Peridot
Forum Replies Created
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[color color=#9900FF] Manticore smiled back at the mention of the bank. While it might not have technically been a threat, the Arcobaleno certainly saw his casual assertion of power and influence as a move meant to intimidate and remind her that she was dealing with a mafia boss. It seemed the assassination attempt hadn’t broken his pride or courage (even if it had made a mess of his Family). He had even managed to slide in a canine pun. Mortelupi certainly was shaping up to be an intriguing conversation partner. He didn’t yap, stutter or bluster like other bosses tended to do. She found herself wanting to see just how he’d confront and deal with the culprit of the assassination attempt.
When he took the moment to glance at the incoming plane, Manticore checked the arrivals list and saw that it was the delayed plane she had been waiting for. Knowing the immigration policies, she should still have some time before her contact made it there. Worst came to worse, she could just move him into a limo and catch up later. Yeah, that sounded like the better plan since it was also getting closer to nap time.
” Tch, here’s one reason to not trust me: I’m a thief. Last I checked, cat burglars and dogs don’t get along.” She smirked, “My specialty is and was stealing from mafia families. I’m not currently here to cause trouble, but that doesn’t mean you should be taking what I say on faith.”
The infant suddenly let out a long yawn and rubbed her eyes sleepily. “Tch, sorry about that.” It was a shame, but it seemed that the coffee’s caffeine still had no effect on staving off the limitations of her physical form. “Where were we? Trust, right. Now, if an information lover such as yourself were willing to engage in some quid pro quo…well, that’d be a different story now wouldn’t it? [/color]
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Manticore listened to his description quietly, showing him enough respect to hear his entire explanation without interruptions. Her face did not change even an millimeter to suggest any reaction to his words, although her yellow eyes focused unblinkingly on Bell’uomo. She was interested in whatever information he might have uncovered that caused that much of a problem that he needed to be assassinated, and mentally noted this boss’ name as an interesting source of info in case she might need some later. Once he asked his question, the Arcobaleno took a moment to carefully consider her words before responding.
“I can tell you that although knowledge is power, misinformation is more dangerous than ignorance. Or should I call that mist-information?” She smirked at her own pun before continuing, with a smile on her face. “Honestly, I’m surprised you’d come to a Mist user for answers. How do you even know you can trust what I’m telling you? I could conjure up the most delicious lies.”
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Name: Esteri Kivistö
Age: 18
Gender: Female
Species: Ice Bear
Looks: Esteri looks like a typical armored bear with ivory white fur which has not yet begun to yellow with age and a dark muzzle. Her eyes are charcoal black and unblinking. Standing up on hind legs, Esteri is a good 7 feet tall, but on all fours she has a shoulder height of 5 feet, a fairly average size for a female ice bear. More distinctive is the bright, well polished armor she wears at all times.
Her armor is a mix of plate armor over her back, belly and limbs and scale mail along the neck and areas requiring more flexibility. The armor made from sky iron runs along her entire back and the the last joint of each forepaw. The upper paw is uncovered, allowing for swift clawing movements, but a large shoulder plate makes the area hard to access when she stands up on her hind legs. A broad chestplate covers her belly. None of her armor has any symbols or adornment carved in.
Background: Esteri has recently finished crafting her armor. With the last piece completed, she is eligible to join the ranks of the adult armored bears. She bartered her services for two years as a mercenary in exchange for access to a large quantity of high quality sky iron landing within the territory of a group of human scientists. Once her armor was completed, Esteri ran away from her home to complete her contract before word got out and she had to face the public disapproval and shame of being a mercenary.
Although she knows the affairs of humans should not bother a solitary ice bear such as herself, Esteri finds herself “unsettled” by the fact that the scientists evade answering her questions as to exactly what they are doing with the children in their facilities.
Extra: She takes especially good care of her armor and likes to pepper her speech with proverbs and sayings. Esteri tries very hard to live up to the ideal of armored ice bears despite being much younger than she lets on.
Her manner can seem stoic and intimidating at first, but she has a warm personality and is willing to tolerate quite a bit of harmless silliness. -
Manticore sucked in some breath and tried, but failed, at keeping her eyebrow from twitching at the little pet name she had just been given. Even after all this time, the Arcobaleno was still incredibly sore at being trapped in an infantile form. The thief’s skill at casting illusions was so great that she could frequently even fool herself with them, and in the past she had used her skill to take on many, many different appearances. Yet, the curse prevented her from altering her appearance for vanity purposes. It was incredibly frustrating on multiple levels as interactions with other people usually turned into an enormous, needless hassle. She was a grown woman, dammit!
