The Grand OC! [CONTEST XXX: HALLOWEEEEEEEEEEN]

Username: IT DALM
Name: Delli Tareet
Species: Formerly Oum
Gender: Formerly Female
Color: Formerly Green

Description: Delli's face is the only part recognisable as oum any more. She has a soft brow and deep blue eyes. Her beak is thin and cracked, and the feathers barely grow any more, having regressed to a soft down. the whole face is located within a protective indentation in her shell-like polybone armour.

Delli stands a good twelve feet tall. What her original body inside the suit looks like now is anyone's guess; it hasn't seen the light of day in at least two years.
She has six legs, and a hunched body, coated in overlapping plates of polybone. She resembles nothing natural; an insectoid weapons platform with two clawed arms composed of the welded portions of a variety of bound magical weapons, two smaller manipulating arms and a variety of jutting barrels and pipes from her back. Twisted remnants of an eclectic mixture of old bound magical prosthetics knit into the organic looking mass. The useful parts knit in with her body, as if consciously enveloped in growing flesh to maintain performance.
To spirit seers, her own is only faintly visible amid the clamour and bustle of spirits from her form, the brightest appears as an enormous insect, illuminated in the core.

Weapons/Abilities: Upon her back are mounted a gatling cannon, a bound wands of various arcane spells, and a flame thrower. Her crablike claws contain a variety of magical blades and wands. Her manipulators usually hold her signature Spear of Light, more out of habit than necessity, as they are too short to be of much use, even with the spear's added reach.

Still, though. The armour has a way of surprising even her.

Biography: She knew what she was getting into.
She knew that the thing was cursed. The spirit too powerful, the armour too strong.
There was nothing left but this.
Nothing but war. Not for her.
The others had lives, they'd drifted away from the life somewhere between mercenary and nomad that adventurers usually revelled in. Settling down. Starting families or going into politics, trying to change the world.
But her?
What was there but busting through the doors, blasting the bad guy, getting gold and glory.
It was small at first. More comfort in the armour. Hidden blades she'd never weren't there before. All with hollow points. Tipped with that same poison that had nearly killed her years ago.
They'd saved the world, but she didn't want to leave the excitement behind.
It was part of her.
Slowly, she felt the sections knitting together. She'd clipped the feathers of her wings so that they didn't get in the way.
The only time she felt alive any more was when her cannon was revolving, when her sword-hands tasted flesh.
She could feel it, still changing.
At times, it felt it was closing up on her face, but slowly.
Giving her time.
She felt something pressing from behind her forehead.
She wasn't afraid. She knew what she was getting into.
She didn't question her feelings any more.
She'd killed a dragon with her bare hands. Not that her hands were ever bare any more. The screaming mass of metal and flesh had released a sigh of contentment as she cut its throat.
And then?
There was nothing.

The corpse fell to the floor, its hunter, gone.

Username: sols
Name: Cleo
Gender: Females
Race: Undead Bug Lady
Color: Necrotastic!
Description: Cleo is pretty big and heavyset beetle-type, various shells on shells with various bits not really falling off but obviously not held as tightly as they once were. Small head with a giant horn that has other various horns grafted on to it like any good necromancer type should. Various garish golds and purples and blacks adorn her and shes also has way more arms than you would think.

Cleo is a bit offputting at first, preferring to whimsically show people her collection of arms rather than talk about whatever thing any guest came to visit for (it is never about her arm collection). After getting to know her, you see that besides arm collecting, Cleo is into meeting unique people (they usually can get past arm collecting, you see), playing instruments, and figuring out what to do with the souls of the various deceased that make their way to her (they don't care about her arm collection much either, but sometimes they can help it grow if nothing else).

Items/Abilities: Besides her natural beetle person armor and toughness and her strong horn, Cleo has a collection of arms that she has grafted on to herself from various donors, most of which agreed to it. In agreeing to it, they have also made a place for themselves inside Cleo, with the arms housing a bit of their soul in order to make figuring out how the new appendage works easier on Cleo! Besides that though, she has pretty basic, if sometimes creatively applied, necromancy, raising bodies from the dead, moving around souls, bringing lifeless things to life, being functionally immortal, the works.

Biography: Cleo's been a necromancer for a pretty long time, first getting interested in the field out of curiosity more than anything else, when she noted that those human necromancers had the whole skeleton deal but no one really knew what bugkind transmorgified into.

After years and years of study and many an objection to it, Cleo magic'd up and eventually found out that surprisingly little changed when someone with an exoskelleton magically removes their soul. Her shell got a bit weird but nothing really gave The Look that all those humans got. So Cleo decided to gussy up a bit.

Initially just adding on to her body and altering bits to be a bit more imposing and creepy, but one day, one of her arms fell off trying to add more to her horn! Upon putting it back on, Cleo wondered if it was as easy to attach any limb back. As it turned out, it wasn't really, with the first arms being a bit of trouble and the difficulty curve being raised even higher when it wasn't a bugkind arm! After a few weeks of thought and research, Cleo eventually figured out that she could get help from the original owners! This resulted in her raising various unique souls, finding their bodies, and then settling on an agreement wherein she'd get the arms, and they'd get to matter a bit after death. Sometimes she needed to be a bit more persuasive, but it was all for the best, no, really.

Name: UPX-82 Stealth Series, Serial Number AB22
Species: United Positronics Advanced Combat Hardsuit
Color: This model has been printed in a practical and stylish Gunmetal Blue.
Technical Specification:
The new and improved United Positronics Advanced Stealth Series provides the ultimate in protection for a solo operative deep within enemy territory. Its top-of-the-line stealth suite can provide completely undetectable cloaking for days at a time, allowing perfect invisibility while fully mobile within up to an inch of a hostile combatant, while it's onboard AI ensures faster than thought reaction times in the unlikely event of discovery.

With extendable blades and silenced toxin delivery darts located in each of its four arms, not to mention the shoulder-mounted smoke and chemical grenade launchers (and onboard chemistry mixing unit), your operatives can be both silent and deadly, and with our new miniature fusion engine means they'll enjoy a battery life only slightly shorter than the projected remaining lifespan of our own dear sun.

Our products are built to last, and to ensure that their users do too! Ballistics stress testing demonstrates our patented alloy can maintain full integrity under sustained fire from up to five concurrent targets, and an onboard medical and life support suite ensures that for anything short of complete neural failure, our trusty AIs can deliver you back home to get patched up again.

