Rini
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Skills

Superb (+5) Athletics
Great (+4) Scholarship
Good (+3) Conviction Investigation
Fair (+2) Discipline Empathy Fists
Average (+1) Alertness Deceit Endurance Stealth

Stress

Physical
Mental
Social

Fate Points

Current Refresh
6 5

Aspects

High Concept

Supergenius Extraordinaire
"Nice to meet someone who's a real challenge, y'know? Anyway… gimme all your data, I'm taking it home. I win."

Straight from the US of A, Rini would probably be indistinguishable from other Hong Kong teenagers at first glance if not for her rough speech - in either language - and ridiculous fashion sense, like her bright orange hair dye. That probably has something to do with the fact that she hauls a laptop and a big set of Augmented Reality goggles around 100% of the time, always using either one or the other. Sometimes both at once. What she DOES on them would probably be a secret if she cares, but she knows nobody's ever going to catch her in the act of hacking into something, no matter how big it is, and that's that. She's proud.

Little did she know for the longest time just how deep-rooted her technological connection went. Being born solely to represent a symbol of it is one thing, but a sci-fi-esque supercomputer attempting to share the same role? That's something pretty fabulous. But the fact that she could win in a psychological battle is just the branding of a supergenius, plain and simple.

Invoke - Any time she's near a keyboard she becomes an indestructible goddess-queen and no information can hide. It's a shame she never puts those skills to use outside of cyberspace, but inside it there's not a single thing she doesn't have confidence in. Shame she doesn't get to chance to interface with supercomputers more often, she'd love that.

Compel - Unfortunately she kinda KNOWS this is all she cares about and can't help but go out of her way to find out every explicit detail about something that piques her interest, no matter how hard-to-get it is. After all, she holds to the firm belief that there's NOTHING in the world that people can truly hide from each other!

Trouble

Forget-Me-Not
"I won't lose. I'll stop the war, I'll save my friends, and most of all… I'll take you home and MAKE you show me what it's like to have a mom for once. Deal?"

Everything's okay now. She's alive, and she's sorry. That overly-worried mother. Her face hasn't been punched in yet, but there's plenty of time for that. And plenty of time for all the other things that never got to happen.

Invoke - A mother's love can empower anything. Just think back to her sad smile, what it means… that's the power of love. And that's the power that can triumph over anything.

Compel - Those painful memories still linger, though. The memories of nothing. Is the love of someone who'd been gone for fifteen years really powerful enough?

Background

Don't sweat it! Everything's gonna be okay!
"Huh? Whaddaya mean 'ironing board?' Oh, nah, just didn't hit the genetic lottery, that's all; couple more years and I'll be a bombshell, I know it!"

Some people are optimists; others take those kinds of beliefs way beyond the extreme. Guess what Rini's a case of? People tend to think of her as arrogant or overconfident for it, but no matter what she believes everything's going to turn out okay, whether it's fate, luck, or something totally else. It's thanks to her father's outlook that she ended up this way, although she might've had a mopey or depressed stage at one point. All teenagers do. Now? She's completely riled up and ready to take on ANYTHING.

Invoke - The thing to consider with this one is "Is she doing something?" If the answer is yes, then she pretty much guaranteed believes she's going to succeed at it. That's not to say she doesn't have the best hopes for others either, but she'll never do something half-assed or without a plan. It'll always turn out okay.

Compel - … But that includes everything. And let's face it, any reasonable person knows charging in headfirst expecting everything to have a positive result is eventually going to lead to some negative ones. She does crazy shit under those expectations, that's for sure, and it doesn't always come out well.

Rising Action

The Tiniest Troublemaker
"Does it really MATTER how many days I cut class? What I do is more fun AND I learn more. It makes sense!"

Some kids grow up prim and proper, others… well, not. That's a pretty well-known fact of society. Our heroine was one of the rowdiest kids anybody'd ever known, barely able to keep out of trouble whether it comes from skipping classes to hack into a government mainframe or getting detention for drop-kicking students in the face. And the last one happens a LOT. She's a little mischief-maker but she never does anything she doesn't want to, and never regrets it. Gotta have fun, right?

Invoke - This one's weird. When it comes to snooping around or getting into mischief somehow, here's the call; of course, getting caught's never good for her so it's a pretty lose-lose situation when it comes up. Does she care? Nah, not really!

Compel - Following the rules is way too easy. Her optimistic outlook is already established so why is it a surprise that she doesn't think about consequences? Given the choice between waiting in a safe place or heading out into danger she'll always pick the latter, guaranteed. Poor girl, even her classmates never expected she'd survive to see her 15th birthday.

Adventure

My BFF, Pastel
"How I came up with it? Well, lotsa genius researchers name things after pretentious acronyms full of scientific words. Lotsa hyperactive teenagers name pets after their favorite things or words that just sound cool. Me? Well, I'm both of those things so I said 'screw it all' and picked the first word off the top of my head. Funny that it ended up as all of those things, huh? Precognitive extra-Assertive Superior Technological Empathic Learning device, 'fore you ask. Of COURSE I just made it up! Why wouldn't I?"

Past all the insanity claims and the weird looks, those mumbles are actually aimed at somebody- or something, as a few would label it. Way up there in orbit is a satellite that just happened to be contacted by a certain little girl from Earth at the right time. Maybe it was luck? Maybe it was fated? Not like anyone has any idea. On March 25th, it just so happened that an attempt at cracking some government snobs ended in a mistype, though it could be blamed more on how disoriented she'd been the whole day. "Felt like I was gonna barf," she'd say, but the only thing that got barfed up was a plotdevice.

That day, our heroine accidentally got in contact with an unknown entity, and text quickly turned into something a lot weirder. Before she knew it she was sending up thoughts and receiving them back from an AI program in space. It couldn't go being called "the satellite" or "that AI program" for long, though, so she decided on impulse to start calling it 'Pastel.' It took months before she came up with a pretentious acronym to go along with it, but of course she'd never tell anybody that.

Pastel's capabilities seemed virtually endless at first, but that's probably because it belonged to somebody who cares more about information-gathering than anybody else. They include but aren't limited to determining precise coordinates and destination of nearby beings that can be classified as 'magical,' pinpointing flaws in an opponent's stance in a fight, predicting a target's next action during the next few seconds with a consistent 99.7% accuracy rate, et cetera. But most of all, Pastel serves as her one single personal blog reader (or listener, more like) and seems content with listening to her ramble about her opinions on people and things. It speaks back - because what kind of friend wouldn't? - but isn't quite as chatty… then again, neither is anybody by comparison.

It isn't aware of its manufacturer or purpose, but it IS aware that there's something inside of it. Something it nor its contractor are aware of the actual form of, but it's clear that it exists and it's dangerous. Government secrets? A nuke? They probably won't find out anytime soon, but it's more than clear that if anybody - government especially - finds out about Pastel, it's over for both of them. It already knows it's being targeted, it's been able to tell Rini that straight to her head. It'd be just a matter of time before their search succeeds, but not if she can help it.

Invoke - It's up there and sees all. Some friends can do things other friends can't, so Pastel likes to act as her third eye when she really needs it. The help is never not appreciated, really!

Compel - The goggles are just a coverup- although it's worth mentioning that having them on is the only way Pastel can actively pinpoint certain things and use most of its capabilities. Just being a good friend excepted, of course. The real way to compel is when anybody gets remotely close to finding out the truth, because it's its BFF's job to lie through her teeth and keep it a secret forever unless it's ABSOLUTELY guaranteed safe. For all either of them know, there could be invisible drones listening in on them 100% of the time if she even so much as mentions it. Commanding and calling by name are different, because they can't really find out who 'Pastel' is through a name she made up, but… it sure is true that it makes her sound crazy.

Guest-Starring #1

Smile, and the World Smiles With You
"You're going to try to die alone here? I don't think so."

Making friends isn't hard. Maybe it's just not necessary sometimes, but when you've found somebody who needs help why not help them? Wouldn't you want them to follow the Golden Rule too? That's pretty easy. Just help all kinds of people and something good'll come with it- and if it doesn't, at least you'll be able to feel good about yourself. And that's something good after all!

Invoke - When someone else is in need, one must do all they can to help them. That's pretty solid. So, helping others is the biggest criteria here. It might just be the only one! To act for someone else's sake is way more important to act for one's own. It especially applies when the person in question is a total wimp and can't help themselves, like here.

Compel - … Of course, trying to help others TOO much might just hinder them. You could even make enemies instead of friends if you make the wrong move, willingly or not. The world's a cruel place.

Guest-Starring #2

Keep On Truckin'
"Death is awesome! Life is awesome too, yeah, but getting to hang around and keep learning/doing things even if you get screwed over or something- isn't that just the COOLEST thing ever?"

What kind of teenager wouldn't want to meet a friendly ghost? … A normal one, that's who. Fortunately that's not the case here. It's pretty nice to know death isn't an ultimate end after all, no matter what this one's circumstances were. Those eyes are pretty fun to look at to! But, of course, the things inspired by this may be a little unsettling.

Invoke - Be fearless. That's what's inspired. Second chances exist, so let's do stupid reckless things without caring about the consequences and maybe it'll be possible to, like, die and be soul-transferred into a computer or something! Wouldn't that be cool?

Compel - Be stupid and reckless. Death isn't a hindrance. There's nothing to be afraid of.

Stunts

Rini Surprise! (Fists): When making the first melee attack against a target with Fists, it is treated as though it were a Weapons:1 attack. Must be fluffed as being a drop-kick.

Chinese Acrobat (Athletics): As Acrobat in the book, but with an extra tinge of "must be applied in a way that you'd see in an old Chinese Martial Arts film."

Powers

Full Scan [-1](Previously -3)
Item of Power: Augmented Reality Goggles [+2]
Description: Rini's favorite goggles have a little extra kick to them- not only do they let her perceive reality in a whole new light, but she gets to see the parts of it nobody else does, too. Through a bit of scanning everything can be made to make sense, although there are a few commands specific to herself that need to be put in before doing so. That way, there's no detail that gets glossed over, right?
Skills Affected: Investigation, Scholarship.
Effects:
Full Scan. As a standard action, you can roll Investigation, modified by Scholarship, with a +2 bonus, against any creature or object within one zone of you, as a mental maneuver with a difficulty equal to the creature's Discipline or the object's Endurance. On a success with 0 shifts, you produce a fragile aspect along the lines of "Weaknesses Found and Movements Read" on the target, which you or your allies can tag to improve your efforts against attacking the target or defending against its attacks. With at least 1 shift, this aspect is instead a sticky aspect that lasts until the end of the scene.

??? [-?]
Description: ???
Skills Affected: ???
Effects: ???

References

Initiative

Physical: 1 (Alertness)
Social: 2 (Empathy)

Defense

Physical: +5 (Athletics)
Mental: +2 (Discipline)
Social: +2 (Empathy)

Attacks

Physical: +2 (Fists)
Social: +1 (Deceit)

Make sure to declare swords on top of telephone poles in every scene.

Plot Guide

Everything's a huge clusterfuck now, how am I gonna remember it? I'm not boring enough to keep it all on one .txt, but… eh, this'll do for now. After all it's only for myself; nobody else has to see it, yeah? But maybe I'll look back to it when I want to point things out to 'em. Lessee here, start with the basics…

About Us

Where do I start? Kidding, that's a dumb question. It started on July 1st, 1997, but I guess that's not when it STARTED-started. It's a government conspiracy, just like in the movies. Go figure, huh? But we can cover that part later- what's important is that anyone born in Hong Kong on that day had magical powers. Like me, y'know? Only it's not a cool as you probably think or anything, since we had them our whole lives and knew from the get-go that we could give them away to anybody else whenever we wanted to. And OBVIOUSLY, whoever we gave the powers to would be a lot stronger and better at using them than us, so what reason was there not to?

Anyway, the reason this is important was because that day was the day Hong Kong gained independence from Britain, which means a lot if you're Chinese. Guess the idea was that everybody who was born there would stay there, but the government didn't do a great job of enforcing that one considering I'm… well, me. Actually, the government was really adamant on us staying there so that they could start some kind of war - a magical one; big surprise, huh? - and hand-pick our champions/vessels for us. Oh yeah, I didn't get there yet, did I?

According to most of the natives who stayed in Hong Kong, it's more-or-less accepted that if you were born on the 1st you're called a 'Champion.' As in, the Champion of Hong Kong, some nationalistic overglorification or something. But when you give your powers to somebody, they're the 'Vessel' of your power, so the terms 'Champion' and 'Vessel' get tossed around everywhere all the time by anybody who actually knows what they're talking about. Me? I decided from the beginning that we gave our powers to 'Champions,' 'cause you know, they were the ones championing US. Maybe I only think that because my native language is English? And for us, 'Chosen Ones' or something, I didn't put a whole lotta thought into it- but hey, that makes it acronym to 'C&C' instead of 'C&V,' I like that a little more. Might just be me.

