Post by Noki MacMillian on Nov 14, 2009 14:56:34 GMT -5
Name: Noki MacMillian
Age: 12
Gender: Female
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Eyes: Metallic black
Hair: Light metallic black
Personality: For starters, she only obeys one person and one person alone, herself. If it were any other little girl, she would probably be commended for having such a strong spirit. Unfortunately, Noki's iron spirit is supported by pillars of spitefulness and obnoxiousness.
Noki goes out of her way to undermine any kind of authority at every available opportunity, even her own guild leaders'. When pushed, she isn't afraid to push back, even if the opponent is a thousand times bigger and stronger than she is. She will never admit that she is wrong, even if she really is. Majority vote doesn't matter to her. Whatever everyone else decides, she mostly does the opposite, sometimes out of sheer spite. Noki can also be childish, even more so than she physically is, and holds grudges very easily against people. She also likes to play cruel pranks on her peers, and doesn't respect any of them. When she speaks, it's mostly in a sarcastic tone ill befitting of a child her age.
She acts like she doesn't care much for her guild-mates, and only works with them when it bests suits her own interests. Even though the guild has taken her in and treated her well, she makes it seem like she hates all of them.
This isn't really the case. In fact, she's actually quite grateful to be part of the guild. The girl simply can't express that through normal means.
The reason behind all this obnoxious behavior is that, from an early age, Noki was diagnosed to have mild paranoia. Even when she doesn't want to be, she is quite suspicious of everyone and everything that happens to her and around her. It's not as bad as a true state of paranoia, but it still inhibits her ability to make friends and not think that there's an ulterior motive.
Behind her sarcastic personality, Noki is actually a sensitive young girl with a strong will. She's also quite sharp for her age, though not as smart as another character of mine.
She has a talent for magic. Though only a C-rank mage, Noki is talented enough to learn the fundamentals of Serial Flux magic from an old tome and create her own, unofficial branch called Serial Flux Circle style (though, in it's present form, it pales in comparison to the traditional style). Aside from the food and shelter, her main reason for joining the guild was to learn more about magic (even though she usually skips the classes and still tries to learn herself).
Noki can also be a restless girl, and doesn't like to be doing monotonous things over and over again. She has a tendency to go on adventures by herself a lot of the time, sometimes placing herself (and her guild-mates) in danger.
Despite this, and even if she'll never admit it, Noki does care about her guild-mates and what they think about her. She knows that she can't excuse the way she behaves some times, and is surprised that the guild hasn't decided to throw her out yet.
Noki hopes that she can become a more powerful mage and become the guild leader (or at least the leader of a guild) one day, and to use that power to find her long lost family.
One of her deepest secrets she hides from everyone is that she is color blind, and can only perceive the color blue. This stems from a hereditary trait on her father's side, and one that she shares with her older sister, Lily MacMillian. As a result, Noki also has poor vision in general, though she is considered leaning more towards near-sighted. She doesn't like sharing this with people because she finds it embarrassing.
Physical Description:
i99.photobucket.com/albums/l310/v5i9r1g3o/wallpaper/kino_prairie1280.jpg
Image too big to fit on post.
Occupation: C-rank Serial Flux mage
Guild: Elegant Qilin
Location of Guild Tattoo: Left forearm
Specialty:
Serial Flux Circle Style: Seeming to possess a talent with magic, Noki has created her own variant of Serial Flux, a type of darkness spell. Usually a transformation magic, her variant of Serial Flux involves, in layman's terms, spitting out shadowy black bubbles the same way one would with bubble gum. Since this has never been done with Serial Flux before, Noki takes great pride in and uses this variation instead of the traditional Serial Flux transformation spells. However, her Circle style isn't actually that effective in real combat situations. As of today, there are only two spells of the Circle style variation, both of which are questionably useful.
Magical talent: As stated above, Noki is quite a talented mage, though her refusal to actually learn from others inhibits this. She picked up the basics of Serial Flux magic fairly quickly, an achievement considering she also had no one to actually teach her and learned by herself from a manual.
However, her ability to learn magic and actually put it into practice are two separate abilities. Even the most simple of Serial Flux spells takes a large toll on her small energy reserves, another reason why she prefers her own Circle style variant over the traditional style. Other spells that require high amounts of energy, such as elemental and other types of transformation spells, she has difficulty achieving even though she might know how to cast them. B-rank spells are hard due to her small amounts of energy and physical stature, and A-rank spells are nearly impossible. She is, after all, only 12.
