New Human Project Subject Seventeen - Designation: "Lorelei"
"If you give me an order, I will obey. If you ask it of me, I will serve. That doesn't mean I have to like living this way."
"If you give me an order, I will obey. If you ask it of me, I will serve. That doesn't mean I have to like living this way."
NAME:
She is most commonly referred to by her codename, Lorelei, but it's unlikely this is the name she was given at birth. Whatever her real name is, even she doesn't know it.
AGE:
17
HEIGHT:
5 feet, 6 inches.
GENDER:
Female
HOMELAND:
Leviathan
PRIMARY CLASS:
Exorcist
SECONDARY CLASS:
Medium
LIKES:
✔ Listening to music in her headphones, which are almost always seen either hanging around her neck or placed over her ears.
"It helps me shut out the voices."
✔ Sweet or otherwise compellingly delicious foods. Although her serious demeanor might conceal this fact, she actually has a tremendous appetite. The prospect of tasty food is one of the few things that can put a genuine, childish smile on the young Medium's face.
"Ice... cream? I've never heard of it. What does it taste like? Can I have some?"
✔ Winning. She has a strong competitive streak, feeling obligated to succeed at any endeavor she begins or is otherwise roped into. Growing up in a laboratory where failing to be anything short of perfect would result in being thrown back out onto the street trained her to feel that success is the only acceptable outcome to any situation, and to feel personally guilty for even the most trivial of losses. On the upside, this makes her a hyper-competent assistant in any venture, but it also means she's progressively striving to live up to an ideal of perfection that most would assume impossible, and consequently finds it difficult to relax under almost any circumstances.
"Failure again... Again and again and again and again and again and again and AGAIN! One more try... I'll get it right this time! I have to!"
✔ Collecting stuffed animals. Although it might seem tremendously unusual, given her icy, rude demeanor, she has a certain love of cute things that comes from a desire to be more like what she views as a normal girl. However, as such hobbies are highly frowned upon in a laboratory environment, and pieces of her "collection" have had a tendency to be mocked or confiscated in the past, she guards her secret love of the adorable closely. Besides, if anybody were to find out about it - especially her peers - it would ruin her image.
"D-don't read too much into it, okay?! I just like them..."
DISLIKES:
✘ People telling her what to do. While she's long since become accustomed to being treated as a tool for Daemon extermination rather than a Human being, overbearing adults, their irrational systems, and unreasonable expectations never cease to grate on her. Although she's reluctantly polite in the presence of the overseers observing her development as an anti-Daemon weapon due to the punishments she is sure to receive for disrespecting them, to her peers or minor figures of authority who she does not care to acknowledge, she acts fiercely independent, wanting to claim at least some small level of freedom for herself. This can lead her to act recklessly, disregarding advice just for the sake of being contrary and doing things her way, even if it goes against her common sense.
"I just want to live for myself - to succeed and fail based on my own merits. I'm tired of being a pet who only gets to assume responsibility for her failures while others claim credit for the results of my hard work. If that's wrong of me, then so be it. I'd be more than happy to be wrong if it meant being free."
✘ Being mocked. She has a sort of rebellious pride, and hates to have her accomplishments belittled or otherwise made light of. She's only gotten where she is today through her own efforts, and if anybody wants to question that, they'll likely have a very angry, unstable water-manipulating psychic on their hands.
"Correct me if I heard wrong, but I do believe you just called me a subhuman dog who only got where she is today with the backing of the NHP. Tell me, what would you say your favorite appendage is? I'll take great pleasure in breaking it for you."
✘ Being close to other people. Due to the modifications done to her to enhance her mental potential, her formidable psychic powers are rather difficult to turn off. Consequently, she has a tendency to randomly read or influence the minds of those with whom she makes eye contact, or to catch brief glimpses of the futures of those she comes into contact with, or other such things. Similarly, when angry or despondent, she has a tendency to cause strange telekinetic phenomena close to her person that can often prove harmful to others. Therefore, to avoid hurting people or hearing their inner thoughts, she tries her best to avoid close proximity to others, and to keep from making eye or physical contact with them.
"Just shut up... Shut up! Shut up, all of you! Shut up and leave me alone...! Shut up..."
STRENGTHS:
Lorelei is certainly a very, very powerful individual - one of the few students at the Academy who is capable of wielding both Elemental and Mental Magicks. In particular, she specializes in the Mental applications of her powers, capable of most disciplines of the Medium class. Although she is incapable of utilizing curses, she is more than able to communicate telepathically, read and alter the minds of others so as to understand their thoughts and project powerful, realistic illusions that it's difficult to recognize as such due to their basis in fundamentally altering the perceptions of those who perceive them. She also possesses a sort of clairvoyant sixth sense - an omnidirectional sort of spacial awareness that allows her to recognize properties of objects according to her five senses, even when she has no means of exerting those senses at a given time. This allows her to see objects within a certain radius from a bird's eye view, recognize sounds and smells and trace their origins, and to fundamentally comprehend the texture and even the structural makeup of objects just be looking at them, as though she can "touch" each individual part of an object without actually coming into contact with it, producing a highly accurate mental image of how things are composed - if not how they function.
