[Q] Peony Keo / DSS Veritate of Refuge | Page 1 | Accepted Quests | Guild Forums

Daekie

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Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2024 10:24 pm

Name: Peony Mazie Keo
Nickname: Peony is fine, please!
Gender/Pronoun: She/her, cis girl
Age: 16?? She's been sixteen for a long time, does it really count? It's a lot less complicated than any other ways to give her age, but... seventeen or eighteen? It's complicated! She's working on it! She's sorry!
Birthday: May 2
Sign: Taurus
Gemstone: Emerald
Blood Type: ...she'll get back to you on that one.
Fav. Food: Rice cooker pancakes
Hated Food: Not a big fan of seafood sad

School/Occupation: Still figuring this out. Does she need to go to school here? She knows she's a child, technically, but that's never stopped Senshi before...

hobbies.
wire-wrapped jewelry: Peony wears a lot of crystal jewelry, and a lot of it is pieces she makes herself with wire and colored stone, or seaglass, or other things held in the metal. She's not a sculptor and she wouldn't call herself a jeweler, but she's pretty good at what she does. She might start selling it online? She's thinking about it. It seems like a lot of trouble to go to when she doesn't really need to, but people like the things she makes, so...?
meditation: There's a lot going on in the world and around her, and Peony is not a particularly complicated girl; she tends to get muddled and bogged down and frustrated and confused. It's understandable, then, that she likes to take time to clear her mind, and focus, and calm herself. She's a lot faster to anger than she'd like -- so it's important to understand how to take a deep breath, and clear her head, and find her balance.
disney movies: For a thousand-year-old alien from a foreign space culture, she's really taken a liking to Disney movies, especially princess ones. She doesn't think they're really complicated stories, they're for kids, but... she still likes them, you know? They're simple. They're sweet. People are rewarded for kindness, and punished for cruelty, and the world is beautiful. She'd like to carry herself with a little more grace and be a little more like those princesses, maybe.

virtues.
the power of friendship: Peony believes in -- not literally the power of friendship, but the idea that caring about other people, and them believing in you back, and doing your best together. The idea that doing that can - and will! - solve a lot of problems. It's her friends that make her strong! And their friends do the same to them, of course. Friendship is magic and power, and love makes the universe work! These are fundamental, unshakeable truths to her, and she will never lose sight of the ideal that what's going to really save everyone -- in a lot of ways -- is their love and care for other people. You have to love other people! You have to fight for it, sometimes! But that's what's going to get her, and you, and everyone through all of this, no matter how scary or hard the world becomes.
affectionate: Peony doesn't hold back on letting people know she cares about them; if she likes her friend, she'll let them know! Her feelings are on display, and she's very honest about where her fondness lies; she's got a warm heart, no matter if she tries to be cold on occasion. She doesn't really know how to be any other way than to care about people, and to share herself with them, and to remind them that they matter. Sometimes it's the subtle things, sometimes it's the overt things, but it's just not in her nature to be closed-off.
protective: You do not ******** with her friends. Hurt the people or things she cares about and she'll be furious -- but ideally she'd like to make it so they don't get hurt in the first place. She'd like to shield them from harm, physical or otherwise; she'll lift heavy objects so they don't get hurt trying, and she'll get in the face of someone trying to belittle them. Their safety is important to her! She just wants to take care of the people she likes, and she'll protect them from as much hurt and pain and harm as she can. There's a reason her magic manifests as shields, mostly, in ways the previous Veritate's didn't -- it's all her. She wants to shield people. To save them. To protect them. It's such a fundamental aspect of her that her magic reflects it, because how could it not?

