bad for gypsies in Maxmillia, even, where my sweet Claude waits... I do hope he will still wait for me on the day we should be wed. I am carrying his child... I feel the baby kicking from time to time, and it excites me... I do wish very much to be a mother. The midwife says I am doing well...

Write again tomorrow, we must be on the move south to Gardenia.

27 Junio 1751"

Character Pondering: What Do I Want...? (Cadenza)

2009-06-09T21:51:00.005-04:00

"I was born into a poor country. When I was growing up, I saw all around me people who didn't have food, people who didn't have homes, people who were sick... some who were mentally ill. They had nothing. I wanted to change things for these people... make Rubato a place people wanted to live. I went to school and studied hard, thinking that if I learned enough, I could change things. But as I got older, I did just the opposite. I made Rubato a place to be feared, a name whispered in back alleys... and when he needed me, I couldn't even help my own pai. It took me years to get him out of prison and set things right... thirteen long years before I found out the real problem that had thrown him there in the first place. The country had gotten even worse in those intervening years, had slid further into poverty and into the grasp of other nations. Finally, I had money, and I had influence... I hoped that those would finally be the tools that would help me to do something. To fix things. To at least change the lives of the people before me. I couldn't help everyone, but I could at least do what I could for those I met, I could use that money... spread it around, make it work. They always had said money and power could fix anything. You could buy cooperation, or information... you could pay enough for a solution. Money seemed magical. It was the thing I'd never had.

"But nothing I ever did that mattered took only money in the end. It helped sometimes, but... it never resolved the whole thing. It would pay for Kate's new bedroom, and clothes, and toys, but it didn't give her the love she needed. That was more complicated. And it could close down Marcus' old place of work, but... it couldn't help him start anew. That took something more. Not a dollar could wake Luminari up, shake her up, make her open up... you could throw all the zecca you wanted at the people of Medina, and they still wouldn't give the mages a second look. Louis couldn't find a real companion with just cash... Fabi and Chris and Alex needed more than just that to find families. Money's not the key to life's troubles... so why did I go around amassing it? Why did it seem to be the root of all my problems as a kid, the reason I was looked down on at Blancwood, the reason my family struggled along...? What really is the tool that can help the people I see around me...? What's going to change their lives...

"I've spent thirty years now trying to find a solution, but I still know no better than when I was a little girl on the streets. I can't keep lucking into answers. It just leaves me hopeless and clueless when another problem arises that I can't help... I don't want to be that powerless kid staring up at the empty sky while people suffer around me. I don't..."