Post by Augustine on Sept 21, 2022 20:51:25 GMT
Samantha Augustine
Generalities
Name: Samantha Augustine
AKA:
Age: 29
Gender: Female
Race: Human
Faction: Independent
Squad: N/A
Role:
Battle Theme: High Road by Mastodon and Black Betty by Ram Jam
Rank: D
Red Orbs: 80/4480
Blue Orbs: 1,080/3080
Character Description
Physical Appearance(s): Samantha has a fairly ordinary build, at least at first glance. She stands at about 5’ 8”, with dark-blonde hair often kept long and put into a loose pony-tail and blue-eyes. Her frame isn’t particularly bulky or curvy. If one saw her in normal, long-sleeved clothes, from the side or behind, they might not think anything of it. A look at her face though is more telling, with a 50/50 chance of seeing either a serious case of ‘resting bitch face’ or an almost feral smirk, a glint to the eyes that seems to hint that she’s a step away from violence at any moment.
Seeing her arms might also give certain types of folk pause, covered in ink, sprawling black tattoos from shoulder to wrist, and there are multiple scars across her body. Some cuts, some clearly from bullet wounds taken in the past, that paint a very clear picture of a woman very used to rough living.
Casually she dresses pretty plainly, she prefers baggy pants like Khaki’s over jeans, and usually goes for long sleeved shirts, heavy boots, and fuzzy jackets. Usually the long-sleeved shirts are rolled up to about elbow length. When ‘on the job’ though, she looks like a commando out of some action movie, complete with combat vest, boots, metal kneepads, fingerless gloves and a tactical harness over the vest, set with ammo pouches and bandoliers lined with shotgun shells, and overall armed to the teeth.
Personality: There are many words to describe Samantha. Violent, aggressive, casual, crass, way too comfortable and relaxed about high impact violence. All of them are pretty accurate too. Samantha made her money doing mercenary work, and it was work she rather enjoyed, violence is her comfort zone, it’s almost soothing. When you’re in a firefight you know what’s at stake and where the lines are. Shoot the bastards trying to shoot you and then take their ammo. Sitting at a bar though with some jackass shouting about your truck parked where his bike’s supposed to go? Not supposed to shoot people in that situation…usually. Usually you can at least punch them, smash a bottle over their head, but that might also just get you kicked out of the damn bar before you’ve gotten more than a buzz!
As one might imagine, Samantha’s not one for polite company, or well-mannered folk. She speaks pretty bluntly, and with a pretty foul mouth, but she can actually be pretty fun to be around. Plenty could attest to the fond memories of hitting particularly unsavory bars, where punching someone out for getting too close isn’t frowned upon and having a great time with the woman, and the survivors from her mercenary days can testify that there’s few you’d rather have at your side in a firefight. After all, in Samantha’s estimation, if you can’t be trusted to help keep your comrades safe in a fight, why the hell would they try to do the same?
She’s extremely friendly with fellow devil hunters, or even normal mercenaries, they’re all common in cause right? Got enough enemies without making more on purpose, of course this only extends so far, and if someone acts superior, ‘haughty’, or is just a dick that friendly demeanor can change real quick. She’s not afraid to speak her mind, and very, very loudly if she deems it necessary.
However, as friendly as she is, there’s rarely a moment she lets her guard down. An attentive fellow will easily notice she’s always got some kind of weapon on her, that anytime someone enters a room or approaches, her eyes go right to them to make sure they’re not a threat. For all her laidback personality, especially in regards to devils, there’s also a lurking paranoia and wariness to fight at any given moment.
Aside from her job of hunting down demons, Samantha’s got a couple of hobbies. Gun collecting for one, but perhaps more surprisingly, cooking. She’s been around the world and sampled cuisine from a lot of places, and she likes trying to replicate a lot of those dishes in her free time. She’s a pretty damn good cook in her own estimation, and not many people would disagree, even if they might shudder to imagine her actually working at a restaurant, and the screaming matches with other cooks that might ensue.
Other than though, she’s also surprisingly well versed in magic. She knows a lot about it, studies and reads up on it. Magic was possibly the only thing that saved her life at the end of her mercenary days after all, and if she wants it to keep doing that, she needs to make sure she knows what she’s doing.
