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 Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 6:31 pm
Silvrya Excuse me while I kiss the sky. -Jimi Hendrix
Agent’s StatsAgent: Melody Age: age – 10 Gender: Gender: Female Arcana Destiny My Tarot card:The Star My Mark has been burned on my: Left shoulder bladeMy MaskI wield the power of: Healing, both physical and spiritual. But her power is limited. If someone were near death, she is unable to bring them back. Similarly, she cannot purify an extremely malicious spirit. It takes a lot of energy for her to do this. Trying to hard to heal someone could make her fall unconcious or even kill her. Bio Personality: Melody is like the morning star, bright and optimistic. She is a daydreamer who never really grasped what reality is and accepts strange things as they come without thinking much about them. These are a few of my favorite things: She likes singing, star-gazing, and wandering. She is also very good at lucid dreaming and daydreaming. My weaknesses and dislikes:She hates hurting others. When others cry, she often feels like her heart would break. She is mostly defenseless when under attack. Yet she does not despair, for she believes that there are powers watching over her and protecting her. I dance to the rhythm of:The light spring rain My history Melody's mother passed soon after she was born. Her father was a hunter. Although he had trained her how to weild the knife and gun and how to defend herself if ever she was attacked by wild animals, she was never very good at it and prefered to spend her time alone. Often, she could be found tending to plants that have folded over, guiding lost young animals home, or nursing wounded creatures. Most spirits in the forest were kind to her. She had spent most of her time with them, in their pleasant and calm company. This was the life that she lived for much of her childhood.
She was only 10 when she came upon her first dark spirit. Frozen in fear, she did what any ten year old child would do, run home. On the way she prayed to everything she had ever known in hope that something would protect her. As she neared her front door, her vision blurred and her feet crumbled under her and darkness passed over her completely as she thought that she was going to die.
When she woke again, Melody found herself sitting on hew own straw bed with her father and a stanger beside her. Her father embraced her immediately and told her that she had been unconcious for nearly a week. The stranger only smiled.
What happened next seemed like a dream. The stranger, Radik, asked her to choose a card and without further thinking, she chose the star. And soon she was sent off the the acadamy. Her father was glad that she could have a life away from being a hunter for he knew how hard it was for her to kill.
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Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 7:13 pm
mc2 You never know how lucky you are until you are at the end of your luck.
Agent’s StatsAgent: Kiora Morganstern Nyx // Kira Age: 24 Gender: female Arcana Destiny My Tarot card:the Devil My Mark has been burned on my: on the center of my upper back My Mask I wield the power of: blindness...the devil causes one to be blinded by vice and greed and Kira's power is a physical manifestation of this. With a single touch she can render any creature blind for up to several hours.Bio Personality: Kira is often described as having a split personality. She is a serious student with a generally positive disposition studying hard to be the best cardholder she can be. Yet, she has a uncontrollable streak to her. She is stubborn and easily jealous, with a streak of a wild child in her- fed mostly by her addiction to gambling and making sport of those around her. These are a few of my favorite things:
Gambling
Alcohol (though it does not agree with Kira)
Drawing
Math (specifically probability and statistics)
Fencing
My weaknesses and dislikes:
Bad luck (especially in gambling)
Alcohol
Those who have more than her
complex technological devices that are difficult to use
I dance to the rhythm of: Memories-Within Temptation My history Kira was born under an unlucky star, the daughter of two major arcane card holders- her father the Devil card holder and her mother the holder of the Death card. And like many from card holder lineages she knew loss early on in her life. Her father, Alexander Nyx, was from the famous Nyx family of card holders, was the last of the Nyx clan and passed away in battle before Kiora was even born.
When Kiora was born it was evident that she was destined to be a card holder, for the voices of spirits were the baby's lullabies. And, when Kira was five Alice Morganstern-Nyx, Kira's mother, spread the cards out in front of her to be chosen by Kira. The young Kira reached in quickly and pulled the first card her eyes laid sight on and when the card was turned over it was revealed to be the Devil card. Kira's mother smiled and said ruffling the girl's blonde hair- the same color as her father's once was- "The Devil... just like your father. Well, darling, I need to go now: I have a mission. Don't worry I promise I will return. Take care of your card, now." And, that was the last words Alice Morganstern-Nyx ever said to her daughter, for she never returned from that fateful mission- leaving Kiora orphaned.