Acting: Being a little girl, Noki is quite capable of playing the "cute and innocent role," usually to kind strangers, in order to get something she wants.
History: (WE ARE IN FRONT OF A WOODEN DOOR LEADING TO A ROOM. THE HALL IS DARK AND THE OUTLINE OF THE DOOR IS SHINING FROM THE CANDLE LIGHT COMING FROM INSIDE. THE DOOR OPENS. WE SEE A WINDOW AND A SMALL BED IN ONE CORNER.
PAN RIGHT TO THE LITTLE GIRL IN A PINK DRESS SITTING AT A DESK. SHE HAS A PEN IN HER RIGHT HAND, AND IS RESTING HER HEAD IN HER LEFT. SHE TAPS THE END OF THE PEN ON THE BLANK PAGE IN FRONT OF HER AS SHE STARES WISTFULLY INTO SPACE. PAN UP AT THE CEILING FAN. THEN GO BACK TO THE GIRL. CLOSE UP ON HER EYES. WE SEE THE SPINNING FAN REFLECTED IN THE LITTLE GIRL'S METALLIC BLACK RETINA.
THE GIRL LOOKS BACK DOWN ON THE BLANK PAGE. THEN SHE BEGINS TO WRITE...)
My name is Noki MacMillian and I wish I didn't have to do this.
(THE GIRL STOPS AGAIN, SIGHS, THEN CONTINUES...)
It is required for Serial Flux mages to write a journal, since Natural Darkness is the element of learning, and what better book to learn from than one written by your own hand?
I say f**ck that. I'm not really into diaries or journals. I never got the concept of them. I mean, people are always stressing out about "oh no, who stole my diary?" and crap. If you don't want anyone to see it, why write it down? Anyway, I'm more of a "living in the present" kinda girl, and I'm anything but a writer.
But if my sister's done it, then I guess I can do it too.
So if this is a book about my life, then I guess this chapter would be the prologue or whatever. I guess you expect me to re-cap my entire life up to this point? Don't expect any Nobel prize work. I plan to make this short. I've got better things to do than just sit here and get hand cramps.
(THE GIRL TAKES A DEEP BREATH AND WIGGLES HER ARMS FOR A MINUTE BEFORE CONTINUING)
I was born as a slave. My mother, father, and sister were slaves. My grandpa was a slave, and his grandpa, and his. It sounds barbaric that slavery still exists. I didn't have the pleasure of being born on one of those continents where people think that way.
But this isn't about to become an abolition narrative about the evils of slavery and blah, blah, blah. In fact, for most of my childhood, I didn't even know I was a slave. My family and I were treated very well by our owners. We had our own house, and were fed and clothed and provided for. In fact, we lived better than most of the actual working class in our town. Sure, we cooked, cleaned, and all that menial service stuff. My personal job, when I was about eight or nine, was to take care of my mistress' daughter, who was three years younger than I was. I became her playmate and stuff, and made sure she didn't get into trouble. That kind of jazz.
I wasn't always good at it. Sometimes I would be the one to get into trouble. That's when my sister, Lily, always had to bail us out.
Lily was possibly the best older sister anyone could have. At my age, she was already the head maid in the household, even out ranking my mother and father. When she turned 19, we had to beat the men off of her with a stick. Literally. I'm not joking, I actually cracked some guy's head open once. But he was a total douche anyway, and if I hadn't done it, Lily probably would have. My mother always used to say how no man could ever tame her, that she was a free spirit. And it was true. Even though we were living the good life, Lily hated being a slave. She wanted to travel and see the world and stuff. I never knew why anyone would want to leave home. She would tell stories about the world and magic and all that, and boy was she a wicked story teller!
I could go on and on about how great Lily was. Heck, I could probably fill out this entire book! But I'm not going to do that. I'll get to the juicy stuff and tell you about how my entire family got separated.
It was like this. Somewhere along the line, our owners started loosing money. Business was bad because of this rival merchant guild that came into town and set up shop, and it took all their customers. I also heard in passing that our owner had a gambling problem. Every night when he came home late, I could hear him and his wife arguing whenever Lily and I stayed over to take care of their daughter. The situation eventually got so bad that, to help out, we had to sell our house and a lot of our stuff. Even then, I guess we couldn't stop the inevitable.