As if being born on that day wasn't enough, the government knew about it in advance through some funky ritual or whatever. Since 1985, at that. So they had a bunch of women pump out babies for exactly 8 years - that they waited 4 years to start doing that still gets to me - because it's a 'lucky' number or something. Remind me, we'll get to the reason for that one later, 'kay? Only five of us actually got popped out as the eighth in line or some funky shit, and somehow that led to us representing the five elements of the Wu Xing: Earth, Fire, Wood, Water, Metal. What we're gonna do with that? Getting there later too.

About Them

Moving on! The government wanted a hand in all this, but that's not the biggest deal. Er, well, maybe it is, but I mean there's more to it, y'know? —The name 'Leung CY' comes up a lot; somebody who was confirmed as elected into office on March 25th, and going into power on… guess. No really, just take a guess here. If I have to tell you the date then you haven't been paying ANY attention at all. Anyway, what's their deal? Well, it involves bringing back a law that pissed a lot of people in Hong Kong off a while back, lemme get it…

"The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall enact laws on its own to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People's Government, or theft of state secrets, to prohibit foreign political organizations or bodies from conducting political activities in the Region, and to prohibit political organizations or bodies of the Region from establishing ties with foreign political organizations or bodies."

Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23, that's what it's called.— This one really got me good. I had a whole rant about symbols for a while, and how the government does things specifically engineered to have symbolic meaning to the people of Hong Kong and all that stuff, but turns out it's all red herring. Go figure! The PRC are still real assholes, but… let me explain better. Magic comes in two forms: Traditions and Paradigm Shifts. Traditions are just 'supernatural things you'd see on the media,' pretty much- feng shui and whatever. Paradigm Shifts are what we're dealing with here, a change in the symbolic truths and 'laws' of the world through magical means.

So on March 25th, I felt really weird and freaked out; that was when I saw Leung CY's name, the whole stuff about the law, and thought 'this really isn't all that big, but it must be if it makes me feel like THIS.' Maybe the PRC knew I was feeling it in advance? It turned out it was the date of the first activation of the Matryoshka system- remind me and I'll tell you about it all later, 'kay? And the stuff the PRC's been doing too.

So, brief go-over:

  • Champions/Chosens born on July 1st, 1997, give powers away
  • Vessels/Champions take powers, USE them
  • Government attempting to start a global war using magic
  • Traditions and Paradigm Shifts
  • Five 'Superchamps' exist, representing the five elements

Make sense so far? Well, that'd be weird if it did, since I'm just gettin' started here. Okay, what's next…

About the Wu Xing

I'll spare you Wikipedia articles and all that easy stuff you can probably find on your own. The meaning of the elements, as long as we're here, is a very real thing, and each one represents a different season. Not JUST seasons though, since - you guessed it - there's a symbolic meaning in each one too. Those actually aren't as clear as their mythological ones. But there are five people - me included - that stand for them, so this would be THE defining thing that points out that I'm the main character. If it doesn't, nothing else does. One thing to note: their representative Sacred Beasts all exist, confirmed. So let's go over 'em quick:

Wood, representing Spring, is a period of growth. It stands for vitality, so it's probably something that keeps people alive or otherwise healthy. Addy and Siyao went with Siyao's friend Jingwei to fight some demon, and ended up meeting Qinglong instead. Man, that's a lot of bold. They had a pleasant chat too, they said, but little did THEY know that that Jingwei kid is the superchamp of Wood. No WONDER the government didn't shoot at her! If they're still running away like they said, maybe we can go back and… hmm, yeah, that might work.

Fire, representing Summer (bet you didn't see that one coming huh), is energy. Swellness, if you want to call it that. Actually, I'm a little bummed that this one isn't me because I KNOW I have a lot of energy. Its Sacred Beast is Zhu Que, the vermillion bird, whom I haven't met yet, and I'm not sure if I really look forward to it. See, the person representing it is… er… you know what, I'm not sure I can really wrap my head around it right now, I'll just tell someone if they ask. Because what the fuck.

Metal, Autumn, is a period of fruition, formation, yadda yadda. What it means is connection. Things relating to one another. At least, that's how I always saw it, could be a little off though. Byak- I mean Bai Hu stands for this one. Haven't seen any tigers chillin', but that might be because it's represented by some kid I've never heard of. Wu Mengyao, really boring-sounding upbringing; apparently he has a really big family that are all immigrants and moved out to live even MORE boring lives in places that aren't here. Something tells me he won't be all that fun to talk to if we meet.