In particular, however, due to certain procedures done to her during her time as a lab rat, she has a much greater potential for telekinesis than almost any other psychic. With a larger range and capacity to focus her soul's "force" on objects due to her intrinsic understanding of the area around her thanks to her clairvoyance, she is capable of lifting much heavier objects with her thoughts, and controlling them much more precisely at much greater distances than an ordinary Medium.
Although perhaps not as prodigious in this field as in Mental Magicks, Lorelei does have a great deal of natural talent for controlling water. However, her ability in this area is much more limited. Water is the ONLY element she is capable of manipulating, and her abilities to summon pure energy to fuel this power are very limited, making her utterly incapable of using the impressive spells most Exorcists rely entirely on. However, what she can do, she can do well. Able to comprehend the entire structure of any water compound she is manipulating, she can control its form with unparalleled precision, down to freely altering the hydrogen and molecular bonds connecting the individual molecules of the water she controls, giving it whatever properties she needs. So, while most water-manipulating exorcists would probably use some lengthy invocation that would end with dropping a glacier on their target's head, Lorelei takes a somewhat different approach. Her usual method of attacking with water is by absorbing water in the surrounding air and condensing it to the point where it is literally so dense that it behaves like a solid, taking on roughly the shape of a "sword." Then, by tightening of inter-molecular and hydrogen bonds, Lorelei can render her solid water as hard as the toughest metals, and by reducing the flat of the blade to a single molecule in width at all points and then causing its edge to oscillate rapidly, she can make the blade capable of cutting through most things with ease, as well as causing the blade to be completely invisible to the naked eye from the side, as its edge is literally too thin to be seen. Furthermore, by altering its shape, Lorelei can actually extend and contract it by absorbing water from or releasing water into the air, and puppeteer its movements at will, turning it into a variable length and size whipsword. For a final touch, she renders the edge of the blade either tremendously acidic or basic, causing it to, respectively, corrode most metals or rip apart biological matter like a hot knife through butter. So, in short, it can change length and direction at will, and cuts through just about anything it has to, and you can't even see its blade coming towards you. In short, it's a truly terrifying, not to mention dangerous, weapon. However, although it has a great deal of offensive ability, given that she can strike with it from almost any angle with very little movement on her part aside from a flick of her wrist, given that it is made of water, it requires an immense amount of concentration to maintain, and can't stand up to direct attacks, seriously limiting its utility as a shield or similar defensive measure, and forcing her to utilize her precognitive and mind-reading abilities to predict an opponent's attack patterns and continuously dodge rather than enter a direct confrontation of strength - something which she's fortunately good at, as her powerful telekinetic abilities can also be used on herself to move her quickly in defiance of laws such as friction or gravity, or to cushion herself against impacts in the event of an emergency.
WEAKNESSES:
However, although Lorelei's powers are incredibly potent, they also come with equally crippling drawbacks. Her psychic powers - her most useful asset - are generally "on" at all times, such that she has to deal with unintentionally reading the minds of those around her, or perhaps influencing their perceptions with minor illusions based on her emotions. So, for example, if she was upset, she might unintentionally make herself invisible, or if she was angry, she might suddenly become a looming, imposing silhouette with glowing red eyes, or something similarly threatening. Furthermore, she sometimes has random out of body experiences, or unexpectedly gets little glimpses of the futures of people or things she touches. And, perhaps most alarmingly, sometimes unintentionally exerts telekinetic forces on random things in her vicinity whenever she has a lapse in her emotional control and grows particularly angry or sad, throwing random objects in her area into walls, or sometimes even at people.
Speaking of her telekinesis, although it's tremendously powerful compared to a normal Medium's abilities, it does have a major flaw. Namely, it's tremendously difficult to focus on moving more than one thing at once, making it near impossible for her to manipulate any more than one object with any semblance of precision or power. Thus, although her weight limit is considerably higher than that of most psychics, she lacks the talent to precisely control multiple smaller objects.
Her elemental magic, meanwhile, lacks power, making its incredible precision and her own ingenuity the only way she can overcome a truly strong opponent, as without any flashy, major spells at her disposal, all the weapons she really has at her disposal are those she can create using her "water solidification" strategy, as energy based or otherwise non-water magic is completely beyond her.
Finally, physically, she's very agile and flexible, facts which are only aided by her ability to telekinetically control her own body for greater precision. However, she lacks any sort of significant upper body strength, as although she's in good shape, her training focused more on honing her psychic powers rather than the properties of her physical body - another reason why, save with the aid of her telekinetic powers, it's very difficult for her to actually shield herself from incoming attacks, forcing her to resort to evasive, hit-and-run tactics instead.
