Flawed

*I found an interesting series and thought I would base a storybook on it.

Flawed

Spoiler

They are coming for me now, I can feel them drawing closer. I will not survive, how can I when the Shadows themselves hunt me? I'm sorry my heart, the daughter I never knew. You will never know what became of me, my body will never be found. But you at least must live, so I leave you this last warning, and the knowledge that I loved you, I always loved you.

To survive you must become more Silent then the Assembly, your heart ice, your mind a flawless prism. But never forget-prisms bend light, change the direction of what is known, generate fractures of beauty. Ultimately prisms create their own truths.

excerpt from, Last Testament of a Hunted Flawed

plot: Clinical Insanity.

The number one cause of death for the Avarri. Who are born with powerful psychic gifts. Talents so strong that they can drive their wielder mad. Death by insanity? For the Avarri, it was very much a harsh reality. They would become lost within their gifts, their curse. And slowly they would lose their minds. The Avarri are their minds, and once the mind is gone the body can no longer work.

But the dead were the fortunate ones. Those who broke under the pressure of their gifts, yet survived, were no longer sentient. No longer anything close to sentient, their minds locked away in a world where their gifts paint the world red with blood. As their gifts fractured, lashing out at those around them, so did they.

The Avarri were drowning in their own blood, choked by their natural born abilities. Each day hundreds died, some going mad, others being massacred by the insane ones. It was the end of their world.

Until one Avarri came forward with an answer. It wasn't their gifts killing them, it was their emotions that stopped them from controlling their gifts. This young scientist proposed to wipe out emotion, to suppress any feelings. Many were horrified, others elated. Because if they no longer felt Hatred, Anger, Pain, and Sorrow. Neither would they feel Joy, Wonder, Love. They would lose the very things that made them fight for the right to live.

Debate raged among the Avarri for over fifty years. And with each passing day the death toll rose ever higher. Until finally even the most resistant Avarri capitulated, to save their race they would wipe out their emotions.

Centuries passed, and today the Avarri are thriving, they control their abilities. But at the core of that control is the Silence Protocol. Now their are whispers of revolt, some of the Avarri have rejected Silence, claiming they have learned to control their abilities without it. But the world at large believes they are lying, or mad, or even that they don't exist. Five hundred years after the begininning of Silence the Avarri no longer know how to love, children are born only so the race will continue.

They do not know love.
Because to love is to be Flawed.
And the Avarri do not allow the Flawed to live.

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rules: The usual rules apply no god moding, no killing off characters without permission.

When you list your abilities also list how strong they are. On a scale of 1-10, one being weakest ten strongest. Their are rare exceptions to this rule, Cardinals who's abilities are so powerful they can't be measured.
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characters: Please follow this character profile.

name-
age-
gender-
appearance-
history-
personality-
abilities- (list psychic abilities, no more then 3, and you can only have 1 Cardinal ability.)
other-
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My Profile

name- Aridos (Ari for short)
age- 19
gender- male

appearance- http://media.photobucket.com/image/boy% ... y.jpg?o=29

history- One of the rare X-designations, those children born with truly lethal abilities. Even with Silence their abilities are extremely difficult to control, almost always resulting in death when they are still children. Ari's ability is a rare form of telekinesis, it allows him to manipulate things on the cellular and molecular level. So he can start fires, and lightning with his mind, turn invisible, and even kill with a thought.

When he was three he accidently burned his dormitory down. (All children are taken from their parents and placed in boarding schools at the age of two) At which point Ari was seperated from the other children and taken to a training facility. The rest of his life concisted of training to be a Shadow, one of the elite soldiers and assassins of the Assembly.

He rose quickly through the recruit ranks and was made a Shadow at the age of fourteen. Five years later Ari is jaded and cynical, he has seen the corruption that lies at the heart of the Assembly. But their is so much blood on his hands he believes himself irredeemable.