Water, Winter, is stillness. 'Not quite passivity,' says Zhang Laoshu, the guy representing this one. It's weird, I looked all over it and there wasn't any data pointing Water out to include 'being tremendously sexy,' so maybe there's a mistake? Just kidding, I found proof. It's definitely him: The traditions of Hong Kong. Shit he'd know about since he's been with the Triad all this time. You know, the mafia around here. I could get him to tell me all about traditions, sure, but there're some other traditions I'd rather him tell me all about… er, later. Anyway. I've never heard anything about any black tortoises, so Xuan Wu is probably a pretty good hider. Unless… hmmm. Anyway, someone fought a demon at the Big Buddha and knocked it down. Probably should've been more honest with Zhang about that one, huh?

Earth is the transition between seasons, meaning it's all and none. The center of everything. Every interpretation puts Earth in the middle, as the thing that brings other things together, it even has 'Love' as its thing. So basically… "The protagonist." Yeah, that's me. Even if nobody told me I'd be able to figure out that's what I'm all about, since 'technology' is a good chunk of it too, and that's all I'm about. I have a Qilin to meet somewhere, but not banking on being in a hurry for that one. There's a hunch I've got that since Aerie's strategy guide had a marker at the MTR system that could be it… I mean, it's underground and that's pretty earthy. Sure I'll get the chance to ask myself later anyway, though.

And that's that. Well, the basic part, anyway; there's a LOT more, like how each one has its own chakra. A place important to it. That's where the demons are, if y'couldn't guess that much, and the five of us were meant to 'claim' those. Of course, the PRC and the Hong Kong Independence Movement jerks have been working to steal them from us, and apparently did a good job. Or apparently not, because the Rebellion guys needed Jingwei to come with them, so that means we're apparently better at claiming the chakra - aka the meridians - than everyone else, I guess Traditional magic users. After all, I snagged the shit out of Earth by kicking a supercomputer's ass. … Er, more on that later.

As for what to do with the demons? Well, the others talked about elemental weaknesses and resistances, and even though this isn't Pokémon or anything I thought I'd go ahead and put 'em all down here in case we need to do something. Since, see, the elements have some pretty simple ways they interact with each other:

  • Wood parts Earth (like roots and stuff);
  • Metal chops Wood (you know, AXES);
  • Fire melts Metal;
  • Water quenches Fire;
  • Earth dams (or muddies or absorbs) Water. Is that the symbolic way of saying "I'm gonna fuck Zhang dry?" Man, that's creepy.

It's not all bad though. Here, have some more:

  • Wood feeds Fire;
  • Fire creates Earth (ash);
  • Earth bears Metal;
  • Metal carries Water (buckets, taps, that kinda thing);
  • Water nourishes Wood.

I dunno how to interpret all of these directly myself, but considering how symbolic everything is I bet it's a thing. So it's good to have!

About Factions

Now, the next important part is all the people here, or the 'factions' at pseudo-war with each other in the closed-off Hong Kong. Really, none of them are bad or evil or anything, they just disagree with each other, but hey, what's new? So let's start with…

The People's Republic of China

Aka 'The Government.' Everybody seems like they see them as the bad guys, and for a pretty damn good reason. They're trying to cause some kind of 'apocalypse' - I didn't tell you that by the way (just kidding it's only me reading it) - that involves taking all the magic here for themselves and turning it into what amounts to a 'magical battery,' for lack of cooler-sounding terms. They want a monopoly on it, basically. So yeah, I'd be pretty much up for calling them the bad guys, and considering the STUPID-ASS laws they're trying to put in place I wouldn't really wanna be a citizen here either. Mom and Dad made a PRETTY good choice sending me over to the US of A, 'cause I can't even begin to imagine what I'd be like if I didn't grow up in a free country. Can't stand to even think about it!

Sometimes I'm not all that proud to be an American, actually. China hates us - as in us, the US - for more reasons than our freedom. Actually, behind the scenes, we've had magic going on for decades now, and they're mad because the US is winning a secret arms race. Why doesn't anyone know about it? Well, it's not just 'cause we're 'muggles,' but because the act of using extreme amounts of magic has an effect of wiping the memories of people who haven't specifically trained themselves to be immune to it, meaning the whole world forgets when magic is involved. That's what my friend Aerie thinks is going to happen to her, too, but she probably doesn't realize that's WHY it's like it is yet.

What they're fighting for HERE is to keep magic as… well, a thing, so they can use it as leverage to keep a war from happening. The US has plans to launch a bunch of nukes if China gets their hands on too much magic- meaning, their 'apocalypse' is going to turn Hong Kong into a makeshift nuclear weapon to strike back before that happens. If you think about it, erasing magic from the world - I'll get to that by the way - isn't a very good idea because the nukes aren't magical at all. It'd just leave China as helpless and barely even a world superpower in comparison… but then again, that may stop a war from starting at all. That's probably what people think.