When our owner died, it was a sad day. Many people attended his funeral and there was a lot of crying and stuff going on. I never really knew how he died. The details never caught my ears since I was playing with Key (the owners' daughter) in the back for most of the time that day. I was ten and she was seven. We didn't fully grasp the concept of death yet.
As sad as that day was, the next day was even more horrible. Since our owners' wife had no idea how to managed a business, she sold it and everything associated with it.
That included us.
(THE GIRL PAUSES AND TAKES ANOTHER SHAKY BREATH AND CLOSES HER EYES. AFTER A THREE SECOND SILENCE, SHE CONTINUES)
That day was probably the worst day of my life. As property up for sale, we stood in a line with the other slave girls and boys, and waited to be auctioned off. At first, I didn't understand what was happening. I just knew it was something bad. I remember looking up to Lily, who was standing next to me, and she looked down and smiled. Lily always had a way of making everything seem a little bit better just with a smile.
It wasn't until my father was bought that I realized what was happening. The look in my mother's eyes was painful. It was if our father had died right in front of her. As he walked away towards his new owners, I knew that we were going to be separated, probably forever.
My mother went next. She gave us a look of utter sadness that made me very afraid. Lily took my hand and gave it a squeeze, and gave me that "it's alright" look.
I didn't want Lily to go. Mom and dad were already gone, lost, but I wanted Lily at least. I didn't want to cry in front of all those people, so I tried really hard not to. More and more slaves were called down until there were only four left, including Lily and me. I was praying, hoping that it wouldn't happen.
It happened.
When Lily moved to get off the stage, I didn't let go of her hand. I tried to pull her back, but she wouldn't have it. I guess she knew what would happen if she didn't go. They would make her go anyway. Even still...
(THE GIRL PAUSES AGAIN TO BRUSH A TEAR FROM HER EYE. SHE LOOKS LEFT AND RIGHT TO SEE IF ANYONE SAW, EVEN THOUGH SHE'S THE ONLY ONE IN THE ROOM. THEN CONTINUES WRITING...)
Eventually, I was the only one left. The only girl that no one wanted. I was so dazed by what happened it wasn't any trouble for the guards to heard me into a wagon and ship me to the next town.
But I knew that I couldn't live my life like this anymore. The good times were over. I didn't know what I was going to do after I had done it, but I just knew I had to do it.
I had to escape. So I did.
It wasn't that hard. How many dim-witted idiot guards have you seen underestimate the sheer cunning of desperate 10 year olds? Exactly.
I wandered around for a good long time across the continent, eating out of trash cans and wearing dirty cloths, begging for food and money. It wasn't exactly the proudest part of my life. I learned what hardship really was like, and wished at night that this kind of thing never happened. Sometimes I would just huddle up and cry in an ally somewhere. It made me realize that the world is such a cruel place. I even had to try and make a living selling matches in the winter and nearly froze to death. I probably would have, too, if someone didn't bring me inside.
The crew of The Ringweaver were nice guys. Even though I scratched and bit them when we first met, they took it pretty well. They brought me to a doctor and, later, aboard their ship when I begged them too.
Why would I want to go on a journey across the sea? The reason was simple. I didn't want to leave the only people that showed me compassion ever since my family.
So I went with them across the sea to one continent, Fiore. Unfortunately, during an incident at a bar, I passed out too long and they forgot to bring me back aboard the ship before they took off.
...So I drank a little. Everyone did. It was a bar. Luckily, we didn't have any pedophiles or idiots who would like to take advantage of a drunk eleven year old.
But the barman was actually quite nice too. I really started to think my luck was finally picking up, seeing as I was meeting so many nice people all of a sudden.
Things got really interesting when I told him my last name. It turned out he actually knew my sister. He told me that she and some friends of hers, an old man and a young boy, stayed there once for the night! Can you actually believe that? And it wasn't that long ago, either. Unfortunately, the barman had no idea where they went.
But my sister did leave something behind by accident.
He gave me this old tome that read on the title page Serial Flux, the magic of scholars.
