Shadowsage
Created by kageseji
Real Name: Kathryn Hopesong
Aliases: Shadowsage
Identity: Secret
Occupation: Working on an English Master's Degree
Citizenship: US of A
Place of Birth: Unknown
Known Relatives: By adoption, a mother and a father and a small extended family.
Group Affiliation: No, and not likely to join. She sees group affiliations as "cages" of sorts. This does not mean she will not ally with any groups, however, she just will not be a member.
Education: Some college, see above
Catch Phrase: "Don't make a Healer angry, we know how you're put together"
Height: 5'8"
Weight: a well-kept secret
Build: Lean-muscled, lithe, and slvete
Eyes: ever-changing Grey
Hair: Dark chestnut brown, and falls to below her shoulderblades
(I love the irony that her theme song is by a group called Dragonforce)
Stories she's in:
Shadowsage's Origins
The title is a good enough summary, her origins fic, with a few guest writers to get her head on properly, namely, Totem and Dragonheart. Finished on part 14! I was expecting this fic to be a lot shorter than it wound up, however, I am very pleased with the way it ultimately panned out. You wanna know how my charachter thinks? Read this!
Preying on Hopes Deliverance
Concurrent to my origins fic, this is Dragonheart's side of what happens when his story intersects and temporarily parrallels with mine. What is seen of this in Origins is entirely from Sage's perspective, this fic is more inside of Dragonheart's head. Coauthored.
An Urchin Meets a Sage
The title is kinda self explanatory, heh. However, another hero-hunting faction is introduced, ones that hunt the animals of the hero world.
Hush little baby...
One of the reasons Sage hates spiders- not a comedy, actually, but rather dark. Hush is a charachter of Dragonheart's- this fic is just barely post-Deliverance, and explains a lot about Sage's arachnophobia, with a few clips of why it is actually an almost-genetic fear. Coauthored. Proposed.
Still To Be Titled
A co-write between me and Urchin, plot summary pending as well. To be reinspected and maybe picked up.
Beyond What You See
Hopefully, coauthored by Stormbringer, a way for my hero to begin slowly meeting the other superheros ofm skiffytown. Basic premise: one of Phlegmis's minor lackeys tries something ant-environmental on his own, and Shadowsage garners Stormbringer's help in stopping the nefarious plot. We'll see if this sticks. To Be rehashed and maybe recovered.
Burying the hatchet (proposed)
coauthored with Totem. Tentative summary: what happens when our two heros have to work together after irritating each other for the past several months.
History:
There are two histories here, the one she knows, and the one she doesn't.
The history she knows about:
She's adopted into her current family. She has no siblings, and both of her parents live a good five-hour drive away. Her mother and father both love her dearly, though she has reached the point in her life where she is "putting up with" them both. They do not know anything of her abilities beyond academic, and her lack of a social life they chalk up to that she has always been that way. She grew up in a relatively small town for a place in suburbia, and had the misfortune of not having any close friends until fairly recently. Kirari and Michael were a married couple who were high school swethearts. They shared the apartment Kat now lives in alone, and they still swap letters via snailmail. For some reason, Kirari never sent her emails, though Michael was always online.
She was always an excellent student, and was close to getting her master's degree. Her goal in life before she began to change was to be a high school English teacher or "the next great American author" as it were. Those still were her goals, she was just a little unsure about how well she could achieve them and keep her secret.
She has a scant handful of times used her Healing ability to save a life- all of those times, the one she saved was unconscious, somehow unable to see her, or in a very dark area, or her face was covered. As far as hurting people goes, she is trained in Aikido and tae kwon do, and has some basic training in her daisho set. The hand-to-hand she learned in self-defense, the swords were for fun and because she loved the culture and discipline. She also is a marksman-calibur with firearms, though her experience is with rifles on a target range. Needless to say, that much is hobby, since she does not carry a gun.
As of the thriteenth chapter of Origins, she knows who her biological parents are- all three of them.
The history she doesn't:
Not for you to know, but thanks to Dragonheart for helping me fill it in.
Enemys and Allies:
Kirari and Michael- her old rommates. Kirari has been her friend since High School, and inherited the family dojo, it was this that had her moving back to Japan with Michael, her husband. Michael is considerably more than his job title implies, and Kirari has been keeping a few secrets from Kathryn over the years.
Tenkazu- King of the Tengu that live in the park near Skiffytown, he has an agreement with Sage. He and his followers look at her as something of a "little sister" of sorts. She in turn views them with a great deal of respect, and it is because of this that they taught her their language.
Hush- Werespider assassin, for more information, look up Dragonheart.
The Enclave- a handful of magic users and their companions, who enjoy hunting the most dangerous game of all- animalian superheroes. They are known to use weapons form anywhere, from necromiun-based bear traps to silver bullets and everything in between. If any kind of animal has a bane, or shapechanger has a bane, they probably have done their homework and will come to the fight armed wiht it. They are all hunters, and their goal is simple: cage and keep or kill and mount on the wall every animalian superhero they can get. Thier base is already filled with trophys of deadly animals, and a handful of humanoid ones- the beginnings of their hunt. The magic they use is all offensive, though some of it is very very subtle. Best approached with caution!
Powers / Equipment:
Her powers predominantly revolve around Healing and the ability to shapeshift. I've sub-sectioned it, as there is a lot of detail in here, the sub headings are bolded for ease of perusal.
Healing abilities:
Her healing comes in three modes, all of which have a different cost to her.
1. Healing whatever it is painlessly to her patient and herself. This costs her the most, and is the method she is least likely to employ.
2. Healing by taking on the pain and to a very minute degree, the wounds of her patient. This actually costs her the least amount of energy, and is what she is most likely to use, especially if the person she is HEaling is a friend.
3. Healing by basically accellerating the rate of healing on the wound, the patient feels all the pain compressed into whoever long she takes to heal the injury, usually a minute or less. In summary, it hurts like heck, but it gets the job done. This costs her about the same as the one above, save she does not have any recovery time neccecary for her own sensations, as she does not share the pain.
Shifting abilities and descriptions:
She has three primary forms, and can work any degree of shape between them. They are: human, full dragon, and half-and-half. She gets abilities based on how much of her is dragon-shaped, and keeps a few abilities, even in human form.
To a small degree emotions force her shifting, often the slight fangs (think eyeteeth elongated by about a half an inch) and eyes shifting unawares to her when she is in a particularly tough spot- pissed or stressed, one of the two. Beyond that, perfect control over it. She can shift any part in combination, can go half and half, and can shift full dragon form as well- though she has only done the latter a handful of times since she learned how to do so at will.
Description of full dragon form: (warning: long and excerpted from a different forum board)
Suddenly, she seemed to stretch out and in a shockingly beautiful manner, became a furred and feathered oriental style dragon which at first glance was black- but as the light struck her, it proved that she was anything but, her fur that covered rippling muscles was the darker shades of all the colors, everything except black.
She was curled, and as she uncurled, she spread her wings, which were the same opaline color as the rest of her, only every feather in them was edged with silver, giving them an ethereally shimmering look scaled to fit the size of her dragon form. She was easily as long as a football field, half of that at least being in her tail. A line of ridge-like fur ran along her spine, dissappearing near her wings, reappearing along her neck, and dissappearing into her mane. Her tail was tipped with an arrow-like spike, a tuft of fur around its base like a spear might have.
Her face was striking as well, with an elaborate frill of longer fur like a lion's mane, and a fu manchu-seeming feelers. Her eyes remained shockingly human, though they were feline-like slit, and still silver in color, though the color was more like that of the silver lining in rainclouds. Her five-taloned fore and hind claws were each tipped with silver talons that almost gleamed, as is the highlights on her still shockingly expressive face- a feathered frill at the edges nearest the face like a lion's mane dancing around the expressive thing in a dark opalescent rainbow. The frill blends into the furred mane, which extends for maybe two feet back from her "face"
Her wings were black, deep black, every feather edged in silver, until the light hit the silver, which sent color rippling through all of the feathers- they were every color *except* black, the darker spectrum in an opaline swirl.
(excerpt ended)
Description of half-and-half: fully covered in the mildly opalescent fur, her hair changes to match, she gets the fu manchu "feelers" that she can manipulate like a monkey can a dexterous tail, and a short pair of silver horns that curl back along the line of her ears, which still get tuffed ends. Silver clawed fingernails, fangs that are about an inch in length, her eyes go kitty-slit, and she grows her tail- the ridge where most dragons would have spikes is a manelike (3-inch-long) fur line, ending in a small tuft of fur around a small sharp silver spike. The spike is as sharp as her claws, and her tail can also be manipulated with the kind of dexterity a snake has when striking. If unclothed is still "modest" as in no actual nude details are obvious. Her build is lean lithe and very much dex based, to use a d&d referance.