flaws.
the power of violence: If doing her best and everyone else doing their best isn't going to fix the situation, Peony's other option is extreme violence. Push her too far and she'll snap into it without a second thought: if talking someone down won't stop them from hurting others, then she'll just break their arm, right? There is no 'little' violence: it's to solve a situation. She won't start small. She starts out making big swings, and she goes for being brutal. It's not just about people, either; if she's in a situation and it's not improving, it's not getting better, she's liable to get so stressed out she decides just kicking things is the best solution. Nothing you were doing was helping! If she makes it worse, at least she tried!!
indecisive: Peony hates making decisions. Peony hates, hates, hates making decisions, especially when it comes to decisions that affect other people, but mostly just when the decision has any big, meaningful consequences in any way, shape, or form. She'd rather dither and look away from it, and if 'not choosing' won't explode in her face -- and even if it will -- she'll do nothing. She likes to be heroic, but when it comes to difficult decisions, moral quandaries where there's no good and clean answer -- she'll do her best to ignore it all, and let someone else choose the course of her life for her. She's not a leader. She's really not a leader. She has a good idea of what's right, and what she can do with the course laid in front of her... but she's also not going to diverge from it.
She won't run away, even if she thinks she'd like to, even if she thinks maybe it'd be better. Why would she? That's too hard of a choice to make.
single-minded: Peony takes one thing and focuses on it, and you can't really sidetrack her, not even if it's really important. It's not that she's stubborn, exactly -- it's that she'll just only really think and focus on one thing at a time, and until that's done or it's not as important anymore, she's incredibly hard to redirect or repurpose. She does one thing, and until that thing is done she's not doing anything else! This also means her frustrations and irritations tend to be... blunt, wide-ended things? She's not usually upset about something specifically, she's upset about a range of things that are all collected under one banner. She's not a scalpel, she's a blunt instrument, and she knows it pretty well. There's no point in trying to be something she's really, really not, and just frustrating herself and everybody else.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Eyes: Very pale blue, almost white. Has an epicanthic fold. In anime terms, she'd probably have tareme eyes.
Hair: Dark brown, almost black. Reaches to her waist. 2C/3A texture, wavy/lightly curly, very thick; has a lot of volume. Her bangs have a middle part, and her side hair frames her face towards the bottom of her jaw.
Face: Rounded rectangular nose, large bottom lip, slight dimples.
Skin Tone: Medium brown, yellow undertones.
Body Type: Peony is 5'2" and fat. She has some muscle definition, but it's not super visible. There are strange patches of vitiligo over her heart and branching out to her limbs.
Clothes: Muted colors: blues, pinks, peaches, teals, sometimes greens, sometimes creams. White and very pale greys, but no other grayscale colors. She likes boho skirts and maxi skirts and loose sweaters and overalls, and she's almost always in cloth flats or strappy sandals. She's often seen with flowers in her hair, and she's almost never seen without crystal jewelry.

Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2024 10:34 pm

Claimed with crown tokens here.
Senshi: Sailor Veritate, Senshi of Refuge

Uniform Color:
Main Color: Muted pink; #e696b3, #F08CAE
Secondary Color: Muted teal; #7cc9cd, #abd1cc, #65A1AC
Iridescent sort of diamond white as tertiary.
Uniform: Details will be in claim!

Attacks:
Sailor Scout Attack: Take Refuge!
Range: 15 feet (targeting), ~5 foot diameter around the target (after casting)
Lasts: 30 seconds, or until broken
Targets: One character; can be self-targeted
Effect: A crystalline bubble of pink energy manifests around the target in a ~5ft radius and moves with them, protecting them from harm. These can resist all first stage attacks, whether they are physical or magical, before shattering harmlessly. The bubble can partially resist any second stage attack and minimize damage or effects, but it is ineffective against third stage attacks or higher.
Magic &/or attacks of third rank or higher will be partially mitigated -- the Refuge will absorb some of the damage, or cushion the blow -- but not negated.
Allies can enter this bubble, but enemies will be repelled if they actively attempt to enter it. While in Veritate's Refuge, targets are unable to attack others without breaking the Refuge prematurely.
Uses: Three

Super Sailor Scout Attack: Protected Refuge!
Range: 15 feet (targeting), ~5 foot diameter around the target (after casting)
Lasts: 30 seconds, or until broken
Targets: Up to two characters, can be self-targeted
Effect: Crystalline bubbles of pink energy manifest around the targets in a ~5ft radius and move with them, protecting them from harm. These can resist all second stage attacks, whether they are physical or magical, before shattering harmlessly. The bubble can partially resist any third stage attack and minimize damage or effects, but it is ineffective against fourth stage attacks.
Allies can enter this bubble, but enemies will be repelled if they actively attempt to enter it. While in Veritate's Refuge, targets are unable to attack others without breaking the Refuge prematurely.
Uses: Two

Super Sailor Scout Attack: Seek Sanctuary!
Range: Twenty-five feet
Lasts: Instant cast; no lingering effects
Targets: One target
Effect: Veritate indicates her target within range, and they are magically summoned to her side without otherwise being moved (targets who were sitting will remain sitting, albeit on the ground; targets who were mid-motion will continue the motion; etc.). If there is not a safe location for the target to be placed within a roughly 1-foot radius of Veritate, they may be summoned into her arms for refuge instead, if her arms are free.
Uses: Three
[* This is prewritten because I have unused enhancements and want to use one on Veritate; she would not have access to it until Super.]

Eternal Sailor Attack: Veritate's Safe Haven!
Range: 25 feet (for targeting); manifests as a sphere (10-ft diameter) centered on the target location
Lasts: 40 seconds
Targets: One point within 25 feet to spawn the Refuge on; after, all allies inside the Refuge
Effect: Veritate creates a magical space henceforth called a Refuge, either centering on her or directed in a direction of her choice; this Refuge is delineated by a glowing circle on the ground with light emanating upwards from it. If Veritate loses consciousness, the remaining time of the Refuge is unaffected.
While inside the Refuge, allies' minor wounds begin to heal, and the effects of moderate and major injuries will be temporarily lessened; a large gash will not heal, but it will bleed and hurt less while inside the Refuge, & someone going into shock may temporarily stabilize (but not otherwise improve) until the Refuge ends.
Uses: One

==========

Deep Space Senshi
Physical Features:
. Peony has a feature common to Veriteans called a soulstone; an accessory organ that gives her additional senses on her homeworld. She has a thin layer of gemlike 'scales' on her chest around the area of her heart, corresponding to this, which do not add any extra defense. Long ago, these were fully-formed biological crystals emerging from a Veritean's chest; by Peony's generation, they've been physically minimized. Due to the soulstone's proximity to the heart, wounds to it are rarely survived, which has resulted in the belief it's intrinsically linked to a Veritean's lifeforce.
. . As she stopped aging at sixteen and remained this way, Peony's soulstone did not fully develop, and never fully will.
. Peony's irises are a very pale blue, almost a vivid white. Looking closely, her irises have a jewel-like appearance.
. Peony's nails appear crystalline; they're dense and difficult to break, but no more than a tough human nail. They don't have any additional cutting power.
. There are shimmering streaks of iridescent, crystalline hair mixed in rarely with Peony's hair; like tinsel in dolls' hair.
. Two different options for her additional crystalline traits -- faint, desaturated crystalline veins on her extremities, or limb gradients with a crystalline/glimmering appearance. Both function as normal flesh, and do not confer additional protection or defense.

Backstory/History:
Peony Mazie Keo was the daughter of an alchemist who brought her up on stories of goodness, of the world having a shape that was inherently kind, and when she was awakened as Sailor Veritate she took that to heart. She might not've struck out into the universe at large without the winds of circumstance taking her there -- but they did, and she found allies, and friends, and a team. They were on the frontlines of disaster, when they could; they used their magic to do things no ordinary person could do, could ever hope to do, and they fought evil. (They were, for all intents and purposes, a pretty standard magical girl team! Fighting evil and monsters, building friendships, foiling evil plots, saving civilians.)

She stopped aging even before Chaos arrived. After a year or two, it was obvious; the girls she'd grown up with were entering adulthood, and she still looked perfectly, inmutably sixteen, like time had just stopped acting on her at all. It was worrying! But she had bigger things to deal with, mostly, really. The universe was growing darker and darker, and heroes were needed more than ever, and people didn't want their help anymore. They never seemed to be in time, or the people they did save had been twisted by some unknown force, or her and her teammates were hurried away before they could ask any questions. It was tiring. Frustrating. Didn't people want to be helped? Didn't they want to be okay?

And the people of Veritate changed, too. There was no apparent disaster, but they were growing solitary and cold and angry, and something-someone poisoned them against their absent Senshi. Surely she was to blame for something. She was just a girl! Who gave her the right to make decisions of life or death? She needed to be chaperoned, and tied down, and kept here.
When she returned - seeing her stirred the Chaos infecting their hearts into a frenzy; whatever plans they might have had for her devolved into torches and pitchforks for her and for anyone unlucky enough to be associated with her.

Veritate tried to plead her case, and when that was unsuccessful, she ran. But there was only so far she could run. (She had her suspicions of Chaos - of something at play - but what could she have done? She was no Princess. Her magic didn't burn out evil where it stood. If anything, her magic was slipping away from her every day she spent here now.) With what little time she had left, she called out to her world with everything in her heart, and she pleaded with it to do something she'd only heard of in myth.

They tried to kill her, but their blades didn't reach her heart; at the very last second Veritate had encased her n a crystal that nothing could destroy, at the cost of putting her into an unwaking stasis. Eventually she was abandoned as nothing but the relic of a now-ended age, and the people moved back to their normal lives... for some time.

There were no communications or travel offworld. Crops and animals produced little and took ill. Information, valuable upkeep knowledge, was lost. It took hundreds of years, but eventually everything catalyzed into a plague affecting Veriteans; not a single one of those alive at the end had ever known their sleeping Senshi at all.

One day -- some distant song made Sailor Veritate open her eyes. Some of her memories are a little scattered, a little faded; a thousand years in stasis, in crystal that wasn't quite the same as hers, has blurred things. Mostly it's things she doesn't know she doesn't remember until someone asks about them.

(Peony has a strong resemblance to Corrupt Sailor Chrysocolla, halfway to being twins; the latter's past life Aunè was Peony's first cousin. Some of that resemblance carried over to her reincarnation.)