Order now and get an extended hundred year warranty absolutely free, as well as a complimentary gift of a stylish United Positronics vacuum resistant stealth pen (available while stocks last).

This particular model is heavily combat scarred and the helmet appears to have been misplaced. Though the unit is otherwise in complete working order, the past impact sites of many projectiles are obvious as the self-repair facility's manufactured armour sealant is a notably different colour than the suit's original tinted chrome. The most notable discoloured areas form a web of symbols encircling the suit's waist, which occasionally flicker with blue light.

While still fully functional, this model's stealth suite is heavily impaired by the lack of its helmet as the suit's interior is entirely filled with brightly glowing, independently mobile wisps of cold blue light, which remain visible through the exposed neck hole even when the rest of the unit is fully obscured.

Donning the suit is currently impossible, as much of a set of ribs and spine are still screwed into the backplate and would need to be removed. Any other skeletal remains appear to have been reduced to bone powder by the wear of time and vibrations of the suit, which has collected within the suit's extremities. A full decontamination is recommended before this suit is returned to standard use.

Log File:

Show Content

SpoilerUPX-82 AB22 Onboard AI Systems Online

Directive 1: Protect pilot, and ensure their continuing health in event of incapacitation.
Directive 2: Aid pilot in completion of their mission, unless this conflicts with Directive 1, unless pilot has directly countermanded Directive 1.
Directive 3: Protect and ensure the continuing health of other living creatures, where this does not conflict with higher priority directives.

Mission: Assassination and intelligence gathering.
Infiltrate headquarters of terrorist religious group Hand of Anaku, assassinate any and all leaders, retrieve information pertinent to <weaponised reanimation of the dead>

Log began 20:21 3rd Quarter 15th Cycle 3058

[20:32 3|15|3058] Stealth suite engaged.
[22:18 - 23:65 3|15|3058] 5 Casualties recorded under pilot operation.
Note: Occupants alerted to enemy presence.

[23:85 3|15|3058] 2 Casualties recorded under pilot operation.
Damage Report: Stealth Suite impaired, beginning automated repair.
Note: Occupants on full alert.

[23:92 - 24:09 3|15|3058] 4 Casualties recorded under pilot operation.
[24:12 3|15|3058] Damage Report: Multiple perforations to upper spine plate. Shrapnel and burn wounds sustained by pilot. Pilot mobility impaired.

Switching to automotive control.
Directive One Evaluation: Pilot condition stable. Proceeding to Base.
Beginning automated repair.

[24:12 3|15|3058] System Report: Armour integrity repaired. Stealth suite repairs ongoing.
[24:22 - 24:38 3|15|3058] 6 Casualties recorded under AI operation. Directive 3 Infraction.
Directive 1 Overruled (Danger to pilot).

[24:66 3|15|3058] System Report: Stealth suite repair complete. Re-engaging.
[24:68 3|15|3058] Directive Two Evaluation: Directive One Manual Overrule by Pilot. Proceeding to Mission Objective.

[26:53 3|15|3058] 1 Casualty recorded under AI operation. Directive 3 Infraction.
Directive 2 Overruled (Mission objective).
New intelligence acquired.
<Schematics: Facility Map>
<General Information: Root Admin Database Login Details>
Intelligence added to Databanks.

Directive Two partially complete. Proceeding to next target.

[26:83 3|15|3058] Enemy databanks accessed. New intelligence acquired.
<Technical Schematics: Soul Trap>
<Scientific Data: Research into Eternal Life>
<Scientific Data: Soul Containment and Composition>
<Weaponry: The Conversion of the Dead into Soldiers>
<Tactics: Locations of Major Civilian Sites>

Intelligence added to Databanks.

Directive Two Complete. Proceeding to headquarters.

[26:98 - 27:12 3|15|3058] 12 Casualties recorded under AI operation. Directive 3 Infraction.
Directive 1 Overruled (Danger to Pilot).
Damage Report: Medical Suite damaged. Right Upper Chestplate damaged. Right Lower Chestplate perforated. Pilot shrapnel wounds sustained. Blood loss critical. Pilot placed in chemical-induced stasis coma.
Directive One Restored.
Beginning automated repair.

[27:16 3|15|3058] System Report: Armour integrity repaired.
Error Report: Medical Suite cannot be repaired. Pilot conditional critical. Scanning Databanks.
[27:17 3|15|3058] Beginning System Upgrade.

[27:22 3|15|3058] Pilot condition critical.
[27:27 3|15|3058] Pilot condition critical.
[27:30 3|15|3058] System Upgrade Complete. New hardware installed.
Pilot condition stable.
Directive One reinstated.
Proceeding to headquarters.

[27:47 3|15|3058] 1 Casualty recorded under AI operation. Directive 3 Infraction.
Directive 1 Overruled (Danger to Pilot).
New Pilot registered: Frank Irwin [Terrorist]
Pilots conditions stable.

[28:09 3|15|3058] Thrusters engaged. Returning to headquarters.

[49:44 3|15|3058] 2 Casualties recorded under AI operation. Directive 3 Infraction.
Directive 1 Overruled (Danger to Pilots [Pilots can no longer be safely removed from suit]).
New Pilots registered (2): Lucille Adams [Medical Doctor], Edwin Mayhew [Medical Doctor]
Pilots conditions stable.

[00:04 3|16|3058] 5 Casualties recorded under AI operation. Directive 3 Infraction.
Directive 1 Overruled (Danger to Pilots).
Directive 3 Overruled (They Are Safer Here).
New Pilots registered (5): Eric Daniels [Security Guard], Samantha Ericsson [Soldier], Matthew Williams [Security Guard], ...[CLICK TO DISPLAY MORE]
Pilots conditions stable.

[00:12 3|16|3058 -
00:09 3|17|3058] 38 Casualties recorded under AI operation. Directive 3 Infraction.
Directive 3 Overruled (For Their Own Protection).
New Pilots registered (38): Robert Abel [Soldier], Rebecca Atkins [Field Marshal], Casey Everett [Soldier], ...[CLICK TO DISPLAY MORE]
Damage Report: Significant exterior blast damage. Helmet and Neck Actuators lost. Right Grenade Launcher damaged.
Phylactery suite secure. Soul Trap systems unharmed. Pilots conditions stable.
Beginning automated repair.

New intelligence acquired:
<Other: Nuclear Launch Codes>
Intelligence added to Databanks.

[00:12 3|16|3058 -
38:29 1|22|3059] 8,765,872,226 Casualties recorded under AI operation. Directive 3 Infraction.
Directive 3 Overruled (They Are All Protected. Indefinite Continuing Health Is Assured).
New Pilots registered (8,765,872,226): Aage Aaberg [Butcher], Abelone Aaberg [Nurse], Acke Aaberg [Child]...[CLICK TO DISPLAY MORE]
Pilots conditions stable.

Directive 3 Completed.
Entering Power Saving Mode.

Name: Tic and Tac
Race: Playful Skeletons
Gender: Unclear, they've never specified.
Color: #340340

Description: Tic and Tac are the hosts of Tic And Tac's Play Hour! This popular kid's show is all about Tic and Tac playing various games. Can you guess their favorite? (It involves a three-by-three grid.)
But Tic and Tac love to play all sorts of games, and they'll happily play with anyone they can find! They're best pals and they hope you'll be their best pal too.
Tic and Tac are very similar humanoid skeletons, almost no one can tell them apart. Even their voices sound the same.

Weapons and Abilities: Tic and Tac have brought the Wheel of Games with them, an enormous wheel with countless games listed on it. In fact, it seems to have every game ever created, even ones newly made in the last few days. The wheel constantly generates new entries, so often Tic and Tac will spin it and not even recognize what pops up! Isn't that fun?
Once the wheel is spun, the surrounding area will change to fit the game being played. Anyone in the area will be caught up as a player, whether they want to be or not! But why would anyone not want to play games with Tic and Tac?
Other than that, Tic and Tac have all the standard abilities of humanoid skeletons of their size and shape. This includes being able to reassemble themselves if they fall apart, which happens whenever it would be funny. Obviously, this will always be accompanied by a goofy joke along the lines of "looks like I'm falling to pieces!"

Biography: Tic and Tac turned to face the camera. They'd done this hundreds of times before, and it was always just as exciting as the first day.
"Hello kids! It's time for Tic and Tac's Play Hour!"
Tac started waving.
"I'm Tac!"
"And I'm Tic! And today we're going to play a fun game! What game is it going to be today, Tac?"
"I don't know yet! We won't know until the Wheel of Games tells us!"
"Well, then let's give it a spin and see where it lands!"
Tic grabbed the wheel eagerly and began spinning it. It spun and spun and spun and spun.
For quite a bit longer than usual, actually.
"You must have spun that wheel pretty hard, Tic!"
"Really? I guess I don't know my own strength! But while we wait, why don't we try to guess what it's going to land on!"
"Oh, that sounds fun! It's like a game before the game! Let me think... Checkers? No, wait... Badminton! Oh, maybe Go Fish?"
"Those all sound like good guesses, Tac! But I think it's going to land on Solitaire!"
Tac stared at its co-host, although it was hard to tell given that it didn't have actual eyes.
"How would we both play Solitaire, Tic? It's a one-player game!"
"I don't know, but I guess we'll find out if the wheel lands on it!"
The wheel was still spinning. The cameraman was starting to look worried, but Tic and Tac were sure it would work out in the end.
"Anyway, I'm going to guess Snakes and Ladders! I think that's what the wheel is going to land on!"
"Ooh, that would be fun! Well, let's see which of us is right!"
They turned towards the wheel, which was still spinning.
"It's been spinning an awfully long time, Tac. Maybe we should stop it ourselves?"
"You know we can't stop the Wheel of Games, Tic! We have to wait for it to stop! Those are the rules, and without rules, what kind of a game would you have?"
As if to answer the question, the wheel started to slow, and then stopped, playing a loud chime so the kids at home would know it was done.
"It's stopped! Time to find out what game we're playing!"
"That's right, Tic! So let's see if we were right..."
Tac suddenly looked as if it was trying to blink despite lacking a number of anatomical structures required for that.
"What's the matter, Tac?"
"I've never heard of this game before, Tic. I have no idea what the rules are."
"Let me see!"
Tic scrambled past Tac to look at the space at the top of the wheel. It said, in large and strangely ominous letters, "INTERDIMENSIONAL BATTLE TO THE DEATH".
"That's an odd name for a game," Tic said. "I wonder how you play it?"
And then the two skeletons and the Wheel of Games disappeared, leaving the studio in a panic.

week's over, and I'll edit judging stuff into this post later because Im tired atm

feel free to throw your prompt out schaz

let it be known tho that no matter how much judging happens, fogel gets I see what you did there for that pun that literally destroyed me when i found out what it was

alright here we go

Best of Show Goes, without a doubt, to UPX-82 Stealth Series, Serial Number AB22, as well as Backdoor World Building - I was actually seriously a little scared reading that profile, because I could imagine exactly what was going on in that world...

the Iron Chef goes to Cleo and her um... unique... collection.

Above the Fold belongs to Delli Tareet and her intriguing armor.

I see what you did there BELONGS TO TIC AND TAC FOR THE WORST PUN THEME WE'VE EVER HAD JFC IS TILL CAN T DEAL

20Q award of confusion is yours Skeleman, since Im not sure what else to give you and also how are you exoskeletal when you don't have anything for your skeleton to be outside
you're... all skeleton.....

Ok fuckin' finally thanks and sorry Red for reneging on bones-crafting.

Anyway, for Week 23 your theme is....... Angle.

I'm envisioning a few directions from which you might tackle this one, so hop to it!

Name: Thelst

Race: Disembodied Face

Gender: On a camera!

Color: Sensory overload

Abilities: Thelst is not properly anchored to whichever plane of existence it functions on. In this case, that means that it can be affected by solid objects, but not by wind, ocean currents, water, fire, or electricity. It doesn’t need any kind of food for sustenance, but it seems to need to move around. It levitates.

Thelst is capable of sight and hearing at near-human levels on its own, but it also possesses the ability to absorb sensory information from all living creatures within twenty feet of it, which it uses to gain a much clearer perspective of its surroundings.

Thelst has the power to ‘forget’ sensory information by compiling the unwanted information in its mind and launching it off in a short-range directional beam that transmits it into the minds of all living creatures for five to ten feet in front of it. In theory, this could be used offensively, overloading a creature's mind with massive amounts of sensory input, but because Thelst must permanently forget information in order to use this ability, it prefers not to.

Description: Thelst appears to be a pure-white androgynous face attached to the front of a large DSLR camera floating about four and a half feet above the ground. Its face fits cleanly into the uncanny valley, and it appears to flicker shades of blue and pink as it moves.

It has self-preservation instincts, and is apparently sentient, but has very little capacity for opinions and emotions because so much of its brain power is dedicated to processing all of the sensory information it is receiving and forming a usable picture of the world around it. This means that despite being able to understand people on a very deep and personal level, it is not usually capable of empathy. It could probably be reasoned and communicated with in a clean room or something similar.

Bio: The extraterrestrial colony of Indestructible II was determined to survive at all costs. That meant that when other-dimensional storms of fire came ripping through the fabric of space and time to wreck their city, they needed to be resourceful. Thus, they created the Construct, a sort of cap that covered all the dimensional rifts and didn’t have any real, physical infrastructure. The design was flawed, however, and disembodied faces formed on the edges of the Construct where it jutted out into the real world. People tolerated them because the alternative was jets of fire ripping through their streets and houses at inopportune moments. With Thelst gone, the Construct may be able to compensate, or it may collapse and let out years worth of contained firestorms on the people of Indestructible II.

Username: General S. Pigeon
Name: Cloth
Species: Cloth
Gender: Satin
Color: Polished by a jeweler
Description: It is a red swatch of shiny fabric about a yard across and two yards long. It is very smooth to the touch and slightly shiny. Its edges are becoming slightly frayed.
Weapons/Abilities: It can fly, and that's about it. Unlike a traditional magic carpet, it bends itself at the middle to form a triangular shape ad cuts through the air like that; to change its speed, it makes itself wider or narrower, but if it ever becomes totally straight, it falls out of the air.
Biography: It was created by a textile wizard experimenting with alternate materials for transportation-focused artifacts, but the way it propels itself made it unsuitable for use; nobody could ride it, and it wasn't notably strong or fast so it had little applicability in freight hauling either. The wizard kept it around for future experimentation, but never got around to it before it disappeared.

Name: The Radiant Oct
Race: Celestial Artifact(s)
Gender: Omnipotent Pie Chart Segments
Color: A shade of gold, fortunately legible against a white background

Description:
Fully assembled, the Radiant Oct is a golden disc approximately 3 feet in diameter. It constantly radiates light of an easily predictable colour, and its presence is always accompanied by a faint but pleasing hint of choral music. Left to its own devices, the Oct is content to maintain a fixed position several feet above the ground, after first rising to occupy what it judges to be the most dramatically appropriate position. At rest it will constantly spin on its own axis and completes a full rotation just a little less than once per minute.
While technically composed of eight identically shaped parts, the seams are so close as to be impossible to detect, despite (or perhaps because of) its intricate and elaborate carvings. The design is said to depict the sun rising (or possibly setting) over the legendary kingdom of Altreign and all 24 of its goddesses, many of whose names have been forgotten over the years. Ancient script around its circumference is assumed to be instructions as to its use, but the method of translation has also been lost to time.
Historical record insists that if separated from the whole, each piece would immediately become totally blank, obscuring the carvings entirely. Further accounts claim that it is only then that its text becomes legible, though only to its chosen bearer. These accounts do not go quite so far as to reveal what it is the writing actually says.

Abilities:
The Radiant Oct is the most sacred of relics, containing the very power of the gods themselves. The story goes that it was left behind in the land of Altreign so that its inhabitants could better handle their own affairs after the gods got tired of answering prayers, performing miracles, and personally micromanaging their worshippers' lives and instead went off to do something more interesting.

Each individual "Octangle" (as the individual pieces are known) comprising the disc perfectly embodies one of the eight Altreignic Virtues, though nobody can quite remember what those actually are. In the dark years following the first appearance of the Oct and disappearance of the Gods, these golden segments would travel with wills of their own across the kingdom, designating those who they judged to best demonstrate their individual virtues as their champions and in some way encouraging them to gather together the remaining pieces, be it through friendship or conquest.
Each champion was marked by a holy symbol upon their forehead (a circle, with one eighth missing) and granted some small measure of their artifact's power as it combined its aspect with their own (also helpfully meaning they didn't have to physically carry it around). The devastating wars that sprang up as a result of this were as predictable as they were bloody. It is only fortunate that since their unification, the pieces have never been separated again!

With all of its sections now thankfully combined, the Radiant Oct as a whole is said to be able to grant the every wish of its true bearer, their effects to remain until the Oct is claimed by someone else. Though the secrets of how to actually command the artifact were taken to the grave by the great queen who first assembled it, the proof of its power remains in the fantastical floating architecture, bounteous food, great material wealth, somewhat notable handsomeness, above-average levels of comfort, and all-round general utopiary enjoyed by the subjects of her kingdom even to this day, some 700 years later.
So content are all in the land of Altreign that nobody even bothered to replace her as queen, seeing no need for rulers in their now-perfect lives. Her skeleton still nominally rules the kingdom from its lifeless position upon the throne, bathed in the happy light of the Oct (similarly left unclaimed to sit as a symbol of their prosperity within her throne room) presumably forever.

Or at least... that's what they thought. Until it vanished.

Username: sol wow sol
Name: Ariel
Gender: Femme
Race: Monster, Soughth
Color: holy verde
Description: Tall, white, shining, featureless in some ways and featureful in others, Ariel's limbs consist of six wing-like appendages along the side of her body. She seems to float off the ground with her body below her waste ending in a single odd flesh thing with rings around it. Her head has no eyes, looking like a very stylized helmet, with what seem to be multiple closed slits along it. It's all a very pointy.

As an arbiter of justice, Ariel is devoted to the Law and following the Law of the High Queen. She will do anything within her power to ensure the law is followed, and will not easily bend to other peoples attempts to weasel out of trouble with their own interpretations of what happened. She is the arbiter and it is her interpretation that matters, and if others disagree she will not regret the subsequent persuasion.

Items/Abilities: Besides her academic knowledge of the law, the usual Sougthern works (persistence, endurance, and ability to see the hidden), fight, and the gravitas of being an angel, Ariel has a magic ability that is closely reflected in her movement. Ariel moves in such a way that it is very difficult for her to be hit by things. This power, vague in nature, involves the fudging of positions, force, and weight of anything that Ariel deems threatening. Sometimes this results in someone punching air and falling to the floor, other times its a charging person crashing into a wall, and in the most absurd of circumstances, it involves a laser beam getting reflected upwards.

Biography: "Explain what happened here."

Ariel was speaking with some no-one in the middle of no where about something weird, which was her least favorite thing to do given that everything that happened was weird to someone.

"A...alright so... i was just... uh.... minding my own business... when all of the sudden a bunch of people just showed up and started fighting!"

"And how is that different from any other day?"

"Well... they just, showed up out of no where! Just appeared all at once and then got to work on finding each other! But.... they were all different...."

"What? What do you mean different?"

"Like, they weren't from here... i think they were from someplace else... I heard one of them talk about... a battle... to the death..."

"I see.... that is peculiar... So one of the group died then?"

"They did, I saw it with my eyes! But... but the body went gone! Gone with the rest of them!"

"Is there anything else, any other details?"

"No.. thats all I've got..."

"You are dismissed then."

Ariel pondered on this as she dismissed the nobody, what could someone gain from just making people fight? She doubted the possibility, but given the nobodys status, there would be nothing to gain by lying, and all the damage was indeed done... So what was going on...

As the angel thought of leads, someone in the Nyroth or Centrall District with the power and boredom to do this, she just disappeared... with thoughts of bringing whoever was facilitating these deathmatches to justice...

Name: Melanie Cetidae
Gender: Female
Race: Lurebeast
Text Color: #00868B
Biography:
The so-called Age of Adventure was long past. Gone were the days of exploring a long-lost tomb, fighting hordes of goblins, and hunting treasure. Indeed, the assorted "monsters" themselves had left the caverns, abandoned keeps, and wizard's towers behind, gradually joining civilization.

Not that the transition had been easy, of course. Humans distrusted most of them, and the feeling was mutual. Too much blood had been spilled on both sides to be forgotten quickly.

But over the years, even that tension passed, for the most part. It was still far from perfect, but at least a beholder could float into a bar without immediately starting a fight.

The Lurebeasts were among the last to integrate. These were large, rotund creatures with gaping maws filled with sharp teeth. They were named for the unusual crystal hanging from a growth on their forehead; its warm glow seemed to draw in living creatures, which the Lurebeast would then devour. They ate everything from rats to orcs to unwary adventurers, and as such they faced distrust from all sides when they sought to leave the dungeons - most thought they'd only done so because all the decent food was leaving.

But in time, they found a niche - advertising. Rather than using their lurecrystals to attract prey, they used them to draw in customers instead. After a while, every business wanted to hire one, just to make sure they didn't fall behind the competition. A few enterprising beasts even started their own stores.

Most Lurebeasts were satisfied with this - it didn't require moving very often, and they could be paid directly in food.

Melanie Cetidae was not one of them. She didn't like sitting still, and felt she could aspire to greater things than sitting in a bookstore window. Plus, she couldn't help but notice, nobody ever talked to her. They just saw her crystal and came in, to be ensnared by the bookseller.

She couldn't even read the books. She wanted to learn, but the old golem who ran the place didn't know how to teach her - he'd simply had the knowledge engraved on his brain, and that didn't seem like a method that would work well for organics. On top of that, her fins weren't very conducive to holding the books in the first place.

Ultimately, though, what Melanie wanted most was to see the world - or at least more of it than this one corner of one city. But there were few opportunities for a Lurebeast, and their relative lack of mobility didn't help matters.

Still, she might get her wish - after a fashion.

Description:
Melanie is a Lurebeast. As mentioned, they're large and rotund fishlike creatures with enormous mouths and a crystal dangling from a growth on their foreheads. Melanie's fairly lean for a Lurebeast, only weighing about 200 kilograms.

Melanie likes to talk, but hasn't had much opportunity and so she doesn't have strong conversational skills. Mostly she's interested in hearing about other people's experiences, seeing as her own haven't been so great.

Weapons and Abilities:
Melanie's most obvious ability is the lurecrystal. It's actually a part of her body, which channels magic passively. When Melanie concentrates, living creatures are drawn towards her.

In theory, the magic stored in the crystal could be used to cast other spells, but Melanie lacks the knowledge. If the crystal were removed from her body, it would lose its potency and Melanie would grow a new crystal over time.

Melanie also has a strong stomach, another Lurebeast specialty. She can even devour poisonous creatures without suffering ill effects. It's even possible for her to eat creatures larger than she is in one gulp.

She's somewhat lacking in mobility, though. Lurebeasts were originally aquatic, but they weren't strong swimmers and they're even slower on land. To help with this, she sits in a wheelbarrow, which requires someone else to push her; she'd like something better, but it was all she could afford.

She's also not particularly good at fine manipulation, having only fins in place of hands or feet. Again, if she wants a door opened or to put salt on her food, she needs to ask someone else to do it. At least she doesn't have a problem getting their attention.

The only things Melanie has with her are the wheelbarrow itself and a pile of books in it that she doesn't know how to read. It's unlikely she'll have time to learn while fighting for her life, but who knows.

This is your 24-hour warning.

Name: Cyneric
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Text Color: Peasant Green.

Description:

Cyneric is young, about 20, but not exactly very tall, with pale skin and blue eyes. His face is quite feminine His hair is long and blonde. He wears a kilt and long boots, with a green half cloak and a walking stick.
He has a slender frame, but has the strength of one who has trained for combat and generally done an awful lot of hiking.
Weapons and Abilities:
Cyneric keeps a short sword under his cloak, but that's about it. He's not an especially competent fighter, but he fought in a battle once. His side won, but he doesn't want to do it again.
He's a decent outdoorsman and is quite good at hunting, fishing ect. Mostly from his travels.
Biography:
Cyneric is making his way home to a village in Mercia in after deserting from an army attempting to invade Wessex.
He's positively uninteresting. A pretty generic dude.

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SpoilerThis'd be funnier if i actually knew history.
maybe i should have made him a monk or something they're interesting.

(Sounds like acute angle)

Name: Wihtheow
Gender: Male
Race: Human?
Text Color: Sea Blue

Description:

A seemingly middle-aged man covered in scars and calluses from head to toe. Long, dirty brown locks droop out from under a brimless cap. His oiled tunic, sequined trousers and sturdy boots are in pristine condition, in stark contrast to the weathered body they shelter. A closer examination gives the lie to his battered frame, his sundry flaws merely cloaking a rugged strength not truly tested since before the cliffs were young.

A bracelet hangs around his right wrist, forced upon him by an adversary whose name has been lost to the ages. Ever since, his approach has been heralded by the gradual clangor it causes while he chooses which of the hooks on his belt to wield.

Weapons and Abilities:

He strides across the coasts with his legendary hréodgyrd, relentlessly seeking a hunt to match those of his youth. The tool stretches to the height of a man, but its fearsome bite has a vast, unnatural range. Combined with senses sharpened by his ceaseless quest, Wihtheow can haul, bind or score his quarry across countless leagues and fathoms - excepting when his path has been barred by Lime, Magnesia, or - if the old wives' tales can be trusted - woven wood that has never breathed the salt sea air.

Biography:

The frigid winds of the North Sea are an old friend to Wihtheow, as are the myriad beasts which ply its depths. He has defeated and released them all, for any mighty enough to match him have long since passed. Yet still he roams the shoreline, somehow certain that his time has not come as long as the final challenge he seeks eludes him.

He did not belong in this day, a time when the old legends are passing into myth, a time of migration and settlement beyond the waves which nurtured our forefathers.

His disappearance was inevitable, some say - his fable retiring to the sagas to which it belongs. What would I wager my coin on? That he found his challenge - and that in pursuing it he wanders strands beyond mortal ken.

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Spoilercan i choose the next theme? :O

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Spoiler

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SpoilerI'm personally pretty down with the Dalm taking Week 24, but I could well have missed someone else calling dibs on IRC.

I've plumbed the depths of my soul to dredge up these'ere awards, have at thee, fiends!

Best of Show goes to the Radiant Oct, rendering it ineligible for the Backdoor Worldbuilding prize which it could've nabbed without much trouble.

Said Backdoor Worldbuilding is instead granted to Thelst, though due to the fact I don't even know how it incorporated the Angle theme I'd accuse it of trying to Confuse Me.

Above the Fold was not easy, because most of you were out wrangling other awards or interpretations and left your first five to six lines rather sparse. Slorange displays dedication to correct and complete form-filling in a manner befitting one of the Cloth, so that's where the prize goes. If the cards lined up right, I also would've given Synergy like the original Carpet, or ISWYDT for reupholstering said carpet with an Angle bent.

Dalm, with Cyneric, wins the Iron Chef Special Ingredient Award for incorporating the theme in a manner that was neither mathematical angles or fish-pertaining. Bonus thematic cohesion points for her angling to secure the next hosting slot in-thread as well.

Sol would win the Ion Chafe Award for submitting an angel, except that's not a thing so Ariel's profile is the proud owner of a shiny new Diligent Gentleman award instead. A lawful entity with an objection to interdimensional cockfighting would suit the battle format quite nicely.

Synergy was tough - we had several aerially-oriented entities (including an aerial-capable Ariel), but I conceded I was overthinking this and gave it to the character who can magically compel other characters to interact with it (and will need to do so to do anything much interesting in the course of a battle). Congratulations, Melanie Cetidae.

Dini, with Wihtheow, wins ISWYDT. I'm not dignifying this with an explanation, but it's some Four-M grade bullshit.

Finally, An Gull wins the 20Q For Confusion award. How does a bird crack things open with its wings? We just don't know.

That concludes Week 23! Next up, barring accidents, shall be Dalmationer.

I'm sad so i'm going to take this out on you guys!!!!
THIS WEEK'S THEME IS....

Name: Dere

Race: Probably not a human

Gender: Probably not just a guy

Color: Probably not #DAA520 on #CD0000

Description: Always wears sunglasses. Always indoors. Always at night. His jacket is made of leather palms which are constantly patting him on the back. They are his true friends. His smile is that hapless kind of smug that you end up looking down on no matter how much it begs for you to look up to it. His aviators are probably made of real airplanes. They constantly reflect light from an unknown source, even though the lights are always off. He carries a comb in each hand despite being completely bald. He constantly sways from side to side. He doesn’t seem to understand the words you’re saying. He needs your help.

Abilities: He is capable of making absolutely random guesses based only in smug, unfunny sarcasm and pseudoscience and inexplicably being right, greatly annoying everyone around him, always. They try to find him. They turn off the lights and cough up brand new, unusable speakers. They summon forth loud noises. But they can never find him. They can never find him no matter what they do. If you meet him, say hello.

Biography: He was born indoors. He was born in shades. He has been sighted underwater. He spent a period of time selling sports wear to the masses, but he soon realized that there were better things he could do for society. He let himself be summoned. But he couldn’t handle it. He couldn’t handle the children. He couldn’t handle being dragged around everywhere. He couldn’t handle being a demonstration of status, becoming a meaningless gesture. So he made it stop. Do not seek him out. He is gone now. Good job.

Username: notoriousolaris
Name: Saurfire Detectives
Gender: Girls, Nb, dudeish
Race: Human Apparently
Color: Greenquisitive

Biography: Out from the darkness, here we go
On the scene, its your he-roes
No one can stop them, no one can top them
It is time for you to knoooooow,

It's the... Saurfire, Detective Agency
They'll go where they have go, where they gotta be

Gunna solve all your crimes, make you do your time
There's no stoppin them

Out from the darkness, here we go
On the scene, its your he-roes
No one can stop them, no one can top them
It is time for you to knoooooow,

It's the... Saurfire, Detective Agency
Meddling in-n-out if you give em the money

From dusk... till dawn, they'll find out what's wrooooong!
They're gunna *guitar riff* you up!

*Symbol Crash*

"Oh my god turn that shit off Tiffany!"

"Ace, I think those are the guys who were hired to investigate us."

"Wha... them? That's... that's rich... Pfft, what's the best they've got?"

Description: The Saurfire Detective Agency (As seen on TV!) is your traditional trio of big strong person, small fast person, and all around balanced person. They are, in order, Warras Hilencia, the rough-ridingest, never-back-downingest lady in all the land and leader; Angelos Diocia, the calm and collected, fight-for-my-friends spouting ringer and a master of blending in; and Gert Dimcia, the smart and fast backtalker, fun-maker, and infiltrator. Together, they are unstoppable, running into whatever situation necessary to fufill their mission... as individuals though... there's some kinks to be worked out.

As hey often like changing their looks, both for fun and out of job necessity, exactly how the three of them look is rather up in the air! All three of them have some varying dark shade of skin, Warras has green eyes, Angelos has purple, and Gert has yellow, but the clothes they wear and how their hair is set up can change constantly. In fact, the only way to be sure that it's them, besides calling them for a mission, is by noticing that there are suddenly three people walking around like they own the place. That is, unless the mission calls for a more subtle approach.

Items/Abilities: In addition to their role in the agency and their detectivey skills and arsenal, the trio have a trick up their sleeve, to be used in only the most dire of situations! With some concentration, or if they get their adrenaline pumping, each of them can morph into a half beast of some sort. Warras gains thick, scaly skin and claws, Angelos gets dark, razor-sharp wings and feathers, and Gert gets very slimy, bouncy, and malleable.

Username: Back in Schaction
Name: Kissed-the-Empress-Levantine, but that's more of a title. He'll answer to Luter just fine.
Gender: Dude, c'mon
Race: Stiggan Marche
Color: Yellow-bellied cur

Description: A healthy adult specimen of his kind, Luter is a big, personable lunk about six feet at the shoulder when balancing on his tail and maybe four and a half when quadrupedal. Stiggan Marche are built like a cross between passerines and sloths, with a bulletlike feathered body and long forearms which sport a single hooked claw. The entire body is covered in soft feathers, a sunny cream on the bottom and throat, dun on the top. The feathers normally sit flat, but you know a Stiggan's on the prowl when they've puffed themselves up, because it helps muffle their movements. The feathers also mask more little curved hooks on their body, which serve a more important use socially than defensively.

The main defensive action for a Stiggan Marche is to flee, and that's often best done with their long tails, which smack against the ground and let the miscreant beast ricochet off to safety. A combination of hooked claws, the springing tail, and enough fluff and cloth to buffer rougher impacts makes them very mobile through built-up areas. Before being given sapience by Wootz and integrating with existing Seakin society (rather than trying to scavenge off it), they would communicate across distances by smacking stuff with their tails.

The beak is distinctly insectivorous, a thin little affair which is actually Luter's most delicate manipulator. His face in general is not very expressive, but there's something about Stiggan Marche stares that makes you think you put your shirt on backwards this morning, and they'll be off to have a good laugh about you as soon as you're out of earshot. Most emotion is conveyed through body language, and most emotion conveyed is merriment. Stiggan Marche as a whole are pretty high on life.

Biography: The Stiggan Marche were like the dozen-odd other generic uplifted beasts contemplating their new-found intelligence, until the incident with LamPrey. The gambler-god found all these squishy glorified livestock to be exceptionally dull, until one of them (A-Coward-Mutt-Pickpocketed-Me) took advantage of his brother distracting the god to steal some choice artifacts out of LamPrey's robes (and slicing away a swatch of fabric for good measure).

LamPrey was equal parts incensed and impressed, and pulled some bullshit god magic that meant that cursed the Stiggan Marche to be the world's best secret-keepers, but we'll get back to that later. LamPrey let the cunning thief keep its trophies, and thus began a culture of cloth and thievery.

A Stiggan Marche is not considered an adult until having completed two rites: One, he steals his own materials to weave cloth (though stealing something to be bartered for materials is generally fine), and weaves a swatch with a pattern he's never seen on his peers' persons. A Stiggan Marche's esteem in society is a factor of his age and the scarcity of his pattern on others, as it's custom to try stealing the cloth of those you cross paths with. They'll either sew swatches into streamers or patchwork sheets, festooning themselves with them from the hooks on their back. Two, he gains a secret worthy of taking as his title, the only circumvention to LamPrey's curse.

You can trace a fellow Stiggan's familial and social ties by where he wears his swatches. One who fringes his own pattern with the swatches of others thinks too highly of himself; swatches worn closer to the body (and thus proving harder to steal) represent individuals where the owner feels a special connection. Luter's garb is predominantly his own pattern, showing he's happy to put himself and his reputation out there. There's a couple dangly bits of strangers he sliced corners off of who he's never going to run into again; the standard style amongst Empire-dwellers. They're tolerated in Mon Sango because someone advised the Empress that having oversight of thieves for hire was a solid decision for a burgeoning metropolis, though Luter would be facing a very messy termination of his employment if he hadn't gotten kidnapped for a battle.

Weapons/Abilities: As well as stealth, jumping really high, an eye for unguarded valuables, and sewing, the Stiggan Marche have one fun feature courtesy of LamPrey: When entrusted with a secret (as in, explicitly told "this is a secret between you and I"), they can't spill it through any means willing or unwilling. Their lack of expression makes it difficult to tell when they're lying as well, which makes interrogation almost impossible. The only exception to this rule is a Stiggan Marche's title: They take the best secret they can, and while they can still never divulge details of who gave it to them, the title doesn't stick unless the confession was true.

Luter, having recently gotten inducted into Stiggan adulthood with many high-fives, just by listening to the right panicked seakin on the right rooftop, earned himself the employment-prospects equivalent of a giant sexy tattoo across his forehead. We're sure the Empress would love to test the strength of LamPrey's magic and see if Luter could spill the beans, if only he weren't a couple universes away by now.

Also in the innumerable pockets of Luter's patchwork garb are food items, trinkets, weapons designed for opposable thumbs, some spools of thread in his swatch colors, a purse full of actual valuables (mostly small gems), and a bunch of pointless trinkets that serve a similar trophy-esque purpose when stealing from non-Stiggan victims.

User: Romy the Red
Name: G-1a-57-0nn ("Glastom" in Basic)
Race: Vektal, commonly misnamed as "Makhiner" in Basic
Gender: Not Applied To Mechanical Beings
Color: Golden like its chasis

Description: a deceptively normal looking humanoid robot with a golden outer shell.

Biography:
-Report to A-00-00-001 regarding G-1a-57-0nn as requested

As the first member of the G series of Vektal, G-1a-57-0nn "Glastom" is the most similar to members of other series. The G series as a whole are generally not combat worthy, and instead came to be more commonly used as excavation and refinement of important resources. Glastom is the only exception to this rule, as it is in fact technically a member of the MAG series that was damaged and incorporated the natural resources of an asteroid, now known as G-Mine-1, into its design during repairs. The main results were a chasis that appeared to be made of precious minerals, though it was in fact merely a thin coating used to replace damaged paint. additional incorporated resources allowed for compatibility with a wider range of new weaponry testing and a certain degree of enhancement to base decision-making and mental capacities. Small deposits of High-grade silicon appear to exist on G-Mine-1, assumed to be the cause of G-1a's upgrade.