That's when I knew that magic was real, and I wanted to use it. I read the tome day and night, trying to cast the spells and transform my body like the book said. But even though I knew how to do it, I couldn't actually do it. I was too young to be able to cast any spell for a prolonged period of time.
But I came up with a solution to that. I discovered that the bigger piece of the body you try to transform, the more power it takes. However, no matter what part of the body is transformed, the effect of the spell is still the same. For example, you can transform any part of your body into a Serial Nos hand, but
no matter what part of the body it is, it will still be a hand. So I decided to transform the simplest part of my body.
My saliva. But the effect was totally different from what I expected. I invented a whole new style of Serial Flux that I dubbed Serial Flux Circle style.
And yes, saliva is technically part of your body. Or at least, the glands that produce it is.
As exciting as this was, eventually, while studying magic and wandering, I forgot to eat regularly, and one day I collapsed from hunger.
That's when Elegant Qilin took me in, I guess. I dunno, I wasn't conscious for most of that day. But they were quite nice to me. They offered me food and stuff and even asked if I wanted to become part of the guild.
I said yes, of course.
That's basically my entire story. I really want to stop there. My butts' getting numb from just sitting here.
(THE GIRL SIGNS THE DATE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE, GETS UP, AND GRABS A COAT. SHE LEAVES THE ROOM. THE CAMERA PANS TO THE WINDOW AND WE CLOSE IN ON THE SCENE OUTSIDE. WE SEE THE GIRL LEAVING THE GUILD HEADQUARTERS AND WALKING ACROSS THE STREET.
WE FADE OUT. THE SCENE ENDS.)
Likes: Pulling pranks, acting the cutesy part, blackmailing, adventures, her family, magic.
Dislikes: Writing in her journal, her guild-mates, her color blindness.
Positive Traits: Talented apprentice mage who has a lot of potential. She secretly does care about her guild-mates and is grateful for what they've done for her.
Negative Traits: Paranoid. She has difficulty trusting people. Her definition of fun involves placing herself in danger and being a nuisance to her guild-mates.
Skills:
Serial Flux Circle Style:
Noki's own, personal variant of the Serial Flux form of magic. During her study, Noki found that using the more advanced spells extremely taxed her body, spells like Serial Velt and Serial Nos became difficult to use because of this. Pondering on a way to get around this, Noki discovered that, the smaller the part of the body, the less energy it takes to transform. However, the smaller the part of the body, the more concentration and precision it takes on the user's part.
Discovering this technical fact, Noki began to experiment with transforming her saliva glands in her mouth. The result was, essentially, the saliva produced becoming a dark, slime-like tasteless substance that could be blown like a bubble and manipulated to the user's desires.
Essentially, Serial Flux Circle Style focuses on blowing low-grade bubbles of darkness. When it is no longer useful, the excess darkness can be swallowed without any harmful effects to the user.
Serial Gum-Bubble: An unconventional technique. Noki blows a bubble of any size she wants, be that small or big enough to cover her entire body. Once popped, the bubble explodes into a sticky dark substance that traps and hinders movement. The range of the explosion is dependent entirely on the size of the bubble being popped.
Also, if the bubble is blown large enough, Noki can even use it to fly slowly across the air, though this takes a lot of time and blowing.
The downside to this move is that the sticky substance can trap anyone, even the user of the spell. The bubble is quite fragile, and will pop when even the slightest bit of trauma is inflicted. Therefore, in an actual battle, this spell is near completely useless.
Serial Bounce Ball: Another spell whose usefulness is up to question. Noki blows a bubble that is much harder to break and prone to bouncing. Essentially a big, dark rubber ball. Size can vary the same as Serial Gum-Bubble. When thrown or launched, the ball can strike the opponent, or anyone for that matter, with quite a tremendous amount of force.
The downside is that, once it strikes anything, including the opponent, it bounces off the surface and begins to ricochet uncontrollably as it bounces off of one solid surface after another. As it builds in speed and momentum, the damage the ball inflicts becomes greater, and so it has a higher chance of seriously injuring the user, the user's allies, and innocent bystanders rather than the intended target.
Serial Pitch: The only traditional spell that Noki can actually use, and favors enough to cast frequently. Serial Pitch spell is the standard smoke screen that many are familiar with. The user coats an entire area in a pitch black mist that blinds opponents and any other bystanders. However, instead of transforming any part of her body, her smoke screen comes out of her mouth. It's quite useful for surprise attacks.
