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[Mutants & Masterminds] A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic
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<blockquote data-quote="Davies" data-source="post: 8112184" data-attributes="member: 30538"><p><span style="font-size: 26px"><span style="color: red">Kiyohime</span></span></p><p><img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/My-First-Gallery/i-Cqh28ZL/0/540ae6c7/S/kiyohime-S.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>Like most folktales, the story of the woman called Kiyohime has been told many ways. Perhaps the best known portrays her as the daughter of a family who provided lodging for Buddhist priests on pilgrimage to a certain shrine, who chanced to fall in love with one of them, called Anchin. Falling in love with a celibate worked out much as one would expect, and in her fury she transformed into a great serpent to pursue him. Just how culpable for his own doom Anchin is varies from telling to telling.</p><p></p><p>It's not known when Tomita Mariko, daughter of a moderately prosperous land-owner in one of Tokyo's many suburbs, learned this story. It might have happened when she was still a young girl in the early 1960s, possibly while reading it to her younger brother Kyousuke. Their mother passed away when they were both children, and their father largely left them in the care of an old friend of his, who ran a dojo on land their father owned. He taught them both the style of aikijutsu that he practiced, and they were reasonably adept at it.</p><p></p><p>In 1976, when Mariko was seventeen, a visitor came to the dojo. George Hama was the grandson of one of their mentor's old friends, now serving with the United States Marine Corps and based in Okinawa. He had come to reconnect with that part of his family who remained in Japan, and also with his grandather's old rival. He was four years older than Mariko, and she hated him immediately, with his goofy grin and bad Japanese and disgustingly handsome face. He couldn't stand her either, with her ridiculous pride and terrible attitude and overwhelming sense of her own beauty.</p><p></p><p>So of course they fell in mad love with each other. Neither her father nor her brother approved, of course, and so it was that two years later they decided to run off together, after consummating the relationship. They arranged to meet at the gate of a certain shrine at a certain time. Mariko arrived exactly on time, and waited. Several hours later, her brother found her there, collapsed in grief and regret. George had clearly taken the opportunity to abandon her after getting what he wanted.</p><p></p><p>Four months later, her brother was there for her again, paying to deal with the consequences of her error in judgement. Any love that she had ever felt for her American lover died by the time she left the doctor's office, replaced by an utter hatred for him and everything that he represented. She and Kyousuke both joined a group of anti-American extremists in Japan, which wound up being incorporated into the nascent Pythonian Insurgency. Dressing in the fashion of a stage ninja, Mariko started calling herself Kyohime, and became one of the most accomplished assassins within the organization.</p><p></p><p>It was surely fate that George Hama was recruited for the Joint Special Operations Taskforce, under the alias Deuce, and clashed with Kiyohime repeatedly and inconclusively. She never succeeded in killing him; he never succeeded in capturing her. Despite these failures, and others caused by her tendency to give her targets a chance at survival and enjoy their despair when it failed, Kiyohime rose in the ranks of the Pythonians to be given the title of Director of Assassinations, increasingly outshining the Director of Terorrism.</p><p></p><p>By 1987, she was dimly aware that Kyousuke was not comfortable in their new way of life but too focused on her own pain and anger to give it much thought. So she was surprised when Pythia herself gave her a warning that her visions indicated that he was considering defecting from the Pythons. Pythia decreed that it was up to Kiyohime to decide what to do about this. A day or so later, her brother entered her private rooms and told her that he had something important to tell her. Seeing that the moment was upon her, she regretfully cut his throat before he could say anything else, and cradled him as he choked to death on his own blood.</p><p></p><p>Her activities grew ever more brutal and every more bizarre over the next few years, as she joined the struggle for power within the Insurgency, never quite gaining the power that she sought but keeping it out of the hands of those she viewed as rivals. At last, during the final assault on Delphi, she had her final confrontation with Deuce. Driven by her losses and failures, she overcame him and had him at her mercy. But before she killed him, she demanded to know when he'd decided to abandon her.