Oh! I just realised that something you should know probably wasn't too obvious.

It's possible to unseal things. You just have to take it off the mage who sealed it.

Take what off?

Depending on your answer, I may have to decide whether Picky just has no confidence in Panko or if he really doesn't know what he's talking about.

Which brings up a question. Are our familiars experienced, ancient beings, or are they newly made like our powers and just happen to know stuff, or is all that up to our discretion?

Sorry, a sealed item can be unsealed if you can get your hands on it. That's why generally the sealing mage holds on to them.

Familiar is your own discretion. Most likely dormant ever since the war, or a new arrival now the links to the mysterious other world are semi-passable.

My Familiar falls under the old category.

A bit more on topic, I don't think Alex and Miranda will be acting for a bit. So, the other Verda have center stage if they want to fight against the whole Autekka gang.

I mean, that's only six mages.

The Autekka side's really been a juggernaut so far... Just bad luck with the pattern of slims I guess.

EDIT: Oh, I forgot to get that sign-up info sorted for Fox!

Sign-up intro post
Some advice Phoenix gave for character edits - might be helpful for checking about some ideas.
First discussion thread post - character links and some other character notes.
Arhra Explains, Issue 1 - info relating to the starting post.
Arhra Explains, Issue 2 - general mage information
Director Profile - defeated miniboss, but it might help you make slightly more sense of the fight.

Some other post snippets:
Anyway, I'm thinking a highschool, hmm, let's say the JAPANSLAND equivalent of Year 11, so we can still have an upper grade to lord over you like the peasants you are. That would mean an average age of 16, give or take a year.

For general notes, just a reminder I'm planning to do the actual gaining of magical powers as part of the RP intro. It might be alright for one or two people to have an early start though. Also, pretty much everyone can do the basic 'magical energy' defences and have at least one basic ranged attack (that still tends to have a name).

Might want to start thinking about how you're connected. For convenience's sake, I'm probably going to assume everyone's in the same class (with the Autekka users transfering in) unless you say otherwise.

...

A little note about Devices: when set up, they tend to be fairly obviously a Device and somewhat mechanical in appearance - they're not just a normal item that's been enchanted. They're usually the mage's staff or primary weapon.

...

To remind people, you'll be starting off without any magic at all and it'll probably take a little while to pick up your full library of techniques, depending on how big it is. There will be further growth from there.

While you can pick it up a little by yourself, your Familiar or Device is going to be your main tutor probably. In addition to sneaky off somewhere quiet and practicing, they might run you through things in simulation (you seem to be distracted lately!) or in your dreams. How else are they going to get you trained up in time?

I've also realised the profile could do with one or two extra headings. Congratulations to the people who fixed it on their own.

Barrier Jacket: What your lovely costume is like. Make sure it looks good! Don't forget the frills. They are important for justice.
Personality: How your character behaves. Please, no 'They're extremely loud but really quite quiet!'

...

A core conceit is that no problem, no matter how huge, can not be overcome. In general, people are fundamentally good. If something seems impossible, you're just not trying hard enough. Victory goes to those with a courageous heart!

* * *

On the uniforms, they're a navy blue shirt and dress for the girls, with white collars and a little red to liven things up a little (the bow, the colour stripe, etc). The boys have a white collared shirt and dark grey pants, along with a red tie and a navy blue blazer.

Anyway, the Autekka-types are transfering in. So are their school friends, but they may not end up in the same class. Hmmm, if everyone's friends were in the same class, we'd have the entire class fleshed out. My god!

* * *

Everyone's still on school holidays, with the term start being a few days away.

Hey, Phoenix, the flower's floating towards you, right? I thought it was floating up to heaven all kung fu master style when I wrote my post.

Nawh it's floating back down the feedback stream.

Which way is that?

Yes, back towards Akari.

*crawls out from the Abyss of Real Life*

I LIIIIIIIIVE!

By the way: all the following signup sheet has the stamp of approval from Arhra himself. I'll get my intro up tomorrow since I'm about to collapse from work-induced exhaustion!

Name: Hana, Iriumi (last, first)
Age: 16
Gender: Definitely feminine.
Magic Type: Verda

Appearance: Hana Iriumi is of average height, with sparkling green eyes and lips that always seem to smile. Her fair skin complements her straight dark auburn hair that she keeps in check with a blue headband. While she isn’t the well-endowed type, her curves are just-right, and there is a charm about her that people are attracted to. She appears fit and healthy, and tends to wear clothes that complement her figure and complexion.

Items/Familiar:
Orichalcum Ivy (Ivy for short) – Iriumi’s familiar. More of a sentient symbiotic plant than anything else, the vine-like plant lives off bright radiant light sources (the sun, latent energy released by very bright lights or even radiation from other magical powers). In the absence of these, the ivy turns to Iriumi’s internal magical source as a parasite, but not before using up the stored energy from the periods of light exposure. The ivy derives its name from its properties: it possesses an exceptional resilience to it that helps protect itself and its mistress from harm. The orichalcum ivy normally appears to be a circular green and gold vine-like necklace around Iriumi’s neck.