Of particular note, is that she has an extreme distrust and hostility towards devils. Half-demons don’t get it as bad, but she’d have an extremely hard time maintaining her usual friendly demeanor with a devil, even if they were helpful. It perhaps helps explain her sheer devotion to devil hunting. There’s nowhere she won’t go, and few things she won’t do, to hunt down a devil, sometimes even without a paycheck involved.
Backstory
Can love bloom on a battlefield? Rhona Hire and Terry Augustine seemed to think so. The two both former PMC members turned mercenaries, guns for hire across the world, and the Earth’s never been short of conflicts in need of guns. The life’s not nearly as glamorous as a lot of shows liked to make out, but the two managed to make it work, and hell they got married, and had a kid, with Terry retiring to a comfortable home in Mexico while Rhona kept up the good work. Surprising to some people maybe, but slightly influenced by Terry losing an arm in battle.
Samantha grew up not wanting for much, and hearing plenty of stories about the two’s lives as mercenaries, and new ones from Rhona, and even more from friends of the family. It’s a rough line of work though, and so it shouldn’t be a surprise that one day, mom stopped coming home. Mercenaries weren’t exactly proper military, so there wasn’t any guarantee that if she’d died, word would come back to them. After a couple years, Terry seemed to accept that his wife was likely dead, and started drinking a lot, while Samantha got rougher on the streets, getting into fights with other kids, and looking to be just as much of a hellion as her parents had been. First chance she got, as she got older, she took off to join up with a mercenary group.
She was young for sure, and this was a profession where one could easily die young, but she managed to scrape by. It sure was a hell of a lot more dangerous than she was actually ready for, but she persevered and if anything, the reality of it only seemed to encourage her. She would bounce from group to group, but around 22 she’d find the group she’d stick with for the rest of her mercenary career. It was led by a man with an uncanny nose for bad jobs, and a sixth sense for when shit was going to go down. Rarely had he ever led them into a trap, and he always seemed to know when they needed to move pronto. He attributed it to his good luck charm, and his daily rituals, he made everyone in the camp go through with them too, and while most only did so half-heartedly they put up with it because of Dave’s charisma and his reputation.
At this point Samantha had five years of experience under her belt, and was fascinated by these rituals. She thought it was rather stupid at first, but after seeing Dave’s gut instinct in action always seem to pull through, she tried taking it more seriously, wondering if there was actually merit to it and…she started to develop those gut feelings too. Dave noticed of course, as did the others in the company, and she started to gain more prominence, someone Dave could really trust to make the right calls and realize something was up even if he wasn’t there, and the other mercenaries gained more trust in her too as a result.
One day, very near to three years spent with this group, it’d all come to a violent end. To this day Samantha’s still not sure why it happened. If someone who felt wronged by a job they’d taken summoned the devils, or if it was just an unfortunate fluke, but it didn’t really matter. As the group made camp somewhere in Africa, a pair of demons attacked them. Dave and Samantha realized something bad was coming, but they had no idea what was coming for them. The mercenary company was slaughtered, and Dave himself died, with only Samantha and a couple of others surviving the night.
That day changed something for Samantha, and she left the mercenary life, retreating to Europe, with the money she’d saved up and what little her parents had left her, withdrawing in a desperate search for answers. She had all the mannerisms of a crazed conspiracy theorist, someone scarred by violent military life now withdrawing into madness to cope, but she found the answers she wanted, slowly, carefully and painstakingly piecing together a picture of what had happened to her mercenary company.
She learned that Dave’s rituals were indeed a very simple and basic form of magic, just enough to give someone the most basic forewarning of “something bad is about to happen here/if you go here”, but not much else. She learned about demons and devil hunters, but it was all caught up in what she was sure was actual falsehoods. Whatever it was, it happened so rarely as to be near impossible to discern fact from fiction…and then the tears began to open up.
Suddenly Samantha looked a lot less crazy, over time the number of people talking about this increased. It started to get a lot easier to tell what was legitimate and what wasn’t, and it became clear to Samantha’s little circle of online conspiracy theorists that this was only going to keep getting worse, and with things becoming more clear, the actual useful information on devils and magic began to become more apparent. So, Samantha decided to do something about it. She’d kept herself fit and capable in a matter of paranoia, ever worried about a demon bursting through her door and attacking her, so she was still in prime fighting shape. She contacted one of her online fellows, a gunsmith and proposed they team up, he provided the guns, and she’d provide the muscle to beat demon ass.
