Name: Helena Mitsuko
Nickname: Ella, Mitts
Age: 17
Physical Age: 16
Gender: Female
Species: Human with a touch of magic
Position: Neutral; Helena could honestly care less which side wins, but instead she focuses on her own agenda. Because of this, her allegiance does not lie with any group.
Powers: Helena's power lies in her pyrokinesis abilities, which first developed at age 13. After four years of practice, she has perfected the technique of conjuring flame, but Helena knows she still has a lot to learn. By exciting the atoms in the air, she can ignite objects as well as air particles. She can selectively control the direction and intensity of the flames. The combustion of a given object is usually accompanied by the snap of the fingers. Otherwise, Helena has a difficult time focusing her energy on combustion, thus she cannot use her powers as a means for silent attacks. To assist with her powers, she often carries around gunpowder in her locket and in her belt buckle, which, of course, presents rather dangerous consequences. Under normal circumstances, Helena is vulnerable to flames and smoke like any other human, and for her own safety, she does not let her flames burn for long. As is the case with all fire, Helena has a natural weakness to water and thus cannot swim.
Helena's fighting style is smooth and elegant when she's under little stress. As the battle gets more intense, the calculated, perfected facade falls away. While Helena does reveal the intensity of her powers and her strength under stress, she is more vulnerable to attacks in this state.
After any one of her powers has been used, Helena must wait a certain amount of time before using them again. Her powers become stressed if used in quick succession, putting a strain on her mental and physical state because of their close association with her magical energy.
Invoked Flurry: By exciting the atoms in the air, Helena can ignite a small flame, usually in the palm of her hand, for a maximum of five posts, but usually less. She rarely uses this power in battle but rather as a light in dark areas. This power is also used out of sheer boredom. However, Invoked Flurry has the potential of distracting foes, though Helena prefers fight over flight. Three posts must pass in between uses.
Pop rocks: By releasing varying amounts of gunpowder, Helena can create anything from a distraction to a devastating explosion upon ignition. The amount of gunpowder carried allows for up to three foe distractions or one explosion. The distractions are much like Snappers (the fireworks you throw at the ground and they make popping sounds and sparks) in spark size, and around twenty can be deployed per distraction. In between distractions, three posts must pass. The explosion itself has the potential of having the explosive effect of a firecracker, but only if arranged correctly. Any aftermath of the explosion has the potential to spread the flames (most of which would probably be about one to two feet tall. It wouldn't be a wall of flames or anything.) This explosion probably won't end a person, but they won't look pretty afterward. Gunpowder cannot be replaced in the same thread it was used up in.
Candle Wick: When her weapons are summoned, Helena can set its blade aflame, but only for a limited period of time. As time progresses, the length of the blade covered in flames will decrease, much like a candle's height decreases. Stronger and more focused attacks usually mean that Candle Wick will burn out faster. The length is two posts long at most, and the cool down period is (you guessed it) three posts.
Third-Degree Burns: Similar to Invoked Flurry, Third-Degree Burns is an attack that actually sets objects and foes aflame. The duration of the attack lasts at the most three posts if the object/foe does not put out the fire beforehand. Based on how long the object/foe was on fire and the natural weakness/resistance to fire, the object/foe may experience no burns to some very serious burns. The period of the cool down is five posts.
LIMIT BREAKS
Firebird: By far Helena's ultimate attack, in this form, Helena is invulnerable to flames and smoke. She uses this only under times of serious stress due to her own personal pride. Firebird engulfs Helena in flames, creating a shield that absorbs partial damage. The flames do not consume Helena's clothes, but they do slightly singe her hair and she smells of smoke after use. In this limit, Helena can use any combination of her attacks aforementioned. Their power is slightly magnified, and all attacks (including regular attacks with her weapon) have the potential of igniting the enemy. This limit break has a limit of two posts and can only be used once per thread. Use of Firebird saps Helena's strength, so for three posts afterward she cannot use any of her powers.
Weapon:Phoenix Feathers: Helena's weapon is a Xiphos, a dual-edged blade originally seen used by the Ancient Greeks. The blade is silver and roughly 50 centimeters long. The guard, shaped like two crossed feathers, and the hilt, also shaped like a feather, are golden in color. From the end of the hilt hangs a red ribbon, a gift from her late father that means the world to her. Phoenix Feathers is used like any other sword--for hacking, stabbing, and parrying. Helena is rather aggressive in her use of her weapon, and under little stress she leaves virtually no openings for her opponents. Under stress, she's entirely on the offensive, leaving herself almost constantly exposed. When not in use, Phoenix Feathers hangs in a sheath by her belt (not shown in the picture).
Picture: 
(picture does not belong to me.)
Appearance: Standing at about 5'3" and weighing about 115 lbs., Helena is a fragile little flower whose skin has barely seen daylight. The girl's physique is slender but reasonably toned, her face heart-shaped, her lips a pale pink. Her hair, usually styled in a ponytail, is black streaked with bright red and can be stubbornly wavy. One of her identifying features is her strange rust-colored eyes. Others include the mass of piercings on each of her ears, her choker from which her mother's locket hangs, and her strong, resolute stature. She wears long, striped, fingerless gloves, a variety of black t-shirts, and ripped skinny jeans. The studded belt that hangs at Helena's waist is accompanied by a plain black sheath in which she houses Phoenix Feathers, as well as a heart-shaped belt buckle in which she stores gunpowder.
Personality: The disappearance of Helena's world has left her cold, calculated, and with a drive to protect, contrasting her from her powers. She's very cynical--a natural loner. Helena does wish for friends to protect, however, only because she lost all of hers right in front of her eyes. The few friends she did have in the little world of Moonlit Lake were her very best, but after they were lost, she became virtually numb to all emotion. Thus, she's hard to impress and difficult to befriend. If one does happen to find their way into Helena's heart, one will find that she suddenly turns around. A gentler, kinder, more loyal Helena emerges from underneath the cold facade. Suddenly, Helena is the greatest ally one can have. If one should double-cross her, however, she will despise them forever--if they're not eradicated first. In battle, Helena is arrogant and calculated. She always seems to know what she's doing until a weapon cuts a little too close. As tensions rise, so will her fiery strength and passion in battle. Her moves become less fluid and becomes more agitated and furious, a sign that though her strength is rising, her defense is falling. In such situations, Helena often claims she is fearless, but her biggest fear is water for it's her powers natural enemy and she cannot swim. Helena cannot stand those who use water as a power and will often fight them to prove to herself that water is harmless. Needless to say, she has failed more than once.
Original World: Moonlit Lake
Current World: Traverse Town
History: Before the reign of darkness began, there was a beautiful world by the name of Moonlit Lake. As if that introduction wasn't stereotypical enough, the people of this world were content with the amount of light that inhabited the world. If there was any question or implication of darkness in the hearts of the people or in the world itself, that question or implication was swiftly dismissed. There wasn't a doubt about how content the inhabitants were… They really had no reason to be. Implied by the name, there was plenty of freshwater from the lake to spare. The soil was fertile; crops and plants were plentiful; there was more than enough supplies to go around. What more could these people want…?
Before a hero can be born, a conflict must be present.
The people of this world were happy, indeed, but they wanted more.
You see, the light of this world was immense. Anybody could covet the warmth and hope such light could bring. Some did more than others. Some wanted such light for themselves as if it was some kind of property that could be traded or taken. This want grew as time wore on. Suddenly, this was a need. Seeds of darkness planted themselves in those green-eyed monsters. They grew outwards and wormed their way into innocents. Darkness had found its way into the people’s hearts.
Nature tends to strive to achieve balance within itself. The darkness festered like a sickness within the population, and at last, the weak fell to its whims. Heartless manifested from their black hearts. Those who were left organized a force to counteract the beasts and eventually, they were driven to the caves found on an island in the midst of the world’s great lake. Others who were thought to be too close to the darkness were sent to the caves as well, and they too fell to darkness. This force, called the Scarecrow, was led by a man named Raiden Mistuko. Shortly after the Scarecrow was created, Raiden’s only child was born to Mrs. Lily Mitsuko, a woman known for her protective magic capabilities. This was nature’s way of introducing a balance to the conflict at hand.
The child was named Helena because of the way her smile lit up the whole room. She was a quiet and precocious child who constantly had an opinion about something. Actually, Helena was quite a normal child at first. She was well-liked by adults and peers alike as a young child. Her father took her on many raids against the Heartless to indoctrinate her, and even presented her with gifts such as her prized red ribbon for feeding him the “right” answers on the subject of darkness, but all this succeeded in doing was allowing Helena to feel sorry for those who had been afflicted by the darkness. Nature’s fail-safe had been disrupted, and thus the darkness in Moonlit Lake could no longer be stopped. Darkness took a stronger hold on Helena’s young heart, and she changed.
As she grew older, Helena was presented with many social difficulties. Everyone had this self-righteous belief about throwing innocent people into the cave just because they were different, deterring Helena from affiliating herself with many of Moonlit Lake’s population. It was those that were discriminated against that Helena had a soft spot for and became friends with. Her father took a stand against such activity and threatened to ship her off to the cave if she continued to show remorse for those he had put away. It was only her mother that truly understood Helena’s viewpoint on the matter, and to console her, Mrs. Mitsuko gave her daughter the locket that she is never seen without.
