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[suzinkazan]

♚ OOC
Name: Jinn
Age: 28
Contact: catshark on plurk
Character In-game: N/A

♛ IC
Name: Susan DeRay
Canon: Original Character
Canon Point: One year after entering college
Age: 20
Gender: Female
Species: Endymion Human (functionally human, longer life span.)
Appearance: Here. She has a supplemental PB of Kim Pines, from Scott Pilgrim (which will eventually be phased out)

World Info/Background:

For those on Earth, it was called the ‘Reverse World’.

Or rather, it eventually would be. That name wouldn’t be uttered for a few thousand years.

And it’d be a misnomer anyway - what humans on Earth would eventually call the ‘Reverse World’ is actually a multitude of worlds. It’s a pretty easy mistake to make though - although it’s actually multiple different worlds rather than a single one, the bizarre nature of magical energy, called ether, as well as numerous other factors (dimensional boundaries, powerful individuals, lingering magical effects, and things called ‘fairy gates’) cause many of the worlds to be connected to one another, and almost all to a specific world that would later develop into the ‘hub’ of the culture and communication of these many worlds.

That world was Endymion. Of course it wasn’t called that just yet. The world that would be called Endymion was made up of a single massive supercontinent, similar to Pangea, with many smaller islands dotting the area around it. In it’s dead center, a massive city formed, the capital of Endymion… Endymion (nobody ever said these people were great with names.)

The city was a metropolis of magic and rapidly advanced, massive spires of stone and other fantastic materials rapidly rising up from the earth, the stark difference between it and the rest of the continent made it appear like crater of civilization; as if a very modern meteor had struck in the dead center.. And it grew and grew as Endymion became more and more firmly established as the ‘hub’ of inter-world travel, culture, and commerce.

The equivalent of a massive port city, it grew and grew, becoming even a mecca of magical research and development; a society with a powerful magical military as well as many centers of learning.

But of course, all wasn’t well. Dark beings, from beyond the veil of...well, reality itself, had begun to break through, attacking and obliterating some worlds. Although Endymion itself had not been attacked by these beings, which became known as the Dark Gods (although they were not creators of anything, nor really tied to anything in a way one might expect a ‘god’ to be - the term God was only used to signify their terrifying power) it was still something to worry about.

Doing the societal equivalent of going ‘oh shit’, Endymion searched for someone with magical power high enough to challenge these beings, and found one on what was essentially a podunk world they called Atera (we would know it as ‘Earth’.)

This woman would be brought to Endymion, and became its King, eventually, through her heroic exploits against the Dark Gods, become known as the King of Six Worlds (Endymion and five other powers that allied with it.)

However, the Gods simply couldn’t be stopped outright. And knowing that they’d outlive her, the King made a difficult decision. Luring them to Earth, she used all of the ether (essentially mana) on the planet to seal them within the planet itself, dying in the process. She also sealed Earth off from the rest of the worlds. While this definitevely ended the threat of the Dark Gods, it also resulted in Earth essentially losing it’s magic - becoming a world where magical occurrences were rare, and hiding in the nooks and crannies. It also had the effect of isolating Earth from the rest of creation, making it an odd closed zone.

Meanwhile, Endymion recovered and went on. With no real way to investigate the Dark Gods, and most considering them dealt with, everyone was just pretty content to totally ignore them, and Earth. Of course, thousands of years later, circumstances would lead to the barrier around Earth being damaged and finally broken, and the threat of the Dark Gods revived, but that all worked out in the end (and isn’t really relevant to Susan, anyway.)

Susan DeRay herself is a citizen of Endymion; meaning that while technically human, she enjoys a significantly longer lifespan and a higher proclivity towards magic than humans from Earth, although the former is more a result of her lineage than simply a trait humans from Endymion possess.

And her lineage certainly contributed towards that higher proclivity; Susan is the daughter of two members of Endymion’s upper class (a class largely decided by magical proficiency rather than simple wealth or status, although like any society with a class that resembles nobility they certainly help.)

Annette DeRay, her mother, was a highly talented mage, especially proficient in the altering of probability (although she prefers the word ‘luck’). And while that doesn’t sound particularly impressive, consider that there is, technically, an extremely small probability of an extinction-event level meteor landing on your head and that she can, technically, make that probability a lot closer to 100% than you would likely be comfortable with.