For Samantha this was very clearly a way to take control and push back the paranoia, she knew what she was up against now, and knew that she could fight back, or that if she couldn’t, she was damn well going to try anyways. She met up with that online friend, a wheelchair bound young man named Tolya, and together the two delved deeper into the workings of magic, and how to apply them to weapons so Samantha could go out there and send some demons screaming back to hell!
Funnily enough, the magic she delved into and took the most interest in was only tangentially related to those old good luck rituals. As fond of them as she was, when presented with the broader scope of what magic could do, it just didn’t appeal to her as much as other options, and so she put her focus on other means of manipulating the world around her, and most importantly, her own body.
After a couple years of preparing, she stepped onto the ‘stage’ so to speak, and has remained independent. She’s got her various reasons. “Who the fuck wants to work for the Pope” is one she’s given about the Templars before, but there’s probably other reasons she hasn’t. Stemming from what happened to her years ago. She’s not the best devil hunter sure, but she’s tenacious, willing to do it for little pay, and no matter who you are, if you’ve got a devil related problem, she’ll listen, and she’ll find out if there’s one involved, and if there is?
She’ll blow the fucker’s brains out.
Traits
Inhuman Toughness
You can push through pain and take a sound beating without it wearing you down. This may be because your body is very hard to damage, or maybe because your pain perception is reduced. Whatever the case may be, you can endure a bigger punishment than your peers and push through the pain, making you much tougher to beat.
Inhuman Stamina
Your body is very energy efficient, and you can go on performing high-intensity tasks for much longer than the average person. You can keep on running, fighting, training for much longer than your peers without getting tired, and it takes a lot to actually make you feel tired. Remember that this doesn't mean your body can't be worn down by all the extra work.
Inhuman Strength
As Samantha's magic grows and the quirks of her methods improve, certain things increase. Notably the limitations on the body that keep it from flexing all muscles at once fade, greatly increasing average strength, but so too does her spirit directly assist, increasing strength still further. The result is a deceptive amount of physical power behind that slender and wiry frame.
Inhuman Speed
By the same token that her strength is enhanced by inherent limitations being ignored and the spirit directly moving the body so does her speed increase. Humans in the heights of adrenaline have run as fast as racehorses, and with her spirit supernaturally assisting and pulling along the body she can go just that little bit further.
Equipment
Name: Roulette
Description: Roulette is a six shot revolver, based on the M1895 Nagant Revolver. It’s well kept and polished, but the barrel is a good inch longer, and has careful silver engravings running down it, and small magic symbols carved into the divots in the chamber.
Upgrade Points: 2
Upgrades:
Bullet Lottery (Aspect-Like)
Roulette was designed with a specific purpose, and its choice of the Nagant, a revolver with an extremely unique ammunition was no coincidence. Roulette is designed to 'prime' specially made elemental ammo, insuring that when fired the bullet impacts with one of three elemental effects. In its current iteration there's no way to determine which element the bullet is primed with, but it's either an explosive flame, convulsing electric, or icy cold bullet effect. She could wind up shooting three ice, or two fire and a lightning.
Name: Black Betty
Description: A shotgun reminiscent of a mossberg, Black Betty actually has a bayonet attachment, all important for devil-hunting and the inevitability of melee combat. The weapon is a short-spear with one hell of a kick!
Upgrade Points: 1
Upgrades:
Shredder Gauge(Trait-like)
Black Betty's ammunition is a unique form of shotgun shell, the pellets designed in a kind of hybrid between flechettes and normal pellets. The result is a tight spread of pellets designed to puncture and tear through a target. On soft and weak targets this means they can pierce through multiple, on heavier, more bulky targets it means greater impact and damage per shot.
Name: Glock
Description: A completely ordinary Glock, black frame, easily used, simple. Roulette packs a punch sure, but loading a revolver is a pain in the ass, and Samantha likes having a more reliable, magazine based handgun on hand.
Upgrade Points: 0
Upgrades: None
Name: Hail Mary
Description:
Description:
A single shot, breech loaded grenade launcher, made of solid steel and mahogany wood. It has a number of fine decorations, including golden etchings along the barrel. While there are plans to utilize these for magical enhancements, at the moment all they do is make it look pretty.