When Assembly orders him to kill children, it's finally to much. Ari breaks his conditioning and flees to seek out the other Flawed, the rebels that he has heard whispers of. But as the Assembly's only living Tk-cell, they are determined to take him back.

personality- A bit of a lone wolf, Ari comes off as cold at first. But he's just very intense, both cool headed and hot tempered. He's one of those who feels deeply about everything, but he still keeps his emotions under iron control. Stubborn, prideful, and independant, Ari goes his own way. Although most people believe he's as amoral as the other Arrows, their is a line that he will absolutely never cross.

abilities- Tk-cell: Cardinal level (see above for explanation of ability)
Tp, telepathy: level 5
F, precognition: level 7.5 (for Ari this ability took an interesting twist instead of seeing the future he views the past)

other- Up for love, the fear of losing control of his power is ingrained by this point. Ari is terrified of what he's become but determined not to go back. He could use a friend, preferably someone who's been 'flawed' a while longer then him. Also like all Arrows, he was highly trained in physical as well as psychic combat.

The power you want for Ari is known as Retrocognition. That's seeing past events rather than future.

Sounds interesting, are multiple characters allowed? I wouldn't mind taking a male later on but for now have a female in mind:

Name: Idahlia

Age: 18

Gender: Female

Appearance: Idahlia is pale skinned with long, black hair and a slim but curvy figure. Most of her features are rather ordinary from her slightly too thin lips to the overlap of her smooth nose. Her eyebrows are neither thin or thick and her skin is without freckles, smooth and blank. Her eyes though are strange. They are a deep, deep blue that almost looks violet.

Image

History: There was a small group of the Flawed forming in her home town when she was five years old and living obliviously in her dorm. They held meetings in secret, they discussed the possibilities of revolt and worst of all they planned to escape the town and strike out into the woods on their own. They were only six people, two couples in their twenties and two young men. Jasmine and Nathen had started the group months earlier when a daughter was born to them and taken away. It broke through their emotionless existance and made them realise they couldn't live like that.

The six were ready to leave, they had stored a small amount of supplies and planned to all slip out of town at intervals during the next day. Jasmine was to be the last. She was working late at the dorm where her role was as teacher to some of the children. A last minute decision reached her and she took Idahlia with her when her shift finished. The little girl was confused but trusted her teacher and went without struggle.

Following that Idahlia lived in a growing settlement of the Flawed. It was a hard childhood, particularly in the beginning, living in a rough wooden structure deep in the woods with no children her age. As more people found the group, families formed and babies were born but Idahlia was forever the oldest of the children and the only one who had been born into the life of Silence. Sometimes she wonders if she isn't really Flawed and if her emotions are only imagined because she isn't really a child of the Flawed.

Personality: Talkative and bright, Idahlia comes across as being lively and full of emotion but she also has periods of being blank when she cares for nothing but her thoughts and is lost to the real world. When alert, Idahlia's every thought second guesses her next, she's a bundle of nerves and turmoil, not certain of who she is or what she feels and these thoughts build and build until her mind snaps and she has to recede into the dark, quiet spaces of her mind or go insane. Despite this she's the first to reassure any of the children who are having doubts or fears. She reminds them that they are the children of the Flawed and that they are the future and will be taught how to survive. At the same time, Idahlia believes none of this and behind the sometimes still exterior, her mind is breaking. She desperately needs someone to talk to who might understand how she's feeling and who will let her be young and scared instead of the oldest of the children.

Abilities:

Astral Projection: level 6: Idahlia is able to project herself only as far as the edge of the woods but can hold the projection for up to three hours while her physical body appears to be asleep. She is also aware if anyone touches her physical body though and in this way can be summoned back. The settlement have Idahlia use her gift to look out for incoming Flawed and guide them through the thick trees to the small village that is almost impossible to find alone.

