Post by makimonster on Feb 4, 2013 15:01:21 GMT -5
Name: Acira "Chickenlegs" Adrastos
((hint hint you guys look up the meaning for Adrastos and laugh))
Player: Makimonster (moderate self-insertion)
Spoken Quote Color: "Hey guys, I have a brilliant plan! We could, you know, not do that! How exciting!"
Skimming the Surface
Age: 20
Race: Human (Non-Planeswalker)
Gender: Female
Appearance: There are two reasons why the Izzet call Guildrunner Adrastos "Chickenlegs" more than her real name, both surprisingly simple: One, because her avoidant and cowardly tendencies (as well as her exceptional physical ability to act on those tendencies, really fast); and two, her build and uniform.
Relatively short (standing at around 5'2"), light, and unimpressive on the topside but sufficiently toned around the core and legs (the latter of which are also proportionally long but somewhat thunder-thighed due to both muscle and fat), Chickenlegs has a natural disposition to be an excellent sprinter and jumper - and also to make her legs look rather strikingly like bird feet when in uniform with her trademark baggy russet red pants and segmented mizzium "lightning greaves".
Chickenlegs's mizzium backpack-belt-gauntlet contraption is one of a few experimental devices that process and condense mana and matter into pure energy information to be stored and later restored to its proper form. In essence it acts like a "regular" hammerspace backpack plus a mana battery that directs energy to her body through her and gauntlets. The gauntlets' main function is to protect her hands and arms from being phased into energy when she reaches in to get something (making her - or at least the wearer - the only one able to access the storage safely), but also function like standard Izzet elemental mizzium gauntlets - a weapon as well as a defense.
Delving Secrets
Home Plane: Ravnica
Mana Alignment: Red-Blue
Specialization: One of a number of Niv-Mizzet's personal messengers; unbeknownst to Chickenlegs, the Firemind finds her most useful as a Runner and recon agent because of her cowardice - she has a record for being able to actually finish (by which we mean survive) multiple cross-city runs even through other guild territory because of her knack and desperation to slip away from danger whenever possible.
Nimble, small, and quick; no matter where the Izzet air-drop or teleport her in the vast metropolis (she otherwise wouldn't go at all), Chickenlegs can be counted on to grab, eavesdrop on, or deliver whatever it is they want and run the hell back home - escaping everything from Boros griffin mounts, Azorius binds, and explosions, to Dimir agent mind-attacks - and more importantly to the League, come home with Niv-Mizzet's deliveries in one piece, be they physical or mental in nature.
The guildrunner certainly doesn't enjoy this job, but considering that art isn't much of a paying job and that she isn't much of an electromancer, she doesn't deny that her talent for running away and her incredible luck is good enough to financially make up for both. Chickenlegs delivers.
Personality: Aside from the obvious implications that come from the name "Chickenlegs", it should be understood that the one behind the name - Acira Adrastos - is a jaded woman by the nature of her occupation: It, a barely-acceptable continuation of her parents' legacy as Guildmages within the Izzet League; and her, a barely-accepted mage whose magical and logical abilities amount to only a fraction of her parents', and was only allowed to have a paying job as a messenger on account of their legacy. Despite this, Acira is still young and clinging, even if only barely and stubbornly, to the hope that maybe she can save up enough from working with the Izzet to stabilize and go back to pursuing her childhood dream of becoming a great painter.
It is this glimmer of hope - childish, sentimental, and illogical as it might be - that drives the messenger-agent to run, to survive these tasks, and to just stay the hell out of trouble, no matter how trapped she might feel or be against the odds stacked against her. It is also this glimmer of hope that embarrasses her and leads her to be distant, especially knowing that her boss is a several thousand-year-old mind-reading egotistic dragon who probably knows about it; and that even all the other people she works with are the brightest engineering minds in the planar metropolis, who she is certain would ridicule her and tarnish her parents' names in the guild halls if they knew about her silly childhood dreams.
