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Name: Madison McKenzie
Nicknames: Maddie, A-Two
Gender: Female
Age: 20 (birthday October 2nd)

Image Song: Zephyr, Conjure One

Category: Death Hunter - Also known as 'pre-mission' Hunters. They are the group that does the investigation prior to a large-scale mission, or even smaller mission queries. While mostly well-balanced in terms of power, Death Hunters have no qualms about retreating or letting others do the dirty work for them. They are simply there to pick up information, and then make a timely exit.


Personality: Madison is a semi-reformed 'valley girl' - she spent years and years trying to fit in and be as normal as possible, whatever the cost. Becoming a Hunter, without the matrix of 'normalcy' she'd been using to guide her life, made her realize that she wasn't sure who she really was under the facade.

Since her arrival at Deus Ex and bonding to Kouki, Madison has become more secure in herself. She is highly social, thriving on interaction with and attention from others. Madison is fiercely loyal to her friends, and will defend them against almost anyone else - as a Hunter, this means she prioritizes the members of her Phoenix Squad, though she naturally has a strong loyalty to the Hunters as a whole as well. On the flip side, she's highly susceptible to peer pressure, and tends to go along with the majority even if she personally disagrees with their actions.

Madison feels pretty much everything deeply: when she's happy, she goes around with a smile on her face, trying to spread the love to everyone else. When she's grumpy. she turns sarcastic and prickly. In general, though, she is cheerful and friendly, albeit with a core of uncertainty: she is way beyond the bounds of 'normal', and sometimes that hits her hard. If Madison is confident in a situation, then her determination and drive knows no bounds; if she loses that confidence, she will question herself at every turn and look to others for direction. She also enjoys her creature comforts: while her days of bringing a mission to a halt with wailing over a broken nail are over, she still hates getting dirty or being forced to go a few days without showering. She'll deal with it, but it does increase her stress level.

As A-Two, Madison found that she didn't actually like the impulses of casual social cruelty that were hardwired into her brain. Those impulses are still present, but she now turns them almost exclusively onto Deus' Halloween foes. Madison knows how to turn social patterns to her advantage, how to observe and pick out bits of information that can later be used as weapons. She can be very manipulative and cruel to her 'targets', and delights in hurting Halloween creatures as much as possible, however possible; her preference is to inflict mental trauma, since that's harder to recover from. The contrast between how she acts around Hunters and how she reacts to Halloween creatures can be very stark indeed.

While Madison prefers to fight with words and guile, she has become much more comfortable in physical combat, having learned the joys of inflicting physical damage on her freakish opponents. Still, her confidence in physical fighting is lower than her confidence in more familiar tactics. She feels this is a personal failing, and may grandstand or take foolish risks in battle as a means of 'proving' herself. Sometimes this works out for her, and sometimes it doesn't.



History: In her earlier life, Madison was plagued by being able to sense creatures of FEAR - the shadows and abominations that prey upon the human world. She felt she had to subsume herself to the pursuit of being 'normal' in order to make the monsters go away (or at least not be visible to her); when a mysterious recruiter appeared, she came to realize how much she'd sacrificed to this goal... and that despite those sacrifices, her plan of attaining normalcy hadn't worked at all. Her initial decision was fueled by anger, frustration, and her desire to feel wanted because of her ability, instead of feeling excluded.

Fighting Style: Madison is learning to fight based on agility and swift movement: slipping in and out of her opponent's range to deliver a flurry of small, sharp blows before retreating to a safer distance, dodging strikes rather than deflecting them directly. (Also known as a Fragile Speedster.) While Madison has grown in confidence, she still lacks finesse. She is now focusing on building speed, strength, agility, and accuracy.

Kouki has dubbed this style Bright Storm of the Serpent, though only he actually cares. He also insists that Madison switch off blades every so often, so that each individual head/sword gets an equal chance at fighting.


Charged Attack - Glorious Bite-of-the-Serpent Strike! (Swift Strikes Y3)

... It's probably best to just call it Serpent Strike. Normally, Madison can wield a maximum of two blades at any given time; Kouki's charged attack allows all four blades to be used simultaneously.

Serpent Strike is a ranged attack. When Kouki is charged, Madison can draw all four blades and release them into the air. Madison does not have to move from her initial position when the charged attack activates - the blades will fly outwards of their own accord, cutting at the target in perfect unison. Each blade can strike the target once, a more powerful blow than Madison's normal attacks.

When the attack ends, the blades return to their scabbards and/or to Madison's hands (if she wants them there).

Madison is working on a close-range variant of Serpent Strike, in which she directly controls two charged blades while the other two move freely; however, she is far from mastering this attack.


Charged Attack - Predatory Focus (The Eye Y2)

As a (former) apex predator, Kouki possessed a powerful and unwavering focus while facing his opponents - the single-minded stare of the serpent. After syncing with Kouki more effectively, Madison became capable of tapping into that focus. When under this charge's effect, Madison's speed and reaction time are improved, allowing her to fight with more clarity and guile.


Runic Weapons: Kouki only just tolerates Madison using these.

Basic Bandages
Battle Effect: THIS ITEM IS USED UP if you use this effect. That means you cannot get more until you go back to home base. You can choose to, in battle, use this item by rolling a 12-sided dice. This is the amount you heal yourself for.
Non-Battle Effect: A Hunter catch patch themselves up with a single use of this bandage.

Basic Trapping Gun
Battle Effect: Once per battle, a player may choose to roll a 6-sided dice. If odd, they trap their opponent for one turn, making their opponent unable to attack for that turn.
Non-Battle Effect: The gun may snare a target, trapping them. This is also very useful for collecting specimens

Current Missions:

------••Little Talks




Competed Missions:

Candidate Testing:


Trainee:



Intermediate Trainee:



Hunter:
•••From Deus Ex With Love - Dinner with the Captain
•••Hunter or Hunted?

