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sunshineapps) wrote2015-04-04 10:07 pm
sunshineapps) wrote2015-04-04 10:07 pm
Entry tags:
Argilla
Name: Argilla.
Canon: Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga.
Character Journal:mother_earth
Gender: Female
Age: 21, though the effects of Atma have aged her to appear more in her late 20’s early 30’s.
Birthday: July 3rd.
Village Affiliation: Summoning Island, loyal to the Embryon Tribe.
Rank: Soldier, she’d be the equivalent of a Jounin though.
Canon History:
Canon Abilities/Powers:
Atma Virus
Prithivi, the result of Argilla having the Atma Virus and a little history about her in Hinduism. It is said that the demon avatar is a representation of the person’s karma and soul. Thus Prithivi is a representation of Argilla’s deep loyalty to family as the tribe mother after her emotions awaken.
Rifles: When not in demon form for battle Argilla sports a rifle with a sniper scope attached in battle. It is her primary weapon and she’s quite deadly with it staying back to cover her comrades as they rush in with their handguns and assault rifles.
Magic: Argilla is incredibly talented in magic. Easily the highest damage dealer before the elemental skill buffs are equipped. This wasn’t always the case but with the introduction of the Atma virus it unlocked the ability for all to use magic to varying degrees. In the Embryon, Argilla’s natural talent for magic not only made her a necessity on the front lines to take out other demons with weaknesses to magic and the various elements she learns by mastering different mantras she downloads from the Karma Terminal. Her high magic stat also translates into how much damage she takes from other spells, which given it being the highest without stat maxing items, she takes next to no damage from most magic, the only exception being in Expel, Death, and Almighty magic. The first two have set damage amounts (Expel) or instakill the target. Meanwhile there is no defense against Almighty.
She’s equally the best healer through spells such as Dia, Diarama, and Diarahan. Her high magic stats allowing for her healing spells to keep up with hundreds of points worth of damage dished out by their enemies. Even with her high magic stat there is only so much each level of the healing spell can do before it begins to have difficulty keeping up and the next level or the all-target Media, Mediarama, or Mediarahan need to be used in order to handle the amount of damage taken.
Agile: Argilla’s second highest stat in game is her agility. She also has the second highest agility rating of the core group of characters, the only one with a higher score having the capability to fly. Because of how high the stat is Argilla has a fairly high chance of dodging or flat out escaping many attacks. This comes in handy when dodging Expel, Death, and the occasional physical skill depending on the type of demons she and the rest of the Embryon are facing.
Mantra Grid: A unique skill developing system managed by the Karma Temple. It is a large grid covered in nodes; each node costs a specific amount of macca (money) and progresses from left to right in difficulty to master. Mastering one mantra unlocks the succeeding mantra for purchase and download. The top most lines of the grid (specifically the lines beginning with Devourer and Shura) are purely physical skills and the related buffs and debuffs as well as physical skills that can induce a status ailment on the target. The bottommost nodes are for leveling party members that are not actively participating in battle while the large grid at the center is elemental, expel, death and heal skills. The center section is the part that Argilla is best suited to learn. Argilla’s default mantra lines after getting Atma are Protection (heal) and Earth Spirit (Earth spells for single and multiple targets and its related buff and debuffs).
Please note that in the game the player can purchase any mantra for any character that they have the macca for, and it is in the best interest of the player to have their active party master as much of the grid as possible to make battles easier. For this reason, I mentioned which skill trees Argilla begins without spending any of the player’s money at all. It’s also incredibly important and wise to have each user master not only their elemental alignment but it’s weakness as well as complete mastery provides a skill that negates that weakness in the form of some sort of Elemental Resist, in Argilla’s case gaining Force Resist was necessary to negating her weakness to Force/Wind skills.
The Mantra Grid
Appearance: Standing at 5’5” tall, Argilla is an average sized woman surrounded by giants for the most part both in and outside of the tribe. To compensate for her less than impressive physical height, Argilla’s armor includes a pair of heavy heels that add nearly three inches and can act as a good weapon if she is in a tight spot. Argilla’s other most notable features are her matching hair and eyes. Both are cotton candy pink and she wears her hair up in two buns one on either side of her head, with a healthy touch of bangs crossing her forehead at an angle. There are also several tendrils of hair left dangling from where her part would be or from the bottom of the buns.
Beyond her hair and eyes is Argilla’s choice of clothing is notable. Like all members of the Junkyard, Argilla’s outfit is a heavy cloth and some form of metal in a dark gray-green. The ensemble is made up of a black undershirt that she wears under the armor over her abdomen and breasts, a heavy jacket that she leaves unzipped and only takes off if she is sleeping. Finally, she finishes it off with a long skirt that brushes the base of her toes and a slit all the way up the left side, the full size of the slit is adjustable through use of a zipper that stops at her knee, but Argilla typically leaves it unzipped to a few inches below her hip. The only splash of color to her outfit is the swath of brilliant orange paint on her skirt to mark her as a member of the Embryon.
Above the low cut of her torso armor and the low neckline of her shirt in full view of all is her Atma Seal. The top left corner meats the lapel of her jacket and extends over her left breast until the bottom tip meets her sternum. It makes the seal sound huge, but her bust isn’t very large, if anything her bust is fairly small allowing for the seal to cover such a large area.
In demon form, Argilla’s height soars to near 6’ and her entire body gets leaner in the legs and arms as well as at the waist. Her head is about the same size as her human head, except a bill extends outward from top front of her head that is a very dark brown in color. She has no discernible eyes in demon form though she must have them in order to find her targets. The rest of her body is striped yellow and dark brown, and her hands are a dark magenta. When using her arms as whips, her nails extend and seem t over take her fingers entirely to become hardened blades to do physical damage with to her enemies.
As part of her transformation into Prithivi, her arms become capable of stretching into lethal whips with her forearm to her fingertips resting fully on the floor. The connective tissue between the upper and lower arm is the same dark magenta color and made of some sort of strong and durable tissue. Finally, the feature that many eyes are drawn to when she is in demonic form is the mouths situated on the rise of her breasts. They are fully functional and move when she speaks.
