Post by Veronika Semenov on Oct 31, 2017 17:58:44 GMT
NAME:
Veronika Semenov
GENDER:
Female
AGE:
19
AFFILIATION:
Virtual Adepts (Reality Hackers)
RACE / SPECIES:
Human
Statistics: (Without Magic)
Intelligence: 5
Strength: 2
Speed: 3
Stamina: 3
Durability: 2
Supernatural Energy: 5
Combat Proficiency: 3
Power Proficiency: 5
ABILITIES:
Dynamic Magic: Magick, Enlightened Science, Reality warping. Any of these could adequately describe the ability of the awoken to pervert reality through sheer will alone. Veronika believes that through the use of her tools she is capable of altering the 'code' of reality as easily as she could a true computer. She does this through the use of Brain/computer interface tubes she has had woven into her brain, language, devices and machines, computers and IT gear, Hypertech, Mass Media, Thought Forms, and a personalized Trinary Smartphone. Listed below are those spheres which she has taken the time to learn and (mostly) master.
{Spoiler}Data (Correspondence): The core of all her magical applications is the sphere of Data (Correspondence) which is a technocratic variation of the Correspondence sphere itself. Everything is data and through accessing the metacode of reality virtually anything is possible. Veronika has achieved the fourth dot of master in this sphere and is able to stretch her awareness through the metacode of reality and view/interact with multiple and distant locations at once, erect firewalls and ward objects in reality and even download herself into the metacode of reality and teleport elsewhere, open pocket dimensions, and create holographic copies of herself. As Data is the core of her magic most combinations with other spheres are for the different programs she runs through her trinary computer to take effect.
Time: The ability to sense and manipulate time through the use of magic is often a dangerous path despite it's fluid nature as more often than not any form of time travel into the past will be considered vulgar and already incur a paradox with multiple uses making the situation all the worse. Veronika at this time has mastered the fourth dot of mastery in this sphere and has the ability to rewind, slow, and isolate bits of time. Of course this is only through the appropriate use of programs and technology so it has fewer limitations when she is attempting to be coincidental and avoid any outright vulgar acts.
Prime: The manipulation of the fifth energy quintessence which comprises the raw energy of creation itself allowing for a skilled mage within the prime sphere to create and destroy at the most basic level. Veronika has achieved the fourth dot of master within this sphere and has gained the ability to infuse objects with primal energy permanently, drain primal energy from targets until there is nothing left, and create wonders through bonding organic and inorganic materials.
Forces: While the debate over what consists of matter and energy has existed for most of modern science those within the Forces sphere transcend such definitions and control energetic patterns through the application of Quintessence to reality. Veronika has reached the fourth dot of mastery within this sphere and is capable of using the energies and forces to protect locations, summon darkness, conjure energies, destroy, and spread weather effects across a mile. The majority of the forces used are linked to both her Prime sphere and Data sphere to allow physical firewalls to be erected in reality.
Entropy: The ability to understand the decay of all things from concepts to life and control those energies to one's advantage is the essence of the Entropy sphere. Veronika has achieved the fourth dot of mastery in this sphere and as such is capable of observing the flaws in truths a person speaks, control probability, predictable patterns and even curse a person with a terrible disease or grant them grand vitality. Of course this is all through access to the metacode as previously discussed and requires the appropriate technology.
HyperTechnology/Computers: Just as the use of the metacode is her weapon the manipulation of technology to alter that code is an expertise she had honed over her years of practice. In these abilities she is capable of designing and inventing gadgets and computer systems equal to being the cutting edge of modern technology. Not only has she spent time applying practice to her own technology but to that of other groups and is capable of understanding and with ample time reproducing alien technologies. Time: The ability to sense and manipulate time through the use of magic is often a dangerous path despite it's fluid nature as more often than not any form of time travel into the past will be considered vulgar and already incur a paradox with multiple uses making the situation all the worse. Veronika at this time has mastered the fourth dot of mastery in this sphere and has the ability to rewind, slow, and isolate bits of time. Of course this is only through the appropriate use of programs and technology so it has fewer limitations when she is attempting to be coincidental and avoid any outright vulgar acts.
Prime: The manipulation of the fifth energy quintessence which comprises the raw energy of creation itself allowing for a skilled mage within the prime sphere to create and destroy at the most basic level. Veronika has achieved the fourth dot of master within this sphere and has gained the ability to infuse objects with primal energy permanently, drain primal energy from targets until there is nothing left, and create wonders through bonding organic and inorganic materials.