Upgrade Points: 2
Upgrades:
Boom, Bang, and Burn (Aspect-like)
Being a grenade launcher, there is a large amount of flexibility in the style of grenades that the Hail Mary can shoot. Of course it has standard explosive rounds, but Samantha also carries around flashbangs, cryo rounds, flame rounds, electrical rounds and way, way more. In essence, the Hail Mary is a high power, high damage tool although they are all grenades. They're all wide range, explosive. Even if it's not a literal burning explosive, friendly fire has to be taken into account, and there's some level of drop off if going for a long range shot.
Name: Buzzkill
Description: The Kukri Knife Samantha wielded, but now upgraded to be a fearsome weapon in its own right. It looks mostly the same, but the beneath the handle of the weapon, inscribed onto the tang of the knife are a series of runes to give it magical power. Those with a proper knowledge of the Psychic Gate can use these runes to manipulate the weapon at range, making it far more dangerous and long reaching than most would expect of the unusually shaped weapon.
Upgrade Points: 2
Upgrades:
Telekinetic Grip (Aspect-like)
Inscribed onto the tang of the knife are a series of runes that allow those with knowledge of psychic magic to manipulate the weapon at range. In simple terms, they can make it fly and swing through the air without actually holding it. Moving one's hands in some way makes it easier to focus on what one is doing, making attacks more accurate, forceful and so on, although in theory the wielder doesn't have to, it's just harder. It does also require focus, it can't be set to automatically spin for instance, the user would have to be actively focusing on that. More complex maneuvers are also harder and more focus intensive. Making the weapon spin like a buzzsaw and steadily cleaving through an enemy would require immense focus and control, although this hasn't stopped Samantha from figuring out how to get it to do just that. The further away the weapon is, the less precise the control as well, and it has a max range of 30 meters.
Name: Tactical Ammo Armor
Description: Taking her harness of pouches and bandoliers, permanently attaching it to her kevlar vest, and then weaving in a variety of enchantments, this armor has received a very useful utility upgrade, although discounting its upgrades, it is just a vest with a number of pouches and bandoliers attached to it.
Upgrade Points: 1
Upgrades:
Endless Ammo Supply
The pouches aren't just for show, and they hold far, far more than they ever should. An endless fount of slugs, shells, grenades, magazines, and whatever other ammunition Samantha has on hand. Of course she still has to load all these weapons, but as long as she's got her armor, she's got an endless supply of ammo to reload them with.
Combat Foci
Name: CQC Brutality
Description: Samantha is a woman with a fondness for getting up close and personal, which means she took to devil hunting pretty well. Her preferred style is either with a sturdy shotgun, or knife and pistol and getting right into the thick of it. She fights almost like a wild animal, stabbing and slashing, and firing point blank usually right at the thing she just stabbed. It goes beyond knifework too, she’s a brute in hand to hand, heavy kicks, or grappling that looks almost like pro-wrestling moves (and may or may not have been inspired by such). The result is a fighting style that is brutal, but simple and effective, stab a bastard, and then shoot them in the head.
Rank: D
Aspects: 0
Name: My Soul Possession
Description: Samantha spent a lot of time after the first tear opened researching the methods of magic, particularly that of the Gate of Psychic Mastery. However, she wasn’t interested in its typical uses, extending her reach to the world around her outside of her body, but in a particularly unique idea she had. That being, increasing her mastery over her own body.
In short, Samantha developed a way to possess her own body, dislodging her soul from its mortal vessel but simultaneously trapping it inside. This can make her movements look a little…odd. Moving in ways that the human body shouldn’t be able to move all that easily, sometimes looking more like something invisible is pulling on her body rather than that her body is moving on its own.
