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It was a pretty evening. The sun was going down, a few songbirds hardy enough to survive in an inner city park were singing, and the sky struck just the right balance between cloud and clear. Maria Pezzini had never been the sort of girl who spent much time appreciating natural beauty, but with the way things had changed for her it was one of the relatively few joys she had left.
Fucking Hellions. Fucking robot-thing.
On the other hand, if those idiots' perverted 'ritual' hadn't trapped her in this eighteenth-century abomination, she'd be completely dead by now, wouldn't she?
Maria sighed, internally - the only way she could, now, since this 'seelepanzer' thing didn't have speakers any more than it had a face - and concluded that, therapists aside, she really wasn't one of those people who were cut out for looking on the bright side of things.
Fucking Hellions. Fucking robot.
"You can't do this!"
"Watch your mouth, bitch!"
Oh, look, a distraction. Thank you for volunteering, asshat. She fed some more coal into the firebox with a mental command that felt sort of like swallowing, and waited for the boiler's pressure to rise to combat levels with a sense of anticipation that should have had a very nasty grin on her face.
"You think all your money's gonna protect ya? You think it gives you the right to diss us Hellions? That what you think?!"
"Hey, man," a second voice broke in. "Ain't that maybe a little much?"
"You backing out, man? Decided you don't want that Langley bitch so much after all? Besides, you're gettin' seconds here, ain't'cha?"
Those few words - the realization of exactly what these vermin planned, and the name of one of the few friends she'd had who'd seemed genuinely disturbed by her apparent death - were enough to sap any fragment of humor from the situation. Fortunately - both for the woman who'd been caught and the Hellions themselves, given the state of her temper these days - that was when the safety valve tripped and pressurized the rest of her system in a cloud of steam that hissed free from pinhole clearance gaps in foot-long, pencil-thin jets.
One step, two, and then she stepped off the roof.
For the space of one long breath she fell free, then slammed into the pavement with a crash that impressed a pair of hobnailed footprints half an inch deep in the pavement of the alley. The one standing lookout she ignored - for now - in favor of lunging ahead to slam the spiked plate carried across the 'knuckles' of her new arm into the jaw of what she figured to be the asshole who had been doing all the talking, what with his having stuck his hand inside the poor woman's shirt and all.
He had turned to look at the racket and was able to duck out of the way enough to make it a glancing blow rather than a direct one, but that only meant that he went down with a bleeding scrape along the side of his head rather than having his skull crushed between the brick wall and a swinging fist with well over a ton of mass behind it.
The third Hellion, the one who had been holding the woman in place, dropped his captive as his companion crumbled, stunned if not yet unconcious, and pulled out a knife. She almost could have laughed.
Something in her posture must have shown it, because he snarled and lunged, completely unconcerned with the fact that he was attacking what was, for all intents and purposes, an armored war machine more than a head taller than he was. It skittered harmlessly off of the grimy steel that had been intended to turn two-inch grapeshot, and then he was staggering back, clutching at the bleeding nose he'd earned when her backhand knocked him away.
She gave him a shot with the city-issue tazer installed in her right arm, to distract him, then turned back to the leader as he came up off the ground with axe in hand and some caliber of pistol bullet whined futilely off of the plating protecting her back. He was smarter than his friend, if even more disgusting, and swung at one of her joints as her nearer arm came up overhead.
That blow missed, but hers didn't, and hammered him to the ground, completely senseless.
The one she'd shocked was only starting to shake it off when she had turned back to him, and she didn't give him time to finish the process, instead driving a fist into his stomach hard enough to lift his feet completely off the ground. Through luck or natural surefootedness he managed to keep himself upright, but that only set him up more easily for the relatively gentle clout that put his lights completely out.
Her entire frame rang like a bell when the lookout caught her squarely with the sledgehammer he had snatched up, but a sweep of her nearer arm as she spun around to face him knocked it from his hands and snapped one wrist like a tree branch. He screamed, of course, and then cut the sound off as she brought the other arm down to club him unconcious.
"Maybe I was wrong about capes," the woman she'd rescued told her stiffly, trying to shrug her expensive suit coat back into place. "Thank you."

