And now, an idea stolen from other people!
I'm bored, and have no comics done (yeah I'm a horrible jerk, I know...) so I'll do this character essay thing instead!
So where do I even start with this? Hm...I think we're going to have to go waaaaaaaay back.
Some time ago, there was an RP over IRC that was eventually unofficially named RPWOAN (short for RolePlay WithOut A Name! ACRONYMS!). I eventually had two characters in this game (Prska and Miri, neither of which I use anymore), and at one point I'd started to get curious about MU*s. I didn't join any then, but in the process I came up with a couple of character ideas. One of these was Skylar, who almost never gets played and who I'm still working with. The other was a cyborg girl whose main defining attribute at the time was a pair of feathered wings...and I think you readers probably know who I'm talking about by now.
Zene eventually did find her way into RPWOAN, where she did little in the one battle that did occur where she was, but did a lot to meddle in as many people's private lives as possible. Which...wasn't many, but this number probably would have been bigger if RPWOAN hadn't eventually been abandoned (something which seems to happen around me a lot :P).
So after that, Zene saw play in various RPs, including the 600+ page one with BabyCharmander's characters, which was probably one of the most fun ones I've had her in, and was as great for helping me develop Zene as it apparently was for BC and Cutter. The other major influence was actually a series of mini-RPs which occurred when Ceceil and I had free time and couldn't play the main RP for whatever reason.
Zene was pretty much orphaned at birth (yes, I know it's cliche, shut up) and raised in an orphanage until she was about eight. During that time, she had her own little adventures; curious and inventive, she eventually explored every inch of the building she could reach and possibly a few she shouldn't have been able to. She also got herself into quite a few scrapes by thinking of herself as a defender of the younger children from the occasional bully; this didn't work out so well for her at first, but eventually she learned how to hold her own. There were other habits that developed during this time, such as a tendency to take things apart when bored, though she doesn't dare do this to anything that isn't hers anymore.
There was one kid in particular that Zene grew particularly attached to at this time, a little boy named Benjamin. Benjy, as Zene called him, was brought to the orphanage when she was a few years old. This was also around the time Zene decided she should have a baby sibling, so Benjy was the lucky candidate she picked to latch onto. From then on they were almost inseparable; the two had the occasional squabble, of course, but aside from that you couldn't ask for a closer friendship. Zene had always dreamed of the day that her parents would come and ask for her back, and now that she had Benjy, she thought that when it happened, they'd all be a family together.
So of course I ripped that apart into tiny pieces.
When Zene was eight, there was a fire at the orphanage. On finding out that no one had seen Benjy outside, Zene did the stupid thing and sneaked into the burning building to try to find him. This attempt was about as successful as one might expect, and she was lucky enough to be rescued. Since then, she's had a pretty understandable fear of large fires. Shortly afterward, a couple of people from Avens came to bring her back to the Rift City with them, and it was there that she finished recovering. It's unknown if Benjy was also rescued; Zene has pretty much come to the conclusion that he wasn't, and blames herself for his death. Finding out her parents were also dead did not help with this.
After this, Zene effectively became mute. She refused to speak for any reason, and in fact was pretty much incapable of speaking. She also slipped into an almost depressed state at this point, but she recovered from this long before the muteness. Despite all this, she did manage to make a few close friends, namely Skylar, Summer, and Teco. In the meantime, she learned how to speak and read Rifter, how to use sign language, and caught up on her other education. I imagine she probably would have taken an interest in performing arts and the like, particularly dancing (she probably would've taken some acting classes too, even if she was unlikely to be in any plays).
Shortly after she was brought to the Rift City, Zene was inspired and became obsessed with the idea of flying. While there were plenty of machines available for exactly this purpose (her adoptive uncle even had one such machine and took her flying in it from time to time), this failed to completely satisfy her, and she began looking into other ways to achieve her dream. Finally, at the age of fifteen, she underwent a surgical process that included the wings, as well as reinforcements and other implants to help her body cope with the added weight. After this, Zene used pretty much all her free time learning how to use the new wings, and figuring out tricks to use in flight. Recently, Zene has taken a job with InterDimensional Monitoring, an EWISOTT company, to study other worlds and keep an eye out for threats to Avens.