Kira's mother had planned for the worst though, and Kira was sent to live with Alice's older sister Anne and Anne's husband Jack Bernard, neither card holders as Alice Morganstern-Nyx had been the only cardholder from her family. If the Bernards were leery of having a card holder-especially the holder of the Devil card- enter into their family they never showed it. Instead they raised her as one of their own child- just as their son, George, who was a year older than Kira. During the school years Kira was raised in the best local schools, whether it was private school in Boston till she was nine or public schools in London after Jack got a business transfer, but in the summer Kira had a different lifestyle than George. Most summers she was sent to stay with various cardholders and their families so she could learn more about her duty as a cardholder; however, by 15 most summers she stayed with the Bernards training on her own as she had been given a solid foundation from her childhood.
In school she would have been a model student, for her grades were near the top of her class and placed nationally in fencing, if it wasn't for her wild streak. She was always in the corner for something in elementary- getting Bobby to eat glue on a dare, beating up the boys, doing other's homework for money. And in high school she was always in detention- setting up the biggest gambling ring in the history of the school, caught snogging Sebastien, and dying the head cheerleader's hair blue.
In the end she got accepted to college in the States and majored in Statistics. There after several boyfriends she settled for a Fredrick Tomas, a previous member of the pistol varsity team at her college. After graduation, Fredrick and Kira began living together until she got the call from Radik that she was needed. Hoping to sway her to stay, Fredrick proposed to Kira. Kira said yes, took the ring, and hopped on the first plane headed to the Czech Republic. After all, Kiora Morganstern Nyx did not spend her whole life preparing to be a cardholder to abandon her duty when the call came.
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Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 9:06 pm
Lord-Miles The brighter the sun, the harder to see.
Agent’s StatsAgent:Adrian Van Alen // Vyrkomod Chuz Age: 19 Gender: Male Arcana Destiny My Tarot card:The Sun (Reversed) My Mark has been burned on: The arch of my right foot.My MaskI wield the power of: Sunset. In a normal reading of The Sun, the card shows new life and growth as the sun rises higher into the sky. When reversed however, it shows a sunset, the sun has passed its zenith and has now begun to fade. Similarly Vyrkomod was gifted with the ability to drain the energy from the world around him. Generally manifesting as a dim grayish-gold haze emitted in a cone from his outstretched hands, objects or persons caught within this field will have their kinetic energy sapped away while within its boundaries, slowing projectiles and freezing them in midair and making any movement by self-propelled organisms drain their stamina within a matter of moments. Prolonged exposure will continue sapping energy, even down to a molecular level, the target finding itself becoming colder and colder, beginning to actually freeze (under normal circumstances) after about two minutes of steady exposure. The size and shape of the field can be altered according to Vyrkomod’s will, but doing so requires concentration. This being something he lacks quite often, Vyrkomod generally is only able to generate a field ten feet long and six feet wide at the very end.Bio Personality:At his core, Vyrkomod is a amicable aristocratic youth who genuinely enjoys the company of others and does what he can to negotiate disputes and always keep the group going. He is the last person to get angry, and when irritated tries to let off steam by performing manual labor or exercising rather than resorting to crossing tongues. However due to his insanity this is not always the case. As put by a physician who studied his mental activity, Vyrkomod’s brain is essentially dreaming while he’s awake. Normally this only shows up as hallucinations, but as with all dreams can get unpredictable and should he believe himself to be a “great hero fighting against alien invaders” will act with total certainty towards his reality. It is unknown whether he is sane while sleeping, or dreams even then. These are a few of my favorite things:
·Gardening
·Collectable Card Games
·Fluffy Things
·Spicy Food
·Clear Weather My weaknesses and dislikes:· Heat (thermal)
·Being Alone
·Terrible Strategist
·Nut Allergies I dance to the rhythm of:Artificial Intelligence My history: As a member of the illustrious Van Alen family, it was entirely expected from a young age that Adrian would one day be a ‘card-carrying‘ (oh how his parents had laughed at that ‘joke‘) member of the Arcane Society. And sure enough the lad did show a remarkable sensitivity to the spirit world, in some cases perhaps too much sensitivity. Not three hours after a five-year-old Adrian had run bawling to his parents about a ‘scary bloody man‘ staring at him from the ceiling, had the nurse arrived in a similar fashion, screaming that Adrian was running around through the house shrieking German profanities. Apparently the same ’scary bloody man’ had been the spirit of a soldier killed over sixty years ago on the very ground the Van Alen’s new estate covered. Long since consumed by the overwhelming hatred of death