ichelle Snowdon

Odain Alias: Michelle Snowdon

Played By: Ben-San Arizona (bensan_arizona@yahoo.com)

Homeworld: Thousand Arms

Appearance:

Michelle is a moderately attractive young girl, about 14 or 15. Her hair is dark brown, and falls in a plait most of the way down her back. She wears glasses over her grey eyes, and usually wears a plain and modest but quite well-made dusty-blue dress. Biologically, Michelle is male, but this is not apparent without inspection of the relevant area. She carries her costumes and tools in a large purse-like bag with a shoulder strap.

Powers:

Michelle is a Dress Master, able to create magical Spirit Costumes. When she decides to start making a Spirit Costume, she must have dress-quality cloth and her magic needle at hand, and begins to sew a simple garment while softly chanting. The chant attracts a Spirit into the garment, which changes as she makes it; once the garment has attracted a Spirit, the chant is unnecessary. The design for the Spirit Costume will appear in her mind once a Spirit has been attracted, and she must follow this design exactly. The materials she is using will change into suitable materials for the costume. Each Spirit Costume has powers and a personality of its own; her current Spirit Costumes are listed under Equipment. Once a Spirit Costume has been made, she is able to "quick-change" into it as long as it's on her person by pulling a large cloth specially-made for this purpose out and throwing it into the air in a certain way. The cloth will hang in the air, obscuring her from view, as her clothes and the Spirit Costume swiftly change places, after which the cloth will return to her purse. When she wishes to turn back into her usual self, the cloth will leap out, encircle her for a moment, then return to her purse, leaving her in her usual clothes. Simply wearing a Spirit Costume puts a slow drain on her mental and mystical energies, which increases when she uses that costume's Special Power (as listed under the individual costumes). Simply wearing a Costume, her power recharges at about the same rate that the Costume drains it; however, after using a Special Power she will eventually have to return to her usual self. The more often she uses the Powers, the sooner she'll have to return to Michelle to recharge. She is unable to sense Spirits as a Spirit Blacksmith might, although she can sense magically-imbued clothes, fabrics, or garments.

Weaknesses:

Michelle is biologically male, and therefore has the traditional vulnerable spot of that gender no matter what costume she wears.

Skills:

In addition to her Spirit Costuming, she is an excellent tailor and clothing designer, with a good sense of design and color and a good feel for materials. She also has a number of other typical domestic skills (cooking, cleaning, and so forth), as well as knowing how to care for domestic animals and household tools fairly well.

Equipment:

Her purse holds considerably more than a purse of its size rightfully ought to, and is a good deal sturdier than it looks. It contains her magic needle (which is required for Spirit Costuming), a fair quantity of assorted high-quality fabrics and threads, her Quick-Change Cloth, and, most importantly, her Spirit Costumes. These include wigs which somehow cover her long hair and magically change her eye color, and are listed below.

• Magical Girl (Princess Starlight): This costume appears to be a modified seifuku, with the body section somewhat tighter than usual and generally covering the same area as a modest bathing suit. The body section is night-blue and dotted with reflective golden motes resembling constellations; the skirt is a brilliantly-reflective white. She wears simple gold armbands and night-blue boots, and an elaborate diadem (which she refers to as the Constellation Diadem) on her head. Her hair is black and wavy, reaching just past her shoulders in two ponytails, and her eyes are shining blue. She is quite shapely, to boot. This costume's personality is perky and friendly, believing that justice will ultimately prevail. She is a remarkably agile acrobat, although untrained as a fighter. Her Special Power lies in the Constellation Diadem, which can emit beams of white magic which will heal the pure-hearted and harm the evil-spirited.

• Tomboy (Chris): Chris wears denim overalls, a black shirt, red canvas sneakers, and a red baseball cap. Her hair is straight, red and cut short, her eyes are brown, and she's overall rather more attractive than she'd like to be. Her personality is, as the costume name implies, tomboyish, and dislikes being feminine, to the point of pretending to be a man. However, her figure is a little too rounded to pull off this ruse for any length of time. Her main skill is fighting, at which she excels, using a style somewhere between tae kwon do, jujitsu, and simple brawling. She's also fairly athletic in general. Her Special Power is to surround her fists or feet with chi, energizing them for powerful attacks.

• Magician (Tania): The Magician costume consists of a sort of tuxedo-bunny outfit covering her torso, with fishnet stockings, low pumps, a top hat, and a magician's cane. Her hair is long, black, and straight, and her eyes are hazel. She is fun-loving and a bit of a flirt, and takes very little seriously. She is skilled at stage magic and other legerdemain. Her Special Power is the ability to create illusions that look and sound real, although other senses won't be fooled.

• Kunoichi (Konatsu): This costume's hair is never seen, since everything except the eyes is masked with dark-crimson fabric. Her eyes are a dark brown that verges on black, and she carries a short sword at her waist. Konatsu is a ninja with a heart of gold, who would rather knock out her opponents than kill them. She is an extremely proficient ninja; she can hold her own in a fight but specializes in stealth. Her Special Powers are to turn herself invisible (which only affects sight) and to teleport along her line of sight.

• Miko (Akemi): This costume is a classic Japanese-style shrine maiden's outfit, complete with prayer streamers. Her hair is a dark blue, and her eyes are violet. She is reserved with those she doesn't know, especially devotees of Western religions, but is a pillar of strength in times of need. She has the skills needed to perform religious services and to maintain a temple. Her Special Power is a banishing ward, which can either dispel/counter magic or create a circle of protection against magical influence.

• Dominatrix (Sasha): A black leather dominatrix outfit that shows off Sasha's incredible figure without quite revealing the parts that are faked. Sasha's hair is long, straight, and platinum-blonde, and her eyes are deep green. Sasha is sexually aggressive and often downright terrifying. She fights using her whip, which is also made of black leather. Her Special Power is Black Magic; she's able to inflict a variety of unpleasant statuses (blindness or weakness, to give two examples) on her enemies, as well as conjure forth various elemental attacks. The elemental attacks aren't very powerful as such things go, but are visually quite impressive. The status curses typically last an hour, which can be extended up to 24 hours if Sasha expends all her energy. She can reverse the curses at any time she wishes.

Personality:

Michelle is a shy, quiet girl who would rather listen than talk. She is friendly and sympathetic, verging on naivete. Once she has accepted someone as a friend, she is very affectionate in a quiet sort of way, especially towards older female friends. She isn't fond of boys, especially forwards boys or "perverts".

Backstory:

The Snowdon family has a long history of producing skilled Dress Masters. In every generation, the oldest daughter is obliged to become a Dress Master and the leader of the family, and her siblings often choose to become Dress Masters as well. Unfortunately, the most recent Lady Snowdon was long unable to have a child. Despairing for his sister's plight, her brother set forth with his Spirit Costumes to find the Gem Mistress Metalia, who was able to give him a brooch that would guarantee her one child. Nine months later, a shocking discovery was made: the child was a boy. They named him Michael.

While his parents never tried to force Michael to be their daughter rather than their son, he knew that they were saddened by the end of the tradition. Moreover, he found that even though he was biologically male, the Spirits still considered him the Snowdon Heir and shaped his costumes appropriately.. although they were kind enough to include compensation for the parts which nature had denied him. Soon, he decided that the world would look more kindly on a girl who turned into a woman at times than a boy who did the same, and took upon himself the identity of Michelle Snowdon, the next Lady Snowdon.