Fellow Hunters:

••••• Jordan Miller (A-1; Phoenix): The (unofficial) leader of Phoenix Squad, Jordan is kind, trustworthy, and solid. Madison had a crush on him for quite some time; that crush has re-formed into a firm, close friendship.

••••• Robert Morris (A-7; Phoenix): Like a big dumb puppy. Robert definitely has his flaws, but his huge bear hugs, genuinely caring nature (no, really), and general big-brother-ness make up for everything.

••••• Ennéa Petrakis (A-9; Phoenix): The youngest member of Phoenix, and one of the youngest Hunters period. Madison thinks of Ennea as a combination friend and little sister.

••••• Petra Walker (Z-8; Phoenix): While Madison doesn't know Petra all that well personally, as a member of Phoenix (and Robert's better half) Petra definitely has Madison's loyalty and respect.

••••• Jerry Collins (Z-4; Phoenix): The last of the originally-awakened Phoenixes, Jerry is socially awkward but sweet. Madison probably would have tormented him endlessly if they had been in high school together; this knowledge leads her to be extra-gentle with him.

••••• Candace Pennington (E-10): As E-10, she wiped out most of Phoenix (and a bunch of other people) during the candidate trials. That angered Madison for a long time, but after getting to know Candace a little better her thoughts have changed. Now, Candace is just... kind of confusing, though the girl time they shared around Christmas was pretty great...

••••• Cassandra Norris: A Mist trainee that Madison's had a few missions with. Madison envies her calm, collected nature.

••••• David Brant: Davey was one of the first non-Phoenixes to put any kind of trust in Madison. She remembers that.

••••• Gale Gentry: One of Madison's fellow Death intermediate trainees. She doesn't know him very well, and is vaguely embarrassed by having to look to someone younger than she is for guidance and leadership... not that that stops her.

••••• Milton "Before" Bates: Before is loud and doesn't think before he talks. That's about the size of it.

••••• Bix: Hair-buddies! Madison rather likes Bix; he's the rare male who understands the glories of hair, and he didn't do a bad job trimming hers. Possible crush-material.

••••• Marcus Hasan: An intimidating older Moon Hunter; Cass' boyfriend thing or something. He bought Madison a lovely Christmas gift, though!

••••• Ariane Brown: The other Death intermediate trainee. Madison has heard a lot about Ariane, and thinks of her as a female A-2. Not a female Jordan, though. There's a difference.

••••• Reine Walker (A-10; Phoenix): A 'late'-awakening Phoenix - turns out A-10 was actually Reine Walker, Petra's twin sister and Robert's, uh, something. Man, this s**t is complicated.

••••• Sherry Greyson (A-11; Phoenix): Another 'late'-awakening Phoenix, Sherry seems capable. Madison partnered up with her for a single mission, but has yet to interact with her much beyond making sure that mission hadn't traumatized her for life.



Hunter Superiors:

••••• Caelius: Flat-out dangerous in so many ways... and Madison's boss. Goodie.

••••• Aria: Madison was taught how to fight by Aria's impersonator. She has yet to really overwrite her impressions of Aria's impersonator with those of Aria herself, but so far she likes what she's seen of the Mist Division Head.

••••• Dr. H.: Scary. Super scary. Enough that being under Caelius is kind of a relief, actually. But only kind of.

••••• Clarice: Dr. H's assistant, Clarice is shockingly sane for what she has to put up with. She also encouraged and trusted Madison, and Madison is inclined to do the same back to her.



Freaks:

••••• Dragon-Thing Jerkface: (Jericho) Encountered at Floresctival; he punted Robert-gnome, thereby solidifying Madison's opinion firmly in the 'jerk' camp.

••••• Rotting Jerk Girl: (Amrita) One of the first Amityville students Madison encountered in a battle situation; due to her actions in that battle, Amrita is someone Madison will pretty much drop everything to attack.

••••• Blue What The Crap: (Remi) Another student from that first battle, but he didn't earn the same level of ire as Amrita and Xiu. Still, Madison would know him if she saw him again.

••••• Kinda But Not Human Thing: (Lacie) Another student from that first battle, and the most human-looking freak Madison had encountered at that point. Lesson learned: not everything that looks human is.

••••• Stupid Ears: (Xiu) The last participant in that first battle, Xiu is on Madison's shitlist much like how Amrita is, only with a tiny bit less vitriol. But only a little.

••••• Stupid Winged b***h: (Eris) One of the Horsemen, Eris viciously attacked Phoenix members during the Haunted House assault. She earned Madison's eternal hatred by burning the Hunter's hair.

••••• Israfel: The siren approached Madison in the Haunted House - peacefully. Their ensuing conversation was very interesting, and Maddie feels that Israfel could be very, very useful.

Current Point Tally: 5
(last updated: 08/31/13)


Classes / Missions: 5
From Deus Ex With Love - Dinner with the Captain - 3 points
Hunter or Hunted? - 2 points

Completed Roleplays:


Special:



Fanart (commissioned):

Credits: Madison and Kouki belong to me! Take them and suffer death by a thousand cuts. 8U Followed by burning your house down with lemons.

Journal graphics by me, using brushes from Obsidian Dawn. Aw yeah.

Madison's art is by LividPeas! Who is awesome, and also drew off-duty Maddie as well. All hail the Livi~ <3

TiH is by Zoo, lizbot, and Marushii. ALL HAIL THE ZOBOTSHI.


Kouki speaks in: