Name: Diane Gounaris
Age: 16
Physical Appearance: a tall girl, about 6' 3'', dressed in baggy, concealing clothing. Has no hair - no eyebrows, no eyelashes, not a single hair on her head. Most of her pronouncedly pentagonal face is in varying shades of pink or light brown, having a leathery texture and sheen. Her features look stretched, warped, even, and her nose seems to be just gone. Her hands, the only other commonly visible part of her body, seem to have the same sort of condition. In addition, her left hand is missing a pinky and ring finger. Her large brown eyes, despite the unusual appearance of the rest of her body, look rather kind, if a bit weary.
Family: father, mother (deceased), younger brother (deceased), older sister (lives on her own).
Interests: movies, their filmmaking aspects, photography to a lesser extent. Also does figure drawing, exhibits some talent at it.
Biography up until contract: Diane was born in a lawyer's family, her father Stavro a somewhat mediocre attorney, her mother Jean the perfect picture of a housewife. She doesn't remember much about her early childhood, and this is probably because they were fairly unremarkable. Somewhere along the way, however, something happened to her mother. Or perhaps it was something that was there all along, Diane isn't sure. She became unstable at around the time when Diane turned 5, only about a year after Diane's little brother Dwight's birth, with occasional psychotic episodes characterized by crying and apologies to her children followed by bouts of violence (always directed at the house, however, never the children). By the time she turned 7, her mother was already heavily medicated, her father having refused to commit her to a mental institution. The next three years were spent. They were not spent happily, nor were they spent particularly miserably. They were just spent. Her father had begun to work from home, keeping a close eye on mother, her older sister Liza had entered her teenage years, which involved her progressively alienating herself from both her parents and, by virtue of proximity, her siblings as well. Eventually she seemed to spend more days away from home than in. Perhaps this was for the best, considering what eventually happened.
The event that was about to come next was one she would remember forever. One Saturday morning, while her father was out shopping along with Diane's older sister, who had been unwillingly dragged along, her mother called her over to Dwight's room. It was odd, she was holding Dwight in her arms, and both of them were all wet. Both were crying, and the smell of gasoline hung thick in the air. It is the smell Diane remembers best. Never before or after did she feel that smell quite as strongly as that day. "Come here, baby," her mother said, and Diane approached. She knew something was wrong, but she approached nonetheless. After the first few steps, her mother grabbed her, holding her close, assuring everything would be okay.
Then she lit herself on fire. The next few minutes, the searing pain and the infinite flames as well as the sight of her mother, Dwight still in her arms, screaming and blindly attempting to grab her daughter's rapidly fleeing form, still haunt her on occasion. She ran until she could run no more, eventually falling over and waiting for the burning to stop. It did after some time. Then it was all just panicked voices, faint crackling and unending pain.
Six years have passed since that day. Her sister took the incident very hard. Her father was completely broken. Diane herself sustained severe burns to most of her body. The next 2 years of her life were spent mostly on two things - surgeries and extended care as her body returned to a more functional state. The next four saw a change of scenery - she went to a brand new home, though now she was alone with her father. Her sister had left for college, so she was mostly alone, though her father devoted as much attention as he could to her. She developed an interest in film and filmmaking, her father sparing no expense to fund her hobby. By the age of 15 she was functioning as a normal human being, though the outward signs of her old experiences were still very much manifest. Despite this, she has insisted she wants to go to public school, the long years of homeschooling and limited human contact having grown tiresome. Though her father resisted the idea, he eventually caved in to her demands, though it was certainly a fierce battle. She had gotten her wish.
Tomorrow is her first day of school. Wonder how she will handle it?
Description of the situation you made your contract in: Well, it did not turn out quite as well as she had hoped. Her classmates, though fortunately not sufficiently tactless to openly disparage a burn survivor, were miles away from actually acknowledging her as a person. At this juncture, strange looks at all times and very active whispering were all they were capable of. This, however, was something she expected. They would grow to trust her eventually, she hoped. Maybe even appreciate her presence just as much as she appreciated theirs. She had plenty of time to muse on all the complexities and complications of interpersonal relations she will need to overcome, but regrettably none of it prepared her for what was to happen in history class. The history teacher, an older woman of a kinder disposition than most, had been notified of a new student in class, but had not actually been informed of Diane's particular... state by some oversight. Thus it is only understandable that she was surprised when Diane, late due to complicated clean-up required in art class, suddenly appeared at the door of the classroom, attempting to stammer out a quick apology for her lateness. The old lady fell back in her cheap office chair, her face a perfect image of shock. Then the kindly old teacher started to breathe heavily, a grimace of pain now twisting her features, her hand clutching her chest. Diane looked on in paralyzing horror as the elderly teacher seemed to expire before her very eyes.