Argilla and Prithivi
Personality: Argilla is a very friendly individual, eager to meet new people and talk to them. As such, Argilla is one of the last members of her tribe to advocate violence. She is the first to point out if something in the plan doesn't feel like it's the right thing to do. Argilla greatly values talking and finding a solution that is satisfactory to both parties without violent action. Her open friendliness makes Argilla the best candidate for approaching other tribes/nations in an effort to gain new allies. Her open expression of emotions and warm demeanor welcome to those they approach. It helps sell the fact that the Embryon have nothing to hide.
For as friendly as she is Argilla is capable of making snap judgments about people, especially when they show behaviors she finds amoral or distasteful. Specifically, she has a hard time stomaching those who readily and happily accept that they are required to devour their enemies in order to survive. The thought of doing so needlessly as opposed to stave off the insanity inducing effects of the hunger leaves her uncomfortable. Her newly awakened emotions and morals deeming the act of killing those who have done nothing to her and hers as disgusting, and no better than the powers that gave them their new powers. And those that kill needlessly are met with open scorn and sometimes hatred.
Her snap judgments is a little hypocritical though, as one of her own relishes in the hunt and devouring their enemies, enough so that he makes many a joke about needing snacks. While his behavior unsettles her sometimes, Heat is still family so she accepts his enjoyment in the hunt and their hunger even as she denies it in herself.
Paired with this is a canny intelligence to read people’s motivations and emotions. It is not quite the same as their strategist’s unfailing logic, but she’s the most receptive to the new emotions swirling within each of them. She is the quickest at putting words to the strange displays of affect and body language her tribe has started showing. And she has the easiest time accepting that these emotional changes are for the better. In truth, she almost can’t fathom how they got on without emotion and morals before. But now that they have them she knows they’re invaluable tools, and she uses her newfound familiarity to help aid her tribe in their goals as best she can either by using her knowledge of body language and affect to read their visitors or to alter her own body language to show what they might find more acceptable.
Her quick and easy understanding of emotions actually goes perfectly with Argilla’s nurturing side. She is the one that her tribe members go to when they are confused by their new emotions. Her understanding of what they are feeling and ability to put it in terms that are easier to understand have made her a central figure of the tribe even more than she already was. In many ways she has become the tribe mother, caring for it’s many members and helping them as much as is within her power to do so without completely smothering their ability to learn on their own. She doesn’t like seeing them suffer or be confused, but she understands that sometimes it is necessary in order for them to learn.
Deeply loyal, Argilla can’t fathom what it would take to betray her tribe. Those that do betray their tribe are considered as less than scum and are met with a great deal with of anger and hatred from Argilla. Much of this anger and hatred stems from Argilla considering tribe as family, and to betray ones family, when they should be the most important thing to you, feels like the worst sort of sin one could commit. And given that she would do anything for her family, to know someone is willing to severe those ties without any remorse…let’s just say she doesn’t understand it.
Strengths and Weaknesses:
+ Friendly
+ Agile
+ Empathetic
+ Incredibly talented with ninjutsu.
- Feels intensely and reacts strongly to these emotions.
- Physically weak
- Constantly hungry.
- Weak to lightning techniques in avatar form.
Sunshine Abilities/Powers:
Atma Seal. This is the source of much of Argilla’s power. Experimental in design, the seals were introduced to the Junkyard by a being called Angel, and it has cursed the tribes to devour each other until only a single tribe remains as the victor. The seal takes Argilla’s natural talent for ninjutsu and enhances it like it has enhanced other talents in her tribe members. The seal has not only given her a greater skill and new ninjutsu but it allows her to transform into a demon when active.
The demon is actually similar to a bijuu of sorts. Prithivi is a sentient spirit that was sealed within Argilla. Unlike most of the jinchuuriki those living in the Junkyard usually remain fully in control even once they have shifted to demon form (usually referred to as an Avatar). But the spirit is always present, it’s instincts like a weight in the back of the mind of its host. There is a sort of balance struck between host and demon, whether it be through the seal or the humans own force of will isn’t entirely known, but the two develop an symbiosis of sorts after the first shift and kill.
There is an immediate downside to the seal that she must contend with. Hunger. Like all the newly awakened demons of the Junkyard, Argilla is plagued by a constant need to devour her enemies in order to maintain her sanity. If she goes too long without satiating her hunger, Argilla’s chances of succumbing to her demon go up greatly until eventually she goes completely mad and will attack friend or foe indiscriminately. If caught early enough, Sera can soothe the demon and return her to normal, but if it isn’t the only option left to those fighting Argilla is death. And much as she wants to live she’d rather die than devour her family because she’s too weak to control her hunger.
Argilla’s Atma Seal is unique to her, no other person living in the Junkyard has her seal (though there are cases of individuals having the same seal and becoming the same demon when transformed). Her seal is the Seismic Wave, a representation of the terrifying Earth Release Jutsu she is capable of both in human and demon form. It is also the easiest way to tell if she’s fully in control or not of her avatar. When active her seal glows a brilliant pinkish-purple and lines branch out across her body, as her cells grow more active to accommodate the shift in forms.
Even when she isn’t choosing to shift this can occur if she has gone too long without eating, the shift slower as she struggles to maintain control, but she is far weaker from her hunger as well. It can also glow if she is feeling a particularly strong emotion, such as grief or anger.
Finally, as a note, the seals prematurely age the bearer. The constant shifting between forms causes the cells to divide much quicker and more frequently than it would for a normal unsealed human, and thus has caused Argilla to look closer to 30 than her true 21 years of age.
Prithivi is Argilla’s demon avatar, and the spirit sealed within her body that allows her to utilize such amazing Earth Release jutsu far stronger than that in human form. Prithivi’s presence has also increased Argilla’s tolerance for physical attacks slightly (though not by much at all) and an increase in strength and ability of her ninjutsu as well as heightening her natural agility and durability as a shinobi. She is a constant mental presence in the back of Argilla’s mind, frequently commenting on just how good someone would taste if Argilla would just…attack and devour.