It was on the last day of Moonlit Lake’s life that Helena’s father told her that it was the wish of the people to ship her off to the cave. At thirteen, Helena was in no way guilty of being sided with the darkness except by association. She was arrested, put on a boat with her father, and began the journey toward the island in the midst of the lake. As soon as he was sure that they were alone, her father gave his daughter his sincerest apologies. He handed her his prized weapon, a Xiphos by the name of Phoenix Feathers, and a case full of gunpowder... And then Mr. Mitsuko surrendered himself to darkness.
Finally, the end of the world came. The delicate scales that balanced the light and darkness within the world had been tipped too far. The sky was blotted out. Everything became pitch black. Somewhere in the never-ending darkness, she felt her mother touch her cheek…
A spark interrupted the endless black. Above Helena’s palm hovered a small flame, lighting the immediate area surrounding her. All around her were ambiguous shapes with beady yellow eyes. In her surprise, she dropped the flame onto the ship below her… The darkness exploded with light one more time. The ambiguous shapes fell away, but the flames were coming ever closer… She jumped into the lake, knowing she couldn’t swim... After flailing about, Helena eventually gave up and lost consciousness, sinking into the darkness…
Upon awakening, Helena found herself on the ground in the middle of Traverse Town. Her world had sunk into the darkness; her loved ones were gone. As if her own newfound powers over flames had consumed all that she ever cared for, Helena emerged from the ashes a new person. For four years, she fought the Heartless to hone her skills and protect innocents, but otherwise, she does not fight light or darkness. Eventually, Helena realized that there was virtually no hope left for her world, or for any other. They all had the same fate: to fall to darkness. She became cynical and cold toward others, but still she hoped that one day, someone could make her change her mind about people.
Role Playing Sample: Life was inexplicably dull that day for Helena. She had hunted around Traverse Town for hours, but there wasn’t a single beast worth fighting. There was no patience present in her heart for fighting someone who wasn’t harming anyone. Of course, all beasts had the potential to harm, but were they bothering her or other people? No, not at all. She didn’t like to persecute innocent beings, no matter who or what they were. Her blade had been used too many times in that manner by its previous user. Helena had vowed to never turn out like her father, like the man who almost willingly handed her over to the will of the people…
She was in Traverse’s Third District whenever she saw the Shadow. It was a cute little thing, she couldn’t lie. It almost looked like a child’s animated and demonic stuffed animal. The Shadow’s antennae twitched, sensing her presence, and it turned its little head toward her. For a moment, it stayed perfectly still as if scoping whether or not Helena was worth the kill. Helena unsheathed Phoenix Feathers and twirled it between her fingers, scoping her enemy out as well. The little Shadow took a few steps toward her, trying to get a better look. Helena matched its steps. The beady yellow eyes blinked curiously. The hunger for hearts was apparent in its eyes. The girl smirked to herself and held her blade steady.
How cute. The little Heartless must be looking for someone to play with, huh? the thought entertained Helena. She remembered the way she used to play with her stuffed animals as a little girl, and though the idea of playing with something that could possibly kill her was odd, Helena felt playfully amused.
“Hey, buddy. Why don’t you play with me?” She asked the Shadow softly, trying to make herself tempting to the creature. The Heartless tilted its head slightly to the side, curious to as to what the silly human girl could possibly be saying. It took another few wary steps toward Helena. Its antennae twitched again, signaling to a few other Shadows in the area. They came up from the floor and joined their friend. Helena’s smirk grew. The Shadow apparently felt that the kill would be safer in a group. It was time to choose whether or not she would fight them off. They were advancing upon the girl, five total. Helena remained resolute in her stature. They quickened pace. She twirled Phoenix Feathers one last time. “I hope you’re ready for some third-degree burns!”
With a snap of her fingers, a wall of flame formed a line between the Heartless and Helena. The beasts ran straight into it and the one Helena first laid eyes on came out on the other side aflame. The others had managed to stop before the wall. An instant later, the flames died down, and Helena raced toward her foes with her blade bared. A resolute swing of Phoenix Feathers eradicated the first Shadow. The other four Shadows came forward, just as resolute as Helena was, and cleverly she jumped over them. Claws reached up and scratched areas of her skin that were exposed, but a few scratches couldn’t slow Helena down. She unleashed a flurry of jabs upon the enemies. They were gone a moment later.
That wasn’t very fun… Her sword found its way back into its sheath. Helena turned on her heel, tucked her hands into her pocket, and proceeded to walk away. “That wasn’t even worth my time…” She muttered in a breath to herself.
Questions/Comments/Suggestions? I imagine I must have done something horribly wrong already ROTFL. It's been forever since I've done anything but casual RPing. I was curious about the powers, as in if I needed to put post-lengths and stuff, and overall just what I need to watch out for if I decide to have another character.