Partial shifting benefits:
When she has her wings, she can fly with perfect and even near-miraculous maneuverability with them, she can hover, and even drift backwards with them.
When she lets her eyes shift, she gets the benefits of dragonic sight- though if there is such a thing as True Sight, for her that is always on. That, and in human form she can "see" auras to a point.
When she lets her fangs go, she gets the senses of scent and spacial awareness- this is perhaps the easiest and most often used parts of her shifting, as they are the most subtle and easy to hide. She is very hard to sneak up on reguardless, as something that is always with her is a kind of sense for presences within about a yard radius or so- particularly hostile ones, or ones trying to sneak up on her. just walk up to her nonchalantly, and you'll startle her out of her skin.
When she shifts her claws, she gets enhanced stregnth, though it is a mild form of it. It effectively doubles her physical stregnth. The biggest beneft from allowing her claws to go is the speed she gets. She is a finesse-based combatant with what matrial arts she knows, and with her speed pumped up to the great degree she is capable of, this makes her a formidable opponent. The full extension of her finger and toenail claws is 3/4 of an inch- not very long, but wickedly sharp. When not extended (the are retractable, much loke a cat's) they can pass for a silver nail job.
She can let her ears go for the better hearing, though she does have better-than-average hearing naturally. The increase lets her hear a whisper up to a quarter mile away or better. The obvious drawback is a sudden loud noise would temporarily deafen her when she has just shifted her ears.
Inherent talents:
The thing that she always has is a preternatural grace- though whether this is because it is a trait of her dragon form, or because she has her martial arts training is anyone's guess- though she does have an uncanny sense of balance, and an awareness of motion and the exact reach of her limbs to be almost scary.
Other:
She also has access to a degree of dragon magic predominantly- she is a Healer. Her healing is not limited to humans, just living things. She does not know about her two offensive abilities: two variations of a breath weapon- either a cone of sheer force or a cone that is a prismatic multielemental attack. She does not yet know of either.
Weaknesses:
Her only real offensive ability is her unknown breath weapons, and her martial training. The lack of offense I think counts as a weakness. That, and she sees herself as a Healer, and is really reluctant to cause harm.
Other than that, she is as fragile as any human when in that form unshifted, and while a lot tougher in her dragon forms, still relatively delicate as far as the race itsself goes.
She is terrified of spiders- arachnophobia, definitely, if not severe arachnophobia.
She does not react well when in a situation where she is either captive, or in a cage of some sort. Emotionally speaking, some part of her genuinely dreads the lack of freedom.
She also does not like needles.
Creator (Real Life) Info:
I am 5'8" tall in real life, my grey eyes take on the color of whatever is near them, my dark brown hair is just below shoulder legnth, and I AM more than a little dragon-obsessed, and a college student. I'm working on getting an English degree, and will be attempting to get a Creative Writing portion of it official. I live at home still, drive a red PT cruiser, and love co-writing and RPGing. I am a voracious bookworm and avid gamer.
I also run a D&D tabletop game every friday on my college campus with a bunch of my friends. Anyone living near Columbia, MD, pm me to apply for my game!
The reason Sage is arachnophobic is I am, and thus have a very easy time playing that dread accurately.
I go to an anime convention every year called Otakon, so anyone wishing to meet me face-to-face, that's the best place to do so. I reccommend pming me or in some way getting in touch to pick a place and time to meet, as it is a ginormous con, and the chances of recognizing me if you see me there is somewhat slim, as I always go in costume (about 8 of them) and like a lot of people there, am not shy about using my camera.
Writing poetry is my party trick, give me a topic, or a style, and I can have a poem for you to read within five minutes. I do not garauntee the quality of said poem, but it will fit the criterea.
Meh, bored you enough about the real life me, have fun, y'all!
Character Rights:
The creator of this character retains all rights to the character's name, image, likeness, costume design, and background story.
Feel free to edit in order to fix any typos you find on this page.
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