Rien Slade



Rien Slade is a fifteen-year-old beginner mage. Born in the town of Freesia, she is the best friend of fellow mage Jaeger Rourke. Together with two other mages, Darien "Digit" Baine and Xanthe Faye, they form Team Digit of the mages' guild Centaur Toe.

Appearance
Rien has short black, tousled hair and dark brown, almost black eyes. She has relatively fair skin and has her grey guild mark on her right hand. She is 1.6m tall and weighs 50kg. Rien likes to dress up in magician-inspired outfits because she thinks that it is appropriate for the kind of magic she uses. She usually has on a long jacket with a pale grey gradient, structured shoulders and a pocket on the right hand side. Underneath she wears a white waistcoat buttoned over a larger black high-collared waistcoat and simple long white pants with a small frill where they are slit near the ankle. Her shoes are also pretty simple, being a standard pair of soft-soled, black covered shoes. On her right hand is a black fingerless glove which covers up her guild mark. She likes wearing a pale grey top hat to which she has attached long black velvet ribbons, but will usually take it off when in the guild. She carries about her money and some other small essentials in it using a little compartment she paid 1000 jewels to her teammate, Digit, to make for her. As her magic is not exactly offensive, she also carries about a small, easily concealable weapon known as a “tekko-kagi” (hand claws), which will be discussed in more detail later on.

Characteristics
  Not very self-disciplined- Rien is very bad at doing things like forcing herself to attend regular training sessions- she always needs someone to motivate her. She finds it really difficult to force herself to do something she doesn’t want to, and as a result is seen as one of the laziest people in the guild. Of course, she pursues things that she likes and wants to do just as wholeheartedly as any other person, but these are usually unproductive things like planning elaborate pranks on people and shopping. Rien even tends to slack off on training and would probably stop altogether if Jaeger didn’t drag her to attend regular sessions with the team. Doesn’t think things through- this trait is a by-product of her natural laziness as she tends to make decisions based upon whether they would allow her to save time in the future. For example, she once wrenched of her entire toenail in her efforts to cut it as short as possible so she wouldn’t have to cut it again so soon. Not given to feeling excessive or very strong emotions- she can of course be happy and sad, just like others, it is just that she doesn’t feel as happy or sad as others might. This is both a good and bad character trait. It is bad because sometimes, Rien cannot really take in the severity or seriousness of a situation because something that might seem devastating to most might just seem unfortunate to her, and thus sometimes does not react appropriately. This is especially troublesome during surprise attacks or situations such as the death of a pet, as Rien is needs time to realise the severity of the situation. On the flip side, she is able to keep her head in the wildest uproars, and while everyone else is panicking is able to maintain a level of calmness, helping her maintain a clear mind. Not careless- Rien isn’t prone to accidents and never does things such as forget her rent or miss an important appointment. Even though her apartment looks like a pigsty that has recently been hit by a tornado, she always insists that she is organised in her own way and can remember where everything is, as she is careful to take note of the general direction in which she tossed it. This characteristic is also manifested in things like the way she immediately covered up her guild mark after it threatened the safety of her team. It also makes her the team’s unofficial strategist, because although her plans are not especially brilliant, she always ties up loose ends, making them pretty fool-proof in general. Has a very laid-back, cheerful attitude- this in turn makes her an optimistic person who doesn’t worry too much. This endears her to her friends, who like chatting to her as she always makes them feel more relaxed and hopeful. She is always one to see the light at the end of a tunnel, and is a wonderful encourager and pep-talker. As a result of her influence, her team is one of the jolliest and most relaxed in the guild.