Age: 12
Gender: Female
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Eyes: Metallic black
Hair: Light metallic black
Personality: For starters, she only obeys one person and one person alone, herself. If it were any other little girl, she would probably be commended for having such a strong spirit. Unfortunately, Noki's iron spirit is supported by pillars of spitefulness and obnoxiousness.
Noki goes out of her way to undermine any kind of authority at every available opportunity, even her own guild leaders'. When pushed, she isn't afraid to push back, even if the opponent is a thousand times bigger and stronger than she is. She will never admit that she is wrong, even if she really is. Majority vote doesn't matter to her. Whatever everyone else decides, she mostly does the opposite, sometimes out of sheer spite. Noki can also be childish, even more so than she physically is, and holds grudges very easily against people. She also likes to play cruel pranks on her peers, and doesn't respect any of them. When she speaks, it's mostly in a sarcastic tone ill befitting of a child her age.
She acts like she doesn't care much for her guild-mates, and only works with them when it bests suits her own interests. Even though the guild has taken her in and treated her well, she makes it seem like she hates all of them.
This isn't really the case. In fact, she's actually quite grateful to be part of the guild. The girl simply can't express that through normal means.
The reason behind all this obnoxious behavior is that, from an early age, Noki was diagnosed to have mild paranoia. Even when she doesn't want to be, she is quite suspicious of everyone and everything that happens to her and around her. It's not as bad as a true state of paranoia, but it still inhibits her ability to make friends and not think that there's an ulterior motive.
Behind her sarcastic personality, Noki is actually a sensitive young girl with a strong will. She's also quite sharp for her age, though not as smart as another character of mine.
She has a talent for magic. Though only a C-rank mage, Noki is talented enough to learn the fundamentals of Serial Flux magic from an old tome and create her own, unofficial branch called Serial Flux Circle style (though, in it's present form, it pales in comparison to the traditional style). Aside from the food and shelter, her main reason for joining the guild was to learn more about magic (even though she usually skips the classes and still tries to learn herself).
Noki can also be a restless girl, and doesn't like to be doing monotonous things over and over again. She has a tendency to go on adventures by herself a lot of the time, sometimes placing herself (and her guild-mates) in danger.
Despite this, and even if she'll never admit it, Noki does care about her guild-mates and what they think about her. She knows that she can't excuse the way she behaves some times, and is surprised that the guild hasn't decided to throw her out yet.
Noki hopes that she can become a more powerful mage and become the guild leader (or at least the leader of a guild) one day, and to use that power to find her long lost family.
One of her deepest secrets she hides from everyone is that she is color blind, and can only perceive the color blue. This stems from a hereditary trait on her father's side, and one that she shares with her older sister, Lily MacMillian. As a result, Noki also has poor vision in general, though she is considered leaning more towards near-sighted. She doesn't like sharing this with people because she finds it embarrassing.
Physical Description:
i99.photobucket.com/albums/l310/v5i9r1g3o/wallpaper/kino_prairie1280.jpg
Image too big to fit on post.
Occupation: C-rank Serial Flux mage
Guild: Elegant Qilin
Location of Guild Tattoo: Left forearm
Specialty:
Serial Flux Circle Style: Seeming to possess a talent with magic, Noki has created her own variant of Serial Flux, a type of darkness spell. Usually a transformation magic, her variant of Serial Flux involves, in layman's terms, spitting out shadowy black bubbles the same way one would with bubble gum. Since this has never been done with Serial Flux before, Noki takes great pride in and uses this variation instead of the traditional Serial Flux transformation spells. However, her Circle style isn't actually that effective in real combat situations. As of today, there are only two spells of the Circle style variation, both of which are questionably useful.
Magical talent: As stated above, Noki is quite a talented mage, though her refusal to actually learn from others inhibits this. She picked up the basics of Serial Flux magic fairly quickly, an achievement considering she also had no one to actually teach her and learned by herself from a manual.
However, her ability to learn magic and actually put it into practice are two separate abilities. Even the most simple of Serial Flux spells takes a large toll on her small energy reserves, another reason why she prefers her own Circle style variant over the traditional style. Other spells that require high amounts of energy, such as elemental and other types of transformation spells, she has difficulty achieving even though she might know how to cast them. B-rank spells are hard due to her small amounts of energy and physical stature, and A-rank spells are nearly impossible. She is, after all, only 12.
