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〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Ruby Nakamura / Candlelight
CHARACTER AGE: 16
CANON ORIGIN: Original
CHRONOLOGY: Three months after the end of her main plotline, while she’s travelling, secretly trying to find a way to get to another world.
CLASS: Hero
HOUSING: De Chima #003 | Student/Part-Time Waitress at Pearl's Diner

BACKGROUND:

Ruby’s world wasn’t all that different from our own, aside from some interference from magic and the occasional deity. Most of the usual historical of a typical Earth were met, even if at slightly different times. The dark ages, the first world war, the moon landing, all of those were present, though there were a few additional events such as the overthrowing of Zeus by humanity, the sealing of many destructive deities, and the migration of others to the stars. By the modern era deities are seen less as beings that created the universe and more as fallible beings with large quantities of power who are best kept out of the lives of humanity. A few gifted individuals show up in history books, including young girls who could dance on mountain winds and children born in forests who could speak to their fellow woodland neighbors despite the language barrier that comes when your conversation partner has a muzzle.

In that world, the modern age is a little more technologically advanced, with phones and computers playing an even larger role in their society than even ours can boast. Clean energy and fast connections are available nearly the world over, as is a wealth of information fabricated for propaganda purposes. Ah, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, the relevance of that will be clear later on.

Ruby Nakamura was born as Haru Nakamura, daughter of Sho Nakamura, member of Japan’s House of Representatives, and the cryology researcher Anna Aoyagi. In her 4th month of life she went missing, assumed kidnapped in the night while her parents watched a movie.

In reality, Sho was far more than a government official, having underground dealings with a mafia of his own design. Rather than attempt to bring his daughter up in the greater world and having to rely on a child to know how to keep secrets he chose to raise her in his criminal organization, free of the public eye and her mother’s influence. He would later claim to have learned from his lesson with his first child, a daughter who had nearly blabbed to the world his secret identity.

Ruby was brought up in numerous locations over the years, being moved whenever there was the slightest whiff of legal authority being suspicious of the doings in the area. Rather than being brought up by her father, Ruby was brought up by his right hand man, a stern individual who didn’t understand that children weren’t just mini adults to be trained to one day surpass their parents. While she learned many, many things that would be useful to her as her father’s second heir, she learned little about genuine human interaction and began to wear a mask of maturity that didn’t quite fit right.

As Ruby grew she found herself silently challenging the beliefs she was raised with when they didn’t make sense, their logical flaws pointed out by an older child set to look after her while his parents did work for the organization and her teacher was busy with his own things. Unfortunately, before she could truly make any headway towards any real growth, her father’s duplicity was revealed to the world at large by a rival underworld power, a cult and terrorist group called The Forge. In the chaos that followed she was taken into protective custody, only to be kidnapped for real this time when The Forge tracked her to a school she was attending under a false identity.

At nearly nine years old, Ruby hadn’t learned much about genuine interaction, but she had learned to manipulate people. By appealing to the leader, Korei’s, ego and acting interested in his organization she was able to manipulate him into bringing her into the cult instead of killing her as a blow against her father.

And so began Ruby’s life in The Forge. The training she’d been given as a child gave her a leg up, both in training for future field work and in keeping herself from falling headlong into the ideology of the cult. She learned to game the system, watching what gained the other kids praise and punishment alike, and formatting her public image into one that would keep her safe from anyone looking too closely into her activities.

Due to who her father was she regularly gained the attention of the leader, and with it his company as he tried to personally affect her outlook on the world. He told her grand tales of gods and spirits, locked away by pernicious humans who would later do more damage than they had claimed those beings did. He told her that it was now the duty of the holy, of those forged in blood and sacrifice, to bring those deities back into the world, to cleanse it in fire and make it a utopia once more.

Over the coming years ruby found herself becoming more comfortable with those around her. Her position as one of the better trainees brought her attention and praise for her efforts - a novel idea to the girl who had been so rarely acknowledged in her past - which encouraged her to help the other children, and in turn made her more popular among them. Before long she found herself enjoying their company and learning how to joke around with them, unknowingly internalising ideals that would later come back to haunt her.