Her eyebrow twitched again as her smirk was replaced with a flustered scowl. It would best to nip that kind of behavior in the bud before he became accustomed to it. “Please, do not refer to me as …. THAT… ever again… but pleased to meet you.” She cleared her throat to make sure her voice didn’t crack again. Damn these vocal cords. That had been embarrassing and he was beginning to ask more pointed questions.
“Tch, obtaining respect outside of the Mafia is ridiculously difficult. Fear is much easier, but less useful, honestly.” The irritated scowl shifted into a simple frown. “In answer to your other question, it isn’t my secret to tell but I assure you it is completely out of my control.” She said that last bit bitterly, for maintaining illusions was all about control. “It’s especially difficult to go clubbing as well, tch. Figures.”
“So, why the interest? Most people just go with it, honestly.”
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Manticore nodded, keeping a note of the name and snickering a little at its meaning. When she saw how distressed the boss was looking, the illusionist decided to make a small bubble around them to prevent others from hearing their conversation. She was used to speaking in ambiguities, but she felt considerate enough to help out the man sitting beside her. “Tch, you can say what you want. I take no offence, and the sheep can’t hear you, honestly.”
At the man’s question, Manticore smirked devilishly. It was always of interest to her to hear just what kind of rumors floated around about her or any of her kind in general. The reports and rumors always had varying degrees of accuracy but were usually very amusing. She liked to keep information on a need-too-know basis. “…Yes, although we don’t like to spread it around. Tch, being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell someone you are, then you aren’t.”
While she spoke, Manticore fingered the light purple pacifier hung around her neck, in a mirror image of how he was tapping his ring. “The name is Manticore, by the way.”
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Manticore saw the mafia boss wave her over to follow as he moved towards his gate. She briefly checked to make sure that her illusion downstairs hadn’t been tampered with or interacted with under the pretext of a slightly slower than normal blink. Thus satisfied, the Arcobaleno agreed to follow behind. With a nudge, the pangolin sleepily coiled around her neck dropped onto the floor tile and transformed into a simple beige colored skateboard with sharp scales along the sides and tops of the deck. The infant hopped onto the board and with a simple push rolled her way along side the taller man. A simple glamour helped her avoid any second glances from normal civilians they passed.
It wasn’t as intensive or flame dependent illusion as pure invisibility, instead the glamour simply helped her blend into the background and seem easily forgettable and unremarkable as long as she didn’t do anything to directly affect them. The fact that she was unnoticeable was slightly a shame since she just pulled off a pretty sweet illusion flip on her skateboard.
Her thoughts back on the task at hand, Manticore settled in at a comfortable pace following along besides the sun ring holder. “I like to keep breast of the movers and shakers in the world and the Mortelupi are one of the few I haven’t gotten to know yet. Cute wolf, by the way.”
They reached the waiting area outside the gate, so Manticore nimbly dismounted from her board and took the seat next to him where they could talk normally. “Some of the more skeptical of my acquaintances were spreading rumors of an imposter with your name. I can see they were just stirring up trouble, though.” The baby had a dreadfully devious smirk on her face when she said that last line.
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Manticore smirked at the feint as the man beside him pretended to struggle to put on his shoes.
The glint of his ring caught the thief’s eye, and just a quick appraising glance gave her everything she needed to know about the status of the person she was speaking with. He had been boss material, like she had originally thought. It was a bit interesting that he seemed to be travelling completely alone. Nobody else had reacted to her presence. Well, she mentally amended, he wasn’t completely alone since he had his wolf with him on the plane.
“Mnn. That was me.” She let out a light grunt of affirmation accompanied with a short nod of her head. The Arcobaleno didn’t want the boss to be unnecessarily paranoid for the rest of his trip. “It would be rude for me to not pay my respects.” Manticore left out the implied ‘to a family boss since they were being subtle for the moment. Nor did she mention the part where she had been bored nearly to tears waiting for the delayed flight. Wolves were highly territorial animals after all, and even the less territorial mafia families did not react well when told that a thieving Mist user had been spotted on their turf.
“I also wished to put a face and voice to the name. That event made quite the stir.” She was referring, of course, to the infamous assassination attempt on his life.
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Manticore watched with interest at the man’s reaction to her killer intent. Clearly both he and the animal he kept caged sensed her presence, even if they weren’t able to directly pin-point the source of the Mist flames. Not only that, but he had enough control to keep his cool and not openly attack or cause a scene among the horde of ignorant and unaware civilians. An approving smirk slipped across her face. Alert, vigilant but also subtle, that is how a true mafioso should be not some of those thugs passing themselves as hit men these days. Manticore decided that it would be worth talking to whoever this person was. Besides, she was getting a bit bored killing time.