While Annette’s family was not especially influential or powerful as she grew up, she expanded their stock significantly as a youth when she managed to slay a powerful demon that had been blighting the worlds from time to time, known as The Pluto. Said act instantly elevated her and her family name into Endymion’s upper class, and also made every pretty terrified of her.

Susan’s father, Hugh DeRay (Originally Hugh Michaels, he took his wife’s name, as her family was the more influential one.) was a swordsman from a relatively middle-class family. Much like his wife however, he drastically increased in standing when he won Endymion’s tournament, an open tournament held every eight years amongst anyone who chooses to enter, with the winner given ‘anything they desire’. A prize he used to make the most needlessly dramatic proposal imaginable (especially, as his now fiance would later tease him over, he forfeited the actual prize.)

So Susan had quite the legacy to live up to, and while her own magical talent wasn’t quite enough to get her called a ‘prodigy’ or ‘genius’, she made up for that with something else; nigh-obsession. Even as a small child, she felt compelled to live up to her parents reputation. A compulsion that likely wasn’t helped by people bringing up their achievements every time she was spoken too. The result was a child that threw herself into studies with fervor matched by few adult academics. Susan spent almost every waking moment studying, even as a small child, forgoing typical things children do like… playing outside, and having friends. ‘Learning how to communicate’ was also something deemed unnecessary, but hey, sacrifices had to be made.

As she grew, she kept up her rather insane level of studying, choosing to specialize in alchemy and elemental magic (Education in Endymion typically goes on much longer than it does on Earth, with one’s specialization being chosen while one is relatively young. So imagine picking your major at 14 for the next 20 years of schooling, then enjoy the shiver down your back at the very idea of that.)

Her dedication led her to being consistently near, if not at, the top of her classes at Endymion’s Magical Academy where she attended, but she found little chance to prove herself in the ways her parents did (the fact that they did not, in fact, do the things they were known for while barely a teenager didn’t cross her mind.). It was this desire that led her to enter the same tournament her father had won, before.

However, even her father hadn’t entered at age 17. Faced with a series of daunting elimination rounds involving dangerous magical obstacle courses and a multi-participant king of the hill competition, Susan found herself eliminated before she even came within striking distance of the 32 finalists who were chosen.

Normally, Susan would have pouted, isolating herself and not even bothering to watch the finals, but hearing that many visitors from Earth would be participating, she decided it’d be best to watch the participants, to hopefully glean something worthwhile from them, techniques or spells from a place that was all but a mystery to her. And she did!

Although most of them failed to interest her, she took particular interest in the earth mage known as Edward Finkelstein. He used magic similar to hers… and made decisions she might make, in her place. By the time of the finals, a four way battle royale between Edward, some of the other fighters from earth, and a Dark Mage known as Delg, Susan had decided.

She would destroy him.

Or to put it less dramatically, she had decided he’d be her goal, for now. Especially after seeing him win the tournament by blowing himself up in the final battle royale (which was surprisingly non-fatal; the tournament used a system common for training in Endymion known as ‘soul projection’, effectively staging the battles in what amounted to a virtual space.)

Her free time from that point on was dedicated to defeating him. An image of him, at any rate. She wasn’t aware of where he and his friends had gone after the conclusion of the tournament, so she contented herself with studying battles from the tournament and produced an image of him. The perfect opposition for her. Cool, smart, pragmatic.. Able to make snap judgments in the heat of battle with maximum efficiency! Of course in reality the target of her… rather twisted obsession was nothing like the image she had concocted, but she certainly had no way of knowing that.

Six months later, conflict on Earth caused the Endymion Guard to mobilize to support those fighting on Earth - including Edward. She herself wanted to go, but was denied, instead tasked with helping to prepare defense of Endymion should the battle on Earth go wrong. It was a very frustrating time for her, knowing that such an important magical battle was going on, and that she wasn’t permitted to go. Luckily, it worked out, and the plans she had helped concoct for defense were never used (it was probably for the best, as Ed was involved in it, and she might have attacked him right there.)

