WhiteRain Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Name: Chang Zha-Yang Aliases: White Rain, the Mirror Queen Residence: The Rainbow Room Marital Status: Married to Terat Lucrezia (Claire Bennon). Technically. Date of Birth: 20th March, 1976 Date of Eruption: May 19th, 2000 Age: 51 (27 years Nova) Height: 5’ 5’’ Weight: 109lbs Physical Build: Slender, almost elfin, somewhat long in the leg. Seems stacked for a Chinese woman, but that’s largely due to the third breast (though they are somewhat above average size). Chang is quite slim-hipped, only emphasized by the size of her penis, which can give her a slight androgynous look if seen from behind. Her hands are especially fine and delicate. BASELINE HISTORY Chang grew up as the third youngest child of a reasonably well-to-do Chinese family with more children than it should have had in the city of Guangzhou in Guangdong province. Even as a child she had an unusual intensity about her, that both put off and sometimes scared other children while also making her a target for bullies. She was too bright at almost every stage of her life, and never seemed to see things the way other people did while at the same time showing an inability to appreciate their perspective. Though a near-savant artist from her youth, her bullish refusal to receive instruction or be directed prevented her from finding success early on, and when the government recognized her ability and tried to enrol her into colleges, she outright stopped producing rather than have her life meddled with. She idolized the nova artists she saw in the news and on the OpNet, who seemed to see things she and no other baseline ever could, and put it in forms unthinkable. It resulted in a general feeling of inadequacy and worthlessness. Without the ability to see what they did, and produce as they did, how could she ever call herself a real artist? Nonetheless, bullish as ever, she kept trying, always testing her limits, always experimenting. ERUPTION – May 19th, 2000 Chang fell in with a nova cult in China. Though a prodigious artist as a baseline, she felt as though her vision essentially meant nothing, because she couldn't see as the far greater artists in the nova world could see. This was the lowest point of her life. She had always been a fierce individualist, but among the cultists she gave up all individuality, all thought, all but slavish dedication to the rituals and procedures set before her in hope of escaping what she saw as the drudgery and failure of her existence. The cult was doomed, dedicated to the madness of attempting to force eruptions on its members under the guise of it being a direct ascendency to godhood. They did the most extreme things to make themselves erupt, from orgastic parties to extreme S & M, torture, self-mutilation and suicide attempts with ancient instruments of torture, or techniques even older and crueller. Chang realized towards the end how insane the whole affair was and tried to escape, realizing that she had lost her way, that she had been a fool and should try to make something of her life regardless of her depression. When the other cultists realized this, Chang herself became a 'sacrificial victim' in a take-off on a Bacchae ritual one of the cultists had heard of in his various researches. The intent was to kill and to eat her, in hope that an indulgence of human flesh would be enough to trigger the eruption. The result was not quite what they intended. As the knife descended, as Chang’s head was filled with the manic, desperate chanting of the cultists… something changed in her head. Rather than scream, she listened, just trying to take in this final moment of her life in all its insane and stupid irony. But when the knife descended, it found her body became inhumanly supple and flexible. Her torso bent sideways at the chest, and before the astonished cultist's eyes, Chang compressed her wrists and ankles and slipped free of her bonds. With her head home to a mix of euphoria and sudden, blinding pain, Chang batted the stunned head cultist aside and walked in a daze away into the night. She declined to enter an MR facility. She had always done better alone, she realized. Chang decided to deal with this alone, too. Having reached her lowest point and emerged transformed, she determined to rise, and never cease her ascension again. Chang Zha-Yang disappeared for six months before returning home one night to tell her family what had happened. EARLY ACTIVITIES Following her return she was quiet for some time, absorbing the enormity of the change that had come over her, mastering her new powers, and coming to terms with her condition. She spent some time composing and experimenting with new forms, mimicking her former artistic heroes and discarding them as inferior one after another. After only months she found that while she had not lost any respect for what were now her peers in the artistic sphere, she had lost the feeling that they were truly inspired. Only a few earth-shattering talents still gave her that feeling of being out of her depth; but now she knew she could catch and surpass them. It was not a matter of how, but when. She just needed to find the right muse. She spent only a little longer in China. Frictions in her family had grown intense. While artistically brilliant she had never been a physical person, nor in truth an especially intelligent one. Her focus had been so obsessive, so arrow-straight, that while she quickly perceived anything she paid attention to she rarely did pay attention to anything. The new Chang Zha-Yang, on the other hand, put everyone in the family to shame on every level. More beautiful than her sisters (or any baseline), faster and healthier than her brothers, more mentally active than all of them put together, resentment grew. For her own part Chang felt the distance between herself and her family, but tried to keep close. Unfortunately the eruption had left her tainted even then, and it only worsened the problems her enhanced abilities guaranteed. Over time, those issues grew out of control. She no longer felt the need to hold back on her opinions, or to pay attention to those of her elders. Eventually she decided it was time to go, correctly predicting that her father would demand she leave before long. As perhaps a last act of familial kindness, she spared him the pain of doing so, and departed in the night without a word to anyone never to return. Following this she toured the world, exploring, experiencing, growing. She had already learned that she could eat anything. Mud. Bricks. Stones. Glass. Steel. If she could get it in her mouth she could eat it, and her flexible body meant she could get almost anything in her mouth and down her throat. So she lived wild, listening, savouring the senses her eruption had granted her, and wondering why she of all people had erupted, after allowing herself to be taken so low, and becoming so pathetic. Three years after her eruption, with something approaching answers to the questions that bothered her, she sat down and seriously looked at music. The novox singers of the time were ostentatious, dramatic, spectacular. Chang felt there was something... missing in their performances, like the glitz and the glamour detracted somewhat from their singing. To her it seemed that the heart of singing ought to be the voice, and that even those with the greatest voices seemed to focus on other things. So she stripped it all down. She found herself a tape recorder, a six-string guitar she persuaded a busker to let her have for a weekend, and a pad of paper. Six months later, bootleg copies of the album 'White Rain' began appearing in the hands of stunned fans all over the UK. For a long time nobody knew who the composer was, for Chang had been in the form of someone else when she gave the tapes out. An OpNet campaign spread worldwide in an attempt to identify the composer – clearly Nova – but with a strange voice that matched no known novox singer. At first people thought it to be multiple novas, an entire band nobody had ever heard of, but quick analysis confirmed only one voice, duplicated four times on the recording, and no sign of any artifice or trick of technology being used to create the unique, haunting harmonies therein. Chang continued this pattern for a further year, releasing two more albums – Broken Steppes (a largely emotional album focusing on her feelings about her family) and Caldera Blazing (a low-concept album with each song telling the story of a young girl who climbs the side of a volcano and, once at the top, realizes there is nowhere left for her life to go if she turns back, and so throws herself into the flames) - with only the most basic instrumentation and her amazing, unique voice. The eruption itself had gifted her the strange throat construction which allowed her to make up to four vocalizations at once, and she used it to full effect even in these first albums. The OpNet campaign continued to gather intensity, with Nova spotters collating and comparing notes, trying to track down the origin of every original tape as the new albums emerged. Chang, though aware of the furor and the wild critical acclaim her songs were earning, had no interest in being in the public eye. She continued to use her shapeshifting abilities to hand out the tapes anonymously when her albums or singles were finished, and then returned to anonymity. As before, the instruments she used for her recordings were borrowed from baselines she charmed, always in another form. WHITE RAIN Someone, somewhere, decided enough was enough. Pantheon Productions hired a Nova private investigator to crack the case, and find out who ‘White Rain’ truly was. After being tracked down, the mysterious 'White Rain' was unveiled. She signed a deal, and would produce three more albums over the next three years, and one ‘special’ album. The relationship with her record company was fraught with trouble though. They wanted her to do big tours, she was fine with that, but only wanted to play small venues. They wanted her to do a lot of interview work, she only wanted to talk with fans. The unhappy medium saw her doing small venues - all tickets bought out in split seconds - and doing a degree of TV and OpNet interviews about herself and her work. By her own admission, the arrangements ‘made nobody happy, and probably did nobody any favours, either.’ After the end of her deal, 'White Rain' had no interest in signing on for that company or any other. After her last album 'White Rain - Four Crosses Bare', all of her produce has become musical legend: bootleg copies appearing in whatever city she recorded it in, and spreading from fan to fan since then. The only time she has ever made money from her music since that three year period is on royalties from the original album sales and one off projects that people can hook her into. Chang’s music spreads via the OpNet, mostly. She has nonetheless released albums semi-steadily over the past 23 years, no longer worrying about being recognized, but nonetheless handing a recording chip into the hands of a number of trembling baselines, and then leaving once again. Hindsight: Given Pantheon Productions’ connection to Narcosis and the Teragen, it’s quite possible that the Teragen were making a play on Chang even then, though it could have been coincidence. SEEKER However, Chang Zha-Yang was far from done. She had begun to change. Taint had crept in, she had begun to develop aberrations. Her eyes changed first, then came her third breast, which emerged during a particularly strenuous night of sex, and finally she developed hermaphroditism, a change that would come to define a whole stretch of her life. Relationships soured. Some fans had said cruel things. Her perspective towards herself, the world, and the future had begun to move in a new, internalized direction. Accordingly she refocused onto other forms of expression and put her music to the side for a time. Painting. Dance. Poetry. Sculpture. Photography. Sketching. Choreography. Anything she could use to express the whirling thoughts and emotions in her head in vivid, passionate detail. She released some of this for money, and with rare exceptions her produce was met with positive reviews, and Chang was greeted with good financial rewards. She felt unsatisfied and uninspired, though, and produced less and less work for sale, becoming a recluse again. The release of the Null Manifesto in 2005 had a profound effect on Chang’s thinking, though it took her time and careful thought before she felt certain it held her future in its words. It was during this rest period between music that she turned more and more to the teachings of Mal. She sank away from the public light. For a year the only news the world heard from her was the release of just two songs, both Manifesto-inspired, and at the time considered quite radical (not to mention they were the first time Chang had explicitly touched on