The Outside Girls
on suggestion from Section.
Further complicating things is the role of Dreamweaver's soul, which sometimes interjects with prophecies and visions. Dreamweaver has no control over these, and they often arrive as a great inconvenience. Thankfully her memory--and journal-keeping practice--is good enough that she can usually recall them if need be.
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Main Protagonists:
Demonhand
Backstory: Magic is not a plaything. A certain girl once learned this the hard way when trying to pick up some spells from a grimoire that unbeknownst to her, was binding a powerful demonic entity. During a ritual gone awry, she grabbed the grimoire in a moment of panic, and the demon rushed out, hellbent--quite literally--on corrupting her body and soul. She pulled back, and this momentary breach disjoined the demon's magic, but her left arm was lost to its corrupting influence. The girl's arm became a semi-sentient construct of roiling black and green flames. This is not without its upsides, the girl--now going by the very apropos name of Demonhand--can control these flames, and even summon lesser creatures from the beyond, but the Hand itself whispers dark secrets into her ear at every opportunity. She fears she may one day open the book again, this time willingly.
Appearance: Demonhand is tall and thin, with what might be described as a dancer's build. She is half Hispanic and half Caucasian, and has a medium-light skin tone. Her hair is an oily black, straight, and is rather short, not even quite shoulder length. Her right eye is blue, and her left is a bright, almost lime green. She generally wears a jacket, jeans, and a wide-brimmed flat hat, giving her an almost cowboy-ish appearance. Her left arm and hand are engulfed in black and green fire, which ranges from intensity from a low barely-there simmer to a raging inferno, depending on how she feels at the time. This demonfire is not naturally hot to the touch, and must be willed to be so.
Personality: It should not be shocking that Demonhand is something of a pessimist. Always able to find the proverbial gray lining in a silver cloud. Nonetheless, she means well, but can come across as overly formal or even standoffish. She has feelings for Dreamweaver that she generally keeps suppressed, both out of fear of somehow ruining the team, and out of guilt stemming from a strict Catholic upbringing.
Powers in Detail: Technically, Demonhand's only "power" is that she's a mage, but this manifests in several different ways. The most obvious is the harnessing of the demonfire that the demon Bifronze--bound to her left arm--secretes at all times, and Demonhand can in fact control all fire, her own arm is just a handy source. In addition, being that he is a count of the hells, Bifronze has six legions of demons (each legion containing six members) under his command, and Demonhand can in turn summon and command them. Each of these demons has its own strengths and abilities, making Demonhand at least theoretically the most powerful member of The Outside Girls by far. She uses this ability only sparingly, however, as Bifronze (and his legions) utterly loathe Demonhand, and only serve her quite begrudgingly. Ever the pragmatist, she also carries a firearm most of the time.
Blank
Backstory: A world away, another girl awoke from a sleep she never remembered lying down for, in a deserted laboratory. Unable to feel any sense of touch, she set out to find help, only to find that most fled at the sight of her. It was only when she found a reflective surface--a pool of water--did she discover that her entire body had been replaced with impossibly durable brasswork machinery. Her face, a solid metal plate with two blue orbs for eyes, and nothing else, could not express her emotions. Incredibly durable, and able to control most machinery, Blank is not without power, but she is without the one thing she craves most.
The girl calling herself Blank seeks only answers, not vengeance. Kindhearted in spite of the massive ordeal life has thrown at her, but increasingly desperate to simply know why.
Appearance: Blank is a large, brass automaton. Her only distinguishing features are the pair of blue lights that serve as eyes. She does not really need most clothes, but often wears a green cloak.
Personality: Blank is generally upbeat. While understandably distraught about her amnesia, and prone to answer-seeking, her memories of her past life are near nonexistent, and that only bothers her intermittently. She's asexual, and considers her two teammates her best friends. She's something of an airhead, but not dangerously so. On the other side of things, she's also an avid reader, though much of what she reads is popular but poorly-regarded YA novels.
Powers in Detail: Blank is incredibly durable, and possesses incredible strength. In addition to this, she has an unnatural ease with computer systems and can effortlessly hack almost anything, though she's ill-equipped to explain precisely how.
Dreamweaver
Backstory: Dreamweaver has not slept in years. During that time, she has gained the ability to pull dreamstuff from the realms of the mind. This is less useful than it might seem, for despite the fact that she can petition for anything (say, a weapon), she may not get quite what she wants. A sword is not so useful if it's bright orange and made of taffy.
Predictably, Dreamweaver is often in a state of insomniac fatigue, though sometimes she appears "well rested" enough to be almost normal. Conversely, at other times, she begins experiencing intense hallucinations, dissociative episodes, and impaired thinking skills. In spite of all this, Dreamweaver is probably the most "normal" member of The Outside Girls.
Appearance: Dreamweaver is short, with an athletic build. Her skin is a medium brown (she is the daughter of a black father and biracial mother), with matching eyes and hair that she usually keeps short. Of the three Outside Girls, she is the only one who still sometimes goes by her birth name, Deborah Fontaine, as such, her outfit is styled after a superhero costume in order to better conceal her identity, though it's simpler than any of those, consisting of a lavender t-shirt, shorts, and gloves, with a matching cloak and domino mask. While not usually visible, Dreamweaver has permanent dark circles under her eyes, due to her perpetual lack of sleep.
Personality: It is probably not surprising that Dreamweaver is something of a space case. More surprising is how mentally acute she can be when she's "on". During the periods her body is effectively "well-rested", she's incredibly observant and possesses a good memory (and a brain for trivia), and is probably the best detective of the group. She's also quite outgoing when in her right mind, and has a fairly easy time befriending people.
On the other hand, when her cyclical sleep-deprivation kicks in, she's reduced to a going-through-the-motions state that is unnerving in its deadened lack of any real emotion. She's still herself, but her thinking is impaired and she's much less gregarious, often speaking in short, terse phrases.
Powers in Detail: Dreamweaver's powers are probably the hardest to quantify of any of the Outside Girls', and requires the explanation of a handful of related concepts. To put it in short, most human beings consist of three elements; the mind, body, and soul. These three elements influence each other, but do not directly interact, and exist on different planes. The body exists on the material plane, the mind in the mindscape (or "dreamtime", as it sometimes known), and the soul in the spirit world. Dreamweaver's "power", then, is that her mind and body sometimes merge, or swap places. Dreamweaver does not--and indeed can not--sleep, but her mind still attempts to dream. Meaning that she is sometimes pulled into the mindscape from the waking world while the physical shell of her body is left comatose. More practically, she can attempt to call objects and creatures from the mindscape onto the material plane, an act referred to as petitioning.
Petitioning's actual usefulness is quite variable. It's hard to be specific about anything in the mindscape at all, because it is constantly changing (it is the collective unconscious of every sentient being after all), what is a gun one moment may become the trunk of an elephant the next, and there is no guarantee that it will be grabbed at the right time. Nonetheless, it works often enough that it is relied upon to some extent, no matter how wise or unwise that might be.
Further complicating things is the role of Dreamweaver's soul, which sometimes interjects with prophecies and visions. Dreamweaver has no control over these, and they often arrive as a great inconvenience. Thankfully her memory--and journal-keeping practice--is good enough that she can usually recall them if need be.
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Next up, the main villains.
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Comments
I can get behind this now.