Two years passed. Although Susan continued to plan her eventual destruction of the boy called Edward Finkelstein, she also continued her studies, completing the Endymion equivalent of high school at age 20 and entering the college.

Students who enter the Endymion Magical Academy’s college are sorted into groups that are expected to work together independently outside of classes. They’re given a shared laboratory and workshop, and are expected to either take monster extermination jobs, produce magical items to fulfill orders sent to the college (for payment, of course.) or perform independant magical study and report on it to their professors. Essentially, it makes them useful to the Academy and prepares them for their eventual careers.

So imagine Susan’s surprise when she discovered the first member of her group she met was Edward himself, who had finished his personal business and decided to improve his magical education by attending Endymion’s Magical Academy. Like any rational individual, Susan did the sensible thing; she immediately drug him off to the school’s Soul Projector to attempt to beat the tar out of him.

However, while Susan was completely and utterly prepared for the image of Ed that she had built in her mind based on those fights, in reality in the years since, Ed had become exponentially more powerful, resulting in her very prompt defeat. Her disappointment became even stronger when, after more time with the young man, realized that her image of him as a cool, pragmatic mage was...wrong. He was a putz. A short putz with glasses and a head of fluffy hair. And a bizarre proclivity to making noises that one could only describe as the sound an anguished mouse might make.

Which made it all the more infuriating when he beat her. And then the next day. And the next. And the next. And the next. Luckily, due to being in the same workshop she had plentiful access to the boy (and a girl named Adhara, but she wasn’t obsessed with her. They were friends, though.). Unluckily, the repeated losses to the boy made her rabidly upset, even though as a rival he was prompting rapid growth in her the way totally independent practice simply couldn’t. Not that she saw that, she was too busy being angry. So angry she sort of.

Got a crush on him. A crush he remained oblivious of, that she refused to act on because she keeps expecting him to pick up on it.

She’s still waiting.

A year passed, with her still waiting for Ed to pull his head out of his emotional ass and pick up on her signals, at this point refusing to make the first move is purely stubbornness. she was summoned to Caissa. She probably won’t be thrilled.

Personality:

Outwardly, Susan puts forth an extremely pragmatic, confident image. She speaks clearly, is very forward (some would say ‘blunt’) and when given a task is incredibly focused on it until it’s completed. But some would say too confident, considering it regularly brushes up against ‘obnoxious’ and that to call her ‘polarizing’ would be a bit of an understatement. She ruthlessly pursues her goals, and while she stops just before one could call her callous or malicious, she definitely exhibits a certain amount of apathy for those she tramples through her actions. Her upbringing in a society where one’s value is judged based on their accomplishments have left her with very little sympathy for those she outdoes, or those who have their own plans ruined as a result of her own. Of course, her own personality is at least partially responsible for that, as well.

While she publicly puts forth the image of a confident, clear speaking, focused individual, the truth is… rather less clear cut. While that image she puts forth is not fake, nor is it a persona she uses, it can be considered somewhat of a ‘mask’. A mask of herself she considers more ‘proper’, one lacking in the many strong emotions she privately feels. Which of course results in those strong emotions smoldering as she keeps them bottled up, and them ending up…worse in the long run.

Her desire to prove herself borders on obsessive, and during her less guarded moments she exhibits slightly manic tendencies, such as laughter and an extremely elevated level of energy. Indeed, it’s almost as if she becomes high on success, or even the possibility of success (or sometimes, even the possibility something she’s doing might lead to those things - if you see a very excited Susan DeRay coming towards you, it might be prudent to run, as even the best case scenario is almost guaranteed to be an ordeal.)

As well, when no one is watching she has a tendency to be immensely giddy and energetic when working, or even contemplating things she’ll do in the future related to work (if one saw her immediately after she solved a problem with an alchemic recipe or concocted a plan to defeat an opponent in training, the spring in her step would lead them to thinking she had won the lottery or something.)