So, while not overly shy about talking and interacting with people, even in crowds, Acira is not one to draw attention to or even talk about herself - she will often bounce the question back to the asker, say something else completely out of the blue, or even make up an excuse to leave or change topics if it seems like it's going her direction. Conversationally, she is noted to be often monotone, blunt, and straightforward, and on occasions light-heartedly sarcastic and willing to poke fun at herself - but never one to intentionally use snark or sass to hurt or snap back at someone, as she'd prefer to avoid conflict both on and off the job.
Backstory: One could almost say that Acira Adrastos was born into the Izzet League - the daughter and product of two prominent Izzet Guildmages, it was almost a guarantee that their legacy would continue into the next generation. Almost.
Almost tragically for them and their fellow guildmembers, Acira was not nearly the prodigy that her parents were - certainly not dumb, better than average, even... but unremarkable. While fascinated by the creative products of the League, much to her parents' dismay the girl found no talent nor interest in the actual engineering of function. Her real draw was the engineering of aesthetics - she wanted to understand what made people see some things as beautiful and others as ugly, why some colors and shapes drew the eye better than others, what made people's sense of sight tick, how to make the things she put on paper really look like the things she saw in her head and around her, and how to use these things and more to achieve the subtle mind-manipulation that the masters of old had harnessed into visual permanence with their hands and colors long before the first mind-mages learned how to do it with magic and illusions.
In short, before she even knew what the word was or what these things were - but knowing that they had somehow pulled her from deep inside her own mind - she wanted to be an artist, a painter, even though she was no more talented with it at that age than she was with science, or anything else. No matter what it was that she was going to grow up doing, it was going to be an uphill battle. It just so happened that this, of all other things, was the battle that she wanted to pick.
It took her parents a while, but they eventually came to accept her and her choices - after all, every Izzet before her had to think for themselves without creative restraint, too. Perhaps it would do the family and the guild some good to have someone whose mind worked in a different way - even if radically so. And even if the guild wouldn't accept her, they would - because damn it, she was their kid, and if they didn't believe in her, who would?
Things went fine enough through her childhood and teenage years - although they insisted on her learning at least some foundations of their trade, Acira's parents supported her own training morally and financially. She was just about to strike out on her own at 16 when a new experimental project they were working on quite literally blew up in their faces; probably not an uncommon fate for Izzet inventors and Guildmages, almost predictable even for the best of them, but one that Acira was not financially prepared for. Her parents had neglected to have a last will written, there were a number of debts that needed to be paid for, and much of what was left was put toward their funeral. For a short time after, she had to make ends meet by selling off her parents' place and much of their belongings; knowing that those funds wouldn't last long, and realizing that her best shot at being able to support herself without too many strings attached was with the Izzet, the teen dropped her old future plans and went to the League for help, hoping that she would eventually be able to go back and pick up where she left off later.
Reluctant because of her lack of talent but sympathetic - even if only slightly, in consideration of the Adrastos' contributions to the guild - the Izzet recruiters let her take on one of the more mundane, skill-less jobs as a simple messenger, at first delivering within her district's facility and later, between districts across Ravnica. Although Acira hated her job, she eventually got good at it - really good at it. Between spies and guild skirmishes over three years, Acira had not once failed a run - one, because she actually wanted to live long enough to be able to go back to painting; and two, the sooner she got through her list, the sooner she could get off work, stop dealing with other people's demands, and do her own thing. It is this, her trademark uniform, and her habit of sneaking away from most situations and social gatherings that earned her the both endearing and insulting nickname "Chickenlegs" within the League.
More recently, Acira's escape and survival abilities were secretly put to the test by higher members of the Council, who took notice of her impeccable record. With some key research and researchers disappearing mysteriously over the recent year as the Firemind expands the League's experiments - no doubt the work of spies from their enemies - it has become imperative for the Izzet to step up their standards and have more capable informers and runners on their roster. Believing that this task was just a particularly hard run and nothing more, "Chickenlegs" passed this test - and soon regretted it, as she was brought before the Council and Niv-Mizzet to become one of the Firemind's own trusted messengers, only making her job that much harder.
Still, not wishing to displease a nearly 20,000 year-old dragon and lose her job (or worse, her head), Acira accepted. Although compensated handsomely, as the tensions grow between the guilds of Ravnica, her job grows even harder and unpredictable by the week...