politics in her singing). She was re-discovered by an American art dealer, a Jewish man named Noah Antwiler. Her work had turned stranger and more complex by far as the thoughts that the Manifesto inspired were made real in ink, paint, and photograph. He saw the public interest in the Teragen growing, and with the strands of pro-Teragen thought in her songs, he thought there was a market to be exploited. It turned out he was right, and the same youths who flocked to the calls of the Pandaimonion flocked to see the 'new' White Rain's art. Around this time she received the Teragen's siren call, but declined it for some time. Count Raoul Orzais, a self-proclaimed admirer of her art, discussed the matter with her several times, but Chang’s insistence on carving her own path meant she always resisted. It was not until she met the charismatic and altogether more aggressive Scrambler in Ibiza that Orzais’ words worked. Chang embraced Teras, then, and the possibilities it offered. This occurred in 2009. Chang moved more and more underground with the Teragen. Scrambler walked the path of the Monster and sought to guide her on it with him, but Chang’s old bullish tendencies surfaced, and she began to read around his studies, to seek other perspectives. The Monster’s path seemed and felt wrong to her, too fundamentally discordant to fit her quiet, peaceful temperament. She was often paraded about by Scrambler, and so met various other Terats. Her argumentative habits surfaced, and she proved far more critical than Scrambler intended. He often compared her to a child he couldn’t take anywhere. Some Terats were offended by her attitude, but many found her interesting at least. Scrambler, though, just found her frustrating, as she kept asking questions, and in his eyes, never seemed to learn. After a year with Scrambler, Chang broke away from him and his path, and managed to take her first steps on the path of the Portent. Feeling she had enough of a grounding to walk alone, and increasingly concerned by what amounted to Scrambler’s hate speech towards baselines and violence she saw growing throughout the Teragen, she returned to seclusion once more in search of her own way. Ironically, the event which all but ended her 'public' life occurred during this period. On a talk show she was cornered by the host, and accused of being a Teragen poseur. She nearly throttled him with her hair before storming out. When he filed criminal charges, she returned the favour with a defamation suit, and both sides settled out of court. The subtext being, of course, that Chang considered herself a Terat. Yet for all that, it would be several years before Chang even spoke to another member of the Teragen. Hindsight: Given the noted difficulties of even beginning a Terat path without a mentor, and no known other mentor than Scrambler, it has to be wondered how Chang got started. There’s a theory that the Mathematician had something to do with it, or Raoul Orzais, who was trying to politic to lure Chang to his Casablancas. Either way, it didn’t quite seem to work out like anyone intended. OUTSIDER 2010 onwards saw Chang return to the outside world ‘her own woman’ once again, walking her path alone with the same determination she had. She moved to Russia for a time, and had a short fling with a Russian supermodel, putting her artistic skills behind the camera to make her a superstar. That relationship soured after five months, when in a surge of passion Chang engulfed the woman with her own body and held her inside for almost an hour, lost in a frenzy of inhuman passion. In the aftermath, Olga Borganskaya filed charges of rape. These allegations shook Chang to her core. Genuinely upset and hurt, she was eventually released simply because the jury would not convict her. They found her too convincing, too genuine, too imperfect. Her taint made them want her gone from their sight, yet her beauty and eloquence spoke to all their higher instincts. In the end none of them could convict. Afterwards, however, Chang disappeared into the ruins of ancient Greece alone for a time, seeking inspiration, direction, and healing in the solitude she had relied on through her whole life. She returned months later, moving to Canada in the aftermath of an apparent terrorist attack in Vancouver. She sought to use the pain and devastation of the place and the people as inspiration, to see if she could produce some new art and new songs. This led to several resurgences over the next year. She composed her next album, several dozen new paintings, and met Jason ‘Bombshell’ Bellefleur. The two did not exactly hit it off, but they met a few times, and Jason roped Chang into helping her with a charity event for the victims of the Victoria Crush. There Chang produced a bust of Bombshell of such quality that it was almost as beautiful as the real thing, and sold for a cool $12,000,000. She wrote the song ‘Angel of Harmony and Despair’, which focused on the darker side of the Bombshell phenomenon, on broken hearts and ruined relationships, of women hurting themselves in a futile bid to be her, and men casting them aside for their failure. Later that same year, Chang put Jason underneath the artist’s camera in what would be a seminal photoshoot that cast Bombshell in a hitherto unseen light. A wonder of light, artfully cracked and shattered mirrors, and odd angles, it made the beautiful superstar seem almost sinister at times, and at other times captured her with expressions of agony or rage, screaming into the cracked mirrors and reflected in a thousand crazed shards. The critical response to this was almost angry, wondering both why Jason would allow herself to be involved in such a creation, and what the hell White Rain was thinking in putting it together. In short, White Rain was back. She also re-encountered the Teragen, in the form of Shae and the Mansfields, and that contact reminded her of a few hard truths. Mostly; she realized that she had grown lonely. She confronted her own sexuality at this time, too, coming to the conclusion that she was at heart a lesbian, her desires heavily leant towards the female form. But for all the blatant, almost brutal sexuality of her body, Chang wanted love more than sex, though neither seemed like to be coming. Shae refused to allow that. In short, she and her family seduced Chang, and ‘re-took’ her virginity. Chang had genuine sex with her male parts for the first time since they had developed. And amid all of this came a revelation: Chang Zha-Yang, noted Terat sympathizer, was donating massive sums of money to baseline charities every month, and had been doing so for years. Despite being asked repeatedly for her reasons, Chang never answered. Nor did she answer questions about her philosophical leanings. She simply went on doing as she did, leaving others to puzzle. It was one of the best years of Chang’s life. However, other wheels were in motion. Scrambler had not forgotten the woman who walked out on him, who made him seem a fool in front of his Primacy and Nova Vigilance colleagues. He had watched obsessively as she whored herself to the public, as she associated with the disgusting Jason Bellefleur, as she slid off the path of Teras. And so, he acted. One day he and his new apprentice kidnapped Chang from her Vancouver apartment, intending to send her abroad to be ‘retaught’ a few important lessons of novakind. But the plane ended up shot down over the Congo at the outbreak of the violence that would lead to the rise of King Einherjar. In a separate incident, he enlisted a friend’s aid and his own ability to disrupt a Nova’s powers to deliver Jason unceremoniously into the heart of the growing conflict, a last petty bit of vengeance on the woman he had come to blame for his former protégé’s failures. Chang barely survived her experiences in the Congo. She ended up running with groups of anti-government terrorists, forced to ply her incredible perceptions to assist them with spotting incoming attackers, and her genius to help them predict their opponents. But when she escaped the warzone, with blood on her hands and terror in her veins… she grabbed a camera, turned around, and walked right back in. There were leaps made towards chrysalis in those two years. Between pushing herself to her then artistic limits to properly show Jason Bellefleur in ways baseline artists and photographers could never dream of to tasting love and pleasure with the Quartet to burying herself in the blood and shit of the Congo as a war photographer, Chang saw echoes of her future self, and they dragged her on in a near-fugue. She used her supernatural charisma to insinuate herself amongst more and more violent groups, to witness and record the most horrific scenes she could. The Congo let her see Nova and humankind at their worst. She had to see all of it. The next official piece of White Rain art that appeared on the world stage were her war photographs, a brutal, uncompromising and desolate look at the agonies of the Congo, seen at the lowest level. The proceeds filled her coffers. VICTIM Scrambler, realizing Chang was still alive, set out to find her. She spent much of the next year either a step ahead of him or a victim in increasingly elaborate games designed to test or kill her or both. Those who have put together a logical account of the events of 2013 note that Chang and Scrambler collided in more than two dozen different countries, including a violent return to the Congo that seemed to be a deliberate retread of ancient Arnold Schwarzenegger movie The Predator, with Chang as the prey. They met in Ibiza, Cairo, in several cities in America, even in Antarctica. Chang nearly tasted death multiple times. She experienced pain unlike anything she could have imagined. She saw people die, and killed to live. But she never asked for help. Early on, Chang came to the conclusion that whatever Scrambler thought was her test, the real test was to see if she had the conviction to stand it alone. In fact, Chang goaded him constantly to ramp up the pressure, to increase the weight on her will. Her test, she decided, was to see just what she could handle. Scrambler – always easy to anger – did not disappoint. He expended as much effort in breaking her as she did in resisting him, and in the process learned more about herself than ever before. Their final meeting happened in China, in Guangzhou province where she had once been born before casting off her human husk and being reborn in quantum fires. Scrambler beat her with his fists, kept her prisoner for more than a month. Chang did not say a word to him in all that time. She just made herself keep smiling until she had little to smile with, and Scrambler had to wait for her wounds to heal a little before going back to work. It did not matter to Chang. The abuse became almost a game to her. Scrambler kept hitting her, and she kept mocking him with her eyes, smiling, daring him to talk, to shout and to rail at her for the years that separated them and the failures he blamed her for. And she never said a word. To Chang, Scrambler had served his purpose. He had proven her strength of will once and for all. She accepted that she would likely die, fearlessly, and determined to feel it as intensely as she had that night long ago when a baseline dagger sought her heart. The abuse ended not with Chang heroically escaping her confinement, but with the interference of a woman who would change the course of her life forever. TERAT The Pandaimonion Terat known only as Lucrezia found the ramshackle hut where Chang was – seemingly – being slowly beaten to death, and snuck her out while Scrambler was not looking. A prodigious cloner and Shapeshifter, Lucrezia used her own linked duplicates to cover their escape, as Scrambler chased shadows and copies, never able to get his hands on the real deal. Chang became increasingly sluggish on the way back to Ibiza. She knew what she had done, and what her body was preparing for. The Chrysalis. Long-sought, never tasted. It came on her in a rush, but she held it off, refusing to enter it until she felt just right. Even now, with her heart’s desire embracing her, Chang refused to accept it under anything other than her own terms. Lucrezia recognized what was happening, and hurried Chang to Count Orzais, terrified that Scrambler would catch up to them now that Chang was increasingly slow and immobile. When Orzais met the dirty, bedraggled creature Chang had become, and he too recognized what was transpiring, he made instant arrangements for her to be held safely. On her knees, Chang broke her silence of months to beg the indulgence of the Count, because she felt she might need to nap for a while. And so she gave in to the Chrysalis, and the storm of her evolution took hold. Time passed, events transpired. Chang slept and changed. She slept a long, long time, long enough that her handlers feared she might never awaken. One year passed and then a second. Chang’s chrysalis was transported several times to make sure she remained undiscovered, once having to avoid clumsy probes by Scrambler, once avoiding the claws of Utopia. Finally, the chrysalis cracked, and a new White Rain emerged into the world in 2016. She was more powerful, yes, but more self-assured, and if possible, more determined. She had been kept safe in Orzais’ personal estate for the most part, and he sent Scrambler unceremoniously sent packing when he came looking. Much had happened. Einherjar had grown ascendant in the Congo, bringing slow peace to ‘his’ nation. Jason and Knockout had a daughter… and just that year, Knockout had died. When told of this, Chang only nodded. She said she heard the death scream in her sleep, though that was impossible, all agreed. Nonetheless, it was then that Lucrezia and the other Terats who had been watching over her realized her perceptions had grown obscenely since she entered the state of change. Lucrezia remained with her to care for her and help her get back on her feet, while Orzais gave her the run of one of his mansions during her recuperation. In her own quiet way, Chang mourned for Jason, whom she had thought of as someone who might have been a friend… and that was closer than most people ever got to her in those days. She wrote sad poems, sadder songs, painted and sculpted. So it was that after a near three-year absence, White Rain released her newest album. Not just her newest, though, but her best. The album outshone everything that had come before it within the first minute of the first song, for Chang’s instincts were sharper than ever, and her emotions ran high. She made a private visit to the Congo that year, to see the house that Einherjar built. Inspired by the new Kinshasa, she offered her services for a time, for no other reason than to give her full stamp of approval to the man and his deeds. She donated sculptures, paintings, composed some songs just for the budding nation, and wrote a special elegy to the magnificence of Einherjar himself, titled ‘The Storm Lord’s Call’. Following the pattern of much of her one-off contracts it was altogether more sweeping and operatic than her personal compositions, resonant of the Nordic highlands and ages past. Rather than simply glorify him, it brought to the fore the contrast between his somewhat old-fashioned ideals, and the cold and practical world that he bent to his will by strength of arm and mind. It was during this time that she grew close to Lucrezia. The two hit it off, in part because of the shared experiences in China, in part because Chang’s chrysalis had left her with new and intense hungers. She had emerged with a lust for life, having come so close to death, and with her passions enflamed, Lucrezia was in the perfect place to benefit. She gladly indulged those passions and lusts, returning her own, finding herself slowly sucked in to Chang’s world. Away from her usual Pandaimonion peers, Lucrezia’s own attitude to Teras began to shift a little. They talked often of philosophy, Chang’s history with Scrambler, her reasons for avoiding the movement for so long, and many other things. They respected, and eventually loved one another. For Chang it was a revelation to have someone ‘more’ than a friend. To even have a friend was a fairly unique experience. But this… this changed everything. As for Lucrezia, she indulged in pleasures the way any good Pandaimonion Terat did… but she rarely felt truly inhuman. In bed with Chang, she did. Literally stretched and strained by the elder Terat’s passions, she began to make her own strides on the path of chrysalis, and picked Chang’s brain constantly on how best to walk the path, or for pitfalls Chang felt she had run into on the way and how she had avoided them. After the stint in Kinshasa, Chang wished the king her best, and returned to Orzais’ mansion to finish resting. She spent most of the rest of the year working on compositions and other artistic endeavours, adapting to her new state with the methodical determination that she approached everything. Finally, near the end of the year, Chang gave Count Orzais her most sincere thanks for his hospitality, and over several games of chess, they discussed her future. It had taken seven years, winding in and out of the movement’s periphery, but on June 15th, 2017, Chang Zha-Yang finally became a member of the Teragen. HEDONIST Though it was Raoul who had courted her in the first place, and protected her, in the end he sent her to Narcosis with a gracious smile and his card in case she should need anything in the future. Chang’s love Lucrezia made no pretence about using Chang’s presence to her advantage. Having brought an artist of such skill – and such elusive qualities – into the folds of the Pandaimonion was a matter of pride and she used it to rise in the ranks. Oddly, it had no effect on their relationship. Chang recognized a manipulative streak in Lucrezia from the first, and loved her for it where she might respect or fear it in others. She was content to be played with, observing, knowing that she was being played with, and allowing it. She had learned from Scrambler that anything was acceptable… just so long as she permitted it to happen. As is often the way of the mega-manipulative, Lucrezia often used Chang to achieve oblique ends, asking her to go here or there in order to cause this or that to happen somewhere else several days later. However, Chang possessed a vastly more developed mind, and often saw far further than her lover. She would rarely refuse, taking it as part of Lucrezia’s journey and happy to play her part in it. Once or twice, when Lucrezia’s aims matched Chang’s own, she even suggested something more cunning than Lucrezia’s own schemes, having seen right through them and perceived a better course of action. Despite her new directly Terat leanings, Chang continued to donate money to baseline charities, much to the disgust of some of her new peers. Narcosis, though, ever pleased to battle for the hearts and minds of the populace, thought it ‘perfectly quaint’ and was more than happy to let Chang go on in peace. At least so long as she could be frequently corralled into producing art for the Blackburn and for special occasions. Chang entered into a period of rare productivity in this period. With her libido satisfied – and plenty of other lovers eager to seduce her for a taste of power or to earn her favour – friends to hand and inspiration by the bucketload, Chang began to churn out pieces. She worked on the musical score for several movies, and in the process demonstrated perfect knowledge of full orchestral arrangements, rock ballads and everything else required, put together an especially complex dance routine for a pair of Novas who had the dancing talent but lacked the design, and put together one for her beloved Lucrezia as well that required all of her clones to perform, working in synchrony. She put out portraits and confusing, impressionistic paintings, simple sound loops and sculptures of heart-rending beauty or equally heart-rending horror. More and more she tried to represent Teras, not just in its glory but in its often disastrous darkness, sometimes making collages of sculpture, paint and poetry that told of the rise and fall of imaginary novas (often based on real life cases). Terats began to visit sometimes just to view Chang’s work, and many left disturbed or enlightened. Some left disgusted and angry. With this endeavour, Chang helped contribute to making the Blackburn one of the hottest places to be, and her fame became widespread – mostly due to Narcosis’ relentless marketing and merchandising of her – despite Chang’s efforts to avoid it. Whenever she tried to explain why she preferred not to take that route, she always found herself talked out of it, and somehow convinced by the end of the conversation that Narcosis had everything in hand and Chang would not be disturbed by anybody. That was not quite the truth, but Narcosis did carefully shield her from full public scrutiny, as promised. The one thing Chang remained adamant about, though, was that her music would receive no official distribution. Narcosis – naturally – was not fond of that. Not being much of an artist herself, she found Chang’s arguments on the matter less than persuasive, but by now understood the signs of her digging in her heels. Ultimately they came to a compromise: Chang would release her albums in her usual preferred manner, and sometime later, Pantheon Productions would pick up the rights to the album and re-release it. Despite misgivings, Chang agreed, and agreed to the most earth-shaking thing of all: a public interview. Six months later, after the release of her next album, Chang gave her first official public interview in more than eight years. A lengthy interview – as Chang had agreed with Narcosis to answer any questions put to her – Chang talked for more than five hours in total about issues relating to her past, the Olga lawsuit, her donations to baseline charities (which she declined comment on), the Teragen, Knockout’s death, and other events. Relating to her music, when asked why she had always released her albums this way when it would be so much more profitable to do it officially, Chang again – infuriatingly – declined comment. However, she said she would change if she felt she ought to, but that she intended to keep releasing her music the way she always had, and then announced she had come to ‘an agreement’ with Pantheon Productions. Though Chang would release her albums ‘the right’ way, she had given them permission to pick up copies of the recordings six months to a year after the official release, either re-master or contact Chang to re-record some material, and then launch the albums as an official studio release. Chang emphasized that all the money would go to Pantheon Productions, not to her. She declined to say why. This interview proved infinitely more important than Chang could have imagined (or would have wanted). Her baseline fans ate it up, every one of them adoring her all the more for refusing to answer the questions she refused to answer (the OpNet boards just loved to theorize on these topics and would have been upset to have a definitive answer), but the people it really affected were Chang’s fellow Terats. Most of them knew of her at the very least. Many had not met her, and plenty had encountered her music or her art. Few of them had heard her talking, though. She came off a lot like Count Orzais, only more alien, less comprehensible, and at times she expressed outright criticism of Mal and the Teragen – sore points to many Terats to be sure – while even expressing respect for baselines now and again. Hearing the interview, many wondered how she could ever have reached chrysalis, let alone be respected. Her emergence in the Pandaimonion had not gone unnoticed by Scrambler, either. He had wanted her to join him in the Primacy, fighting for the future of Novakind, not rolling around with whores! However, he found himself with a strict no-hands warning by Orzais and Narcosis. Nonetheless he could not keep away, especially after learning that all those things he used to hate were still in evidence, and knowing that Chang dared grieve for Knockout. More and more he reminded people that Chang was giving huge amounts of money to baseline charities, sometimes millions of dollars. He set out, essentially to humiliate her in front of the entire Pandaimonion at a Terat-only party in the blackburn. Picking his moment, Scrambler confronted Chang and proceeded to grill her in front of everybody. After a long, ranting and angry speech – to Narcosis’ glowering discontent – he demanded Chang explain herself. Chang… declined. She gave an eloquent speech about how Teras did not behoove any Terat to explain themselves to any other, how she preferred to let them think and decide for themselves. She laid out her own beliefs on Teras in detail, and said she did not blame him for torturing her half to death, in fact she thanked him. She also slapped him in the face, and said that there was a simple reason why she had turned away from him, his beliefs, and his faction: she thought of the Primacy as aptly named, for they were little better than animals. It was a calculated move. Scrambler fired back immediately, punching Chang hard enough to break her neck and punch her through a wall. Fortunately she had expected that, and made herself resilient enough to survive it. The blow injured her severely nonetheless, but as the bouncers descended on Scrambler, Chang rose up and said she not only did not want him thrown out, but demanded that he remain. Narcosis permitted that, grudgingly. Chang gave Scrambler another shot, smiling at him. He walked out on his own. Chang’s injuries were handled by a healer in attendance, and the party went on long into the night. That very night, Chang took Narcosis to one side and said she had plans for the Pandaimonion, and asked if she wanted to talk about them. They talked for several days straight, breaking only for sex, and talked during that, too. LEADER The time for White Rain to remain in the shadows had ended. She explained her own take on the portent philosophy to Narcosis, and how they ought to interact with baselines and let them see Teras for what it was. Chang’s take on the battle of hearts and minds was less about simply having a good time and being amazing, and focused more on appealing to the highest faculties of humanity: through the medium of art. She pointed out that art had been at the centre of cultural revolutions throughout history, and despite the Teragen’s often desperate declaration that they were cutting their own path… to date they had followed a well-trod road, replete with the usual and expected pitfalls. History – she said – was not something that belonged to baselines. It was bigger than all of them, twice as implacable, and difficult to sway. Narcosis sought to addle history’s mind with drink and drugs and laughter. Orzais sought to do it with cool philosophy and careful manipulation, by winning over Novakind and helping them see the true way. Chang sought the road between those two, trying to sway history by giving it something to think about, and showing the world Teras’ glory in art and song and word. She proposed that the Pandaimonion focus less on political manoeuvring, less on – essentially – accruing and dealing with enemies one after another in an endless circle, and refocus on Narcosis’ own preferred goals: creating the circumstances where those enemies would have their legs cut out from under them by their own people. The two became a partnership over the year of 2018, trying to put into motion these ideas of hers, with assistance from Count Orzais. However, the brutal attack of Team Tomorrow on the Amp Room put those plans aside… For about ten minutes. Even as new songs boiled in Chang’s mind, she saw opportunity flowering in front of her, and pointed it out to Narcosis. As the incredible Nova singer Harmonic appeared on the world stage, Chang relocated to the new Rainbow Room, and set to work making it amazing. This caused a flurry of recruitment in the Pandaimonion, many of them Portents, almost all of them artists. Some were others, young, strong Terats put off by the violence stirring in the Primacy, or directly put off by Scrambler’s unending bitching about Chang, or just seduced by the beauty of her art and music. The Pandaimonion, known for being clean-cut ‘pretty people’, gained a more tainted side, with Portent artists and creators a regular at all the events, and some of them tainted enough to be barely recognizable as human. Some of those became lovers. Some were students. Most became peers in the Pandaimonion, and Chang’s star grew in ascendency. All the while, Narcosis quietly held up her end of the deal, keeping the press from bothering Chang too much, carefully stage-managing the Pandaimonion’s growth without appearing to. At the same time, deeply impressed by the inroads and progress Chang was making, Count Orzais donated a ‘frankly ridiculous’ sum of money towards an ambitious art project Chang had in mind. The project in question was a mammoth united art project that involved turning an entire mansion into one cohesive piece of art, with every piece of furniture, wall, ceiling, floor and room contributing to the whole. She based it on one of the more feverish dreams she had in chrysalis, and the entire house was essentially turned into a trippy descent into madness, a huge and sprawling dedication to the wonders and madness of Teras. This general time period lasted about two years, almost of it spent with Chang in a productive frenzy, or else taking occasional breaks with Lucrezia to recharge her creative batteries and get a change of scenery. ELDER Chang and Lucrezia were married on New Year’s Eve 2020, by Count Orzais and Narcosis in a madcap wedding where Chang’s stable of the Pandaimonion ‘went nuts’, and laid out just about every crazy trick they could think of to make it memorable. Plus, Lucrezia attended with all thirty copies of herself and both Orzais and Narcosis agreed that they should make sure Chang was married to all of her wife-to-be. As Chang’s star grew, so too did Lucrezia’s. Her gifts, more directly usable by Narcosis, meant she was often busy with the intrigues that Chang advised broadly against, but she enjoyed them and seemed to be gifted in that regard, so it made for interesting pillow talk. In her day to day, though, Lucrezia worked to promote her wife’s dream for the Pandaimonion, doing the PR that Chang herself usually declined to do. It was that year that Lucrezia finally found herself in Chrysalis, and much of Chang’s artistic output that year was focused and based on her wife, and how much she missed her. Lucrezia emerged after ten months, changed, like any Terat, and more in love with Chang than ever. They took a break together, a small holiday to just be together while Lucrezia adapted to her new self, for now she was always cloned and copied, and there were a great many of her. They returned in the New Year, with separate determinations. Lucrezia intended to push the Pandaimonion harder than ever, with herself as a living exemplar. Chang, though, had a different thought in mind. She felt the time had come for a second chrysalis. As a result, her activity in 2022 grew sporadic, with her mostly advising other Novas, putting out the occasional project, and watching the world stage. She became withdrawn again, pondering the changes in herself far more than usual, tracing the path she had taken from the young girl who hated her inadequacies to the sexually deviant, creatively supercharged White Rain. She sought the crisis point, the thing which was holding her back, and spend much of the year gauging whether the time was right, ever aware of the consequences of poor timing or of overestimating one’s own growth and wisdom. Finally, she had it. It came down to her art. She gathered together every piece she could get her hands on in her entire artistic life. She dug back as far as she could, finding works she had forgotten about and some declared priceless, she pulled in favours and put all the resources she had available towards recovering the sum total of forty five years of life. Some she bought some she stole, others she killed over. Tapestries and original lyric sheets, sculptures and paintings, even the base plans for dance movements and poems. She gathered all of these together in one place in Ibiza and spent a week in meditation atop the tower she had created. A veritable wicker woman of marble, canvas, glass and other materials all turned toward her artistic expression, a piece of art made of art. In some ways, this was her. It summed up every moment of her life, marked a pattern that went back to her eruption and beyond. And at the end of that week she burned them. The pain she felt in seeing these things destroyed, this almost perfect record of her life, triggered the eruption. It was her irrevocable declaration that nothing that had come before could possibly ever match what was about to come, and that she was ready to see what waited ahead. This chrysalis took just over a year, thirteen months, and was attended to by her wife and the most trusted of her disciples in the Pandaimonion. THE MIRROR QUEEN Chang emerged from her second chrysalis a new woman in more ways than most people could have thought. Her desires and lusts had taken on new life inside her – much to her wife’s delight – and her qualities had grown to a level even most novas could only balk at. At the same time, she had evened out her quantum signature, suppressing the taint in it and freeing her mind from some of its weight. After a month or so catching up on the events she had missed and getting used to her new perceptions and cognitive processes (not to mention how people seemed even more drawn to her than before), Chang did what she always did: Returned to art. She had missed the rise of Harmonic and the young nova’s world tour, but she devoured all the albums, listening intently. Afterward she was heard to remark that she’d gladly duet with her someday if she ever wanted to. Chang wrote songs first, but kept scrapping them as she explored her new powers more and more, as new sounds and sensations and thoughts swarmed her mind. She took to other art forms as therapy, tapestry-weaving, mad binges of painting that left whole rooms as her canvas. It was around then that the term ‘Mirror Queen’ turned up. Chang did not pay attention to it at first. It was a muttering amongst her various followers and admirers in the Pandaimonion. But it took root, spreading through the group like wildfire. The name emerged from Chang’s portraits and painting gaining a new level of acuity and accuracy, to the point that some of the people painted found the painting to seem more real than what they saw in the mirror. At that point, Shiv, singer and mistress of stabbity, coined the term ‘Mirror Queen’ for Chang. It stuck, with one of the Pandaimonion even referencing it in a couple of songs released to the public. As The Mirror Queen, Chang’s star reached its zenith, toward the end of 2023. She was officially invited to the Pantheon, alongside Narcosis as joint-leader of the Pandaimonion. Much to Chang’s surprise, her own sub-faction of the Pandaimonion had grown as large as the main one while she was in chrysalis, to the point that her words were changing the overall direction of the group. Faced with new responsibilities and new challenges, Chang focused on rising to the occasion. She had never thought it could go as far as this, but now that it had, she intended to make good on her promises. Promises made to her peers and betters, to help lead the Teragen as a whole and to do her best by every Nova who came to her for guidance. The eyes of history were upon her now. Failure was not an option. The emergence of the children caused upheaval in the Teragen ranks, mostly in a good way. The future they had all intrigued for during the last twenty years was coming about, and now they had to make it happen right. But the old games of trying to guide the children also resurged, with the mega-manipulative and charismatic eager to make swift impressions on them. Firmly in that category herself, Chang nonetheless stayed away, watching, thinking. She thought about the Teragen as a whole, and what these intrigues could do. As the children began to multiply, the motherhunters became more active than ever. Both The Primacy and Nova Vigilance were stirred up into a frenzy. Chang added her voice to those of others in the Teragen promoting caution, and was in turn branded a coward for doing so. At first, though, Count Orzais’ smooth words and careful planning kept things from getting out of control. When Tarik and The Apostle betrayed the Teragen at the end of 2024 it distracted from the motherhunters issue for a time. It hurt everybody and the conspirators most of all. It took near six months to uncover The Apostle’s part in the scheme, to winkle out Tarik’s schemes and track him down, before he was finally culled from the organization altogether and killed by Surge. DeLormier, long Scripture’s understudy, escaped with his life but not unpunished, stripped of his ability to speak and crippled, he was cast out in disgrace, perhaps never to return. The Cult of Mal was left near-leaderless, with Clarion entering chrysalis and Scripture understandably shaken by The Apostle’s betrayal. It was impossible for it not to come back on him a little, for it had been under Scripture’s wing that The Apostle had fostered this treachery, and seemingly without his notice. Orzais, who had courted Tarik and brought him into the fold, not to mention championed him on several occasions, had a rare black mark on his record. His foes in the Teragen were eager to hammer that nail home, but The Mirror Queen adamantly defended Orzais’ actions, pointing out that nobody saw it coming. Even Mal, she said, had been taken in, or else he allowed it to occur, and in the latter case that would imply this was for the best. Either way, she said, Orzais could not be blamed. In the meantime, he quietly picked up most of Tarik’s faction, weeding out loyalists and increasing his personal power to where he loomed largest of all on the Pantheon. He discreetly handed Chang a list of names and numbers via one of her wife’s many copies, and so the Pandaimonion benefited from their long-time support of Orzais by picking up a few suitable members of the Kabal themselves. The rise of the Children of Teras pleased The Mirror Queen immensely, for she had first feared the next generation would grow up mostly dead or with Utopian propaganda turning them against the Teragen from an early age. A faction of 2nd generations inside the Teragen, she thought, was the best option possible. It gave them the protection of their fellows, and hopefully a safe environment to make their decisions, decisions she knew would affect them all eventually. In the third quarter of 2025, though, the fallout was done and dusted, and business had returned to normal. Rage at the motherhunters came to the fore again, and calls for violent action were loud and frequent. Scrambler was just below The Confederate and Shrapnel in The Primacy, a good friend of Geryon, and one of the loudest shouters for retaliation. The Mirror Queen and Scrambler clashed online and in person, in front of the whole Teragen and once around other Pantheon members. Eventually, The Primacy and Nova Vigilance decided to act. This led to their brutal defeat at the hands of the emergent Gloria and Caestus Pax, just as the more cautious voices had warned. It was a sharp wakeup call for the whole Teragen, as Epoch fell, Shrapnel and Geryon were defeated, Leviathan crippled (until he regenerated). Much of the strength of the Harvesters, Nova Vigilance and The Primacy was expended in this attempt to let the world know that the death of Nova children would not be tolerated. In every way it was a disaster. The Mirror Queen accepted a share of the blame. She had taunted Scrambler, clashed frequently with Shrapnel, flat-out hated The Confederate… she had not been subtle in expressing her disdain for their hasty and brutal methods. Yet while she was contrite, Orzais spoke up on her behalf, pointing out that even if at times she had been indelicate, their Queen of canvas Mirrors had spoken true, and it had been foolishness to directly contest the might of Utopia. Caution was urged. Defensive actions were agreed upon. Scrambler slipped onto the Pantheon as The Confederate slipped into chrysalis. And quietly, the motherhunters went on hunting, while the pantheon manoeuvred and politicked to find and protect the children, while working to expose the monsters that sent and trained the motherhunters in the first place. As The Mirror Queen, Chang had broken all the chains she once placed upon herself. She had found love, friendship, and become a leader of other Novas, looked to for advice and guidance by many. She looked ever on at a future self still undreamt, but focused on today. The children were coming. It felt to her, to her peers and other Novas around the world, to pave their way. Complete discography 1. White Rain - Debut album. The title track ‘White Rain’ is a metaphor for the galatea explosion itself, and the ‘rainfall’ of quantum upon the earth that lead to the first eruptions. In all the album has a spiritual feel, with heavy use of two, three and four-voice harmonies backed by a single six-string guitar and no other instruments. Released December 2004, New Year’s Eve by leaving tapes in various odd places around London, including in the London Eye, in somebody’s shower, hanging from a string tied around a stray dog’s neck, and inside a balloon given to a police officer. Legend has it that the one in the London Eye was the only one that was found and listened to, but it seems more likely that the cop was the one who actually found the tape, after seeing something moving around inside the balloon. 2. Broken Steppes - The second album, much more sombre in tone, dealing largely with the loss of her family and the difficulties in trying to relate to them. It is a ‘journey’ album, ending on the uplifting idea that every bird leaves the nest, they all fly alone, and the world is all the better for it. Stylistically very minor-key, with slow guitar rhythms and often breathy, earnest tones, it’s remarkable in that the lyrics themselves are fairly straightforward. However, they reach a frightening emotional pitch at times. Released October 2005 3. Caldera Blazing - A low-concept story album about the journey of a girl to a volcano and her efforts to climb to the top. At the caldera edge she realizes that her life will lose all meaning if she turns back, that she can never recapture this glory nor top it, and so dives into the caldera instead, and dies. In some ways more straightforward than the previous albums, the overall message is somewhat harder to determine. Over time, critical thinking has aligned in saying that it’s a metaphor for her days amongst the eruption cult. Stylistically, Caldera Blazing used faster rhythms in general, but simpler ones, focusing on extremely complex voice work that only a handful of Novas in the world have been able to reproduce. Released July 2006. 4. Souls and Shadows - To the shock of many, her first studio album was more or less the same as her non-studio albums, just with better sound quality. However this album featured a mix of instruments, with several tracks still using the guitar but a couple of exquisite piano tracks in there, two with the bamboo flute and one with the zither, the title track which would be considered the single best song of White Rain’s studio tenure. Released February 2007 5. Souls and Shadows 2: Limbo Wars - An album so bizarre that many are convinced Chang was near-fatally dosed on somas while recording it. She used dischordant vocals for the most part, musical arrangements which made no sense with strangely tuned instruments, and all but one of the ten tracks was completely incomprehensible. To this day, the album is popular among stoners. In interviews, Chang said she had been completely sober, and had been writing the album for a number of years but wanted a complete album before recording any of it, and that all of the songs were something of ‘a chore’ to write because of their unconventional nature. Released August 2008 6. Chiaschoro - Simply put, an album about the colours black and white, their symbology in different cultures (drawing on her own culture’s use of white as a symbol of death), their visual interplay and such. Considered the worst album she had produced to date, and Chang herself said she thought it was ‘worthless’ in promotion. In rare interviews from later years she said she was too harsh and that the album was instead ‘passable’. Released May 2009 7. Four Crosses Bare - Mostly a compilation of remastered and released songs from her first three albums and a pick of her favourites from the studio years, plus six original tracks. The six original tracks were all highly praised, and were heavily focused on her time working for the company. Surprisingly, the tone was not offensive, and far more philosophical and meditating on the values of ‘singing for nothing but the mirror’ against ensuring that others hear her work. The big revelation out of Four Crosses Bare was the packaging; all hand drawn and painted by Chang, interspersed with snatches of beautiful poetry. It was the first sign the world received of her other artistic talents. Released December 2009, New Year ’s Eve, just like the original ‘White Rain’. 8. Shattered Spines - A ‘super album’, Shattered Spines contains 24 separate tracks, all connected and all telling an over-arching story. Thematically it deals with Chang’s sexual re-awakening, the loss of innocence, death and the pain of those left behind, the last encapsulated by the idea of a broken back. With raw, openly pro-gay lyrics, anti-war songs, a cold summation of the violence in the Congo and a flat-out sinister song about the day of the Victoria Crush, Shattered Souls turned a lot of heads. Critics called it disturbing, brilliant, and unforgettable. To a lot of people, this is the album which made White Rain an indy legend, because just like all the others, she released it to the public and as far as anyone knows has never received a penny for it. Released in 2012, on the day of Jason ‘Bombshell’ Bellefleur and Knockout’s wedding, and announced by Chang dramatically stretching her body from Vancouver to Victoria and in front of the watching public balancing the tape upon a spar of broken metal that pointed straight up at the moon. She then left via the bay, and disappeared from Vancouver altogether. The actual recording was mostly done in 2010, but the scope of the album expanded after her experiences in the Congo, and she did not feel it ready to release until the end of 2012. 9. When Yanluo Calls - This album was written partly in response to the death of Knockout and Chang’s grief on behalf of her one-time acquaintance Jason ‘Bombshell’ Bellefleur, and partly in response to her own near-death experience and the tortures she suffered at the hands of Scrambler. The first album to be released in her native tongue – all but one track was recorded in Chinese – When Yanluo Calls was quite the revelation, and marked a dramatic surge in the quality of Chang’s work. The album showed a complicating musical style, still based around only one instrument, but using extra voices as additional instruments. The rich and complex two-four voice harmonies that Chang was famous for returned, interwoven with immeasurable skill, but now mixing in dischordant loops and a level of emotional depth she had never touched before. The tone of the album is mostly black, with two songs ‘At the Black Gate I Stand’ and ‘Plot Fifteen’ being direct meditations on death and suicide respectively. Other songs focus directly on the agonies she suffered and the mental battle of wills. But the title track ‘When Yanluo Calls’ was sung in English. A simple eulogy for a woman she never knew, this was a heartbreaking song dealing with Knockout’s death, and all about the loss of innocence, the fall of heroes, and the cold inevitability of death’s embrace. Suffice it to say, critics are of the opinion that White Rain was in a ‘dark’ place at the time of recording, even though nothing could be further from the truth. Dual-released November 2017, with one copy handed to an N! Reporter while on-camera making a news report (via Lucrezia), and the other being a single of the title track, left by Chang on Jason’s doorstep in a slip envelope marked with the Chinese characters for sorrow. 10. Cracks in the Sky - This tenth album under the White Rain name was a seminal one, for it was the most obviously Teragen-themed to date and the first ‘traditional’ studio album she had produced since her first contract with Pantheon Productions. In short, the album was about the chrysalis, and the coma-like dream state Chang spent three years in, unable to leave, lost floating in a sea of dreams about her past and present and future. With a strong mixture of sounds and an authentically floaty feeling, Cracks in the Sky provoked a little controversy, with some saying Chang was selling out, and others pointing out that the sounds used on most of the tracks were impossible with any instruments known to man or Nova. released in 2019 to great public anticipation. This was the first album in over a decade that had advance warning, with Chang being caught in the Rainbow Room remarking that her current album was ‘almost complete’ a month before she finished and distributed it. Likewise, it had become known she had done some studio work, borrowing the studio of a former Nova Vigilance Terat known simply as ‘Shiv’ who had decided to ‘hang up her blades’ as it were and try her hand at singing. Also of interest: Shiv played backing vocals on the title track and one other, and played backing guitar on a third; making Cracks in the Sky not just the first studio album in a decade but also the first album period where Chang did a full duet with anyone. 11. Veils of Silence - The first and probably only ‘sweet’ album Chang has ever recorded. Essentially, Veils of Silence is a collection of love songs, meditations on it, and the feelings of loss that come when a lover is cut off for a time. Released in 2021 via Pantheon Productions, a full studio-released album, Veils of Silence was met with a bit of fan backlash but the usual strong critical acclaim, with almost everyone praising Chang for reinventing herself yet again and showing seemingly endless ability to capture emotions and make something devastatingly powerful out of them in her voice. Chang made the unusual move of issuing a public statement saying that she wanted her album released, but personal circumstances meant she could not do it herself, and so on this one occasion she had asked Pantheon Productions to do it for her. The financial (non) arrangements in the past remained the same. 12. On the Edge of Infinity - On the edge of Infinity – unsurprisingly – blew apart everything that preceded it. As much a quantum leap over Cracks in the Sky as it was over everything before it, OEI as it would be affectionately referred to would go on to top many people’s favourite albums of the year list, and this in the year of Harmonic’s explosive world tour. With this album, Chang moved from the possible to impossible sounds, displaying her new raw mastery over it to create strange twists and ethereal noises unlike anything human. Under it all, though, remained her signature multi-voice harmonies, and the steady pattern of a single bamboo flute, or zither, or piano. The critics, while praising it for its growth and quality, pointed out that even after twenty years, White Rain had managed to maintain her core identity, which remained unique amongst the many novox singers, many of whom had aped or paid some degree of tribute to her at some point. Their point really was that nobody could pull it off like she could. Released in 2023, found in some very *ahem* exotic locations. Overnight, data chips were found in special containers on the top of Mount Everest, in the depths of the Mariana Trench, on the slopes of Mount Fuji, and at the grave site of Chang’s baseline father. 13. Days of Being Wild - Building on the ground work of OEI, Days of Being Wild showed an even more developed understanding of Chang’s new abilities, some extremely creative sound manipulation tricks to produce unique cadences and complications, and the most unified mix of harmony and dischord in Chang’s unique vocal style yet displayed. Largely a ‘fun’ album, Days of Being Wild was written with Chang looking back on her decision to come forward in the Teragen and the ‘Days of Being Wild’ which followed. It had a powerful, upbeat tone, with a strong sense that the future was coming, the future was bright… and you were listening to it. Released in 2026, on Chang and Lucrezia’s wedding anniversary. It was delivered by having a Terat friend use hyperspeed to fly around the world and simply release the chips at random times. While there was a chance none would ever be recovered, they give him over a hundred to drop so it seemed likely one would. It was. Other works of note ‘The Storm Lord’s call’ – song written about Einherjar, King of Kings, lord of rum, master of stuff. Dramatic and sweeping, with a heavy old-norse theme to its arrangement, it emphasized the contrast between the old-fashioned ideals of the man and the cold, factual world he was bending to his will. ‘Angel of Harmony and Despair’ – Chang composed this for Jason. Rather than focus on her simple beauty and ‘perfection’, Angel of Harmony and Despair focused on the trail of broken marriages and heartlost lovers Bombshell’s very existence created. ‘Perfection Mirrored’ – the official title of the photo shoot collection White Rain created after meeting Bombshell. It used a collection of artfully placed mirrors, all of them cracked or broken in precise ways to create unusual refractions and mirror images. Bombshell herself was asked to be snapped giving silent screams, snarling, roaring, and generally emphasized the fearsomeness and terror that she could promote. Many people found it disturbing and some questioned why it had even been created in the first place. ‘Chrysalis Contained’ – The still-standing mansion-sized piece of art that Chang created with Orzais’ funding. Owned by Orzais himself, it remains in Ibiza. Literally every piece of furniture and surface of the mansion, exterior and interior, has been co-opted to the larger artistic work, with snatches of poetry scrawled on walls, paintings, sculptures, tapestries, even songs and the odd technological trick have been employed in creating the work. ‘Sex and Taint’ – A joint work with much of the Pandaimonion pitching in, it focused on sensual and sexual artwork using tainted Novas to try and show different angles on beauty. A recent creation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiteRain Posted October 7, 2011 Author Share Posted October 7, 2011 Name: Chang Zha-Yang Nickname/Nova name: White Rain Archetype: Portent Nature: Rebel Stage: Third ATTRIBUTES: Physical (tertiary) STR: ● ● DEX: ● ● ● ● ● ● (flexibility) STA: ● ● ● ● ● (tireless) Mental (primary) PER: ● ● ● ● ● ● ● (observant) INT: ● ● ● ● ● ● (Discerning) WIT: ● ● ● ● ● ● ● (Creative) Social (secondary) APP: ● ● ● ● ● (boneless, sensual grace) MAN: ● ● ● ● CHA: ● ● ● ● ● ● ● (eloquent) ABILITIES: Drive: ● ● ● Stealth: ● ● ● ● Awareness: ● ● ● ● ● Investigation: ● ● Academics: ● ● ● ● ● (philosophy, politics) Computer: ● ● ● ● Linguistics: ● ● ● ● ● Arts: ● ● ● ● ● (composition, poetry, painting) Rapport: ● ● ● ● ● Style: ● ● ● ● ● Diplomacy: ● ● ● ● Streetwise: ● ● ● Subterfuge: ● ● ● ● Etiquette: ● ● ● ● Perform: ● ● ● ● ● (singing) Carousing: ● ● ● Seduction: ● ● ● Meditation: ● ● ● ● ● Tactics: ● ● ● (83 of 83) BACKGROUNDS: Allies: ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● (Lucrezia – Terat girlfriend, Raoul Orzais, Narcosis, Surge, Caroline Fong and Divis Mal) Backing: ● ● ● ● ● Pandaimonion/Teragen Contacts: ● ● ● (mostly random Terats she knows and sources in the music world, along with degrees of contact with other faction leaders and such) Resources: ● ● ● (This is because she continues to donate money to baseline charities, despite objections from her fellows, and she does this every month and makes it a certain portion of her income, meaning she never has as much money as she ‘should’) Eufiber: ● ● ● ● ● Influence (fame): ● ● ● - various artistic circles; especially independent music Influence – Pandaimonion: ● ● ● ● ● Node: ● ● ● ● (1 via chrysalis) (37 of 37) BP: Quantum 2 (7 BP), Willpower + 4 (8 BP), Iron Will Merit (6 BP) = 21 BP (extras derived from flaws) Merits: Iron Will (6 point merit) Flaws: Minority: lesbian (1 point flaw) Enemy (3 pt flaw; Scrambler, a high-influence Primacy Terat who was her mentor before she turned from him and his teachings, now blames her for the hard times that Primary and Nova Vigilance have fallen on and actively intrigues against her) Debt (2 pt flaw – owed to Count Orzais for hiding her from Scrambler when she went into Chrysalis the first time) Quantum Powers: Canvas of Flesh (shapeshift): ● ● ● ● (3 pt weakness - cannot take creature forms, traded for duration; shapeshifts last for two scenes out of combat or 12 turns before needing extra expenditure) A Scale Reconceived (sizemorph: Grow) ●● Body Modifications: *Internal Life Support (allows her to keep people alive inside her after devouring or engulfing them) *Prehensile Hair *Chromatophores *Advanced Chromatophores *Enhanced Vocal Organs x 2 Gods’ Reach (Mastered Hyperflexibility): ● ● ● ● ● ● ● (384 x 5000 meters = 1,920,000 meters; 1920 kilometers or 1193 Miles; doubled to 3,072,000 m, 3840 km or 2386 miles by mastery) A Hunger for Flesh (Incorporate w/biological amalgam): ● ● Miles Within Me (Hypermovement – Stretching): ● ● A Bridge Between Islands (Empathic Telepathy): ● ● (w/ 5 pt weakness, only works during sex and touch range) Perceptions Unbound (ESP): ● ● I Am All, As All Is Me (Matter Chameleon): ● ● Now I Sing Your Soul To Sleep (Stun Attack): ● ● ● ● ● My Mind is Mine and Mine Alone (Psychic Shield + Empathic Shield): ● ● My Lusts Unleashed (Bodymorph – fleshform): ● ● 2 (1 point into emotional manipulation – lust only, 1 into boost - strength, 2 levels of tendrils as free Body mods from fleshform) I Am Become Song, Shaper of Beauty (elemental Mastery – sound): ●● (1st technique: Replay (allows her to replay any sound made in an area up to 10 x dots in power minutes ago. [20 minutes], 2nd technique: Echo (allows her to cause any sound in her vicinity or which is created through this power to echo as many times as she likes, with free ability to alter the volume and general sound or level of distortion upon that echo) Echoes of That Which Comes (Pretercognition - can hear sounds/voices from the future): ●● Mega Attributes: Mega Dexterity: ● ● ● ● ● ● (Fast Tasks, Fine Manipulation – her movements are precise down to 1/10,000,000th of a dot, Enhanced Movement – can be used for general movement but is normally reserved for Hypermovement – stretching, Flexibility enhancements x 6 - 1 free for mega dex enhancements, 3 bought in chrysalis, 2 via xp) Mega Stamina: ● ● ● (True Omnivore x 2, Adaptability Mega Perception: ● ● ● ● ● ● ● (Electromagnetic Vision, High-End Electromagnetic Scan, Tremor Sense, Hyper-Enhanced Hearing, Analytic Taste/Touch, That Creepy Feeling) Mega Intelligence: ● ● ● ● ● (Self Analysis, Taint Resistance, Discerning Mind, Mental Prodigy: Philosophical) Mega Wits: ● ● ● ● ● ● ● (Artistic Genius, Hypercognition, Unfazeable, Lie Detector) Mega Appearance: ● ● ● ● (Appearance Alteration, Almost Live) Mega Charisma: ● ● ● ● ● ● ● (The Voice, Bardic Gift, Dreadful Mien, Inspiration, Centre of Attention, Gall, Candor) Quantum: ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● Willpower: ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● Quantum Pool: 70 Taint: ● ● ● ● (was six, bought down twice via chrysalis) Aberrations - Minor Weird Clothing: Anyone who looks too closely at Chang can tell that her ‘clothes’ are formed out of her transmuted hair and not fabric at all. Third breast between her natural pair. Aberrant eyes Her eyes are both different, unusual colours (white, orange, green, deep purple etc.) and glow bright enough to be visible at the end of a long street. These colours change frequently and seemingly at random times. Disturbing Voice Chang is incapable of 'turning off' her enhanced vocal chords body modification. This one is key to her singing, as it allows her to make up to four vocalizations at once (so up to four different distinct 'voices' or sounds). In addition, if she's not concentrating the vocalizations become somewhat randomized and often contradictory or outright inhuman. Unnatural Beauty She has the 'too perfect' look of many beautiful and tainted novas, with no flaw whatsoever to her skin. Over the years this had developed into a rubbery sort of sheen over time, reflecting her ridiculous flexibility. Altered Biochemistry Chang’s internal workings have altered to the point of being completely unique. Drugs and such that should affect novas either don't affect her (positive or negative) or have unforeseen consequences. Inhuman Grace As suggested, she moves with unnatural, almost inconceivable grace, but it disturbs rather than inspires joy and happiness. In particular there is something vampire-esque about it, something of the subtle sexual predator to it, or the spider lurking in its web, moving in to feed. Aberrations - Medium Hormonal Imbalance: Lust Hyperflexibility Linked of course to her flexibility. Her joints are always super-flexible, and she has a tendency to turn her head 180 degrees if someone enters a room behind her, or bend her limbs backwards rather than turn her arms, etc. When she walks her knees seem to go slightly backwards, too... and so forth. It looks very odd and disturbing, but to her this is simply natural, easy movement and more convenient than turning her whole body to look over her shoulder, shake someone’s hand etc. Why not just bend your arm backwards and rotate your wrist 180 degrees? Distractible The Aberrant version of the old Toreador flaw. Sometimes she sees something so beautiful it makes her wig out and lose track of time. With the bonus that she doesn't burn if the sun comes up in the process. Her perceptions are so immensely enhanced that often, people have no idea what it is she sees, or why it is that it makes her cry. Analytical Chang has become a careful thinker on a fundamental level, incapable of taking swift action. She thinks through everything from multiple angles, and only chooses to act when determining that she either has no other choice or the course she decides on is genuinely the best. In game terms this causes her to act on a much reduced initiative and forces her to hold action every turn. Sexual Fetish engulfing/swallowing lovers whole. This is usually performed in various ways, using Canvas of Flesh or Gods’ Reach. Aberrations - Major Hyper-hermaphroditism Hermaphroditism, only much bigger. When flaccid her shaft is about the length and size of a baseball bat, growing more than twice the size if fully aroused. This makes it rather noticeable. This aberration became worse over the years, with her shaft subtly increasing in size to its modern form. At this stage she would literally kill a baseline woman by attempting to have sex with her, or at least cause crippling physical damage. Combined with her hormonal imbalance: lust, Chang can frequently find herself with embarrassment or extreme sexual frustration issues, as even the number of novas that can satisfy her various lusts and perversions is limited. Chrysalis: ● ● Temp: ● ● ● ● ● Movement: 7/24/38 – Enhanced: 42/148/228 – Stretching – up to 110 – Stretching w/enhanced: up to 770 Initiative: 26 Soak: 9 (13 w/eufiber)/4 (8 w/eufiber) Combined Social penalty: +7 (base from taint + chrysalis) with additional +2 from hyper-hermaphroditism to any who don't find it attractive (most people) + variable 1-4 depending on how people respond to her other physical aberrations Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiteRain Posted October 7, 2011 Author Share Posted October 7, 2011 List of Expenditures NOVA POINTS Shapeshift 2 (3 pt weakness, can't take creature forms, traded for duration) - 3 NP (1 tainted) Hyperflexibility 7 - 14 Mastery for above 3 Hypermovement – Stretching 2 2 NP Stun Attack 5 5 NP Bodymorph 