She is also utterly, laughably terrible at dealing with people on a more intimate personal level. She’s very comfortable with small talk and casual discussions one might make with a classmate they barely know, or a co-worker in the break room, once one gets closer to her than that, it gets hard. She tries to push them out subtly, and if that fails she feels very awkward and often attempts to push them away harder, usually by running them over with her aforementioned manic tendencies and sometimes a large amount of aggression. Teasing, sharp words, and jokes that stop just short of being actually hurtful are aplenty. Another common tactic is to toy with them; lead them on, tease them slightly. Especially when someone is dumb enough to actually flirt with her.

Of course half the time she ends up getting sort of attached to people she does this to, since she really isn’t very good at people. She actually does this more to people she’s very fond of, behavior one might call tsundere if that word actually existed where she was from. You can still call her that though. It’s certainly accurate.

This is also because she’s rather used to being, well... feared. When your parents are both rather famous, and both for what amounts to martial prowess people are on edge with you. While a normal child would have likely been unhappy with this, Susan was mostly happy with it - it meant she got left alone. The downside is anyone who DOESN’T have that fear of her confuses her and adds even more awkwardness to her. She has no idea how to deal with people, how dare you not be afraid of her, now she has to actually try and function like a normal person she can’t do that!!

That reputation her parents have is also the one thing that causes a crack in the armor of Susan’s self-confidence. Although it’s pretty strong almost every other time (again, almost obnoxiously so) the mere mention of her parents, especially in comparison to herself, causes her confidence to fade as quickly as a flame doused in water. Susan is utterly incapable of favorably comparing herself to either of her parents, possessing a wee bit of an inferiority complex, when it comes to them specifically. Her nigh-arrogance turns to humility and even self depreciation.

It might be for this reason that Susan has her one other weakness. Although her general empathy is not fantastic, she possesses a soft spot for people who are visibly trying very, very hard. She finds herself unable to present her normal forward, domineering self to them, and ends up wanting to help them, almost like a normal person who can have normal interactions, which is something she is very unused to.

Despite all these quirks though, Susan is a person that generally puts forth a confident, relatively approachable persona, even if it’s not one most people feel particularly comfortable with. Those crazy enough to try find a whole bundle of issues and someone considerably less together than they would let on, with a tendency to treat those close to them in the manner a young boy with a crush might treat the object of their affections, doing the adult equivalent of pulling on their hair and teasing them. Tsundere indeed.

Skills/Abilities:
Susan is a highly skilled mage, specializing in elemental magics (which means fire, ice, electricity, wind, water, and earth.) Although she dabbles in other magics, such as light and dark, or things such as spacial magicks (like teleportation), elemental magic is her specialty. She also comes with many basic abilities standard for mages where she’s from - she can sense magic and the presence of others based on it, as well as levitate (not fly though, but she can stand in the air, for example.) For much of her life, her preferred method of resolving a fight was to pile fire, ice, and electricity onto her target. And if that didn’t work; pile even more on.

However, since this is a strategy that simply doesn’t work on Ed, her current sparring partner, she has since decided to focus on technique in using her magic. Still an elemental focus, much more on precision that simply freezing something while also burning it and shocking it. As a result she’s very skilled at gauging exactly how much magic is needed to do a task, such as melting through something, or freezing a specific amount of water.

Other than magic, Susan is a trained alchemist and spends much of her time alchemizing metals and potions. Sometimes they explode. Usually when they do that, she intended it though. While she’s far from mastery, she’s quite good at making basic healing supplies, bombs, and other things.

Magic Weapon:

Alchemist's Accident - A crystal Erlenmeyer Flask, with a bit of carved wood fitted around the neck, for one to place their hand, complete with a small sprig featuring a seemingly healthy leaf. The flask is seemingly empty, but simply won't allow other liquids to be placed inside it; as if refusing. By filling it with mana, the flask will produce a pale green, corrosive fluid that will deal damage and rapidly thicken into an extremely sticky, mobility-reducing goo. While initially the splash is very small, only enough to stick someone's foot or hand to the ground and with almost no real effect on them damage-wise, with mastery one can coat an opponent in a sticky, unpleasant mess that rapidly gnaws away at them! But watch out - it makes no distinction between friend or foe, and a particularly bad splash can even get oneself!

Carrier: A small, golden clockwork owl. It lacks a breastplate, allowing one to see the gears inside it.

Sample:

Here and here