</p><p></p><p>He told her that he'd been at the shrine half an hour before they were supposed to meet, that Kyousuke had shown up and tried to kill him, and that he'd fled to avoid killing her brother ... and that he hadn't gone back because he didn't want to force her to choose between them.</p><p></p><p>She wanted to believe that it was lies. She wanted to believe the worst. But she believed he was telling the truth and she remembered the look on Kyousuke's face when he said he had something to tell her and she remembered the look on Pythia's face as she spoke and she <em>screamed</em>. And lifted up her sword, perhaps to kill Deuce, perhaps to kill herself. Regardless, that was when some of his friends came upon the scene and shot her dead.</p><p></p><p>Deuce whispered her name, just once. As far as anyone knows, that is the last word that the man now called Thriller has ever spoken.</p><p></p><p><strong>Kiyohime -- PL 7</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Abilities:</strong></p><p><strong>STR</strong> 2 | <strong>STA</strong> 3 | <strong>AGL</strong> 4 | <strong>DEX</strong> 4 | <strong>FGT</strong> 6 | <strong>INT</strong> 1 | <strong>AWE</strong> 2 | <strong>PRE</strong> 1</p><p></p><p><strong>Advantages:</strong></p><p>Agile Feint, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll, Equipment 6, Fearless, Hide in Plain Sight, Improved Defense, Improved Disarm, Improved Smash, Improved Trip, Instant Up, Language (English, [Japanese is native]), Ranged Attack 2, Skill Mastery 4 (Acrobatics, Athletics, Sleight of Hand, Stealth).</p><p></p><p><em>Equipment:</em></p><p>16 points of equipment as needed.</p><p><strong><em>Arsenal:</em></strong> Array (12 points) <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> <strong><em>Smoke Grenade:</em></strong> Ranged Cloud Area Concealment Attack 4 - 12 points</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> <strong><em>Sword:</em></strong> Strength-based Damage 3, Improved Critical - 1 point</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> <strong><em>Throwing Stars:</em></strong> Ranged Multiattack Damage 1 - 1 point</li> </ul><p></p><p><strong>Skills:</strong></p><p>Acrobatics 7 (+11), Athletics 6 (+8), Close Combat: Sword 3 (+9), Deception 7 (+8), Intimidation 7 (+8), Perception 8 (+10), Ranged Combat: Throwing Star 5 (+9), Sleight of Hand 8 (+12), Stealth 8 (+12), Technology 6 (+7), Treatment 5 (+6).</p><p></p><p><strong>Offense:</strong></p><p>Initiative +4</p><p>Unarmed +6 (Close Damage 2)</p><p>Sword +9 (Close Damage 5, Crit 19-20)</p><p>Throwing Stars +11 (Ranged Multiattack Damage 1)</p><p></p><p><strong>Defense:</strong></p><p>Dodge 9, Parry 9, Fortitude 5, Toughness 5/2, Will 7</p><p></p><p><strong>Totals:</strong></p><p>Abilities 46 + Advantages 23 + Skills 35 + Defenses 15 = 118 points</p><p></p><p><strong>Complications:</strong></p><p><strong><em>Vengeance--Motivation. Family</em></strong> (brother, up until 1987). <strong><em>Plays With Her Prey.</em></strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Davies, post: 8112184, member: 30538"] [size=150][color=red]Kiyohime[/color][/size] [img]https://photos.smugmug.com/My-First-Gallery/i-Cqh28ZL/0/540ae6c7/S/kiyohime-S.png[/img] Like most folktales, the story of the woman called Kiyohime has been told many ways. Perhaps the best known portrays her as the daughter of a family who provided lodging for Buddhist priests on pilgrimage to a certain shrine, who chanced to fall in love with one of them, called Anchin. Falling in love with a celibate worked out much as one would expect, and in her fury she transformed into a great serpent to pursue him. Just how culpable for his own doom Anchin is varies from telling to telling. It's not known when Tomita Mariko, daughter of a moderately prosperous land-owner in one of Tokyo's many suburbs, learned this story. It might have happened when she was still a young girl in the early 1960s, possibly while reading it to her younger brother Kyousuke. Their mother passed away when they were both children, and their father largely left them in the care of an old friend of his, who ran a dojo on land their father owned. He taught them both the style of aikijutsu that he practiced, and they were reasonably adept at it. In 1976, when Mariko was seventeen, a visitor came to the dojo. George Hama was the grandson of one of their mentor's old friends, now serving with the United States Marine Corps and based in Okinawa. He had come to reconnect with that part of his family who remained in Japan, and also with his grandather's old rival. He was four years older than Mariko, and she hated him immediately, with his goofy grin and bad Japanese and disgustingly handsome face. He couldn't stand her either, with her ridiculous pride and terrible attitude and overwhelming sense of her own beauty. So of course they fell in mad love with each other. Neither her father nor her brother approved, of course, and so it was that two years later they decided to run off