Telepathy: level 3: The use of this ability is limited in that Idahlia can only read the thoughts and emotions of those who are Flawed or open to the idea of having emotions. If the person is used to keeping their mind blank, Idahlia feels nothing. She is afraid that were a telepath to try and read her thoughts they would find nothing also or even worse just the echos of the people around her bounced off the sides of her mind like a mirror might reflect another's image. Most of the time Idahlia can only feel a person's emotion or gets tiny fragments of their thoughts.

Psychometry: level 10: The ability to discover details about the past or future condition of an object or location, usually by being in close contact with it. This is the ability that is breaking Idahlia. She might pick up a perfectly ordinary object and suddenly her mind will be flooded with images, both past, present and future and she sometimes has trouble knowing which are which or the images get tangled or are vague and there's no one at the settlement with a similar power or any advice on how she can control it.

name- Aisling

age- 20

gender- female

appearance- Aisling has long, straight, red-brown hair. It is usually held back in some sort of ponytail or braid combination. She is around an average height and is slim but muscular. She has bright green eyes and light freckles across the bridge of her nose.

history- Aisling has been a flawed for as long as she can remember. She was born to flawed parents and loved for immensely. She had never known what is is like to be unflawed so is very in tough with her emotions. As a flawed she never mastered more than one ability, but has that ability down to the level of a ten from constant practice.

Her parents died when she was twelve, but she was kept and cared for in the rebel clan. Through the years she has risen in power in the clan and today stands one step below their leader. If he was the 'alpha' you could consider her his 'beta'. She will do anything to protect her clan.

The settlement of flawed Aisling lives in is hidden in underground tunnels masked on the surface by a small trading settlement. All of the flawed retain, or have learned how to appear emotionless and take shifts working the shops above ground.

personality- Aisling is full of emotion and life. She loves that she never has had to live without her emotions. She is also one of the best actresses in the rebel settlement, and can act like she has no emotions. She knows all she knows of the outside through stories and working above ground. She also has a great sense of duty to her clan as number two in it.

abilities-
Telekenisis - 10 - can move objects with her mind

other- up for love

*Since it's taking people so long to join, I'm going to start and they can join as it progresses. Also some people seem to be confused, level 10 is just below cardinal level for psychic abilities.*

Aridos(Ari)-

Ari paused while following the shade of a woman who had fled through these woods. The shade was still very clear, no more then a year or two old. Turning, he shut down his retrocognition.

His hands fell to the guns strapped to his waist, ruby eyes flashed as he altered his body and the air around it, dissapearing into thin air. A long suffering sigh echoed from the treetops. "Come on Ari, you know the handlers prepared me for that. Good as you are, you can't shut down your own body heat." There was a metallic tone to the words, an old Avarri then.

Ari cursed and dropped the light shield, but he kept up the more permeable air shields, the ones that would stop a bullet. The only way to take a Tk-cell down was on the psychic plane.

"Come on, let me at least see who they sent after me?" He laced his voice with sarcasm, such a blatent show of emotion would unsettle the other Shadow. And it was another Shadow, they would send only best after him.

The other Shadow sighed again, "Do you really think I'm stupid enough to let a Shadow even a Flawed Shadow, see me? I'd rather live a little longer."

Laughing bitterly Ari prepare a blast of Tk. "That's just it. You're not living, you're already dead." As he finished speaking he sent an a blast of Tk out in all directions. Seconds later their was a choked off scream and the other man fell from the tree.

Ari walked over to the body, confirming he had died from the telekinetic blast. With a flick of his hand, he incinerated the body, leaving no evidence behind. "Now that that's been dealt with. We should talk." Ari turned and faced the shocked expression of a young woman near his age. The transparent image was proof she was an astral projection though a strong one.

Patiently, Ari leaned against a tree, waiting for her to make the first move.