When the man looked around, that is when the Arcobaleno caught a glimpse of his face and the distinctive scar on his face. She couldn’t remember which family he came from, but the look in his eyes showed that this man was a boss or boss material at the very least. Manticore slipped past the joke they called security in this place. The metal detector would have gone off if she had a gun on her, but the adorable pangolin currently snoozing and wrapped around her neck like a gaudy wrap didn’t rouse a peep out of the machine. Once past security, Manticore dispelled the Mist Flames hiding her and calmly took a seat on one of the benches next to a guy retying his shoes and replacing his laptop back into his carry on luggage.
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Manticore’s eyes narrowed imperceptibly as she sensed the approach of the limo to the airport. That alone wouldn’t have been strange enough to draw the Arcobaleno’s attention; however, the person sitting inside possessed an ample store of dying will flames. It would be worth it to take a peek at whoever this was. The thief was used to casing joints and surveying her surroundings, and it would put her ill at ease to know someone unknown, and with power was lurking around in the vicinity.
She decided to leave the illusion to its own devices, since the infant only had to go to the floor directly above to see whoever it was that was drawing her attention. Manticore headed up, lightly bouncing up the staircase hand-rails and eventually taking her place in the crowd of people bustling by. Most of them were civilians moving about in their predictable, sluggish and herd-like pattern. The baby was aware and noted every single one of them, acknowledging their presence and then mentally dismissing them in her mind. Even the man who by the nervous glint in her eyes, likely was in possession of a fraudulent passport was beneath her notice for the moment. The smell of deceit roiled off of him like a particularly fragrant perfume.
No, she was after someone far more dangerous for the time being. It was the suit which alerted the Mist flame user’s first. Back in the good old days, people dressed formally in preparations for flights. Of course, flight attendants were skilled and extremely beautiful in those days as well. Manticore thought back on those times nostalgically. Nowadays people dressed like such slobs, choosing comfy and casual clothing over refined suits and long, lady-like dresses. The Arcobaleno let out a sigh and then focused her thoughts back on the sharply dressed individual. There was no point in wasting time for days gone past. Even if time had paused for her, there was no way to keep time from rolling onward around her.
Curious to see how and whether he would respond, and not wanting to waste time approaching him in the baggage check line, Manticore purposefully let out a small pulse of killer intent.
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Manticore drained her coffee to the dregs and then glanced at the big arrivals and departures board, noticing the flashing sign which signaled that her contact’s plane had finally landed. Getting to her feet, Manticore flicked the empty coffee cup behind her, not even needing to hear the chink of porcelain against the metal bottom of the trash can to know that she had thrown it accurately. Yes, it was wasteful of the mug but she frankly couldn’t care less about the waste. The Arcobaleno slipped into the crowd before weaving a mild cloak of Mist flames around her infantile body to conceal herself from view. This way, she could move at full speed to the designated destination point just past immigration without alarming the locals too much.
With speed like hers, it didn’t make sense to take the cramped and slightly rickety trolleys from the terminal back to the main airport building. In only a few seconds, Manticore arrived right where she was supposed to be. By her calculations, it would take at least another ten minutes or so for her contact from Costa Coffee to arrive. The Mist user conjured up a simple illusion: a gorgeous, long-legged woman with fair skin and caramel colored hair to do nothing but smile and hold up a sign with her contact’s name near along with the legions of limo drivers so that he would know who to talk to. Such petty minutiae was fairly mind-numbing.
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Kazia glared at the readings the machine was giving her. “This makes no sense!” She declared to no one and scowled as the lights did that indescribable thing once more. The process had worked before quite well! Were the machines limited use only or was there something wrong with the building she was in? It seemed almost like the faculty was breaking down, or perhaps the power was going on the fritz. If there was some emergency or problem causing the power outage, then it would be beneficial for her to use what DNA strands she had already made.
Coming to that conclusion, Kazia decided to inject the vials of DNA (Diamond Bone and Super Reflexes) she had just made into herself, to try and leave as little up to chance as possible. Hopefully, the device in her arm was powered separately and unaffected by the weird power surges.
