Post by Alyshea Pfoertner on Apr 25, 2017 5:46:33 GMT -5
PFOERTNER, ALYSHEA
RANK/TITLE
RANK/TITLE
[ AT A GLANCE ]
Age: 27 years old
Gender: Female
Height & Weight: 5'5" & 137 lbs
Hair & Eye Color: Reddish brown hair with hazel-green eyes.
Positive Traits: Resilient, Optimistic, Loyal, Aspiring, Conciliatory
Negative Traits: Rebellious, Tractable, Reckless, Competitive, Self-Indulgent
Loyalties: Family, Clan Pfoertner
Snapshots:
- April 25th, 1990 Born in Pfalzgrafenweiler, Germany
- 1992: Moved to Athens, Ohio, USA
- 1997: Parents Divorce
- 1998: Returns to Germany with her father
- 1999: Begins Quincy training
- 2000: Manifests Spirit Weapon, Nachtigall
- 2004: Develops Ability, Schattenweber
- 2008: Death of Cousin Alistair
- 2017: Begins Internship at Clan Company
[ ON THE SURFACE ]
Physical Description: Standing at 5’5”, Aly usually keeps the ample curves of her form hidden beneath that dark interior of her full length duster. With a robust figure, weighing in at 147 pounds, she is well rounded maintaining her toned physique through manual labor. When she isn’t hiding her face within its hood, her wavy mane of reddish brown hair readily catches the sunlight reflecting highlights of red and gold. Otherwise, her hair seems to be brown in color. Hazel green eyes view the world around her with their changeable nature depending on the lighting or color clothing she wears and range through the spectrum of brown to green. The freckles of her childhood and teenage years have long since faded leaving her complexion unblemished upon her honey hued skin. Rounded cheeks set high upon her face while her jawline is angular running down to a pronounced chin that compliments the fullness of her mouth.
Beneath her coat she typically wears jeans that are quite worn, tucked into knee high boots, topped by a plain T-shirt. Her attire runs toward a darker palette of earth tones dominated by black. As for the adornments of jewelry, she wears her Quincy cross upon a chain round her wrist usually hidden by the long sleeves of her coat, and has three piercings on her ears fitted with a post and two small hoop rings in each lobe.
While she moves, she does so at a quickened pace that seems natural to her without the appearance of haste in her motions. Despite the covering of her long trench coat she does not posture herself in a closed off manner, such as crossing her arms before, but appears to be quite approachable. Should one chance to engage her in conversation, her German still carries a hint of her American accent from childhood. Her tonal quality runs toward the alto range while her pacing is a bit faster than the average southern German dialect of her peers.
Spiritual Description: Alyshea’s Reiatsu is blue in color though so dark as to be nearer to black than anything. There is nothing flashy about her spiritual essence as it invokes little to no sensation as if, like the woman herself, it desires to remain discreet and unseen. The aura of its glow stays close about her body rather than cascading from her form and rarely expands more than a fraction of a finger’s width from the surface of her skin. This shadowy aura is not quite an absence of sensation, for one would readily detect the presence of Reiatsu, but rather an abundance of discretion. Aly’s signature is one that is easily overlooked due to its lack of distinguishing features to make it memorable.
[ BEHIND THE EYES ]
Personality: Despite the unstable environment of her early years, Aly showed her resilience and tractable nature by readily adapting to each new city they moved to and finding new things in which to be delighted. After the divorce of her parents she was very keep to please her father and to make as little trouble for him as possible. Her new life surrounded by the numerous cousins and other relatives of her clan only provided more opportunities for her to please others and try to find acceptance. Even so her own desire to accel soon became the driving force behind her commitment to train. The competitive environment among her cousins was contagious and she often pitted her skills against theirs, especially those of her cousin Alistair. Given freedom to run wild with the boisterous Pfoertners, she was easily molded by their social influences and began indulging in wild forays into town and sneaking off to hunt hollows without the adults of the clan to supervise. Resentful toward her father and his inability to spend much time with her, she began to rebel against his authority by continuing to follow along after Alistair outside the family compound. Her school work was neglected to the point of nearly failing high school as she indulged in under aged drinking in town and continued hunts for hollows. Her need to outdo her cousin and heedlessly rush off into the forest after a Hollow one night contributed to Alistair’s death. Afterward her remorse was such that she did everything she could to make up for her rebellious ways and even graduated from college even though she held no desire for higher education on her own. In line with her need to please her family, she is currently being molded for life in the Pfoertner corporation and is enrolled there in an internship.