Furthermore, her pride and hatred of losing, while they make her a very determined combatant, also make it very difficult to convince her to retreat, even when she's outmatched. Without the assistance of a more levelheaded commander to keep her recklessness in check, it's quite likely that she would get herself into a great deal of trouble. Of course, having somebody giving her orders raises a whole new difficulty, as unless she were to trust the person in question, she'd probably disobey them just to assert herself under most circumstances. Consequently, she's not much of a team player, and should be looked after carefully at all times to ensure she doesn't get herself into a situation she can't handle.
This extends to her personal life as well, as even if she's suffering inside, she is loath to ask somebody else for help, save under the most dire circumstances when she has no other option. Anyone who would be close to her must be willing to tolerate her secretive, my-business-is-my-business-and-mine-alone attitude, yet at the same time ready to catch her if she falls, thus necessitating a certain level of willingness to assist her without actually forcing that help on her, and thus damaging her pride. She's a confusing person to be sure, and it takes a very specific sort of individual to deal with her.
PERSONALITY:
Lorelei is... complicated. On the one hand, she's bitter, jaded, and cynical, viewing other people are, for the most part, either incompetent idiots who couldn't even help themselves if their lives depended on it, or self-interested, dishonorable bullies who just use other people as puppets without any consideration for their well being. Resigning herself to her lonely fate as a tool forged solely to exterminate Daemons, she has decided to simply perform her duties to the best of her abilities to protect the masses, as she'd rather the world be populated by honest idiots than disingenuous villains. Although she looks down on those around her, however - showing respect only to those she has to and generally pushing away those who don't fit that description in favor of acting according to her own interests and wishes - any show of virtue or kindness in her direction does earn the one who makes such a gesture a sort of grudging respect in her eyes, simply because she's stopped expecting she'll be treated in such a way.
Deep down, she's a kind enough person, but she's stopped expecting humans to be honest about what they want and why, and stopped assuming others will actually care about how their fellow man feels. But although she styles herself as a realist and those less cynical than herself as naive, in truth, she hates the world as she sees it, and wishes it would change. It is for this reason, and this reason alone, that she strives with such determination to fulfill her assigned purpose, embracing her role as an instrument of battle even though she hates it. She hopes that somehow, once the Daemons are exterminated, peace and order may be restored, and the world will no longer be governed solely by the self-interested agendas of those in power. But although she dreams of a better world, she's long since ceased viewing such a thing as a possibility. But, even so, there is one dream she'll never let go of.
Quite simply, she wants people to acknowledge her and treat her as a human being, rather than as a mere tool for her makers. But, due to her abrasive demeanor and tough exterior, it's unlikely anyone who views her as a person would see her as anything short of a headache. Sadly, she hasn't learned the finer points of expressing her emotions, and consequently, usually ends up sending mixed messages in a vain attempt to hide her shame. So, to those she doesn't know, she ends up seeming inconsiderate, and to those whom she's willing to ease up a bit around and actually tolerate the company of, she still seems intolerable due to her self-centeredness and inability to trust others enough to show them how she really feels. The fact that she usually knows exactly what people she talks to are thinking doesn't exactly help, as she judges lies very harshly, and isn't afraid to call others on what shortcomings she perceives from unintentionally reading their minds, viewing it as their just desserts for making their thoughts so intolerably loud and bothering her with them in the first place.
Even so, she hates hearing the voices of others, abhorring the fact that her powers remind her daily of exactly how pathetic and low human beings can be. Hence, when she's not trying to actively push others away from her both due to her cynicism and trust issues, she's avoiding them as much as she herself can so as to avoid hearing their thoughts. This is where her love of music comes in, as by blaring it loudly in her headphones and shutting out the world, she can generally quiet down the voices of other people that she "hears" at random.
And, if one can get past her harsh exterior - a shell erected to push away the world and thus protect her from being harmed by others, their cruel desires, and their ruthless system - they might find that, once they've gained her trust, it will be very difficult to lose it. She's undyingly loyal to those who would defy her cynical view of the world, as she herself desperately hopes to have her twisted ideology proven wrong. And, driven by a sense of honor, to those who would lower themselves to show kindness to her, she will in turn show her own affection - although she may not admit it.
On a final note, the two sides of her personality are both rather... shocking... in how different they are from one another. On the one hand, her true character is that of a rude, tsundere cynic, and yet, in the presence of authority she has no option but to respect, that all changes. Suddenly, she becomes a model of understated behavior, standing rigidly at attention like a career soldier, responding quietly and politely to all questions, and doing what she is asked without hesitation. She's been trained to know when to follow orders, and to know what will happen when she doesn't. Even so, that doesn't make it any less shocking when she goes from acting like a calm and emotionless soldier when in the presence of her handlers to her disrespectful attitude towards anyone she feels doesn't deserve respect. Overall, she's a confusing case, and certainly a difficult person to deal with for anyone who isn't willing to spend time and effort earning her trust.