and longing for life, the soldier‘s ghost had been steadily following Adrian throughout the house upon realization that it had been seen, and as such the child was sensitive to the spirit realm and possibly… could allow passage back into life. The first moment Adrian was alone again (which was some time considering the fuss his parents were making about his newly discovered sensitivity) the spirit immediately swooped down and engulfed the boy before even the slightest cry could escape his terrified frame. Using whatever instinctual knowledge it is that comes to those who pass from this world into the beyond, the intangible mass of spirit wormed through Adrian’s physical form to invade his psyche, his very soul. It was there, in that space some have claimed is a room that reflects one’s true self that icy fingers closed around the still-screaming boy and severed its place within that body, the dead soldier Viktor Korcheff assuming control, the inner world of Adrian withering away as a new consciousness arose within. Or, perhaps this is merely a poetic fabrication of the true process, for who could know with certainty how the mind is invaded? Only the spirits themselves, but understandably they have deigned to refuse any interview. What can be known is that which followed. Using Adrian‘s body, the spirit fled throughout the interior of Van Alen estate for unknown reasons. However, having possessed the body of a mere child, he was quickly subdued when the case was identified as not being a result of normal 5 year-old energy. Within a day, the frantic call for a suitable exorcist had been answered and a woman by the name of Adriana Beltois had entered into the estate. Hastily the plainly, yet practically dressed woman was escorted to the young boy‘s room where the now hysteric nurse had been watching over the possessed child since his capture, fearing that any moment he may tear free of his bed sheet bonds. With practiced ease, Madame Beltois plucked the boy from where he sat on the stripped bed and held him aloft, displaying a strength far surpassing what would have been expected from her small arms. Grasping both his body and head, Madame Beltois locked gazes with the child, holding it even as spittle from the mouth of the now-exhausted boy flicked against her cheeks and glasses. For many minutes this stalemate was held, a rising tension in the air the only sign any changes were occurring. Yet finally the feeble motions of Adrian’s body slowed and, entirely limp Madame Beltois carefully replaced the body onto the bed, a tiny flickering blue nimbus contained within her right hand as she drew away. Cupping the light within both hands, the exorcist (for what else could she be?) bowed her head as if in prayer, whispered a short phrase and upon opening her hands again, showed that they were empty.
----
“That boy, he may have a remarkable sensitivity to the world beyond but I fear that this comes with a terrible burden to him personally.” Taking one last sip from the dainty cup of tea she had been offered a moment ago as a small token of hospitality by the inordinately grateful Mr. and Mrs. Van Alen whom also happened to be Adrian‘s parents, Adriana softly replaced the cup on it’s equally dainty saucer and fixed the two adults with a look that silenced their babbling discussion of thanks and payment.
“In most cases, the spiritual awakening is a ‘removal of the blindfold‘ if you will. The world beyond is, and always has been real, but normally humans are unable to perceive it unless they become aware. Yet in Adrian‘s case his ‘second sight‘ does not merely allow him to sense the beyond, it has opened him fully and as such has become an open vessel to that world. From now on, not only will he see the spirits from beyond, but they will see him as well, and the less cautious ones will attempt to use him to cross over once again. In essence.” She said quietly to the now eerily-silent study.
“This possession was merely the first, safeguards will protect him to some limit but inevitably it will happen again and again unless he gains the power within himself to protect his spirit and mind from outside influences.”
----
And in the following years, those ominous words rang true again and again. Adriana came into the employment of the Van Alen household officially as a nurse (the other one had resigned after the episode) but also as a tutor of sorts to the growing boy. Though his mental defenses grew steadily over the years, Adrian found himself isolated within the household due to his ‘condition‘. Though always trying to give him a life as normal as a Van Alen could have, he found himself denied more and more chances as the possessions overtook him. A demon named Kolgrim forbid him from future parties his parents hosted or traveled to, and Oubliette barred boarding school forever. Even visits with his cousin Artemis grew strained after the untimely appearance of another deceased soul from World War II, Mariette, appeared during one of her summer stays. Yet even as all semblance of normality was stripped from him with each possession, the gentle words of Adriana kept him from despair.
“The hand that has been dealt to you.” She whispered sternly, wiping the tears from Adrian’s reddened face after the exorcism of his sixth spirit, Mariette. More tears welled up from within his eyes when a quick glance to the side revealed his cousin sneaking looks at him through her own mother’s arms who hurriedly kept trying to move her away from the ten year-old.