Overall, Zene is an...interesting person. Or at least, she is as far as I'm concerned. While she's friendly and moderately polite to most people when she meets them, her behavior after that often depends on their treatment of her, and to some extent their general personality. Kudos points are also given if the person in question is on good terms with someone she already likes. Aside from that, she's generally playful, optimistic, and juuuust a bit quirky sometimes. Just don't ever get on her bad side; while Zene doesn't like to fight, she will if she feels she has to protect herself or others, and if she can't fight directly, she's perfectly happy getting revenge via pranks and other sneakiness.
And speaking of fighting! Zene uses a slingshot with a variety of ammo. If she just wants to annoy someone, do ordinary damage or not waste special ammo, she'll use stones or whatever else would work in a pinch. The rest of the time, or when rocks just won't do the job, she has several types of special ammo: blast, which explodes on impact; freeze, which chills the area around it on impact; zap, which electrocutes whatever it hits; and sticky, which breaks open to release a glue-like substance on impact. There's also a new type of ammo she's gotten recently (I've been thinking of calling it soothe ammo or something along those lines) which breaks open on impact to release a cloud of gas that makes whoever's caught in it relaxed and uncoordinated, so fun times there. Aside from the slingshot, she will use whatever's handy if she has to, although obviously not with as much skill.
Now, abilities (I SWEAR THIS IS THE LAST THING I'LL GO OVER IN THIS). In Avens, most people have one or two abilities. Aside from flight, Zene has two things that are basically the explanation for why she isn't dead already. The first of these is a raised awareness of her physical condition in most respects, and an ability to control these things to some extent. Y'know those people who can control their heartbeat and breathing? It's like that, only she can control more than that (healing and immune response come to mind, as well as growth patterns, to an extent). Obviously, this takes focus, and if she's trying to speed something up significantly, energy and resources as well.
As for the other, it's not really an ability by Avens standards, and some there question its existence. Basically, she has really good luck in life-threatening situations. However, as the description might imply, she has absolutely no control over how or when or if this occurs, and it's generally extremely subtle. As I said before, it's more of an explanation for why Zene has managed to survive even half of the stuff she's been through in some RPs. I can probably explain this better, but really I just want to finish and post it already. IT'S ALREADY TOO LONG NOW. Feel free to ask questions in the comments, though, and I'll try to answer them.
So where do I even start with this? Hm...I think we're going to have to go waaaaaaaay back.
Some time ago, there was an RP over IRC that was eventually unofficially named RPWOAN (short for RolePlay WithOut A Name! ACRONYMS!). I eventually had two characters in this game (Prska and Miri, neither of which I use anymore), and at one point I'd started to get curious about MU*s. I didn't join any then, but in the process I came up with a couple of character ideas. One of these was Skylar, who almost never gets played and who I'm still working with. The other was a cyborg girl whose main defining attribute at the time was a pair of feathered wings...and I think you readers probably know who I'm talking about by now.
Zene eventually did find her way into RPWOAN, where she did little in the one battle that did occur where she was, but did a lot to meddle in as many people's private lives as possible. Which...wasn't many, but this number probably would have been bigger if RPWOAN hadn't eventually been abandoned (something which seems to happen around me a lot :P).
So after that, Zene saw play in various RPs, including the 600+ page one with BabyCharmander's characters, which was probably one of the most fun ones I've had her in, and was as great for helping me develop Zene as it apparently was for BC and Cutter. The other major influence was actually a series of mini-RPs which occurred when Ceceil and I had free time and couldn't play the main RP for whatever reason.
Zene was pretty much orphaned at birth (yes, I know it's cliche, shut up) and raised in an orphanage until she was about eight. During that time, she had her own little adventures; curious and inventive, she eventually explored every inch of the building she could reach and possibly a few she shouldn't have been able to. She also got herself into quite a few scrapes by thinking of herself as a defender of the younger children from the occasional bully; this didn't work out so well for her at first, but eventually she learned how to hold her own. There were other habits that developed during this time, such as a tendency to take things apart when bored, though she doesn't dare do this to anything that isn't hers anymore.
There was one kid in particular that Zene grew particularly attached to at this time, a little boy named Benjamin. Benjy, as Zene called him, was brought to the orphanage when she was a few years old. This was also around the time Zene decided she should have a baby sibling, so Benjy was the lucky candidate she picked to latch onto. From then on they were almost inseparable; the two had the occasional squabble, of course, but aside from that you couldn't ask for a closer friendship. Zene had always dreamed of the day that her parents would come and ask for her back, and now that she had Benjy, she thought that when it happened, they'd all be a family together.