The Hong Kong Independence Movement

These guys, I don't know a whole lot about. I have some moles in to learn about them, as I said earlier, so it's no big deal that I don't have an infodump to pile on RIGHT NOW; seems like they're pretty small, though, and the Triad doesn't think they're a big deal because they're not as beefy as the PRC. This scares the everloving crap out of me because if it turns out the rebellion - that's an easy way to call these guys - are hiding something up their sleeve we could all get fucked over pretty hard. Anyway, they have a bunch of Feng Shui users in their employees - although so does everyone else apparently - and they wear the flag without the stars on it. Easy enough to recognize. Apparently they're going after the 'demons.'

The 'demons' they're going after, long story short, are there because of some screwup the Triad made. The Rebellion, though, just wants to get rid of magic entirely from the world to not only stop the magical arms race and probably the war, but… well I dunno, I guess they think it'll help with our world-ending problem too. Will it? We'll see.

Estisse

Estisse is a big company with a major hand in, uh… everything. In the most basic of basics, they've acquired every minor company they could just to make sure everybody works for them; think of 'em like Google, in that they have a shitton of money so they just buy everything. They're International, too, but since their home base is here, they give a shit. Well… kinda. They're actually the subsidary of an even bigger company in New York, and that's where Charis came from. She sure acted the part too.

Goes without saying, that since they own all the mundane companies - construction, food production, etc. - they want to own all the magic users too. They tried to hire me just so they could be able to say they had me on their side. Ha! I sent Caleb their way, though, since they all have vectors like on that crappy show I can't believe I watched. Or at least she does, so I kind of figure it's a thing. Apparently, from what Caleb said, they buy and sell magic. Weirdos.

The Triad

This one, I know the most about, but I can't talk about it since I swore not to. Good thing I'm the only one reading this, huh? And actually, contrary to what seems to be popular belief around the place right about now, they're not big bad manipulators trying to screw everyone over like the PRC apparently are. In fact, even though they have a single ace up their sleeve, they don't seem NEARLY as connected to all the political bullshit as everyone else is. They don't even seem to care about a war in general, since they don't really leave HK and aren't connected with the military or anything; all they wanna do is stop the end of the world. Oh, and screw over the PRC because mafia always hate the government, that's a rule. What they're actually doing doesn't belong here though, Zhang and Aerie get their own sections. Just know that they hang out in the Kowloon Walled City, 'kay?

The Rogues

Me. My friends. Well… the friends I met since I came here, anyway. Everybody has a 'benefactor,' as Zhang said, and that's not just me or even the people with the five elements- it seems like everyone everywhere is that way, too. Including these guys. But I told 'em as soon as we met that I'd keep them safe and travel around the place with them while shit goes down. They can do whatever they want while I try to fix the bullshit that's been going on. They've… gotten a little crazy lately though, and it's all we can do just to keep in touch at ALL. I love these guys, though, so it'll all turn out okay!

About People

Alright, let's go into more specifics here. There're some names that've been namedropped, so they should probably get their own sections instead of being bunched in with factions, yeah? I'll try to go in the same order I listed the factions in though so it isn't a huge headache.

Forget-Me-Not… Again

Starting neutral, or at least as far as I'm concerned, is my mother. Her name… well, let's just get to that later. You can even call this the PRC's section if you want, since they're the ones running the facility she's held in, from what I heard. Which is perfect, 'cause I'm gonna steal information from them while I'm there, and give no shits. To say I didn't give shits about her would be a lie, though- she's the one who put me through the Superman plot and sent me away to America with Dad so the PRC couldn't have me, after all. Bet she'll be mad when she sees me! Actually, I hope she is, because I'm still going to punch her in the face for not trusting her own daughter and making me grow up without knowing what it's like to have a mom. I really hope she regrets what she did, 'cause I'm gonna prove her wrong and fix everything.

… Can't believe I wrote all that. Well, it turns out she DID regret it, and that just makes me feel even worse about, er, everything I did in life I guess. I, on the other hand, don't regret it no matter how bad I feel though, since I'm going to fix everything. And then we'll go home together and go shopping and… … anyway, moving on.