Forces: While the debate over what consists of matter and energy has existed for most of modern science those within the Forces sphere transcend such definitions and control energetic patterns through the application of Quintessence to reality. Veronika has reached the fourth dot of mastery within this sphere and is capable of using the energies and forces to protect locations, summon darkness, conjure energies, destroy, and spread weather effects across a mile. The majority of the forces used are linked to both her Prime sphere and Data sphere to allow physical firewalls to be erected in reality.
Entropy: The ability to understand the decay of all things from concepts to life and control those energies to one's advantage is the essence of the Entropy sphere. Veronika has achieved the fourth dot of mastery in this sphere and as such is capable of observing the flaws in truths a person speaks, control probability, predictable patterns and even curse a person with a terrible disease or grant them grand vitality. Of course this is all through access to the metacode as previously discussed and requires the appropriate technology.
Hypermath/Lightning Calculator/Hyperfocus: Veronika is capable of calculating large and complex numbers within moments and with practice has gained the ability to calculate much of the Hypermath needed for her Trinary computer to function in her head. A useful side effect of being able to perform such lightning fast calculations has been the ability to focus her attention into another state altogether and if left alone for some hours she can do more than what would take most people days due to loss of focus.
Blatancy: Quite possibly the most useful tool for a mage on the go is the ability to be blatant with their magic without the local reality giving too much and returning to her a full force of paradox. Through practice during her youth in the Ukraine and thanks to the tumultuous times she grew in Veronika has become a master at deceiving others when magic is used before them. This sadly cannot account for vulgar magics which obviously violate reality.
Manifest Avatar/Genius: For most mages the concept of an avatar that is personal to each and only the mage in question can see their avatar during some time when they seek answers or goading them on from the sidelines. For Veronika the concept of an avatar is a tad more literal as an ally that tends to manifest itself whenever it wishes but most often when she has need of advice, ideas, a companion, or for some sort of combat related issue. The abilities and personality of an Avatar manifest based upon the background of the person in question and while it does not perfectly reflect what or whoever she was in her past life as she remembers it her avatar takes on her form to perfection with the aesthetic of her previous life.
While Veronika was blessed with a powerful Avatar which was a force of nature in it's own right and allowed her to absorb and expend large amounts of quintessence, in it's physical form it holds no greater power than the average person and is equipped only with a single bayonet rifle. Though that does not mean it is weak as even destroying the physical form of her avatar will stop it for only a moment before it can reform as truly killing the avatar is impossible.
{Spoiler}
Weaknesses:Cast No Shadow: An anomaly amongst mages for which there is little to no explanation. Veronika despite very much existing and blocking light casts no shadow, perhaps she had made a poor deal in her past or it is the side-effect of meddling too much with the code around her own local reality? In any event the lack of shadow makes it difficult to dissuade others she is not one of the more dangerous magical beings in existence.
Soft-hearted: An irony for one who grew within the war torn rubble pressed between freedom fighters and Russian infantry. Veronika finds it difficult to not have sympathy for others and even harder to not lend a hand if she is capable of it. While of course she would never do something blatantly suicidal she is far more likely to take a risk to aid another than she would need to otherwise.
Permanent Paradox Flaw: Warping reality can have consequences and while flaws born from perverting the world tend to fade over time there are many which become a permanent part of the mage's pattern and never truly leave them but merely fade over time. In this case Veronika has acquired the flaw of chronic cases of deja vu due to her constant use of time-specified programs to allow her more time to work. More often than not over the course of a day she will suffer from several bouts of deja vu as her distorted timeline realigns itself.
APPEARANCE:
A petite young woman who seems to have lost more in puberty than she gained. While not short for her age or gender she isn't of great height and will likely be beaten out by most others with a standing of around 5'6" and weighing just over 120 lbs due to a life of constant movement between towns and cities and the need to be able to quickly retreat whenever she was found performing her less than legal activities on the greater establishment.
Her common attire is perhaps more liberal than one would expect to see in an area filled with either constant fighting or rising tensions with with much of her thighs and shoulders exposed to the element with shorts meant more for comfort wear in privacy than out in the open. Though it conflicts with her fur-lined jacket that seems to almost bag when worn fully on her body rather than the more relaxed posture she usually adapts and thigh-highs keeping her warm from the Ukrainian nights.
A few accessories stay constant on her person no matter what else she wears. First are the headphones she often wears around her neck which can be controlled from the brain/computer interface system she has access to, and a pair of half-rimmed glasses that sit precariously on her nose and would cause question as to whether they actually help her see or not.