No, she has absolutely no clue that her friend Raye is anything other than a normal schoolgirl. ^_^
Ja, -n

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"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"
Nice! got a screenshot of this character?
Edit: Name means "Armored Soul" or "ghost in the armor", yes?-Logan
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"This kind of thing tends invariably to devolve into the kind of "No, Nakajima, THIS is true power!!" argument that only really works if you're yelling it from the cockpit of a giant robot . . ."
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Female Armored build or HUGE?
And which server?
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll
The literal translation is 'soul armor'; you'd have to ask Griever or one of our other fluent German speakers to know more - I don't.
I initially tried building her with a huge frame, but I didn't like the way that turned out - she was too... chubby. So she's built from the male template bulked all the way up. Dark gray, real tall, steampunk theme all the way around.
I'm gonna go try for a screen right this moment, actually.
ETA: And done! Also, here's one with a sense of scale.
Ja, -n

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"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"
Say... Just occured to me - Is Maria's soul bonded to this armor in a fashion similar to Al from Full Metal Alchemist? If so, maybe later versions of her "costume" could be different and more advanced "bodies" that the particular plate containing her "soul glyph" (I forget the relevent term from FMA) can be transferrred to? Maybe even one that more closely approximates a human female?
Is this character using the Magical Origin in-game?-Logan
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"This kind of thing tends invariably to devolve into the kind of "No, Nakajima, THIS is true power!!" argument that only really works if you're yelling it from the cockpit of a giant robot . . ."
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If so, maybe later versions of her "costume" could be different and more advanced "bodies" that the particular plate containing her "soul glyph" (I forget the relevent term from FMA) can be transferrred to? Maybe even one that more closely approximates a human female?
Despite having not seen any of that series, I'm wondering just how far that idea could go.
Could someone build, say, a Nuku-Nuku type body, and transfer to that?
-Morgan. Alternately, there's the approach with the genetic tampering and the modified vacuum cleaner..."I have no interest in ordinary humans. If there are any aliens, time travelers, or espers here, come sleep with me."
---From "The Ecchi of Haruhi Suzumiya"
-----(Not really)
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Despite having not seen any of that series, I'm wondering just how far that idea could go.
Could someone build, say, a Nuku-Nuku type body, and transfer to that?
You're both right. ^_^ She was indeed partly inspired by Al, and one of her big motivations for walking the hero's road is that it should, eventually, give her access to the tools, contacts, and resources needed to build a replacement frame comparable to, say, Naomi Armitage.
Ja, -n
(already considering a retcon for that outfit - how sad is that?)

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"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"
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She fed some more coal into the firebox with a mental command that felt sort of like swallowing, and waited for the boiler's pressure to rise to combat levels with a sense of anticipation that should have had a very nasty grin on her face.
Diesel is for unbelievers, electricity is wroooonnggg...
Steam has got the power that will pull us along
There's a light at the end of the tunnel
There's a light at the end of the tunnel
The inside might be as black as the night
But there's a light at the end of the tunnel
There's a light at the end of the tunnel
The inside might be as black as the night
But at the end of the tunnel there's a light!

-- Andrew Lloyd Webber, "Light at the End of the Tunnel", "Starlight Express"
So, yeah, that line totally made me happy. Steam-powered robot-thingy inhabited by a teenage girl's soul. Cute.
What is that thing? I take it...it's some kinda techno-magical war machine designed to house a human soul? Which, frankly, is kinda creepy and evil there.
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one of her big motivations for walking the hero's road is that it should, eventually, give her access to the tools, contacts, and resources needed to build a replacement frame comparable to, say, Naomi Armitage.
Do you see that happening within the in-game timespan...as in, like, rolling a new version of the the character someday...or is it purely theoretical, and in any case, looking too far ahead?
-- Acyl
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What is that thing? I take it...it's some kinda techno-magical war machine designed to house a human soul? Which, frankly, is kinda creepy and evil there.
No more than a Protoss Dragoon. The designers intended that, besides its military applications, the thing should be a second chance for the dying, if they should so choose.
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Do you see that happening within the in-game timespan...as in, like, rolling a new version of the the character someday...or is it purely theoretical, and in any case, looking too far ahead?
I had originally planned her 'human form' as being her second or third costume, but I'm starting to reconsider, since the difference in chassis should really demand different power-sets.
Ja, -n