Idahlia

Concentrating on the young man's looks helped Idahlia to quickly recover from her shock. He had short red hair and a sharp jaw and he was thin and lithe, not yet filled out. He was evidently strong in power though and would make a useful addition to the army except he was dangerous. He brought danger with him. It wouldn't be the first time that people had arrived fleeing from the Flawed and Lia had even helped them move deeper into the woods to hide and wait out the search. The camp had never been found but only because they were careful. They sent Idahlia to meet people first and to judge them safe. This one was not safe. He was young, probably only half in control of his powers and... he was young. Idahlia had not met anyone so close to her age before.

"You're looking for the settlement you've heard about I presume? I'm the first point of contact. You won't find it without me." Lia's voice was defensive and firm but also bubbly. There was even the suggestion that she might be playing games with him.

"Then lead the way," the man ordered.

"Mmmm-hmmm." Lia's response seemed to be an agreement and she began to walk deeper into the woods but had no intention of leading him to the settlement yet. It would not hurt him to walk some distance first. If he was to join them he would have to know the woods by heart eventually though they were vast and difficult to navigate. "I can't just take someone who might be a spy there you understand so you have to tell me about yourself. Why do you want to join our settlement?" Lia cocked her head to one side and kept her eyes on his face. She was lookign for signs of emotion. The Flawed wouldn't let themselves be made frustrated by her endless questions, her walking in circles. It was her first test.

Aisling

Groaning, Aisling slumped over the wooden countertop of the shop she was serving her latest shift in. "Bored...so bored..." she mumbled into the wood.

"It has been a slow day," a young man said, Aisling called him Jay for his blue hair. It reminded her of a blue jay. "You should be careful though."

Aisling frowned and stood straight again. "I know when to be careful, Jay," she insisted. "Besides, you can sense enough when someone is approaching."

Jay shrugged and leaned back in the chair he sat in. "I find it so compelling that the second in command is so careless, being a hunted flawed and all."

"Blah, blah, blah," Aisling mocked. "Maybe if being second in command meant I actually did something interesting I would care more. All I get stuck with is 'holding down the fort'."

She sighed and was about to slump back over the counter when Jay shot to his feet.

"Someone's approaching," he said.

Aisling gathered herself, emotionless yet again, and awaited the arrival of whatever customer had ventured this way now.

I'm going to make a second character so that Aisling isn't alone for too long ^^

Name: Jaspar

Age: 21

Gender: Male

Appearance: Jaspar has mildly tanned skin and a muscled physique with broad shoulders and a smooth, strong back. His hair is dark brown and curly and his eyes are a warm golden brown. His facial features are sharp except for his eyes which are softly rounded.

History: Jaspar's history is brief and simple. He is a Flawed man and a work man. He travels around from town to town to trading post to city. He sometimes takes money for work and other times asks for food or board.

Personality: Quiet, solid and serious Jaspar doesn't allow himself to feel emotion. He believes entirely that should he allow himself emotions he will lose control of his powers and die.

[b]Abilities:

Levitation: level 4: Jaspar uses this infrequently, only when he needs to reach the top of a roof etc. He prefers not to rely on his powers and will occasionally use a ladder if there's no need for speed.

Technopathy: level 8: Jaspar can discover the faults of broken objects by touching them and know exactly how to fix them or he can discover a piece of technology's uses or create technology in the form of weapons and machines.

Power Sensing: level 4: Jaspar is sometimes able to tell what powers another has and very occasionally can estimate their level.

*Alright people seem to be confused about the Avarri, the vast majority of the race, don't feel emotion. The Flawed are those who do feel. Also Kitty levition is a form of telekinesis. Also Shadow's are like the bogeymen of the Avarri*

Aridos(Ari)-

Ari glanced at the girl out of the corner of his eye, judging her reaction. "Well I guess the most important thing, is that I am or was, a Shadow."

The girl gasped and turned to face him. "You shouldn't joke about things like that."

He shrugged and pulled back his jacket, baring the tattoo on his wrist. A black scythe and the number 067. The brand of a Shadow. "Why not? It's the truth." Ari met the girls dark blue eyes, his lips quirked in a smile. "I am what I am. There's no changing that."