BIOGRAPHY:
Orphaned as a young child during a Daemon attack, the girl now known as Lorelei was one of the lucky few who managed to board a refugee ship back to her home city of Leviathan. She was less fortunate, however, when it came to acquiring lodgings there. Nobody had room for an extra child to manage, nor did they have any interest in caring for a traumatized orphan. But, as it turned out, the government of Leviathan had a keen interest in unwanted children like her - valuable test subjects who nobody would notice disappearing, and who had no power to resist the authority of the research and development wing of the state. Taken off the streets and offered a home, clothing, food, and water in exchange for "serving her country" as a valuable lab rat, she had little choice but to accept or starve.
And so, she was slowly forced to conform to a rigid set of restrictions, like a soldier might expect to be broken in to his new position as a subordinate. Mandated to treat her superiors with the utmost respect, to never ask questions, talk back, and resist, failure to comply with her strict new disciplines was met with denial of food and water until she finally gave in. Although proud, the nameless experiment knew when to quit on certain issues, at least. And so, bit by bit, she was tested to determine her specializations, until finally, the day came when the researchers in charge of her decided to try pushing her limits a little bit.
Having come into possession of the remains of a Daemon that attacked the soul of a human rather than its physical body, they had obtained a way to "pull" on the limits of a person's very soul. In exchange for extreme pain on the part of the subject, the researchers found that they could actually strip off tiny fragments of the girl's soul, wait for her energy to slowly replenish itself, then splice back on the energy they had removed, thereby increasing her total capacity for psychic power. Fortunately for Lorelei, she wasn't the only subject in this program, nor was she the last - and so when researchers discovered that overusing this process caused side effects that were anything from losing one's identity, memories, and ability to think entirely to tearing one's own body apart with uncontrollable telekinesis, it was reluctantly reigned in, such that Lorelei was only "enhanced" - for a certain definition of the term - within relatively non-harmful limits. Although her powers were still nearly uncontrollable in their strength, the process hadn't gone far enough as to erase her identity completely, or to make her telekinesis so strong as to be self-destructive. However, it was at this time that she forgot her name, and who she had been before coming to the lab - a fact which overjoyed her handlers, who now had a much more compliant subject at their disposal - or at least, so they had hoped.
In reality, Lorelei, as she had now forgotten her past self, found no other option but to serve. But, far from doing so willingly, she knew full well from reading the minds of her overseers what they had done to her, even if she herself couldn't remember it. And, for the unforgivable crime of stealing her very identity from her, she vowed never to trust anyone again if that trust might lead her to be hurt as she had been.
Nevertheless, she had no choice but to follow the whims of her handlers - and so, when they mandated that she attend the academy to further improve her powers, she could only accept, take the possessions that were allowed her, and report for training there...
WEAPONS:
The small crystal woven into her hair is actually a magic amplifier that helps her channel her water magic. Similar, much smaller crystals are woven into her blouse and tunic, forming many of the azure lines and ribbons that criss-cross the otherwise black-and-white ensemble. These crystals function by storing water into which she's already poured a great deal of energy, meaning that in an emergency situation where she doesn't have access to water, she can also use this hyper-compressed water, as well as similar substances kept in vials in the pack on the back of her belt - shown in the pictures to the right - to fight.
As for an actual weapon she wields to strike foes, the only such thing she possesses is the whip sword she creates using her powers.
MAGICK:
Primarily Mental, but also Water-element Magick.
SKILLS:
Being charged with keeping her quarters in strict order, and due to the laboratory she was raised in, Lorelei is a very cleanly person. Everything at her disposal is always well kept, and in good order. Also, due to her lack of experience with decent food, now that she's partially out from under the thumbs of her handlers, she has started learning how to cook - although this, like her collection of plushies, is an embarrassingly feminine thing that she hides due to its clashing with her tough image - and is actually getting pretty good at it. And, from listening to music all the time, she's also gotten surprisingly good at singing - no surprise here, she keeps this a secret too.
MISCELLANEOUS:
Due to not having the chance to peruse many books in the lab where she was raised, she's actually nearly completely illiterate. Fortunately, she can just read the minds of those around her if there's any text she needs to understand, but it still frustrates her to no end.
Her strangely two-toned hair is one of many side-effects of some of the soul-warping experiments she underwent. She likes the weird image it gives her, since it flies right in the face of the obsessive order and uniformity enforced by her caretakers, and so chose her current attire to accentuate her already... unique... appearance.
Her Theme Songs are Die Lorelei, by the Doujin music group SOUND HOLIC, and Nano's cover of Rolling Girl.