Taijutsu is easily Argilla’s weakest discipline. She has the basics but beyond her rather intense reflexes allowing her to dodge or block most blows, she’s done for in a hand to hand altercation. While she’s muscular in an athletic sense, her physical strength is less than what her appearance would have you believe. As such her punches have little oomph behind them, and any blow that connects with her can and will leave her feeling it for a few days. That isn’t to say she goes down easy against an average taijutsu user but if facing an expert she doesn’t stand a chance of holding them off very long.
Ninjutsu on the other hand is where Argilla shines. Her chakra reserves are vast, not Uzumaki levels of vast, but large enough that she can and will spam various earth jutsus in a fight. As long as she has the space to manipulate the earth you can bet you won’t be getting anywhere near her with any amount of ease. And once she gets a better handled on more traditional Earth Jutsu one can fully expect her to be even more deadly than she is as she leaves Summoning Island with her tribe.
Medical Jutsu. Of her tribe, Argilla is the go to healer. She is the best at healing anything from cuts and scrapes to things like broken bones. Considering what life in the Junkyard was prior to Atma she is decent with surgery as well, but since the Atma seals were introduced she’s spent far less time in the operating room as those that severely injured are typically devoured by the tribes enemies before they can be rescued for medical attention. All the same her precision and control rivals that of her ninjutsu and it’s very easy to see that with more training she could be very good and possibly turn her ability to heal into as much of a weapon as she has her Earth Release.
Chakra. As mentioned Argilla has a fairly vast chakra reserves and she is an efficient user of her chakra without being aware of what constitutes the right amount of chakra for a technique. But generally she plays a lot of chakra molding by ear and how it feels, if it doesn’t feel right (and it hasn’t felt wrong in a very long time) then she probably over compensated. Furthermore, Argilla can and will use two different chakras. Her primary is Earth chakra, which is also the primary medium for her ninjutsu. The other in the Yang chakra allowing her to heal those in her tribe from wounds and injuries sustained on the battlefield against their enemies or each other.
Chakra Walk. Due to Argilla’s natural leaning toward utilizing ninjutsu almost exclusively, she depletes her reserves quickly regardless of her efficiency with manipulating her chakra. This has been true her entire life both remembered and forgotten. To compensate for the way she burns through chakra Argilla absorbs energy from the world around at a steady rate as she moves and transforms it into chakra that she can then use to fuel her ninjutsu.
Shurikenjutsu While there aren’t any sniper rifles easy to come by in Sunshine, if the weapon allows for Argilla to remain at a distance she knows how to use and uses it well. Amongst her tribe, Argilla is considered the best at hitting her target from great distances. She can find her target and take them out cleanly with a kunai to the throat or head. It’s a very rare thing for her to miss her mark, rare enough that it can usually be attributed to her being ill or weakened.
Sunshine History: As far as Argilla can remember she has been adult in age and body and she’s always lived in the ruins on Summoning Island. In reality, this isn’t entirely true, kidnapped at a young age from Iwa and trained to be a ruthless killer by her captors through her childhood and adolescence, Argilla was a weak-willed child and ninja. She was easy to manipulate and believed whatever lies she was told by her captors and did as was told. She believed whole-heartedly that she was there to assist in an experiment to find a cure for a disease no one had ever heard of because of well isolated it was from the majority of the world. The disease in question was terrible, capable of turning individuals into stone once infected and so far there was no cure or vaccine.
That’s where she and the other subjects came in, but the research couldn’t survive on it’s own and was eventually rolled into a program to create the perfect soldier. The addition of military interest created a harsh environment where those kidnapped were expected to push their limits in order to succeed. In this environment, Argilla tried hard but excelled at very little in the years of training that she underwent in preparation for the testing phase on Summoning Island. Once she and the other subjects reached the age of maturity her (and their) memories of these years were erased through some sort of experimental jutsu to come out of the program searching for a cure to the affliction turning people to stone. From there her life is broken up into two very distinct periods: life in the ruins before Atma Seals and life after.
Life before is marked by a complete lack of emotion and morals. She killed because it was expected in order for her small tribe to gain more territory and power. She killed because those were her orders from her leader Serph, and matched the plans of their strategist, Gale. She cared for their wounded and was a talented shurikenjutsu fighter on the battlefield when they faced other tribes in conflict. She like all those living in the ruins maintained a strict adherence to the laws given to them by the Karma Temple, a front for the researchers to communicate with the tribes and provide information needed to advance or stall the war game.
To her tribe, Argilla was a talented distance fighter, deadly with shurikenjutsu while virtually useless at taijutsu. But what she lacked in physical ability to fight she made up for in her ability to care for the tribe’s wounded. She had no memories or a time of peace, all she knew was fighting and then everything changed in the blink of an eye.
After years of stalemate, a researcher hijacked the program and gifted each subject an Atma Seal. Calling herself Angel, the researcher released an experimental seal called Atma into the ruins. One seal for every inhabitant. Some seals were unique like Argilla’s and some were common and shared amongst many different people. Argilla’s tribe, the Embryon, were at ground zero when Atma was given to the inhabitants of the ruins, facing off against a rival tribe, The Vanguards, when the seals appeared on their bodies and their demon avatars were released for the first time.
The battlefield went mad and the core members of the Embryon attacked and devoured many of the contingent the Vanguards had brought with them. Only a few escaped including the Vanguards leader, Harley Q. After the avatars finished gorging, the Embryon returned to base to determine their next course of action, and Gale determined they would go to the Vanguard’s for answers. With the core group of the Embryon leadership after the battle was the unconscious form of a black-haired girl.
This proved to be a bad idea as Harley and his remaining tribe members were terrified of the Embryon and led them on a merry chase through their base that eventually culminated in a final showdown between Harley and Serph, Heat, and Argilla. The Embryon were victorious and the Vanguards remaining members joined the Embryon as was custom in the ruins. They returned to base only to find Gale insane with hunger and attempting to eat another of their core members Cielo. He was only stopped by the black-haired girl, Sera, waking and singing a song that calmed their avatars allowed the human to regain control.
During their time chasing Harley, Argilla awakened her emotions. The revelation that she’d killed and eaten innocent people after losing control of her demon avatar sickened her and she angrily denied it. The awakening of her emotion was only second to Heat’s awakening and with it came a heavy sense of denial that eventually gave way to resignation after defeating Harley.