Acting: Being a little girl, Noki is quite capable of playing the "cute and innocent role," usually to kind strangers, in order to get something she wants.
History: (WE ARE IN FRONT OF A WOODEN DOOR LEADING TO A ROOM. THE HALL IS DARK AND THE OUTLINE OF THE DOOR IS SHINING FROM THE CANDLE LIGHT COMING FROM INSIDE. THE DOOR OPENS. WE SEE A WINDOW AND A SMALL BED IN ONE CORNER.
PAN RIGHT TO THE LITTLE GIRL IN A PINK DRESS SITTING AT A DESK. SHE HAS A PEN IN HER RIGHT HAND, AND IS RESTING HER HEAD IN HER LEFT. SHE TAPS THE END OF THE PEN ON THE BLANK PAGE IN FRONT OF HER AS SHE STARES WISTFULLY INTO SPACE. PAN UP AT THE CEILING FAN. THEN GO BACK TO THE GIRL. CLOSE UP ON HER EYES. WE SEE THE SPINNING FAN REFLECTED IN THE LITTLE GIRL'S METALLIC BLACK RETINA.
THE GIRL LOOKS BACK DOWN ON THE BLANK PAGE. THEN SHE BEGINS TO WRITE...)
My name is Noki MacMillian and I wish I didn't have to do this.
(THE GIRL STOPS AGAIN, SIGHS, THEN CONTINUES...)
It is required for Serial Flux mages to write a journal, since Natural Darkness is the element of learning, and what better book to learn from than one written by your own hand?
I say f**ck that. I'm not really into diaries or journals. I never got the concept of them. I mean, people are always stressing out about "oh no, who stole my diary?" and crap. If you don't want anyone to see it, why write it down? Anyway, I'm more of a "living in the present" kinda girl, and I'm anything but a writer.
But if my sister's done it, then I guess I can do it too.
So if this is a book about my life, then I guess this chapter would be the prologue or whatever. I guess you expect me to re-cap my entire life up to this point? Don't expect any Nobel prize work. I plan to make this short. I've got better things to do than just sit here and get hand cramps.
(THE GIRL TAKES A DEEP BREATH AND WIGGLES HER ARMS FOR A MINUTE BEFORE CONTINUING)
I was born as a slave. My mother, father, and sister were slaves. My grandpa was a slave, and his grandpa, and his. It sounds barbaric that slavery still exists. I didn't have the pleasure of being born on one of those continents where people think that way.
But this isn't about to become an abolition narrative about the evils of slavery and blah, blah, blah. In fact, for most of my childhood, I didn't even know I was a slave. My family and I were treated very well by our owners. We had our own house, and were fed and clothed and provided for. In fact, we lived better than most of the actual working class in our town. Sure, we cooked, cleaned, and all that menial service stuff. My personal job, when I was about eight or nine, was to take care of my mistress' daughter, who was three years younger than I was. I became her playmate and stuff, and made sure she didn't get into trouble. That kind of jazz.
I wasn't always good at it. Sometimes I would be the one to get into trouble. That's when my sister, Lily, always had to bail us out.
Lily was possibly the best older sister anyone could have. At my age, she was already the head maid in the household, even out ranking my mother and father. When she turned 19, we had to beat the men off of her with a stick. Literally. I'm not joking, I actually cracked some guy's head open once. But he was a total douche anyway, and if I hadn't done it, Lily probably would have. My mother always used to say how no man could ever tame her, that she was a free spirit. And it was true. Even though we were living the good life, Lily hated being a slave. She wanted to travel and see the world and stuff. I never knew why anyone would want to leave home. She would tell stories about the world and magic and all that, and boy was she a wicked story teller!
I could go on and on about how great Lily was. Heck, I could probably fill out this entire book! But I'm not going to do that. I'll get to the juicy stuff and tell you about how my entire family got separated.
It was like this. Somewhere along the line, our owners started loosing money. Business was bad because of this rival merchant guild that came into town and set up shop, and it took all their customers. I also heard in passing that our owner had a gambling problem. Every night when he came home late, I could hear him and his wife arguing whenever Lily and I stayed over to take care of their daughter. The situation eventually got so bad that, to help out, we had to sell our house and a lot of our stuff. Even then, I guess we couldn't stop the inevitable.