Magic Description:
Specific type augmentation and limited transformation. Iriumi’s magic is very plant-oriented. Specifically, she helps augment and manipulate the abilities granted to her by the Orichalcum Ivy. There is a partiality towards mergence in some of their spells and capabilities, but most of the time the two stay as separate entities. However, this does not stop Iriumi from imitating or transforming parts of herself into semblances similar to the Orichalcum ivy, with varying degrees of success and properties.

Ivy suit: Iriumi’s barrier jacket. The orichalcum ivy expands and grows over Iriumi’s body, covering it in a (usually) skin-tight outfit composed of gold-green ivy leaf motifs. Her face becomes half-obscured by a soft vine and leaf mesh that covers the lower part of her face and nose.

Rooted reinforcement: Ivy’s main defensive method. Ivy extends a large mesh of inverwoven vine and leaves that can block most incoming attacks. Iriumi herself can mimic Ivy’s defence, but it is a lot weaker. However, this means that she can effectively block two incoming attacks. When Iriumi isn’t airborne and has contact with the ground, Ivy and her shields are both much stronger.

Ancient’s Wrath: One of Ivy’s few combat forms. Ivy extends itself to become a relatively unconventional weapon – a shinai (Japanese bamboo practice sword) connected to the main body of Ivy through a single, strong vine. The shinai itself is composed of four strong vines twisted together, ending in a relatively wickedly pointed tip. The pole-like shaft bristles with thorns, and is slightly flexible. Ivy guides Iriumi in attacking with Ancient’s Wrath, with Iriumi augmenting their strength and power behind the blows.

Primordial Bow: Ivy’s primary combat formation. While Ancient’s Wrath is its lesser melee form, when activated, the four vines that form the weapon’s ‘blade’ unfurl outwards into a crossbow. Specialized ivy leaves supplement as ammunition, and the crossbow is self-loading. Iriumi uses augmented targeting when firing the Primordial Bow. Her shots are quite accurate.

Vine-pyre bolts: Ivy’s crossbow bolt leaves are specially designed so that they’d ignite in a burst of fire during its flight. Rather than burning up before hitting their targets, the fire transforms the leaf’s organic matter into a hardened metal that can pierce most normal barriers. The leaves can also be modified to be semi-homing. Their structure can be changed so that they curve in a specific fashion against a moving target.

Vine blast: energy-type ranged blast attack. As a Primordial Bow, Ivy can fire a concentrated amount of energy as vine-like spears that ensnares anybody hit by it for a short amount of time – enough time to reload and not miss. The vine blast is very showy and glows bright green.

Explosive Seeds: Normally a storage device for excess energy Ivy or Iriumi haven’t used. These seeds hold the pent-up magic that can be transformed into usable firepower. Usually fixed to the tip of the crossbow bolts, the seeds can also be thrown or flicked, with very explosive results. Unused seeds are carefully stored away or reabsorbed back into the main body at a later time.

Ivy Wings: Iriumi can sprout organic plant-like leaves that serve as primitive wings for flight. Shape-wise, they just look like a pair of oversized ivy leaves with metal-like veins. They’re effective for long-distance gliding or very quick evasive maneuvers, but are weak in actual maintained flight. Most of Ivy’s abilities are weak while airborne.

Passive Absorbance: a special passive ability Ivy possesses. Because it is a plant organism, Ivy can utilize practically any source of light as an energy source to replenish itself and its host (Iriumi). The strongest source of light unmatched by anything else would be sunlight, and so during the daytime, the duo are a lot stronger in their abilities than they are at night. While this ability to transform light into magical energy also applies to the side-effects of other magical attacks (bright light then blasty blasty), it only serves to either strengthen their own defences or attacks by a little bit. Ivy cannot transform energy from the light it produces itself.

This passive ability also gifts Iriumi with rapid healing during the day, as excess energy transformed by Ivy is given to its host. It also explains why she eats practically nothing all day but has a big meal at night, AND seems to stay awake during all her classes.

Passive detox: being a symbiotic familiar and a plant, Ivy can filter harmful toxins from Iriumi’s body. This keeps Iriumi healthy and fit. As a Barrier jacket, the ‘mask’ over Iriumi’s face also produces a healthy amount of oxygen. This is useful as a filter mask against airborne toxins or a brief heist underwater.

Background: Born into a wealthy family, Iriumi was the middle child, with an older brother (Riu) and a younger sister (Sakura). Their parents were loving, but very busy with their work and earning the money for their wealthy lifestyle. Iriumi wasn’t spoilt, but she was treated to the best of things, and taught how to respect people properly. She looks up to her bigger brother for most problems, thinking him wise in most ways and kind of idolizes him somewhat in her childhood.

At school, Iriumi was very popular. She was able to blend in with most crowds, and her pretty looks earned the eyes of a few boys in her class and and those above her. She was a diligent student, studying hard and earning good marks, so even the teachers had nothing bad to say about her.

When she was 5, her nanna (Misai) visited her and gave her a small necklace with a few pretty beads on it. She’d forgotten about it until the day Misai died. The evening before the funeral was held, Iriumi found the necklace again and decided to wear it. Little did she know what would happen that night…