From there the battle to reach Nirvana only grew more fearsome. The Karma Temple called all tribe leaders to gather and Angel introduced herself marking a new law for the ruins. If one wished to ascend to Nirvana their tribe would need to not only defeat the other tribes but devour their enemies. Plus! Plus they would need to present a black-haired girl. Once these conditions were met the victorious tribe would be granted entrance to Nirvana and their time in the ruins would end.
Upon hearing this Argilla grew further resigned and was outraged when Gale proposed a false alliance with the Maribel tribe to defeat the Solids. While Gale’s logic made sense, morally it was wrong, thankfully Serph seemed to agree with her and overruled Gale’s plan to betray their new ally.
She accompanied Serph and Heat to the Maribel base, and approached Jinana about becoming allies. Of course, the alliance was not met without resistance and Jinana agreed to discuss it, if the three of them could survive navigating the base full of hungry Maribel members to reach her. They did reach Jinana’s location and after defeating her second in command, Bat, as well as Argilla admitting that she didn’t like needless killing, Jinana accepted their proposal to become allies and together they hatched a plan to defeat the Solids.
What they didn’t count on was Bat’s treachery, as it was ruins law that tribe members would follow the orders of their leader no matter what. After defeating the lesser demons in Mick’s room in the Solid’s base Argilla, Heat, and Serph realizing it was a trap hurried to rescue Jinana only to arrive too late and were faced with the need to defeat Jinana instead of Mick in order to put an end to her insanity. Fatally wounded in the fight, Jinana died in Argilla’s arms while Argilla cried over her and tried futilely to encourage her to hold on until they could get her to Sera who could keep their hunger in check.
But it was not meant to be and leaving Jinana’s corpse at the entrance to the Solid’s base the three raced back to the Maribel base to make sure all was well there and were faced with yet another trap. Here they were joined with Gale, spurred to go to the Maribel after Sera said that something horrible would happen. And as they talked Gale’s cold reaction to Jinana’s death and desire to plan, caused Argilla to react violently and attack Gale himself. Even as she ranted and raved at him, he remained calm in the face of her anger, and ultimately it was that which calmed her as much as his agreement to go after Bat.
From here she worked with Serph, Heat and Gale to reach the main rooms of the Maribel and find Bat. Which they did only to learn that he had given Sera’s location to Mick and he was to delay them. Fighting Bat again they once more defeated him and had to fight their way out of the base now on lockdown thanks to members of the Solid’s that had accompanied Bat.
Once out they returned to base to find it destroyed, Cielo injured, and Sera gone. They followed Sera to an abandoned location in the ruins and fought their way to Sera and Mick as well as Bat. They find Sera held captive by Mick and Bat, and the only way to get her back they are told is for Heat and Serph to fight. Horrified Argilla speaks out against this idea, but Heat embraces it happily and immediately begins to attack Serph. As the fight continues Sera grows increasingly distressed and shows that she isn’t altogether helpless as she somehow manages to free herself and chooses to remove herself from the equation to help her friends. Instead, Mick catches her, forcing Sera to show some of her power to them all by forcing Mick to let her go. For one brief moment, Argilla believes that Sera is truly safe until Bat in his avatar form rises with Sera’s unconscious body clutched in his feet. All seems lost until Cielo arrives and wounds Bat by cutting off a chunk of his wing by firing lasers from his body. Injured, Bat abandons Mick to join the Brutes and Mick is left to fight Argilla, Gale and Serph.
With Sera once more in their custody, the Embryon change bases to better protect Sera and set a trap of their own. Using information gained from Cielo, they set a trap on a derelict ship with Argilla dressed as Sera as bait. While she distracts Bat, her comrades would plant explosive tags throughout the ship. Like clockwork Bat arrives and she holds him off until the others can join her and together: she, Gale, Serph, and Cielo defeat Bat and escape just as the ship explodes.
From there they travel to their new base. Once settled they are approached by Lupa, leader of the Wolves to become allies and work to defeat the Brutes and Varin. With Lupa acting as a distraction they traverse underground waterways to infiltrate the Brutes base, unfortunately along the way Varin manages to turn Lupa against them through an ability that heightens an avatars hunger. Working with Gale and Serph, Argilla helps defeat Lupa and looks on in pained sorrow as Gale makes promises to find a boy and then devours Lupa’s remains.
They enter the Brutes base to little trouble and after working their way through a series of mazes, Argilla and the others face off against Varin, who now calls himself Colonel Beck. The fight to defeat him is difficult but once they defeat him and he lays dying Beck taunts them all with information none of them can remember. For Argilla especially the few hints he gives hits very hard, as prior to living in the ruins, she was the very first to be gravely injured by early versions of the Atma seals. Hearing that she had for all intents and purposes died Argilla grows confused even as the way to Nirvana opens and Sera disappears.
Sera who up to this point has had no memory of who she is or what she is capable of, has recovered many of her memories during her time in the Brutes base and has left in an effort to keep her new friends from the pain of fully awakening to their lost memories. Knowing they would do as the temple decreed she goes to the temple and sets obstacles in their way to keep them from reaching Nirvana. Despite them, Argilla and the rest continue to follow her even after they discover that they are participants in an experiment to create perfect killing machines and find a cure for a terrible disease do they continue to follow Sera.
And eventually, they reach the top of the temple where they meet and fight Angel. After the hard battle the ruins self-destruct mechanism is somehow activated and the Embryon are forced to flee beyond the ruins. Once outside the ruins they find that they are still effectively trapped for the time being on a small island, but they have access to areas that the researchers once made use of and gain new items to help them make contact with the world at large through scrolls connected to the scroll network.
Prose sample: Test Drive Thread
Missive Sample:
[The handwriting is free, loopy, and obviously feminine when the message is unsealed.]
To Whom It May Concern,
My name is Argilla, I am a representative of the Embryon tribe, we are looking to develop a trade agreement with your country. Specifically, we’d like to import excess livestock to our small island off the west coast of Sea Country. We are a fledgling settlement and while we don’t have much to offer, we can and will provide protection to your people traversing between other countries. If that is unacceptable, I have been authorized to discuss alternative options for trade with your country.
We would very much like to develop an agreement that is mutually beneficial to both our people. If it is preferred, we can send an envoy to your country to discuss details in person. I await a response to our request.
Thank you,
Argilla
Canon: Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga.
Character Journal:
mother_earthGender: Female
Age: 21, though the effects of Atma have aged her to appear more in her late 20’s early 30’s.
Birthday: July 3rd.
Village Affiliation: Summoning Island, loyal to the Embryon Tribe.
Rank: Soldier, she’d be the equivalent of a Jounin though.
Canon History:
Canon Abilities/Powers:
Atma Virus
Prithivi, the result of Argilla having the Atma Virus and a little history about her in Hinduism. It is said that the demon avatar is a representation of the person’s karma and soul. Thus Prithivi is a representation of Argilla’s deep loyalty to family as the tribe mother after her emotions awaken.
Rifles: When not in demon form for battle Argilla sports a rifle with a sniper scope attached in battle. It is her primary weapon and she’s quite deadly with it staying back to cover her comrades as they rush in with their handguns and assault rifles.
Magic: Argilla is incredibly talented in magic. Easily the highest damage dealer before the elemental skill buffs are equipped. This wasn’t always the case but with the introduction of the Atma virus it unlocked the ability for all to use magic to varying degrees. In the Embryon, Argilla’s natural talent for magic not only made her a necessity on the front lines to take out other demons with weaknesses to magic and the various elements she learns by mastering different mantras she downloads from the Karma Terminal. Her high magic stat also translates into how much damage she takes from other spells, which given it being the highest without stat maxing items, she takes next to no damage from most magic, the only exception being in Expel, Death, and Almighty magic. The first two have set damage amounts (Expel) or instakill the target. Meanwhile there is no defense against Almighty.
She’s equally the best healer through spells such as Dia, Diarama, and Diarahan. Her high magic stats allowing for her healing spells to keep up with hundreds of points worth of damage dished out by their enemies. Even with her high magic stat there is only so much each level of the healing spell can do before it begins to have difficulty keeping up and the next level or the all-target Media, Mediarama, or Mediarahan need to be used in order to handle the amount of damage taken.
Agile: Argilla’s second highest stat in game is her agility. She also has the second highest agility rating of the core group of characters, the only one with a higher score having the capability to fly. Because of how high the stat is Argilla has a fairly high chance of dodging or flat out escaping many attacks. This comes in handy when dodging Expel, Death, and the occasional physical skill depending on the type of demons she and the rest of the Embryon are facing.
Mantra Grid: A unique skill developing system managed by the Karma Temple. It is a large grid covered in nodes; each node costs a specific amount of macca (money) and progresses from left to right in difficulty to master. Mastering one mantra unlocks the succeeding mantra for purchase and download. The top most lines of the grid (specifically the lines beginning with Devourer and Shura) are purely physical skills and the related buffs and debuffs as well as physical skills that can induce a status ailment on the target. The bottommost nodes are for leveling party members that are not actively participating in battle while the large grid at the center is elemental, expel, death and heal skills. The center section is the part that Argilla is best suited to learn. Argilla’s default mantra lines after getting Atma are Protection (heal) and Earth Spirit (Earth spells for single and multiple targets and its related buff and debuffs).
Please note that in the game the player can purchase any mantra for any character that they have the macca for, and it is in the best interest of the player to have their active party master as much of the grid as possible to make battles easier. For this reason, I mentioned which skill trees Argilla begins without spending any of the player’s money at all. It’s also incredibly important and wise to have each user master not only their elemental alignment but it’s weakness as well as complete mastery provides a skill that negates that weakness in the form of some sort of Elemental Resist, in Argilla’s case gaining Force Resist was necessary to negating her weakness to Force/Wind skills.
The Mantra Grid
Appearance: Standing at 5’5” tall, Argilla is an average sized woman surrounded by giants for the most part both in and outside of the tribe. To compensate for her less than impressive physical height, Argilla’s armor includes a pair of heavy heels that add nearly three inches and can act as a good weapon if she is in a tight spot. Argilla’s other most notable features are her matching hair and eyes. Both are cotton candy pink and she wears her hair up in two buns one on either side of her head, with a healthy touch of bangs crossing her forehead at an angle. There are also several tendrils of hair left dangling from where her part would be or from the bottom of the buns.
Beyond her hair and eyes is Argilla’s choice of clothing is notable. Like all members of the Junkyard, Argilla’s outfit is a heavy cloth and some form of metal in a dark gray-green. The ensemble is made up of a black undershirt that she wears under the armor over her abdomen and breasts, a heavy jacket that she leaves unzipped and only takes off if she is sleeping. Finally, she finishes it off with a long skirt that brushes the base of her toes and a slit all the way up the left side, the full size of the slit is adjustable through use of a zipper that stops at her knee, but Argilla typically leaves it unzipped to a few inches below her hip. The only splash of color to her outfit is the swath of brilliant orange paint on her skirt to mark her as a member of the Embryon.
Above the low cut of her torso armor and the low neckline of her shirt in full view of all is her Atma Seal. The top left corner meats the lapel of her jacket and extends over her left breast until the bottom tip meets her sternum. It makes the seal sound huge, but her bust isn’t very large, if anything her bust is fairly small allowing for the seal to cover such a large area.
In demon form, Argilla’s height soars to near 6’ and her entire body gets leaner in the legs and arms as well as at the waist. Her head is about the same size as her human head, except a bill extends outward from top front of her head that is a very dark brown in color. She has no discernible eyes in demon form though she must have them in order to find her targets. The rest of her body is striped yellow and dark brown, and her hands are a dark magenta. When using her arms as whips, her nails extend and seem t over take her fingers entirely to become hardened blades to do physical damage with to her enemies.
As part of her transformation into Prithivi, her arms become capable of stretching into lethal whips with her forearm to her fingertips resting fully on the floor. The connective tissue between the upper and lower arm is the same dark magenta color and made of some sort of strong and durable tissue. Finally, the feature that many eyes are drawn to when she is in demonic form is the mouths situated on the rise of her breasts. They are fully functional and move when she speaks.