History
Rien was born into a family of florists in the town of Freesia. She was the youngest child in a family of five (three boys and two girls including Rien) and had a very free and easy childhood because her parents generally let their children have a lot of freedom, trusting that the elder children would look after their younger siblings. Rien developed her carefree attitude towards life after spending most of her time playing and laughing with her siblings and friends. The family was generally a happy one, and everyone was quite close to each other. Since Rien was five, she and her siblings had taken martial arts lessons in a little school in her town. This was because her father had been an avid fan of adventure novels starring masters of the martial arts when he was younger, and had never really given up a secret dream of being a martial artist. As he never fulfilled his dream, he decided that the next best thing would be to have his children learn martial arts instead and sent them for lessons. That was where she met her best friend, Jaeger, when they were six. Through Jaeger, who aspired to be a mage like his father, she developed an interest in magic and at Rien’s eighth birthday party decided to form a sort of “club” which would meet after the twice-weekly trainings to discuss and practise magic. The youngsters were encouraged by Jaeger’s father, who provided them with resources and basic training. Rien’s father and mother didn’t believe that their daughter would be able to use magic as there was no history of any of their family members being able to do so, but decided that it would be harmless to let her try. At first, it was just play for the children, but as the years went by, Jaeger and Rien realised that they actually had an affinity for magic. It didn’t come as much of a surprise to Jaeger, who had been exposed to such things all his life, but Rien was delighted when she realised that she was able to use illusion magic. The children were ten by that time, and had already started specialising in specific weapons. Rien’s weapon of choice was the “tekko-kagi”, which she chose because she thought the training would be the least taxing. Her parents (especially her father) were extremely pleased at the way Rien was progressing in her training and magic and when she asked to join a guild with Jaeger at fifteen, they let her- after all, they’d given her so much freedom over the years, so it only made sense that they’d give her the freedom to follow her dreams. Anyway, if she supported herself, it would be less taxing on the family purse. However, Jaeger’s father wasn’t so accommodating because he knew first-hand the hardships of the life of a mage and would have preferred them to wait until they were at least seventeen. However, after constant persuasion from his son and Rien, he allowed them to join a guild on the condition that they joined his guild, Centaur Toe, as he could keep an eye on them there- which was how they both ended up in their current guild. It was a smallish guild and not exactly very powerful, but Rien and Jaeger didn’t mind and continued to pursue their dreams of becoming mages. It was there that they met their present team, which they called Team Digit after their leader.

Powers and Abilities
A very junior mage (being only 15), Rien is able to use a basic form of illusion magic. This magic allows her to have control over the senses of one specific human/animal target while they remain within her range of sight. For example, she is able to cause them to hear a voice even if there is no sound, or see the shadow of a person in front of them even as she is readying herself to attack behind the enemy’s back. As of yet, she is unable to create very complex illusions. Creating visual illusions is the most draining for Rien, but she is currently able to create an illusion of up to one mobile, audible human being or large animal (large being the size of perhaps a horse) at a time. However, the more complex one aspect of the illusion is, the less realistic the other aspects of it get (for example, a swarm of a thousand bees would sound to the enemy like a small buzzing fly, or he might only be able to hear them from one ear). Creatures like dragons are completely out of the question, although she might be able to conjure up the shadow of one.

Since she is still very young and trying to master her magic, Rien is as yet unable to pick up a secondary magic. Therefore, as her magic is not exactly offensive, she needs to use weapons in order to battle effectively. Her weapons of choice are “tekko-kagi”, otherwise known as “hand-claws”- because that is exactly what they are. She has one for each hand, and they are both made out of iron. They fall under the category of fist-load weapons, which basically means that they increase the amount of force and, by association, the amount of damage which she can deliver. Skilled users can not only use these to cause seriously hurt an opponent by way of stabbing or slashing, they are also able to block and knock incoming weapons out of the air or the enemy’s hands. As they are easily portable, being just a little bigger than her hands, she is able to carry them around with her. They are generally hooked to the back of her trousers and covered by her coat. Due to her weapon of choice and the limited range of her magic, she is only able to engage in close-range combat with up to one or perhaps two opponents if she were by herself. That’s why she never leaves Jaeger, her partner’s, side, as they both find safety in numbers. She has a unique way of battling as she hardly ever makes a sound during a fight, mostly because the opponent becoming aware that he is experiencing an illusion would void her magic. This makes her extremely handy at stealth-related missions.