Goals & Achievements: Alyshea’s main goal is to achieve a level of self mastery to ensure that she never causes harm to her family again. She wishes to be a competent executive for the family business. She entertains the notion of finding her mother after having made good in the world. If the opportunity to slay her cousin’s killer ever arises revenge would definitely ease her sense of guilt and shame.
[ GUARDIAN ANGEL ]
Mekkakyu: Aly’s Quincy Cross was made for her by her father, Gabriel Pfoertner, given to her at the onset of her training at the anniversary of her ninth birthday. It is constructed from soul silver and simplistic in design being a straight limbed cross without etching or inlay of other metals or gems. Even so the workmanship is revealed through the delicacy of wire woven into the shape of a heart where the arms of the cross intersect, and spirals of wire than entwine each of the arms of the cross to secure this heart into place. She is never without the artifact and wears it concealed beneath her sleeve upon her right wrist at all times. She attaches great worth to the trinket not because of its monetary value but rather because it is, in addition to its purpose of permitting her to draw Reishi for manipulation, a symbol of her ties to her clan and the love of her father. She laughed at his pun when he gruffly told her that she now holds his heart in her hands.
Spirit Weapon - Nachtigal: Aly has named her spirit weapon Nachtigal ( Nightengale ) after the story within a collection of fairy tales by Hans Christen Anderson. Fashioned after the form of a recurve bow, the reishi particles accumulate to cast dark shadows giving her weapon the appearance of being black. An aura illuminates the weapon created by the energized glow of her Reiatsu. While the frame of the bow is dark and insubstantial it is also adorned with a greater concentration of particles to create silvery etchings along the inner curve and at the ends of the upper and lower limbs. The total length of her bow measures 66 inches in length being well within her draw length of 25 inches. With this weapons she is able to manifest Heilig Pfeil, imbued with the same darkness as is Nachtigal, to dispatch her targets.
Schrift:
S - "The Stasis"
Every Quincy, whether they are aware of it or not, possesses a Schrift. This summarizes the nature of a Quincy's unique abilities. For Alyshea this is S - “The Stasis”
Plagued by an unconscious fear of abandonment, Aly grew up craving permanence in her life more than anything. Her best bet was to stay out from under foot taking the motto that ‘children should be seen and not heard’ to heart. If she caused no problems and did everything perfectly then unlike her mother her father would stay. This need to ensure her remaining parent did not take off in the dead of night manifests itself through her unique ability to immobilize a target.
First Manifestation: Schattenweber
Translation: Shadow Weaver
Releasing an arrow from her bow, Alyshea’s dark Reiatsu speeds to the target discharging a veil-like blanket of shadow to envelope and bind an individual in place. As the veil descends the target experiences a weight descending upon them hindering motion, as though gravity had suddenly increased, to pull them to the ground. The effect’s potency is tied directly to her power level as well as the conscious alteration of its strength so that if she wishes it can be lessened to slow a target rather than freeze one in place.
[ LEGACY CREATED ]
Origin:
Alyshea was born in Pfalzgrafenweiler, Germany to Gabriel and Margie Pfoertner, on April 25th, 1990. Dissatisfied with life on the rural Pfoertner estate, her mother insisted that they move back to her hometown of Athens, Ohio within the United States when Aly was two years old. This was but the beginning of a series of moves as her mother’s need to reinvent herself drove them from one town to the next. There was the acting career and her grand debut in a low budget remake of White Zombie at the Athena Cinema Theatre. The organic foods store in Chillicothe, which lasted all of one year before they uprooted once again to move to Columbus. Predictably, her training in holistic medicine and therapeutic massage didn’t last to the completion of her degree. Margie insisted they buy an RV and sell massage oils, meditation crystals, and scented candle on the local festival circuit. As far as she knew this was normal and any objections or arguments over the upheavals her father might have made were kept in private if he made them at all.
While Aly enjoyed each new adventure, especially camping out and running around the fairgrounds or the thrill of the carnival rides, she was unable to ignore the growing tensions between her parents forever. Being drug out of bed in the middle of the night to pick up her mother from the bar kind of gave things away. She wasn’t sure what cheating was but she knew she didn’t like the fast talking man who sold hand crafted dulcimers who was suddenly always around. He seemed to be on the same schedule of festivals as the Pfoertners and would often set up next to their station. He just smiled too much and gave her the creeps by calling her pumpkin all the time.