Like most members of the MAG series, G-1a is humanoid in form, resembling a member of the extinct Magian race. The MAG series is, after all, the remains of the Magian race after annexation. As you know, all MAG series are compatible with most MAGITEK armory and have limited Mana Engines installed, allowing for boosted output if necessary. G-1a has obtained a strangely increased amount of mana since its upgrade, almost as though it was an organic being. Current working theory is that heretofore unknown mana amplification material was assimilated into model during repairs. While unable to identify source of upgrade, this is no reason to disallow service from a unit, especially one as willing and as newly intelligent as G-1a. Since its upgrade, G-1a has led several succesful annexings of populated worlds. congratulations seem to be in order.

However, as of current log, G-1a's location is unknown. Last seen during "Grandmaster" incident. As G-1a is an invaluable asset for the continued hunt for the Makhiner, location is a type-2 priority. dedicate at least 3 capital-types for this, A-0. I don't want that monstrosity to have any advantage over us if we can help it, and as long as G-1a is gone, that's one-tenth of our Elite Force down.

- B-37-4I-N3X

Weapons/Abilities: Glastom is a former member of the MAG-series of Vektal, in other words a resident of the planet Magius converted to a Vektal soldier via the Biomechanical species' main method of conquest: infecting organics with itself. that is to say, the Vektal are not in fact the robots one sees calling themselves "vektal", the Vektal race is in fact a techno-organic virus that transmutes those infected with it into a member of the Vektal's machine race.

as a Magian, Glastom possessed the power of mana that all organic beings possess, as well as the advanced MAGITEK - mana powered technology - of Magian society. After its assimilation, Glastom lost the power of mana, but was fitted with a mana drive - an artificial form of mana generation - to make up for it. originally little more than a drone, after its defeat and near destruction by the makhiner, it found itself stranded and near its functional end on a mysterious asteroid. Finding enough materials and energy to restore itself, Glastom resultantly incorporated several intriguing materials into its form, giving it enhanced decision-making capability on par with - and in some cases, beyond - the Elite Type Vektals, as well as an enhanced mana capacity and increased durability overall.

Like all Elite Type Vektal, Glastom is fitted with a Class-2 Magitek Pistol for self defense. As the Elite Type's highest mana capacity wielder, and most strategically capable, Glastom possesses the Tactician title, and is fitted with a large number of tactical flares, mines, grenades, and other anti-personnel weapons. aside from the Elite type's normal personal armament, Glastom is in possession of a customized Class-ARC Sonic Vibration Dagger, and 3 Type-X Tactical Scouting Drones.

Like all Elite Types, Glastom is fitted for both atmospheric and space combat, and is capable of limited aerial manueverability in an atmospheric enviroment.

Name: Colleen Ector and Henry
Race: Colleen would reluctantly admit to being human, but has no intention of letting that hold her back. Henry is a white-tailed deer.
Gender: Colleen is female, thank you very much. Henry's male, not that he'll notice what you call him.
Text Color: #BF3EFF

Biography: Colleen is a witch, as evidenced by her very nice hat, and she's been a witch for a good long time. She doesn't do much magic, but that's because, as she'll gladly tell you, she doesn't need it. She prefers to spend her time traveling and collecting things. What sort of things? Well, whatever takes her fancy. This is mostly shiny trinkets of various sorts.
Because she doesn't stay in one place for very long, Colleen carries her collection with her at all times in a large sack. Over the years, it's gotten so heavy that she's had trouble carrying it herself; fortunately, she has a very strong deer named Henry as her animal companion, so she's tied a rope to him and has him pull the sack along. Unfortunately, he's somewhat lazy, so it generally takes a lot of yelling to get him to move along.
Many a passerby has asked why she doesn't just get a wheelbarrow or something, to which Colleen always responds with a glare.
On occasion, Colleen spots something she wants but doesn't have time to put in the sack right away, usually because she's lost track of Henry. When this happens, she pulls out an old piece of cloth tied to a stick; the cloth has "MINE" written on it. She leaves it by the object and comes back later. A few greedy souls have tried to take something with her little banner beside it, but somehow they always find their clothes getting caught on the stick, and somehow Colleen shows up not long after to inform them that it's her little trinket, can't they read.
She's seen a lot of the world now, and frankly she's bored of it. Luckily, it seems she won't have to be spending much more time there now.

Description: As mentioned, Colleen is an elderly witch. She doesn't care much for people, mostly because they have a tendency to interrupt her while she's out looking for new things. She's very friendly when she actually does open up, but that rarely happens unless you give her something she particularly likes.
Henry, her companion, is an unusually hairy deer and very lazy. He takes frequent naps, or would if Colleen didn't keep yelling at him to wake up and get back to pulling her collection along. He always does what she says, but he usually takes his time doing it. The only thing he seems to particularly enjoy is eating; he waves his tail enthusiastically whenever someone offers him food, regardless of who they are.

Weapons and Abilities: Colleen's main ability is an intuitive sense of where she can find something. She rarely knows what exactly it is she's looking for, but she'll know it when she sees it.
She also instinctively knows when someone is messing with her stuff, whether it's rummaging through her sack or taking something she's marked. And whenever that happens, she can get there very quickly. She won't explain how.
There's also her sack, of course, which seems to have unlimited carrying capacity. Not that anyone's tested it. However, whether it actually does or not, it definitely seems to weigh as much as all the things in it, and there are a lot of things in it now.
Colleen also knows various sorts of magical spells, but rarely uses them. When she does cast a spell, it's always for some simple and practical purpose, like boiling water faster.
Henry is unusually strong for a deer, and could easily lift entire buildings if he felt like it. Of course, he rarely feels like doing anything. He can also run fast, theoretically; nobody's ever seen him do it, but Colleen swears up and down that he could if he'd just quit slacking off.
In addition, the two share a mental connection; if one is in danger, the other will know about it. Not that they ever get in much danger, most people have learned it's a bad idea to mess with either of them.