2 2 NP Willpower + 3 6 NP Quantum + 5 25 NP Mega Dex 6 (2 tainted) - 12 NP Mega Sta 3 (all tainted) - 6 NP Mega per 7 - 14 NP Mega Int 5 - 10 NP Mega Wits 7 - 14 NP Mega App 4 - 8 NP Mega Cha 7 - 14 NP Chromatophores body mod - 1 NP Enhanced vocal organs x 2 - 4 NP Prehensile Hair 1 NP 8 for stats - 8 NP TOTAL 150 CHRYSALIS EXPENDITURES Taint – 2 20xp Node +1 1 xp Matter Chameleon 1 5 xp Elemental Mastery – Sound 1 5xp ESP 2 6 xp Adaptability 3 xp Flexibility x 3 9 xp Psychic shield 2 4xp Empathic Shield 2 4xp Incorporate w/biological amalgam 6xp Empathic Telepathy 4xp Advanced Chromatophores 4xp Internal Life support 4xp Total 75/75 xp for chrysalis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiteRain Posted October 9, 2011 Author Share Posted October 9, 2011 XP LOG XP accrued Standard: 91 Baseline: 44 Nova: 55 XP spent Standard: 80/91 Baseline: 21/44 Nova: 42/55 PURCHASES 4th May 2012: Pretercognition 1 + Pretercognition 2, Sizemorph: Grow 1 + Sizemorph: Grow 2, perception 8 9th March 2012: Shapeshift 3 + Shapeshift 4 25th January 2012: Quantum 8 14th January 2012: Second dot of Matter Chameleon purchased 27th October 2011: Analytic Taste/Touch enhancement, 2nd dot of Elemental Mastery: Sound plus the 'echo' technique 10th November 2011: Flexibility enhancements x2 18th Novemeber 2011: Mental Prodigy: Philosophical enhancement + Inspiration Mega Charisma enhancement 20th: November 2011: Centre of Attention + That Creepy Feeling + Candor + Gall enhancements Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiteRain Posted October 21, 2011 Author Share Posted October 21, 2011 PANDAIMONION NPCs These are specifically NPCs attached to Chang's Pandaimonion sub-faction. LUCREZIA Name: Unknown Nova Name: Lucrezia Background: Lucrezia is what some refer to as a ‘reborn’, a Nova who has suffered from amnesia due to taint and so cannot remember her past. She suspects that she used to be a girl named Claire Bennon, a former cheerleader who suffered from multiple personality disorder and suffered a spectacular breakdown during a game. After that she disappeared. Lucrezia has been a longtime member of the Pandaimonion, focusing on living the only life she remembers and enjoying every second of it. After marrying Chang many years ago, Lucrezia’s life took something of a detour. She grew increasingly inhuman in her desires, finding sex with Chang to be itself a sort of revelation, and a crucial part of her Teras development. Since undergoing the chrysalis she has become a prominent and powerful member(s) of the Pandaimonion, though still one largely underestimated. In terms of personality Lucrezia tends to play the party-loving easy-goer, always having fun and encouraging everyone to do the same, whilst using her manipulative abilities and dozens of clones to carefully orchestrate and control events around her. Unlike many other manipulative Novas, Lucrezia’s ability to use her shapeshifted clones makes her especially hard to trace, given that her manipulations are considerably more subtle than many other manipulative novas. The less perceptive never really understand what Lucrezia is up to, while the more intelligent and perceptive tend to quickly come to view her with suspicion. Inside the Teragen she is quite well-respected, but overshadowed by her wife. Of course, that seems to suit her just fine… Visitors to the Rainbow Room are guaranteed to encounter not one but several of her, whether they know it or not. In her more obvious appearances, she is a talented dancer, having developed a unique form of ‘liquid dance’ where she melts into her latex shape and uses its fluid and morphic qualities to perform impossible twists and contortions. Stats w/known enhancements: Strength 2 Dexterity 3, Mega Dex 2 (flexibility) Stamina 4, Mega Stamina 2 Perception 4, Mega Perception 1 Intelligence 4, Mega Intelligence Appearance 5, Mega Appearance 5 (Appearance Alteration, Copycat + Seductive Looks) Manipulation 5, Mega Manipulation 5 (Tactful, Conflicting Accounts) Charisma 5, Mega Charisma 5 (Seductive, Perfect Guest, Persona) Known Powers: Clone w/extra clones + psychic link. Lucrezia’s signature ability. Unlike some duplicators, Lucrezia is essentially a single entity spread over 24-30 bodies. She never dips below this number, most likely due to changes brought on by the chrysalis. Bodymorph: Liquid Latex Shapeshift Aberrations: None visible, though she has an exceptionally long, serpentine tongue regardless of her form. At full extension her tongue is 3-6 feet long depending largely on her mood. Appearance: Variable. Lucrezia can appear as literally any beautiful human-seeming woman imaginable. Lots of them. The appearance below is believed to be her 'natural' shape, or at least the one she thinks is her natural shape, or perhaps just the one she likes most. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiteRain Posted October 21, 2011 Author Share Posted October 21, 2011 SHIV Name: Angela Pierce Nova Name: Shiv Background: The nova named Shiv was once a call girl named Angela Pierce. Like many she got into it only as a means of bringing in a little extra money, but troubles at college and a disastrous falling out with her parents when they discovered what she had been doing on the side eventually led to her being trapped in the life. Her eruption was triggered by a gang bang, with her the victim of a stag party gone hideously wrong due to some bad drugs entering into the equation. In the frenzy that resulted she killed all of the men there, devoured some whole, ripped others in half with her bare hands and twisted her body to kill them likewise. The trauma of the eruption left her not just emotionally scarred, but blind, and the confused and terrified young nova began to leave a wake of destruction behind her as she tried to find somewhere to hide. Shiv was found by the Teragen before the authorities, and was swiftly taught to loathe humanity and their behaviour. She demonstrated a particular hatred of men in her early days in The Primacy, using her quite unique sexual morphology to lure in, torture and kill her victims. However, as she advanced on the path of the Monster, and began nearing chrysalis, Shiv began to develop what could be called a conscience in a more human thinker. At the least it can be said it dawned on her that she was allowing herself to be shaped by outward perceptions, not her own desires and instincts. She began looking for other mentors than Shrapnel, a matter which caused some degree of friction. Eventually – bizarrely at the time – Shiv found Chang. The idea of taking an artistic leaning to her future had never occurred to her, but she found a synergy with Chang’s open, pleasure-seeking ways, and began after many years to patch up the trauma of her eruption. This led, rather than to a healthy sexual outlook, to the extreme, fetishized and peculiar image that the inhabitants of the Rainbow Room have come to know. Her violent past means she tends to stay there, or else moves firmly in the shadows. Shiv has risen high in Chang’s personal retinue, and serves almost as a secretary. If Chang is occupied or not available, requests to see her will inevitably go through Shiv before long, and be passed up the line. It was Shiv who coined ‘The Mirror Queen’ as a name for Chang, and Shiv who made sure it stuck. A rare monster in a faction of portents and marvels, Shiv has also been instrumental in Chang’s efforts to recruit other monsters and guide them on other ways of treading the path. In terms of personality, Shiv tends to seem quite distant and unfocused, and often seems to be in a state of constant low-level pleasure for reasons unknown. If her attention is grabbed, however, she snaps to fully alert and focused, and becomes businesslike and straightforward. If engaged on her past and past acts Shiv is honest and unapologetic, but considers that part of her life behind her now. Despite her appearance, she is actually very picky about sex and the lovers she takes, and her old violent streak can be stirred by men who push too hard. Like most Terats, she’s always up for a bit of philosophy with her fellows, and is generally happy to engage in conversation. She will rarely if ever start a conversation herself, however, unless required to as part of her duties. Shiv often takes part in some of the more extreme artistic endeavours in Chang’s Pandaimonion, often using her healing factor to survive and recover from horrendous mutilations. Under Chang’s tutelage, Shiv has now come very close to chrysalis, and is considering how and when she might attempt to enter it. Also note that while blind, Shiv’s mega perception and enhancements allow her to function remarkably well, and she can at least sense almost any movement in her vicinity with startling accuracy. Stats w/known enhancements: Str: 4 Mega 3 (crush, lifter) Dex: 4 mega 4 (catfooted, multiple flexibility enhancements) Sta: 4 mega 1 (adaptability) Per: 5 mega 2 (blindfighting, hyper-enhanced hearing, analytic taste/touch, tremorsense) Int: 3 Wits: 4 mega 2 App: 4 mega 2 Man: 2 Cha: 4 mega 1 Known Powers: Able to sprout long, thin, ‘shiv-like’ protrusions from her fingers that are capable of cutting through tank armour like paper. She can easily fillet most novas as well. A powerful healing factor that allows Shiv to recover from almost any injury in rapid speed. Related, dispersed organs that allow Shiv to survive even ‘fatal’ injuries. It’s known that she has survived decapitation. Incorporate; Shiv can absorb both mechanical and biological material into her body (or her body into vehicles). She actually got her name from this, not her signature ‘claws’ power. When stressed she incorporated an actual shiv into one hand and stabbed somebody with it one time, and the name stuck. A limited form of shapeshifting; whether it’s her choice or a genuine limitation, Shiv’s breasts and buttocks alone seem malleable. She can and has formed tentacles, hands and arms, weapons and biting maws out of the flesh there, much to the horror, shock, pleasure and/or general alarm of the populace at large. She can also greatly increase the general size of her not inconsiderable bust to assist with the former pursuits. Related, Shiv is capable of swallowing people whole through various means, demonstrating an obscene and inhuman flexibility in doing so. While her mouth is the most obvious choice for this, she has demonstrated using other orifices to do so, and has even done so directly with her bosom. In the past this was invariably fatal, but of late she seems to have developed Chang’s ability to keep people alive inside her, and has shown a certain fetishistic behaviour in relation to it. Related again, a seeming ability to store objects and even people in an 'extradimensional space' separate to above. Typically she accesses this via her cleavage, but it stands to reason that anything will do so long as it ends up inside her. Appearance: One of the most memorable of Chang’s inner circle, Shiv dresses like a bondage queen. The upper part of her face is completely covered by an eyeless red leather mask with white stitching down the middle, which runs back into a high ponytail for her hair. A tight corset of darker red leather runs around her waist, hooked over her large breasts. A single leather strap is buckled over her nipples, and padlocked. The key to the padlock is made of green jade, and hangs perpetually from a necklace of white pearls. Her arms are usually tied behind her back by a long white silk scarf, in such a way as to present and thrust her breasts outward and force a queer bend into her back which makes her normal walking posture unsettling. Her legs are bare but usually hidden behind a floaty black skirt, and she normally wears some variant on high platform shoes, or else heavy buckled boots. Her lips are full and always of a bright colour, usually red. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiteRain Posted October 25, 2011 Author Share Posted October 25, 2011 MEH'LINDI Name: unknown Nova Name: Meh’Lindi Background: Meh’Lindi’s background is shrouded in mystery. It’s known she used to be a scientist and it’s believed she worked for Utopia before her eruption, but what she worked on is unknown and she refuses to talk about it. It’s believed she had a family, but they died during her eruption, or shortly afterward. After her eruption, Meh’Lindi left Utopia swiftly, after apparently coming into information about Proteus. She fled to the Teragen for help, and used the information to get herself into a position of safety in the Harvesters. Inside the Harvesters, Meh’Lindi bounced between the charismatic, angry Leviathan and The Apothecary’s quiet studies of taint. Over time, though, she drifted more and more towards Leviathan, as the world seemed to grow more violent, and preparations for novas to defend themselves became more obviously necessary. In this period Meh’Lindi took part in several combined Harvesters/Nova Vigilance ops, only picking the ones which seemed completely just. That all came to a crashing end with the Teragen’s fall against Pax and Glory. After seeing them get slapped down, Meh’Lindi, always somber, became outright depressed. When first Leviathan and then The Apothecary went into chrysalis, she began to feel betrayed. Sin-Eater was the closest thing to a leader they had with them gone, but she was always controversial among the Harvesters because of how untainted she appeared, no matter how much she might revel in it behind closed doors. Nonetheless, Meh’Lindi warmed up to her, in some ways preferring her to the exceptionally gruff, MANLY Leviathan and somewhat less manly but definitely male Apothecary. Still she felt shaken, uncertain, and feared losing sight of her own development. She knew Shiv from previous associations with Nova Vigilance. When the two met up again, Meh’Lindi was shocked to see the changes that had overcome her under her new leader. Eventually, she was persuaded to meet with The Mirror Queen, and after a series of long talks with her and Sin-Eater, Meh’Lindi moved to Ibiza to be with the Pandaimonion, and try her hand at something new. Meh’Lindi used her extensive financial resources to set up ‘Meh’Lindi’s Bowls ‘n’ Grill’ a Bowling Alley and grill house, and made her home in the extensive basement. Down there she began to try her hand at self-expression, the better to understand what was happening to herself. Though Sin-Eater and several Harvesters would come to visit her in hope of taking her back ‘home’, Meh’Lindi turned them down. These days she is a close confidante of Chang, but is nonetheless a peripheral member of the Pandaimonion as a whole and an irregular sight at the Rainbow Room. She is head-turning when she does turn up, though, due to her exceptionally inhuman appearance. She is, however, often a mastermind behind some of the more extreme and – well – monstrous artistic endeavours that Chang’s Pandaimonion is turning out. In terms of personality she is quiet and meditative, with an often sombre aspect to her speech. She offers very little, and is not much of a conversationalist, but is game for talking if people really want to. It’ll just take more effort from the other party to keep it going. Meh’Lindi is quite the dabbler. Lacking any defining art form she tries all sorts from weaving to music. Her basement complex has within it a pipe organ. When it comes to arts such as sculptor, she only ever uses her own claws and teeth to shape the materials, which include stone and sheet steel. Stats w/known enhancements: Str: 4 Mega 2 (crush) Dex: 4 Mega 2 (perfect balance) Sta: 4 Mega 3 (adaptability) Per: 3 Mega 2 (bloodhound) Int: 5 Mega 3 Wits: 3 App: 4 Mega 1 Man: 3 Cha: 2 Known Powers: Multiple powerful bodymorphs that afford various abilities (see appearance) Can sprout razor sharp claws Capable of weaving strong, flexible web out of her body Very close to invincible Despite appearances, surprisingly flexible Aberrations: Bi-polar disorder Hardened skin – even in her most human appearance her skin feels hard to the touch. Very unnatural beauty. Despite the enormous teeth and complete inhumanity of her other forms, there is something disturbingly attractive about Meh’Lindi’s looks. Disturbing voice – regardless of form her voice sounds odd. In her humanoid form her voice is a guttural growl, in her primary form it is deep and rumbling, else high and whispery if she speaks with her second mouth, in her scorpion form it is somewhat chittery, and in her ‘ball’ shape it is human-like, but the tone is too perfect and echoes strangely. Appearance: Meh’Lindi has various primary appearances. In her ‘human’ form she is a tall, statuesque woman who seems even in her flesh to be made up out of distinctive ‘plates’, with obvious dividing lines in her flesh. Her mouth, however, is completely changed, with large, piranha-like teeth occupying her jaw, no obvious lips, and her cheek membranes shorn away to give her an ‘ear-to-ear grin’. She normally dresses in form-hugging clothes that emphasize her feminine qualities, and wears various patterned and dyed veils made out of her own web. She has long black hair. In this form she is capable of eating just about anything, and her teeth can cut through tank armour. In her less human shapes she can be any of the following:A huge six-legged body with a gigantic fanged mouth on the front, while her human torso extends above it now changed to be covered head to hip in chitinous, almost metallic plates. Her mouth is normal in this shape, but her eyes and upper head are covered with the chitin so that she appears to be blind. In this form she stands between fifteen and thirty feet tall (able to grow/shrink at will), and possesses terrifying strength. The toothy maw in her lower body is capable of biting tanks in half, and she can consume any form of matter. This is her ‘primary’ form and the one she wears most often.A scorpion-like form. Her chest heaves open and her ribs unfurl and form into her scorpion legs, while her neck cracks to a ninety degree rotation to allow her to look ahead. Her arms swell into pincer-like shapes and her legs melt together and form a poisonous stinger. In this form her body synthesises lethal poisons, injected by her legs stinger. Her front pincers possess an incredibly powerful grip and can cut through almost anything, operating in a similar way to the ‘jaws of life’ device in terms of the force they apply.An enormous chitinous ball, from which six supporting tendrils emerge to tether it to walls and ceiling. This is the overall largest of her forms, but is completely immobile. Her head is flattened into the ball’s surface, but her features are visible (though stretched) and she is able to communicate if needed. This form seems to enhance her intelligence somehow, as she uses it often when pondering scientific issues or when considering Teras, and appears to confer no obvious other benefit other. On closer inspection, the tendrils are her former breasts, arms and legs, stretched and swollen obscenely to provide the strength and support needed to keep her suspended. The ball varies in size from about thrice the size of a beachball to about thirty foot across. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiteRain Posted October 25, 2011 Author Share Posted October 25, 2011 THE ALCHEMIST Name: Cyndi Carter Nova Name: The Alchemist Background: Carter was a manic depressive, alcoholic wiccan, practicing witch and wanderer. She led a colourful life, but was obviously on the fast track to a sad end. In fact, it was a suicide attempt that spurred her eruption. When she slashed her wrists to put a beautiful end to her life, she instead triggered the eruption in her dying moments, and emerged changed forever. She swiftly found herself as one with blood, but her blood itself was something new, a changeable substance that shaped as she willed it, becoming wine or water or anything between. The eruption did not greatly change her demeanour, though. It made her better in near-every way, but did little to change the mood swings which had haunted her throughout her life. She did have longer ups, though, and when she tried to kill herself on her downs, discovered that even success seemed to have little effect, and she woke up shortly after. Her ‘embrace with death’ as she came to refer to it, did change her personality. Her artistic side swelled up inside her, and she began to explore what she had experienced in dying and returning to life. Though her powers were of great interest to Project Utopia, The Alchemist remained very much an outsider in personality. A long-time associate of the goth counterculture, she took to it wholesale after coming back from the dead, and was rather fond of sexual romps, drunken and drug-fueled rampages, and naked wiccan rituals that most likely brought shame to fellow wiccans who would rather break that image. It really came as no surprised that The Alchemist gravitated towards the Teragen. The ‘new’ counterculture for the nova age, they were a natural fit for her, and the Pandaimonion all but her had name on it. She became a Pantheon Productions’ mainstay, producing movies and songs that made her if not a worldwide celebrity, a hefty centrepiece of the goth counterculture in several countries. She used her fluid-transformation powers to produce extremely potent alcohols and to synthesize drugs to be used in Pandaimonion parties and in the amp room, and for other, darker ends when the situation required it. The rise of The Mirror Queen was the last movement in The Alchemist’s soul. She grew bored of the Pandaimonion over time, feeling that they did not really push the buttons anymore. She spent more and more time in the Amp Room just having fun, or in the Blackburn, producing less and less material, and almost becoming a milk cow of sorts. Perhaps more importantly, fewer and fewer of her ‘friends’ in the Pandaimonion has much time for her when on one of her downers, something she deeply resented even on an up. Chang reignited the fire in her. It was actually a night of sex that did it, mixed with several long days of talk. But it worked either way. She came afire with creativity, and began to churn out new material, thrumming with new ideas. The Alchemist ‘jumped ship’ as it were shortly after, and is a Rainbow Room regular now. The actual change is fairly subtle to anyone not a member of the Pandaimonion or Casablancas, or who know her, but it’s there nonetheless. In terms of personality, it depends on whether she’s on an upper or downer. On the up, The Alchemist is upbeat, enthusiastic, sultry, sexy, seductive, eager to party and eager to sing and dance. She’s keen to bleed wine and spit acid, to show off and impress anyone who wants to know. On a downer, though, she is lethargic, depressed, angry, meditating obsessively on mistakes she feels she’s made and chances she’s missed. Loves lost, dreams unfulfilled, the bleakness of the future and hopelessness of struggling against it… these are the things which occupy The Alchemist’s downers. When in one of those she tends to stick to the shadows and back rooms and quiet places in the Rainbow Room, and bleed actual blood. The Alchemist is a good singer, but her speciality is as a photographer, film director and actress. She usually makes small budget ‘concept’ movies, using other willing Terats as actors. She is also an excellent dancer and a brilliant writer. However, while her mentor Chang focuses on raw philosophical works, The Alchemist is actually a novelist. Having died and returned to life, The Alchemist has attained a degree of notoriety, not least for her writings and music dealing with the subject. Stats w/known enhancements: Str: 3 Mega 2 Dex: 3 Sta: 5 Mega 4 (adaptability) Per: 3 Int: 4 Mega 2 (mental prodigy: chemistry) Wits: 3 Mega 1 (artistic genius) App: 5 Mega 3 (first impression, seductive looks, almost live) Man: 4 mega 1 (The Voice) Cha: 5 Mega 2 (Soothe, Perfect Guest) Known Powers: Capable of synthesizing her bodily fluids into any liquid substance. She can create large amounts of a given substance if needed, storing it inside her body over time, which causes a noticeable bulge (usually in the belly or breasts). She can store near to twenty gallons overall, though it takes a long time to generate that much. For quick generation she usually slits her wrists and transforms her blood. This is not for image reasons despite the stereotype, it’s actually because vomiting often brings up stomach enzymes or other parts of herself that she might forget to change, corrupting the creation. Related, can devour and melt most forms of matter down inside herself to create large amounts of a substance quickly. Extremely rubbery, flexible body Strong healing factor. Able to liquefy herself into various liquids, including acid. As noted above, can synthesize truly lethal poisons and acids from her body Can extend her nipples into either stingers (for delivering poisons) or other tendrils, and also sprout finger stingers for other deliveries of drugs et al Capable of returning from the dead, provided her body is allowed to heal the injury that led to her death. Unknown what limits there may be on this, and no-one’s eager to test. Aberrations: Severe power addiction, especially to forming large amounts of material inside herself to body-warping levels. Seems to suffer from bi-polar disorder Her eyes are completely black, with reflective, crystalline 'irises'. White skin. Appearance: In appearance the Alchemist very much has the look of a classic goth, pale-skinned, straight, long black hair, black eye shadow, black lipstick, and a mix of leather and lace in black, red or purple hues. She often wears a variety of silver jewellery and necklaces, and has several piercings, most notably to her tongue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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