Argilla and Prithivi
Personality: Argilla is a very friendly individual, eager to meet new people and talk to them. As such, Argilla is one of the last members of her tribe to advocate violence. She is the first to point out if something in the plan doesn't feel like it's the right thing to do. Argilla greatly values talking and finding a solution that is satisfactory to both parties without violent action. Her open friendliness makes Argilla the best candidate for approaching other tribes/nations in an effort to gain new allies. Her open expression of emotions and warm demeanor welcome to those they approach. It helps sell the fact that the Embryon have nothing to hide.
For as friendly as she is Argilla is capable of making snap judgments about people, especially when they show behaviors she finds amoral or distasteful. Specifically, she has a hard time stomaching those who readily and happily accept that they are required to devour their enemies in order to survive. The thought of doing so needlessly as opposed to stave off the insanity inducing effects of the hunger leaves her uncomfortable. Her newly awakened emotions and morals deeming the act of killing those who have done nothing to her and hers as disgusting, and no better than the powers that gave them their new powers. And those that kill needlessly are met with open scorn and sometimes hatred.
Her snap judgments is a little hypocritical though, as one of her own relishes in the hunt and devouring their enemies, enough so that he makes many a joke about needing snacks. While his behavior unsettles her sometimes, Heat is still family so she accepts his enjoyment in the hunt and their hunger even as she denies it in herself.
Paired with this is a canny intelligence to read people’s motivations and emotions. It is not quite the same as their strategist’s unfailing logic, but she’s the most receptive to the new emotions swirling within each of them. She is the quickest at putting words to the strange displays of affect and body language her tribe has started showing. And she has the easiest time accepting that these emotional changes are for the better. In truth, she almost can’t fathom how they got on without emotion and morals before. But now that they have them she knows they’re invaluable tools, and she uses her newfound familiarity to help aid her tribe in their goals as best she can either by using her knowledge of body language and affect to read their visitors or to alter her own body language to show what they might find more acceptable.
Her quick and easy understanding of emotions actually goes perfectly with Argilla’s nurturing side. She is the one that her tribe members go to when they are confused by their new emotions. Her understanding of what they are feeling and ability to put it in terms that are easier to understand have made her a central figure of the tribe even more than she already was. In many ways she has become the tribe mother, caring for it’s many members and helping them as much as is within her power to do so without completely smothering their ability to learn on their own. She doesn’t like seeing them suffer or be confused, but she understands that sometimes it is necessary in order for them to learn.
Deeply loyal, Argilla can’t fathom what it would take to betray her tribe. Those that do betray their tribe are considered as less than scum and are met with a great deal with of anger and hatred from Argilla. Much of this anger and hatred stems from Argilla considering tribe as family, and to betray ones family, when they should be the most important thing to you, feels like the worst sort of sin one could commit. And given that she would do anything for her family, to know someone is willing to severe those ties without any remorse…let’s just say she doesn’t understand it.
Strengths and Weaknesses:
+ Friendly
+ Agile
+ Empathetic
+ Incredibly talented with ninjutsu.
- Feels intensely and reacts strongly to these emotions.
- Physically weak
- Constantly hungry.
- Weak to lightning techniques in avatar form.
Sunshine Abilities/Powers:
Atma Seal. This is the source of much of Argilla’s power. Experimental in design, the seals were introduced to the Junkyard by a being called Angel, and it has cursed the tribes to devour each other until only a single tribe remains as the victor. The seal takes Argilla’s natural talent for ninjutsu and enhances it like it has enhanced other talents in her tribe members. The seal has not only given her a greater skill and new ninjutsu but it allows her to transform into a demon when active.
The demon is actually similar to a bijuu of sorts. Prithivi is a sentient spirit that was sealed within Argilla. Unlike most of the jinchuuriki those living in the Junkyard usually remain fully in control even once they have shifted to demon form (usually referred to as an Avatar). But the spirit is always present, it’s instincts like a weight in the back of the mind of its host. There is a sort of balance struck between host and demon, whether it be through the seal or the humans own force of will isn’t entirely known, but the two develop an symbiosis of sorts after the first shift and kill.
There is an immediate downside to the seal that she must contend with. Hunger. Like all the newly awakened demons of the Junkyard, Argilla is plagued by a constant need to devour her enemies in order to maintain her sanity. If she goes too long without satiating her hunger, Argilla’s chances of succumbing to her demon go up greatly until eventually she goes completely mad and will attack friend or foe indiscriminately. If caught early enough, Sera can soothe the demon and return her to normal, but if it isn’t the only option left to those fighting Argilla is death. And much as she wants to live she’d rather die than devour her family because she’s too weak to control her hunger.
Argilla’s Atma Seal is unique to her, no other person living in the Junkyard has her seal (though there are cases of individuals having the same seal and becoming the same demon when transformed). Her seal is the Seismic Wave, a representation of the terrifying Earth Release Jutsu she is capable of both in human and demon form. It is also the easiest way to tell if she’s fully in control or not of her avatar. When active her seal glows a brilliant pinkish-purple and lines branch out across her body, as her cells grow more active to accommodate the shift in forms.
Even when she isn’t choosing to shift this can occur if she has gone too long without eating, the shift slower as she struggles to maintain control, but she is far weaker from her hunger as well. It can also glow if she is feeling a particularly strong emotion, such as grief or anger.
Finally, as a note, the seals prematurely age the bearer. The constant shifting between forms causes the cells to divide much quicker and more frequently than it would for a normal unsealed human, and thus has caused Argilla to look closer to 30 than her true 21 years of age.
Prithivi is Argilla’s demon avatar, and the spirit sealed within her body that allows her to utilize such amazing Earth Release jutsu far stronger than that in human form. Prithivi’s presence has also increased Argilla’s tolerance for physical attacks slightly (though not by much at all) and an increase in strength and ability of her ninjutsu as well as heightening her natural agility and durability as a shinobi. She is a constant mental presence in the back of Argilla’s mind, frequently commenting on just how good someone would taste if Argilla would just…attack and devour.
Taijutsu is easily Argilla’s weakest discipline. She has the basics but beyond her rather intense reflexes allowing her to dodge or block most blows, she’s done for in a hand to hand altercation. While she’s muscular in an athletic sense, her physical strength is less than what her appearance would have you believe. As such her punches have little oomph behind them, and any blow that connects with her can and will leave her feeling it for a few days. That isn’t to say she goes down easy against an average taijutsu user but if facing an expert she doesn’t stand a chance of holding them off very long.