Rank: C
Aspects:
No Strings Attached
There are a lot of benefits to having your soul disconnected from your body. One is of course Samantha's ability to keep fighting even through grievous injury. Another is her ability to move her body like a puppet or a doll. In a way that is reminiscent of classical ghost and possession films, Samantha can move her body around independent of the body itself. To those with specialized senses they might see something peculiar. Infrared might see a particularly low temperature shape grabbing onto Samantha's body, those with some kind of sense or way to see magic would see an ethereal, second Samantha literally grabbing her body and hauling it about. However to those of normal senses there's still an indication that something is happening, it's just not clear what. A kind of ghostly mist that emanates from her body, a sudden drop in temperature immediately around her, a curious shine to the eyes. Those of particularly keen vision, or high quality cameras, might make out the details of a person in that ghostly mist, but it's much harder to tell or realize that it's a seemingly second Samantha pulling her about.
The result is Samantha's body moving completely independently of any muscle movement. It could look as if something grabbed her ankle and yanked, or as if someone invisible grabbed her by her shoulders and bodily tossed her in another direction. She could appear to be floating in mid-air with no assistance, or even heavily damaged limbs still attack and move even if it would normally be impossible.
Techniques
Name: Hoist ‘em High!
Description: With Black Betty at hand, Samantha straightforwardly rushes straight at an enemy, rushing at them at high speed to ram the bayonet straight into their gut, and lift them into the air, before firing off the shotgun at point blank to send them flying off the blade! If they’re too heavy to lift…well she can still stab and then fire, although it’s not as effective.
Focus: None/Crafted Arm Focus
Aspects: None
Name: Flame Roulette
Description: Taking a shot with Roulette, the gun primes the bullet with fire, delivering a small explosion of burning lead.
Focus: Roulette
Aspects: Bullet Lottery
Name: Ice Roulette
Description: Taking a shot with Roulette, the gun primes the bullet with ice, freezing over the area struck and limiting an enemy's mobility.
Focus: Roulette
Aspects: Bullet Lottery
Description: Taking a shot with Roulette, the gun primes the bullet with ice, freezing over the area struck and limiting an enemy's mobility.
Focus: Roulette
Aspects: Bullet Lottery
Name: Lightning Roulette
Description: Taking a shot with Roulette, the gun primes the bullet with lightning, delivering an electrifying shot that can temporarily stun weaker enemies.
Focus: Roulette
Aspects: Bullet Lottery
Name: Psycho Cut
Description: Sweeping a hand outwards, Buzzkill is drawn from its sheath on Samantha's shoulder, or flies towards her if in range, and follows the arc of her arm, sweeping out in a fast slash that can extend up to a meter ahead of her. Can be performed numerous times in succession.
Focus: Buzzkill
Aspect: Telekinetic Grip
Name: Buzzsaw
Description: Focusing, Samantha points her palm towards an enemy, or both hands just a foot or so apart. Buzzkill starts spinning until it resembles a whirling saw. As she swings her hand or hands, Buzzkill will follow the path, although its speed is notably slower than with Psycho Cut. It moves faster and can turn more easily when both hands are used to focus, but it can still be used with one hand occupied.
Focus: Buzzkill
Aspect: Telekinetic Grip
Name: Rip and Tear
Description: Hefting Buzzkill in her hand, Samantha hurls it, sending the blade flying into an enemy, and upon impact, activates the telekinesis to rip the blade free of the foe, usually at an angle to inflict further damage as she pulls it back and away from them.
Focus: Buzzkill
Aspect: Telekinetic Grip
Name: Explosive Round
Description: Simple, basic, effective. An explosive round is loaded into the Hail Mary and fired, a powerful explosive, hot, sending shrapnel and just an all around fantastic tool for sending a group of devils flying and doing some good damage to them at the same time.
Focus: Hail Mary
Aspect: Boom, Bang, and Burn
Name: Freeze Round
Description: A useful utility tool. Upon impact it essentially unleashes a wave of nitrogen that rapidly chills and freezes the air. It has little concussive impact, but the freezing cold can impair enemies, it can even freeze them solid and leave them more vulnerable to follow attacks! While those frozen solid will rapidly start to thaw over several seconds it's still an excellent crowd control tool, or a way to try and impair or briefly lockdown a dangerous enemy. The radius of the explosion is noticeably smaller than for the Explosive Round.
Focus: Hail Mary
Aspect: Boom, Bang, and Burn
Name: Flashbang
Description: A flash round loaded into the Hail Mary, upon impact there's a tremendous high pitched bang and a blinding flash of white light! It does no damage, unless something's vulnerable to sound or light, but can stun and disorient foes in a very wide range! Of course, they have to be looking roughly towards the grenade, or have a sense of sight or sound, and it can just as easily blind and deafen Samantha and her own allies, so it's not a completely free tool to stun foes!