When our owner died, it was a sad day. Many people attended his funeral and there was a lot of crying and stuff going on. I never really knew how he died. The details never caught my ears since I was playing with Key (the owners' daughter) in the back for most of the time that day. I was ten and she was seven. We didn't fully grasp the concept of death yet.
As sad as that day was, the next day was even more horrible. Since our owners' wife had no idea how to managed a business, she sold it and everything associated with it.
That included us.
(THE GIRL PAUSES AND TAKES ANOTHER SHAKY BREATH AND CLOSES HER EYES. AFTER A THREE SECOND SILENCE, SHE CONTINUES)
That day was probably the worst day of my life. As property up for sale, we stood in a line with the other slave girls and boys, and waited to be auctioned off. At first, I didn't understand what was happening. I just knew it was something bad. I remember looking up to Lily, who was standing next to me, and she looked down and smiled. Lily always had a way of making everything seem a little bit better just with a smile.
It wasn't until my father was bought that I realized what was happening. The look in my mother's eyes was painful. It was if our father had died right in front of her. As he walked away towards his new owners, I knew that we were going to be separated, probably forever.
My mother went next. She gave us a look of utter sadness that made me very afraid. Lily took my hand and gave it a squeeze, and gave me that "it's alright" look.
I didn't want Lily to go. Mom and dad were already gone, lost, but I wanted Lily at least. I didn't want to cry in front of all those people, so I tried really hard not to. More and more slaves were called down until there were only four left, including Lily and me. I was praying, hoping that it wouldn't happen.
It happened.
When Lily moved to get off the stage, I didn't let go of her hand. I tried to pull her back, but she wouldn't have it. I guess she knew what would happen if she didn't go. They would make her go anyway. Even still...
(THE GIRL PAUSES AGAIN TO BRUSH A TEAR FROM HER EYE. SHE LOOKS LEFT AND RIGHT TO SEE IF ANYONE SAW, EVEN THOUGH SHE'S THE ONLY ONE IN THE ROOM. THEN CONTINUES WRITING...)
Eventually, I was the only one left. The only girl that no one wanted. I was so dazed by what happened it wasn't any trouble for the guards to heard me into a wagon and ship me to the next town.
But I knew that I couldn't live my life like this anymore. The good times were over. I didn't know what I was going to do after I had done it, but I just knew I had to do it.
I had to escape. So I did.
It wasn't that hard. How many dim-witted idiot guards have you seen underestimate the sheer cunning of desperate 10 year olds? Exactly.
I wandered around for a good long time across the continent, eating out of trash cans and wearing dirty cloths, begging for food and money. It wasn't exactly the proudest part of my life. I learned what hardship really was like, and wished at night that this kind of thing never happened. Sometimes I would just huddle up and cry in an ally somewhere. It made me realize that the world is such a cruel place. I even had to try and make a living selling matches in the winter and nearly froze to death. I probably would have, too, if someone didn't bring me inside.
The crew of The Ringweaver were nice guys. Even though I scratched and bit them when we first met, they took it pretty well. They brought me to a doctor and, later, aboard their ship when I begged them too.
Why would I want to go on a journey across the sea? The reason was simple. I didn't want to leave the only people that showed me compassion ever since my family.
So I went with them across the sea to one continent, Fiore. Unfortunately, during an incident at a bar, I passed out too long and they forgot to bring me back aboard the ship before they took off.
...So I drank a little. Everyone did. It was a bar. Luckily, we didn't have any pedophiles or idiots who would like to take advantage of a drunk eleven year old.
But the barman was actually quite nice too. I really started to think my luck was finally picking up, seeing as I was meeting so many nice people all of a sudden.
Things got really interesting when I told him my last name. It turned out he actually knew my sister. He told me that she and some friends of hers, an old man and a young boy, stayed there once for the night! Can you actually believe that? And it wasn't that long ago, either. Unfortunately, the barman had no idea where they went.
But my sister did leave something behind by accident.
He gave me this old tome that read on the title page Serial Flux, the magic of scholars.
That's when I knew that magic was real, and I wanted to use it. I read the tome day and night, trying to cast the spells and transform my body like the book said. But even though I knew how to do it, I couldn't actually do it. I was too young to be able to cast any spell for a prolonged period of time.