“Was not one to your advantage. However.” Adriana clasped Adrian’s face and turned it towards her own unshakable sea-green eyes.
“You must not despair. Every obstacle that appears in front of you can be overcome. Any wound you receive can heal. You- Adrian look at me, look at- You are a strong boy Adrian, I can feel your own strength when I draw the invaders from within you. There is a warm glow inside, and though it may be small now, I can feel the way it fights the spirits with all its strength. One day Adrian, that glow within you will begin to shine, and no shadow, no spirit, no obstacle of any sort will be able to block its brilliance. You light your own path, never forget that.
Though at first Adrian dismissed his tutor’s words, as all children will when in sorrow, the more he searched, the more they seemed to ring true. Perhaps some members of the outside world hay have closed him off, but in doing so opportunities to meet others arose. And even if those too deserted him, humans in the world were never in short supply. Maybe the halls of his home seemed to push him back when they rang of foreign voices all chattering to one another, but the shadows behind the lilac bushes enveloped him in a loving embrace. After all, Gardener MacGregeor was going deaf in one ear and hardly cared if the hands helping him pull weeds belonged to a small child or a tentacled squid-monster from Zintok IV as long as they actually worked and didn’t dilly-dally damnit!
And then came that fateful day. A soggy October afternoon completely undistinguishable from those many others that had preceded it (barring the dry ones), a crisp white envelope addressed with a flowing hand and sealed with crimson wax arrived at the Van Alen’s estate. Within the week, it stated, they would be visited upon by the Arcane Society whom wished to interview one Adrian Van Alen. Sheer elation coursed through every fiber of Adrian’s nearly-adult body as he scanned the lines over and over again until the tears in his eyes obscured all vision. Here was the group he had heard about since childhood, the same organization who had trained Madame Beltois (who at the moment was visiting family back in France) and who she had assured him would be able to help him far more than she could.
Finally a place where his powers would not be just a burden!
The days leading up to the Arcane Society’s arrival were lost in a haze of celebrations, congratulations, and preparations. Ultimately the sighting of the Society’s vehicle seemed to come faster than anyone imagined, and the air was charged with an energy so powerful that some maids were heard joking that the light bubs didn’t even have to be screwed in to give light.
The entourage turned out to be very small. Radik was accompanied only by one other member of the society. Pleasantries were exchanged and, stuffing the small talisman Adriana had given him to help focus his mind into his suit pocket, Adrian escorted the two to a private study.
And there is where it all went wrong.
The interview itself went by fairly painlessly, but a strange air filled the room as the all-important deck of tarot cards was shuffled and laid out on the table. Hovering his fingers above the each card, a magnetism seemed to pull them one way, and then the other finally settling above one particularly old-looking card. Trembling, Adrian brought his hand to rest on the card and slowly flipped it over. Across the table from him, Radik could clearly read the words “The Sun”. To Adrian however the card was flipped in reverse. No time was allowed to reflect upon this omen however, as a stabbing bolt of pain leapt from the fingers still resting on the card to Adrian’s brain. The all-too familiar feeling of a foreign intelligence invading his mind threw Adrian to the floor, his fingers desperately grasping for his pocket. After that, he knew darkness.
Later, the story of the occurrence would be told in soft tones to Adrian’s parents. Somehow, a psychic ‘echo’ of a powerful spirit Zemus had found a way to latch onto The Sun card. Most likely this had occurred in the terrible battle many years back which had claimed the lives of nearly all of the Card-Bearers. The previous wielder of that card had vanquished Zemus, but also had fallen as he stuck the final blow. Normally such a weak trace of a spirit would pose no threat to any potential cardholder, but in Adrian’s unique case…
The attendee Radik had brought with him had turned out to be an exorcist in training, and in an attempt to finally show the fruits of his labor, had banished the spirit within Adrian. Yet the technique used was too harsh, too unrefined and to the already-frayed fabric of Adrian’s mind, too much to bear. Zemus was banished back to the Spirit realm yes, but along with it had gone a piece of Adrian’s psyche.
The Arcane Society… to Adrian it had once been a hope, a dream for a new beginning, but in an act fueled by youthful hubris they had perhaps taken all of that and more away. After all, the Society are protectors of this world from the next, what use can a fool who cannot distinguish between reality and delusion be? Their fault perhaps, but does the responsibility for one overrule the potential harm that may come to others?