Focus: Hail Mary
Aspect: Boom, Bang, and Burn
Description: Sweeping a hand outwards, Buzzkill is drawn from its sheath on Samantha's shoulder, or flies towards her if in range, and follows the arc of her arm, sweeping out in a fast slash that can extend up to a meter ahead of her. Can be performed numerous times in succession.
Focus: Buzzkill
Aspect: Telekinetic Grip
Name: Buzzsaw
Description: Focusing, Samantha points her palm towards an enemy, or both hands just a foot or so apart. Buzzkill starts spinning until it resembles a whirling saw. As she swings her hand or hands, Buzzkill will follow the path, although its speed is notably slower than with Psycho Cut. It moves faster and can turn more easily when both hands are used to focus, but it can still be used with one hand occupied.
Focus: Buzzkill
Aspect: Telekinetic Grip
Name: Rip and Tear
Description: Hefting Buzzkill in her hand, Samantha hurls it, sending the blade flying into an enemy, and upon impact, activates the telekinesis to rip the blade free of the foe, usually at an angle to inflict further damage as she pulls it back and away from them.
Focus: Buzzkill
Aspect: Telekinetic Grip
Name: Explosive Round
Description: Simple, basic, effective. An explosive round is loaded into the Hail Mary and fired, a powerful explosive, hot, sending shrapnel and just an all around fantastic tool for sending a group of devils flying and doing some good damage to them at the same time.
Focus: Hail Mary
Aspect: Boom, Bang, and Burn
Name: Freeze Round
Description: A useful utility tool. Upon impact it essentially unleashes a wave of nitrogen that rapidly chills and freezes the air. It has little concussive impact, but the freezing cold can impair enemies, it can even freeze them solid and leave them more vulnerable to follow attacks! While those frozen solid will rapidly start to thaw over several seconds it's still an excellent crowd control tool, or a way to try and impair or briefly lockdown a dangerous enemy. The radius of the explosion is noticeably smaller than for the Explosive Round.
Focus: Hail Mary
Aspect: Boom, Bang, and Burn
Name: Flashbang
Description: A flash round loaded into the Hail Mary, upon impact there's a tremendous high pitched bang and a blinding flash of white light! It does no damage, unless something's vulnerable to sound or light, but can stun and disorient foes in a very wide range! Of course, they have to be looking roughly towards the grenade, or have a sense of sight or sound, and it can just as easily blind and deafen Samantha and her own allies, so it's not a completely free tool to stun foes!
Focus: Hail Mary
Aspect: Boom, Bang, and Burn
Name: Ghost Toss
Description: Samantha's spirit partially emerges from her body and grabs her, typically by the shoulders but could be anywhere, and then hurls her with force. The result is Samantha seeming to suddenly dash in a direction at high speed. She can Toss herself in any direction, but she can't phase through objects, tossing herself towards a wall is just going to result in her hitting the wall. An excellent evasion tool, or a way to quickly close a gap. The distance traveled is limited though, and while it can be used in mid-air it can only be done once without hitting the ground.
Focus: My Soul Possession
Aspect: No Strings Attached
Name: Float
Description: While in mid-air, Samantha's soul can partially emerge and hold her up in the air. This causes it to look like she's being held up or hanging from some invisible object, and she can very slightly move while floating like this. However, Float only works for a few seconds, enough time to break a fall, avoid an attack or launch one of her own, but she can't Float indefinitely, before she'll resume falling to the ground.
Focus: My Soul Possession
Aspect: No Strings Attached
Name: Spirit Running
Description: Partially emerging from the body, Samantha's soul grabs her body and starts booking it at high speed. Usually she does this by hooking an 'arm' around her own neck and pulling. Not as fast as Ghost Toss it can be done near indefinitely to travel quickly. It takes a moment to stop though and turning isn't easy as one would expect from moving at full tilt. It also takes a moment to actually hit full speed, making it less useful as a reaction than Ghost Toss, and can't be done in mid-air at all. Still it's an effective way to quickly cover ground or pursue someone running away.
Focus: My Soul Possession
Aspect: No Strings Attached