So of course I ripped that apart into tiny pieces.
When Zene was eight, there was a fire at the orphanage. On finding out that no one had seen Benjy outside, Zene did the stupid thing and sneaked into the burning building to try to find him. This attempt was about as successful as one might expect, and she was lucky enough to be rescued. Since then, she's had a pretty understandable fear of large fires. Shortly afterward, a couple of people from Avens came to bring her back to the Rift City with them, and it was there that she finished recovering. It's unknown if Benjy was also rescued; Zene has pretty much come to the conclusion that he wasn't, and blames herself for his death. Finding out her parents were also dead did not help with this.
After this, Zene effectively became mute. She refused to speak for any reason, and in fact was pretty much incapable of speaking. She also slipped into an almost depressed state at this point, but she recovered from this long before the muteness. Despite all this, she did manage to make a few close friends, namely Skylar, Summer, and Teco. In the meantime, she learned how to speak and read Rifter, how to use sign language, and caught up on her other education. I imagine she probably would have taken an interest in performing arts and the like, particularly dancing (she probably would've taken some acting classes too, even if she was unlikely to be in any plays).
Shortly after she was brought to the Rift City, Zene was inspired and became obsessed with the idea of flying. While there were plenty of machines available for exactly this purpose (her adoptive uncle even had one such machine and took her flying in it from time to time), this failed to completely satisfy her, and she began looking into other ways to achieve her dream. Finally, at the age of fifteen, she underwent a surgical process that included the wings, as well as reinforcements and other implants to help her body cope with the added weight. After this, Zene used pretty much all her free time learning how to use the new wings, and figuring out tricks to use in flight. Recently, Zene has taken a job with InterDimensional Monitoring, an EWISOTT company, to study other worlds and keep an eye out for threats to Avens.
Overall, Zene is an...interesting person. Or at least, she is as far as I'm concerned. While she's friendly and moderately polite to most people when she meets them, her behavior after that often depends on their treatment of her, and to some extent their general personality. Kudos points are also given if the person in question is on good terms with someone she already likes. Aside from that, she's generally playful, optimistic, and juuuust a bit quirky sometimes. Just don't ever get on her bad side; while Zene doesn't like to fight, she will if she feels she has to protect herself or others, and if she can't fight directly, she's perfectly happy getting revenge via pranks and other sneakiness.
And speaking of fighting! Zene uses a slingshot with a variety of ammo. If she just wants to annoy someone, do ordinary damage or not waste special ammo, she'll use stones or whatever else would work in a pinch. The rest of the time, or when rocks just won't do the job, she has several types of special ammo: blast, which explodes on impact; freeze, which chills the area around it on impact; zap, which electrocutes whatever it hits; and sticky, which breaks open to release a glue-like substance on impact. There's also a new type of ammo she's gotten recently (I've been thinking of calling it soothe ammo or something along those lines) which breaks open on impact to release a cloud of gas that makes whoever's caught in it relaxed and uncoordinated, so fun times there. Aside from the slingshot, she will use whatever's handy if she has to, although obviously not with as much skill.
Now, abilities (I SWEAR THIS IS THE LAST THING I'LL GO OVER IN THIS). In Avens, most people have one or two abilities. Aside from flight, Zene has two things that are basically the explanation for why she isn't dead already. The first of these is a raised awareness of her physical condition in most respects, and an ability to control these things to some extent. Y'know those people who can control their heartbeat and breathing? It's like that, only she can control more than that (healing and immune response come to mind, as well as growth patterns, to an extent). Obviously, this takes focus, and if she's trying to speed something up significantly, energy and resources as well.
As for the other, it's not really an ability by Avens standards, and some there question its existence. Basically, she has really good luck in life-threatening situations. However, as the description might imply, she has absolutely no control over how or when or if this occurs, and it's generally extremely subtle. As I said before, it's more of an explanation for why Zene has managed to survive even half of the stuff she's been through in some RPs. I can probably explain this better, but really I just want to finish and post it already. IT'S ALREADY TOO LONG NOW. Feel free to ask questions in the comments, though, and I'll try to answer them.