Ninjutsu on the other hand is where Argilla shines. Her chakra reserves are vast, not Uzumaki levels of vast, but large enough that she can and will spam various earth jutsus in a fight. As long as she has the space to manipulate the earth you can bet you won’t be getting anywhere near her with any amount of ease. And once she gets a better handled on more traditional Earth Jutsu one can fully expect her to be even more deadly than she is as she leaves Summoning Island with her tribe.
Medical Jutsu. Of her tribe, Argilla is the go to healer. She is the best at healing anything from cuts and scrapes to things like broken bones. Considering what life in the Junkyard was prior to Atma she is decent with surgery as well, but since the Atma seals were introduced she’s spent far less time in the operating room as those that severely injured are typically devoured by the tribes enemies before they can be rescued for medical attention. All the same her precision and control rivals that of her ninjutsu and it’s very easy to see that with more training she could be very good and possibly turn her ability to heal into as much of a weapon as she has her Earth Release.
Chakra. As mentioned Argilla has a fairly vast chakra reserves and she is an efficient user of her chakra without being aware of what constitutes the right amount of chakra for a technique. But generally she plays a lot of chakra molding by ear and how it feels, if it doesn’t feel right (and it hasn’t felt wrong in a very long time) then she probably over compensated. Furthermore, Argilla can and will use two different chakras. Her primary is Earth chakra, which is also the primary medium for her ninjutsu. The other in the Yang chakra allowing her to heal those in her tribe from wounds and injuries sustained on the battlefield against their enemies or each other.
Chakra Walk. Due to Argilla’s natural leaning toward utilizing ninjutsu almost exclusively, she depletes her reserves quickly regardless of her efficiency with manipulating her chakra. This has been true her entire life both remembered and forgotten. To compensate for the way she burns through chakra Argilla absorbs energy from the world around at a steady rate as she moves and transforms it into chakra that she can then use to fuel her ninjutsu.
Shurikenjutsu While there aren’t any sniper rifles easy to come by in Sunshine, if the weapon allows for Argilla to remain at a distance she knows how to use and uses it well. Amongst her tribe, Argilla is considered the best at hitting her target from great distances. She can find her target and take them out cleanly with a kunai to the throat or head. It’s a very rare thing for her to miss her mark, rare enough that it can usually be attributed to her being ill or weakened.
Sunshine History: As far as Argilla can remember she has been adult in age and body and she’s always lived in the ruins on Summoning Island. In reality, this isn’t entirely true, kidnapped at a young age from Iwa and trained to be a ruthless killer by her captors through her childhood and adolescence, Argilla was a weak-willed child and ninja. She was easy to manipulate and believed whatever lies she was told by her captors and did as was told. She believed whole-heartedly that she was there to assist in an experiment to find a cure for a disease no one had ever heard of because of well isolated it was from the majority of the world. The disease in question was terrible, capable of turning individuals into stone once infected and so far there was no cure or vaccine.
That’s where she and the other subjects came in, but the research couldn’t survive on it’s own and was eventually rolled into a program to create the perfect soldier. The addition of military interest created a harsh environment where those kidnapped were expected to push their limits in order to succeed. In this environment, Argilla tried hard but excelled at very little in the years of training that she underwent in preparation for the testing phase on Summoning Island. Once she and the other subjects reached the age of maturity her (and their) memories of these years were erased through some sort of experimental jutsu to come out of the program searching for a cure to the affliction turning people to stone. From there her life is broken up into two very distinct periods: life in the ruins before Atma Seals and life after.
Life before is marked by a complete lack of emotion and morals. She killed because it was expected in order for her small tribe to gain more territory and power. She killed because those were her orders from her leader Serph, and matched the plans of their strategist, Gale. She cared for their wounded and was a talented shurikenjutsu fighter on the battlefield when they faced other tribes in conflict. She like all those living in the ruins maintained a strict adherence to the laws given to them by the Karma Temple, a front for the researchers to communicate with the tribes and provide information needed to advance or stall the war game.
To her tribe, Argilla was a talented distance fighter, deadly with shurikenjutsu while virtually useless at taijutsu. But what she lacked in physical ability to fight she made up for in her ability to care for the tribe’s wounded. She had no memories or a time of peace, all she knew was fighting and then everything changed in the blink of an eye.
After years of stalemate, a researcher hijacked the program and gifted each subject an Atma Seal. Calling herself Angel, the researcher released an experimental seal called Atma into the ruins. One seal for every inhabitant. Some seals were unique like Argilla’s and some were common and shared amongst many different people. Argilla’s tribe, the Embryon, were at ground zero when Atma was given to the inhabitants of the ruins, facing off against a rival tribe, The Vanguards, when the seals appeared on their bodies and their demon avatars were released for the first time.
The battlefield went mad and the core members of the Embryon attacked and devoured many of the contingent the Vanguards had brought with them. Only a few escaped including the Vanguards leader, Harley Q. After the avatars finished gorging, the Embryon returned to base to determine their next course of action, and Gale determined they would go to the Vanguard’s for answers. With the core group of the Embryon leadership after the battle was the unconscious form of a black-haired girl.
This proved to be a bad idea as Harley and his remaining tribe members were terrified of the Embryon and led them on a merry chase through their base that eventually culminated in a final showdown between Harley and Serph, Heat, and Argilla. The Embryon were victorious and the Vanguards remaining members joined the Embryon as was custom in the ruins. They returned to base only to find Gale insane with hunger and attempting to eat another of their core members Cielo. He was only stopped by the black-haired girl, Sera, waking and singing a song that calmed their avatars allowed the human to regain control.
During their time chasing Harley, Argilla awakened her emotions. The revelation that she’d killed and eaten innocent people after losing control of her demon avatar sickened her and she angrily denied it. The awakening of her emotion was only second to Heat’s awakening and with it came a heavy sense of denial that eventually gave way to resignation after defeating Harley.