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Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2011 10:54 pm
Silvrya We pass the word around; we ponder how the case is put by different people, we read the poetry; we meditate over the literature; we play the music; we change our minds; we reach an understanding. Society evolves this way, not by shouting each other
Agent’s Stats Agent:Jade QuiYu Ling (林秋雨) Age: 32 Gender: Female Arcana Destiny My Tarot card:Queen of Swords My Mark has been burned on my: hips, the side, peaking out through the waistline of her pants My Mask I wield the weapon of: SabreElement: Water Bio Personality:Perceptive and full of information as the Queen of Swords should be. Sometimes, she needs to keep her tongue in check as she often ends up hurting other people These are a few of my favorite things: Fencing, Literature, Poetry,tea My weaknesses and dislikes:Waking up early, people who just won't shut up, people who "can't grammar". I dance to the rhythm of:I don't dance-ever. My history Born in the United States, she was adopted by a pair of Chinese American parents when she was only a few months old. She has always thought of her adoptive parents as her real ones, and they treated her as their own child, even though they did not have children of their own. When she was two years old, her parents moved back to Shanghai where she lived for most of her childhood. Being the only blonde, white girl in her classes, she was sometimes treated mildly differently. Occasionally people would assume that she couldn't speak chinese, even though that was her first language. However, she still made wonderful friends and achieved much academically, being always the top of her class.
Jade was practically born with a sword in her hand. As her mother adored weapons, and having fenced a bit herself when she was younger, she enrolled Jade into a fencing school at age 6. Starting with foil, she quickly mastered the footwork and techniques and became quite a competent fencer. Her coach was very proud of her, although he never admit it.
When she was 12 years old, she and her parents moved back to the United States, to Virginia. Here, she continued to pursue her love for the sport. As her new club offered all three weapons, she decided to give sabre a try and she absolutely loved it. Once she got used to slashing instead of poking, she became the best sabre fencer on the team.
In high school, she found her love for literature. Coupled with her love for fencing, she became quite a busy student. Yet, she still managed to somehow skip two years and then enter college when she was only 16.
In University, Jade double majored in English Literature and Chinese History, and then got her PhD at the age of 26. Her fencing career went equally well, getting an A ranking in her first year of college and fencing sabre for the USA Olympic team in her third year and during grad school.
When she was 27, her life, that had been running so smoothly, turned completely upside down.
She was on the strip, fencing against a previous gold metalist when suddenly, her head started pounding. She massaged her temples gently, trying to quell the headache but the pounding instead got stronger. When the referee shouted "fence", darkness engulfed her and she fainted.
She remember thinking that perhaps, she had overexerted herself as the blackness continued to pull her under.
Back on the strip, everyone was confused. The woman who was just standing there had completely vanished.
Jade remembers stumbling through the blackness, gripping her sabre tightly as if it could protect her from whatever comes at her. She had no idea where she was and began to panic. Minutes passed, then hours, days, and weeks, the darkness seemed to get slightly lighter. Jade could almost make out the outlines of buildings and trees and people who surrounded her. She wondered briefly if she was going crazy. Closing her eyes, she tried to fade away into somewhere real, wake herself up from this strange delirious dream. She began thinking about all the things she knew about herself that was beginning to slip away. Her name was Jade, she lived in Virginia. Before she entered this strange place she was...was...fencing in the Olympics for the USA team. The thought jerked her awake like a pail of cold water. Then as quickly as she submerged, she began to resurface.
When she opened her eyes again, she was in a hospital bed. Her coach sighed as she stood over her. "Thank god," Coach whispered. "You've been in a coma for a month." Jade thought back to it and wondered if so much time had really passed. It felt like only a few days.
Her family tried convinced her to take another week off of work to recuperate. But the new school term started in 2 days and this year, she was teaching a class on Shakespearian Theater, which she was very excited about. Throughout the term, strange things would happen to her. She would see people who others seem to not be able to see. They would sometimes walk in and out of her classes and occasionally even have conversations with her. Occasionally, her belongings would also go missing or be misplaced. Jade's coworkers tried to convince her to see a psychiatrist but in the back of her mind, she believed that she was sane. In February of the next year, Radik visited her and everything made so much sense again. He asked her to choose a card, and she picked the Queen of Swords -or perhaps the card picked her. Soon Jade enrolled in the Arcane Society where she learned how to control her card, element (she didn't even know she had an element) and weapon. Being a quick learner, she soon graduated and got a new job as an assistant professor. However, she felt out of place and distracted because of her ability to see spirits and made up her mind to try for a job at the Society where she could, perhaps, help teach and train younger cardholders.
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