Eventually the children were sent on to the field, first on simple scouting missions, then as human shields for the most important members of The Forge. In an attempt to keep the others alive Ruby began to train them harder, doing any and all research she could to find what might giver her companions a higher chance of survival. This training saw her elevated to a position of authority over the other children. When back in hiding she began to take on even more responsibilities, putting propaganda for the cult on social media in a lame attempt to change public perception to their favour.

During a failed mission she was separated from the primary force and captured by the authorities. Though the idea of being safe from sudden murder (or worse) at the vaguest hint of betrayal appealed to her, Ruby wasn’t satisfied with simply being placed into protective custody. After several days of arguing her case she was released back to Korei in an exchange of prisoners, but now she was a spy with a full pardon in the event she gave them useful information to take down The Forge. Now she had a reason to believe she might be able to help her agemates get out of all this alive.

Ruby used her position in social media to sneak out secret messages right under the noses of her higher ups, sending coordinates and hinting at plans in the very propaganda intended to sway the masses she was now acting to protect. This added pressure was starting to cause cracks in her composure, causing her to act out and make mistakes. Her current mask was unsustainable, meaning she had to adapt, slowly taking on the personality of a volatile believer of Korei’s system in order to disguise the true nature of her sudden lashing out. She unwittingly became the face of The Forge’s child soldiers.

In the final year of the cult’s operation they made great leaps to accomplishing their goal, going so far as to release a flame spirit in the form of a large, golden fox. This spirit (who had agreed to the name ‘Kin’ for the sake of simplicity) took an instant liking to Ruby, sensing that she was clever, sneaky, passionate, and possessed a certain level of desperation. He made a deal with her, promising to help her take down the cult and offering her a useful power should she aid him in freeing his brother, a spirit of smoke. Together they fooled Korei into believing that the bulk of Kin’s power had been sealed away in another location.

Months of difficult work followed. With one of the many flame entities in the world released the public began to take The Forge more seriously, doing all it could to hinder them. Korei began to take out his frustrations on the innocent. No longer satiated with simply killing bystanders, he would target populated areas and unleash destruction on them. His interactions with his cult also became more erratic, often ending in grievous harm over the most minor of mistakes.

Finally, Kin’s brother was located, sealed away in a deep cave in an old forest. Tired of everything and prepared to resort to scorched earth tactics, Ruby convinced Korei to bring nearly all of his forces to the cave. She then smuggled as many details out to her contacts as she could.

When the day finally came, The Forge was nearly overwhelmed, only a small fraction of their forces making it into the deepest part of the cave. With Ruby’s help, Kin’s brother was released. The gold and silver foxes wasted little time once the situation was communicated, they took out the remaining members of The Forge with no mercy. Kin nosed Ruby’s face, bestowing her with gifts of fire, leaving mere moments later.

And with that she was alone.

After the ordeal was completed she was taken into protective custody for a time, kept separate from her agemates (whose legal involvement was still being determined). While she had earned a pardon and had been quickly granted it, people were in an uproar. One of the faces of the destructive organization going free had people upset, creating conspiracy theories that she had been behind far more than she had been and that she had tricked authorities into giving her freedom when caught.

Once things had calmed down she slipped away into the night, deciding that she would try to find a way to other worlds, worlds where her face and name weren’t known, where she could maybe recapture the sort of companionship she’d had with the other children, or at least explore cities without a target on her back.