The situation came to a head at the Paradise Music and Arts Festival, in Pomeroy. It was the yelling and screaming that woke her from her fold-out bed in the back of the RV. Pushing the curtain aside, she peered out window into the glow of a Coleman lantern sitting on the picnic table just in time to see her mother say she didn’t want to be tied down by him or a child. Aly’s eyes met those of her mother, and she hastily shut the curtain and pretended to be asleep afraid she would get yelled at for spying. When her father came back into the trailer she waited to be reprimanded but the lecture never occurred. Gabriel didn’t say a word to his daughter. He just climbed into the driver’s seat, started up the RV, and headed off into the night.
Feeling that she was to blame for the turn of events, she became quiet and reserved making herself as small and unobtrusive as possible lest her father grow weary of her as well. It was to prove to be the foundation of a long line of placating behaviors she would adopt in order to keep him around. There wasn’t much conversation as the two drove ever eastward across the country, her father struggling with a plan for the future and herself trying to make sense of things. All she knew was that her mother was out of the picture. It wasn’t until they crossed the Pennsylvania state lines that Gabriel broke his brooding silence to inform her that they would be leaving the states and moving to Pfalzgrafenweiler in Germany. Quite the mouthful for the seven year old, she sat in wonder as her father described her birthplace and the family she had never seen.
Her new life was the total reverse of everything she had known thus far. Stability, school, a large and boisterous family, and plenty of wide open spaces about the lands in which to explore. Even so they were a secretive lot. Sometimes she would enter a room and all conversation would stop. Her cousins were always sneaking off somewhere into the woods and never would let her join them. Aly couldn’t help but feel that she was, as her mother had said, nothing but a burden. Although her quality of life greatly improved she couldn’t help but think she must do everything perfectly or risk losing this parent as well. Her father’s busy work schedule nor his dark moods did little to eradicate this notion. While her father worked in the family business, something to do with the manufacture of industrial measuring devices whatever those were, she adapted well to her new life among the clan even though she struggled to learn the language.There was one word in particular, however, that would transform her world once again; Quincy.
Rise to Power:
Her training began a couple of years after moving back to Germany with her father. Surrounded by a whole family of Quincy, she was indoctrinated into the spiritual realities of her kind. No longer did her cousins have to hide their abilities nor was she excluded from conversations concerning the true nature of her family. Having received her Mekkakyu from her father, she threw herself into the training exercises desiring to tap into this power and be found acceptable. There was still that lingering demon within that despite being in a positive and loving environment that plagued her sense of security. Even so it was exciting to at last be included in the woodland adventures, she learned at the Clann training grounds, and to sit and listen to the grown ups talk about their exploits against the monstrous Hollows.
While her father began her initial training sessions, teaching her to gather Reishi and manipulate the flows, it was with her cousins that she acquired her daily practical experience. It wasn’t long before she had manifested her own bow and was set to free range with the younglings of the clann. Games of hide and go seek through the forests honed her Reiatsu Perception. Capture the flag required she develop her coordination while using Hirenkyaku while pot-shotting each other with Heilig Feil required not only a high level of accuracy but restraint. Her ability to manipulate Reishi grew steadily through the reckless behavior of her kin. The elders in the clan really did not seem to mind the wild pack of teenagers running havoc over the estate which gave Alyshea a sense of freedom she was quite unused to. At first she would hold back afraid that the shenanigans of her cousins would get them into trouble or hurt. Instead their injuries from such exercised were merely treated hand out with a bit of advice on how to ‘get gud scrub’.
It was their excursions into town where things go a bit out of hand, as the young woman entered her rebellious teenage years. Of all her cousins, it was Alistair to whom she formed the closest bond. The two were inseparable and if one of them didn’t come up with a plan to create mischief then the other one did. It was with him that her unique power manifest itself for the first time. His speed was just too much, always zooming in and tagging her before she could even get a shot off. Filled with an intense desire to make him hold still, she aimed her sights for the ground ahead of him leading her shot to his pace and released her arrow. Upon impact the arrow released a shadowy veil of her Reiryoku which rapidly spread out before him. Unable to stop his break neck speeds he ran right into the wispy veil, its dark aura clinging to him even as he sped onward. Only his momentum was less dragging upon him until he could move no faster than a quick paced walk. Over time she went on to improve the skill to the point that she could even halt him completely at his peak Hirenkyaku speeds with but a few seconds time.