The girl swallowed, and matched him stare for stare. "If you're a Shadow, why did you Turn?" Using the phrase for becoming Flawed.

Ari growled, faint sparks of electricity licking up his arms. "Because they ordered me to do somethin I couldn't. Not and remain human. If I had done what they wanted to do, I would have become a monster."

Okay thanks for clearing those things up! In that case Jaspar thinks he's emotionless and has been suppressing his emotions without realising it and he has telekinesis but it has manifested itself only in the form of levitation.

Jaspar

Entering the shop his eyes probed the shelves for what he needed. He was low on nails. It was difficult to fix furniture without nails. Ah. There. Moving in that direction he picked the packet up and put it on the counter. That would do nicely. His eyes skimmed the two shop assistants. The girl was pretty. Cute too. It was curious, girls seemed to be having more effect on him lately. Maybe it was his mind deciding that he should fulfill his duty as a male and take a wife. Children were important to keep the race going. He thought he might like having children too.

"Do you require anything else?" the female asked as he reached into his pocket for the money. He didn't think he needed anything else. Sometimes he wasn't sure though. Sometimes he thought he wanted something else and then thought that he didn't.

"How much are they?" Jaspar asked flatly. He was a no emotions sort of guy. Yup. Emotions killed so it was good that they didn't have them now. He pitied the Flawed. They would all die. A shame that. At least if they died their bad genes wouldn't be mixing with strong genes like his. Still. It was a shame.

Did he have enough money for something else? He wasn't sure. That was why he had asked how much the nails were. If he had enough money maybe he would get something to eat or he might be better off asking where a good place to stay the night was. He was low on money. Maybe he would have to sleep out of doors. "Do you know somewhere I might rest?"

is it too late to join?

*Go ahead and join, we only have a few characters so far. It would help if you could figure out a way to link the two flawed camps together.*

Maybe something could happen to the smaller camp that would cause them to have to move, and they would come to the bigger camp?

Aisling

This man wanted a place to stay? No, he needed a place to say. He was obviously not Flawed. But maybe... maybe he knew and he did in fact want a place to stay. Maybe he was another.

Jay cleared his throat and stepped forward. "There is a town nearby where someone may board you, but here we have little room. It is only a simple training colony."

Aisling nodded, agreeing with Jay's words. He knew her thoughts too well, he was saving her and possibly them all. She was so trusting sometimes.

But the man looked harmless. Aisling ventured so far to say he might even be attractive, but she wasn't allowing anything close to emotional attatchment at the moment.

"There should be someone who can board you here, it is getting dark after all," Aisling said, speaking without thinking. "If you would prefer."

That might not be a bad idea. There could be an attack on the settlement while Lia is leading Aridos around the woods. We could fodder for a few more posts and then I could have someone trying to alert Idahlia as to what is going on and her indecision as to whether she should lead the boy to her village and in the hopes he would help or return to her real body to protect her village.

Idahlia

A shadow. Lia shivered. It wasn't possible. Shadows weren't real and if they were they were awful, horrific creatures. This boy was even more dangerous than she had thought. It was hard to know that. She looked into his eyes, so close to her own height and wished it could have been different.

"Shadows aren't human," she muttered under her breath. She could feel the stillness just below all these bundles of... emotion? It wasn't right to call them that until she could be sure, until she could be certain. Perhaps the stillness was really her. She didn't want it to be, she wanted more than anything to be Flawed. "Okay so if I do believe you why are you telling me this? You must know that I can't lead a shadow to the settlement, I couldn't risk it! Besides, you don't strike me as being Flawed-" Here she leaned in close, her body obstructing his path, her eyes right up against his. She could feel his breath on her cheek and smell his skin. "I don't see any emotion in you."

Looking deeper into those eyes Idahlia wasn't sure if her words were true. She didn't know what she saw. It was usually so easy to tell, the anger, the relief, the tears. This one didn't seem right. He seemed... broken. Maybe he was only faking being Flawed. Could emotions really be copied? Her stomach twisted around like a startled rat. No. Her emotions were real, they were real, they were real!

