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Shadow Lynne: *

2007-02-25T18:42:57Z

New page

NOTES: Yes, I quoted song lyrics here. (October Project's "Bury My Lovely".) Shoot me later...I tend to pick songs that suit my characters.

For JustAddWater. 
Status: Active 

Name: Hidden Crystal 
Concept: butterfly caught in the chrysalis 
Caste: Endings 
Faction: Gold 
Anima banner: corona of violet 

Cover the mirror 
Hide in your dreams 
Forget what they told you 
Forget what it means 
A picture worth a thousand lies 
The mem'ry and the mirror 
Nothing but what came before 
Nothing but a closing door 

A picture worth a thousand lies 
A thousand words 
A thousand eyes 

Bury my lovely 
Hide in your room 
Bury my lovely 
Forget me soon 
Forget me 
Forget me now 
Forget me not 
===== Character Sheet =====
Strength: 2 
Dexterity: 5 
Stamina: 4 

Charisma: 2 
Manipulation: 2 
Appearance: 4 

Perception: 3 
Intelligence: 3 
Wits: 3 

Willpower: 6 

Compassion: 3 
Conviction: 3 
Temperance: 3 
Valor: 2 

Craft (Fate): 2 
Dodge*: 4 
Linguistics 3 (Low Realm, High Realm, Old Realm, Seatongue, Old Realm +1) 
Performance 3 (+2: Dance) 
Socialize 1 
Melee 4* 
Stealth 3* 
Occult 3* 
Lore: 3 
Thrown 1 
Medicine* 2 
Martial Arts* 5 (Multiple Attacks +1) 
Bureaucracy* 2 
Awareness* 3 
Athletics* 4 

Essence: 4 
Personal: 14 
Peripheral: 41 

Charms: 
Athletics 
Forgotten Earth

Dodge 
Absence 
Duck Fate 
Avoidance Kata 

Stealth 
Blinding the Boar 
Soft Presence Practice 

Melee 
Harmony of Blows 
Impeding the Flow 
Smiling At The Damned 
Serenity In Blood 

Occult 
Terrestial Circle Sorcery 

Martial Arts 
Secrets of Future Strife 
Blade of the Battle Maiden 
Joy In Adversity Stance

Spells 
Death of Obsidian Butterflies 
Open The Spirit Door 
Emerald Countermagic 
Emerald Banishment 

Backgrounds 
Celestial Manse 1 
Salary 2 
Savant 3 
Sifu 3 
Artifact 2 
Backing 1 (The Gold Faction 1) 
Connections 2 (The Bureau of Endings 2) 
Sorcery 3 

Astrological Colleges 
The Corpse 2 
The Sword 2 
The Rising Smoke 1 
The Lovers 1 
The Mask 1 

Flaws: 
Nightmares 
Unbidden Oracle 
Secrets (1) 

Combat: 
Base Initiative: 8 
Soak: 3B/1 L/0A (unarmored) 
Attacks: 
Starmetal Daiklave (Whisper of Stars): Speed 15 Accuracy 13 (MA), 12 (Melee) Damage 10L Defense 12 (MA)/11 (Melee) 
Punch: Speed 8 Accuracy 9 Damage 2B Defense 8 
Kick: Speed 5 Accuracy 8 Damage 4B Defense 7 
Knife: Speed 11 Accuracy 8 Damage 3L Defense 6 

Paradox:
----

===== Expanded Backgrounds =====
Artifact **-Whisper of Stars. Starmetal daiklave. Nothing really special about it other then the fact it's a starmetal daiklave: no other bonuses then the Magical Material bonus.

Celestial Manse *-To come, as I still need to think of it.

Salary **-paid in the bottom of his grade, as he is a Sidereal of the Gold Faction.

Sifu ***- Quicksilver Starfall, Unaligned Chosen of Endings. Quicksilver Starfall is a rather...interesting individual, a very independent man: doesn't really hold with either faction, thinking them too extreme, though he leans slightly more towards Gold then towards the Bronze. He doesn't really do much politicking, considering it really a waste of time, time spent doing better things: like, you know, his job. Fairly cheerful and quick-tempered, though not really what you call perky, and with a definite case of 'Foot in Mouth' Syndrome, his moods tend to change like quicksilver: at one moment laughing, the next moment serious when the situation calls for it. A caregiver by nature, he does not like to see things suffer, and prefers to end suffering quickly. Definitely a contrast to the perpetually serious, silent Crystal: while the young Sidereal has not confided very many personal things to his teacher, how much does Starfall really know about his student?
Teaches Violet Bier of Sorrows style, Ebon Shadow Style, Terrestial Circle Sorcery, Prismatic Arrangement of Creation style, and Celestial Circle Sorcery. 
Note: QS's original name has been changed. Because of me realizing his name was too similar to a party member's.

===== Expanded Flaws =====
Nightmares-His childhood and early teenage years as a catamite to a nobleman of House Cynis have left their mark. Not only is Crystal painfully shy, over-silent, and fairly submissive (though he has gotten better since his Exaltation and training), he has recurring nightmares of that period in his life. He cannot stand to be touched for some time after he wakes up from one.

Unbidden Oracle-Crystal is silent, almost seeming to have an aversion to speech at times. However, he occasionally breaks his silence, dark warnings on his tongue that he cannot help but speak.

Secrets- Crystal never really speaks about personal things. His life pre-Exaltation is definitely on that list: he cannot help but be untrustful, and he would just rather his past remain buried hidden and buried.

===== Experience Management =====
Current Unspent XP: 7 
Current Spent XP: 88 
Total XP: 95 
Purchased: 
Joy In Adversity Stance 
Martial Arts 4 
MA specialty: Multiple Attacks 
Forgotten Earth (Athletics) 
Dodge: 4 
Awareness: 3 
Athletics 4 
Temperance 3 
Performance specialty: Dance 
Emerald Banishment 
Essence 4 
Martial Arts 5 

===== Resplendent Destinies =====
Crystal's most used RD is that of Grey Heron, a young woman from Coral, from a family who was very poor and down-on-their-luck. Once she dreamed, and her dreams were bright: but no matter how much she tried, how much she struggled, things never got any better for her. The one time she had a chance to make her way up in the world, a marriage with the son of more prosperous neighbors, it ended like everything else did: he died of an untimely illness, and that dream evaporated. Now, she is simply resigned to the fact that her life will go on the way it always has, and will end the same way, and she has stopped hoping and dreaming for anything better. (A RD of the Sword, duration of a century and 5 effect points remaining. Used the resignation and failure correlations.)

----
Cover the madness 
Cover the fear 
No one will ever 
Know you were here 

A figure in the hallway light 
Returning like a ghost 
Something that was left behind 
Something in a child's mind 

A picture worth a thousand lies 
A thousand words 
A thousand eyes 

Bury my lovely 
Hide in your room 
Bury my lovely 
Forget me soon 
Forget me 
Forget me now 
Forget me not 
===== Character History =====
The young Chosen of Endings known now as Hidden Crystal was born to a peasant family on the Blessed Isle, a family with too many children, too many mouths to feed, and not enough to go around. He was the youngest, and unfortunately for him, the prettiest: he was sold at the age of six into slavery, and ended up as a slave of House Cynis, given as a pretty present to a member of that House. For the next ten years, he was the plaything of one Cynis Varen, a middle-aged Wood Aspect, a pretty doll for him to use and abuse and play with as he would: it is still hard, sometimes, even after his training, for Crystal to remember that he's not that ornamental butterfly anymore, that he's not helpless anymore, when he was so very helpless during the formative years of his life.

At the age of sixteen, he Exalted without warning, and in one moment, when the weaves of fate were first his to control, put his old life to an end: he barely managed it, even with the aid of his raw, untrained power, and it was awkward as anything, but he stabbed Varen with the man's own daiklave. Though what he had done would not have been discovered *immediately*-as the murder had happened out of sight, in the Dynast's bedroom-Crystal was fully expecting to die, as he could not escape, as soon as it was discovered what he had done. Instead, he was not expecting the figure that slipped in through the window, a slender woman with a short daiklave that gleamed with the colors of the stars.

She whispered to him of what he was, of his destiny, what he had been born to be, a fate that had only just revealed itself: she looked at him, knowing the truth of the life he had lived, and whispered to him that this life would be different. That he would not have to be a pliable, obedient, little doll anymore: a promise for freedom, and for something more. Crystal was afraid, but he went with her regardless: she made the scene look like suicide, to cover up what he had done.

The Sidereal woman-who was a Chosen of Serenity of the Bronze Faction-turned him over to the Violet Bier of Sorrows once she had brought him back to Yu-Shan, for training, and he was promptly taken as a student by Empty Sapphire, a Bronze Faction Chosen of Endings, who not only taught him the required fundamentals, as well as try to carefully repair the damage that had been done to his mind over the past ten years, but was carefully trying to court him to join the Bronze Faction.

Unfortunately, the odds were heavily stacked from the beginning against Hidden Crystal actually deciding to join the Bronze Faction: the abuse that he had been put through had embittered him towards the Realm, and the Dragon-Blooded, and he held (and still holds) a fierce hatred for House Cynis, as well as a general dislike of most Dragon-Blooded. He could not allow such a society, which perpetuated such abuses, to stand: it had absorbed all the worst excesses of the end of the Old Realm, when in the beginning it had come about to replace the corruption of the Old Realm. It had come full circle, and he fully believed, and still believes, that it was, and is, time for the Realm to end, and time for the sickness to be cut from the heart of the world. It was already a losing battle by the Bronze Faction to claim him: Empty Sapphire's accidental slip-up in letting Crystal find out (accidentally!) that it had been known what he was, who he was, where he was (and what was happening to him could easily be guessed at), and that he had been left there simply because it would be easier to find him when the time came, was the final straw that broke the back of the large dromedary.

Crystal joined the Gold Faction, and to this day, still bears quite a lot of resentment towards the Bronze Faction, even though he is notably quiet about it and doesn't show it, simply quiet and efficient in carrying out his duties.

===== Physical Description =====
Hidden Crystal is a slender, even slight, young man who appears about sixteen, with longish, pale blue hair that he wears framing his face (he cut his long hair off soon after his training had begun: it used to be long enough for him to sit on), and delicate, beautiful features, the pale beauty of a fragile, ethereal porcelain doll, about an inch or two below six feet in height. He is undeniably very good-looking, hauntingly beautiful, with quiet, deeply sad star-flecked violet eyes, and moves with liquid, perfect grace. When not donning a resplendent destiny, he usually dresses in plain, dark clothing of the deepest violet, that covers as much skin as can humanely be helped: he has no desire to ever wear revealing clothing again unless it can't be helped, like a resplendent destiny of the Lovers calls for it: he even wears black gloves over his hands (which are slender, delicate, long-fingered artist's hands). Surprisingly, he wears what appears to be a small, beautifully crafted silver butterfly ornament in his hair: what most don't know is that it is actually a stiletto dagger in the shape of a hairpin, a symbol of what he used to be, and a reminder to himself that even butterflies can change. That even butterflies don't have to be helpless forever.

===== Other Notes =====
Crystal has never really gotten a straight answer as to why he was left there, nor is likely to ever get a straight answer. As is expected. There are any number of possibilities: an attempt to strengthen him through suffering, especially if his last incarnation was weak of will or something of that nature, using the "steel cannot be tempered without fire" analogy and it royally backfired: instead of tempering into a stronger blade, he is the steel that has the hidden flaw. Or his life was allowed to be so terrible so that when the time came for him to Exalt, he would put an end to it with relief, in order to easily abandon his mortal life and become someone new: if so, he is a butterfly caught in a chrysalis, but what is the span of a few decades, after all? Or...plots, which hopefully he won't find out about. Who knows? Certaintly not him.

===== Vignettes =====
These are little ficlets written about him. Because I was bored.

"First and Last" 
The first time, he cried. He was six, and so very, very small, tiny hands clutching at the bedclothes beneath him, sobbing into the silk, a sound like broken crystal. He was a tiny thing, in the older, stronger man's hands, easy to move and rearrange, a living doll that bled and cried and hurt but whose pain was nothing because he was nothing, and it went on and on and on and on until darkness took him and he didn't feel anything.

After that, he never cried again, no matter how much it hurt. Because it would always hurt.

"Self-Deceptions" 
He saw a different person in the mirror that no one else ever saw. He saw the pretty painted butterfly, the ornamental doll. He saw the fragile hands that had never wielded a sword, that only knew the right way to touch to bring pleasure, the silent lips that parted for whatever was forced on him. When he was not looking in the mirror, when he only relied on the descriptions of himself seen through others' eyes, when he donned a mask and was not himself, when he was with others of the Star-Chosen, he could almost believe that he was someone else, someone worth something.

When he was alone, all those illusions fell away. In the mirror, he saw the truth of what he was, and who he would always be, no matter how hard he tried to change. He saw everything he was and never wanted to be, and he knew the truth for what he was.

----
Bury my lovely 
Bury the lies 
Bury me under 
A thousand good-byes 

A shadow from another time 
Is waiting in the night 
Something happened long ago 
Something that will not let go 

Bury my lovely 
Hide in your room 
Bury my lovely 
Forget me soon 
Forget me 
Forget me now 
Forget me not 
===== Comments =====
Question - if his un-Exalted life were so bad, why wouldn't other Sidereals (who certainly knew who he was, and where he was) have stopped in to help out? I'm not saying this background isn't good by any means - but an explanation of why they ignored his suffering might explain yet further why he hates the Bronze so. -- GreenLantern

What if they wanted him like this? ~WillCoon
: Maybe the Gold Faction wanted him like this, and tricked the Bronze into not realizing what horrors he was really going through, so that when the Bronze tried to recruit him, he'd go Gold? Heck, entire storylines could be built on why exactly he didn't get pulled out. - FrivYeti
:: With the help of the wonderful [[dakkareth]], as well as the rest of you lovely commenters, potential reasons have been come up with. See above. :) - Shadow_Lynne

Shadow Lynne: *

2007-02-25T18:42:37Z

Shadow Lynne: *

2006-07-05T00:34:09Z

@@ Line 146: / Line 146: @@
 Salary **-paid in the bottom of his grade, as he is a Sidereal of the Gold Faction.
-Sifu ***- Quicksilver Starfall, Unaligned Chosen of Endings. Quicksilver Starfall is a rather...<I>interesting[[Shadow_Lynne/HiddenCrystal/I]]> individual, a very independent man: doesn't really hold with either faction, thinking them too extreme, though he leans slightly more towards Gold then towards the Bronze. He doesn't really do much politicking, considering it really a waste of time, time spent doing better things: like, you know, his <I>job[[Shadow_Lynne/HiddenCrystal/I]]>. Fairly cheerful and quick-tempered, though not really what you call perky, and with a definite case of 'Foot in Mouth' Syndrome, his moods tend to change like quicksilver: at one moment laughing, the next moment serious when the situation calls for it. A caregiver by nature, he does not like to see things suffer, and prefers to end suffering quickly. Definitely a contrast to the perpetually serious, silent Crystal: while the young Sidereal has not confided very many personal things to his teacher, how much <I>does[[Shadow_Lynne/HiddenCrystal/I]]> Starfall <I>really[[Shadow_Lynne/HiddenCrystal/I]]> know about his student?
+Sifu ***- Quicksilver Starfall, Unaligned Chosen of Endings. Quicksilver Starfall is a rather...<I>interesting</I> individual, a very independent man: doesn't really hold with either faction, thinking them too extreme, though he leans slightly more towards Gold then towards the Bronze. He doesn't really do much politicking, considering it really a waste of time, time spent doing better things: like, you know, his <I>job</I>. Fairly cheerful and quick-tempered, though not really what you call perky, and with a definite case of 'Foot in Mouth' Syndrome, his moods tend to change like quicksilver: at one moment laughing, the next moment serious when the situation calls for it. A caregiver by nature, he does not like to see things suffer, and prefers to end suffering quickly. Definitely a contrast to the perpetually serious, silent Crystal: while the young Sidereal has not confided very many personal things to his teacher, how much <I>does</I> Starfall <I>really</I> know about his student?
 Teaches Violet Bier of Sorrows style, Ebon Shadow Style, Terrestial Circle Sorcery, Prismatic Arrangement of Creation style, and Celestial Circle Sorcery.<br>
 Note: QS's original name has been changed. Because of me realizing his name was too similar to a party member's.
 ===== Expanded Flaws =====
-Nightmares-His childhood and early teenage years as a catamite to a nobleman of House Cynis have left their mark. Not only is Crystal painfully shy, over-silent, and fairly submissive (though he <I>has[[Shadow_Lynne/HiddenCrystal/I]]> gotten better since his Exaltation and training), he has recurring nightmares of that period in his life. He cannot stand to be touched for some time after he wakes up from one.
+Nightmares-His childhood and early teenage years as a catamite to a nobleman of House Cynis have left their mark. Not only is Crystal painfully shy, over-silent, and fairly submissive (though he <I>has</I> gotten better since his Exaltation and training), he has recurring nightmares of that period in his life. He cannot stand to be touched for some time after he wakes up from one.
 Unbidden Oracle-Crystal is silent, almost seeming to have an aversion to speech at times. However, he occasionally breaks his silence, dark warnings on his tongue that he cannot help but speak.
@@ Line 177: / Line 177: @@
 ===== Resplendent Destinies =====
-Crystal's most used RD is that of Grey Heron, a young woman from Coral, from a family who was very poor and down-on-their-luck. Once she dreamed, and her dreams were bright: but no matter how much she tried, how much she struggled, things never got any better for her. The one time she had a chance to make her way up in the world, a marriage with the son of more prosperous neighbors, it ended like everything else did: he died of an untimely illness, and that dream evaporated. Now, she is simply resigned to the fact that her life will go on the way it always has, and will end the same way, and she has stopped hoping and dreaming for anything better. (A RD of the Sword, duration of a century and <I>5[[Shadow_Lynne/HiddenCrystal/I]]> effect points remaining. Used the resignation and failure correlations.)
+Crystal's most used RD is that of Grey Heron, a young woman from Coral, from a family who was very poor and down-on-their-luck. Once she dreamed, and her dreams were bright: but no matter how much she tried, how much she struggled, things never got any better for her. The one time she had a chance to make her way up in the world, a marriage with the son of more prosperous neighbors, it ended like everything else did: he died of an untimely illness, and that dream evaporated. Now, she is simply resigned to the fact that her life will go on the way it always has, and will end the same way, and she has stopped hoping and dreaming for anything better. (A RD of the Sword, duration of a century and <I>5</I> effect points remaining. Used the resignation and failure correlations.)
 ----
@@ Line 218: / Line 218: @@
 ===== Other Notes =====
-Crystal has never really gotten a straight answer as to <I>why[[Shadow_Lynne/HiddenCrystal/I]]> he was left there, nor is likely to ever get a straight answer. As is expected. There are any number of possibilities: an attempt to strengthen him through suffering, especially if his last incarnation was weak of will or something of that nature, using the "steel cannot be tempered without fire" analogy and it royally backfired: instead of tempering into a stronger blade, he is the steel that has the hidden flaw. Or his life was allowed to be so terrible so that when the time came for him to Exalt, he would put an end to it with relief, in order to easily abandon his mortal life and become someone new: if so, he is a butterfly caught in a chrysalis, but what is the span of a few decades, after all? Or...plots, which hopefully he won't find out about. Who knows? Certaintly not him.
+Crystal has never really gotten a straight answer as to <I>why</I> he was left there, nor is likely to ever get a straight answer. As is expected. There are any number of possibilities: an attempt to strengthen him through suffering, especially if his last incarnation was weak of will or something of that nature, using the "steel cannot be tempered without fire" analogy and it royally backfired: instead of tempering into a stronger blade, he is the steel that has the hidden flaw. Or his life was allowed to be so terrible so that when the time came for him to Exalt, he would put an end to it with relief, in order to easily abandon his mortal life and become someone new: if so, he is a butterfly caught in a chrysalis, but what is the span of a few decades, after all? Or...plots, which hopefully he won't find out about. Who knows? Certaintly not him.
 ===== Vignettes =====
 These are little ficlets written about him. Because I was bored.
-<B>"First and Last"[[Shadow_Lynne/HiddenCrystal/B]]><br>
+<B>"First and Last"</B><br>
 The first time, he cried. He was six, and so very, very small, tiny hands clutching at the bedclothes beneath him, sobbing into the silk, a sound like broken crystal. He was a tiny thing, in the older, stronger man's hands, easy to move and rearrange, a living doll that bled and cried and hurt but whose pain was nothing because he was nothing, and it went on and on and on and on until darkness took him and he didn't feel anything.

@@ Line 146: / Line 146: @@
 Salary **-paid in the bottom of his grade, as he is a Sidereal of the Gold Faction.
-Sifu ***- Quicksilver Starfall, Unaligned Chosen of Endings. Quicksilver Starfall is a rather...<I>interesting</I> individual, a very independent man: doesn't really hold with either faction, thinking them too extreme, though he leans slightly more towards Gold then towards the Bronze. He doesn't really do much politicking, considering it really a waste of time, time spent doing better things: like, you know, his <I>job</I>. Fairly cheerful and quick-tempered, though not really what you call perky, and with a definite case of 'Foot in Mouth' Syndrome, his moods tend to change like quicksilver: at one moment laughing, the next moment serious when the situation calls for it. A caregiver by nature, he does not like to see things suffer, and prefers to end suffering quickly. Definitely a contrast to the perpetually serious, silent Crystal: while the young Sidereal has not confided very many personal things to his teacher, how much <I>does</I> Starfall <I>really</I> know about his student?
+Sifu ***- Quicksilver Starfall, Unaligned Chosen of Endings. Quicksilver Starfall is a rather...<I>interesting[[Shadow_Lynne/HiddenCrystal/I]]> individual, a very independent man: doesn't really hold with either faction, thinking them too extreme, though he leans slightly more towards Gold then towards the Bronze. He doesn't really do much politicking, considering it really a waste of time, time spent doing better things: like, you know, his <I>job[[Shadow_Lynne/HiddenCrystal/I]]>. Fairly cheerful and quick-tempered, though not really what you call perky, and with a definite case of 'Foot in Mouth' Syndrome, his moods tend to change like quicksilver: at one moment laughing, the next moment serious when the situation calls for it. A caregiver by nature, he does not like to see things suffer, and prefers to end suffering quickly. Definitely a contrast to the perpetually serious, silent Crystal: while the young Sidereal has not confided very many personal things to his teacher, how much <I>does[[Shadow_Lynne/HiddenCrystal/I]]> Starfall <I>really[[Shadow_Lynne/HiddenCrystal/I]]> know about his student?
 Teaches Violet Bier of Sorrows style, Ebon Shadow Style, Terrestial Circle Sorcery, Prismatic Arrangement of Creation style, and Celestial Circle Sorcery.<br>
 Note: QS's original name has been changed. Because of me realizing his name was too similar to a party member's.
 ===== Expanded Flaws =====
-Nightmares-His childhood and early teenage years as a catamite to a nobleman of House Cynis have left their mark. Not only is Crystal painfully shy, over-silent, and fairly submissive (though he <I>has</I> gotten better since his Exaltation and training), he has recurring nightmares of that period in his life. He cannot stand to be touched for some time after he wakes up from one.
+Nightmares-His childhood and early teenage years as a catamite to a nobleman of House Cynis have left their mark. Not only is Crystal painfully shy, over-silent, and fairly submissive (though he <I>has[[Shadow_Lynne/HiddenCrystal/I]]> gotten better since his Exaltation and training), he has recurring nightmares of that period in his life. He cannot stand to be touched for some time after he wakes up from one.
 Unbidden Oracle-Crystal is silent, almost seeming to have an aversion to speech at times. However, he occasionally breaks his silence, dark warnings on his tongue that he cannot help but speak.
@@ Line 177: / Line 177: @@
 ===== Resplendent Destinies =====
-Crystal's most used RD is that of Grey Heron, a young woman from Coral, from a family who was very poor and down-on-their-luck. Once she dreamed, and her dreams were bright: but no matter how much she tried, how much she struggled, things never got any better for her. The one time she had a chance to make her way up in the world, a marriage with the son of more prosperous neighbors, it ended like everything else did: he died of an untimely illness, and that dream evaporated. Now, she is simply resigned to the fact that her life will go on the way it always has, and will end the same way, and she has stopped hoping and dreaming for anything better. (A RD of the Sword, duration of a century and <I>5</I> effect points remaining. Used the resignation and failure correlations.)
+Crystal's most used RD is that of Grey Heron, a young woman from Coral, from a family who was very poor and down-on-their-luck. Once she dreamed, and her dreams were bright: but no matter how much she tried, how much she struggled, things never got any better for her. The one time she had a chance to make her way up in the world, a marriage with the son of more prosperous neighbors, it ended like everything else did: he died of an untimely illness, and that dream evaporated. Now, she is simply resigned to the fact that her life will go on the way it always has, and will end the same way, and she has stopped hoping and dreaming for anything better. (A RD of the Sword, duration of a century and <I>5[[Shadow_Lynne/HiddenCrystal/I]]> effect points remaining. Used the resignation and failure correlations.)
 ----
@@ Line 218: / Line 218: @@
 ===== Other Notes =====
-Crystal has never really gotten a straight answer as to <I>why</I> he was left there, nor is likely to ever get a straight answer. As is expected. There are any number of possibilities: an attempt to strengthen him through suffering, especially if his last incarnation was weak of will or something of that nature, using the "steel cannot be tempered without fire" analogy and it royally backfired: instead of tempering into a stronger blade, he is the steel that has the hidden flaw. Or his life was allowed to be so terrible so that when the time came for him to Exalt, he would put an end to it with relief, in order to easily abandon his mortal life and become someone new: if so, he is a butterfly caught in a chrysalis, but what is the span of a few decades, after all? Or...plots, which hopefully he won't find out about. Who knows? Certaintly not him.
+Crystal has never really gotten a straight answer as to <I>why[[Shadow_Lynne/HiddenCrystal/I]]> he was left there, nor is likely to ever get a straight answer. As is expected. There are any number of possibilities: an attempt to strengthen him through suffering, especially if his last incarnation was weak of will or something of that nature, using the "steel cannot be tempered without fire" analogy and it royally backfired: instead of tempering into a stronger blade, he is the steel that has the hidden flaw. Or his life was allowed to be so terrible so that when the time came for him to Exalt, he would put an end to it with relief, in order to easily abandon his mortal life and become someone new: if so, he is a butterfly caught in a chrysalis, but what is the span of a few decades, after all? Or...plots, which hopefully he won't find out about. Who knows? Certaintly not him.
 ===== Vignettes =====
 These are little ficlets written about him. Because I was bored.
-<B>"First and Last"</B><br>
+<B>"First and Last"[[Shadow_Lynne/HiddenCrystal/B]]><br>
 The first time, he cried. He was six, and so very, very small, tiny hands clutching at the bedclothes beneath him, sobbing into the silk, a sound like broken crystal. He was a tiny thing, in the older, stronger man's hands, easy to move and rearrange, a living doll that bled and cried and hurt but whose pain was nothing because he was nothing, and it went on and on and on and on until darkness took him and he didn't feel anything.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 NOTES: Yes, I quoted song lyrics here. (October Project's "Bury My Lovely".) Shoot me later...I tend to pick songs that suit my characters.
-For JustAddWater.
+For [[JustAddWater]]. <br>
-Status: <b>Active</b>
+Status: <b>Active</b><br>
 Name: Hidden Crystal<br>
@@ Line 252: / Line 252: @@
 <b>Forget me not </b> <br>
 ===== Comments =====
-Question - if his un-Exalted life were so bad, why wouldn't other Sidereals (who certainly knew who he was, and where he was) have stopped in to help out? I'm not saying this background isn't good by any means - but an explanation of why they ignored his suffering might explain yet further why he hates the Bronze so. -- GreenLantern
+Question - if his un-Exalted life were so bad, why wouldn't other Sidereals (who certainly knew who he was, and where he was) have stopped in to help out? I'm not saying this background isn't good by any means - but an explanation of why they ignored his suffering might explain yet further why he hates the Bronze so. -- [[GreenLantern]]
-What if they wanted him like this? ~WillCoon
+What if they wanted him like this? ~[[WillCoon]]
-: Maybe the Gold Faction wanted him like this, and tricked the Bronze into not realizing what horrors he was really going through, so that when the Bronze tried to recruit him, he'd go Gold? Heck, entire storylines could be built on why exactly he didn't get pulled out. - FrivYeti
+: Maybe the Gold Faction wanted him like this, and tricked the Bronze into not realizing what horrors he was really going through, so that when the Bronze tried to recruit him, he'd go Gold? Heck, entire storylines could be built on why exactly he didn't get pulled out. - [[FrivYeti]]