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Manticore calmly lifted the rim of a porcelain mug to her lips as she took in the heavenly scent of roasted coffee bean. The Arcobaleno was casually seated by herself at a table within the D.C airport’s Starbucks and enjoying a quiet moment to herself as she waited for one of the representatives of Costa Coffee to arrive from an international flight. They had business to discuss, and Manticore wanted things resolved sooner rather than later. Plus, it was courteous to meet someone directly at the airport when they flew internationally. Normally, the occupants of the coffee shop would find it unusual that a two year old was drinking coffee, but no one seemed willing to risk approaching the young child and get labeled a pervert or kidnapper, especially when her parents could simply be in the bathroom.
Manticore smirked to herself. She didn’t even need to use any of her well-renowned illusions to cover for herself. The thief took a sip of the dark drink and swallowed before sighing. The mass produced Starbucks coffee was definitely lacking a certain something: by necessity, the coffee had to be over-roasted and staler than she would have preferred. Still, Manticore mused to herself as she took another sip, convienence and atmosphere was at least as important as taste. No matter where she was in the world, there should be coffee. Her eyebrow twitched slightly with irritation as she recalled a time when she had been forced to drink the watered down, liquid diarrhea served by McDonalds. And only the Arcobaleno Pact would stop her from killing the soul who brought up the Georgia incident.
At least the baristas in this establishment had the presence of mind and discipline to clean out the equipment. Manticore gave herself a mental reminder to complain to the family head about whether anything could be done to improve the chain’s taste as she continued to sip her coffee and watch the arrivals idly.
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*signs the rules and throws up a little at the thought of the idiot cow*
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Name: Manticore
Age: 2 (Real Age: ??)
Gender: Female
Preference: Homosexual
Blood Type: AB+
Power Type: Mist
Specialty: Illusions, Poisons, Defensive Fighting
Weaponry: Carmen the Pangolin: Can transform into a variety of objects, but cannot produce items itself. Turns into a shield, a chainsaw, a boomerang, a pair of hook swords and a blowgun
Appearance:
Owned: Starbucks
History: Manticore was once an infamous thief capable of infiltrating and robbing even the most secret and well guarded of mafia bases using illusions and minor psychotropic drugs to avoid detection and misdirect investigations for weeks and months on end. Rumors still occasionally can be heard about where she ended up hiding all of her stolen loot since hardly any of it was ever found on the black market, and other darker rumors suggest that Manticore went to great and bloody lengths to bury her real name. The illusion user herself eventually became well both dreaded and respected in the mafia community for her daring and surprisingly bloodless thefts. No mafia family was idiotic enough to admit to hiring her in order to avoid the wrath of their fellow families, thus most people are unsure of whether she actually was part of the mafia or not.During her last heist, Manticore found an small letter slipped in with her target inviting her to join a specialized team of only the best of the best in the criminal underworld. This is what eventually lead to her contracting the Arcobaleno Curse.
Prior to obtaining the Arcobaleno Curse, Manticore had a girlfriend she was planning to elope with after finding the perfect ring to propose with. Nothing less but a Mafia ring would do, of course. After a painful break-up due to the stress of having an ageless, infantile body, the girlfriend has seemingly vanished into obscurity. Any attempt by outside parties to track her down inevitably succumbs to a trail of false evidence leading their way back to a very irate Manticore.
Nowadays, Manticore spends her time stirring up mischief while trying to avoid attention at the same time. She has occasionally been known to accept jobs to “acquire” important weapon schematics or juicy data, but pretty much just does what she wants.
Other:
General Theme: Fur Elise
Trapped in an Illusion: Death Waltz
Action Theme/Prolonged Battle: Hungarian Dance No. 5
Up to No Good/ Combat Theme: In the Hall of the Mountain KingManticore is incredibly superstitious about people uncovering her birth name.
She will immediately become flustered if called “cute”, “adorable” or referred to as a baby. -
Kazia cheered and let out a small giggle at her apparent success with the complicated DNA machines. This seemed like so much fun, it seemed a bit unnecessary to have kidnapped people just for creating combinations. It made her feel like something really terrible was going on behind the scenes, but without any further information she could only use her current resources to maximize her chance at survival. The woman labeled and stuffed those vials of DNA into her backpack for later usage.
She would always be able to inject the DNA into her system, but who knows when she might get warped out of the R&D department? It was best to make all of the DNA she wanted while she still had the opportunity. Kazia rushed back to the cooling unit to select her next choices. While there, the human dumped all of the vials into her backpack so she wouldn’t have to make multiple trips.
This time she decided to make an Organs-Bone mixture of DNA, a Wind-Speed combination and a Strength-Bone DNA strand using the same process as before since it seemed to have been working well for her.