But I came up with a solution to that. I discovered that the bigger piece of the body you try to transform, the more power it takes. However, no matter what part of the body is transformed, the effect of the spell is still the same. For example, you can transform any part of your body into a Serial Nos hand, but
no matter what part of the body it is, it will still be a hand. So I decided to transform the simplest part of my body.
My saliva. But the effect was totally different from what I expected. I invented a whole new style of Serial Flux that I dubbed Serial Flux Circle style.
And yes, saliva is technically part of your body. Or at least, the glands that produce it is.
As exciting as this was, eventually, while studying magic and wandering, I forgot to eat regularly, and one day I collapsed from hunger.
That's when Elegant Qilin took me in, I guess. I dunno, I wasn't conscious for most of that day. But they were quite nice to me. They offered me food and stuff and even asked if I wanted to become part of the guild.
I said yes, of course.
That's basically my entire story. I really want to stop there. My butts' getting numb from just sitting here.
(THE GIRL SIGNS THE DATE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE, GETS UP, AND GRABS A COAT. SHE LEAVES THE ROOM. THE CAMERA PANS TO THE WINDOW AND WE CLOSE IN ON THE SCENE OUTSIDE. WE SEE THE GIRL LEAVING THE GUILD HEADQUARTERS AND WALKING ACROSS THE STREET.
WE FADE OUT. THE SCENE ENDS.)
Likes: Pulling pranks, acting the cutesy part, blackmailing, adventures, her family, magic.
Dislikes: Writing in her journal, her guild-mates, her color blindness.
Positive Traits: Talented apprentice mage who has a lot of potential. She secretly does care about her guild-mates and is grateful for what they've done for her.
Negative Traits: Paranoid. She has difficulty trusting people. Her definition of fun involves placing herself in danger and being a nuisance to her guild-mates.
Skills:
Serial Flux Circle Style:
Noki's own, personal variant of the Serial Flux form of magic. During her study, Noki found that using the more advanced spells extremely taxed her body, spells like Serial Velt and Serial Nos became difficult to use because of this. Pondering on a way to get around this, Noki discovered that, the smaller the part of the body, the less energy it takes to transform. However, the smaller the part of the body, the more concentration and precision it takes on the user's part.
Discovering this technical fact, Noki began to experiment with transforming her saliva glands in her mouth. The result was, essentially, the saliva produced becoming a dark, slime-like tasteless substance that could be blown like a bubble and manipulated to the user's desires.
Essentially, Serial Flux Circle Style focuses on blowing low-grade bubbles of darkness. When it is no longer useful, the excess darkness can be swallowed without any harmful effects to the user.
Serial Gum-Bubble: An unconventional technique. Noki blows a bubble of any size she wants, be that small or big enough to cover her entire body. Once popped, the bubble explodes into a sticky dark substance that traps and hinders movement. The range of the explosion is dependent entirely on the size of the bubble being popped.
Also, if the bubble is blown large enough, Noki can even use it to fly slowly across the air, though this takes a lot of time and blowing.
The downside to this move is that the sticky substance can trap anyone, even the user of the spell. The bubble is quite fragile, and will pop when even the slightest bit of trauma is inflicted. Therefore, in an actual battle, this spell is near completely useless.
Serial Bounce Ball: Another spell whose usefulness is up to question. Noki blows a bubble that is much harder to break and prone to bouncing. Essentially a big, dark rubber ball. Size can vary the same as Serial Gum-Bubble. When thrown or launched, the ball can strike the opponent, or anyone for that matter, with quite a tremendous amount of force.
The downside is that, once it strikes anything, including the opponent, it bounces off the surface and begins to ricochet uncontrollably as it bounces off of one solid surface after another. As it builds in speed and momentum, the damage the ball inflicts becomes greater, and so it has a higher chance of seriously injuring the user, the user's allies, and innocent bystanders rather than the intended target.
Serial Pitch: The only traditional spell that Noki can actually use, and favors enough to cast frequently. Serial Pitch spell is the standard smoke screen that many are familiar with. The user coats an entire area in a pitch black mist that blinds opponents and any other bystanders. However, instead of transforming any part of her body, her smoke screen comes out of her mouth. It's quite useful for surprise attacks.