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"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"
Quote:
No more than a Protoss Dragoon. The designers intended that, besides its military applications, the thing should be a second chance for the dying, if they should so choose.
Ah, "second chance for the dying" is an entirely different thing. I was picturing it as...I dunno, some kinda slave-type war machine with an unwilling soul used to power it.
I imagine that'd make for a very different character, though the Malta titans are sorta there already...
Whatever you do, with regards to the...building a second version of the character for the 'human' body...or something... it's bound to be interesting. Lotsa potential for RP and story development there...
-- Acyl
Okay, I didn't get a chance to comment on this earlier, but I really like this. I also like the fact that she doesn't know Raye=Evangelia (even when Space Mage has it figured out). There's some good RP possibilities there...
-- Bob
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...The President is on the line
As ninety-nine crab rangoons go by...
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I had originally planned her 'human form' as being her second or third costume, but I'm starting to reconsider, since the difference in chassis should really demand different power-sets.
I admittedly don't know which powersets she has right now, but I'd think if there was anyplace where it'd be possible to make a new body that would have the same powers in a human form, it'd be Paragon City. *shrug*
(I have this odd mental image of her meeting Elenium, wishing she could get a body like that, learning about the main limitation of the EFMS, and rescinding the wish as quickly as possible... But that character isn't on virtue or infinity. '.' )
-Morgan."I have no interest in ordinary humans. If there are any aliens, time travelers, or espers here, come sleep with me."
---From "The Ecchi of Haruhi Suzumiya"
-----(Not really)
Quote:
I had originally planned her 'human form' as being her second or third costume, but I'm starting to reconsider, since the difference in chassis should really demand different power-sets.
How so? Why different power sets? And BTW, I may have missed it, but what IS her current powerset anyway? I assume either a scrapper or tanker, but maybe I'm wrong?
Anyway, thought about what you said in regard to "upgrades", then thought about it some more. I'm getting a kind of "female steampunk/gaslight fantasy robocop" vibe from her. Existential angst. But Maria doesn't even have the nice body of a Motoko Kusanagi. She doesn't even have a proper FACE right now. If I were writing this character, I'd consider giving her some hope and a way to better socialize with people. But not TOO much hope, because that gets us to the denouement too quickly.
But as a half-measure, and at least to give her a form that approximates her old even a little bit better, and a face to go with it, how about this - at some point, she gets involved in stopping one of those Circle of Thorns transformation circles, like you see on the rooftops of Kings Row. Maybe another magical hero is there, and something goes weird. Her deep desire to be normal again merges with a last gasp of energy from a defeated mage, and alters her form.
There wasn't enough power to transform her completely. but there was enough to do something significant. Reflecting her greatest desire, her body is reshaped in a general sense, before working on the details, getting as far as her head and neck, before the magic loses all force.
To something [/Young Frankenstein]like this?
So then she has at least a face. The hair is pretty obviously not real. Her face is the only part that approaches human. The rest of her mechanics are the same, just moved around slightly and made more compact.
But this is kind of hope and dissapointment in one. She gets closer to being human, and yet not. What do you think?
Or - the change might not be magical in the classic sense. Some other encounter might produce the above results. There are two other villains in the game who might take an interest, even though they're not magical. That's the Clockwork King and Nemesis.
I could see Clockwork King as seeing in her a reflection of his own plight. I don't see him willingly doing her any favors though. He doesn't seem to get along with even Villains of the Rogue Isles. And his tech isn't even really "tech", nor is he magical in nature.
Nemesis would be similar, and more willing to offer a devils bargain. His tech is also very compatible and might produce a similar result to the above. He might be interested in learning about the process that bonded her soul to the armor as an alternate process for extending his own life towards immortality. But what would his price be?
[Young Frankenstein] IT! COULD! WORK!!!!! -Logan
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"This kind of thing tends invariably to devolve into the kind of "No, Nakajima, THIS is true power!!" argument that only really works if you're yelling it from the cockpit of a giant robot . . ."
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How so? Why different power sets? And BTW, I may have missed it, but what IS her current powerset anyway? I assume either a scrapper or tanker, but maybe I'm wrong?
Yes, Technology Tanker. Invulnerability/Super Strength. Which in her case is justified by the fact that her body stands seven feet and change and is quite literally built like tank. And I've been playing her like that mass really was affecting her ability to move - I wasn't even turning on Sprint.
My official WAG puts her mass at a little over a ton.
I really can't see her final body replacing that kind of brute force - something the size of an ordinary young woman couldn't match those effects without a lot more ultratech than she'd have the resources for, especially when it also has to contend with doing a seamless impersonation of a normal human. A good power source and a set of retractable blasters, OTOH, strike me as much more doable.
Besides, I'm crazy enough to think that playing a blapper sounds fun.
Eventually, after I can actually afford a visit to the tailor, she and her maintenance crew will start swapping out vintage parts for more modern devices - right after they install the external speakers and restore her ability to talk. Which should serve the same plot-function as your suggestion while allowing me to keep the juxtaposition of hihg-school kawaiiko mentality and looming clanking nightmare body that I found so entertaining about her in the first place.
Ja, -n

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"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"
Now you just need the game to let you switch body types in costumes. Not in the current build to allow it, so all alternate chassis Seelepanzern are gonna be from the ground up builds.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll