exhume.

introducing...the starling.

tara khanna. xxvi. she/her/hers. executive asst to [insert rich asshole here].

application. / skeleton. / pinterest. / tasks. / starters.

penned by mina.

TASK 002:     power.

ALLY EMPOWERMENT --

n. the ability to strengthen other people’s natural power or skills. ex. Tara used ally empowerment to improve Erin’s karaoke skills.

aesthetic ﹒ how does your magic manifest itself physically? how does it feel?

as passive ability, for the most part it feels like nothing. it's as intrinsic as breathing, or her heart beating. when she focuses however, it feels likes tinnitus and tunnel vision at once, her experience of reality honing into the person she is supporting, almost as if she could inhabit the parts of their brain controlling the nerves and muscle tissue required for their enhancement. tara has used her power often, sharpened it against whetstone to the point that it is most useful to stand back to back of the person she's empowering during missions, watching their six. out and about when she uses this power for subtler or stealthier purposes, tara usually tries to accompany their power boost with some casual touching. this is especially helpful when working with strangers whom she doesn't know as well and thus doesn't know which skill to cultivate.

mechanic ﹒ how do you picture this to work ooc in game-play?

in game, tara’s ability manifests as +2 to any skill check roll by a player she chooses to enhance. she must identify the character and which skill she is enhancing prior to the roll and her enhancement can only be used twice per thread (group or individual). passively, tara‘s ability means that for only group rolls, everyone gets +1 to their roll. this has unlimited use in group threads as long as the dm is asking for a group roll.

features & limitations ﹒ expand on what has already been written in the skeleton. for every positive feature, you must write a negative drawback.

( + ) works on both nihilum and non-nihilum -- for nihilum she can improve their magic. for all, she can enhance only what skills they already have. i.e. she can't make a terrible dancer a prima ballerina. she can improve their sense of rhythm or discipline so that after spending enough time with her and putting in the effort, they've improved to corps de ballet level, at which point tara can give them that last boost they need.

( - ) must be in proximity for enhancement to work -- other factors that help, in depth knowledge of the mechanics of the skill she is enhancing (i.e. she can enhance someone’s dancing skills better than she can enhance their operatic skills because she actually knows how to dance), intimate knowledge of the person she is empowering and how they use their skill, trust of the person being empowered, physical contact, eye contact

( + ) has control over what trait/skill she enhances -- when she focuses on a person, she can further select what exact skill she is improving, otherwise the person she is empowering will notice a slight improvement in everything they’re doing. often results in feelings of higher confidence and self esteem.

( - ) passive ability that works on multiple people to a lesser degree or on a single person when she focuses to a higher degree -- see above for more in depth explanation, but tara does not sense it’s use consciously when the ability is working passively (i.e. she’s totally walked past people in an office building and people’s typing speeds went up and no one noticed because it was so subtle). it takes immense focus (which she has so far trained herself to do) to enhance natural skills while also conducting normal activity like conversation, or any other skilled activity, like driving. she cannot focus her ability on nihilum powers and perform any other skill requiring activity at the same time.

past uses ﹒when have they used their power before?

secondary school: the gretchen wiener to her school’s regina george (heightened her gossiping tendencies to get her kicked out of the friend group), her school’s regina george (enhanced her self-pity to get her to party too hard), a few boys she liked (enhanced their motorbiking skills so they could do cooler tricks and go faster when she rode behind)

university: lawrence, fei

post university: a mafia heir (heightened his charisma so he started dating her, heightened his intimidation for mafia jobs), assorted non-nihilum well placed community members, her current boss jack sweeney (heightens charisma and mental arithmetic ability), in general very liberal with her use, passive or focused

caedes corvi: often, for whoever needs it, but especially mateo

future features ﹒there will be an opportunity later in the game to transform your character’s power. what ideas do you have for this?

skill suppression: the opposite of her powers, tara is able to reduce someone’s natural trait/skill

user boost: improve her focus to enhance skills of more than one person at a time

skills boost: can improve multiple skills on a single person simultaneously, or extra boost a single skill (i.e. increasing from +2 to +4 etc.)

distance boost: increase distance between tara and user such that only a knowledge of that person’s skills and remaining in tara’s line of sight is necessary for her to enhance user’s skills

TASK 001:      connections.

she’s an empty husk of a human, so let’s not pretend any of these actually matter to her. they’re just another way of staving off the doldrums of existence until she can do what she really wants: destroy.