((hint hint you guys look up the meaning for Adrastos and laugh))
Player: Makimonster (moderate self-insertion)
Spoken Quote Color: "Hey guys, I have a brilliant plan! We could, you know, not do that! How exciting!"
Skimming the Surface
Age: 20
Race: Human (Non-Planeswalker)
Gender: Female
Appearance: There are two reasons why the Izzet call Guildrunner Adrastos "Chickenlegs" more than her real name, both surprisingly simple: One, because her avoidant and cowardly tendencies (as well as her exceptional physical ability to act on those tendencies, really fast); and two, her build and uniform.
Relatively short (standing at around 5'2"), light, and unimpressive on the topside but sufficiently toned around the core and legs (the latter of which are also proportionally long but somewhat thunder-thighed due to both muscle and fat), Chickenlegs has a natural disposition to be an excellent sprinter and jumper - and also to make her legs look rather strikingly like bird feet when in uniform with her trademark baggy russet red pants and segmented mizzium "lightning greaves".
Chickenlegs's mizzium backpack-belt-gauntlet contraption is one of a few experimental devices that process and condense mana and matter into pure energy information to be stored and later restored to its proper form. In essence it acts like a "regular" hammerspace backpack plus a mana battery that directs energy to her body through her and gauntlets. The gauntlets' main function is to protect her hands and arms from being phased into energy when she reaches in to get something (making her - or at least the wearer - the only one able to access the storage safely), but also function like standard Izzet elemental mizzium gauntlets - a weapon as well as a defense.
Delving Secrets
Home Plane: Ravnica
Mana Alignment: Red-Blue
Specialization: One of a number of Niv-Mizzet's personal messengers; unbeknownst to Chickenlegs, the Firemind finds her most useful as a Runner and recon agent because of her cowardice - she has a record for being able to actually finish (by which we mean survive) multiple cross-city runs even through other guild territory because of her knack and desperation to slip away from danger whenever possible.
Nimble, small, and quick; no matter where the Izzet air-drop or teleport her in the vast metropolis (she otherwise wouldn't go at all), Chickenlegs can be counted on to grab, eavesdrop on, or deliver whatever it is they want and run the hell back home - escaping everything from Boros griffin mounts, Azorius binds, and explosions, to Dimir agent mind-attacks - and more importantly to the League, come home with Niv-Mizzet's deliveries in one piece, be they physical or mental in nature.
The guildrunner certainly doesn't enjoy this job, but considering that art isn't much of a paying job and that she isn't much of an electromancer, she doesn't deny that her talent for running away and her incredible luck is good enough to financially make up for both. Chickenlegs delivers.
Personality: Aside from the obvious implications that come from the name "Chickenlegs", it should be understood that the one behind the name - Acira Adrastos - is a jaded woman by the nature of her occupation: It, a barely-acceptable continuation of her parents' legacy as Guildmages within the Izzet League; and her, a barely-accepted mage whose magical and logical abilities amount to only a fraction of her parents', and was only allowed to have a paying job as a messenger on account of their legacy. Despite this, Acira is still young and clinging, even if only barely and stubbornly, to the hope that maybe she can save up enough from working with the Izzet to stabilize and go back to pursuing her childhood dream of becoming a great painter.
It is this glimmer of hope - childish, sentimental, and illogical as it might be - that drives the messenger-agent to run, to survive these tasks, and to just stay the hell out of trouble, no matter how trapped she might feel or be against the odds stacked against her. It is also this glimmer of hope that embarrasses her and leads her to be distant, especially knowing that her boss is a several thousand-year-old mind-reading egotistic dragon who probably knows about it; and that even all the other people she works with are the brightest engineering minds in the planar metropolis, who she is certain would ridicule her and tarnish her parents' names in the guild halls if they knew about her silly childhood dreams.