together, after consummating the relationship. They arranged to meet at the gate of a certain shrine at a certain time. Mariko arrived exactly on time, and waited. Several hours later, her brother found her there, collapsed in grief and regret. George had clearly taken the opportunity to abandon her after getting what he wanted. Four months later, her brother was there for her again, paying to deal with the consequences of her error in judgement. Any love that she had ever felt for her American lover died by the time she left the doctor's office, replaced by an utter hatred for him and everything that he represented. She and Kyousuke both joined a group of anti-American extremists in Japan, which wound up being incorporated into the nascent Pythonian Insurgency. Dressing in the fashion of a stage ninja, Mariko started calling herself Kyohime, and became one of the most accomplished assassins within the organization. It was surely fate that George Hama was recruited for the Joint Special Operations Taskforce, under the alias Deuce, and clashed with Kiyohime repeatedly and inconclusively. She never succeeded in killing him; he never succeeded in capturing her. Despite these failures, and others caused by her tendency to give her targets a chance at survival and enjoy their despair when it failed, Kiyohime rose in the ranks of the Pythonians to be given the title of Director of Assassinations, increasingly outshining the Director of Terorrism. By 1987, she was dimly aware that Kyousuke was not comfortable in their new way of life but too focused on her own pain and anger to give it much thought. So she was surprised when Pythia herself gave her a warning that her visions indicated that he was considering defecting from the Pythons. Pythia decreed that it was up to Kiyohime to decide what to do about this. A day or so later, her brother entered her private rooms and told her that he had something important to tell her. Seeing that the moment was upon her, she regretfully cut his throat before he could say anything else, and cradled him as he choked to death on his own blood. Her activities grew ever more brutal and every more bizarre over the next few years, as she joined the struggle for power within the Insurgency, never quite gaining the power that she sought but keeping it out of the hands of those she viewed as rivals. At last, during the final assault on Delphi, she had her final confrontation with Deuce. Driven by her losses and failures, she overcame him and had him at her mercy. But before she killed him, she demanded to know when he'd decided to abandon her. He told her that he'd been at the shrine half an hour before they were supposed to meet, that Kyousuke had shown up and tried to kill him, and that he'd fled to avoid killing her brother ... and that he hadn't gone back because he didn't want to force her to choose between them. She wanted to believe that it was lies. She wanted to believe the worst. But she believed he was telling the truth and she remembered the look on Kyousuke's face when he said he had something to tell her and she remembered the look on Pythia's face as she spoke and she [i]screamed[/i]. And lifted up her sword, perhaps to kill Deuce, perhaps to kill herself. Regardless, that was when some of his friends came upon the scene and shot her dead. Deuce whispered her name, just once. As far as anyone knows, that is the last word that the man now called Thriller has ever spoken. [b]Kiyohime -- PL 7 Abilities: STR[/b] 2 | [b]STA[/b] 3 | [b]AGL[/b] 4 | [b]DEX[/b] 4 | [b]FGT[/b] 6 | [b]INT[/b] 1 | [b]AWE[/b] 2 | [b]PRE[/b] 1 [b]Advantages:[/b] Agile Feint, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll, Equipment 6, Fearless, Hide in Plain Sight, Improved Defense, Improved Disarm, Improved Smash, Improved Trip, Instant Up, Language (English, [Japanese is native]), Ranged Attack 2, Skill Mastery 4 (Acrobatics, Athletics, Sleight of Hand, Stealth). [i]Equipment:[/i] 16 points of equipment as needed. [b][i]Arsenal:[/i][/b] Array (12 points)[list] [*] [b][i]Smoke Grenade:[/i][/b] Ranged Cloud Area Concealment Attack 4 - 12 points [*] [b][i]Sword:[/i][/b] Strength-based Damage 3, Improved Critical - 1 point [*] [b][i]Throwing Stars:[/i][/b] Ranged Multiattack Damage 1 - 1 point[/list] [b]Skills:[/b] Acrobatics 7 (+11), Athletics 6 (+8), Close Combat: Sword 3 (+9), Deception 7 (+8), Intimidation 7 (+8), Perception 8 (+10), Ranged Combat: Throwing Star 5 (+9), Sleight of Hand 8 (+12), Stealth 8 (+12), Technology 6 (+7), Treatment 5 (+6). [b]Offense:[/b] Initiative +4 Unarmed +6 (Close Damage 2) Sword +9 (Close Damage 5, Crit 19-20) Throwing Stars +11 (Ranged Multiattack Damage 1) [b]Defense:[/b] Dodge 9, Parry 9, Fortitude 5, Toughness 5/2, Will 7 [b]Totals:[/b] Abilities 46 + Advantages 23 + Skills 35 + Defenses 15 = 118 points [b]Complications: [i]Vengeance--Motivation. Family[/i][/b] (brother, up until 1987). [b][i]Plays With Her Prey.[/i][/b] [/QUOTE]
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