-:: With the help of the wonderful [[dakkareth]], as well as the rest of you lovely commenters, potential reasons have been come up with. See above. :) - Shadow_Lynne
+:: With the help of the wonderful [[dakkareth]], as well as the rest of you lovely commenters, potential reasons have been come up with. See above. :) - [[Shadow_Lynne]]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 NOTES: Yes, I quoted song lyrics here. (October Project's "Bury My Lovely".) Shoot me later...I tend to pick songs that suit my characters.
-For JustAddWater. <br>
+For [[JustAddWater]]. <br>
 Status: <b>Active</b><br>
@@ Line 252: / Line 252: @@
 <b>Forget me not </b> <br>
 ===== Comments =====
-Question - if his un-Exalted life were so bad, why wouldn't other Sidereals (who certainly knew who he was, and where he was) have stopped in to help out? I'm not saying this background isn't good by any means - but an explanation of why they ignored his suffering might explain yet further why he hates the Bronze so. -- GreenLantern
+Question - if his un-Exalted life were so bad, why wouldn't other Sidereals (who certainly knew who he was, and where he was) have stopped in to help out? I'm not saying this background isn't good by any means - but an explanation of why they ignored his suffering might explain yet further why he hates the Bronze so. -- [[GreenLantern]]
-What if they wanted him like this? ~WillCoon
+What if they wanted him like this? ~[[WillCoon]]
-: Maybe the Gold Faction wanted him like this, and tricked the Bronze into not realizing what horrors he was really going through, so that when the Bronze tried to recruit him, he'd go Gold? Heck, entire storylines could be built on why exactly he didn't get pulled out. - FrivYeti
+: Maybe the Gold Faction wanted him like this, and tricked the Bronze into not realizing what horrors he was really going through, so that when the Bronze tried to recruit him, he'd go Gold? Heck, entire storylines could be built on why exactly he didn't get pulled out. - [[FrivYeti]]
-:: With the help of the wonderful [[dakkareth]], as well as the rest of you lovely commenters, potential reasons have been come up with. See above. :) - Shadow_Lynne
+:: With the help of the wonderful [[dakkareth]], as well as the rest of you lovely commenters, potential reasons have been come up with. See above. :) - [[Shadow_Lynne]]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 NOTES: Yes, I quoted song lyrics here. (October Project's "Bury My Lovely".) Shoot me later...I tend to pick songs that suit my characters.
 Name: Hidden Crystal<br>
@@ Line 59: / Line 62: @@
 Thrown 1 <br>
 Medicine* 2 <br>
-Martial Arts* 4 (Multiple Attacks +1) <br>
+Martial Arts* 5 (Multiple Attacks +1) <br>
 Bureaucracy* 2 <br>
 Awareness* 3 <br>
@@ Line 65: / Line 68: @@
-Essence: 3 <br>
+Essence: 4 <br>
 Personal: 14 <br>
-Peripheral: 35 <br>
+Peripheral: 41 <br>
 Charms: <br>
@@ Line 128: / Line 131: @@
 <b>Soak</b>: 3B/1 L/0A (unarmored) <br>
 <b>Attacks</b>: <br>
-Starmetal Daiklave (Whisper of Stars): Speed 15  Accuracy 12 (MA), 12 (Melee) Damage 10L Defense 11 (MA)/11 (Melee) <br>
+Starmetal Daiklave (Whisper of Stars): Speed 15  Accuracy 13 (MA), 12 (Melee) Damage 10L Defense 12 (MA)/11 (Melee) <br>
 Punch: Speed 8 Accuracy 9 Damage 2B Defense 8 <br>
 Kick: Speed 5 Accuracy 8 Damage 4B Defense 7 <br>
@@ Line 156: / Line 159: @@
 ===== Experience Management =====
-Current Unspent XP: 16 <br>
+Current Unspent XP: 7 <br>
-Downtime #1: <br>
+Current Spent XP: 88<br>
 Joy In Adversity Stance<br>
 Martial Arts 4 <br>
@@ Line 167: / Line 172: @@
 Temperance 3 <br>
 Performance specialty: Dance<br>
-unspent<br>
+Emerald Banishment<br>
-Emerald Banishment
+Essence 4<br>
 ===== Resplendent Destinies =====
 Crystal's most used RD is that of Grey Heron, a young woman from Coral, from a family who was very poor and down-on-their-luck. Once she dreamed, and her dreams were bright: but no matter how much she tried, how much she struggled, things never got any better for her. The one time she had a chance to make her way up in the world, a marriage with the son of more prosperous neighbors, it ended like everything else did: he died of an untimely illness, and that dream evaporated. Now, she is simply resigned to the fact that her life will go on the way it always has, and will end the same way, and she has stopped hoping and dreaming for anything better. (A RD of the Sword, duration of a century and <I>5</I> effect points remaining. Used the resignation and failure correlations.)