So, while not overly shy about talking and interacting with people, even in crowds, Acira is not one to draw attention to or even talk about herself - she will often bounce the question back to the asker, say something else completely out of the blue, or even make up an excuse to leave or change topics if it seems like it's going her direction. Conversationally, she is noted to be often monotone, blunt, and straightforward, and on occasions light-heartedly sarcastic and willing to poke fun at herself - but never one to intentionally use snark or sass to hurt or snap back at someone, as she'd prefer to avoid conflict both on and off the job.
Backstory: One could almost say that Acira Adrastos was born into the Izzet League - the daughter and product of two prominent Izzet Guildmages, it was almost a guarantee that their legacy would continue into the next generation. Almost.
Almost tragically for them and their fellow guildmembers, Acira was not nearly the prodigy that her parents were - certainly not dumb, better than average, even... but unremarkable. While fascinated by the creative products of the League, much to her parents' dismay the girl found no talent nor interest in the actual engineering of function. Her real draw was the engineering of aesthetics - she wanted to understand what made people see some things as beautiful and others as ugly, why some colors and shapes drew the eye better than others, what made people's sense of sight tick, how to make the things she put on paper really look like the things she saw in her head and around her, and how to use these things and more to achieve the subtle mind-manipulation that the masters of old had harnessed into visual permanence with their hands and colors long before the first mind-mages learned how to do it with magic and illusions.
In short, before she even knew what the word was or what these things were - but knowing that they had somehow pulled her from deep inside her own mind - she wanted to be an artist, a painter, even though she was no more talented with it at that age than she was with science, or anything else. No matter what it was that she was going to grow up doing, it was going to be an uphill battle. It just so happened that this, of all other things, was the battle that she wanted to pick.
It took her parents a while, but they eventually came to accept her and her choices - after all, every Izzet before her had to think for themselves without creative restraint, too. Perhaps it would do the family and the guild some good to have someone whose mind worked in a different way - even if radically so. And even if the guild wouldn't accept her, they would - because damn it, she was their kid, and if they didn't believe in her, who would?
Things went fine enough through her childhood and teenage years - although they insisted on her learning at least some foundations of their trade, Acira's parents supported her own training morally and financially. She was just about to strike out on her own at 16 when a new experimental project they were working on quite literally blew up in their faces; probably not an uncommon fate for Izzet inventors and Guildmages, almost predictable even for the best of them, but one that Acira was not financially prepared for. Her parents had neglected to have a last will written, there were a number of debts that needed to be paid for, and much of what was left was put toward their funeral. For a short time after, she had to make ends meet by selling off her parents' place and much of their belongings; knowing that those funds wouldn't last long, and realizing that her best shot at being able to support herself without too many strings attached was with the Izzet, the teen dropped her old future plans and went to the League for help, hoping that she would eventually be able to go back and pick up where she left off later.
Reluctant because of her lack of talent but sympathetic - even if only slightly, in consideration of the Adrastos' contributions to the guild - the Izzet recruiters let her take on one of the more mundane, skill-less jobs as a simple messenger, at first delivering within her district's facility and later, between districts across Ravnica. Although Acira hated her job, she eventually got good at it - really good at it. Between spies and guild skirmishes over three years, Acira had not once failed a run - one, because she actually wanted to live long enough to be able to go back to painting; and two, the sooner she got through her list, the sooner she could get off work, stop dealing with other people's demands, and do her own thing. It is this, her trademark uniform, and her habit of sneaking away from most situations and social gatherings that earned her the both endearing and insulting nickname "Chickenlegs" within the League.
More recently, Acira's escape and survival abilities were secretly put to the test by higher members of the Council, who took notice of her impeccable record. With some key research and researchers disappearing mysteriously over the recent year as the Firemind expands the League's experiments - no doubt the work of spies from their enemies - it has become imperative for the Izzet to step up their standards and have more capable informers and runners on their roster. Believing that this task was just a particularly hard run and nothing more, "Chickenlegs" passed this test - and soon regretted it, as she was brought before the Council and Niv-Mizzet to become one of the Firemind's own trusted messengers, only making her job that much harder.
Still, not wishing to displease a nearly 20,000 year-old dragon and lose her job (or worse, her head), Acira accepted. Although compensated handsomely, as the tensions grow between the guilds of Ravnica, her job grows even harder and unpredictable by the week...