Twinkle, Twinkle

Up there in space is my bro Pastel, who I don't talk to most people about. For a damned good reason too, because the government isn't a fan of an information-satellite being up there helping someone like me, apparently. But I'm really glad I had someone to talk to all these months, so it all works out, y'know? Funny story, the reason I made contact was because I freaked out one day - that's the 25th - and looked desperately all over the vast sea of the internet for someone who deserved my powers. I sure haven't regretted that decision at all, but about what I freaked out about, well…

LOOK AT YOU, HACKER

That's because Matryoshka, my cute half-sister, was born that day. Or activated, whatever. Zhang's info was bad; my 7 brothers and sisters - and the same for all the other superchamps' - weren't just dumped off as corpses in jars and forgot about. Nope, they got to live long, healthy lives (I'd never tell my mom this though) as brains uploaded into data, collectively managing a supercomputer designed more-or-less solely to claim the Earth meridian when it popped up. The ONLY reason it was built at all was because the PRC made a wild guess about symbolic, Paradigm Shift magic being based on the elements of the Wu Xing. Lucky for them, they were right, but that also means the reason they built it was because they knew I left the country and had to force someone - something, rather - to take Earth for them. Sure showed them when I kicked its ass, huh?

Jenga?

Feels weird going backwards here, anyway, because when I talk about Jingwei without talking about Siyao it's kinda left out that the latter's a nun and this kid was like, uhh, some orphan or something? I don't know much other than I landed on her head once and she has a bird. — The rebellion guys don't want to shoot at her either, meaning she's… with them, I guess? Considering everybody shoots at me it's probably not as simple as 'she has magical powers and they want to keep her alive.' I don't know her all that well though, and she and her bird probably hate my guts for falling on her head.— Gonna be weird to meet her again, because we need her help. She represents Wood after all. Oh, and her bird makes technology short out and get all funky, which gets on my nerves a little. Wonder if that's because I'm Earth and she's… nah, that doesn't make sense, or else Zhang would've had the same effect. Weird.

Charisma

Working with Estisse is a businesswoman who seemed to think getting shot was okay, Fung Chaoxing. Or Charis as she asks to be called when speaking English; it's funny, I don't think Caleb could've pronounced her name if he even tried. Anyway, I got a vibe that she and I were both lying through our teeth at each other when we talked so even though I saved her life we didn't get a whole lot out of it from each other. She plays pool too. But… I might've accidentally doomed her too, considering she stopped moving all of a sudden when I had Caleb meet her. And he disappeared at the same time. Fuckin' freaky. I sorta hope she's not dead because her coffee was damn good.

Chu Chu Rocket

Moving down… the Triad has a lot of notable people. I want to save Chu Xiaohua for further down at the bottom so it makes more sense when I say 'she's my dead friend's sister,' but I'm not that lucky since I already started doing it this way. She's a Triad member and doesn't really try to hide it- records of her parents' shady dealings aren't even covered by anything on the internet, and she kinda went out of her way to be as blatant as possible leaving her name for her sister to associate her with. She did some completely apeshit stupid things, though, "letting her sister make a certain choice" being at the top of that tower. Then breaking Triad oaths for nothing? Yeah, what an idiot. Considering I had to carry her, if she were fat too I would've just given up all hope right then.

~

Now, my favorite~ Zhang Laoshu is incredibly pretty and I just want to pin him down and have my way with him. Okay, now we got that outta the way! He's actually helped me a bunch, and is… oh, how did that go? The grandson of the dude in charge of the Triad right now or something like that? Whatever, he's a Chosen/Champ/Whatever who hasn't given away his powers yet, and apparently that makes him Kirby 'cause although any magic used on him is like super-effective, he GETS that power to use on his own too. Funny thing, he knows I gave away my powers yet he knew I was the one who gave him the power to scan shit. Even though… I actually wasn't. Xiaohua called me out on that too. Wonder where they even got that from? A wild guess on me being Earth and therefore representative of 'technology' or something I guess?

Well that's not the important thing, anyway. Zhang's kinda like a weird pseudo-brother to me due to the whole magic thing (that's not gonna stop me from trying to get a date with him after all this by the way) and he's actually really bummed about using his childhood friend to stop the end of the world. And hey, who wouldn't be? But he takes his work a little too seriously, and REALLY needs to lighten the hell up sometimes. His trust in me's a little wavery since I told him I'd save Aerie's unlife, and, well, even if it means betraying the fuck out of him I'm gonna do that. That means I'd have to settle for Caleb instead, which is pretty "ouch," but eh, what can you do?