PERSONALITY:
Due to her coping mechanisms, Ruby is a bundle of shifting extremes. She isn’t sure who she is as a person, having put up a mask all her life in order to stay safe. While she’s generally good at thinking things through and making logical choices, she’s an adrenaline junkie and is liable to take more dangerous options if she feels the odds are in her favour. In arguments she either comes across as hot and passionate or cold and unfeeling, with very little in-between. One thing that’s consistent is her tendency to over work herself in an attempt to be as prepared as possible. While she tries to reason with herself that some mistakes are reasonable, any that she didn’t plan for will get under her skin.
While Ruby would describe herself as ‘Made of nyoom and Goes Fast’, she is often beset by strings of days where activities of any sort are difficult for her, now that she’s no longer fighting for her life in one way or another on a constant basis. Ruby also has a number of issues stemming from social opinion of her in her world, resulting in her feeling the need to put on a constant performance even after being relieved of the life-threatening situations that necessitated it to begin with. This has also lead to her abandoning the name of ‘Haru’, preferring to go by a name she just thought was nice so as to avoid memories of people using her given name against her.
Ruby is very fond of animals, especially dogs, and an easy way to gain her interest is by coming near her with a dog and letting her pet it.
The only real goal Ruby had before being ported was to find a way to another world where people didn’t associate her face with evil acts. Now that the goal has been met, her next goal is to stay in that world in whatever way she possibly can.
One thing she tries to keep absolutely secret: She is a complete nerd.

POWER:
Animal Communication
A power originating her own world, Ruby is capable of communication with animals. It functions more as an emotional conduit than actual words depending on the sapience level of the animal in question. An animal like a crow is more likely to be capable of complex communication with her than a chicken would be, for instance. This ability only works if she knows the animal is there, and only within a reasonable distance (typically an average person’s line of sight). This power is hereditary, unbeknownst to her.
Fire-based Abilities
A power originating from her own world that was granted to her by a flame deity, Ruby is capable of starting modest flames when desire and intent to do so meet. The ability to use this power is affected strongly by how much energy she has. Though she has been practicing this ability for months, sustaining a fire without fuel for too long will drain her energy rapidly. Her current record is five minutes. While this ability can’t be used to force damp things to catch fire, she can create and suspend flames in midair at a marginally greater cost to her energy than simply creating a flash of flame.
Under this umbrella, she was also granted a strong resistance to damage caused by flames. Other sources of heat (such as lasers) will damage her as they would any other human, and she can dehydrate as quickly as any other human being in hot environments. Furthermore, while she can stand unharmed in a bonfire, super-hot flames such as those created in laboratories for testing will damage her, albeit at a less serious level than typical. She is not protected from smoke inhalation, or from other harmful substances that can be let off by burning objects.
Limited Teleportation
When Ruby was brought to this world via the porter she was given a new power to learn alongside those that she’d been familiar with, a limited form of teleportation. This form of teleportation utilises flames, requiring a flame on both sides of the transport. While she can jump through a flame as small as a candle, it takes far more energy to do so than to jump through a larger fire. In order to jump through a flame she must know it is there. While it’s theorised this method of teleportation could be used to travel long distances, the energy drain means that Ruby currently can only teleport reasonable distances - a block or two at most to begin with. Speaking of energy drain, this ability is tiring to use and while it is possible to become accustomed and to spend less energy over time, this takes a lot of practice to do so.

FINAL NOTES:
Her inventory is pretty mild. She has all the basic survival supplies including several knives, a couple phones of ‘just good enough to post to social media’ quality that recharge by solar panels, some spare glasses, and a small calibre handgun with no ammunition. There are a few other things like spare clothes and the like, but not much else.
As for her health, she’s not doing all that great. She’s scrawny and malnourished, as well as having some lung damage from smoke and chemical inhalation over the years. She also has chronic pain joint due to all the damage taken in her life. She has quite a few scars, but no serious open wounds. She’s not going to fall dead on a dime, but she should probably get some medical attention eventually.
Mental health is another story. She is symptomatic of PTSD and anxiety, as well as having paranoia issues. Concerning the PTSD symptoms, Ruby is hypervigilant, untrusting, likely to lash out if certain topics are touched upon, and prone to self-destruction and isolation under the right circumstances. Furthermore if she is directly triggered she’ll often times either become suddenly emotionally detached or overwhelmed. While she experiences flashbacks and anxiety attacks, she’s become somewhat competent at handling them and will often take the time to calm herself down whenever possible.
Ruby possesses a couple phobias, most notably a fear of deep water and fear of suffocation. Despite her best efforts, both of these will cause her to panic outright if she’s subjected to them, often times making large mistakes.

(Some things have been edited to show current information, ex: Ruby's house and Job.)
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Ruby Nakamura

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