For a time she went rogue back talking to her father and prowling the night with her cousin seeking Hollow to slay just as often as running off to go drinking illegally. If it didn’t have something to do with her training, learning the Gintō and Blut techniques he insisted every real Quincy must know, Gabriel didn’t have time for his daughter. She longed for the closeness they had when he first gave her the Mekkakyu but issues within the hierarchy of the Quincy pulled him away. She could care less that the council had been dissolved and that some hard ass bigot named Marcus had crowned himself King of the Quincy. All it meant to her was that on top of his corporate life, he would have even less time for her. Abandoned for his duties, Alyshea gave vent to her fears by running wild and cutting out on classes. Somehow she made it to her senior year having decided that once she was of age there was no way she was going to college. Life often had other plans in store for Alyshea as was more often than not the case.
Call to Action:
It was looking like Alyshea would just drop out of school, and she wasn’t even sure she cared how angry the news made her father. It was kind of the end result to things anyway, trying to please and be perfect certainly hadn’t made him more of a fixture in her life as his duties kept him away. That was just fine by her. She and Alistair were going out on another tear tonight and she wouldn’t have to think about it. She tossed her midterm grades in the trash can near her desk, put her leather jacket on, and high tailed it out of her bedroom to the back stairs leading to the garage. Alistair was already there having gassed up the bike. Catching sight of his cousin he tossed Aly her helmet before hopping on and starting up the engine. Riding bitch, as usual, she hopped on behind and soon enough the duo were out the gate running into the night. It was simply business as usual for the two wildcats of the clan.
The only thing was, the nightclub scene was just not cutting it for her tonight. It didn’t take her too much coaxing to get her cousin to leave the bar and go roving for Hollow. His girl friend had a major case of the ass going on so he dumped her. Even though he had ended things he was still itchy to take out his own frustration in combat as well. The elder of the Pfoertner’s Reiatsu Perception was borderline gifted so the miscreants had little difficulty in finding the trouble they craved. Their search took them out by the hydro dam where a fishing access road brought them right to the river’s edge. She could sense the Hollow creature at last and even before Alistair had time to turn off the engine and set the kickstand she was off the back and summoning up her ephemeral bow. Walking toward the tree line of the forest, for she sense it lurking beneath the canopy of trees, she darted into the forest despite her cousin’s cries to wait for him. Calling back to him in taunting tones she vowed she wouldn’t let him bag the kill before she could.
Her first sight of the Hollow was but a ghost shadow within the tree top, glowing eyes staring down at her before turning tail to run. Swiftly she raised her bow and fire of her Heilig Pfeil, but the shape eluded her aim as it bounded deeper into the forest. Her cousin’s cries to wait grew fainter and fainter as she plunged deeper into the forest after her quarry. In the darkness her eyes were of little use tracking so she set her sensory perceptions seeking only to learn that the Hollow was doubling back toward the clearing before the dam. Certain that Alistair would be the one to bring the beast down, she sped through use of Hirenkyaku toward its growing signature.
The sounds of combat reached her ears before she burst out from under the cover of the trees into the clearing by the river. Unobstructed now by the trees in full leaf, the moon illuminated the scene. A jaguar, for the Hollow was of feline origins, sprinted toward her cousin as he fired upon the charging beast. Her bow came up to take aim, and Alyshea fired off and arrow imbued with her Schattenweber power. Hoping to halt the beast in its tracks before it could spring upon her cousin, the cat leapt at Alistair going for his throat and her arrow struck her cousin instead. Her power had grown since those early teenage years and this time the arrow caused her cousin to freeze rather than just to slow his motions.
The viciousness of that attack was one that would haunt her memory for years to come. Before she could fire off another shot, Alistair’s throat had been ripped open by the jaguar's massive fangs. Screams fill the air, only death had been too swift for her cousin to utter that cry as she faltered frozen unable to do more than vent her horror. It wasn’t until she saw the soul of her cousin being extracted from his body that she could move and fire her bow. The arrows came too late to spare her cousin and did little more than cause the cat to bolt off into the forest one soul heavier. Having effectively separated the two, the Hollow had demonstrate a level of intelligence she had never before encountered. She hardly needed the reprimand and censure of her father and clan to regret her rash actions and did everything she could to make a change in her life, even graduating high school and going onto college. Despite her newfound dedication and direction in life, she knew nothing she did would undo her fatal mistake.