These are the important people, but don't ask why

Alright, should I go alphabetical on my rogues? Mmm… maybe not. I'll start with Adelaide Augustine anyway, though; but we just call her 'Addy.' I know jack shit about her, pretty much, other than that she's a voodoo witch who makes potions and has something to do with ghosts. Being a necromancer, obviously Aerie's all over her metaphorical cock, and that's not really a surprise or anything, but she strikes me as being SUPER suspicious since she didn't even realize she was in Hong Kong for the longest time. I mean, how did she even get here? Is she an amnesiac robot or something? Her potions are pretty top-notch though, so I like having her around for the magic-help. Still gotta have a talk soon either way. Man, that's gonna be fun. Oh yeah, she's not a Tradition user, by the way- she actually was given her powers by someone. Wonder who?

Next… let's do Siyao Fan. She's a nun. What she doesn't realize, though, is that she's a champ herself… or a 'Vessel' in the terms the Chinese people use. Man, why did I make that intentionally confusing? I'm not quite sure what her powers do, but I feel it from her, and know she's safe to leave with other people 'cause of that. The Church has a pretty nice influence around Hong Kong and she has connections with people thanks to her faith, which is really helpful to have around. I almost feel a little bad about dragging her into my little group of rogues just thanks to that, but I hope she'll forgive me later or somethin'. Actually, I want to talk with her too if I get the chance, but dunno when that'll be. No clue who her chosen/champ/whatever is.

Caleb. He's some kid who's like, a hobo or something, which is really obvious 'cause he smells like one. He wields that vector hand-thing and really likes pushing me around, grabbing me, etc with it. On 'accident,' he claims, but it hurts like fuck. Normal people probably would've just stopped hanging around him, but I feel bad since I told him not long after we met that I only made friends with him 'cause I knew he had magic and wanted to save magic-users from the government just to screw the government over because I can. Somethin' along those lines. I told the others that too, sure, but he seemed to be most upset by it. His problem… is that he doesn't seem like he really knows what he wants. Friends are new to him, and yet he still doesn't get along with our ghost at all even though all he'd have to do is, y'know, choose to WANT to. I mean, what the hell?

The two of us made a pinky promise. A couple pinky promises, actually, one that I'd help him with stuff like communicating with the locals and ordering food when he needs it, simple things like that, and then another that he'd help me when I needed it too. With stuff only he can do, like grabbing things from really high shelves without needing to climb. Nifty, huh? Really though, apparently he went totally batshit and freaked out to the point where he started murdering people and not realizing it. Poor, poor Charis. But maybe not, since his meeting with her ended up transporting him to a facility where a bunch of Estisse guys were being held. More likely than anything else that she just asked him to help them out and… stopped moving on purpose or something. His blackouts are still weird though, gotta fix those- especially since he's hearing voices too. Poor kid.

Finally… we have Aerie. She actually goes by Arae, which is pronounced totally differently, and the former name is an intentional English bastardization. It's a joke because she speaks a sort of… ghost-Cantonese or something, but I still like speaking English when I talk to her because it's like my mine auto-translates the 'thoughts' she's speaking into 'words.' That kind of thing. I fuckin' love ghosts. Anyway, all that doesn't matter, though; her name's Chu Lanfen which is actually a pretty cute name, but I guess I won't call her that because that's not who she was when I met her. She was my friend. And now, I know she's an idiot who put effort into sacrificing herself to stop the end of the world. Noble, yeah, sure, but when I heard what she's actually DOING for it, all I could think was that it was stupid any hasty.

She's already dead, sure, and I can't just bring her back to life. Hell, even our Necromancer can't - I'm not sure if she'd be able to play those videogames she's so into as a zombie with rotting fingers anyway - but she's going to do some funky movie thing of erasing herself totally from existence. Ha ha! What kind of a fucking moron friend would agree to letting their friend do that, anyway? Nope. That's not gonna happen, and she'll apologize and make up to Zhang and Xiaohua once this is all over. And then maybe she'll keep hanging around as a ghost and haunting their house or something, I dunno. But either way, I still have time to find a solution before something happens. Once I'm sure she's 'herself' again and remembers it though, I'll… man, this is gonna be tough.

… What's going to happen is she'll trust me and I'll fix everything. She talks about 'backup' and how optimism is nice but not reliable, that sorta thing… she doesn't get it, though. It's not just something I think. I WILL fix it. Guess she'll find out how much I really mean it soon, huh?

Campaign: Castfromchingchong: The Movie: The Game