From there the battle to reach Nirvana only grew more fearsome. The Karma Temple called all tribe leaders to gather and Angel introduced herself marking a new law for the ruins. If one wished to ascend to Nirvana their tribe would need to not only defeat the other tribes but devour their enemies. Plus! Plus they would need to present a black-haired girl. Once these conditions were met the victorious tribe would be granted entrance to Nirvana and their time in the ruins would end.
Upon hearing this Argilla grew further resigned and was outraged when Gale proposed a false alliance with the Maribel tribe to defeat the Solids. While Gale’s logic made sense, morally it was wrong, thankfully Serph seemed to agree with her and overruled Gale’s plan to betray their new ally.
She accompanied Serph and Heat to the Maribel base, and approached Jinana about becoming allies. Of course, the alliance was not met without resistance and Jinana agreed to discuss it, if the three of them could survive navigating the base full of hungry Maribel members to reach her. They did reach Jinana’s location and after defeating her second in command, Bat, as well as Argilla admitting that she didn’t like needless killing, Jinana accepted their proposal to become allies and together they hatched a plan to defeat the Solids.
What they didn’t count on was Bat’s treachery, as it was ruins law that tribe members would follow the orders of their leader no matter what. After defeating the lesser demons in Mick’s room in the Solid’s base Argilla, Heat, and Serph realizing it was a trap hurried to rescue Jinana only to arrive too late and were faced with the need to defeat Jinana instead of Mick in order to put an end to her insanity. Fatally wounded in the fight, Jinana died in Argilla’s arms while Argilla cried over her and tried futilely to encourage her to hold on until they could get her to Sera who could keep their hunger in check.
But it was not meant to be and leaving Jinana’s corpse at the entrance to the Solid’s base the three raced back to the Maribel base to make sure all was well there and were faced with yet another trap. Here they were joined with Gale, spurred to go to the Maribel after Sera said that something horrible would happen. And as they talked Gale’s cold reaction to Jinana’s death and desire to plan, caused Argilla to react violently and attack Gale himself. Even as she ranted and raved at him, he remained calm in the face of her anger, and ultimately it was that which calmed her as much as his agreement to go after Bat.
From here she worked with Serph, Heat and Gale to reach the main rooms of the Maribel and find Bat. Which they did only to learn that he had given Sera’s location to Mick and he was to delay them. Fighting Bat again they once more defeated him and had to fight their way out of the base now on lockdown thanks to members of the Solid’s that had accompanied Bat.
Once out they returned to base to find it destroyed, Cielo injured, and Sera gone. They followed Sera to an abandoned location in the ruins and fought their way to Sera and Mick as well as Bat. They find Sera held captive by Mick and Bat, and the only way to get her back they are told is for Heat and Serph to fight. Horrified Argilla speaks out against this idea, but Heat embraces it happily and immediately begins to attack Serph. As the fight continues Sera grows increasingly distressed and shows that she isn’t altogether helpless as she somehow manages to free herself and chooses to remove herself from the equation to help her friends. Instead, Mick catches her, forcing Sera to show some of her power to them all by forcing Mick to let her go. For one brief moment, Argilla believes that Sera is truly safe until Bat in his avatar form rises with Sera’s unconscious body clutched in his feet. All seems lost until Cielo arrives and wounds Bat by cutting off a chunk of his wing by firing lasers from his body. Injured, Bat abandons Mick to join the Brutes and Mick is left to fight Argilla, Gale and Serph.
With Sera once more in their custody, the Embryon change bases to better protect Sera and set a trap of their own. Using information gained from Cielo, they set a trap on a derelict ship with Argilla dressed as Sera as bait. While she distracts Bat, her comrades would plant explosive tags throughout the ship. Like clockwork Bat arrives and she holds him off until the others can join her and together: she, Gale, Serph, and Cielo defeat Bat and escape just as the ship explodes.
From there they travel to their new base. Once settled they are approached by Lupa, leader of the Wolves to become allies and work to defeat the Brutes and Varin. With Lupa acting as a distraction they traverse underground waterways to infiltrate the Brutes base, unfortunately along the way Varin manages to turn Lupa against them through an ability that heightens an avatars hunger. Working with Gale and Serph, Argilla helps defeat Lupa and looks on in pained sorrow as Gale makes promises to find a boy and then devours Lupa’s remains.
They enter the Brutes base to little trouble and after working their way through a series of mazes, Argilla and the others face off against Varin, who now calls himself Colonel Beck. The fight to defeat him is difficult but once they defeat him and he lays dying Beck taunts them all with information none of them can remember. For Argilla especially the few hints he gives hits very hard, as prior to living in the ruins, she was the very first to be gravely injured by early versions of the Atma seals. Hearing that she had for all intents and purposes died Argilla grows confused even as the way to Nirvana opens and Sera disappears.
Sera who up to this point has had no memory of who she is or what she is capable of, has recovered many of her memories during her time in the Brutes base and has left in an effort to keep her new friends from the pain of fully awakening to their lost memories. Knowing they would do as the temple decreed she goes to the temple and sets obstacles in their way to keep them from reaching Nirvana. Despite them, Argilla and the rest continue to follow her even after they discover that they are participants in an experiment to create perfect killing machines and find a cure for a terrible disease do they continue to follow Sera.
And eventually, they reach the top of the temple where they meet and fight Angel. After the hard battle the ruins self-destruct mechanism is somehow activated and the Embryon are forced to flee beyond the ruins. Once outside the ruins they find that they are still effectively trapped for the time being on a small island, but they have access to areas that the researchers once made use of and gain new items to help them make contact with the world at large through scrolls connected to the scroll network.
Prose sample: Test Drive Thread
Missive Sample:
[The handwriting is free, loopy, and obviously feminine when the message is unsealed.]
To Whom It May Concern,
My name is Argilla, I am a representative of the Embryon tribe, we are looking to develop a trade agreement with your country. Specifically, we’d like to import excess livestock to our small island off the west coast of Sea Country. We are a fledgling settlement and while we don’t have much to offer, we can and will provide protection to your people traversing between other countries. If that is unacceptable, I have been authorized to discuss alternative options for trade with your country.
We would very much like to develop an agreement that is mutually beneficial to both our people. If it is preferred, we can send an envoy to your country to discuss details in person. I await a response to our request.
Thank you,
Argilla