"Test me," the boy said. "Bring someone out here who can read your mind, isn't that the way to do it?" Idahlia frowned. She didn't liek to admit that her telepathy was so weak she could barely use it when astral projecting. It was why she relied on these tests instead.

"And risk you hurting them? No. You will pass my tests or leave." This was said in a cold, empty voice but suddenly her tone changed and was warm and light again. "So why don't you tell me about your gifts, what abilities can you offer us? We're attempting to live in peace but sometiems it is necessary to fight."

*One thing Ari isn't aware of is that if he can kill with a thought, he can also heal. But he was raised, or trained, to believe that he is only capable of killing.*

Aridos(Ari)-

"Damn." Ari thought sourly, he'd been hoping to avoid revealing his abilities. People were nervous enough around Shadows already. But this girl was clearly stubborn, she'd probably lead him in circles. He could find their camp on his own, follow the trail of past arrivals, but he didn't. Curiosity overuled logic, and Ari found himself trailing after the flawed girl.

Memories surfaced as Ari thought about the events that led him here. Ruby eyes darkened, black tinging the red. "I'm a Cardinal Tk-cell." He spoke bluntly, distancing himself from it, his own private nightmare.

The girl, he still didn't know her name, laughed. Scorn thick in her voice. "You're lying. I've never heard of that ability."

Ari shrugged uncomfortably. His voice was both hot and cold, fire cloaked in ice. "It's one of the X-designations."

She froze at that, all the color bleeding from her face. The X-designations, the three rarest psychic abilities in existance and the most dangerous. Only a handfull were born in every generation, and their abilities were said to kill them in childhood. An adult X designation was unheard of.

"When I was three years old, I set fire to my dormitory." Ari's filled with pain and horror he had never been able to express. "Another child had shoved me out of the line up. I had a spike of temper, and the entire building went up in flames. Most of children survived, but none of the ones that had been with me lived."

The words came unbidden, the dam had shattered. "It was two weeks before the school teachers realised what had happened. They called the Assembly, and the Shadows came to take me away."

"Shadows aren't conditioned the way ordinary Avarri are. The chains that bind our abilities and emotions are much stronger. The methods to Silence our emotions are, extreme. By my fourth birthday, I could watch my arm being broken and not even flinch."

Shivering, Ari forced the memories back behind the door, with the rest of the nightmares. "Other then my mutated form of telekinesis, my other abilities are mid level telepathy, and 7.5 retrocognition. I see the past."

Ari leaned his head against the tree, staring up at the sky. Waiting for this girl, this Flawed. To condemn him for simply being born, after all deep down even the Silenced feared the X designations. Wouldn't the flawed only fear them more. Sighing Ari closed his eyes. He was so tired, soul weary, all he wanted to do was find a place to rest.

Jaspar

How strange, the male seemed to be hostile. He said he couldn't stay. Well that wasn't very nice of him but maybe he was having similar feelings for girls and was telling Jaspar that this girl was taken. Was she taken? For some reason that made Jaspar feel... no. What was this? He didn't feel anything. Haha. Silly of him to think that. He didn't feel anything because there weren't emotions anymore. He should just smile and shrug and walk out of there. Smile. That was an odd word, where had that thought come from? Why would he smile? Oh dear. It seemed Jaspar was more tired than he'd thought.

And then the girl made him an offer and she really was very sweet. How thoughtful of her. "Yes. I think I would prefer that. My body is very tired," Jaspar said smoothly. "Perhaps I will stay a while. If there's anything you need fixing. I'm good at mending." He met the girl's bright green eyes and gently touched her mind with his. It was how he estimated a person's abilities. "Telekenisis right? High level too, I'd say nine or ten." The male didn't interest him enough to bother with.

"Who do I ask for a bed then? Perhaps you could show me. I'm known as Jaspar by the way."