"Save her," a voice in her head spoke. "Make a wish, and it shall come true, though you will have to perform a service in return." But its call was in vain. Diane, already overwhelmed by the situation, could hardly collect her thoughts enough to even superficially process the voice's words. She could only mumble unintelligibly as her history teacher, an unfortunate victim of circumstance if there ever was one, was collected by the EMTs that arrived on the scene shortly. Luckily, the woman proved possible to save, though Diane couldn't help but feel responsible for her condition. But even more than that, she was mystified by the voice she had heard. It seemed real enough, but what was it? With this in mind, she tried to contact it again. Miraculously, something did answer eventually - the same voice, promising a wish should she accept a contract of some kind. And the contract apparently involved her fighting evil in some capacity, magic and becoming what the voice called a magical girl. And the wish - it could be anything. Anything at all. And the voice seemed dead serious about all of this, Diane could tell. Though what it said was, to tell the truth, ridiculous to any sensible person, Diane chose to accept the contract, if only to get a wish out of it.
What you wished for: it took a while for Diane to decide what to wish for. Substantial self-reflection was required. She could wish for the swift rehabilitation of the history teacher, but that seemed like something likely to happen on its own. She could wish that a good part of her life would have never happened, but that was not a thing she believed in - after all, if all the things that have happened to her were invalidated, with new ones taking their place, would she not be a different person as a result? And would whoever she becomes necessarily be a better person? In fact, looking back, she could name only one true regret of hers that bothered her to this very day - the fate of her little brother Dwight. All his dreams and hopes, the seed of great things yet to come, all destroyed by circumstances beyond his control. So, after some deliberation, she made her wish - that Dwight would be allowed to begin his life anew somewhere else in a better family, hopefully having a better life as well. Though she only had the voice's word that her wish had been realized, she had faith in its assurances, and with this faith came a considerable measure of happiness.
Magic weapon: the Kalika Blade, a somewhat plain-looking machete hastily obtained from a hardware store at Kyubey's request. Whenever Diane transitions into her magical girl form, the machete, formerly polished steel with a wooden handle, becomes an inky black, glowing orange symbols of unknown purpose (they resemble Sanskrit, but are more angular as well as presumably not translating to anything in any human language) appearing on it. In addition, its relatively dull blade becomes razor sharp in her hands, capable of slicing through solid steel. Also, it leaves a visible black trail as it cleaves anything, which is particularly visible when the attack is backed by magic.
Magical girl outfit: Diane's outfit is fairly plain, just a loose white long-sleeved buttoned blouse hanging over equally loose black dress pants, black sneakers finishing off the look. However, as she utilizes magic or gets stressed, the same sort of glowing symbols that mark her blade appear all over her body in this form, pulsing in sync with her heartbeat. Her soul gem seems to be tied into all this - it is also a bright orange gem encircled by what seems like a shroud of darkness. From a distance, it looks to be an elaborate brooch pinned up over her heart, though a closer glance reveals that it isn't really pinned up - it looks to have almost... grown onto the spot.
Stats:
Soul Points (SP): 34/34
Strength (STR): 4 + 1 = 5
Dexterity (DEX): 4 - 1 + 1 = 4
Agility (AGI): 4 + 1 = 5
Intelligence (INT): 4 - 1 + 2 = 5
Willpower (WIL): 4 - 1 + 3 = 6
Charisma (CHA): 4
Spells/Attacks:
Kalika Slash: backing her strength with magical power, Diane performs an overhead diagonal slash of considerable lethality. As the blade powers up, it begins to emit acrid black smoke instead of the normal vague blackness, and sometimes Witches she has sliced with the thing catch on fire. It took a lot of trouble to get their grief seeds afterwards.
Smokescreen: through intense concentration, Diane can manifest some of the aforementioned black smoke from thin air - this smoke is a very effective irritant of any exposed mucous membranes, not to mention a very good way to make people not see a damn thing.
Wall of Fire: Diane can point her machete at the ground, tracing a line of her choosing and length, which she can then make spontaneously combust at will, producing a temporary wall of fire that produces heat comparable to that of an acetylene torch.
Dark Displacement: Diane, by imagining her new position in reasonable detail, can instantly turn the same inky black shade as her blade, then seemingly collapse on herself, reappearing up to thirty feet away in a reverse process.
Replicated the entire sheet with added information.
You know, writing the character sheet for this has probably been its own reward. I certainly have enjoyed it quite a lot.
Author
Topic: Madoka RTD Pregame RP Round 5: The Hunt (Read 34741 times)