NEPHELINE NOTES:
Nepheline is a feldspar mineral with the chemical composition of (Na,K)Al(SiO4), making it scientifically identical to both "Elaeolite" and "Nephelite". It is also known as nepheline syenite. The name comes from the Greek
nephele, meaning cloud. When broken, it will shatter; it shows in white, gray, brown, brownish white, and reddish white. It may exhibit any kind of diaphaneity, and forms naturally in a prism formation. Deposits tend to be massive, but because of its brittle nature and lack of attractive specimens, it's not often sold in rock shops. In the nepheline mineral group are kalsilite, trikalsilite, panunzite, kaliophilite, yoshiokaite, and megakalsilite.
Nepheline is reactive to acids although it does not bubble like many of the carbonates. If powdered it will dissolve in hydrochloric acid, and if clear specimens are dipped in acid they will become cloudy or frosted. The name "eleolite" is given to nepheline which has a greasy luster.
TATE NOTES:
Tate has not had the best family life in the world. Her parents divorced when she was young; she remained with her mother, Mariska, who ran through a long string of boyfriends who all had varying opinions on Tate's existence. Finally, she married her ex-husband's brother, Iuri, and asked him to adopt Tatiana. Tate grew up thinking her uncle was her father and vice versa.
Her best friend is Giselle Petrova, whose mother is a longtime friend of Tate's mother. They met in ballet class as children and bonded, forming a friendship that has lasted to current day even though Zell attends Crystal Academy on a scholarship and Tate is at Meadowview.
Her mother is not the most nurturing woman; always concerned more with pleasure in the now than responsibility in the later, she commonly runs up enough debt from having parties to make the family's budget uncomfortably tight. She has always been disappointed in her daughter, who she views as 'nerdy' and 'antisocial'. The relationship between the two is best described as neglectful on Mariska's part and hopeless on Tate's.
Her adopted father is a busy man, a cardiac doctor who often has to be at work in the emergency room, and has very little time to be at home watching over Tate. When Iuri is home, he is asleep or passed out in the master bedroom from too much liquor. The relationship between Tate and Iuri is best described as nonexistent on both parts.
Her uncle (her biological father) spoils Tate by giving her game systems and the games to go with them. However, he's also never around and the new Playstation is cold comfort when it's all you've got.
Tate reacts to the bipolar family environment she has grown up in by locking herself in her room for hours and playing video games, normally of the roleplaying or arcade variety. She has beaten games like Kingdom Hearts and Soul Calibur 2 enough times that she probably holds the world record for it. She's not much for the internet, preferring to chat with others over xBox Live or her cellular phone. She nurses her own bitterness by writing in a locked and encrypted file on her laptop like a diary, pouring out every little frustration and amplifying it within her own mind.
As a Negaverse character, that bitterness comes to the forefront. Bolstered by the idea of anonymity, she succumbs to her own anger and depression by striking out against other people cruelly. She always aims to kill once she understands the power she wields as a Lieutenant, feeling that otherwise she is wasting her power. The anonymous quality of the forces of the Negaverse makes her think she can do anything, and she becomes incredibly sadistic.
In order to hurt the ones who harmed her first, Tate gives herself completely to the darkness.
TATE'S FIGHTING STYLE:
Tate tends to rip and stab more than slash, which is appropriate for the fact that she uses knives more than anything longer. Her blades are held turned inward (blade parallel to the inside of the arm as opposed to a continuation of the arm) so she has to get much closer to people in order to kick their a** appropriately. This doesn't mean she can't hold her weapons the right way, blades forming an extension of her arm, it just means she doesn't like to. In fact, she doesn't gain proficiency in fighting with her knives facing the proper way until
after she hits General stage. (Although doubtless she'll try it a few times for kicks). Tate is
ambidextrous, so even if you disable one of her hands she can keep fighting with the other. (However, if you take out both hands, she will attempt keep fighting. If that fails, she will try to kick you in the face so she can run. Or else throw a passerby in your way like "RAAAAAGH PEDESTRIAN *flee*") Her fighting stance is quite average, probably ripped from Soul Calibur - turned three-quarters away from the opponent, knees bent, feet shoulder width apart, and hands before her face with knuckles facing towards the opponent.
She focuses on staying in motion constantly and on using vicious, painful attacks to debilitate her opponents before she closes in for the kill. She is a sadistic fighter, preferring to toy with her prey before she destroys it. This escalates as she grows in power - in the beginning, she's timid, very uncertain, and kills or paralyzes the opponent as fast as she can. Then, as she gets better, she grows in confidence and begins to become a formidable opponent.
Tate is given to talking while she fights, but these taunts aren't meant to be answered and actually give away what she's going to do. Single-word taunts - "Suffer!" "Perish!" "Die!" - are cues for harsh, powerful moves that will hurt you a lot. More complex taunts, such as "What shall I break first, body or soul", are cues for more complex attacks that will probably end with your death.
For an idea of her fighting style, view
this video and observe the actions of the Red Spy. Then add another knife, make it Tate, and there you go!
TATE'S WEAPONRY:
"But Zige," you are saying, "All of Tate's weapons can cause harm! That totally doesn't fit with the Negaverse comic weapon first stage!" No no no, gentle reader, allow me to enlighten you:
The idea behind Tate is that she can cause a lot of damage very fast. She is like the "whirlwind" of the Negaverse. This reflects into her weapons, too. But, like any advantage, it comes with a disadvantage. All of Tate's weapons are so different (while maintaining my 'theme' of dual weaponry) that each time she gets a new one, she has to reteach herself how to use it. She'll always keep the same basic fighting style, but - for instance - the transition from lieutenant to captain will require that she learn how to hold a knife that isn't weighted down a lot on the head - and she'll have to learn her rip-and-slash style then, as most of her wrench combat will consist of slamming a wrench on someone's head... The transition from captain to general would involve learning how not to cut herself on the knife; the transition from general to general-king will be badass because she'll suddenly be able to stab you from greater distances.