PERSONALITY:
What should one expect from a person who for much of her growing years has been caught between Russian separatists slowly sowing discord into her home and Ukraine nationalism which presses down on her heart with every failure the country experiences? Much of her early life was influenced by the events of the Orange revolution and rise in socialist and communistic parties before their dissolution but she remembers the oppressive atmosphere and assassination and political scheming. She had grown knowing of her people's exportation to the Yugoslavians of armed goods during their own conflicts which aided in the warring factions. This had created a person who was deeply divided on political spheres and an attitude which was firmly against big government.
Theology is not a point in which she takes much pride or an entirely powerful position but it is something with which she has put thought during the dark nights between moving between one sewer grate to the next safehouse. Rather she has come to the decision that if reality is truly made of a metacode then there must be someone who programmed it originally which would most likely mean that God himself was more like a divine programmer than a divine watchmaker. Though this does not mean she is above commencing to pray every now and then when there is a particularly hopeless situation staring her in the face.
As a result from growing in such a tumultuous time it would not be far-fetched to believe that Veronika would grow cold and distant to her peers and while the girl does not have a terrible poker face she instead has a soft-heart which finds it difficult to allow others to suffer in front of her but has mastered the ability to (mostly) shut off her feelings when viewing something from the third person such as when she uses her magic yet even then finds it hard to not play with probability to aid.
Loyalty and respect are not foreign concepts to her but she tends to have issues with displaying them in an appropriate manner and is more likely to become a more touchy-feely person the more she likes another person, and while it would seem normal to most to be attached to another, the time she tends to limpet onto another that she trusts is easy to see as much greater than average and would imply a form of greater attachment development as a coping mechanism to new relationships due to past trauma.
HISTORY:
Born in Kiev during the march of 1997, Veronika knew a relatively peaceful early life with being born just after the creation of the Ukraine's constitution and until the Cassette scandal of 2000 there was little to fear and little to worry over from a country free from soviet-control. While not someone who was directly influenced or affected by the cassette scandal the presence of an event such as kidnapping journalists and the revelation of the vile president to the masses caused her parents to become more deeply engrossed in more extreme ideals as the current society reflected to them the worst parts of when the Soviets were in power.
The following years were embroiled in steep political discourse as her parents became active participants of the protests against the then president of the Ukraine and his suspicious actions such as selling defense systems to terrorist leaders. Though for the greater part of this era her life remained the same happy dream until the time of the Orange revolution in 2004 and the strong socialist powers which grasped her country and tore power from her president. While President Viktor Yushchenko was able to win what had been an election rigged against him by opposition it was only through concessions to parliament to allow for powers held by the president be stripped from him and put on even footing with a now politically mighty Prime minister.
During this time between 2004 and 2007 when President Yushchenko was still attempting to regain power was a time of intense tension between the supports of the Orange coalition and the Socialist parties least of which held small covert acts of terror that claimed the lives of her own parents in the final year. Coming from this tragedy Veronika was forced to move from her comfy home in Kiev to the Donestk Oblast region of the Ukraine and more specifically the city of Donestk itself where her grandmother lived in one of the many apartment complexes dotting the city. It was at this time that her love for computer technology and programming emerged from using her grandmother's dinosaur of a PC tower to upgrading it through penny-pinched allowances into a modern marvel of technology. This is also when her habit of undermining certain large government establishments began.
Far from being one of the mob to join the extreme left in a neo-anarchist or like some of her future colleagues would hold themselves to being Veronika began as a person who only targeted those who wished to undermine the state and the services it gave to it's people. While far from a picture perfect place her home of Donestk was one which she cared for deeply and seeing people hurt by those who would call civilization a mistake or harm others for not following their own irrational creed of what politics should be was a massive motivation for her. This attitude of avoiding attacks on the government continued until the Euromaidan of 2013 when civil unrest broke out within the capital of Kiev as the current president Yanukovych caused tension to brew from Ukraine's poor relations to the EU.
It was at this time that her ability to hack and crack different systems was taken into it's full ability as what was once unrest turned into revolution and Kiev experienced riot after riot. Safe from the riots occurring in her once home, Veronika was able to safely and remotely tamper with the government systems she had previously been so dedicated to protecting, moving closer and closer to the fighting until she too was in a mask running through streets and tossing stones at police barricades. Her first introduction to magic and the happenings of the Virtual Adepts wouldn't occur until Russia moved in and attempted to annex Crimea.
Veronika quickly came to appreciate the aid of these 'Mercurial Elite' who guided and aided her in her hacking ventures against the invading Russian separatist forces as they offered her more and more alternate routes to take to attack. With each mission she saw a little bit further into the code of reality, becoming entangled in the paradigm that everything truly was reality and with her ability she could access even that forbidden metacode. Hacking through the metacode did not always end up being the best thing for her as a single mission gone wrong and an overwhelming amount of Paradox dissolved her from one reality and into the next.