This makes her happy.
Also, a wrench is a comedic weapon. They don't have a grip, and so if she swings too hard she could lose her grasp on the weapon - so imagine she misses, the wrench goes flying, and then she would have to chase it in order to keep attacking the senshi/random passerby... And even if she hits someone, it could go flying and lessen the impact. Wrenches, honestly, are about as useful as a pocketwatch or mirror, really, and about as harmful.
QUESTIONS BY PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT ME:
MoonKitsune
Can I ask, if she was faced with a person who confronted her and pressed her too much, would she be inclined to lash out as a human? I wonder if she has health issues as well, being kept inside and also through stress
I think that if Tate were faced with a normally aggressive person - like, Franz i guess or someone similar - she'd be all *headshake* and go home and take out her aggravation on some computer models. But if someone really irritated her, I don't think she'd be able to stop herself from punching them - she's not temperamental by any means, but she's both jealous and insecure and that's a terrible combination for even a normal person.
Health issues wise, I'd say that she gets sunburned really easily. She's also not very fit, either - this is a situation she rectifies herself once she realizes she'll only get beat down more as a negaverse agent if she isn't fit enough to actually do damage and steal star seeds. Also, it's not that she loves Charonite or the ideals of the Negaverse, she just loves having the freedom to kick people's asses. I bet she's the kind of Negaverse lieutenant who hunts down people she knows in real life and steals their star seeds for kicks. > _ > "YOU LOOKED AT ME FUNNY - NOW DIE A HORRIBLE WRENCHY DEATH!"
Ryugen
I'm hugely amused by "Genre Savy" but I had one question:
XD Based on her favorite Genre's, do her predictions ever go awry?
Of course her predictions go wrong. After all, she can never predict that someone might read shounen manga instead - where in shoujo, a defeated hero is very easy to lure over to the dark side, a shounen manga would find the defeated hero MYSTERIOUSLY POWERING UP. So it can go wrong. ("Your parents are sneaking around" does not always equal secret engagement, either. Tate's very good at predicting things in uncommon situations, but there's so many things going on in normal ones that she normally doesn't bother trying to guess what's going on!)
I depend really heavily on the fact that Tate does not exercise much and depends upon her low appetite and high metabolism to stay skinny when I chose her first weapon. She won't have the force behind her blows to break bone, unless she jumped and luckily hit the opponent's head. At the most she'd bruise someone - and by the time she's strong enough to break bone, she'd probably be a captain and have knives already! XD;
Mriae
Time for another critique! I didn't know you traded art for them!
Mostly, this is just about her arrogant/insecure character flaw. I can understand you wanting her to be an arrogant person who thinks she is better than everyone. The only issue I have with that is a lot of the Negaverse already has a quality like that already. D8 They can't all be arrogant, otherwise it stops being interesting.
Also, to go along with that, I have a question about her insecurities. Why doesn't she feel that she isn't worth living? Does she have low self-esteem? Did something happen to her to make her feel that way about herself? Is it a psychological sort of condition? Basically, why does she have to feel like she is better than others in order to feel good?
Oh! One more thing! Sorry. XD Does her shyness make it difficult for her to approach senshi and carry out missions? If she was shy, you think it would inhibit her progress a little bit, which probably wouldn't make Charonite very happy with her, I don't think.
Hmm...that's all I got so far! I hope it helps!
Hmmm... OK, let me try to explain and you tell me if it explains your question.
Tate only really gets attention from her parents when she does something ~amazing~. Like, say she wins a competition of some kind - one at school. They'll be really happy and buy her a new game or something. The more she kicked a**, the happier they are. Unfortunately, since she did very well in middle school, her parents expect more than As, they expect A+s, and she wasn't able to meet that standard so she stopped trying. But in lieu of parental approval, Tate makes up stories about how the higher-performing kids cheat and makes them part of her "personal mythos" - the stuff she writes in her journal. Her insecurities stem from the fact that she knows she's lying and she wishes she wasn't...
Did that make any sense?
I think Tate's like a schoolyard bully, just with better impulse control. > _ >;;
As for the shyness, I imagine in the very beginning, Tate isn't certain that she's doing it right (...as in, HOW DO I STEALED STARSEED?) so yes, she's uncertain about approaching senshi. But that passes very quickly once she's practiced on some drunkards. > 3 >
TATE THE NEGAVERSE OFFICER:
Nepheline is loyal to the Negaverse, but her ties aren't to the organization itself or to Charonite, because Nepheline doesn't think of things in terms of the 'overarching plan'; she cannot love what she can't see, hear or touch with her own self. Instead, she's more apt to become attached to the Captain who trains her. This Captain is Tanzanite, who is very attached to Beryl. THEREFORE, Nepheline will be obedient to Beryl because Tanz is obedient to Beryl. She'll listen to Charonite because Tanz says she should. Nepheline is hungry for approval, and as Tanz is the most available person of rank in the Negaverse, Nepheline will attempt to please her.
Though her main motivation is to just take out her frustration, if she was given an order to do something, she would prioritize it over beating the s**t out of drunkards. ("Take alive and unharmed" orders are kind of not her thing, though!)
She may go off the handle sometimes, but she will try her very hardest to ensure that she does it in a way that won't harm Tanzanite and Beryl, which pretty much guarantees it's not going to harm the Negaverse.
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Negaverse: Lieutenant Nepheline
Virtues: 
